Jervis Johnson on Community (J-Files, Grand Tournaments and Global Campaigns)

A video Jervis suggested we shoot was covering something not directly product related, but none the less important to the hobby. Back in the day Jervis wrote his "J-Files" (and later "Standard Bearer") which were a series of articles in White Dwarf covering less tangible aspects to the hobby. The articles were well received, and led him on to organise the first Grand Tournament for Warhammer Fantasy, and from there the first international Global Campaign. In this video Jervis recounts these 3 topics on how they came to be, what worked well and how things have changed!
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[@Vibealite]

I could listen to Jervis talk about the hobby all day long. 😀

[@Maggers42]

This weekend in Nottingham, just down the road from where that first GW GT was, we'll be hosting the biggest ever Kings of War tournament with around 200 wargamers over a weekend. It's fascinating to listen to Jervis talking about all the aspects of event hosting that we have come also across and as a committee mulled over and made decisions on. It's going to be a fantastic weekend to catch up with old friends and make new ones, enjoy looking at amazingly painted armies and see players from as far afield as the USA, Australia, Argentina, all over Europe and elsewhere. The main reason the passion to host this exists, is the effort and drive that was put in back in the 90s establishing the scene. We're not running it as a business but as a team of volunteers who have a love for the hobby and want to give a forum for people to compete and share that love. We're genuinely only here because we are standing on the shoulders of Giants. Thanks Jervis for putting in the ground work in past decades where most of us were introduced to the hobby.

[@chrisr9320]

Grand tournaments and global campaigns were absolutely peak GW. A lot of the stuff GW did in the 90s/00s was rather wacky and barely planned out (as described in the video), but there were so many cool new ideas being thrown around, so much creativity and interesting Hobby things. Now, everything is just a product.

[@jsalbano]

the 90s and up to 2008 (and 5th edition 40k drop) were peak GW, at least for me. Everything they did had heart and passion in it until that point, when they decided to milk the tournament players for all they were worth at the expense of the hobby.

[@rhag1394]

I remember Jervis from the White Dwarf when I was a kid. Now as an adult I am extremely grateful for two things in particular that he did. First and foremost inventing Blood Bowl. It has been an absolutely amazing game discovery for me 4 years ago and has brought me back to the hobby. The second thing is the NAF. Without Jervis' input it wouldn't have been invented and there likely would not be any Blood Bowl to play nowadays.

[@dominicjaquin4780]

Thank you, I look forward to these interviews

[@haydnc]

Great to hear these legends. These interviews belong in a museum. Awesome stuff.

[@drewschildwachter]

Jervis was very kind to me as a young boy with a lot of questions at the Baltimore Games Day

[@poxous3854]

Still running old school Tournaments here in the USA Jervis. Thanks for the vision that made GTs a thing.

[@thefreshwaterpirate]

seeing all of these issues of White Dwarf is quite startling. I believe I collected White Dwarf from around issue 220 until 320 or so when I left the hobby. Its not a lot and I had been in the hobby for some years beforehand, but at the time it seemed like my entire lift and that I'd been doing it forever. Odd how the mind perceives things. I did pick up an issue of white dwarf again back in 2016, (release of gene stealer cults as armies for 40K, so cool) but it felt so sterile compared to the old times that I didnt continue

[@Oldhammerandtongs]

Another great video! Thank you so much for giving us these amazing insights!

[@craigarkle1077]

Really enjoyed this! Would love to hear Jervis talk about some more of the games he was involved with such as blood bowl. An interesting insight in standard bearer as I had similar feeling when they were to focus on new products they weren’t as enjoyable as they lost the authenticity

[@Filmdegminiatures]

I’m filming 1st & 2nd Ed Bloodbowl with Jervis and Marc Gasgoigne in a few weeks. Jervis and I will then do some filming for 3rd Ed at a later date.

[@craigarkle1077]

@@Filmdegminiatures perfect! As someone getting back into 3rd edition gaming that is ideal, while I love the insight from my hobby heroes!

[@tanyaf2097]

I remember playing a mini campaign with pals for Ichar IV. I'm not even sure if we sent in our results or not, but we had a blast!

[@Nick-gk6jc]

Love these interviews, many thanks for doing them! You should mic yourself up too as it can be hard to hear your questions sometimes and your input is also of value and should be heard.

[@RTL2L]

Interesting, thank you!

[@bmmtxb]

What. A. Legend!!!

[@lightscamerapaint816]

Really enjoyed this one, and would love to hear him go into the Fanatic period a bit more

[@Filmdegminiatures]

Yea, SGS/Fanatic is on our list of things to cover!

[@user-ko3tv7jl2r]

The Grand Tournament battle report in WD190 absolutely captivated me and brought me into the hobby.

[@squarehammer9349]

Loved this talked. Sportsmanship, community, and hobby! I go around my GTs and ask lore questions. If they get it right they get a prize; even an old school green blister ❤

[@totalal4601]

It would be interesting to hear Jervis talk about the rise and fall of Specialist Games. If hes willing to!

[@davegilden6603]

The SG studio define my GW experience. I have always enjoyed them far more than the core games. Would also love to hear about that side

[@Filmdegminiatures]

It’s on our to do list!

[@stonehorsegaming]

I remember being too young for the first Grand Tournament. Enjoyed playing in the Ichar IV Global Campaign in the Leeds GW store. The Tyranids there get absolutely wrecked, but their Codex had only recently been released, so understandably, they performed poorly. The second one, Dark Conspiracy, in WFB, was very interesting and could have had a very interesting outcome with the future of the WFB world. Jervis's love for X-Files most definitely showed in this Global Campaign.

[@HeavyArms0404]

great video : ) doing the emperor's work.

[@dr3dg352]

Love The X-Files! 😃 For me it's forever linked to 40k, since I started my first ever army (5th edition Witch Hunters) while *obsessively* watching X-Files.

[@simonoldfield9366]

When you go your whole life imagining someone having a completely different voice and then are quite pleasantly surprised by the reality

[@Filmdegminiatures]

Ha, I’ve told him he should do audiobooks.

[@alexanderread2739]

Great video

[@ktg8030]

Hey Tom: can you do an interview with Jervis about the development of all the editions of Epic? I know that was one of his favorite scales and at one point Epic was insanely popular.

[@GaryP336]

Possibly an unpopular opinion but things got better when he left. He did loads of great pioneering work and wrote some great games. But he got very stuck in his ways and some of his white dwarf articles near the end really showed that

[@derekmcmanus8615]

Don't know about the end of Jervis Johnson's career at Games Workshop but the introduction of the Grand Tournament style of gaming completely destroyed the gaming scene in my area because there was a cohort of players who insisted on only playing that style

[@chaoscarl8414]

@@derekmcmanus8615 Sadly, I have to agree. Jervis might have had good intentions, but the heavy focus on competitive gaming utterly ruined the hobby.

[@derekmcmanus8615]

@@chaoscarl8414 it certainly did here...beardy play became the style bare minimum 3 colour painting and absolutely no thought to the wider hobby like terrain etc...completely sucked the joy out of the game