We’re continuing our Robin of Sherwood theme. We discuss Fate and use it to provide a sample play in Sherwood Forest created by the TV series.
We hope that it will inspire you to invest in some FUDGE dice and have a go at creating your own worlds.
At the end of February we closed our HeroQuest competition. We asked the GROGSQUAD to “show off your stuff ” the home-made enhancements that made you proud.
Our friends at bonhomiegames.uk have been reviewing the submissions and you can see the runners up and their work below. Scroll to the bottom to see the winner.
Jo: “Thank you to The Grognard Files for allowing us to sponsor your HeroQuest RPG competition, and thank you to all the entrants for your many and various ingenious table top inventions. Yes, even the cocktail umbrellas.”
In April virtual GROGMEET, the online version of our annual meet-up, will be in full swing on the 12th and 13th. Patreons are currently signing up, remaining places will be made generally available next week.
To celebrate the event and the release of GROGZINE 19 we will be having a celebration of 80s fanzines here on the blog and the You Tube channel. I’ll be browsing through the collection of Doc ‘Con’ Cowie to unearth homemade GOLD.
The third edition of GROGZINE features a new and exclusive cover created by Russ Nicolson: I’m looking forward to revealing the spectacular, extremely dramatic and detailed image when the zine is released.
Added to the GROGSHOP, with permission from Russ, you can get merchandise featuring the covers from the first two issues. Keep your eyes peeled for offer codes. All proceeds from the ‘mark up’ on Redbubble’s costs will go to Russ, so it’s a great way of showing your appreciation to a treasured old-school artist.
Be a hit on the Summer Convention scene with ‘zine tee!
Three years ago I had my debut running a con-game at the first ever Con-Vergence in Stockport. The event will always hold a special affection my heart, and last year I hosted Golden Heroes, which was one of my personal gaming highlights of 2018.
This year I could only get there for the Saturday afternoon, so I missed some of the other games that were on offer as I flew in and flew out. It was great to catch up with gaming buddies who I normally only see in a small square window online or at other conventions.
I ran my Savage Worlds of Strontium Dog game. I’m doing it at Uk-GamesExpo on the Friday evening, so forgive me if I’m a little coy about the details in this play-report: no spoilers.
As usual, 5 highlights and one fumble.
2. Character Class: This was a Savage World game that used the Mongoose supplement written by Loz Whittaker for Traveller. I rolled on the mutations tables provided in the supplement and translated them into Edges and Hinderances. The resulting crew of Strontium Dogs pre-gens are both interesting, varied and down-right weird.
3. Play’s the thing! I’ve been messing about with this adventure for a number of weeks now. I’ve even run it online for a play test prior to it appearing here. These characters don’t really come alive until they have a player imagining their reactions to situations. There were some really entertaining moments as the players came up with mad-cap plans: “All clear *squark!*”
4. Le’ go of the Lego: This was the game where I was experimenting with ‘stuff’ to enhance the game. I didn’t go as far as miniatures, but I did use my son’s Lego collection to build up a scene using the whole of the table. We had to improvise with empty bottles of HobGoblin beer standing in for buttes in a magnificent canyon. I’d forgotten my battle mat and tape measure so my phone was used to make the measurements. I’m not sure how much the lego added to the enjoyment of the players, but it created a talking point for people not actually playing
5. Pat Mills would be proud … At the start there were a couple of people playing who had never heard of Strontium Dog and didn’t really like westerns. I was concerned that this game wouldn’t be right for them. Thankfully, they seemed to come along for the ride as everyone else seemed happy to recreate the mad cap action scenes from the comic. There was a great moment when Brightman Rock chucked a plasma grenade in the range of another character who whacked it back with his Happy Stick; the bomb exploded on Brightman’s calcified head.
6. The little hunt! On reflection, I’ve realised that there’s a couple of issues with the scenario that need to be ironed out before the next session. There are a couple of important skills missing from the pre-gens, for one thing, “You’ll need to roll ‘shooting'”
“I don’t have it!”
Most significantly, because of the time restraints, it didn’t work out as a ‘hunt’ as I had planned. The opening set up ended up being so compelling that the action came to the location, rather than the players going looking for it.
Above all, it was entertaining, and I had fun playing it. Not sure I convinced everyone that “Westerns are not *that* bad.
Dirk the Dice
Thanks to Kris and Snowy for organising the event.
