Hi everyone,
Hope that you have enjoyed your Summer. I was lucky enough to have a couple of weeks in the USA: a week in San Francisco, searching for locations from my favourite movies, admiring the Bay Area that provided inspiration for both Greg Stafford and Jack Vance; then a week in LA battling the hoards in DisneyLand.
Like most holidays, it gave me a little time to do some navel-gazing, so here’s some fluff and lint that I found there:
GROGFRINGE– On Thursday 30th August, I’ll be making tickets available for The Old School GROG-FIGHT that will be taking place at Fan Boy 3. There are 20 places available for a classic bar-room brawl across four different locations, using four different systems. Ever wanted to floor an orc with a bar-stool using the rules of The Fantasy Trip? Now’s your chance. Neil Benson (the Old Scouser Role-Player) is hosting the event between 13.00 – 17.00 as a warm up for GROGMEET eve.
BLADES … after dark. You may remember thatlast year I GM’d a 24 Hour game of RuneQuest for charity. This year, I’ll be taking part again for 12 hours playing Blades in the Dark. Sponsors will be able to create a list of items, targets to be stolen or assassinated during the game. This year it for the benefit of MIND (which will also be the GROGMEET raffle charity).
RuneQuest Glorantha– if you have not played RuneQuest Glorantha and would like to, then let me know as I’m looking for players. Put your name in the comments. Game is likely to be scheduled for January next year, online using Roll 20 and will be for new RuneQuest Glorantha players only.
Smart Party – Our friends at What would the Smart Party Do? Podcast have recently interviewed Satine Pheonix, the community manager for Dungeons and Dragons (R). I always think their pod is worth listening to, but this is an extra special treat. A great interview that explores the differences and similarities between the UK and US gaming scene and is brimming with boundless enthusiasm. These are cooperative games, why does the scene seem so competitive? What can we do to engage more people with the hobby? Great, inspiring stuff.
Vintage – I’ve found a podcast that you might enjoy. The Vintage RPG Podcastfrom Stu Horvath and John McGuire looks at games from yester-year in an insightful yet unpretentious way. I’ve listened to the first couple and enjoyed their emphasis on playing and how the artwork shapes your imagination.
Vance – Next year we have some GROGPOD episodes planned that look at some of the influences that we had back in the day – a review of some of the media that shaped our imagination, Starburst Memories of such classics as Robin of Sherwood and, dare I say it, Lord of the Rings.
This is an advanced warning of one of the episodes, so you get the all important reading in before hand so you don’t get left behind. Next year, The Design Mechanism, producers of Mythras are producing a Lyonesse RPG. On my holiday I revisited the novel and managed to generate a few sides of adventure/ NPC ideas.
Never under estimate Vance’s impact on the development of RPGs. Check out this further reading recommended by Neil Benson about the impact of Vance on Dungeon Crawl Classicsand this one from Jon Hancock about how it could have been a RQ killer.
Adios amigos
Dirk
Dirk,
Please add me to the list for RuneQuest Glorantha in January
Simon
I’d like to play RQG
I would love to play RQ for the first time, but time difference might kill me. I will leave it for younger folks in better time zones. Thanks for the recommendation of another podcast.
I’d like to give RQG a go. I have the rules and Bestiary but have not the time to read either at the moment!
Is the Runequest game an ongoing one or a one-shot, if the former how long is it likely to go on for?
One shot to test drive some pre-gens. Given the volume of the response I may run a couple of sessions
Your unboxing video reminded me of this. Count me in. I’ve not played RQ apart from the Luther Arkwright game you ran which is the closest I think, and I still have the Mythras rules, I certainly know nothing of the setting.
Count me in for the RQ game.
Joe (HowWeRoll)