Thomson Community Club

The late 80s and early 90s saw the height of roleplaying games, strategy games and wargames in Singapore.

Battletech tournaments were held on numerous tables in the basement of Orchard Point as were RPG sessions. Leisurecraft, now defunct after the owners migrated, was the first wargames and RPG store in town and it organised these sessions.

In the early nineties, the Thomson Community Centre was the gathering place for the Thomson CC group of gamers, numbering over ten or so. They would organise large events for Roleplayers.

And these culminated in the first gaming conventions held in Singapore. The Alternate Realities series of conventions. There were even Live Roleplaying events held at Fort Canning where roleplayers would dress up.

I didn't go to these events but many of my compatriots had. They probably had stories to tell of these events.

In those days, the now defunct SAFRA Wargames Club, would hold Panzer Leader tournaments in schools. These would attract hundreds.

The Science Fiction Association of Singapore (SFAS) was active then too and it had a periodic publication named 'Tesseract'. Today? I don't know if they are still around.

Then, the collectible card game arrived in Singapore, namely Magic: The Gathering, and the gaming scene changed. Roleplaying essentially died here, leaving only a few losers who still cling onto D&D today. The gaming scene essentially died and has not recovered since.

Such was the excitement pervading the gaming scene then. Such were the heady days of gaming.