The spoils of last Nerd Day
Or, What We Do On Nerd Day.
After spending some time living and working in the US, I came back to Sydney accustomed to the resources available to Nerds even in a town like Atlanta. While I had spent many years in Sydney previously, I was still in for a bit of a surprise. The bottom had fallen out of the RPG market, and all my favourite stores had closed to be replaced by the Starbucks of gaming, Games Workshop. This meant that the only way I could get my Nerd on (wow… even I shuddered at that phrase…) was to visit the hub of Sydney, the ‘City’ as the locals call it.
This visit has become a bit of a school holiday tradition (I work as a teacher) and there are usually three to four of us who go. What follows is a guide to the day as we celebrate it, and I’m including some variations as well that we have enjoyed in the past.
Step 1: Breakfast
Incredibly important as you will be on your feet all day. We go to Jet Cafe in Town Hall as it is very near the train station, has a wide selection for breakfast (ranging from $5-20 for meals) and is across the road to our first step on the journey. The coffee is usually excellent at Jet, budget to have a couple (but don’t be too surprised if the staff are a little gruff…).
Step 2: Galaxy Bookshop
This is a nerd’s paradise – a massive bookstore that has only three sections – Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Horror. That’s it. They import a lot of books as well, so if you MUST have the latest Terry Pratchett six months before it is released locally, this is your store. We allow for 30 minutes here…
Step 3: Napoleon’s Bookstore
Napoleon’s Bookstore used to be a separate trip on the tour, but has conveniently moved in with The Tin Soldier (see Step 4 below). This is purely a military and history bookstore. They have an excellent selection of resource materials for the historical tabletop battler’s out there, as well as an excellent range of documentary’s and other such things. This is also the only place I have seen where you can get WWII action figures (at least since Action Man started sucking…). They also sell a wide range of gaming systems for re-creationists and models for such. We usually stay about 15-20 minutes here…
Step 4: The Tin Soldier
This is pretty much the main event. Tin Soldier used to have lots of stores all around Sydney, but few of them have survived. The Sydney store however is excellent, and still has a thriving business. The front of the store is the traditional role-playing store. It has a wide selection of game systems, models, dice (I bought a HUGE d20 this year…) and the usual paints, brushes, paraphernalia.
Out the back of the store (almost as much room as the front) is the military section. Here you will find lots of painted armies for sale, military books, and resources and rule systems for military tabletop games and is now run by Napoleon’s Bookstore (see above).
The staff at The Tin Soldier are really friendly and helpful and seem genuinely interested in making sure that you leave the store with as much gaming gear as you can… We stay here as long as we like – usually about an hour.
Step 5: Vary the plot
In times past we have:
- gone to watch a nerdy movie at the George Street Cinemas (very close by)
- visited the Powerhouse Museum – a museum of technology currently hosting a Star Wars exhibit
- added Utopia Records to the list of stores to visit – specialist Metal, Black Metal, Death Metal, all things Metal store
- gone home and painted all the models we have bought…
Guide to Places Mentioned
Jet Cafe
Queen Victoria Bldg
Level Ground, Shop 55, Druit St
Sydney NSW 2000
Phone: +61 2 9283 5004
Galaxy Bookshop
143 York Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Phone: +61 2 9267 7222
The Tin Soldier
40 York Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Phone: +61 2 9279 2668
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