The GROGNARD Files

It has been another incredible year for The Armchair Adventurers. We review the experiences that we have had with games old and new and reflect upon the year in general. There may be some irrelevant Beatles chat too.

INTRO – A new review and a breakdown of what to expect in the latest issue (including a ‘less’ v ‘fewer’ subtext).

GROGGIES Part 1. (4.10) Find out more about Red Markets in our appearance on Orlanth Rexes Gaming Vexes.

Bookclub (31:00): We were joined in the Book Club by the You Tuber Bud from Bud’s RPG reviews to talk about Viral the Modern Day Call of Cthulhu scenario.

GROGGIES Part 2.(51:00) Banging on about The Beatles for the UNIT campaign and awarding GROGGIE of the year for an amazing experience.

Outro. The annual round up of the new podcasts that have been added to the roll call this year. Appearances on The Smart Party Podcast, twice on Frankenstein’s RPG and performing on Tale of the Manticore. Recommendations include Baz’s incredible RuneQuest Year Zero, Ludo and Joerge’s The God Learners, The Titterpigs RPG Podcast, Beatles Books, and The Video Archive.

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At GROGMEET22 we had a great gaming experience with members of the GROGSQUAD. In this podcast we look back on some of the highlights.

Introduction to Chris McDowall. Chris talks about his formative years as a gamer and the influences on his design choices.

12:00 A GamesMaster Prepares – Dirk and Blythy discuss their experiences GMing the multi-table Mothership game and the other great games.

42:00 OpenBox – Chris McDowall introduces Into the Odd and Electric Bastionland.

01:12 GamesMaster Prepares more – A discussion of more games played, including Old School Essentials using these great pre-generated characters.

Thanks to everyone who made the event possible.

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This is the GROGPOD naked. There’s no interviews or GROGSQUAD sections, it is just Dirk and Blythy talking bobbins. Swordbearer was a game that we played a lot for a brief period. We liked it, but for some reason it didn’t connect and become a game that did not stick in our repertoire. Why not?

Intro: This is The GROGNARD files and we are talking SwordBearer

Speed-Dating: Open Box, Judge Blythy Rules! Monster off! we explore the SwordBearer game and its amazing innovations.

Advert: Third Floor Wars – great interviews with game designers

GamesMaster’s Screen: We look at some of the games that are on our shelf that we have not yet played. Should we Play, Stay, or give away:

Würm – the prehistoric tribal RPG

Icons – the Super Hero Game

Apocalypse World – the ground-breaking RPG about post catastrophe role-playing

Warrior, Rogue, Mage – an OSR game with neat ideas

Ironsworn

Band of Blades

Outro: Don’t forget that you can still join virtual GROGMEET over at WARHORN.

If you want to support the Patreon, now is good time to join as the benefits are about to be refreshed.

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This is the second part of our episode all about Savage Worlds. This time we look at some of the settings that we have enjoyed playing in over the past few years.

3.15 Titan Effect, interview with Christian Nommay. The new Declassified edition is available on Drive Thru RPG

24.43 The GamesMasters Screen – Judge Blythy joins me in the Zoom of Role-Playing Rambling to look at Deadlands, Slipstream, The Day After Ragnarok, Necessary Evil and others to explore the varied Savage Worlds you can play in.

You can read more about Wages Ophir on this very site.

1.11.50 Appendix G. Michael Butler asks us, “who watches the Watchmen?”

1.35.01 I’ll Get Mi Coat. Closing Time chatter about Kult and where is the role-playing?

You can find out the latest about GROGMEET here and support the podcast at Patreon.

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INTRO: Welcome to another Book Club Extra. We take break from the usual format to give you a little something extra. The Great Library of RPGs Book Club meets on the first Sunday of the month between 9:30 – 11:00. You can join at the Bookclub app if you are interested and follow developments on the discord server (contact me for an invite).

Full Fathom Five (2.30) – Paul Fricker talks to us about his scenario Full Fathom Five which is available at the Miskatonic Depository. He has recently contributed to the Story Telling Collective, giving guidance on writing Call of Cthulhu adventures. We look at some of the influences on Full Fathom Five including Moby Dick, the story of The Essex, and Master and Commander. Paul is one of the hosts of The Good Friends of Jackson Ellias (I appeared on there, talking about Gangsters and Gozu).

Actual Play (46.16) If you are a Patreon of the GROGNARD files, you can take part in the monthly one-shot club. This is a bit of sample play of Full Fathom Five. The rest will be released on The Patreon feed later in September.

GROGGLEBOX (56:23) Blythy and Dirk talk about The Thing (1982)

Tale of the Manticore advert (1.32)

I’ll Get mi Coat 1.32 – The end of one campaign and the start of another.

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Welcome to an episode that we have been talking about for a while. The Armchair Adventurers Club have played more Savage Worlds over the past few years than any other game, so why has it taken us so long to get to this episode? There is so much to cover and this first part goes on forever! Thankfully, with new chapter breaks, you can take your time to find a way through it.

Daily Dwarf (4.34) Makes a return, telling the story of how we got into Savage Worlds in the first place and what White Dwarf in its hey day had to say about generic systems. @dailydwarf credits What Would the Smart Party Do? for championing the system.

Open Box (14.18) Eric Lamoureux, host of the Wild Die Savage Worlds podcast, joins us in the Zoom of Roleplaying Rambling to talk about Wise Guys, his excellent gangster game, and other Savage Worlds projects.

Judge Blythy Rules (50.34) When it comes to Games Mastering Savage Worlds, we have had different experiences. Blythy has run campaigns in the published settings, I have done one shots in my own settings. In the noisy Las O Gowrie pub in Manchester we compare some of our favourite aspects of the game.

Talk Top Talk from Third Floor Wars (1.47.0) We recommend this great podcast which really gets under the skin of games design in interviews with people who make games.

I’ll Get mi Coat (1.47.30) Closing time chatter about the games that we are working on at the moment and some of our thoughts. Incudes Things from the Flood and The League of Eternal Guardians.

We also mention Run the Adventure and Roll to Save podcasts. If you are interested in Owl Bear and the Wizard’s Staff convention, you’ll find information about the face-to-face event on the site, while the online convention sign ups are on Warhorn.

The Bookclub membership is managed via Bookclubz, where you’ll find more about our meetings on the first Sunday of every month (except when it isn’t)

Thanks for giving us a monthly tip at Patreon. It is very much appreciated.

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This is the second part of our exploration of Scarred for Life, the fantastic series of books about growing up in the dark decades of the seventies and eighties. Gen X-rated popular culture shaped our imaginations and informed our gaming.

Buy the books here.

Content warning for this one as we quote directly from a couple of controversial games from the 80s.

I’ve had a go at putting chapters on this one. In case they don’t pull through, here is the menu:

00:00 INTRO: The incredible ghost voices that appeared on the free flexi-disc from The Unexplained magazine.

03:53 The GAMESMASTER’s Screen. Ste Brotherstone give us insight from the forthcoming volume of Scarred for Life. Phoenix Command, Alma Mater, The Unexplained: Mysteries of Mind, Space, & Time, The Price of Freedom, and 2000ad. I also mention the wonderful Save for Half podcast who did a recent episode on East Texas University.

57:30 Library Use. Judge Blythy joins me in the Room of Role-Playing rambling to look at Unexplained magazine. I make a mistake – it didn’t last for 115 issues, it was 157!

1:33:0 Advert. Frankenstein’s RPG podcast – I appeared on a recent episode about Magic/ PSIonics and Investigation in SF role-playing games.

1:34:0 I’ll Get mi Coat. Closing time chatter about Agon, Delta Green and a brief mention of the UNIT campaign.

1:46:Outro. The Book Club is on the first Sunday of every month at 09:30 GMT for 90 minutes. Owl Bear and The Wizard’s Staff convention is scheduled to take place on the weekend 2nd September. I will be supporting an online version of the event. Watch this space for more details.

Support us on Patreon

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Here we go! After a two year break, Dirk and Blythy are back in Birmingham talking about RuneQuest, DCC, Traveller, Conan, Old School Essentials and into the Odd. It’s good to be back.

Why not support us on Patreon?

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The 70s and 80s were the golden age of dark popular culture and Scarred for Life have chronicled the TV, comics, adverts, sweets and others of the period in a conversational but forensic style. There are two volumes available with a third on its way at the end of Summer ’22, which will feature role-playing games of the 1980s. We are joined by Stephen Brotherstone, one of the authors, and we talk about his formative years in role-playing and how this project came into being.

You can find out more about Scarred for Life by following the twitter account. The books are available print on demand, check for discount codes. They also have live shows.

We discuss Threads, Noah’s Castle, Dracula Lollies and much, much more.

Resident rules lawyer Judge Blythy joins me in the Port Street Beer House for a new segment where we do a Speed Rating of a game. This time we look at Monster of the Week – the rules highlights and our experiences of playing the game. There is a Jazz warning.

We finish off with a bit of closing time chatter about Dungeon Crawl Classics and the new Blade Runner kickstarter.

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Welcome, this is an extra-GROGPOD which is from a live recording made at this year’s virtual GROGMEET. Every month, on the first Sunday, the GROGSQUAD meet to discuss books from The Great Library of RPGs. This time we read The Gutter Prayer and invited Gareth Hanrahan for a Q&A session.

If you would like to be part of the book club, then please let me know in the comments below and I will send an invite.

If you like what we do, then please consider supporting us on Patreon.

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