Friday 1 July 2016

Bohemian Earspoon 33



At the back of the D&D Endless Quest books was an advert for a free Red Box poster which I wanted more than anything in the world. My 13 year old life would not have been complete without it to hang alongside my already massive collection of Iron Maiden posters. Sadly, the gods conspired against me and they sent me a copy of Bohemian Ear-spoon 33 instead. Gutted does not convey how I felt, but it was better than nothing. I didn't know what it was at first. I thought it was some sort of in-house memo that TSR UK staff shared with one another. I mean, lets be honest, it was photostatted and the cover was hardly knocked out by Otis or Elmore, but the contents were rather good. The only thing I remember about it really, was an article about Druids which I found fascinating. After that, Druids became the flavour of the year, even though we didn't have rules for them. At that moment in time, all we had was the Red Box and the Expert Set, but there was enough in the article for us to create our own Druid Character Class and get on with it. My first Druid was called Jethro Tull. Forgive me, I was 13. That all changed when we got the AD&D books though, but somehow the Druid didn't seem as cool as the one we had made ourselves and Jethro quickly faded to black.
For those of you wondering what the Ear-spoon actually was, here is an excerpt from the Acaceum:

 "Bohemian Ear Spoon was the successor to the Players Association Broadsheet, and marked a shift to an irreverant, homebrew-newsletter-style similar to the Strategic Preview.  Ran for eight bi-monthly issues, May 1986 to June 1987, starting with issue #27 and running through #34.  From the first issue: "And the number 27 bit?  Logic, of a sort, enters into the calculations here.  Many moons ago, there was a Hobby Newsletter (literally a letter) which was sent out to a select few, that reached issue 7.  Next came the Players Association Newletter (PAN), which went out to the select many and managed 12 issues before the coming of IMAGINE magazine made it impractical.  And finally there was the PA Broadsheet, which also managed 7 editions before it too went the way of all flesh... In all, there were 26 previous newsletters, and so Bohemian Ear Spoon 27.  There are, or course, disadvantages to starting/continuing something from issue 27: no 21st birthday issue drinkies for a start. Ho Hum."  Supplanted, without mention or fanfare, in August 1987 by Fantasy Worlds (the last issue of BES states that there would be an issue #35, but that issue was obviously just rolled into Fantasy Worlds).  Thanks to Michael Jones for this info.  Strangely enough, there were two distinct version of Bohemian Ear Spoon #30; a "normal" version and a special Games Day edition.  Scans of both are featured below.  Thanks to Brett Easterbrook and David Willis for this info, and to David Willis for the scan."

So, there you have it. Sadly I've lost my copy somewhere down through the ages, pity, it would be nice to see it again, as it had a lot of fond memories attached to it.