The GROGNARD Files – Episode 77: 2024 – A Year in RPGs

Podcast: The GROGNARD Files
Host: Dirk the Dice (with co-host Judge Blythe)
Date: January 12, 2025

Overview

This episode is a retrospective on Dirk and Judge Blythe’s year in tabletop RPGs—2024. They look back at the highs and lows of their gaming, discuss systems and campaigns played, reflect on how real-world events shaped their routines, and hand out their signature tongue-in-cheek annual awards. The discussion is as much about the texture and rhythms of their gaming lives as it is about the nuts and bolts of RPG systems. The mood is full of camaraderie, self-deprecating humor, and classic British grognard banter.

Key Topics and Insights

1. Setting the Scene: The Rhythm of 2024

• Transcript 03:02–07:02
  • The year’s start saw the co-hosts meeting in person in a chilly attic for a rare face-to-face chat, complete with a hot brew and battered Hobnobs.
  • 2024 featured disruptions to traditional routines (e.g., no Expo attendance, Grogmeet rescheduled, more game session cancellations due to life).
  • A notable "clearing out" of the gaming den allowed for new freedoms (and more room to roll back on the office chair).

"It's been a funny old year. It has been a funny old year. Because the patterns and the routines in our normal year have not been there, have they?"
— Dirk (17:05)

2. Reflections on Game Systems and Play Styles

• Transcript 05:09–12:28 & 13:16–19:39

  • Savage Worlds: Held back by lack of good one-shots; more campaign-structured, not ideal for convention play.
  • Memorable Campaign Moments:
    • Savage Worlds – “Battle beyond the Planets” and a dramatic “Ripper’s campaign” finale where a lowly minion swung the fight.
    • Traveller – “Pirates of Drinax” spaceship battle lauded for tension driven by hard mechanics rather than narrative fudge.
  • They discuss preferences for mechanics-driven gameplay vs. narrative/story-based systems, with a leaning toward the former for tension and excitement.

“I kind of stuck with me that thought because I think I've run lots and lots of systems and what I've realized is… those kind of narrative story game systems, they're not really for me. I prefer a game that has game type mechanics and I like that to drive the story.”
— Judge Blythe (09:16)

“It's a balance of both… to make the actual thing around the table interesting.”
— Dirk (11:51)

3. The Groggy Awards: Reflecting on The Year's Standouts

• Transcript 20:54–48:11

Best GM Experience

• Dirk’s Pick: Reviving the Racklash campaign (original homebrew fantasy, intertwined with earlier one-shots and player histories).
  • The vulnerability—and thrill—of running your own world is acknowledged.
  • Campaign’s future shaped by a series of one-shots; no prescribed ending, just emergent story.

"I think it's the epitome of a messianic megalomaniac."
— Dirk, joking on being both GM and creator (25:04)

• Judge Blythe’s Pick: GMing Pirates of Drinax (Traveller), especially as the scale increased and the narrative’s direction became less predictable.

“It gives you things that after the session you have to go away and think about and think, right, they've done that. I didn't expect them to do that… How does the world react to what they've just done?”
— Judge Blythe (32:04)

Best Player Experience (Favorite Game & Character)

• Shared Award: Helvézia campaign (GM: Chris Sharp)
  • D&D-based system set in mythic Switzerland, described as "picaresque" with a Grimms’ Fairytales and Vancian edge.
  • True sandbox/hex-crawl with no fixed plot; standout for how “the sessions are like stories, you could write them down.”
  • Favorite characters: Antonia the Spanish duelist (played by Blythe) and Ulrich the drunken priest (Dirk).
  • Special commendation to Chris Sharp’s “Fishman” NPC, awarded “Fishman of the Year.”

“I did really enjoy it because I think at first when we started playing it, we were probably a bit puzzled. But once you get your head around… it's a genuine hex crawl where there is no plot. You go from hex to hex and encounter things and you can engage with those things or ignore them.”
— Judge Blythe (41:42)

4. New ‘Kid on the Tabletop’ – Standout New-To-Them Game

• Transcript 48:31–56:10

• Dirk: West End Games’ Star Wars (D6 system)—praised for elegant, scalable mechanics that capture the cinematic SW vibe and allow for quick one-shots or campaigns.

• Judge Blythe: Doctor Who Roleplaying Game (2nd Ed, Cubicle 7)—Vortex system is praised for ease, flavor, and balancing “story points” with mechanics. Discussion about its flexibility in delivering “Doctor Who” moments (story/drama over lethal jeopardy, but still with some mechanical consequences).

5. Events, Ideas, and Insights – Random Encounters on the 2024 Tabletop

• Transcript 56:10–68:34

Dirk's Pick:

• Attending the Planar Effect Gaming Imaginaries symposium in London—an academic event on RPG worldbuilding.
  • Key takeaway: “RPGs defy analysis” (Stu Horvath, 58:40), i.e., you can’t pin down ‘the right way’ to play or even analyze RPGs fully because of their personal, mutable nature.

Judge Blythe's Pick:

• A conversation with Paul Fricker (co-author, Call of Cthulhu 7e) at a curry house:
  “What kind of world is the world of D&D?”
  • D&D is not simply Lord of the Rings, Vance, or any one source—it’s a lingua franca of fantasy, “everything and nothing all at once,” a place any player can easily ‘get’ and operate inside, despite lacking clear real-world parallels.

“It's its own thing. D&D is its own thing… like a lingua franca of worlds…”
— Dirk (65:15)

6. Things They’re Glad To See The Back Of

• Transcript 68:34–73:02

• Both agree 2024 was the year they chucked Twitter overboard.
  • Twitter had been vital for community building, but is now more friction than fun—analogy: “like being at a good gig, then eventually everyone around you starts punching each other.”
• No major gaming disasters—just real life “weighing heavy,” reducing play time.

7. Listener Favourites – Grognard Files Podcast Poll

• Transcript 73:09–77:19

• Joint 2nd Place:
  • “White Dwarf Covers with Thunder Phase”
  • “Monsters with James Holloway”
  • Notable insight: “RPGs are defined by their adversaries” (James Holloway).
• First Place (massive lead):
  • “Traveller Revisited with Mark Miller” (77:00)

8. Community Recognition

• Transcript 77:38–79:10

• Groggy of the Year: Roderick Hamilton
  • For organizing and maintaining Mancunian in-person gaming with Morpcom—giving Dirk, Blythe and others regular face-to-face tabletop play.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the state of RPGs:
  “RPG's defy analysis.” (Stu Horvath, 58:40)

• On difference between homebrew and published scenarios:
  “For some reason, if you’ve made it up, you feel quite vulnerable, I think.” (Judge Blythe, 26:36)

• On D&D’s unique fantasy setting:
  “D&D is everything and nothing all at once.” (Judge Blythe, 65:26)

• On Twitter:
  “Earlier this week I went to Co Op Life to see Paul Heaton… Part way through, it all kicked off and people started punching each other around me and I had to move. That's Twitter, isn't it?” (Dirk, 72:06)

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |---------------|-------------| | 00:55–03:02 | Intro, setting, clearing the gaming den | | 03:02–07:02 | In-person meetup, gaming routines upended | | 07:02–12:28 | Reflections on Savage Worlds and tension from game mechanics | | 13:16–19:39 | System mastery, “back to basics,” return to comfort games | | 20:54–28:10 | GM Awards – Racklash & Pirates of Drinax | | 38:06–47:54 | Best player experiences – Helvézia, role play highlights | | 48:31–56:10 | Best new (to-hosts) games: Star Wars D6, Doctor Who RPG | | 56:10–68:34 | Random encounter: symposium, Paul Fricker’s D&D musings | | 68:34–73:02 | “Chuck it overboard”: Departure from Twitter | | 73:09–77:19 | Fan-voted Grog Pod of the year | | 77:38–79:10 | Groggy of the Year – Roderick Hamilton |

Final Thoughts & Tone

The episode is a gentle, funny, and conversational meander through a year’s worth of gaming, friendship, and tradition. It’s not just about which games or sessions were ‘the best,’ but about how tabletop gaming forms the fabric of longtime friends’ lives. The hosts are honest about disruptions, changing tastes, and nostalgia; they celebrate their community and the changing scene, all with warm humor and a sense of perspective.

For more: Read Dirk’s blog, or join their next gaming meet-up—preferably somewhere warm, with less risk of hypothermia and more battered biscuits.