10 Years of The GROGNARD Files

Summary

The GROGNARD Files – 10 Years of The GROGNARD Files

Episode 84 (Aug 7, 2025)
Host: Dirk the Dice
Guests: Judge Blythe, Eddie, Daily Dwarf

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Episode Overview

This special episode marks the 10th anniversary of The GROGNARD Files, a podcast devoted to reflecting on classic and contemporary tabletop roleplaying games (RPGs). Host Dirk the Dice is joined by long-time co-host Judge Blythe and returning guests including Eddie and Daily Dwarf. The episode is an affectionate and humorous retrospective on the podcast’s origins, evolution, the UK gaming community, and the culture that surrounds RPGs, blending listener Q&A, nostalgic stories, and new insights.

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Main Segments and Key Discussion Points

1. Welcome and Origins of The GROGNARD Files

• Format and Early Days

  • Dirk recounts humble beginnings in 2015, starting the podcast "recording under the stairs like an aging Harry Potter" ([00:16]). The podcast was always meant as a "magazine format, as an oral fanzine with different segments" ([02:54]).

• Initial Contributors

  • Early involvement from “@DailyDwarf” and “Eddie,” the original "armchair adventurer-collector-in-chief", who hunted bargains on eBay ([03:55]).

• Name Trivia

  • The term "Grognard" was adopted to reflect a grumbling soldier—though some purists object to the pronunciation ([02:06]).

• The Classic Format

  • Each episode features:
    • Revisiting old RPGs
    • Sharing personal play experiences
    • White Dwarf magazine highlights

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2. Reflections: 10 Years of Podcasting

[Room of Roleplaying Rambling – Open Box]

• How The World Changed

  • Blythe: “10 years ago we were still part of the European Union. Trump hadn't been elected, and the biggest thing we were looking forward to was RuneQuest 6 Adventures in Glorantha, which never appeared.” ([05:35])

• Podcast Longevity

  • Running joke: Dirk always felt the show had “another six months in it,” but ten years later, it’s still going ([06:02]).

• Nostalgia & 90s Myths

  • Lighthearted debate about the "mythology" around 90s music and nostalgia in general ([07:31]).
  • “I hate nostalgia." – Judge Blythe ([07:40])

• Soundscape Anecdote

  • Memories of being derailed by loud Magic: The Gathering players, described as a “Jimmy Carr strangling a sea lion” laugh ([08:27]).

Thunder Phase: Listener Q&A (Selected Highlights)

Biopic Casting

• Who Plays Dirk & Blythe?
  • Blythe: “Harrison Ford would play me now. Young Harrison Ford 'back in the day,' just for consistency.” ([10:14])
  • Dirk: “Robert Redford. Young Robert Redford. Same principle.” ([11:54])
• Tone: Silly, self-aware answers that playfully overstate their glamour.

Changing Attitudes & Friendship

• On Changing Relationships:

  • “We're gaming more and our circle of friends is wider... ten years ago I would not have thought we'd play as many games not with each other.” – Dirk ([12:41])
  • Blythe adds that separate gaming allows exploration of new games and styles that one another may not have chosen independently ([13:00]).

• Difference in Interests

  • The ‘Judge Dredd episode’ revealed their diverging interests, e.g., Dirk’s deeper attachment to Judge Dredd and 2000AD ([15:01]):
    • "We're not the same, are we?” – Dirk
    • “No.” – Blythe
  • Led to shifting the podcast from focusing solely on mechanics to "back in the day and today" ([18:05]).

Grog Meet Reflections

• Origins as “just a meet up”
  • “2016. It was just a handful of people at that point.” ([18:54])
• Growth and Success
  • Now 80–110 people. Managing numbers and intimacy is key to its continued success ([19:48], [20:55]).
  • “It is a case. I don't regret it because it's the thing that keeps this thing going, really.” – Dirk ([19:48])
• Venue Woes
  • Tales of “the year of the Shed,” a nearly disastrous, cold venue ([22:41]).

Golden Age of Gaming vs. Today

• Punk Spirit vs. Commercialization:
  • Dirk: “Back then it had a bit more of a punk spirit, a bit of a creativity spirit…nowadays it feels more of a commercial enterprise.” ([24:07], [24:25])
• No “Mystique” in GMing
  • Disdain for modern GM “universities” and over-mystification ([24:53]).
• More Accessibility Today
  • Today’s new gamers have the advantage of easy access to knowledge and diverse games ([26:00], [27:41]).
• Cautionary Note on Actual Play
  • Blythe: “People getting into the hobby have become quite anxious because the standard is that Critical Role standard... No one really does it like that.” ([26:15])

Longevity & Friendship

• Podcast as a "Marriage"
  • “The key to a marriage is tolerance...eventually we just put up with it, don't we?” – Blythe ([28:38])
• Editing Fatigue
  • Dirk: “There’s times when I’m irritated by you...because I’ve spent most of the previous night listening to your voice over and over again.” ([29:02])

Advice for Younger Selves

• Write It Down:
  • “Write it down, do a journal. This is material you're going to use.” – Dirk ([32:00])
• Less/Much Preparation:
  • Blythe: “I'd tell my 14-year-old self—stop worrying about all the preparation.” ([32:26])
  • Dirk: “Conversely, my advice would be prepare more.” ([32:53])

Nostalgia as a “Seductive Liar”

• Complex Relationship With Nostalgia
  • “When you listen to the Beatles, you're not nostalgic for the 60s necessarily.” – Dirk ([34:32])
  • “Nostalgia sometimes can kind of hold true...sometimes you can't (recapture it), other times you can.” – Blythe ([35:34])

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3. Eddie’s Return: Collecting Memories, Rebuying History

• Music & Atmosphere

  • Reminiscing about soundtracks (“played Mike Oldfield and Tangerine Dream...classic roleplaying background music”) ([39:06], [39:14], [39:50]).

• Collecting, Print on Demand, and eBay Bargains

  • Shift from compulsive hunting for old books to enjoying print-on-demand reprints ([44:04]).
  • “Why pay £30 for Gateway Bestiary when you can get it for £10 from Chaosium—an almost perfect replica?” ([44:18])

• Buying for Nostalgia Alone

  • The thrill of acquiring things once desired, just to put them on the shelf ([45:11]).

• HAN (Hârn) Campaigns

  • Eddie returns to running classic Han modules; prefers the original material to modern updates ([47:47]–[51:23]).
  • “It was the map that sold it...just enough detail in without boring you to death.” – Eddie ([48:10]).

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4. Daily Dwarf: UK Gaming Culture & White Dwarf Magazine

([54:23] – [63:22])

• White Dwarf’s Community Building

  • White Dwarf's “Small Ads” and letter pages connected pre-internet UK gamers ([55:03]–[59:00]).
  • “Greasing the wheels of commerce as eBay of its day and providing a heartbeat to the UK RPG community.” ([58:13])

• Letters Page Antics

  • Covered rules clarifications, feuds, and culture wars that would play out “over six months of green-inked back and forth.”

• Fanzines & DIY Spirit

  • White Dwarf (and 'Imagine', briefly) nurtured fanzines that built the scene ([59:30] onward).

• The Real Magic of the Podcast

  • “The real secret of the Grog Pod...is that it's built on friendship. Dirk and Blithey’s camaraderie shines through... it's an open friendship where we feel instantly at ease.” ([62:51])

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5. Thunder Phase Round 2: More Listener Q&A

([63:22] onward)

Online Gaming and Global Community

• Meeting Internationally

  • “Ten years ago, it took all of our time to meet people who were playing in Wigan, never mind people on the other side of the world.” ([64:06])

• Cultural Differences

  • Interview with Mike from Australia: Cultural and mythological differences in fantasy gaming settings (Australian folklore vs. British; handling Liminal and aboriginal mythology) ([64:34]).

The Good and Bad Gamer

• Self-Awareness
  • Dirk: “A good gamer is somebody who brings everybody in.” ([67:53])
  • Blythe: “What makes me a bad gamer is my slight intolerance to lore...I find all the lower just a bit too much.” ([68:00])
  • Dirk on Blythe: “…when you are in that board of rejecting the lore, you leak a bit.” ([69:22])

Favorite Episodes & Unexpected Enjoyments

• Personal Favorites

  • Dirk: LARP stories and “well-honed” anecdotes ([76:39]).
  • Blythe: Postal Gaming episode and tales of running by-mail games ([76:58]).

• Games Enjoyed More Than Expected

  • Blythe: Helvétia (fantasy Switzerland) was “unexpectedly good” ([77:31]).
  • Dirk: Realized a late appreciation for The Dee Sanction after initial resistance ([78:19]).

If You Were a Game Mechanic...

• Blythe: “Mercurial magic table in DCC. Crazy stuff that might happen if you cast a spell.” ([79:15])
• Dirk: “Resistance table...or a luck mechanic. I think I am quite impulsive and live on my wits and like to wing it.” ([80:01])

Desert Island RPG Books

• Blythe: “I would take DCC rulebook...and one of the Traveler sector books. There’s a lot of lonely fun looking at the star maps.” ([85:55]–[87:22])
• Dirk: “I have never read a rulebook from cover to cover...but maybe the big Guide to Glorantha volumes would be interesting.” ([87:13], [89:19])

Why Haven’t You Published Your Own Scenarios?

• The Challenge of Writing
  • Dirk: “I find it impossible...to convey what was in my head to another person in the form of words.” ([90:34])
  • “The effort to pleasure ratio is just not right.” ([92:10])
  • Blythe: “There’s an art to get a scenario, write it down, publish it so that when someone reads it, it makes sense and is runnable. That’s quite a thing.” ([98:12])

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• “It was always intended to be a magazine format—as an oral fanzine with different segments and sections with discrete themes.” – Dirk ([02:54])
• “I've been saying ‘another six months’ for ten years, haven’t you?” – Judge Blythe ([06:03])
• “I hate nostalgia.” – Judge Blythe ([07:40])
• “It was a laugh that we described as Jimmy Carr strangling a sea lion.” – Dirk ([08:27])
• “A good gamer is somebody who brings everybody in.” – Dirk ([67:53])
• “What makes me a bad gamer is my slight intolerance to lore.” – Judge Blythe ([68:00])
• “Back then, it had a bit more of a punk spirit... now it feels more of a commercial enterprise.” – Dirk ([24:07])
• “Greasing the wheels of commerce as eBay of its day and providing a heartbeat to the UK RPG community.” – Daily Dwarf ([58:13])
• "The real secret of the Grog Pod, I think, is that it's built on friendship. Dirk and Blithey's camaraderie shines through..." – Daily Dwarf ([62:51])
• “The thing I’m proudest of is that, when we put out any episode, there’s always an initial response, and people respond to it... That is the stuff that keeps it going.” – Dirk ([100:56])

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Origins and History: [00:16]–[05:00]
• Thunder Phase – Q&A Begins: [09:16]
• Biopic Casting: [09:54]–[12:04]
• Reflections on Gaming & Friendship: [12:08]–[18:00]
• Grog Meet Retrospective: [18:22]–[23:20]
• Golden Age vs. Today: [23:20]–[28:15]
• Advice for Younger Selves: [32:00]–[32:53]
• Nostalgia Chat: [33:00]–[37:35]
• Eddie Segment – Collecting & Hârn: [37:51]–[54:23]
• Daily Dwarf Essay – White Dwarf Culture: [54:23]–[63:22]
• Online & International Gaming: [63:22]–[66:27]
• Good/Bad Gamer & Emotional Leakage: [66:52]–[70:19]
• Favorite Episodes & Desert Island RPGs: [76:28]–[89:43]
• Publishing Your Own Scenarios: [90:03]–[99:18]
• Proudest Consequences of Podcast: [99:30]–[104:11]
• Closing Thoughts: [104:11]–[104:57]

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Overall Tone

The episode combines affectionate nostalgia, British understatement, warmth, and sly humor. Dirk and Blythe’s chemistry is relaxed, self-deprecating, and inviting, encouraging listeners to feel like part of the conversation, often poking fun at themselves and the foibles of gaming culture.

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Summary for New Listeners

This anniversary episode is both a nostalgic trip and a living snapshot of UK RPG culture, focusing on friendship and the evolution of play. For fans old and new, it’s filled with funny anecdotes, earnest advice, deep dives on the scene's history, and a celebration of the grassroots spirit that’s kept their community strong for a decade. The success of “Grog Meet” as an in-person event and the growth of an online friendship network stand as their proudest achievements, but above all, The GROGNARD Files reminds us that at the heart of all these games are lasting, adaptable relationships.

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For Further Listening

Skip the tedious parts—there aren’t any! But if you want quick touchstones for the podcast’s ethos, jump to the Thunder Phase Q&A ([09:16], [63:22]), Eddie’s collecting stories ([37:51]), or Daily Dwarf’s reflection on UK RPG culture ([54:23]). For British gamers, anyone with affection for White Dwarf, or anyone seeking joyful, irreverent RPG chatter, this episode is essential listening.

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End summary.

Transcript

[Dirk the Dice]

Have you seen me Dice Bag?

[Judge Blythe]

The Grognard Files?

[Narrator/Host]

Hello, my name is Dirt the Dice, and this is the Grognard Files podcast, where we talk bobbins about tabletop RPGs from, from back in the day. And today I'm coming live from my den here in the heart of the northwest of England. On my right is my ever expanding great library of RPGs and my Grognard files. Over the past 10 years, we've produced 140 podcasts and this is episode 84. Yeah, I don't know how that's happened either. It was 10 years ago today that I first came here to play. And back then I was recording under the stairs like a. An aging Harry Potter. If I rolled backwards in my chair, I knocked over the vacuum cleaner. It's the same now. I might be in a bit of a bigger space, but it's still packed. And my mum has bought a Henry cleaner. If you don't know what they are, well, imagine a red bucket on wheels with a tube coming out of it and the manufacturers have painted a stupid face onto it. Well, my mum bought it a few weeks ago and she's fallen out with it because it sucks too powerfully and takes up too much space. So we've, we've got it here. It's here at the back of me. It's got a stupid fixed smile, but mocking me, saying, you'll never get rid of me.

[Dirk the Dice]

I'll be here forever.

[Narrator/Host]

Here on my left is the ridiculous homemade shrine to the actor Caroline Munro. I'll just give her a tap. Ah, yes, hang on a minute. It's Moth Tarkin. What's happened there? Yes, 7 August 2015 was the launch of the Grognard Files. It had been percolated in our minds for over three months and the recording of the first one was done over a period of six weeks. The working title was now and Then, as we were keen that the podcast should be a reflection on what we used to do and how that has influenced what we do now. But I'd heard the reference to the idea of a Grognard being something of a grumbling soldier. It was more accurately pronounced Grognar. And some people still get quite sniffy with us calling it the Grognard Files. But, you know, I don't call Paris Paris, so don't me the Grognard Files. Each episode featuring a particular game that we played back in the day and our reflections on it after we played it again. 140 podcasts later, we've more or less stuck to that format with a few variations. It was always intended to be a magazine format, as an oral fanzine with different segments and sections with discrete themes. The first contributor to join me wasn't the resident Rules lawyer Judge Blythe, but it was Aaleydwarf, who I met on Twitter. And he comes back in this episode with an essay that he has written that I will read. It's an adaptation of an article that previously appeared in the Grugzine. If you've been listening to this from the beginning, you'll know that the earlier ones were were joined by our friend Eddie. He was our armchair adventurer collector in chief, meticulously building up a collection of old stuff and new stuff by searching on ebay using his Bargainometer. He would be looking for interesting stuff at low, low prices. Yes, he's back for this episode, reflecting on some more recent purchases and also talking about some of the games of Han that we've been playing together and but the main bulk of this is with Blithey. Judge Blithey and I go into the room of roleplaying Rambling to answer questions. Now, other podcasts have got lightning rounds, but we've got Thunder Phase. They're more like a rumble or a ramble through a set of questions that have been posed by the Grog Squad, our loyalty listeners that have built up over the past 10 years. We invited them to ask us questions, particularly on the lines of our reflections over the past 10 years. So we will strike at them at a medium pace. Yes, welcome to The Grognard files 10th anniversary special ramblers.

[Dirk the Dice]

Let's get rambling.

[Judge Blythe]

Open Box.

[Dirk the Dice]

Welcome to the room of role playing Rambling to open Box. The part of the podcast where we look backwards to look forward. And Blithey, we're going to be looking backwards over the last 10 years.

[Judge Blythe]

Wow. 10 years. 10 years. I can't believe it's 10 years. Feels like longer.

[Dirk the Dice]

Well, it does. It does some ways. Because if you think about it, 10 years ago we were still part of the European Union. Yeah, Donald Trump hasn't been elected a lot of times. Once, nevermind twice.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, a lot's happened, doesn't it, in that space of time.

[Dirk the Dice]

And the biggest thing that we were looking Forward to was RuneQuest 6 Adventures in Glorantha, which never appeared.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, it's quite a long time considering that your general attitude to the podcast is another six months.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, another.

[Judge Blythe]

And you're saying another six months for 10 years, haven't you? Well, another six months. We've got another six months or another 12. Another 12 months. We've got it. Yeah, keep going. Therehere we are, 10 years later.

[Dirk the Dice]

I think we have got another six months. I think we were going to record this last week, weren't we, when we were in the pub. We're actually up in the attic, but we're in the pub. We were, but it was busy, wasn't it? Last week?

[Judge Blythe]

It was with. I think we figured that we'd go into Manchester. The weather was nice, there was lots of sunshine. It was people in bucket hats to the Oasis concert, wasn't it, that very night? Well, I don't think it was that night, was it? I think it was just people who obviously making a weekend of it and have decided. I mean, that's why I was busy, I think, because normally all those people would go to Heaton park and would leave Manchester deserted. But it was the Friday and I think the concerts were Saturday and Sunday. Sunday. So I think people had made a weekend of it. Hadn't they booked into a hotel? But I did. I did feel. And I still feel this. And I felt this at the time, and I felt this when the tickets went on sale. People should be warned that they are only going. Watching Oasis.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah. It is only Oasis.

[Judge Blythe]

It is only Oasis. You do realize that they're all right, but it's only aware.

[Dirk the Dice]

Just to manage your expectations.

[Judge Blythe]

To manage your expectations of it. It's like me, I saw them at main Road in 1996, and people, when I tell people that, some people, not all people, but some people say, oh, wow. Wow. It was all care.

[Dirk the Dice]

All right. Yeah, all right. And I think that the mythology of it is. But like the mythology of the 90s has built over the years, but in nostalgia. I hate nostalgia.

[Judge Blythe]

We don't. We don't have no truck with that. We'll have nothing to do. Nothing to do with nostalgia. It's a terrible thing.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah. Yeah. But to be fair to the Oasis fans, it wasn't really them who disrupted our recording because we went up to Port street and there was a Magic the Gathering Gathering.

[Judge Blythe]

It was a Magic the Gathering Gathering. Now there's nothing. Well, there's plenty wrong with Magic the Gathering.

[Dirk the Dice]

Well, we don't know, do we?

[Judge Blythe]

No, no, we never played it. Don't really understand it. Don't want to play it.

[Dirk the Dice]

But one observation about it is that it's very noisy. It's a noisy game.

[Judge Blythe]

It was. Yeah. Yeah, I suppose it is. And there was someone with a very, very loud laugh.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yes.

[Judge Blythe]

We had to leave after one pint because it was such a loud laugh.

[Dirk the Dice]

It was a laugh that we described as Jimmy Carr strangling the sea lion.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, it was. It was like Jimmy. Jimmy Carr.

[Dirk the Dice]

That wasn't it.

[Judge Blythe]

Jimmy Carla cranked up to 11. It was. You can't help it, can they? I mean, how do you change your laugh? Can you change your laugh? Can you? Because you think you like Jimmy Car's laugh in it. You'd think if you could change it, you. You'd change it.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, but.

[Judge Blythe]

But people can't.

[Dirk the Dice]

No.

[Judge Blythe]

The shame. But more of a shame for us because it just. There's no way we could have recorded this podcast. I think maybe we should. We should have tried just to give people. Are you all right? Should he call an ambulance? Resuscitation shame, really.

[Dirk the Dice]

For our 10th anniversary, I went out to the grog squad to our listeners and invited them to put in the thunder phase.

[Judge Blythe]

That thunder face thing.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah. Where we. They come at us thick and fast.

[Judge Blythe]

Okay.

[Dirk the Dice]

And we answer them in a medium.

[Judge Blythe]

Pace, a medium pass in a kind of roundabout way which sometimes by the end of it that we've not really answered. Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

Let's see if we can keep it snappy by. They can change your habit of 10 years.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

All right, let's see if. Do it. So I'm going to draw these out apparently at random.

[Judge Blythe]

Okay.

[Dirk the Dice]

And this first selection are kind of reflective.

[Judge Blythe]

Oh, okay.

[Dirk the Dice]

Okay, here we go. Here we go.

[Judge Blythe]

First one.

[Dirk the Dice]

Robbie Wilson. When the Grognard Faz biopic is filmed, feature film or six part TV show, Take your pick. Who would play the pair of you in the lead roles back in the day? Casting required as well, of course. Thanks for that, Robbie. So who would play us now?

[Judge Blythe]

Harrison Ford. Harrison Ford played me now.

[Dirk the Dice]

Now he's a lot older than.

[Judge Blythe]

He's a lot older. It looks okay on the back of it, doesn't it? I mean he's 80, but probably looks better than me. So I'd still say Harrison Ford. He won't have to move much. Would he not nonetheless not play me now after, you know.

[Dirk the Dice]

In a podcast studio.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, in a podcast studio. You look all right.

[Dirk the Dice]

I mean we call this a studio.

[Judge Blythe]

But camera with a clever camera trickery and then playing, playing me. Then I'd just have a young Harrison Ford. It's consistent if nothing else.

[Dirk the Dice]

That's your wish list. Say that like this.

[Judge Blythe]

To be fair. What's, what's, what's. What are you expecting from this? If you're just saying he was going to play me out but that Harrison forward There you go.

[Dirk the Dice]

But it's a thing, isn't it?

[Judge Blythe]

In those films Mrs. Blythey likes Harrison Ford as well. She's got a thing for Harrison Ford. She ain't got a thing for me anymore, but she's got one for Harrison Ford. So it'd be all right, wouldn't it?

[Dirk the Dice]

It won't count because Mrs. Blather will replace with Meg Ryan, for example.

[Judge Blythe]

Oh. In the film.

[Dirk the Dice]

But in these films there is always a payoff, isn't there? Yeah. Inside these Bino pic films, do you go for a look, you like it or do you go for the quality of the acting?

[Judge Blythe]

Well, you know, I mean, Luke, I don't know a Lukey like it. What would you.

[Dirk the Dice]

You get Marker to do it.

[Judge Blythe]

Get Mark to do it. Oh yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

Mark Kerm, Mackenzie Crook and back in the day, casting.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

I mean, people will realize, but I mean, may I use the word gawky. You're a bit more lanky, weren't you?

[Judge Blythe]

I was, yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

You've kind of filled into your role, haven't you?

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, yeah, I suppose I was, yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

Lofty from EastEnders.

[Judge Blythe]

Loft from EastEnders, yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

Used to get that a lot, didn't you, back in the day.

[Judge Blythe]

But hey, never mind me. Who would play you?

[Dirk the Dice]

Robert Redford.

[Judge Blythe]

Robert Redford. Young Robert Redford. Albury, same principle. Harrison Ford. Robert Redford. There we go. They're gonna play us.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

And that's as simple as that.

[Dirk the Dice]

And that's the answer to that.

[Judge Blythe]

And that's answer to that. And it's totally plausible.

[Dirk the Dice]

Next question.

[Judge Blythe]

Go on.

[Dirk the Dice]

Dave Patterson. Has thawing out and playing games taught you anything about yourselves? And how do you think your attitude to gaming has changed since those heady teenage years?

[Judge Blythe]

That's a good one, isn't it?

[Dirk the Dice]

I mean, a good way of thinking about this, and I think we reflected on this at the pub is do you think our relationship has changed over the last 10 years with the podcast? How has that kind of changed?

[Judge Blythe]

Do you think it's changed?

[Dirk the Dice]

I think it has, yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

Going what way?

[Dirk the Dice]

And there's a couple of ways really, because obviously we're gaming more and our circle of friends is wide as a consequence. So that's had a. An impact on our friendship. I don't think 10 years ago I would have thought we would play as many games not with each other.

[Judge Blythe]

Yes.

[Eddie]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

And I suppose what's interesting about that is because we play together, but we also play separately. It gives us that capacity to explore games that maybe the other person wouldn't necessarily go for Yes, I think that's sometimes the case, isn't it? You know, there are games, not that we would actively dislike, but there are games where one person might, one of us might go, eh, it's all right. And the other one is more excited about it. I suppose that's a byproduct of having more opportunities for gaming. And I always saw the fact that.

[Dirk the Dice]

You'Re playing things separately and different gaming styles as well. So it's not just about the games, is it? We might gravitate towards particular styles of play, but if we were playing together all the time, we wouldn't have the opportunity to.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, yeah, it's definitely. Yeah, that was definitely a change because back in the day. Cause there was just us with limited funds, the games we played and the way we played them was quite narrow. Since the thawing out, what's happened is we play things in a number of different styles. I think back then when we were younger, we played a small amount of games, small number of games, and we tend to run them in the same way, in a particular way. Particular way. Whereas now we play different games and we're aware of different ways of running games. Different styles, different. You know, we wouldn't just approach everything in the same way. No, I mean, I suppose, I suppose as well. I always think it's an odd question though, isn't it? As well, because you are comparing what, 14 year olds with 57 year olds? I mean. Yes, I hope a lot's changed about me in that time.

[Dirk the Dice]

Another way of looking at this question is has a lot changed from being 47 to 57? One of the things I think I've learned from our friendship and being friends over the course of doing this over 10 years is I always made the assumption that we're more or less the same.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

And we're not the same, are we?

[Judge Blythe]

No.

[Dirk the Dice]

Because we've been very close for a long time.

[Judge Blythe]

Since we've known each other a long time. We have a lot of shared interests, but there are also lots of interests that we don't share. That became quite apparent in the Judge Dredd episode, didn't it?

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

See 2008. Well, I read. I read 2880s kid. Both read 2000 A.D. but. But you're much more of a fan of it than I am now. I'm not.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

I'm not. I know what it is and I know Judge Red is. And I know, you know, Nemesis the Warlock and all that. I've not really kept up with it. Whereas you have to some extent. Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

I know. Relate. It was a realization that our relationship to it was very different.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

And that was really a turning point. I mean, we're giving the insight.

[Judge Blythe]

It was a turning point.

[Dirk the Dice]

It was.

[Judge Blythe]

It was the point. It was like some kind of. It wasn't. We didn't have a row. We don't. We don't have rides. Never had a rival.

[Dirk the Dice]

No, we've never had.

[Judge Blythe]

We just repress our. Never. We never write. But we were doing the Judge Strad podcast, weren't we? I was talking about it and I think I mentioned something about the gun combat rules in Judge Dread, which is a percentile system, and blah, blah, blah. And you had to scold at me and like, shook your head as if to say, we don't talk about gun combat again.

[Dirk the Dice]

I gave you a hand yesterday.

[Judge Blythe]

You gave me a hand yesterday. It wasn't that. Yeah, it was quite a clean hand yesterday.

[Dirk the Dice]

It was like a nobody.

[Judge Blythe]

It was like waving it. Waving it on. Yeah, just waving it on. And then afterwards, I think I had a bit annoyed and I said, look, it's all right doing that, but there's only so much you can say about these bloody games. Yes. And it was this. That realization that we both then realized. Yeah, that's one of the problems, isn't it? So when you talk about topic Judge Dread, it was a percentile system and we talked about percentile systems in Runequest. We talked about them in Call. You can talk about them until the cows come on. There's only really so much you can say about. You either like them, you don't like them. You can make the point that with percentile systems, sometimes it's frustrating because you fail by 1% and that feels worse than fail.

[Dirk the Dice]

So you're doing it again.

[Judge Blythe]

Doing it again. But that's it, isn't it? But there is only so much you can say. And I think it gave us that pause for thought, then thinking, all right, what else can we do?

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah. So there's two things. Wasn't there. There was that thing of thinking, well, you know, mechanics, they are essentially the same when you get down to the.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

There's only.

[Judge Blythe]

Sometimes there's novel. There are variations of it, and sometimes there's novel. Novel rules in games which are worth talking about. But core mechanics are often very, very similar. In a lot of games it might be different dice, but.

[Dirk the Dice]

And. And then the other thing with that one was the attitude towards the subject matter. It was absolutely.

[Judge Blythe]

I think that's where your frustration came from, because I was talking about mechanics of the game because I wasn't that interested in Judge Dredd.

[Dirk the Dice]

And what I wanted you to say was I wanted more spooky hole action.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah. And I'm just. Yeah, yeah. I'm even sure what that means.

[Dirk the Dice]

That was a turning point. It could have finished at that point.

[Judge Blythe]

You could have done good. I could have been it. Right, so. Right.

[Eddie]

Go on.

[Dirk the Dice]

That. I think we did just. It was at that point that we started to reframe it.

[Judge Blythe]

Yes, we did.

[Dirk the Dice]

Back in the day and today we did.

[Judge Blythe]

I think that is. Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

I couldn't be. You couldn't swear to it. But yeah, I think we did because we realized that it was. It was diminishing returns that you're talking about old games, which. Okay, they're all very similar.

[Dirk the Dice]

Here's another one from Andrew Smith, one of our longest term supporters. Andrew, okay. Did you think Grog Meat would become so successful? Do you ever wish it hadn't? Wish it hadn't?

[Judge Blythe]

I don't.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

What do you think? Did you think it would become so successful?

[Dirk the Dice]

The initial idea was just to get together with people that we were talking to on Twitter and people who were fans of the podcast.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

And there was only a handful of people at that point, wasn't it?

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

2016.

[Judge Blythe]

No, it's just a meet up really, wasn't it? That's. That's how you describe it as, really.

[Dirk the Dice]

And we played board games in the morning and role playing games in the afternoon. We just got this place in the center of Manchester which was like a weird place, wasn't it? Because it was Mad Labs.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, it was called Mad Lab, wasn't it? And it was difficult to know what its real purpose was. It was like some kind of community space.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, it was like a maker's space. It went and became a gentrified vape shop or something like that. I think the point where I realized, my goodness, this is getting bigger. 2019. Yeah, that's where you felt like this is bigger than we thought because it was like 80 people. And no, it's not huge. It's 80 to 100. I think 110 came last time. But it's. It is a case. I don't regret it because I think it's the thing that keeps this thing going, really.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

The idea of meeting up and playing games, I suppose it's just managing the numbers, isn't it? It's always been that case.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah. I certainly don't. I don't wish it hadn't become a success. I think the problem is it's sort of a victim of its own success at times. Because as you say that the problems, what we've talked about with central Manchester getting a location in the. Central Manchester getting a location that's big enough but not too big, all that kind of thing is the problem, isn't it? So it feels sometimes like it's bursting at the seams in terms of people who want to come. But at the same time, because I remember one year we looked at Manchester University, didn't we? We decided there's more people want to come than we can really accommodate. Let's go to Manchester University. And Manchester University were okay about it, Weren't very accommodating. It was fine. But it was a massive venue and I think we talked about it that way. It'd just be like dead. Yeah, because there'd be more people and you might say, oh, there's. There was. I think at the time there was like 90 people coming and there was. Maybe there might be another 20, 30, 40 people who want to come. But. But it would have been like in this huge venue, I don't know, at.

[Dirk the Dice]

A significant cost as well. Because that's the other thing. Yeah. That as soon as you start getting too high, you need to have a committee and. Yeah, stuff. And at the moment it's a manageable size and yeah, I think I always want to keep it at a manageable side.

[Judge Blythe]

It's also a manageable size where you can sort of curate it as well, I think where people can sign up for games on Warhorn, they know what they're going to be playing, they know when they're going to be playing it because you know that some of the bigger conventions, sign ups on the day and things like that, people don't like that because they think, well, I don't know what I'm going to be doing. It being the size it is allows you to kind of manage people's experience a bit more by saying, right, you, you know, by the time you get here, you know what, what you're doing, where you're doing it and who you're doing it with. Yes, some people like that. Whereas if you just said, well, you know, it's a big venue, we don't know how many people are coming, but hey, turn up, there'll be games, maybe you'll get on one. But it's like, who wants to do that?

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, not at our age.

[Judge Blythe]

Not at our age. No.

[Dirk the Dice]

But, yeah, I think no regrets whatsoever and in fact, I think it's probably of the things that we've done over the 10 years.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

Probably more significant.

[Judge Blythe]

I would agree. Yeah, I would agree. Because it's. Yeah, it's a experience, isn't it, for everyone who comes and it always. And like you said, I think the last couple of years have been amongst the best. It doesn't. I mean I'm tempting fate now, aren't I? But it doesn't. It doesn't get worse. It gets. Does seem to get a bit better as time goes on. Yeah. I mean we have had a couple of. The one in the workshop was a bit of a duff.

[Dirk the Dice]

The year of the Shed.

[Judge Blythe]

The year of the Shed was again a bit like the Judge Dredd episode that. The year the shed was the one where I think you came closest to thinking, oh, forget this, not doing this again. Yeah, this is a waste of time, you know. But we kind of got over that. So that was. I mean, I don't think it was a bad one for people's experience. Experience. Apart from nearly dying of hypothermia in Griff's tunnels and shawls gave me in that room that was freezing cold. But I don't think people's experience that was. Was bad. But from an organizational point of view, it was not.

[Dirk the Dice]

This went off the rails.

[Judge Blythe]

He want a great venue and it just felt like we're in a workshop. Like bloody hell are we doing in here? Yeah, yeah, but.

[Dirk the Dice]

Okay, next question. This is a long one, so pay attention. Okay. Dirt the dice. My question is, can you explain to the poor lost masses of young gamers who see RPGs spread across pop culture, who can watch actual play videos their entire holiday and still not run short on streaming content. What exactly they missed during the first golden age of Gaming, 1978-1988. And what advantages did we old lot enjoy that they don't anymore? So that's from Hector Trelane.

[Judge Blythe]

Did we have advantages? I don't think we had any advantages. Did we? I think in a way it was more of a disadvantage because you didn't know what hell you were doing.

[Dirk the Dice]

The way that it was presented back then, it had a bit more of a punk spirit, a bit of a creativity spirit.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

Whereas I do feel, and this might just be my old folky, but nowadays it feels bits more of a commercial enterprise.

[Judge Blythe]

Yes. Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

And particularly when you look at the way that D and D is marketed.

[Judge Blythe]

It is.

[Dirk the Dice]

See, there's it. I have no truck with this mystique over games mastery, for example. Yeah. And you know, recently there's this. Go to a Castle and there's a university of games mastering.

[Judge Blythe]

Oh, yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

To that element. I think that is a detraction from actually the spirit of just do it yourself.

[Judge Blythe]

I agree. And I think it's great that it is more popular. That's a really good thing. And absolutely. People are younger and into it now, do their own thing. And people have always done their own thing, haven't they? People have always played it differently, you.

[Dirk the Dice]

Know, And I think Hector's right to say that. It's just a component of popular culture. It's like embedded now, isn't it, as part. It's the same as Marvel Cinematic Universe.

[Judge Blythe]

But I don't think it's as cool as people think it is. I think that what's interesting is our generation tends to think that the new generation of players. It's a cool thing to do. I still don't think it is a cool thing to do. I still think you get funny looks if you play D and D. I still think there's an element of that to it. It's. Our experience was more acute in that people genuinely didn't know what you were doing, whereas now people know what you're doing, but they still probably think it's a bit odd.

[Dirk the Dice]

I get that. I think what is different and what is better about now is the diversity of what's available to play.

[Judge Blythe]

Absolutely. Oh, yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

And also, there was no fun trying to work out what you're supposed to do with these games. I think it's really good now that you can actually pick up quite quickly, oh, this is what you meant to do. Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

You can watch an actual player that demonstrates really how you do it. I suppose, again, going back to my kind of slight objection to some of these actual players is that's not actually how you do it. No, if. And I think that's. And I've seen. I have seen this on social media once or twice, where people getting into the hobby have become quite anxious because the standard to which they are holding themselves is that kind of critical role standard. That's how they think you should do it. And my answer to them is, no, that's not how you do it. No one really does it like that. And I think that's kind of a bad thing because it's setting a certain artificial standard. Do you see what I mean? That sometimes bothers me a bit that, you know, people might get into the hobby through those kind of actual. That kind of actual play and think that's how you. That's how I must do it.

[Dirk the Dice]

Like that I'm going to do a wavy hand again now because you always.

[Judge Blythe]

Bang on, always banging on about this stuff. I've been banging over 10 years. You know, I'm bang on about it. That's really the only difference. I think a lot of it is pretty much the same. People are doing their own thing. Going back to the famous quote a few episodes ago. It, it, it's a hobby that defies, defies analysis, doesn't it?

[Dirk the Dice]

The other big change for me is that we struggle to find anybody to play with. You know, if I wanted to run again tomorrow night.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

I could just put something out there and have people to play it with.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah. And I suppose again that's true of, of a new generation of players. That's the. See, that's the thing. I don't think we had many advantages when we started playing, but I think they've got a massive advantage because if you were into, wanted to get into role playing games, you could get yourself on social media and you could find players and find groups and find out about conventions and things like that and get involved in it in ways that it was really difficult for us to do. Yeah, definitely.

[Dirk the Dice]

Next one. This is from Shannon Ferguson. Podcast has lasted longer than some marriages. How do you manage to stay together after this? What we might not do, I think it's because it's on. This is only part of a friendship into. It's grown until the last 10 years. But it's only a part of what we talk about really.

[Judge Blythe]

Well, I think it is like a marriage.

[Dirk the Dice]

There's the grid.

[Judge Blythe]

The key to a marriage is tolerance, isn't it? You gotta like. I'll forgive you for rattling on about things that bore me to death and you'll forgive me. Occasionally we might pull our face but eventually we just put up with a dough. Start talking to ourselves really in the room. Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

And listen to the same stories over and over. I'm sure I've heard this before. I must plead forgiveness from you because we've known each other for a long time.

[Judge Blythe]

But you're going to confess now.

[Dirk the Dice]

But there's times when I'm irritated by you and you don't know why I'm irritated. And the reason is, is what you don't know is I've spent most of the previous night listening to your voice over and over again.

[Judge Blythe]

That is very true. And that is an odd thing about the podcast because you edit it and then what I do, I record it like I'm doing now. You edit it and then I listen to it. And you always say, oh, it's all right, this one. But. Oh, God, we repeat ourselves. And I said this and then you said that.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah. And they banged the table about 20 times.

[Judge Blythe]

Oh, I know. And then I listen to it and I'll say, it's all right, it's one of the best ones.

[Eddie]

We've done that.

[Judge Blythe]

It's good. But. But that's the thing, isn't it? You've had the psychological trauma of listening to my voice and listening to your own.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

Endlessly while you edit it. Whereas I just listen to it once.

[Dirk the Dice]

And when my resilience is low, you'll kick in and say, yeah, come on, keep going. It's doing good. And the other way around as well, isn't it?

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, I think that's true.

[Dirk the Dice]

Because this originally started. We wrote a memoir. We actually wrote something.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, we did, yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

And we realized that writing is hard work.

[Judge Blythe]

Seemed like hard work. So just recorded out. Nonsense. Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

So that's why the first few sound like me narrating.

[Judge Blythe]

Yes. Because.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, it's me reading from the stuff that we.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was. It was like a time capsule thing of this. This is what. This is what we did. And I suppose we were influenced hugely by the elfish gene, weren't we?

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

By what? Can't remember his name.

[Dirk the Dice]

Barrackliffe.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, yeah, we were influenced by that, weren't we? Because that book was quite a revelation, wasn't it? You read it. I think you came upon it and read it and then you said, oh, you've got to read this. And I read it and it was remarkable how his experiences in that book mirrored our experiences. The types of people he encountered, the way he played it, all that kind of stuff.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

Was quite remarkable where you just thought, oh, oh, that's the kind of thing we did.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah. We wanted to take a different approach, though. The idea was that he was kind of disparaging about the people that were involved in it, whereas we thought, well, we could do this and just say how great it was. Because he saw it as like a negative experience, didn't he? That somehow set him back and. Yeah, yeah, but we certainly did.

[Judge Blythe]

I think we. But we did feel like that at one point in our lives. I think when we were at school, we kind of squandered all levels, as they were called, because we were too busy role playing.

[Dirk the Dice]

Fighting around.

[Judge Blythe]

Fighting around with role playing games. It's only like now, I think. Oh, well, actually, no, I think actually it was possibly quite a positive influence on me.

[Dirk the Dice]

This is related question from Daft O Fart. If you could go back to yourself as a child, what advice would you give yourself? I'd say write it down, do a journal. This is going to be material that you're going to use.

[Judge Blythe]

Record it all.

[Eddie]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

Because otherwise it'll be unreliable memories over shorter periods of time than you think.

[Judge Blythe]

Some advice in terms of role playing games. And maybe this does tie into that idea of not revising enough long enough for your exams. I would have told my younger self, stop worrying about all the preparation. You know, it's that thing I've often talked about, lots of preparation and then realize you are winging it. Why did I prepare? I'm winging it anyway. Or maybe I'd tell my 13, 14 year old self that to just do a bit less prep, don't worry.

[Dirk the Dice]

Conversely, my advice to my younger self would be prepare more. You end up going down these blind alleys and.

[Judge Blythe]

Well, I went down the blind alleys even though I'd prepared stuff.

[Dirk the Dice]

Here's another one from Guy Milner. George Ball said, nostalgia is a seductive liar. Has this been your experience of revisiting old games? The roots of new ones are in old games.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

So I've never really seen it as a kind of continuum. I always look at games as existing in a space of they're all available at the moment.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

Explained myself well. Yeah, nice.

[Judge Blythe]

It's strange, intact. I think you could go back to an old game in itself and think, well, this isn't a very good game. So for example, we played some Stormbringer recently, didn't we? Last year played some Stormbringer. Now is Stormbringer a good game? Well, I think you can debate that point, can't you? Because there are some silly rules in it. There's some silly kind of skill. The skill levels are silly where you end up with 2% sneak in. You think, what? What's all that about? This is stupid. But I think when we played it, the part of you acknowledges that bits of it are a bit daft, but you accept them because of the nostalgia that it brings. It's like you down your critical faculties a bit and go, well, the game is what it is, this is the way it is and we've decided to play this game. Therefore the nostalgia, there is an element of nostalgia.

[Dirk the Dice]

So that's where the seductive line comes in, isn't it? Yeah, I think I've progressed a little bit beyond that because I'm trying to find a way of explaining my approach to games that isn't quite nostalgia, because nostalgia is the idea of that something has fallen and you want to go back to a place where it feels more happier and comfortable and. But I think our relationship with old games and with the past and past popular culture is a bit more complicated than that. When you listen to the Beatles, for example, you're not nostalgic for the 60s necessarily. No, you're taking a different kind of pleasure. I feel the same way in our games that it isn't a nostalgic appeal necessarily. In fact, I might be enjoying it more now than I did then, because actually something hasn't been lost, there's been something gained.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, that's true. I think the odd thing about nostalgia is there's two elements of it, isn't there? So there's nostalgia in terms of thinking about something from the past. So thinking about a game and thinking, oh, that was a great game. I'd love to play that game again because it was great. And then playing it and finding it's not so great. So that is where it's a seductive liar, because it's kind of lured you into thinking it'll be great and it's. But then at the same time, nostalgia sometimes can kind of hold true, can't it? In that you can sometimes think, oh, that was great. I'd like to do that again, do it again and think, oh, you know what? It was good. It was good, you know, so nostalgia is a funny old thing, isn't it? The thought of it is one thing. So it can be a seductive liar. Because when you, you know, you might think like a TV show, for example, you might think, oh, that was a great TV show. It's wonderful. And you watch it again and think, oh, actually, it's not all that good.

[Dirk the Dice]

What if you take something.

[Judge Blythe]

But equally you could watch it and think, oh, it is good. Nostalgia kind of delivers, I suppose. You don't know the nostalgia until you try and recapture it. And sometimes you can't and you realize it's a failure, or other times you can. That's what's odd about nostalgia, I suppose. Sometimes it delivers and sometimes it doesn't.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, I think that it's hard to be nuanced in this argument because we were playing in the 90s and through the early 90s, and I think sometimes when you get drawn into discussions, it tends to be about comparing traditional games with independent games that emerged at that point, and because we weren't participating in that period, it's hard to have a view. My view is skewered by the fact that I missed all of that.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's like a big gulf of. I suppose we've touched on that with some of these questions, haven't we? Where. Yeah. You look at the past and you think, well, what are you talking about? Are you talking about me being 14 or 15 or 16 or 17 years old versus in my late 50s?

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

It's a different thing altogether, isn't it, really?

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

You know, are they. Are they really legitimate comparisons in terms of how you behave and what you would do and how you would do it?

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah. So see you next time then.

[Judge Blythe]

See you next time. Goodbye.

[Dirk the Dice]

Ed in his shed. Yeah. This way. Bly there. Down the garden into the shed. Into the shed.

[Judge Blythe]

Okay.

[Dirk the Dice]

It's down here somewhere. Right. I've gone past these trees. I'll just knock on here.

[Eddie]

Hello.

[Dirk the Dice]

Hello, Ed. Back in your shed. It's been a long time.

[Eddie]

It's a bit of a warm one. It's deep wave heat.

[Judge Blythe]

Wavy.

[Dirk the Dice]

I know you're cooking in here.

[Judge Blythe]

Open some windows.

[Dirk the Dice]

Oh, so. It's been a while. So what have you been up to? Have you. I gotta ask you, did you watch Black Sabbath?

[Eddie]

I did.

[Dirk the Dice]

And what did you make of it?

[Eddie]

I thought it was good, but it was too drunk to see the end. I was too drunk to remember the end. So I can't remember what they were like. They were okay. I enjoyed them. I can't really tell you what they were like. This was drunk.

[Dirk the Dice]

So you replicating the Aussie experience?

[Eddie]

That's right. Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, it's.

[Eddie]

You try your best, aren't you?

[Dirk the Dice]

Because I always associate you with Black Sabbath. Because back in the day that's what.

[Judge Blythe]

You used to play whilst we were playing.

[Eddie]

It was more probably the deal stuff than the Aussie because I was a big deal fan as well, so Evan and l was my favorite album. So I kind of played that all the time. That Mob Rules. So probably a few of the other Sabbath stuff, but I can't remember. I thought we played more my Coalfield and.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, I think we. I think we started Dream Tangerine Dream, Mike Orfield's Incantations. Do you remember that? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

That was. That was a classic role playing background music, wasn't it?

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, it put that on now. I still think I'm in.

[Judge Blythe]

I've listened to it since and it was a double album, wasn't it? I'm not sure it needed to be. I think you could have shaken a bit out of it.

[Eddie]

It's not the same thing over and over. Indian WOMAN singing.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah. I think the end bit's the best bit with it. Is it like a choir of children? There's a bit at the end that's quite good. And you used to wear the whole double. Double album to get to the end. And that was just a good bit, isn't it? Right at the very end.

[Eddie]

The Ayo off a bit atmosphere. I liked it. It was good.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, it's good.

[Eddie]

Like I said, it reminds you now, don't it?

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah. And you had on Storytellers Night the album cover.

[Eddie]

The poster.

[Dirk the Dice]

The poster.

[Eddie]

I bought the poster from HMB and it was on the wall.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Eddie]

And funnily enough, I bought the other kids for my birthday a few years ago. Bought me the autograph print as it was posters. It's a print now. So the autograph print from Rodney Matthews. So I've got that upstairs in my bedroom.

[Dirk the Dice]

Because the thing I remember about it is that you had it framed and it was a millimeter and it used to annoy you. Every time I went and you went, it's a millimeter.

[Eddie]

Must have had laser eyes or something. You probably won't notice.

[Dirk the Dice]

Let it go. Yeah. So it's our 10th anniversary and you. You thought we'd stopped at MERP. Only because you've got the Spotify thing.

[Eddie]

That it stops there for some reason on Twitter anymore. That's the only time I found out there was a new episode. So I looked on Spotify and you stopped. That was about three years ago.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Eddie]

On the merp.

[Dirk the Dice]

I don't know what's going on there and I don't. I don't have the powers to fix it.

[Eddie]

So not delete it. We had it all. Or the artist.

[Dirk the Dice]

I know, but I'm worried that if I delete that, I'll delete everything. It's like a house of cards. I'm always worried about it.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah. Press the button. You can delete all the Grognard files everywhere. Forever. Forever. Somehow it's all linked together.

[Dirk the Dice]

Maybe it won't be a bad thing.

[Eddie]

Maybe it's an imposter. You know, if you're actually account, it could be someone else. Yeah. So getting any money from it? How did you get from it anyway? Spotify.

[Judge Blythe]

10P a month.

[Dirk the Dice]

I donated all mine to Taylor Swift. So when you used to come on in the early days, it used to be you. Bargain hunting. Do you still spend late nights surfing looking for bargains? RPG bargains?

[Eddie]

Not as much as I used to do, I think. No. I kind of concentrated me buying on older stuff. From back in the 80s.

[Dirk the Dice]

Right.

[Eddie]

So I don't tend to buy any modern games about Traveler. Last year the, the latest edition, whatever that is. Maybe that's the Book two now.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Eddie]

And I think I got Alien RPG but they're renewing that one apparently.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, yeah.

[Eddie]

So you get a bit fed up of it's becoming out of date before you've actually got to play the.

[Judge Blythe]

The finally faced up to modern games and then immediately the modern game you've bar has become an old fashioned game because they brought your edition out.

[Eddie]

Yeah, I think, I think I kind of just concentrate. I don't get the buzzer buying a modern game as I do an older game. Yeah. What was it the last. The last game I bought off ebay was Advanced Room Quest following before I got Runequest. I got them for about a tenner, maybe 12 quid or something.

[Dirk the Dice]

The Games Workshop.

[Eddie]

Games Workshop. But even though I had the oven on Hill one, don't ask me why Bartley Games Workshop Editions. It's got more pictures, more pictures in.

[Dirk the Dice]

You got the print on demand stuff as well, didn't you, recently?

[Eddie]

Oh yeah, well that's it. I bought. Well, there's quite a few. Even though I've got the original Griffin Mountain. I bought a copy of the Griffin Mountain Troll Pack which I've got the box set of. Troll Pack which I don't know I should sell that. Really prefer the book, to be honest, because they're actually clones of the original games. But not exact clones actually anybody's got both. If you look at them, the fonts are slightly different. Yeah. But they're as close as you could be.

[Dirk the Dice]

They've been reset, haven't they?

[Eddie]

Yeah, they changed some things on it. The font's slightly different. When I was looking at it it was either Pavi. So Borderlands. I was looking, comparing the two just, just. I don't know why I was. It must be that sad. I was just comparing the two and they look slightly different on the page. On their own, if you didn't see the original, they look almost identical.

[Dirk the Dice]

So doing that print on demand stuff that you can get now is taking the thrill out of finding the old.

[Eddie]

Stuff in a way. Yeah. I mean why would you want to buy, oh, why would you want to pay, I don't know, 30 quid for the. The Gateway Bestiary when you can get it for 10 quid from Chaosium? An almost perfect replica.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Eddie]

I mean as much as I thought I am a bit of a collector of this stuff. I'm not, not addicted to it so much. I want the exact, you know, right down to the edition, you know, the first edition. I'm not that bothered. But if you had a copy of. I don't actually have the Gateway Beastry, but if it was going to buy it, I'd just go and buy it from Chaosium. Is it plunder, the other thing?

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, plunder, yeah. When I. Because I could never get Rune Masters of Plunder. You can never find it. And so when that came out and Print and Demand, I got it.

[Narrator/Host]

Right.

[Dirk the Dice]

Whether I've actually looked at it.

[Judge Blythe]

Well, you looked at it and whether it's any good are other matters.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Eddie]

Well, I say you get the. You buy stuff and it comes using an old Amazon envelope, don't it, when you buy it from ebay. So you peel the tape off, you look at the book and then you put on yourself. Ask any friend, you think a few days later, why did I buy that?

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah. There's certain thrill of having something that you didn't have back in the day.

[Eddie]

You dreamed about it back in the.

[Judge Blythe]

Day you didn't have the money. Now you can have it. But when you've got it, you thought, well, okay, I've got that. Oh, what I'm supposed to do with it, But I've got it. I just put it on shelf.

[Eddie]

But it's like the Mason athletep. I have a thing about that game. And I had every single edition done out of the box. First edition, which I managed to get. And then I got the. It must have been a second edition book. Then there was another book with the chat, the Australia chapter added in. And then there was a later one in the early 2000s which is slightly updated or slightly modernized text, I think. And then the one released recently, one which is a massive box set.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Eddie]

Which I did buy that. And then I sold it again because I'd never read it.

[Judge Blythe]

Right.

[Eddie]

And I wanted the money.

[Judge Blythe]

The money so you could buy.

[Eddie]

Yeah, yeah. So you kind of said back into it.

[Dirk the Dice]

But we started, didn't we, playing together back in 2010. Massa nail. I've got that new version. I'm tempted to run it again.

[Eddie]

Remember it, though.

[Dirk the Dice]

But would he not take it into different. You could actually change it a bit.

[Judge Blythe]

I think they try and justify rebuying that Mike Mason at Expo tricked you.

[Dirk the Dice]

It's a Jedi mind trick.

[Judge Blythe]

And made you buy it again by saying, it's got an advert for pears. So. And you went, oh, all right, I'll have it, I'll buy it.

[Dirk the Dice]

Then it was the level of detail.

[Judge Blythe]

I thought the level of soap advertising.

[Eddie]

Did it have the matchbox? I bet it didn't, though.

[Dirk the Dice]

No, I didn't have the Maxbox. No. You have to get all that now, don't you, in the prop set. The prop set, yeah. So it's.

[Eddie]

I'd flog it and use it because I flogged. I think I paid 80 quid for it. 79 pounds, 79.99. And then I think I flogged it for 69.99. You know, I lost tennis, so I'm not bothered.

[Dirk the Dice]

We've not stopped playing together. We've been playing once a month and recently you've been taking us back to Haaland.

[Judge Blythe]

That's right.

[Dirk the Dice]

Which he used to have back in the day and we used to. Used to remodel it and use it. So why have you gone back to it? What is it about Hahn?

[Eddie]

I don't know. It's got just enough detail in without boring you to death, I find. And the good thing about, and from my point of view is again, I only buy the older stuff. All the newer stuff is available to buy and print, but it's astronomically expensive and I don't think it gives you any more information, literally doesn't give you any more information on the original document. Some do, some have expanded on some of the things. But I would sooner buy a copy of a city module or a. What is it, A country module or whatever they call them in Han and from back in the day and use that because again, I like reading the older documents rather than a newer one. Even though it's all been released now re released on PDF. I'm just not interested.

[Dirk the Dice]

But people are not familiar with Han. It's the maps, isn't it, that make it.

[Eddie]

Yeah, it was the map that sold it for me back in Games Games Workshop, weren't it, in Manchester? You looked at that map, I thought, wow, it's fantastic. It came with like a. Like an encyclopedia and in called Iron Decks and then a little bit called Harm World. We told you briefly about the. The history of it and the floor and the faun and the monsters and the countries within Han. And then the Hindex was like an encyclopedia and I thought it was a bit, you know, naff when I got it. It was only a few weeks later that I went back and bought Cities of Han, which he kind of like really exploded in my mind because that was like. It was like Pavis. She got Pavis for Runequest, which I always wanted but could never Afford. But without all the extra mumbo jumbo that he didn't need to read. You could read a. Just enough information to run in. In these seven or eight cities which were dotted about Han. So that's kind of made it. And it was like went down to the street level detail. I'm not interested in big histories for 2000 years ago. It just mean Zott at the table. You can't recite all that again to the players. You have to just. You want. You want the. The inns and the taverns and the streets and the. The Thieves Guilds and the adventure suggestions that it puts in there. You know, like a butcher who's murdering somebody or whatever. And it kind of just drop little bits of information in them. And I thought it was fantastic. I still do really. So you can kind of. You can kind of run with it as far as. As much as you want.

[Dirk the Dice]

And it's. It's low magic into. And yeah. You not use the. Is it called Ham Master the system.

[Eddie]

You masters the rule system for ha. Which is very similar to basic role playing. Right. It's not a million miles away. It's very gritty. I have read it a few years ago. It's not that bad. But it uses like an injury table rather than hit points. And it's a bit. There is a little bit of table reading but I don't think I'd move over to it because I'm too set on basic role playing because I think that's my bag now. I kind of don't really want to run anything else. Open Quest. No brp. And it basically role playing. Yeah, it could be. You could swap these out for Magic World Rune Quest and you really notice much difference. So you know the similar game.

[Dirk the Dice]

I quite like how with fighting you've got a few more tactical issues.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, yeah. I've got a few. A few bit more extra bits and pieces that you can do in fighting.

[Eddie]

Yeah, it's like a lighter version of Mithras. Yeah, I played that a few years ago and there's like a. That's quite gritty, isn't it? And it's got a big options table for your combat.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, it's got like most moves you can make.

[Narrator/Host]

Yeah.

[Eddie]

I bet it's good if you're fluent with the system. But when you're learning it kind of just slows it down a little bit. Whereas I found Open Quest. Is it actually five, four or five options? Maybe a few more than that. And you can kind of. You don't need to use Them. I don't think we've used them yet, have we? Especially last session we didn't use like Great Attack or whatever it's called or Set or Charge or things like you can use them but it's. You don't have to do. Don't break the system by not using them. Whereas Mithras you feel you have to use it.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Eddie]

So it's just a light to me, a lighter, more easily a runnable version. And it's like the other game based on his Renaissance which we did the Kronos game, didn't we?

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Eddie]

Which again has a sweet magic system I thought which would be great in Hand and that's a Renaissance one. But we use a basic battle magic in it which is. Yeah very similar to Runequest magic.

[Dirk the Dice]

No, it's been good. It's been good catching up with you and hopefully speak to you again.

[Eddie]

I've not been away, I've just been. We've been gaming, haven't we? Yeah, yeah. Five years have not disappeared off the earth.

[Dirk the Dice]

We're not locked you in here locked.

[Judge Blythe]

In the shed like some kind of prisoner.

[Eddie]

You asked me about Hand. The irony is the last thing he actually bought off ebay was han the Hand decks and the Hand. I got it again because the old one. Do you remember you were encouraged to cut them up and put them in files.

[Judge Blythe]

Oh yeah.

[Eddie]

It was all.

[Judge Blythe]

Were you encouraged to do that? Is that just something you like doing?

[Eddie]

No, they do because you got another module. No, no, no. I could back without having all the pages were numbered because they're over there with lights. Like you buy the city module and it'd be Tasha the city and it'd be pages one to eight but you'd buy another booklet down the line like Son of Cities and they'd have Tashao 9 to 14. So it was okay.

[Judge Blythe]

Like them.

[Eddie]

No, I cut it up, put them in wallets so you'd have the full. Kind of like I get it was like the magazines you bought after Christmas time.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

You're next plan you're explained.

[Eddie]

You bought the first three and never bought anymore.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

A collectible series. I think because you were doing that. I ended up doing it with mine and regretting it instantly. So I did it with mine.

[Judge Blythe]

I never did it because I'm useless at anything like that. I'm useless at any. Anything craft based. I'm useless at. Therefore I never did it.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, I caught up my Runequest book and put it in a file and I even got ring hole reinforcers Stickers. Yeah.

[Eddie]

Ball omens, weren't they?

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah. But the thing is, I bet that's an industry gone now. Someone's sitting there going, yeah, I made a fortune out of these. But then my empire just crumbled. Yeah. Because people stopped doing that.

[Eddie]

But you stuck them on. But they covered up half your text.

[Dirk the Dice]

It did, yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Eddie]

I don't want to rip my pages out of your inquest book on me bloody hand stuff. So you stuck them. Oh, God. It just covers up a bit of bloody text.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

Don't worry about AI.

[Judge Blythe]

It's the.

[Dirk the Dice]

The old reinforced reinforcements.

[Judge Blythe]

Right, yeah, yeah, I remember, yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

That's a lost craft. Craft in it. Did they really do anything?

[Judge Blythe]

I mean, were they even necessary?

[Eddie]

It's all bad. When I went up, got behind stuff, back out the loft a good few years ago, they all just peeled off. That week of glue had gone, so, luckily. Just peeled off without ripping anything.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

Cheers, Eddie.

[Eddie]

Oh, kiddo.

[Narrator/Host]

The White Dwarf armchair adventurers wanted no experience needed, just imagination. Good old Twitter. Remember when we used to be able to say that not long after I'd started my daily Dwarf account, I saw a retweet by none other than Ian Livingstone of someone with the handle armchair adventurer? I got it into my head that they must be a mate of Ian's and so would be worth following. It soon became apparent that although he wasn't Ian's buddy, he was still well worth a follow. We shared a similar background, an obsession with RPGs forged in the UK of the early 1980s, a kindred spirit in the Twitterverse. And so my friendship with Dirk began. But how did British gamers connect with each other in the days before the Internet? Enter the aforementioned Ian Livingstone and White Dwarf magazine. From the outset, White Dwarf built a sense of community for role players. As Ian Livingstone said in his opening editorial, gaming had become a recognized hobby in its own right, and he hoped that the magazine would serve as a vehicle for articles and comment on SF and fantasy games. And present in that first issue was the initial Small Ads page, key in putting UK gamers in touch with each other. From then on until its final demise in issue 94, the small lads page was a mixture of items for sale. Gaming clubs broadcasting their existence, fanzines announcing the latest issues and requests, requests and more. Requests for games for players, and occasionally requests for the downright odd. Every month, it was always worth scanning down these tiny entries, making a spot hidden roll to try and find a gem lurking within. Here's a few favourites. Computer generated Lists of dungeon room content on offer for 50p. Not only that though, how about a booklet listing random numbers in ranges such as naught to 99 and 1 to 6? You need never roll another dice a snip at 20p. The beholder was the first Fanzi I remember declaring itself in the Small Lads page in issue 13. Over the years, greats such as Dragonlords, Quasits and Quasars, Worm's Claw and many others all announced themselves in the Small Adz pages. I only wish I still had some of the issues. The great weapon take of Brodrador requested team to play as in issue 26. The quest started in Brighton. Funnily enough, one does not simply walk into East Sussex. A few issues later someone called Ian Livingstone asked for contacts in games, magazines, figures etc for information to be included in a book he was writing. Dicing with dragons presumably white dwarf's request for cartoonists in issue 38. I assume they at least received responses from Carl Critchlow, Mark Harrison and Bill Ian Livingstone again. Did he know the editor or something? Asking if anyone had a copy of the Milton Bradley game Summit for sale?

[Dirk the Dice]

Did he ever get a copy? Ian?

[Narrator/Host]

He's listening. Right, the Small Ads page. Greasing the wheels of commerce as ebay of its day and providing a heartbeat to the UK RPG community. Where would we have been without it? White Dwarf didn't just have the Small Ads page though. Another fundamental element of the community it built was the letters page. Ah, the White Dwarf letters page. Along with Critical Mass, one of the first pages to read in each new issue. Back in the early days, it was a place for calm, respectful comments and discussions, questions and clarifications of RPG rules. Usually D and D. They were often the order of the day. How much damage should a crossbow do? Are two 23 strength Cloud Giants stronger than five 10 strength humans? These were the subjects that occupied early letter writers. However, the harmony couldn't last long. People realized that it was much more fun to argue with each other, which back in the analogue letter writing 1980s meant that disagreements could stretch over six months of green inked back and forth. And so we got to see Lou Pulsifer and Don Turnbull duking it out over whether D and D represented the triumph of good over evil or not. We had arguments over sexism in gaming and specifically in the COVID art of White Dwarf itself. We had disagreements on American right wing politics as manifested in certain controversial RPGs, and not forgetting the debate on whether RPGs should be played by kids at all. Phil Masters memorably brought that discussion to an end in issue 73 with his comment Stuff the Kiddies, to which the editor diplomatically replied, probably not the most helpful contribution to the debate. Interspersed in these arguments were more frivolous entries like how many miniatures could you balance on a model of Thrud? But whatever the subject was under discussion, it was always enjoyable to see the opinions of other gamers, even if sometimes you didn't agree with them. The great and the good of the RPG scene, such as Marcus Rowland, Greg Kostikian and Dave Langford, who would also occasionally stop by to add their two Pennyworth, all added up to making the Letters page required reading every month. The other connective tissue of the UK gaming scene back in the day was fanzines, of course. White Dwarf itself was born from an amateur publication, Owl and Weasel. For a number of years White Dwarf was the only UK based professional RPG magazine, but in 1983 a new upstart appeared, Imagine, and the one thing Imagine covered pretty well from the outset was RPG fanzines. White Dwarf flirted with the idea of a fanzine page for one whole issue written by Mike Lewis, the erstwhile editor of Dragonlord, but with the demise of Imagine, the Zinescene page died a similar death. It was left to the News page in all its various guises to continue to give some coverage to fanzines over the years. I'll always be grateful for the News page in issue 80 for introducing me to Carl Ford's incomparable Degen fanzine. Even the accursed blasphemous visage of Brian Lumley couldn't put me off. But here we are in 2025 celebrating 10 years of the Grogpod. Not to mention the Grogzines, the Grog meets both meetspace and Virtual, and all the gaming groups that have spun out to the Grog squad as many of us have rediscovered the joys of role playing games once more. Dirk and Blighty leading us back into the table like pied pipers of RPGs. The white dwarf of yesteryear may be long gone, but that stack of magazines in the Golden Wonder box mean more to me now than ever, as without them I might never have started up my daft account and so connected with Dirk and Blythe. The real secret of the Grog Pod, I think, is that it's built on friendship. Dirk and Blithey's camaraderie shines through every episode, and while some long standing friendships can feel close to an outsider, that of Dirk And Blythe's is the opposite. It's an open friendship where we feel instantly at ease, part of the conversation, invited to get ourselves a pint and some dice and join in the fun. Here's to 10 more years, kids.

[Dirk the Dice]

Master screen. Welcome back. We're back in the room of role playing, rambling. And thanks to the miracle of the pause button, it's a week later.

[Judge Blythe]

Bending space and time.

[Dirk the Dice]

Bending space and time.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

And since then we've been in the lassogame, haven't we?

[Judge Blythe]

We have.

[Dirk the Dice]

We met with our Pirates of Drunux fellow players, including Mike, who had come over from Australia. Australia, yeah. On his European tour.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, yeah. Jump drive. Took him a week.

[Dirk the Dice]

Took him a week.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

Boring journey through.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah. Boring journey through hyperspace. Yeah. It was weird, strange, wasn't it? It's incredible thing really, isn't it? It is incredible thing, isn't it?

[Dirk the Dice]

When we're reflecting back on these past 10 years and people say, well, what's different from back then to now? That has got to be one of them. Aren took all of our time to meet people who were plain in wiggered, never mind people on the other side of the world.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, yeah. That is the incredible thing, isn't it, that you play games with people in other parts of the world now because of online playing. It's an amazing thing that you can play with people who live in America, Australia or wherever. You know, it was good as well.

[Dirk the Dice]

To speak to Mike because last time we talked to Brendan LaSalle and asked him about what are the cultural differences of playing. And you know, there's a general view that it's more or less a universal activity and people can relate to things that happen across the globe. But as Mike points out, there are cultural differences and there are differences in fantasy and popular culture in general.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah. I thought that was a really interesting point that he made about Australia, where he was at one point talking about liminal and those kind of games where in a liminal game you might have things like the fair in, you know, encroaching on the real world or something like that. But that doesn't quite fit in Australia because it doesn't have that heritage of that kind of mythology, does it? So if you set a liminal game in Sydney, what would you have as you. Would it be kind of aboriginal stuff or that be a different mythology, wouldn't it? Because it wouldn't make sense for some fairy folk from English folklore to appear in Sydney. It doesn't quite. I mean, you could do your life can't you? But. But I see. I could see his point that it doesn't. I never really considered that. It doesn't really fit, does it?

[Dirk the Dice]

And as he says, how do you do that kind of transformation in a sensitive way that recognizes that this is a prehistoric. The oldest civilization in the world. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Eddie]

Australia.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah. You can't just go, well it's all aboriginal monsters. There you go. Doesn't seem quite right. Doesn't.

[Dirk the Dice]

No. You know, talking about ha. Cultures imported from the UK and America in general. So they. His exposure to Doctor who and yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, you're exposed to that stuff but it doesn't quite fit where you are.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yes.

[Judge Blythe]

Whereas for us it fits where we are, doesn't it?

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Fascinating conversation, but we've got some more questions from our listeners. Okay, I'm gonna erect this screen in front of us to protect my secrets and I'm gonna pull these out apparently at Rand or continue to answer them in a sort of roundabout way. Let's see if we can do these ones a little bit quicker.

[Judge Blythe]

Okay.

[Dirk the Dice]

Thunderface, two questions. What's the one thing that makes you a good gamer? I think this is from Rob.

[Judge Blythe]

There's an assumption there, isn't there? There's a massive assumption there that we are good games. It's tricky that, isn't it? What makes you a good. Good gamer? All right.

[Dirk the Dice]

Then the. On the converse he's asked the second question.

[Judge Blythe]

All right.

[Dirk the Dice]

What makes you a bad gamer? Maybe this will be easy for our British sensibilities. What are the qualities that make you a bad gamer?

[Judge Blythe]

What makes me a bad gamer? What makes you a bad gamer?

[Dirk the Dice]

I always think that there is a tendency in my style of playing the game trying to come up with a solution my character has initiated without really appreciating the input from others. So you know, when you're presented with the situation, I have a tendency to jump to. Into solution mode.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

Without involving other people to say how do we tackle this? How do we do that?

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

I do think that's to make it to. A good gamer is somebody who brings everybody in.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah. I think what makes me a bad gamer is my slight intolerant. And I've noticed this over recent years because in some games there's more of it than there used to be is my intolerance to lower. I find myself bored switching off but also getting kind of irritated by it. So I mean I know I don't want to use the G word do it, go on for. But we had this discussion recently, haven't we were. I am. I am kind of really off that because I find all the lower just a bit too much. It's all a bit too much. When we played Vampire, the Masquerade, I had a similar feeling that it's all a bit much. All this kind of clans and stuff, and even find it in, like. I mean, I've run a lot of Traveler, but even with Traveler, I always gloss over all this, what happened in the Fifth Frontier War and what happened a thousand years ago. And I always think, oh, whatever. Yeah, is it. Is it. You just point out if any of this is really relevant to what my players are doing, and it's not. I don't think it's the same as setting deep, lower stuff. I find it. Find it a bit boring. Yeah. I'm not sure what it necessarily adds for me. I know some people get a kick out of it, but I don't think it adds much for me. I suppose what's bad about me is I switch off a bit and I switch off again and get irritated by it.

[Dirk the Dice]

And what I'd say about you as well is that you wear your hat on your sleeve. So when you are in that board of rejecting the Luan, you leak a bit.

[Judge Blythe]

It.

[Dirk the Dice]

To use a phrase, you leak, leak.

[Judge Blythe]

You leak.

[Dirk the Dice]

Such we age.

[Judge Blythe]

It'll come to us all. Don't go and leave it there. Don't leave it. You leak a bit. What does that mean? What are you talking about? What are you talking about? People might think, look, it's got something wrong with him. By the pro. Bly is leaking now 57 is leaking. Bella, what do you mean?

[Dirk the Dice]

I mean that when you've got. That, you've shut down.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

And you've decided. All right, I've had enough of that.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

It's not enough for you to kind of close it off. You also give the impression that closed off from it.

[Judge Blythe]

Give her vibes, you mean? Yeah. All right. As in the emotional leaks.

[Dirk the Dice]

Emotional leakage.

[Judge Blythe]

The emotional leakage, yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

Let's not dwell too long on it.

[Judge Blythe]

Okay, keep going.

[Dirk the Dice]

Okay, next one. This is from NW Howdy. Howdy. Howdy, all. I recently discovered the podcast and it's pretty dang swank. That's not a question, is it?

[Judge Blythe]

No.

[Dirk the Dice]

Right, move on. Next one. Thunderface. Love the show. Oh, I like these ones.

[Judge Blythe]

Oh, these are good, aren't they? We've got a rest. Just read these out. Just read all these out. Don't bother with any difficult questions.

[Dirk the Dice]

This is from Jason Wilkinson. Love the show. And I think it needs prescribing on the nhs. You'll be lucky. Any thoughts on merp, Torg and Dark Conspiracy? Played them all back in the day.

[Judge Blythe]

Well, we only played merp.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah. And we did a. We did a podcast about merp.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

It is one that I feel that I could go back to, actually.

[Judge Blythe]

We did enjoy it, didn't we?

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

It was all right. It was okay.

[Dirk the Dice]

I'd like to see it in its role master form and just.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah. As you know, I'm not a huge fan of Lord of the Rings. Now, the one ring, it did. It did capture Lord of the Rings very, very well, I thought.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

Thing with MERP was. I think you made this point. It did until you were rolling on critical tables, and then some of the critical tables seemed a bit out of kilter with Tolkien. That wouldn't happen in Tolkien, would it?

[Dirk the Dice]

Sterilize.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

Too visceral. Weren't any.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, yeah, too visceral. One was a bit comedic where you thought.

[Dirk the Dice]

But I'd like to spend some more time with the other ones, TORG and Dark Conspiracy. It's a bit of a blind spot for us.

[Judge Blythe]

I think.

[Dirk the Dice]

They came a bit later. Didn't. And we've been slowly trying to rediscover those games. Dark Conspiracy being picked up by Mongoose as part of the Traveler line. Yeah. Though they're gonna have a look at it. Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

Interesting.

[Dirk the Dice]

No, no opinion so far. But you never know.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

You never know. Let's keep it on there. Okay. And I have played in the Dark Conspiracy universe, but using liminal rules.

[Judge Blythe]

All right.

[Dirk the Dice]

And that was. That was engaging. Oh, Jesse Reisman, he says Thunderface. What do you think is missing from sci fi? TTRPGs like Traveler Rules, covering specific situations, more robust psionic rules, better settings, sci fi role play games. What's missing? There's always a conundrum with them, isn't there? Because I'm currently trying to get to know Blade Runner and that is very specific about a particular opera setting, an area. And it deals with it very thoroughly. Is that enough? Because the thing with travel is more a generic space opera setting. You know, we always say it lacks something that.

[Judge Blythe]

To.

[Dirk the Dice]

To use. To use Andy's phrase, that we said in the public the other night, what is our collective head canon when it comes to Traveler?

[Judge Blythe]

I don't know if it's something missing. My frustration with sci fi role playing sometimes is. Is not that there's stuff missing. It's that there's too much equipment. Becomes a real problem in Sci Fi people love the. All the equipment books and all the different weapons and all the different space suits and all the different types of armor, all the different computers and all the different this, that and the other. And I'm. That's fine. But it all becomes a bit frustrating and complicated in terms of how the game runs. I think they're like magic items, I suppose, because it's sci fi, isn't it? Oh, I can get power armor or I can get a laser blaster that does this or I and get a computer that does this or something. They're all fine because it does fit in with the idea of high tech stuff. But the problem with Sci fi is a lot of the time you can buy this stuff, can't you? So it's not like a magic sword where you're only going to get a magic sword if the games master allows you to get a magic sword. Whereas a plasma gun in Traveller, you can set about getting one if you go to the right planet. You got enough money, you can get one, can't you? There's sometimes in Sci fi role playing, there's a proliferation of equipment to the point where it gets quite tricky to manage as a GM because people can pick up all sorts of gizmos and gadgets that do all sorts of things and then there's pressure on a gm. How do I make this encounter interesting given that they've got that or given that they've got this?

[Dirk the Dice]

I think equipment's part of it, but it's also about. I think we covered this when we talked about travel. What's your role in the world as a player? Because when you. In a fantasy setting, generally you're more immersed in me or you can fairly quickly establish this is my moral attitude to the world around me.

[Judge Blythe]

You can. And also in a fantasy setting, and I suppose this is a bit like equipment in the fantasy setting, equipment is much more limited. Your place in the world is more limited. The society you live in is simpler, isn't it? There's a simplicity to it. So. So as a player it's easy to fit in because the society you live in, even if it's a city in a fantasy world, it has a certain simplicity. Whereas in Sci fi the world is more complicated because the civilizations are more complicated, aren't they?

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah. And we have this discussion quite a lot because we're playing pirates Adrenex. We'll probably do a bit of a. More of a deep dive into that when we've completed the campaign in 2035. There is a bit of a disconnect between us as players on our moral.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

Attitude towards what we're doing.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, yeah. Forming an empire. You've all got different views on what you. What are the moral limits on farming an empire? Yeah, yeah, yeah. How many eggs do you have to break to make it on this omelet?

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah. So some of us feel like power play. Yeah. Is an inevitability of. Of what we're trying to achieve.

[Judge Blythe]

It's not really. I suppose what we're saying is with sci fi, role played, sometimes it's not really that there's something missing. Sometimes there's. Sometimes too much.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yes.

[Judge Blythe]

That's the problem, isn't it? There's too. Can be too much Thunder phase.

[Dirk the Dice]

Right. Oh, this one's from Lee Williams, who at the moment is feeling poorly and unwell.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah. He is in hospital.

[Dirk the Dice]

So get well. Certainly. Which episodes of the show or are your personal favorites and why? Can you remember any?

[Judge Blythe]

Can I remember any of them?

[Dirk the Dice]

I think the one that I remember us recording, having fun doing was it's the story that we dined out on for the last 40 years, is the LARP story and telling of our experiences in Newland Willows.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

Mainly because it's a story that is well honed and that we've told well honed.

[Judge Blythe]

It's funny, I would say. Yeah. I'd say the LARP episode and also the Postal Gaming episode was funny as well. Well, because again, that was genuine, genuinely crazy period of our lives. Running Postal Games. Yeah. We're all gonna out of control. Like.

[Dirk the Dice]

This hasn't got out of control.

[Judge Blythe]

Well, this hasn't got out of control. He'll do a podcast about doing a podcast at some point.

[Dirk the Dice]

I think this is what this is, really, isn't it? We are in danger of disappearing up our own fundament as we speak. Okay, another one from Lee, Thunder Phase. Is there a game system that you enjoyed a lot more than you thought you would?

[Judge Blythe]

There was Helvetia. Helve. Can never pronounce it. Helvetia that Chris Sharp ran. And I think when he announced he was running it in a fantasy world, a fantasy Switzerland, I think I thought.

[Dirk the Dice]

What?

[Judge Blythe]

Oh, come on. It's a bit niche, isn't it? But I really enjoyed it and I'd like to play more of it. I'd like to run it because I thought it was a really good setting, which unexpectedly good. It had a certain color and flavor and feeling to it that was very, very kind of. Well, it describes itself as a Picaresque role playing game, doesn't it? Yeah, and it did feel like that but I suppose it surprised me because I think the pitch with it is set in a fantasy. Switzerland, do you think? What, why Switzerland? What I can think of that about.

[Dirk the Dice]

I can think of a recent example where I've always bounced off the D sanction for some reason. I've had it since. I've had it since it came out as a Kickstarter, but I've always kind of looked at it and thought I'm not sure what to do with it. But I think earlier in the year I've been interviewed and spoken to Paul Budevsky. Playing it and getting familiar with it has actually made me realize that, well, it's a rich seam of ideas and the system works really well and it works really. I'd recommend it online because. Yeah, it works. It's very simple. It's deceptively simple. I would say there's a bit more to it than meets the eye. This is from Michael Butler who saw.

[Narrator/Host]

The other day, all the way from Australia.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

If you could be any role playing game mechanic, which role playing game mechanic would you be?

[Judge Blythe]

A bit of mercurial magic table in dcc. Crazy stuff that might happen if you cast a spell quite like that.

[Dirk the Dice]

It's.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, I'd be that. That'd be my mechanic. What mechanic would you be?

[Dirk the Dice]

That's. That's unusual for you to say that because. Well, you're not mercurial.

[Judge Blythe]

No, I'm not. I know. Well, because he's. I've been offered an alternative life as a game mechanic so why would you not choose something that's like me? Choose something that's. Yeah. You know, saying I'm not mercurial.

[Dirk the Dice]

I would say that, yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

Okay, fair enough.

[Dirk the Dice]

What have you done recently that's been mercurial?

[Judge Blythe]

You.

[Dirk the Dice]

See what I mean?

[Judge Blythe]

Nothing, not me, but. But that's, you know what. What mechanic would you build?

[Dirk the Dice]

Well, I, I'm. I'm torn here. On the one hand, I'd say the resistance table.

[Judge Blythe]

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Eddie]

Just.

[Dirk the Dice]

That's a contrarian.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

Nature that I've got.

[Judge Blythe]

True.

[Dirk the Dice]

And the other one is. I suppose it basically look mechanic. I think I am quite impulsive and live on. On my wits and like to wing it. So yeah, without a look mechanic, I don't think I'd survive.

[Judge Blythe]

Maybe I'd. Although I know the mechanic. If you wanted a more broader mechanic, maybe I'd go for the free league dice pool system.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

Because it involves no maths.

[Dirk the Dice]

No maths.

[Judge Blythe]

Involves no math, does it? Or very minimal as in just roll 5D6 or whatever. And if you want one of them to be a 6 for someone like me, like poor mental arithmetic. That kind of suits me really.

[Dirk the Dice]

Let's face it. If we were that mechanic we'd be taking a condition all the time.

[Judge Blythe]

Who would.

[Dirk the Dice]

Fatigued fatigue. Yeah. Thunder phase. Let's do another one. This is from our friend at Daily Dwarf. High horses. Are there any from which you have not recovered? It's not been in for then no.

[Judge Blythe]

Come on. A bring the high horse. Bring in the high horse if you're not recovered from any of them.

[Dirk the Dice]

Oh there's lots of high horses.

[Judge Blythe]

I haven't go over from the 12.

[Dirk the Dice]

The high horse that we're struggling with at the moment. And we've talked about Mer Pavel contemplating our face to face games with Eddie at the moment.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yes or no to major wounds.

[Judge Blythe]

Fun when it's an npc. Not so fun. So much fun when it's player characters. Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

And it's like all these critical tables, isn't it?

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, it's.

[Dirk the Dice]

It's determined. Are we doing it or not?

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah. I know what you mean. Because when I was running Dragonbane has a critical injuries tablet which is an optional rule which I choose not to use.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

Because for that reason that it seems it's too brutal on a player. If you roll badly. It's just too brutal, isn't it? You know that you think can't like miss. Oh yeah. Missing a hand, missing an eye. It's all. It's fine. You always lost an eye. He's got an eye patch. Great. All right. Until you lose the other eye. Isn't it then you know that is.

[Dirk the Dice]

A bit of color though, isn't it? Well I would say amputations and things like that. Like nasty.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

But it's why you got a shattered pelvis or you know you're taking a critical.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah. When you the critical tables that say things like that. Oh, you paralyzed from the neck down. Down. What are you talking about? It's your role playing game.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah. I'll just lie here and watch this scene unfold.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah. Unclear. And also into the realms of medical science where someone could say are you paralyzed from that down? Oh well can I do some. Some first aid on them? Well no, because you paralyzed from the night down. No matter. First aid is going to help you. Is it really?

[Dirk the Dice]

It's always that high horse between always simulating an actual fight.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

In which case we'll be dead in three weeks. Because we've got accepted.

[Judge Blythe]

So we're not. We're not really simulating a real fight, are we? So that's the starting point.

[Dirk the Dice]

Are always simulating fun, adventure, heroic, fantasy.

[Judge Blythe]

Film or novel, which is really what we're trying to do.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah. So drama.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah. You know, that's. That's the current high horse.

[Dirk the Dice]

That is my current eye. I've got others, but that's something I've.

[Judge Blythe]

Recovered from high horse. Horses, they don't. They don't bother me. I'm quite high myself, so I, I don't. I can get on and off high horse no problem.

[Dirk the Dice]

I'm gonna make a note. I'm sure that in another 10 years.

[Judge Blythe]

We'Ll be some high horse.

[Dirk the Dice]

There'll be some high horse that's gone by. This is from Rip Knot, no less. Oh yeah, Desert Island Discs. But you've got two role playing books to replace the Bible in Shakespeare show you're working. Okay.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah. All right.

[Dirk the Dice]

See, I'm gonna make a plea to keep Shakespeare in exchange for one of.

[Judge Blythe]

The role playing books.

[Dirk the Dice]

Because I think generally I would have more fun on a desert island reading Shakespeare than Stuart ways of reading a role playing book.

[Judge Blythe]

Well, it's questionable you'd have Eddie fun on a desert island if there's not enough food.

[Dirk the Dice]

I mean, let's take that as a.

[Judge Blythe]

Bit like the John Cooper Clark thing, isn't it? Word. Didn't John Cooper Clark ask for or a load of drugs or something? Yeah, as his luxury item. And this, he said that would be a very bad thing for you, John. And he said, but I'm on the desert island. All bets are off. I mean, I'm going to be rescued. It's like that, isn't it? I've got the works with the complete works of Shakespeare. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Shakespeare. But I'm sure which help any of it would be on a desert island.

[Dirk the Dice]

I think his request was for a ball of heroin the size of his head.

[Judge Blythe]

A bad idea. You're on a desert island. You might not be rescued. There might be no food. You'll be dead in a week anyway. You might as well have a lot of heroin.

[Dirk the Dice]

Let's say it's.

[Judge Blythe]

You're gonna say it's like bountiful. There's. There's fanciful food everywhere and you could live there quite happily. No predators. It's a paradise island.

[Dirk the Dice]

And when you want to go home at some point you could call somebody.

[Judge Blythe]

And they'll come off a flyer or something.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah. They'll come and get you. Oh. Out.

[Judge Blythe]

Well, okay. Yeah, fair enough.

[Dirk the Dice]

It's not desperate. I'd still keep the Shakespeare and one.

[Judge Blythe]

So you're. You're going for. You keeping Shakespeare. Yes. Going for one. It's not having the spirit of the question, is it?

[Dirk the Dice]

It's not.

[Judge Blythe]

But come on. Come on. You just popping out of it there, aren't you? It's not because you can only think of one.

[Dirk the Dice]

No, I just don't. I don't find reading RPG rulebook particularly invigorating. The wrong place to say.

[Judge Blythe]

That isn't. Won't. It's all coming out now know.

[Dirk the Dice]

But. But how often. So when you. When you're a fish, you're only desert.

[Judge Blythe]

Oh. See, I would take. I would take DCC robot with you. Kind of a lot of fun just reading those spell tables. And you read them and you think, I'm never going. I'm never going to be in a situation really, where these results crop up because I can't play this for enough. It's time. But that you can read them. And some of them make me chuckle and make you laugh.

[Dirk the Dice]

And you'll be able to fashion some dice from Bones.

[Judge Blythe]

I'll have to fast. Be awkward. You'll have to fashion extra polyhedrals. So. Yeah. But I think there'd be. There's a certain. I would enjoy reading that because there's certain fun. There's a lot in it. You can look at the spell tables and go. It's kind of funny. Look what happens if you're over 23. This happens or that happens. There's kind of some fun in that. That's. My inner magic user, though, is. Yeah, I'm. I'm the. I'm the. You see, you don't get any fun reading them. But I was the person who used to sit there with the old AD&D players handbook, looking at the spells and thinking, wonder if I'll ever get that one. What would he use that for? So perfect for that.

[Dirk the Dice]

What's your second one?

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, maybe you're right. Maybe the shakes. Shakes work Shakespeare. I don't know. 2.

[Dirk the Dice]

It's hard to pick 2. It's hard to pick 1.

[Judge Blythe]

I would pick one of the Traveler Sector books. So it's not really a real book, I suppose. It's a source book.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

For the same reason. For the same reason that there is a. There's a lot of lonely fun. Looking at one of those big star maps that they do for Traveler and looking at the planets and looking at what each planet is and what, what it looks like more. I think, oh, look at that one. With a low level of whatever and a tech level of this. I wonder what that's like. Almost like a weird imaginative form of tourism. Tourism of the imagination where you do, oh, it's Spinwood Marches. Here they are in front of me. I can look at all these planets and a bit like looking at spells. It's a similar thing. There's lots of different things to look at. So I would probably go for somewhat like Spinward Marches Sector book and dcc.

[Dirk the Dice]

I have never read a rulebook from COVID to cover. Cover.

[Judge Blythe]

You know, what I tend to do.

[Dirk the Dice]

Is the old look at the index, have a. Get a view of it and then just pick out the bits that I think. Right. I need to know that I never sit down and move from page one to the end reading every word.

[Judge Blythe]

No, I don't think I have. And I suppose you again, you don't, you don't with role playing games because there's always a section that's monsters, there's always a section of spells or equipment. And you often think, well, yeah, I don't really need to read those 11th level superpowered spells because when we're playing next Wednesday, they're all first leveled, so who cares? Yes, yeah, absolutely.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, absolutely. So the thought of picking off my shelves a single rule book to say, oh yeah, I'll have a good read of that because they're not particularly excited to me.

[Judge Blythe]

And I suppose, and I suppose what I'm saying, the two I've picked, what's telling about those is I'm not really reading the rules. I. What I'm reading is this stuff in there that you look at and go, oh, look at that, look at this, look at that. It's not really the rules, is it?

[Dirk the Dice]

No, but in both cases, if you're allowing that and you're permitting it on this desert island, I'm assuming that we're not on this together. Let's hope not.

[Judge Blythe]

Let's hope not.

[Dirk the Dice]

We. I have guided lantha, you know the big two volume thing.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

Because it sits on my shelves, spine uncracked.

[Judge Blythe]

Yes. And, and that's what kind of what I'm talking about. I wouldn't, like you say, I wouldn't book the actual rule book to read. But it, but it's all the stuff in the rule book that would make it interesting. So is it a two volume book guide for Calantha?

[Dirk the Dice]

It is, yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

Oh, no, no, no. Oh no. Shakespeare's Got you. Go take which volume? Volume 1 or 2? Or as William Shakespeare. Got to go. Which. Come on. Oh, you're not answering.

[Dirk the Dice]

It's the third point. I might get on a high horse. Bring back the high horse.

[Judge Blythe]

Back it back.

[Dirk the Dice]

This is from Nick Edwards. Nick asks, I'm surprised that as far as I know, neither of you have published anything TTRPG related, when clearly you create a lot of scenarios or at least have you considered this? And what's stopping you?

[Judge Blythe]

I think considered it. I think what's stopping me is laziness. Yeah, well, I don't. I think laziness.

[Dirk the Dice]

You.

[Judge Blythe]

You've tried it. Yeah, You've tried it. And I think.

[Dirk the Dice]

What?

[Judge Blythe]

Oh, God, you. You talk about you. You. You've tried it. So go on.

[Dirk the Dice]

So during lockdown, I was invited by Lawrence Whitaker to write one of my adventures that I'd done for Lioness, because I love Lioness. I love the setting and what I thought had. I thought I had a good adventure that I could do. And I find it impossible. I found the whole thing impossible.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

Maybe because my brain isn't wired in a particular way to convey that. I mean, as we've talked about before, we, like you, tend to write in prose the scenario because that helps you create it. Whereas I have a set of post it notes and ideas that I kind of bring together and I just find it possible to do it. I just find it impossible to convey what was in my head to another person in the form of words. And yet more importantly, what I found difficult was following a format that was specified by the publisher, because it's a set of instructions and each publisher has their own way of expressing how to do it in a particular way and a house style. And I just could not do it.

[Judge Blythe]

I found it possible.

[Dirk the Dice]

I think part of it was down to lockdown, that I thought I had the time, but I didn't really have the time. We weren't on furlough, were we? We were working.

[Judge Blythe]

We were working.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah. And we had other things to deal with.

[Judge Blythe]

Saving the people. Bowling from COVID Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

Oh, no.

[Judge Blythe]

Maybe not making it worse anyway.

[Dirk the Dice]

But yeah. So I just found the amount of effort, the effort to pleasure ratio.

[Judge Blythe]

Yes.

[Dirk the Dice]

In the. In the book club at the moment we're reading PG Wodehouse, Jeeves.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

I never read any cheese before. And PG Wodehouse famously said, when anybody said, how do you become a writer? Do you know what he said?

[Judge Blythe]

Go on.

[Dirk the Dice]

He said, the first stage is applying the seat to the chair.

[Judge Blythe]

Yes.

[Dirk the Dice]

And basically saying, if you want to write, you've got to write. And I think that's a bit difficult.

[Judge Blythe]

It is difficult. And in the past, long, long time ago, in another life, I've been involved in literary endeavors and. And one of the problems with it is coming up with ideas and thinking you've got a good idea is all great, but there's an awful lot of boring slog. Reading proofs, editing stuff is all quite tedious. And what you find is, I found, and this is in a way why I'm a little bit, sort of don't like the idea of doing it for RPG scenarios. What you find is by the end of it, as a writer, you're kind of sick of it. You are sick of it. I just remember reading a. There's an interview with Stephen King and Stephen King says that one thing that used to happen to him maybe still happens to him, is he's on a train or he's in a cafe or he's in a bar and he's reading a novel and the waitress will come up to him and go, oh, Mr. King, not reading one of your own. And it's things like saying to her, I'm reading one of my own. I've read my own novels so many times when I was writing them, I've edited them, I've been through them endlessly. I can't stand stand the thought of them anymore. And I think that's part of it. So with the role playing game, and this is very true for me, I come up with a scenario. I'm quite excited about it. I think, oh, this works. This would be great. Let's run this. You run it and it's great and people like it and that's all good, great, that's fine. But the idea of sitting down, like you say, writing it out so that someone else can fully understand it and fully get to grips with it would bore me to death.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

And would be. Would take time. And by the end of it, I think I'd be really, really bored of the thing that I'm creating. And that for me is part of the problem. I mean, you're right, I do write my scenarios in a kind of prose form.

[Narrator/Host]

But.

[Judge Blythe]

But let's not kid ourselves. It's not really a farm that you could just hand over to someone and go, there you go. All makes sense, doesn't it? Because that's happened recently, hasn't it? I did an adventure for liminal Dr. Straban Lord Strange about the Earl of Darbage, remember? Yeah. And you ran it, didn't you?

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

And I gave you the notes and I'd played it, you'd played it and I gave you the notes. But there were bits in the notes you didn't quite, quite understand or get.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah. And I think it was because of the motivation. Yeah, understanding the motivation.

[Judge Blythe]

The motivation which was in my head. I'd written all the stuff down so I wouldn't forget the scenes and things. But there were bits missing because they were still in my head. So that's the thing, isn't it? You've got to really apply yourself to it. And I'm not sure I do because I think it might just bore me.

[Dirk the Dice]

And you're right as well that it'd become a chore. And part of this is like escape.

[Judge Blythe]

You don't want it to become a chore. Once it becomes a chore, it could land you. And I suppose as well there's an element of do you want to kind of expose yourself to criticism? You know, do you want to put it on the Miskatonic repository or drive through and have someone say it's rubbishness? Yeah, there's a bit of that in there. And that. I mean all credits people who do publish them. Yeah, I admire people because you are putting yourself out there. It's one thing to run a game once and come away from a game and think that wasn't as good as I thought he was. All right, got away with it. Don't think I won it again to publishing it and someone else saying, well actually we ran this and it wasn't very good at all. In fact there's a big plot hole in it and you think, oh no.

[Dirk the Dice]

And that's what was exposed, I guess when I was going through the experiencing. Thank thankfully Lawrence Whitaker was very understanding and as soon as I started exposing my idea to any form of thoroughness or any kind of sense of what actually is going on and why is this happening. It was like exposed as being a bit weak. But I've played it a couple of times. People really enjoyed it. You played it, didn't you? But how much of that is intrinsic into the idea and how much of it is just in the moment? And that's the bit I was difficult to learn.

[Judge Blythe]

Absolutely. And it's a different thing of four or five like minded people around a table having fun with something to putting it down in hard cold print for people to look at who aren't in that social environment and for them to run with it. And let's face it as well, there's an awful Lot, even. And it surprises me sometimes that even now out there, there's an awful lot of quite badly written scenarios, sometimes by big publishers that you read and you think, oh, it makes sense this. I don't quite understand this. Why is this happening or that happening? You know, and that's part of the problem, isn't it, that there's a difference between. It's Wednesday night. I'm running this scenario for my friend. We're all going to go along with it. If there's a plot hole we're probably not even going to notice or care to hear it is in print for someone to read who doesn't know anything about me, another side of the world or whatever, they're going to analyze it and respond to it differently. And that is a tricky business, I think. So I'd say it's quite an art to write. It's not an art to come up with a good scenario because I think people do that all the time. Time.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

In their own private gaming groups. But it's quite an art to get a scenario, write it down, publish it, so that when someone reads, kind of comes across as it should, makes sense and is quite runnable in a practical way. It's quite a thing that.

[Dirk the Dice]

And. And it's easier to see where things are not working when you're reading it than what is effective.

[Judge Blythe]

Absolutely.

[Dirk the Dice]

And even some of the strongest, best RPG writers out there, people who we admire. You can sit there and think, I'm not quite sure what's supposed to be happening now. Yeah. I'm going to have to interpret this.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah. And put some. I'm gonna have to fill in the blanks here.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah, absolutely. I'm gonna have to build this up because there are gaps in it that I just can't caught with.

[Judge Blythe]

Put ourselves a bad light, really, aren't we? Essentially what we're saying is we haven't got the nerve and we're essentially bit layers. Is it? Yeah, but that's. It's not true, isn't it? That's why we do podcasts.

[Eddie]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

We're not this out, aren't we?

[Judge Blythe]

But there's a rubbish out. Oh, write things down a bit like. God.

[Dirk the Dice]

Last question. Thunder. Phase of all the positive consequences of producing the podcast, which are you most proud of? And that's from film fan Mike.

[Judge Blythe]

I would say one's Groguin.

[Dirk the Dice]

And why does that make you proud, Blythe?

[Judge Blythe]

Because it's a great thing, isn't it, that we've got people together to play games in a way. That when we were younger we could never really have imagined, could we? Yeah, but I suppose the other answer to it, and it's on the back of grog me, is the fact there are so many separate gaming groups and gaming friends online. Yes, the two are kind of interconnected, but there is that, isn't there? That we've got regular gaming groups online, that again, when we were younger we would never have imagined that would be the case. But I suppose the two things are interconnected, aren't they? One springs off the back of another, doesn't it? You do grog meat and then through grog meet, people meet and then people get online together. And so it goes on with two things of falling line. Because really that's what it's all about, isn't it? All about. It's all about gaming, isn't it? Day of the day. I mean, it's also doing the podcast, talking about it's fine. But really, I wouldn't want to just do the podcast and not game, you know?

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah. It's hard putting podcasts out there because despite yourself, I'm always looking for affirmations that we're doing the right things.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

Because it's never certain.

[Judge Blythe]

No.

[Dirk the Dice]

And I think the thing I'm proud of is that when we put out any. An episode, there's always like an initial response and people respond to it. And that is the stuff that keeps it going. We go for 10 years. That is the stuff that keeps going. I think Paul Fricky once used the analogy of Philip K. Dick. Do you remember this story? He told you this story. Go ahead. He said that. That Philip K. Dick, when he was at the height of his paranoia, he would write messages to the CIA who he assumed was reading the contents of his bit.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

So he just put it out there, messages to them. And they might have been picking up and reading it. They might not have.

[Judge Blythe]

They might know a bit, maybe they weren't.

[Dirk the Dice]

But he was just putting them out. Out.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

And they hope that they reach you.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

And that's what putting a podcast is out. Like some paranoid flip k D putting out messages in the hope that somebody somewhere will connect with them.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

So is that. And I. I think it's a bit of a deficiency in my personality that I'm seeking the affirmation because I shouldn't need to, should I?

[Judge Blythe]

Well, you. Yeah, but I think. I think when you. If people are honest, if you're engaged in any kind of endeavor like that, people, you want to think people are listening. I mean, I Mean, if we'd been putting this podcast out for 10 years and not one single person had ever commented on it, they would be questioning whether we should be bothering. It's not about necessarily affirmation, but some kind of response out there. You think? Well, yeah, yeah. You know.

[Dirk the Dice]

I think it answers the question. There are two things that I'm proudest of. The proudest thing, I. I got excited and interested in this and it continued when people started responding to us.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

To actually say, I've listened to it. I recognize what you're talking about.

[Judge Blythe]

Right.

[Dirk the Dice]

I feel the same way about it.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

And you've made me go in the loft and start playing again. So that is the bit that he. He kind of carries me along. And then the second thing that I'm most proud of is I've formed a book club. And that's. Oh, yeah. Something I've always wanted to do. Never been able find people to do it with.

[Judge Blythe]

Yeah, yeah. Supple club up once a month is.

[Dirk the Dice]

The thing the most proud of.

[Eddie]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

It's incredible. And an equally strange thing, because it's like me, isn't it? I. As you know, I have a little bit of an aversion to social media. I'm not. I'm not very keen on social media. No. I don't really know what to do with it, but at the same time, I can't. I can't deny the impact it's had on my life because of social media. I'm in touch with all these people. So it's like. Well, yeah, it's. Yeah, I know. You mean.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Judge Blythe]

Strange thing, isn't it? Of all these people are out there that you've connected with.

[Dirk the Dice]

So that's it. Ten years of the grog pod.

[Judge Blythe]

It's another ten.

[Dirk the Dice]

Well, at least another six months.

[Judge Blythe]

Another six months, I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Dirk the Dice]

Cheers, Blithey.

[Judge Blythe]

Goodbye.

[Dirk the Dice]

There isn't another bit.

[Narrator/Host]

Thank you to Blithey, to Alan at Daily Dwarf and Eddie for their contributions to this episode and all the previous ones that they've appeared in. Thanks, too, to all the people that we've interviewed over the years and to other people that have contributed to making this podcast last for so long. It's quite unexpected. I genuinely thought that bring out six episodes and that'd be it, but here we are. There's another six in front of us, at least. Thanks for listening. Thanks. If you've ever passed it on to a friend and said, listen to this.

[Judge Blythe]

Thanks.

[Narrator/Host]

If you put a review or a comment somewhere so that people can find us. And as I said in a rather modeling way, in the room of roleplaying, rambling, knowing that somebody's out there connecting with it, listening to it is very important. So thanks for your help in making that possible. Thanks for anybody who has run games at Grog meets online or in person, or if you come along to play and help to build up the momentum. Something that started quite small has now become an essential part of the year. And thanks most of all to those people who, over the years, people have come and gone, who have contributed via Patreon and help to financially support what we do and also build up the resilience of making sure that we actually continue doing it, because it's that encouragement that keeps us going. But I'm going to stop now because I don't want this to sound valedictory. Far from it. There's a lot more gaming as yet, so thank you for continuing to support us. Whether that's by a patron or just by listening or just passing it on. Let's keep this thing going. What's going to happen in the next 10 years? Who knows? Until then, adios, amigos. Ra.