1D6 Year on the GROG (Half-time report)

In the run up to UK Games Expo I was contemplating taking a break from gaming.

The preparation for the sessions I was running was a challenge due to the impositions of real life. I can’t complain, I’ve gone from playing one a month to almost every week.

I anticipated UK Games Expo would mark a turning point, a time to take a break; Storm King’s Thunder has come to an end after 18 months play; our long running Numenera campaign had reached a natural break and I intended to rest the one-shots I’d been playing for the past 12 months to focus on more campaign style of play. It was a perfect opportunity to slow down, watch some films, read a few novels and take some long walks.

I had such a fantastic time over the weekend that it has had the opposite effect. I’m more pumped up than ever. Playing games and meeting fellow gamers didn’t sate my appetite, it merely whetted it for more. Films, books and walks can wait, I’ve got games to play!

At the beginning of the year, I set out our broad plans for the year, this is a status report.

What are the plans for the next 6 months of the year?

Two Headed Serpent is now approaching the fourth session. The players are really getting into the Pulp sensibility: temples are not for investigating, they’re for blowing up! I’ve been struck by two aspects of the campaign so far, firstly, the 7ed rules (with the Pulp variant) work really well and drive the play quite differently than previous editions. Secondly, the campaign is really packed with flavour and atmosphere to support the spirit of adventure that drives the action. There’s great story at the heart of it that I’m looking forward to unfolding over the coming months, I only hope that I can do it justice.

Curse of Strahd When one dungeon door closes, another one opens. Eddy is the DM for another big book 5e campaign that we’ll probably still be playing in 10 years time. We’ve had the introductory session where the table top was transformed into a Roll 20 ‘fog of war’ as we moved our character tokens across a tv screen. Amazing.

Conventions Plans are coming together for GROGMEET in November, but first there’s The Owl Bear and the Wizard’s staff: Warickshire RPG mini-con on 22nd September, where I will be running an all day RuneQuest Glorantha QuickStart adventure The Broken Tower, plus it’s soon-to-be-released sequel. After that I’ll be resting the one shots that I’ve been running this year and start the process of preparing new ones for the 2019 season. Do we dare to consider DragonMeet?

New Fangled stuff Daily Dwarf treated us to a Savage Worlds game in the setting of Lankhmar which was terrific fun and alarmingly savage. I liked the playing card initiative system and the simple resolution mechanic. I’m looking forward to seeing how he applies the system to Judge Dredd for his GROGMEET scenario which we are hoping to play-test over the summer. Also due over the summer is a game of FATE set in the world of Robin of Sherwood.

Nights Black Agents was the clear winner in the recent GROGSQUAD poll to determine future GROGPOD content. The film sequence poll was less conclusive. Casino Royale pipped it, but The Man with The Golden Gun and Tinker, Tailor, Spy came close, so it makes sense to include elements of all of them in the scenario. Patreons will be able to enter the ballot to play the game, details will be released later in the year.

No more! I’ve written a note to myself, “don’t commit to anything else” as there’s also The Coming Storm, a HeroQuest campaign that I’ve commenced playing on alternate Mondays, we’ve just undergone tribal initiation with some horrifying results; there’s ad-hoc Star Trek Adventures as well as the Wednesday night group resuming in September to enter the Ninth World with Numenera.

Have a break from gaming? I’ve hardly even begun!

Author: Dirk

Host of The GROGNARD RPG Files podcast. Talking bobbins about Runequest, Traveller, Call of Cthulhu, T&T, AD&D and others from back in the day and today. View all posts by Dirk