I have been deeply amazed by your work ever since I showed up late to the party. (I sadly discovered you and BTP only a few months ago). Your spirit, drive, commitment and pure genuineness is an inspiration to anyone in the small business, hobby to job or gaming world; I happen to reside proudly within all three of those sub-categories. My name is Kyle and I have been gifted in life to have worked at an amazing specialty toy shop in Tucson, Arizona for the better part of 7 years now and I have great respect for your business.

I am writing you because I wanted to describe my resurrection back into tabletop gaming.

My father throughout my childhood immediately engaged my brother and I into the world of Dungeons and Dragons but he desperately wanted us to reach an age that he was comfortable letting us play miniatures with him. He was really into Chainmail and also had a tremendous GHQ spread for WWII play and as soon as we reached an age that he deemed appropriate we fell in love with gaming outside of the traditional RPG we were comfortable with. Over the next 10 years or so my father would lead my brother and I through adventure after adventure and we couldn’t wait for the next opportunity to game. We had a particular fondness for 40k because as we grew older we really got interested into the creation aspect of the miniatures. I really loved to paint and my brother loved to model terrain. Our coming home from school ritual all throughout high school was homework, paint, eat, play… pretty consistently. It was awesome.

Long story short, prior to my high school graduation my parents got a divorce and it rocked the foundations all our lives had been built on. My brother (already in college) coped by fading into the shadows and distancing himself from the divorce. My father quickly remarried and as a result bought large plastic storage containers and ‘retired’ all of the old gaming stuff… painful reminders of a bygone time. I regrettably did the same… until I discovered your work/blog/videos on Youtube.

Shawn, my love for gaming would crop up over the years as I would walk past an old Shadowrun book forgotten on my shelf sandwiched between textbooks or when I would drive by my local game shop and long for the lost days of my childhood, but after having found your little corner of the world I have since rediscovered my insatiable desire to play again. I have managed to round a couple of good friends up and we have started a little 40k group and cannot get enough of it. My Eldar have seen a great many battles in the last 2 months… and next week my father and I are going to meet up for a long overdue game.

Your passion is contagious and I cannot thank you enough for re-igniting my passion for this amazingly rewarding and deeply personal hobby/craft…

I figured as I sit here wrapping up homework for the evening that I would write you this… hope you don’t find it odd… I just wanted to say thanks and I look forward to your next batrep/video/blog. And if you ever make it out to Tucson…