White Dwarf – The GROGNARD Files

Call of Cthulhu Ep.2 (Part 1) – REMASTERED

The early episodes are steadily being remastered with an extra segment reflecting on the episode eight years on.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. This is a remastered version of episode 2 (part 1) with some additional edits and the levels balanced and an extra segment reflecting on the episode eight years later.

Open Box – reliving the memories of playing the game for the first time and the faltering start.

Judge Blythy Rules! – The Armchair Adventurers’ Resident Rules Lawyer discusses the finer points of the rules and style of play. We also speculate on what horrors have faced British Prime Ministers.

White Dwarf – @dailydwarf talks about his early experiences of playing Call of Cthulhu and selects his favourite item from the pages from the halcyon days of the UK’s best gaming magazine.

An invitation to listeners to contribute their stories of playing Call of Cthulhu in the early days.

Look out for a Micro Grog Pod coming soon featuring a list of our favourite CoC supplements and a current online pricing guide.

Episode 3 will feature TRAVELLER RPG

Star Frontiers (with Ben Riggs) Ep.61 (Part 1)

This time we look at a TSR classic and consider the history of the company post Gygax

Join the Galactic Legions with Dirk and Blythy as we explore Star Frontiers.

Introduction: An apology for the misreading of the shrine last time. The background to Star Frontiers as a setting explained.

Book Club: Ben Riggs joins Dirk in the Zoom of Role-Playing Rambling to talk about the history of TSR as explained in his book. Slaying the Dragon.

Daily Dwarf: The triumphant return of the Daily Dwarf essay looking at how Imagine magazine covered Star Frontiers.

Speed-Rating: Judge Blythy and Dirk give the low-down on the game including the highlights and the things that don’t quite work.

Save for Half: an advert for our friends at The Save for Half podcast

I’ll get mi coat: Monster of the Week and Planescape, our latest obsessions

Outro: Virtual Grogmeet, the Book Club and join us on Patreon.

I guess I was Never There – new EP from Omari (Dirk Jnr)

Episode 50 (Part 2) Fighting Fantasy (with Ian Livingstone)

We are pleased to say that Ian Livingstone returns to the GROGPOD to face the Games Master’s Screen. He talks about the early days of White Dwarf and the upcoming book, Dice Men from Unbound, and he also talks about his role in shaping computer studies in the UK.

Fabio Vollono shares the first game he played, the last game he played and the game that means everything to him. He mostly talks about his amazing memories of hanging around Dalling Road back in the day. You can find his fantastic miniatures at his etsy shop.

Daily Dwarf has provided another great essay (that I read) about White Dwarf and solo gaming.

Blythy and Dirk watch and discuss South of Watford, a documentary about Fantasy Games from 1984.

You can support The GROGNARD files on Patreon.

Extra – Forgotten Futures (with Marcus L Rowland)

Download via the soundbar

Forgotten Futures is the table-top RPG that is based on the scientific romances of the late Victorian and Edwardian period. Marcus L Rowland take us on a tour on his works and the ways that it has been distributed during its years of production. You can find a whole host of fascinating material on Marcus’ website including his other works, such as Diana Warrior Princess and The Original Flatland RolePlaying Game.

Also in this extra GROGPOD there is the return of Games Master Prepares. Dirk the Dice tries to crack the secret code of Cthulhu in Space by using the Marcus L Rowland method.

You can support the podcast and the GROGNARD files community by throwing some coins in the beret at Patreon. There’s an all new zine bundle on its way before the end of the year.

Episode 49 – Marcus L. Rowland (with Thunder Phase!)

This is the 80th GROGPOD and there is a sense of celebration in the air. We are delighted to have Marcus L Rowland as our guest. He was a stalwart of Whit Dwarf during its hey day. Cthulhu Now! Green Horizon, To Live and Die in Mega City One and the Fear of Flying, his contribution to our gaming imagination back in the day is inestimable.

@DailyDwarf provides a retrospective of his work in White Dwarf.

The first ever Patreon of The GROGNARD Files was Sam Vail and he reveals the first game he played, the last game he played and the game that means everything to him in a lifetime of gaming.

Blythy joins me in the Room of Role Playing Rambling to answer listener questions in the Thunder Phase!

Check out Bud’s RPG Review.

You can support the GROGNARD files on Patreon.

Episode 44 – Dragon Warriors (with Dave Morris)

The last GROGPOD of 2020 features a classic British Old School RPG, Dragon Warriors.

You can find out more about Dave Morris at his blog and his Patreon.

Daily Dwarf has a blog too.

Dave Paterson is about to launch a new podcast Frankenstein’s RPG and he’s a regular on Orlanth Rex’s Gaming Vexes.

Dragon Warriors is available at Drive Thru RPG (print on demand) as is Casket of Fays. There is a collection of information at The Cobwebbed Forest.

If you like what we do, then please like, subscribe, tell someone else or support us on Patreon.

Episode 43 (Part 2) Dungeons and Dragons (with Lew Pulsipher)

This is the second part of the Dungeons and Dragons Episode. Lew Pulsipher returns to talk more about his contributions to White Dwarf, his strategy game Britannia and his contributions to EN World.

Daily Dwarf revisits Holmes Basic D&D and tries to revive the magic.

Cris Watkins from Bonhomie Games shares his First, Last and Everything.

Blythy and Dirk have a ‘cover off’ looking at some of the art that defined Dungeons and Dragons.

Covers under discussion: Errol Otis , Larry Elmore , Dungeon Master’s Guide David C Sutherland, and Jeff Easley, Monster Manual David C Sutherland, and the Fiend Folio is wrongly attributed to Russ Nicolson, it was actually painted by Emanuel, sorry about that.

Support the podcast by joining the Patreon.

Episode 43 (Part 1) Dungeons & Dragons (with Lew Pulsipher)

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We knew we’d get there eventually.

This episode is dedicated to Basic Dungeons and Dragons.

Our guest is Lew Pulsipher who was a regular contributor to the Golden Era of White Dwarf. He talks about his formative years in role-playing. He is still contributing to EN World and has a Video channel all about Games Design.

Blythy and I talk about finding players and how he fell in love with the game back in the day and his joy in rediscovering it now.

Ralph Lovegrove from Fictoplasm offers his first last and everything. I appeared on his podcast talking about Hawkmoon.

You can sign up for GROGMEETish2020 at Warhorn. Support us on Patreon.

White Dwarf Book Club issue 90

This is the last White Dwarf Book Club for 2020, it will go into hibernation until next Summer.

The selection of issue 90 was made by Daily Dwarf (by rolling at random on a d100), it’s got a striking portrait of the character himself. This was another one of those issues that was an ‘on-boarding’ relaunch as the printing method changed. It had a perfect spine, more pages and even more adverts, to mark the 10th Anniversary of the magazines.

The Games Workshop publishing studio was working at full pelt at this point following the management takeover by Citadel. As well as UK prints of US Roleplaying classics such as Stormbringer, Call of Cthulhu, and Paranoia, they were extending the range of board games. In this issue they are promoting the Rogue Trooper game, based on the 2000ad strip.

It’s a perfect end to the second season of the Book Club.

White Dwarf Book Club Issue 87

Wait for one woman in a bikini flying on a strange thing and another one comes along shortly afterwards. It seems women in bikinis riding on strange things was deriguour in the 80s. This time the magic d100 was rolled by Wayne Peters, a very active member of the Book Club.

At this point, it was clear that the magazine was repositioning the adventures as the core of its content. Following the popularity of the RuneQuest special (number 85), the editor Mike Brunton had almost removed the regular departments and replaced them with more substantial pieces covering fewer games. Dungeons and Dragons was being purged in favour of games on the Games Workshop roll-call.

Derek the Troll by Lew Stringer had found a new home in White Dwarf, a refugee from Warlock, the Fighting Fantasy magazine. He’s even muscled in on the White Dwarf icon. Shocking.