White Dwarf - The GROGNARD Files

White Dwarf Book Club Issue 42

By some strange quirk of fate, this issue precedes the issue that was selected last week! Don’t blame me, blame the cursed dice of Hattifattener who rolled it on their d100 over on our Discord channel (if you’d like to join, then please let me know).

In this month a toilet caught fire on Air Canada’s DC-9 killing 23 people, Mrs Thatch was elected with a landslide and Octopussy was released. We needed something to cheer us up.

Fortunately this was the hey day of the hey day of White Dwarf and the covers don’t get much better than this John Blanche classic. As Daily Dwarf once pointed out, there’s about three scenarios at once playing out in that city. Inspirational stuff.

The internal content is just as classic. Part 1 of Irillian, ‘To catch a Thief’ one of the best ever Traveller articles (to my mind), Cthulhu Now! and a great Griselda story to boot.

I’d be really interested in how many of products and services that you used from the ads in this issue too.

P.S. If you look at the comments under the link to Issue 33 you’ll find a link to a copy – shhhh!

Episode 38 – Lyonesse RPG (with Lawrence Whitaker)

Lyonesse RPG

Download Episode

Welcome to a new GROGPOD about a new game that we are very excited about.

Lyonesse, Fantasy Role-Playing based on the novels by Jack Vance has been released by The Design Mechanism. We are joined by Lawrence Whitaker who tells us about the project and his formative years in role-playing.

Daily Dwarf looks at some of the other literary worlds that were brought to life in the pages of White Dwarf during its hey day.

STIMBOT5000 Andy Stimpson of Breakfast in the Ruins podcast tells us about the first game he played, the last game he played and the game that means everything to him.

Blythy and I look behind the Games Masters Screen to look for inspiration from Vance. We also cover The Dying Earth by Pelgrane Press.

There’s a new ad, produced by the UK’s Premier RPG podcast The Smart Party (I resisted the urge to put Premier in inverted commas).

Steve Ray has started Orlanth Rex’s Gaming Vexes over on anchor.

Please support The GROGNARD files at our Patreon site to catch actual plays and other gubins.

Start Here – The GROGNARD Files – Session Zero

An introduction to the GROGNARD files RPG podcast

Download Episode

Hello, my name is Dirk the Dice and this is the GROGNARD files podcast. If you are new here, then this is the place to begin as it provides a quick overview of what to expect from the GROGPOD.

It’s probably best to start at the beginning, but time is precious, so this introduction provides some recommendations to help you make your decision.

The GROGNARD files has been going on and on for almost five years with over 60 podcasts to choose from. I hope that you enjoy the back catalogue and stay around for some more.

To put a tip in the beret, then please head over to Patreon. Thanks.

Episode 34 – Review of 2019 (with Jamie Thomson)

Download Episode

It’s the end of the world as we know it, but we feel fine, because we’ve been gaming, a lot. We review the year in gaming over a pint with Clint, the pub dog.

Jamie Thomson is back looking over his career in Fighting Fantasy, The Way of the Tiger game books, The Fabled Lands and The Dark Lord Series (to the sound of a very noisy computer fan).

Check out EN World and vote for your favourite podcasts.

Please keep us going by pledging to our Patreon.

Episode 33 – Live Action RPG (with Jamie Thomson)

Live Action RPG (with Jamie Thomson)

Download Episode

INTRO: We are still recovering from a successful GROGMEET19. I picked up some new games along the way, including Pendragon and the new Eberron supplement for D&D (thanks to the coverage that they received on The Smart Party).

OPEN BOX (with Jamie Thomson): Features editor for White Dwarf between 1981-84, author of Fighting Fantasy books, the Way of the Tiger and Fabled Lands gamebooks. He has been working on Dice Men: Games Workshop 1975 – 1985 with Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson.

OPEN BOX LARPing: Blythy and I have been friends for 40 years, so we celebrate with a memoir of how we met and share our thoughts on Killer, which is still available for download.

FIRST LAST AND EVERYTHING: Shannon Ferguson aka Angry Monk shares the first game he played, the last game he played and the game that means everything to him.

LARPING part 2: We talk our experiences of DIY Larping in Newton Le Willows.

OUTRO: More details of our Patreon projects.

Episode 32 – Thieves’ World

Download Episode

INTRO: It’s the first anniversary of Greg Stafford’s passing and to recognise the event, we are celebrating one of his greatest, collaborative creations: Thieves’ World. There’s a quick potted history featured here, if you want to see the supplement for yourself, I’ve made a short unboxing film.

OPEN BOX: Eddy has managed to track down a copy of the supplement from eBay. We open it up together.

FIRST, LAST and EVERYTHING: From Californian GROGSQUADer Will Johnson.

WHITE DWARF: @DailyDwarf ‘s back for White Dwarf in the City.

GAMESMASTER’S SCREEN: Blythy and Dirk try to make the tables work.

OUTRO: Follow us on Patreon.

Extra – Mike Brunton: a tribute

Mike Brunton: a tribute

Download Episode

Mike Brunton, our special guest for Episode 29, suddenly passed away on 18th July 2019. This is the interview in full, released as a celebration of his gaming career. It also features Paul Cockburn adding a tribute to his old friend and colleague.

White Dwarf Book Club Issue 78

GROGSQUAD, pay attention, the next issue to study is this one from June 1986.

I’m not sure what you were doing in that month, but I was at the Milton Keynes Bowl watching Marillion at The Garden Party. It wasn’t a concert, it was an event. Jethro Tull, Gary Moore, Magnum and Mama’s Boys performed too in a brilliant day.

It was held on the same day as the Wham! farewell concert and our coaches met at Watford Gap. Two tribes. Us in our black Assassing! tees with long-hair and the Wham! lads in dressed in white wearing straw hats.

Nazis in Bolivia, boeing (R) in The Meg, life after death and Cosmic Encounter cards … what did you make of it?

Episode 29 (Part 1) White Dwarf the RPG years

It’s taken us 50 podcasts to dedicate an episode to White Dwarf. It was the centre of our RPG lives when we were teenagers.

In this episode Mike Brunton tells us how he got into RPGs and worked with TSR UK and Imagine magazine. Next time he will be relating his experiences as editor of White Dwarf and working for Games Workshop.

Neil Hopkins provides his First, Last and Everything. He created solo adventures for Quasits and Quasars

Eddy tells the story of the fateful night when he answered a small ad.

We are encouraging everyone to sign up to become a King of Dungeons (because it is awesome).

Blythy joins me for a run through some White Dwarf bag issues and to talk crisps.

Why not support our Patreon?

White Dwarf Book Club – Issue 37

A random roll on the d100 as thrown up 37 (4 issues later than the first one) which was dated January 1983. The magazine had started to get into the stride as a monthly publication after years of coming out every two months.

This was the month that wearing a seat belt became compulsory in the UK, despite protests from people bemoaning their loss of the civil right of being thrown through a windscreen. BBC launched its Breakfast Time programme with Frank Bough jazzed out in his jazzy jumpers and the Green Goddess preened in green.

ET won the Golden Globes for film drama (with Tootsie winning the comedy) and Hill Street Blues won the TV awards. Steve ‘interesting’ Davies won the Snooker Classic in St Helens. Superman: The Movie is shown on TV for the first time.

Let’s look at this together: What did you make of the cover? Did Alan E Paul’s FAERIES appear in your games? Did you learn your Traveller referring ropes from Andy Slack? Some classics appear in Open Box … did you play Crasimoff’s World? Vampire tables! Don Turnbull is getting cross on the letters page… How did you make use of issue 37?