I’m still cock-a-hoop. The podcast has been selected as the Pod Pick of the Month in Issue 460 of Starburst magazine. Regular listeners will know that the magazine has always been close to my heart. It was via an article in Starburst, written by Steve Jackson, where we first learned about the hobby. There is an interview with me and Alister Davison talking about the podcast.
In the interview I make the point that there is a community that has developed around the podcast, “people are rediscovering the hobby, sharing their experiences and, more importantly, playing the games again.”
Last weekend, was a good example, as it was virtual GROGMEET: an online version of our annual meet-up in November. There were 15 games on offer over two days and 4 slots. The GROGMEET GMs did a fantastic job of hosting the event and it sounds like a good time was had by all.
When the GROGPOD has done and dusted, it will be times like this that I’ll remember. Thanks GROGSQUAD!
Dirk the Dice
Baz Stevens, (from What Would the Smart Party Do? podcast) has been putting the finishing touches to his forth-coming game ‘King of Dungeons’. He gave the game a test-drive during the event:
Grog times had by all! looks like I have a few more King of Dungeons fans at the end of the session. Thanks ever so much for setting the event up.
Here’s a snap of Mark (“Rusty the Angelic Warrior”) as he decides to eat the treasure rather than let it fall into the wrong claws.
Next month, I will be playing in this game with @Askako_Soh at UK Games Expo, so he’s done a spoiler free review of his virtual GROGMEET experience:
Three brave samurai, Kakita Soetsu, duelist (@zos93), Doji Ojijiro, diplomat (@thegenemayes), Hiruma Nezu, scout (@comicevangelist), risked honour, life and limb against foul creatures of the Shadowlands to ensure that the path of true love runs true. We used the most recent edition of Legend of the Five Rings, from Fantasy Flight Games, and managed to get the dice roller working in roll20 and enjoyed the dangerous criticals and the mechanic of strife and unmasking, with the samurai losing face and honour in times of intense stress. I had some fantastic players who brought great insights to the game and should a true understanding of Bushido.
Kehaar is an enthusiastic advocate of FGU’s Flashing Blades RPG. Everyone who plays has a rollicking great time. You can find out more about his game on his blog.
The players all threw themselves into the game with gusto being it hanging off a German assassins neck while lackey attempts to insert his ramrod where the sun doesn’t shine or speeding across Paris to farcically gather rare gifts for the beautiful Madamoseille Rosalind.
Sam Vail offered an interesting proposition: a home-brew version of Pendragon set in 1963 where there is a hidden, Arthurian world coexisting with our own.
The brave Agents of Excalibur managed to track down a Weapon of Mass Destruction and successfully neutralise it and bring the conspirators to justice. Overall, the game ran for 3.5 hours and there was a lot of role playing and laughing along the way.Looking forward to Grogmeet 19 where I may run this scenario again.
Neil Benson, the Old Scouse Role-Player, ran his home-brew adventure A Heart for Madness, that’s currently on tour. You can read a spoiler free review on his blog.
There were 7 players for the sequel to the Enemies Within, miners’ strike scenario that I did last year. The first part appeared on the podcast and this adventure reunited some of the characters (and players). It featured emulated scenes from the overly complicated audience participation event: Tinker. Soldier, Tailor, Spy and The Man with The Golden Gun. It was good fun with some very cinematic moments. When Harry Reeves and his crew came face-to-face with Dracula, it came to an explosive end.
I bought PSI World after a drunken visit to Fanboy 3 last summer. Since then, I have been determined to get the best value from the game: if you buy it, you have to play it, right? This was a very entertaining session with federal agents tracking down the cause of a psionic-energy spike in a small town. They tried to be discrete, but their armoury was too irresistible. It was Scott Pilgrim directed by John Hughes – imagine Rob Lowe, having his head blown off by a jet propelled bullet, that kind of thing.
Many thanks to Dirk, Neil and Baz for highly enjoyable games. “Operation Scaramanga” (Nights Black Agents) was rollicking fast action fun, even without the extra nipple. “A Heart for Madness” (Barbarians of Lumuria) was a nice introduction to a rule system not seen before, the adventure was a great mix of roleplaying and crunch. The King of Dungeons game was a wild and fantastic old school game that had the right mix, I look forward to this one coming later. Thanks to all.
I now see Virtual Grogmeet as a full on gaming con along the lines of the real Grogmeet, Convergence, Owlbear and Wizards Staff and Expo. Lots of great games on offer, plenty of good times.
What appeals to me most about the whole Grogmeet/Grognard Files thing is that everyone I’ve met through it has been amazing, all top gamers and all around fantastic people. Give yourself a pat on the back Dirk!
I had a great time playing Matt’s Call Of Cthulhu game, Lights Out. Matt must be one of the best and most organised GMs I’ve ever gamed with. He’s also amazing at roleplaying NPCs, bringing each one to life with ease, something I’m envious of, since I just can’t do voices or accents (other than my own). I got to have a memorable heroic moment, my character running the length of a burning chapel, himself on fire in order to hand off a certain object (I can’t say what, because spoilers, but the clock ticking). It was my first playing in a modern day setting and with characters under the ages of 20. Matt wrapped the whole thing up nicely, I think we saved the world… for now anyway.
Sean’s Cthulhu Hack game (a great lightweight system), was also brilliant, a great idea having the party meeting to see a play in a small theatre above a pub … the play however turned out to be an adaptation of The King in Yellow, so as you can imagine … things rapidly became a little strange…. superb lovecraftian tale, the closing moments were eerie indeed,
As always left realising that I really need to up my game as a GM.
Thanks to everyone who made this happen and the other players all of whom I’d met for the first time.
P.S. No technical troubles at all the year which was a double bonus.