GROGMEET Update! – July

GrogMeet 2016 (corrected)

THE FELLOWSHIP IS COMPLETE

DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS 5e *New*

Rumour has turned to action in the city streets now, as your guild finds itself under attack. There can only be one Thieves Guild in the city, so the time has come to put an end to this insult. As the Grandmasters ‘troubleshooters’ you have been tasked by him personally, with finding these upstarts and putting them down, permenantly. Lets hope your combined talents are up to it.

GM: Tim Brittain

ACHTUNG CTHULHU! 

Operation Twitcher: 1938, American Explorer Richard Byrd is quizzed by the Nazis about the South Pole, he informs the British and American governments of the Nazis interest but no action is taken at this time.

1942, reports are received of strange phenomena in the far South Atlantic. Richard Byrd now an Admiral in the US Navy is called in by the admiralty to brief a select team of marines and scientists on dealing with with the Antarctic conditions.

GM: Katherine Simmons-Smith

BOOT HILL 

Boot Hill 3rd edition Wild West Role-Playing Game, one of TSR Inc’s forgotten gems. Boot Hill is a game of grand adventure in the American Frontier; a world of cowpokes, gamblers, sheriffs and gunslingers. This is an original adventure based in the official setting Promise City entitled “Matthew 12:43”

GM: Ian Griffiths

ALSO…

  • Judge Blythy from the GROGNARD files will be running a STORMBRINGER adventure to feed Arioch with souls.
  • We’re delighted to have GM @Asako_Soh on the team, who is fresh from running games at UK Games Expo and the D&D Tweetup,  to run a classic adventure for West End Games Star Wars RPG
  • Dirk the Dice will be taking players to Glorantha in a Classic RUNEQUEST scenario: Assault on Lunar Outpost XIII.

CONVIVIAL BEGINNINGS

The event will begin with demonstrations and ‘pick up and play’ board games hosted by bonhomiegames.uk – the home of convivial gaming. Cris Watkins will help us get in the gaming mood with mass participation games and a pop-up library of sample games to play.

BOOK YOUR TICKET

The event is being held on 12th November at Manchester’s Mad Lab, in the heart of the city’s Northern Quarter. Doors open at 10.00 for board games and chat, RPG sessions begin at noon and will finish at 4.30 – 4.45.

There’ll be a short presentation at the end of the event to launch theGROGNARDfiles ‘zine – doors close at 5.00pm.

Use the eventbrite page link here – let me know if you have any issues.

‘ZINE-TASTIC

The GROGNARD files ‘zine will be launched at the end of the event and every attendee will get a copy to take home.

The Armchair Adventurers are currently burning the mid-night oil to create content for the ‘zine. Thanks to the support of Patreons we’ll also be including the collected works of @dailydwarf.

To get a copy, you’ll need to be registered as a Patreon before the end of September. The Patreon campaign supports the podcast and helps to develop other projects. There’s the chance to play in online games (using Roll20) as well as additional material.

Thanks – Dirk

 

Post Bag of Holding – Entries Required

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Later this week, Judge Blythy and I will be heading into the Room of RPG Rambling to reach into the Bag of Holding and pull out post from listeners. In the next, final part to the epic Advanced Dungeons and Dragons episode, I’ll be responding to listener contributions with Hizzoner.

The next podcast will be the footnotes, the Silmarillion, the UnEarthed Arcana of the Dungeons and Dragons Episodes, with various odds and sods from pulled together from the shelves of the GROGNARD files. Odds and sods that include:

  • The Potted History of D&D – rescued from the cutting room floor from the first part of the episode is the usual whistle stop tour of the history of the game
  • Dirk meets the Old Scroates -Dirk hit the road to meet listeners Ric and Tim to talk about their experiences of playing different editions of D&D (and some great Runequest anecdotes too)
  • Post Bag: An extra special Postbag, reviewing listener comments regarding their own experiences playing D&D back in the day and some people taking issue with the comments that we made during our discussions

If you would like to contribute to the discussion about D&D, it’s not too late, please add to the comments on this post, and we’ll try to respond to as many as possible.

We’ve got the Random Dungeon Generator covered. Brace yourself Judge B. Dirk

 

1D6 Directing Monsters the Spielberg way

In the latest podcast I have advocated that Dungeon Masters should adopt a “Spielberg’ approach to directing monsters, rather than Peter Jackson’s method. I’ve been asked a pertinent question: that’s all very well, but how do you codify it?

I have attempted to channel my inner Robin D Laws to pick out the dramatic beats that Spielberg uses so they can be adopted into an RPG session.

Strictly speaking, Spielberg has directed three monster movies; Jurassic Park (1993), its sequel Lost World (1997) and the best of them all, Jaws (1975). It seems like he’s done more, because he incorporates these techniques into the characterisation of objects and people in other films he’s directed: in Saving Private Ryan (1999) the tank is portrayed as a lumbering T-Rex and the malevolent truck in Dual (1971) is as relentless as a great white shark.

Here’s some quick thoughts on what I meant by ‘directing monsters the Spielberg way’ and some suggestions on how they can be built into your games. The key device is ‘suspense’ which is part of the grammar of film, but difficult to replicate in games, however I believe that it’s still possible to inject the creeping anticipation of jeopardy in the most world-weary, jaded gamer with the application of Spielbergian tactics …

1.FORESHADOW HOW NASTY THE MONSTER IS …

The oft cited reason for players becoming jaded with monsters is the meta-gaming knowledge of what the monster is capable of and its vulnerabilities. “Everyone knows what to expect, where’s the thrill in that?” Long term players can no longer get excited about the prospect of a band of goblins because they’ve killed them a thousand times before.

However, Speilberg uses this meta-knowledge to share with the audience the potential threat of the creature, so they can anticipate it’s appearance. If a monster has a special attack, a strategy of combat or vulnerability then there’s no harm in revealing it to the players, as it will sharpen their thinking.

Include an NPC with a Cornish-American accent to tell  stories of previous encounters, how armies have been eaten by the creature, exaggerate the size … “from the dorsal to the tail” and it’s capacity to kill.

2.MAKE MONSTERS FEEL LIKE PHYSICAL ENTITIES

Both Jackson and Spielberg owe a debt to Ray Harryhausen, a monster auteur who was so dedicated to his creations that he left the direction of humans to others. His stop-motion method used physical models, painstakingly moved frame by frame, which gave the creations a sense of gravity which is sometimes lacking in Jackson’s monster films. Due to limitations of the technology, Harryhausan depended upon the suggestion of the potential of his monsters through sound effects and partially concealed glimpses.

Never wholly convinced by CGI, Spielberg adopts a similar approach, choosing to mix computer animation with animatronic puppets. In addition, Spielberg is masterful at combining sound and subtle visual effects to add weight to the creatures: the ripples in the cup as the T-Rex approaches, the click-click-click of the Velociraptors claw on the tiles, and the movement in the water of the shark in Jaws.

In game, it’s useful to pepper the approach of a monster with similar techniques to tantalise and tease the players’ senses: the acrid smells, the distant rumble, the displaced dust and the euphoric screech as it enters the scene.

3.DUMMY DECOY … THERE’S ALWAYS SOMETHING WORSE

Once you’ve established the creatures’ abilities by foreshadowing, it’s possible to use ‘dummy’ effects to rattle the players: a rustle in the long grass, a silhouette through the tent, or a cardboard dorsal fin.

There’s always deniers who have a vested interest in ensuring the status quo is restored and the disruption caused by the monster is resolved. What if they’re wrong? What if the monster they caught isn’t the monster that’s causing the trouble?

4. THEY’RE RELENTLESS, LOOK FOR COVER!

Arguably, Spielberg created cinema’s first relentless, faceless terror in Dual (which was actually a TV movie, but you know what I mean) it’s a trope that has been repeated often by many filmmakers since.

Characters in Spielberg’s movie are more prepared to run away than the average RPG player character, nevertheless, there’s always occasions when they may reach for a place of safety, a place of safety that can only resist the terror for a certain length of time, before the horror is going to break through.

The monster tipping over the wagon, pushing it to the edge of a cliff, breaking through the defences, the weather isn’t helping either … when will it end?

5. TO DEFEAT A MONSTER, YOU HAVE TO BECOME A MONSTER …

Robert Shaw* as Quint in Jaws, Bob Peck as Muldoon in Jurassic Park in some ways, have characteristics of the creatures that they’re trying to defeat. It’s a trope that Spielberg uses in Schindler’s List (1993) too. Liam Neeson’s Schindler is a counterpoint to Ralph Fiennes’s Amon Goth.

What if the monsters have some of the characteristics of the player characters. The same spells? A mirror of the attributes and skills of the player characters?

6. SOMETIMES, SET-DRESSING IS OK …

There are times when you need to have vistas of monsters with John Williams music while monsters stampede, act out rituals, or just make the place look colourful.

 

* Robert Shaw is from round our way

 

Episode 6 (Part 3) AD&D RPG Monster Manual

Monster Manual

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The saga continues …

Intro: 0:18 There’s been another review on iTunes. Dirk reveals his love of monsters.

Open Box: 4:37 Dirk and Blythy get all nostalgic about 5e that they started playing 3 months ago.

White Dwarf: 24:42 @dailydwarf has scrutinised every single monster produced in the FIEND FACTORY to pick some of his favourites.

Games Masters Screen: 43:11 In the absence of much discussion about monsters Dirk and Blythy face each other off with a wandering monster table.

Last bit: 1:24 Thanks to Patreons – we’ve been hard at work writing for your ‘zine.

GROGMEET 16 – June Update!

 

GrogMeet 2016 (corrected)

More tickets have been released for GROG MEET 2016 and a waiting list opened (to be advised of cancellations.)

The event is being held on 12th November at Manchester’s Mad Lab, in the heart of the city’s Northern Quarter. Doors open at 10.00 for board games and chat, RPG sessions begin at noon and will finish at 4.30. The GROGNARD files ‘zine will be launched at the end of the event and every attendee will get a copy to take home.

Use the eventbrite page link here – let me know if you have any issues.

THE FELLOWSHIP IS ALMOST COMPLETE

New games have been added. I’m awaiting details of the final member of the Magnificent 7, but the confirmed games are:

ACHTUNG CTHULHU! *NEW*

Operation Twitcher: 1938, American Explorer Richard Byrd is quizzed by the Nazis about the South Pole, he informs the British and American governments of the Nazis interest but no action is taken at this time.

1942, reports are received of strange phenomena in the far South Atlantic. Richard Byrd now an Admiral in the US Navy is called in by the admiralty to brief a select team of marines and scientists on dealing with with the Antarctic conditions.

GM: Katherine Simmons-Smith

BOOT HILL *NEW*

Boot Hill 3rd edition Wild West Role-Playing Game, one of TSR Inc’s forgotten gems. Boot Hill is a game of grand adventure in the American Frontier; a world of cowpokes, gamblers, sheriffs and gunslingers. This is an original adventure based in the official setting Promise City entitled “Matthew 12:43”

GM: Ian Griffiths

ALSO…

  • Judge Blythy from the GROGNARD files will be running a STORMBRINGER adventure to feed Arioch with souls.
  • We’re delighted to have GM @Asako_Soh on the team, who is fresh from running games at UK Games Expo and the D&D Tweetup,  to run a classic adventure for West End Games Star Wars RPG
  • Dirk the Dice will be taking players to Glorantha in a Classic RUNEQUEST scenario: Assault on Lunar Outpost XIII.

The event will begin with demonstrations and ‘pick up and play’ board games hosted by bonhomiegames.uk – the home of convivial gaming. Cris Watkins will help us get in the gaming mood with mass participation games and a pop-up library of sample games to play.

The event is taking shape. More information will be released next month. Sign up sheets for the RPGs will be released nearer the time.

Beginning to get very excited about it now!

 

GROG CLUB Unlocked!

Last week, the $100 monthly goal was reached, which means that we’re opening the doors to the Saturday GROG-CLUB. This is a 6 monthly online meet-up that one of The Armchair Adventurers will Games Master using the Roll 20 site. The club will be open to $5.00 patreons (although we may open it up if there isn’t sufficient demand at that level).

Four places are available for each session, if there are more wanting to play, attendance will be determined by a ballot and unsuccessful applicants will be carried over to the next session.

This post is to ‘put the feelers out’ to get a sense of what people want from this activity, so your feedback (in the comments) will be welcome.

THE PROPOSAL

The game will take place at the weekend 17th – 18th September for about 5 hours.

There will be a short ‘session zero’ the week before to familiarise yourself with Roll 20, the pre-generated characters and to introduce each other.

I will be the Gamesmaster for this session. The games under offer are:

THE SEA CAVE – RUNEQUEST – A previously unpublished scenario written by Greg Stafford which was released as part of the Runequest classic Kick-starter last year.

or

A TIME TO HARVEST – The ‘Open Game’ scenario provided by Chaosium to introduce players to Call of Cthulhu 7th ed.

or

SAFE WORD – Play-test the Fate Core seventies, spy-caper featuring Jerry Cornelius which is to appear in the GROGNARD files fanzine.

THE QUESTIONS

Are you interested in taking part?

What is the best time for you during the weekend?

Which of the three games under offer would you like to play?

Do you have any questions or suggestions?

Thank you for the continued support of the GROGNARD files!

 

White Dwarf – “Citation needed …”

250px-White-Dwarf-1-1993Sunday marked a significant Anniversary for theGROGNARDfiles podcast. Last year, @dailydwarf filed his first submission on 22nd May, selecting his favourite RUNEQUEST material from the hey day of the magazine.

It matters, because it was the moment that I realised that I needed to actually *do* something about the crazy notion of producing a podcast, as someone else had put time in to contribute to the idea. Someone who I didn’t really know. Someone who had put the work in, based on a speculative e-mail I’d sent to him.

Having White Dwarf at the cohesive centre of the podcast was essential, as it was such an important element of our experience of the hobby in those early years. I didn’t count on the quality of the submissions from @dailydwarf, for which I am eternally grateful.

My nasal drone and slightly pompous characterisation of the dwarf, doesn’t do justice to the quality of the writing in @dailydwarf’s submissions, so I’m pleased that we have decided to offer a pamphlet containing the collected essays. We’ll produce it as an insert to the ‘zine that we’re putting out in November. If you want to be assured of getting a copy, then please give us a tip in the beret.

One of the great consequences of producing the podcast has been meeting lots of great people. It’s possible that the GROGNARD files would have never had happened if I hadn’t got that submission in May ’15. I count @dailydwarf as one of the great ‘virtual’ friends I’ve made over the past 10 months.

I’m looking forward to publishing the collected works, in the meantime, these are the references to articles/ scenarios covered in the podcasts so far (as requested by some listeners):

RUNEQUEST

Oliver Dickinson: Lucky Eddi #29 Griselda Gets Her Men #30

John Bethell: Lair of the White Wyrm #14

Michael Cule: Rumble at the Tin Inn  #33

CALL OF CTHULHU

Review of Call of Cthulhu in Open Box  #32

Andy Bradbury:  The Heart of the Dark # 75

Marcus Rowland: The Paddington Horror #88

Graeme Davis: Ghost Jackal Kill #79

Simon Nicholson: Ghosties & Ghoulies &… Squid? #91

TRAVELLER

Review of Traveller in issue #6

Andy Slack: Backdrop of Stars #24

Neil Cheyne: Amber to Red #26

Bob McWilliams: We Have a Referee Malfunction!  #35

STORMBRINGER

Review of Stormbringer  #29

Matt Williams: The Madcap Laughs #95 to #98.

ADVANCED DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS

Roger Musson:  The Dungeon Architect #25 to #27.

Martin Hytch: Gamesmanship #75

Lew Pulsipher: The Necromancer #35.

Abbie Fiore: The Lichway  #9

Marcus L Rowland: The Eagle Hunt #40

Graeme Davis: The City in the Swamp #37

Venetia Lee and Paul Stamforth: Castle in the Wind  #76

Janet and Peter Vialls: Terror at Trollmarsh  #74

Lew Pulsipher: Khazad Dûm #38 

Abbie Fiore:  The Halls of Tizun Thane #18

Paul Vernon:  Troubles at Embertrees  #34

To be continued!

New goals added to Patreon

grognard-headThe GROGNARD files has a Patreon campaign to help support it’s development and other projects. I thought it was a good time to provide a general update as new goals have been added.

PROJECTS IN DEVELOPMENT

The ‘zine. I’m in the process of commissioning artwork. The writing is in hand and we’ve put together a plan to get everything ready over the summer. There’s some interesting material being developed, in the style that will be familiar from the podcast. PDFs will be available to all backers. Hard copies will be sent to $3.50 plus backers (world-wide shipping). Hard copies will be strictly limited with only a handful available for open sale. The PDF will be released generally mid-2017.

The Grog-Meet. The ‘zine will be launched in Manchester on 12th November 2016 at the first theGROGNARDfiles meet-up. It’s great that so many Patreon’s have been able to book a ticket for the event. We’re very excited about it. All attendees will get a copy of the ‘zine.

The Online Grog Club. We are tantalisingly close to opening the 6th monthly Grog Club, available to $5.00 backers in a ballot. I’ll be flexible with the time to fit people in different time-zones. It will be a one-off session that will either be A TIME TO HARVEST (the Cthulhu 7th ed open play scenario) or THE SEA CAVES the previously unreleased OSR scenario by Greg Stafford for Classic Runequest.

NEW GOALS

The collected @dailydwarf. If we hit $120 per month goal, we’ll include a pamphlet of the collected essays by @dailydwarf written for the podcast, in the ‘zine. Richly detailed analysis, witty and filled with the rose-tinted reflections you’ve come to expect from the GROGNARD files.

The Armchair Adventurers Consume Media. If it’s good enough for Ken and Robin … Dirk will write capsule reviews of all the books, movies, TV seasons, longform articles and podcasts he consumes. A fortnightly digest for Patreons only. Unlike Ken and Robin, I can’t promise cooking, but I do know the optimum technique for the perfect Pot Noodle.

The Patreon also supports the important, but boring stuff around the podcast:

Hopefully, you’ll have spotted an improvement in sound recording in the latest podcast. I’ve invested in a massive YETI mike that has sharpened things up.

The annual hosting of theGROGNARDfiles is due at the end of this month.

I’ve put a link on the side-bar, but you can also access it at this link

Thanks for the support!

Episode 6 (Part 2) AD&D RPG The Player’s Handbook

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So, after we’ve covered the Dungeon Masters Guide it’s time for us to get to the nitty-gritty of the core rules.

INTRODUCTION 0:19

The story so far and a review from iTunes. Please review us too, if you haven’t already.

WHITE DWARF SCENARIOS (Part 1) 4:54

@dailydwarf makes his first, controversial, pick from his personal best AD&D scenarios in White Dwarf and lists the ‘also rans’.

JUDGE BLYTHY RULES! 13:24

We got a mention on the very entertaining Old School podcast SAVE OR DIE. They have an interview with Chris Holmes, son of Dr J. Eric Holmes, author of D&D Basic from back in the day.

WHITE DWARF SCENARIOS (Part 2) 44:54

GAMES MASTER’S SCREEN 50:22

Two wizards dual to the death on the blackened heath.

WHITE DWARF SCENARIOS (Part 3) 1:22

POST BAG 1:29

I’ve made a contribution to the Rolistes Podcast Foodie Special.

Last couple of tickets remain for Grog-Meet in November.

Become an honorary member of The Armchair Adventurers by putting a few coins in the beret as a tip, at the Patreon site. Watch the video I made too, I’m very proud of it.

Next Time: Monster Manual and our thoughts on 5e.