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.