The GROGGIES Review of 2025 (with Kalum)

Summary

The GROGNARD Files – Groggies Review of 2025 (with Kalum)

Podcast: The GROGNARD Files
Host: Dirk the Dice
Guests: Kalum (from The Rolistes), Judge Blythe
Date: February 2, 2026
Theme: A reflective, wide-ranging review of the RPG year 2025, delving into international RPG cultures (especially French-speaking), unique games, memorable player/GM experiences, and the annual "Groggies" awards.

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Overview

This episode of The GROGNARD Files is a two-parter:

1. Interview with Kalum (The Rolistes) – A discussion of French-speaking RPG culture, classic games like Nephilim, and Kalum’s journey as a publisher and designer.
2. The Groggies 2025 – Dirk, Blythe, and Callum look back on the year in gaming, reliving highlights, reflecting on GM/player experiences, discussing new games, and handing out the annual Groggy awards.

The episode is characterized by warmth, introspection, and humor, offering listeners insights into both the international world of RPGs and the lived experience of long-time tabletop gamers in the UK.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Exploring International RPG Cultures (with Kalum)

[03:28]–[11:00] Kalum’s Background and The Rolistes Podcast

• Kalum, originally from Belgium, founded a French-English crossover podcast in 2015, highlighting connections between French-speaking and English-speaking RPG communities.
• Discusses formative gaming experiences in Belgium: early exposure to Star Wars RPG, difficulties finding groups, eventual entry into the hobby via theater friends and French RPG magazine Casus Belli.
• Emphasizes RPGs as a way to build cultural bridges and discover varied styles.

“For me, role playing has always been about making connections between different people, different hobbies, different interests. You know, you like Star Wars, there's a role playing game that's based on Star Wars... I always liked that about The GROGNARD Files, mixing the old and the new.”
— Kalum [05:22]

[08:45]–[11:00] Casus Belli, White Dwarf & French RPG Culture

• Casus Belli is likened to the French White Dwarf: covered a wide range of games, not tied to one publisher, and offered adventures for all sorts of systems.
• In the 1990s, French RPG culture favored a broad mix of games, with Vampire: The Masquerade hugely popular (“Do you play Chicago or Paris?” was the question, not just ‘do you play Vampire?’).
• D&D less dominant than in Anglo gaming circles, replaced by games like RuneQuest, Call of Cthulhu, and home-grown systems.

[12:44]–[24:00] Nephilim – A French Occult Classic

• Kalum provides a deep overview of Nephilim: a French game where players are immortal occult beings moving through human history, using a BRP-derived system.
• Explores themes unique to European cultures: layered history, secret societies, and occult symbolism embedded in real-world settings.
• Contrast with Vampire: In Nephilim, you play truly ancient creatures, gaining memories and skills by inhabiting human hosts across ages.

“In Nephilim you played beings... older than humankind itself... you lived through Napoleonic War, you were there in the Neolithic, war, fire, ancient Egypt, then you got trapped into an artifact for centuries until you get activated again and you possess a human.”
— Kalum [14:00]

• A negative (and misunderstood) US adaptation of Nephilim: Focused more on action, made questionable narrative choices (including making Hitler a Nephilim), and missed the core concept of the European game.

“The idea is always it's still humans who make history. It's not in secret Nephilims control everything.”
— Kalum [21:00]

• Kalum invites Dirk and listeners to try Nephilim, referencing his actual play, which blended French and British perspectives.

[24:57]–[27:38] Landscape of French RPGs and Narrative Focus

• Describes the 1990s mix: many French games (Night Prowler, Dark Earth, In Nomine Satanis / Magna Veritas) alongside translations from English. Indie scene in France is active but more fractious than in the UK/US: “People can be even more aggressive towards one another.”

“People were quite big on story, the writing, the art of it. The French speaking [scene] seem quite on the narrative side of things.”
— Kalum [27:54]

2. Game Design, Publishing, and the Magic of Inventoring

[29:39]–[33:40] Kalum’s Journey as Designer & The Magic of Inventoring

• Traces the origin of his game from reading Marie Kondo’s tidying philosophy—blending self-help, humor, and RPG mechanics into a dungeon crawl about decluttering inventory.
• Inspired by absurdist comedy (Monty Python, Airplane) and the emotional weight of in-game items (does the “ring spark joy?”).
• Game evolved from zine to a full, international Kickstarter project (launching January 27): Magic of Inventoring (formerly Paris Gondo).

[33:49]–[39:29] Explaining the New Game

• Game starts at the end of the dungeon crawl: deciding what loot to keep with limited space, weighing sentimental vs. practical value (“Do you keep the piano of Red Sonja or your broadsword?”).
• System is built for no prep, no GM, short play time, and structured entirely by dry-erase cards and prompts.

“One of the things I found out running it... you can really play it without a game master... without preparation.”
— Kalum [33:49]

[39:29]–[41:01] Shortening the Title and Marketing

• They re-titled to Magic of Inventoring to make it more accessible and appealing, especially at conventions: “Magic Inventory—people click on the link and look at the description.”
• The game’s “decluttered” title matches its core theme!

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The GROGGIES: Annual Retrospective and Awards

1. Meta-Reflections, Transcripts, and “AI Hallucinations”

[41:28]–[46:13] Playing with Transcription Errors

• The hosts riff humorously on common podcast transcription mistakes (“Oboe” for “Owlbear”; “Lesson Gary” for “Lasso, Gary”).
• Commentary on AI “hallucination” and the grandiosity of tech marketing:
  “If you listen to the AI gurus, what they'll say is... this is a form of hallucination... It's a market spin so you can have a 4 trillion market capitalization value.”
  — Host [44:09]

2. Groggies Review and Award Categories

GM Moment of the Year

[50:27]–[53:21] Blythe’s Nomination

• Blythe highlights a tense Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC) session where the GM required a literal “save or die” roll for the first time in his career:
  Scenario: Floating on a magical platform, wizard loses concentration, everyone must save or fall to their deaths (“May as well save you, so otherwise that's it. I was astonished.”)
• Reflects on the emotional courage needed for a GM to enforce lethal risk.

[55:08]–[60:13] Dirk’s Take & GMitis

• Dirk reflects on experiencing “GMitis” (loss of enthusiasm for GMing), noting it’s not always a crisis—life ebbs and flows, and it’s okay to alternate roles for balance and wellbeing.

“People, when you read discourse over RPGs, beat themselves up a bit too much about how much they do and how little they do. Just enjoy it.”
— Host [60:05]

Player Experience of the Year

[72:04]–[74:41] Blythe’s Player Highlights

• Blythe celebrates being allowed, for the first time, to truly play a rogue as intended in Brendan LaSalle’s X-Crawl Classics game:
  “Every room we went in, I said, can I try and hide in the shadows? And he went, yeah, yeah, try it... I apologized, ‘I'm not ruining the game am I?’ and he said, ‘No, that's what you should be doing as a rogue.’”
  — Blythe [73:36]

• Both hosts enjoyed the DCC Lankhmar campaign (longest for Dirk), and Eddie’s Han (OpenQuest) campaign is highlighted as a nostalgic experience.

[76:37]–[80:48] Unknown Armies & Real-World Bleed

• Dirk describes being immersed in a modern-day Unknown Armies campaign involving exploding Rotary Clubs, Boris Johnson as “the clown prince,” and real-life activism blending into gameplay.
• The game's events started to “bleed into real life," with players’ real activities mirroring their in-game lobbying.

“It starts to overlap into our lives... you see Boris Johnson as the clown prince... in the game we're lobbying the council at Hereford, and I was at an event the next day with a Hereford councillor sitting next to me!”
— Host [79:17]

Best New Game Experienced

[81:59]–[85:42] Mythic Bastionland

• Chosen for its Pendragon-esque, hex-crawl experience but using the Into the Odd system with rich playbooks and emergent play (“quite an achievement, actually”).
• Combat tweaks, magical knights, playbooks offer replayability; feels best for campaign play but works in one-shots too.

Dirk’s Honourable Mention: Fall of Delta Green (Gumshoe system)

• Enjoys real-world lethality, sanity/hardening mechanics, and Vietnam setting but finds Gumshoe’s points/spend mechanics odd in practice.

Community Awards

[94:04]–[96:02] Grog Community and Grog Law

• Grog meetups bridge online and real-world friendships.
• Award to Dave Patterson & Jim Mosley for creating the London “Grog Law” meetup:
  “For creating that [community], so I’m going to nominate Dave Patterson and Jim Mosley.”

[96:08]–[98:15] Grog Pod of the Year (Listener Vote)

• Joint second place: DCC with Brendan; Ten Years of The GROGNARD Files.
• Joint first place: Magic in RPGs with Stu Horvath (“listening to David Bowie and Kate Bush talk about RPGs”), Swedish RPG with Magnus Sita.

“I'd like to think I'm Kate Bush.”
— Host [98:15]

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Notable Quotes

“In Nephilim you played beings... older than humankind itself... you went in ancient Egypt and then you got trapped into an artifact for several centuries... and you possess a human. The human becomes part of you and you become part of the human...”
— Kalum [14:00]

“If you listen to the AI gurus, what they'll say is... this is a form of hallucination... It's a market spin so you can have a 4 trillion market capitalization value.”
— Host [44:09]

“I think it's just important... when you read discourse over RPGs people just beat themselves up a bit too much about how much they do and how little they do... Just enjoy it.”
— Host [60:05]

“Every room we went in, I said, can I try and hide in the shadows? And he went, yeah, yeah, try it... I apologized, ‘I'm not ruining the game am I?’ and he said, ‘No, that's what you should be doing as a rogue.’”
— Blythe [73:36]

“It starts to overlap into our lives... you see Boris Johnson as the clown prince... in the game we're lobbying the council at Hereford, and I was at an event the next day with a Hereford councillor sitting next to me!”
— Host [79:17]

“I'd like to think I'm Kate Bush.”
— Host [98:15]

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Timestamps & Memorable Segments

• 00:12 – Dirk’s whimsical introduction: “The Grognard Files hello, my name is Dirk the Dice and this is the Grognard Files podcast where we talk bobbins about tabletop RPGs from back in the day.”
• 03:28 – Kalum’s introduction and podcasting journey.
• 08:45 – French RPG magazines, differences from UK, and Vampire “Paris by Night.”
• 12:44 – Deep-dive into Nephilim and its unique European flavor.
• 29:39 – Game design: Magic of Inventoring inspired by Marie Kondo.
• 41:28 – Transcription games and AI “hallucinations.”
• 50:27 – Blooper: Save or die old-school GM moment in DCC.
• 55:08 – GMitis and the shifting role of GM/player over time.
• 72:04 – Player experience: Being truly allowed to play a rogue.
• 81:59 – New games: Mythic Bastionland and Fall of Delta Green discussions.
• 94:04 – Community Awards and the value of grassroots meetups.
• 96:20 – Listener-voted podcast highlights and humorous self-deprecation (”I'd like to think I’m Kate Bush.”).

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Summary

This Groggies Review episode is both a celebration and a meditation on the enduring, mutable joys of tabletop gaming. It weaves together international perspectives (especially through Kalum’s insights into French RPGs and design), personal gaming highlights, and the idiosyncratic culture of The GROGNARD Files’ community. The show is suffused with camaraderie, nostalgia, and self-deprecating humor—making it a must-listen for long-time RPG fans and newcomers alike.

Recommended for:

• Anyone interested in the history and culture of RPGs beyond D&D.
• Listeners looking to broaden their gaming horizons into French and European scenes.
• Veteran gamers seeking relatable, thoughtful discussion about the personal rhythms of GM-player life.

For further information:

• See links to Kalum’s Magic of Inventoring Kickstarter and recommended French RPG resources in the show notes.
• Community members are encouraged to suggest international guests for future culture-spotlight episodes.

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[End of Summary]

Transcript

[Blythe]

Have you seen me dice bag?

[Dirk the Dice]

The Grognard Files hello, my name is Dirt the Dice and this is the Grognard Files podcast where we talk bobbins about tabletop RPGs from back in the day. And today I'm coming live from my den here in the heart of the northwest of England. I'm totally and utterly surrounded by my stuff. On my right is my great library of RPGs and my grognard Files. Here on my left is the ridiculous homemade shrine to the actor Caroline Monroe.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

I'll.

[Dirk the Dice]

I'll just give it a tap.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Ah.

[Dirk the Dice]

This time she's been replaced by a little book, Caroline Monroe, Reality behind the Fantasy. It's a recently revived memoir available from her website and other online retailers. There's a link in the show notes and that's because we're once again in a reflective mood. Looking back on 2025 and doing a review of the year, some of the highs and the lows and will be awarding the Groggies. This was the year that I went from the forever GM to whenever GM to a whatever GM. Yes, the so called GM ITIs kicked in early in the year. I really enjoyed playing loads and loads of games. Judge Blythe, our resident rules lawyer joins me in the room of Role Playing Rambling to reflect how and just look back on the year. One of your favorite and my favorite podcast from last year was the one with Magna Sita about Swedish role playing culture. During the conversation he set a challenge to explore different RPG cultures from around the world. So I'm going to take on that challenge during 2026. I'm going to start with my friend Callum who started the released podcast around the same time as the Grognow files and we've been in correspondence ever since. He's from Belgium and so in this episode I talked to him about French speaking RPGs. He's very good about Nephilim, a game.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

That I knew very little of.

[Dirk the Dice]

I'm very interested to find out more about it. He's also about to launch a Kickstarter, but more about that in the interview. Well, let's get on with it ramblers.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Let's get rambling football.

[Dirk]

Welcome to the Zoom of Role Playing.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Rambling where I'm joined by podcaster, games.

[Dirk]

Designer and bon vivo Callum. Hello there Callum.

[Callum]

Hello Dirk. Thanks for having me.

[Dirk]

I'm born anniversary on being at 10 years.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

10 years of released podcast.

[Callum]

Likewise. Have a nice anniversary for the Grok. Now I think we literally started on the same month of August. That was 2015 and if people don't.

[Dirk]

Know of your podcast, don't you tell them what that's about?

[Callum]

So the release is kind of a collection. Over time it developed into a collection of a couple different podcasts. But the idea was to be the show of tabletop RPG fans across the channel, the pond and beyond. The starting point really was that as people might tell from my accent, French is my first language. I was born in Belgium and in 2012 I moved to London and the first way I found to socialize then was to find a group of people on Facebook because Facebook was much nicer then. But I find a thing called La Guilde de Rollist Francophone de l'. Orle. So the Guild of French Speaking Role Players of London. And yeah, around that same time I was listening to podcasts and so I was like, oh, it would be fun to interview the members of that club and have this perspective of people who are both with one feet in the English speaking role playing world and the French speaking ones. And very quickly it evolved into something broader because there are lovely English speaking of course, other clubs in London for role playing games, especially the role playing heaven was extremely welcoming and supportive. I'm thinking about like for instance one of the founder, Gary Harper. So very quickly I got guests on the show, not just from the French speaking club, but trying to be outward looking, opening up the perspective. Because for me role playing has always been about making connections between different people, different hobbies, different interests. You know, you like Star wars, there's a role playing game which is based on Star Wars. You do role playing game, you're introduced to Tolkien and so on. Yeah.

[Dirk]

And particularly in the early days, I really used to enjoy that sense that it was friends coming together and there was a nice authentic sound about it.

[Callum]

Thank you very much. And I also really love the Grognath files on my. I told they were. Yeah, sort of sibling show because on your side you were giving a very British perspective on things. But it was interesting how there were aspects of the British Rocknard experience that you were representing, which I recognize with my own experience. You know, similarities like not being as DND dominated for instance, and interest in different style of games and you know, mixing the old and the new. I always like that about the, the Grognath files and the talk about some.

[Dirk]

Of your early years in role playing then back in Belgium. And so what kind of things were you playing and who were you playing with?

[Callum]

Well, my journey was a bit. It went off on the. Not exactly a full start, but it was a Bit rough. I just saw in a magazine, you know, it was a kids magazine, maybe it was Journal de Spirou. Spirou magazine or Journal de Miquet, which was a Disney one. And there was an ad approaching Christmas, they just mentioned the Star wars role playing game from West Endgames and I believe it would have been 1993, maybe 1994. And I had no idea what a role playing game was, but I saw the book and I was huge fan of Star wars back then and I was so also a bit spoiled by my divorced parents. So my father accepted to buy me this role playing game book despite me not knowing what it was. I have no clue how he found it and he just told me, oh wow, that's a rather expensive book. And I got this role playing game book. I read through it. We used to play a lot of board games with my mother, but I couldn't make heads or tails about how to play Star the role playing game. I tried to run it in a kitchen with a friend and it was not very successful. I tried to find clubs I could join and so on. And it was again a bit rough. A couple of weird experience and I took half a decade before I finally run into. At my high school I joined a theater troupe and there was an older student there reading a French magazine called Casus Beli, which is a great. I guess it's kind of our own White Dwarf with his old French flavor. He was reading that magazine of which I had copies myself, and I was like, oh, you're into role playing games? He was like, yeah, I would really like to play it. And that's when things got serious for me. So around 98, I played for a couple years. But you know, thinking back those couple years feels like a full decade because it was really, really packed with a lot of gaming, a lot of Star Wars, a French game called Night Prowler, Nephilim, which is my big obsession, but also Legend of the Five Rings and the Masquerade as well. But yeah, again just two years of the very packed role playing then, so going to uni, drifting a bit away from that. And it's only when I moved to London back in 2012 that yeah, I got back into it.

[Dirk]

Going back to that magazine. What was the title of it and what kind of content was in it? Just describe it to us when that came, what. What kind of things were you getting in there?

[Callum]

So it's called Casus Belli and you can find them on the Archive, the free. The archive.org they got issues there I'm not sure it's fully legal, but you can find the PDF. And it sort of evolved from a war gaming game, but unlike White Dwarf, it was not tied to a publisher of any sort. So they had quite a lot of freedom. And you can see over the issues it turned from a wargaming magazine, Casus Belli again, even it's in the title. They evolved more towards role playing game. And by the time, I think the magazine was probably four years old or something like that, maybe five when I started reading it, you had reviews of games, some articles about what was going on in the world of role playing games, maybe some, some theory of things. But the very attractive thing for me, in the middle of it you had a bit which was black and white printed, unlike the rest of the magazine, which was color. And they made fantastic adventures and mysteries for a wide array of role playing games. So it was quite fascinating as someone was not quite in the scene who struggled to find a table to join to actually see the array of games that they were playing. The Castle F Warmer, Fantasy of Nephilim, Vampire the Masquerade. Actually this magazine back in the 90s, so in the 98, when I played People, Vampire Damascus was very popular. And the question in Belgium, in France was not, do you play vampire? The Vasquez already? The question was, do you play Chicago or Paris? Because this magazine created their own special edition which was called Paris by Night. And this became a very, very popular setting for the Masquerade among French speakers.

[Dirk]

What's missing from the array of games that you're talking about? There is Dungeons and Dragons. And so is that not particularly part of the culture of French speaking role playing games?

[Callum]

It was there and, you know, I went back, going through the, you know, kind of, if I had more time, I would do a show about this magazine. Would be interesting, I think, to take someone like yourself, or not a Briton, maybe someone who can read French and go through the issues and see it evolves over time and what's the content. So it really definitely starts with D and D and so on, but by the time I got myself into the hobby, we were in this window, which was after the sort of demise of tsr, but before the coming of Wizards of the Coast. So, you know, I remember going to Tabletop role playing shops. Amazingly, there were like three of them in my city, which is not such a huge city. But yeah, you had a lot of choice and you had all those ad and D supplements there, but they were kind of gathering dust. I mean, it's not like they were exactly unpopular, but there was just one. A lot of mystery to them because they look a bit ancient. I related quite a bit with the Grognard fights because things like RuneQuest, Call of Tolhu appear to be things that were more popular. The only difference I would say with what you describe is in my days and places, Vampire the Masquerade was really like half of the tables felt like there were some sort of Vampire the Masquerade thing going on. Because, you know, the French especially, they like their court in Paris. They can play a toreador and feel very fancy about it.

[Dirk]

And from your podcast, I first heard of Nephilim. Tell me a bit about that. Because like I said, it was something I knew nothing of until I heard about it on your podcast.

[Callum]

Yeah. So it's based. The original edition of Nephilim is based. It used the BRP system. So it was built on the Call of Tolu system and the RuneQuest one. Interestingly, the game master who ran it for me had it for a similar reason. Again, as some experience you described because his brother had bought another game. And the rule was one game master, one game, and if you buy something, you need to buy something else. So he was in the shop and he picked up randomly Nephilim. But yeah, it's a French role playing game. It's contemporary occult, so it's taking place present day. It's kind of contemporary occult, which is quite popular. Again, modern day Call of Tolu, Vampire the Masquerade is something French speakers vibed quite a lot with. But in Nephilim you played beings. For me, it's fixed. That's an issue of frustration I had with Vampire the Masquerade because when I first played Vampire the masquerade was, oh, you can play an immortal. I want to play someone who lived through this time in history, way back. And the first thing you're told in Vampire the Masquerade is like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You cannot play that. You can play someone from the 70s at most, because otherwise you're too powerful. And I always thought it was a bit weird. You play immortals, but young ones only. Well, in Nephilim you played beings who are immortal, who are actually older than humankind itself. Some theories said that they created humankind, they lived in Atlantis, they sort of like in that movie with Denzel Washington Fallen, a being that need to possess human beings in order to engage with our world. So depending what you ask, you are a demon of sort. It's much more agnostic, I would say. It doesn't start. It's not very religious. But really the idea is that you, this being you, you lived through Napoleonic War, maybe you were there in the Neolithic, you know, war, fire, sort of things. You went in ancient Egypt and then you got trapped into an artifact for several centuries until you got activated again and you wake up and you possess a human. And not only you possess a human, but the. The human become part of you and you become part of the human because over time you start borrowing in mechanical terms, you start borrowing the skills of the humans. And if you have a critical success, the skills of your avatar become your own. You cannot lose them even if you get killed. The bonus of the game is that if you get killed as the human, your actual self, which is ethereal, can travel and try quickly to find another human. Otherwise they're going to be trapped again in their artifact. But that means you develop all those skills from. Yeah, I was an SOE agent during World War II, so I still know how to use weapon and to build a bomb. But actually today I'm an astrophysician at NASA and I'm investigating something that is, that is going on. So you, there's this fun min maxing things of having your Nephilim having this crazy collection. It's like, oh, yeah, you play Call of Tulu, you start with a professor, then they get killed and your next character is an assassin. And then your next character is a former Soviet betsnaz or something because you're tired of getting killed. Well, in Nephilim, instead of moving on and on, they build up to one another. You play the professor that added up the skills of the assassins and later became a Spetsnaz as well. And you got the skills which can go like 120% of the, you know, the, the on the BRP scale, which means you never fail or you make things a bit more difficult for yourself to make it exciting.

[Dirk]

And as players, what, what are the adventures like? So what do you do in, in that setting?

[Callum]

Yeah, the core notion is that Nephilim are, have a thirst for knowledge and they also, not only they possess people over time, but there's a lot of things they've forgotten, this sort of an amnesia. So they, they try to investigate who they were and what they're up to. So your first adventure, very often you're woken up by someone who, hey, I found your artifact and I managed to get you out of your artifact. You owe me. So you're going to do a mission for me. And going through that, you Find out about the different factions going on. The Nephilims got factions based on the blades, the cards of the tarot. You've got factions for the humans which are based on the. Which are minor arcana, which are based on another type of tarot, which is the coin, the sticks, the sword. So you fight Templar, Synarch, Wasicrycians, and you start getting involved in all the politics of that, and you sort of decide to find your place to be proactive about that by being like, okay, what I want to do is to become powerful. Or in my case was, well, I want to cohabit with humans and I want to learn as much as possible. I started my character as very pacific being. And then over the course of things, we found out, well, actually, this creature or person called Lilith who's going to wake up and bring about the apocalypse. And my character in that case was very. The camping was like, okay, well, I want to protect the humans. And through a different set of circumstances, I acquired tactical and strategic knowledge from the time of Troy, which I apply in modern day. And I ended up being the. The big general of an army who decided to. To protect the world from the armies of Lilith. And it was really funny because I started as a pacifist, but basically it's usually, oh, there's something that. There's a new artifact that showed up at the British Museum. Oh, I recognize this artifact. This is actually the sword of Menelaus of the battle of Troy. And it happens that I knew Nephilim, that it was their stasis. So chances are they are into this stasis. So we're going to go rob the British Museum after they robbed a lot of other people. And we're going to recover the sword and get our friend back out of the sword. And when we get the friend back out of the sword, for some reason, it's very unhappy and creates a lot of mess and you need to save the day, while at the same time a bit like Vampire the Masquerade, keeping it quiet. Like in Vampire the Masquerade, there's the idea of this. Yeah, we're around, but the secret society, and we don't want people to find out about Nephilim running about. So some humans control the media, some others control the politics, and some Nephilim do as well. And everybody's like, okay, we. We raise a thing. Nobody needs to know about that. Typical Delta Green also. And again, vampire, the mascot type of thing.

[Dirk]

So it says French game.

[Callum]

It's a French game.

[Dirk]

Yeah, yeah, it was Developed, developed in France and then I believe KLC and went on to publish it, didn't they?

[Callum]

Yes, there's a U.S. adaptation of the game. Interestingly, System Mastery did an episode about it which was quite negative about the US adaptation and they did a follow up episode with me defending the game. There were some choices made for the US adaptation which I know. So I interviewed Ken Hythe who worked on the adaptation and the adaptation was done in rather very low budget and rushed circumstances. Manuscript being handed to Ken Hythe who reading it was like, oh, I would prefer to play factions which technically are the bad guys, which are the Templars and kill Nephilims, rather than be a Nephilim. And I'm sure there's many inspiration than that. But that's Knight's black agent. But that's not Nephilim. But you can tell in the US adaptation there's kind of a misunderstanding what Nephilim are. Of course there's this contradiction of you're the good guys, but you do possess humans. But in the US version it became much more action packed. There were some choices. Also there's a mystery at the end. Spoiler alert. But at the end of the Nephilim US adaptation they decide that a certain dictator from World War II with a small mustache was actually a Nephilim. And that flies in the face of the game in the French version. Because in the French version part of the principle was, yeah, you're perfoured as the secret history. But the idea is always it's still humans who make history. It's not in secret. Nephilims control everything and so on and doing that was like bit of in poor taste. And also I think the thing really with Nephilim, not that I don't think us friends could not appreciate the game. I think at its core really there's something about. There's something quite European or. Because there's really this idea that you walk around places, you know, you. You work in cities in France and also in the UK or Italy or even Belgium. And you've got those layers of history. You know, you see a building and it was from the times of the Saxons and you're in France, you see something from the time of the French Revolution and then you see something which, you know, a bunker for world. Yeah, there's so many layers when you do that in Europe in US history has got a different shape, heritage, patrimony, in terms of being surrounded by it in a way which is so obvious, it's not quite the same as it is in Europe. And when you play Nephilim, this really when you start enjoying the game, at least back in the days, it was very fun to then walk. There's a lot of things about learning about symbols also and secret societies and history. And then you walk around a place and you start noticing, oh, wait, hang on a minute, that's a Freemason reference over there. Those Roman numerals is this thing. Oh, over there, I'm in the city of London and there's the ruins of a temple of Mystra here in the middle of the city. And in Nephilim the adventures are really like, oh, well, yeah, there's a temple of Misra in the middle of the city. And if you go to that stone and touch it, you find a secret passage and then you find an actual secret society in it. So the idea of running around with Nephilim around New York, for instance, not that there's zero history and there's definitely history before colonization, but it's not preserved in stone and you're not overexposed to it as you are in Europe. And it's a big part of the feel of the game. I think when they did the US adaptation, they sort of missed that a bit.

[Dirk]

It sounds really intriguing. I really want to play it sometime.

[Callum]

Did you listen to my actual play? Because I worked very hard to do an actual play about it in the spirit of the French one in English. And it was quite fun because I had a French player who could speak English. There was myself game mastering. There was a British gentleman, Rob, who was a big fan of Nephilim, who happens to be bilingual as well. But so it was funny to have the French British perspective. And at the same time I had a third player called Mira who had no clue whatsoever what the game was. And it was quite a nice mix to sort of, yeah, show what the game can be like. And the typical setup of, oh, you're being woken up by other Nephilim and now the Nephilim tell you, oh, you should be so grateful. Now you're going to do what we ask you to do for a little bit. And by the way, we are on our journey to find this Trojan artifact.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Do you do my old.

[Dirk]

So what would you say was the balance of French or French, French speaking produced games to games in translation or games that were just imported in English that had to be translated? What, what was the mix of that?

[Callum]

Oh, it's a. It's a bit 50, 50 and maybe even a bit more in French by French speaking publisher the 90s it was very fascinating because it was, at least in the scenes where I was, it was very, very balanced. There was no one Single again, maybe Vampire, the Masquerade, but by no means. It felt like D&D, 5th edition over the last couple decades. So you had a very large number of titles. You had a couple of. You had a designer who was quite popular named Croc on Night Prowler, which was kind of Blades in the Dark before Blades in the Dark was a game where you played only rogues. But you could be a rogue who was an acrobat, a rogue who was a safe piercer. You could play a rogue who was the face who keeps talking. You could play a rogue that would just rob people by hitting them in the face. So that was Night Prowler. You had Dark Earth, which I really like, which was post apocalyptic. So in all world in the future, but trapped under a big cloud. So it's darkness almost everywhere on Earth except in a couple places which are like volcanoes with a kind of a column of light piercing the cloud, landing on individual volcanoes, protected cities in there. And they have to send people out into the wasteland, which is in complete pitch darkness, to find artifacts from the ancient times, which of course are old times. And at the same time they got this big religion about the light. Another one that followed kind of the Nephilim path is Innominus Satanis Magna Veritas, which was really good omens. In this one you play demons, mostly Prince, servant of prince demons. And depending of who your prince demons is, you've got different set of powers. And eventually you could play angel as well. And it was extremely satirical. It was adapted as in nominee in the US So they already removed the Satanist from the the COVID And of course for good and bad reason, it was watered down substantially the. The satirical dark humor for the US audience.

[Dirk]

There seems to be familiar theme in these games where it is quite esoteric about factional play. And one of the things that was striking about your podcast as well is that thing of story.

[Callum]

Yeah, yeah, I think so. I mean, people were quite big on. I mean, they didn't call it that, but I. I guess you can draw parallel when people nowadays or a few years ago said role playing, not role playing. So it was not about dice. It's funny because in the 90s, people, the French speaking, seem quite on the narrative side of things in comparison with things from other places. It was all about the story, the writing, the art of it. And at the same time there's definitely an indie scene in France but there's also the same people were a bit forward looking in the late 90s, early 2000s seems quite entrenched sometimes against different practices of role playing power by the apocalypse and this sort of thing. It's got traction but it's not quite the same as they do. The indie scene exists and is thriving in France, but you really have two very antagonizing groups between the the people that played the the games in the early 2000s and the the new indie ones in in a way which is much sharper than it is in in the UK and that it seems to be to some extent in the us. But yeah, if you think people go hard against each other in English speaking circles, I can assure you the French speaking ones can be even more aggressive towards one another.

[Dirk]

One thing where we have diverged is that you have become a successful independent publisher and game designer. So how did that come about?

[Callum]

As a former podcaster, I admire your segue. That's beautiful. And I'm waving at my Italian publisher who's called publishing magic of inventoring which is the excuse for tonight. So yeah, I haven't touched the podcast that much actually over the last four years already. some point I got an idea for a game through reading a self help about decluttering your interior by a Japanese entrepreneur lady called Marie Kondo who later had a Netflix show. Interestingly, the first time she was ever mentioned to me is in episode three of the Roll list which is especially random episode. But you, you can hear the person telling me about that Marie Kondo for the very first time on my show. And a thing I love is well, I love the Monty Pythons, I love Airplane Zucker and Zucker Brun Zucker. And whenever I'm exposed to anything, no matter or serious or sometimes can be tragic and it's a coping mechanism, my brain immediately takes the thing and change its setting to something that makes it silly. And in that book by Marie Kondo there were quotes by a client and it said, one of the quotes said oh wow, I would never have imagined that getting rid of just only one object would have changed me so much. And when I read that I was like, this is Billbone Baggins. A customer was Billbone Baggins and said yeah, Marie Kondo was like, you know, does the ring spark joy in you? And I was like, well I don't think it really sparked joy in me, so I'm better gonna throw away and, and give it to Frodo. And you know, there were other quotes and it was Ridiculous. It was very fun to take Marie Kondo and imagine her in a completely, you know, fantasy setting. And then I was like, and I was, you know, I'm in this bedroom, in this bed over there. I was like, hang on, what if it was a game? What would it be like? And I was like, well, the object, they would have an encumbrance because you cannot carry as much as you want. They will have an emotional value because you either spark joy or not and then they would be useful or not. And maybe they help you get out of the dungeon and survive and stuff. And yeah, one thing led to another, it became a thing, a game called Paris Gondor, the life saving magic of adventuring, which was way better than I could ever imagine and found its audience. And I ran a ton of sessions along that journey. I wanted to do a new version of that inventor in game because I put it in a cardboard box at home. I prepared to do a Kickstarter to do that as one does. And just before I launched, turns out that the wife of an Italian publisher, Alessandra, played my game, loved it and decided to this Italian publisher offered to co publish the game and make it much better. And here we are, we've got a Kickstarter about to launch for magic of inventoring. So it's the world east, myself and Grumpy Bear, an Italian publisher with experience publishing board games, you know, in fancy books and have them manufactured in Eastern Europe and China and have something, you know, really proper, like a proper board game. And yeah, it's become much more ambitious. And that's a Kickstarter we launch in, in January 27th.

[Dirk]

So how will it be different then to just talk? So and for people who haven't played it, just give them a sense of what you do in the game.

[Callum]

So the game starts where most dungeon crawling adventures end. You at the final level of a dungeon already. You already dispatched minions and avoided traps. You already defeated the ruler of the dungeon. So what do you do? Well, you got the best part ahead of you. You're going to get loot from the treasure trove of the ruler of the dungeon. But out of that treasure, what are you going to bring home? You cannot bring everything home because there's just too much of it. Also, you need to make some difficult decision. Are you going to keep this rusty sword which you use through the dungeon and you inherited from your grandfather, who was a fighter as well, are you gonna bring that home or are you gonna bring home the piano of Red Sonja which you found which obviously, you know is a huge emotional value. Having the piano of Red Sonja is not very useful because it's broken. And of course pushing the piano back outside the dungeon is going to take an awful lot of time. So you need to get rid of as many things as possible. So you decide, do you keep the piano or do you keep your broadsword? You make these decisions, and based on your decisions, all the member of the party, they are more or less likely to find the exit of the dungeon using their objects and then make it home and feel happy for the rest of their days. So that's the story and it's a full arc and it can do it in two or three hours. And in terms of system, the way it works, dry erase cards, some pre printed. Every adventure has got a deck of cards which are their starting inventory. So that rusty broadsword, it's part of the game. I mean, it's part of the structure of the game. You got six to eight adventurer class and you got a different starting inventory. Like got some cards in front of me. Like the clerics got a ceremonial chest plate. The bard got a fabulous attire. The wizard's got an unfashionable magic staff. That's your starting inventory. And everyone rolled the stats for two looted items. So these are more blanks cards. And you roll a stat for the encumbrance, the usefulness, the emotion of the object and the affiliation. Big part of the game is to decide, okay, you rolled that, but what does it mean? So in the case of the Red Sonja piano, while you roll the six in encumbrance, which is a maximum, a two in usefulness, it's broken a six in emotion, it belongs to Red Sonja, and the affiliation is barbarian. You trade the card, you make your final deck. You got. The stats of your character are from this inventory. And based on whether you carry a lot, you're more or less likely to try to cross a bridge and the bridge will break because you're carrying too much. Whether it's useful, you are more less likely to be able to dispatch some remaining wandering monster with your piano by throwing it at them. And based on the emotion, you can make it home to your cave and be like, well, I got the piano of Red Sonja. So I was happy for my life because I was a big fan. So that's how the game works to do. Because one of the things I found out with the game running it, and that's what interested this Italian publisher actually is that you can really play it. Without a game master, completely devoid of one. And everybody plays. You can really play it without preparation. The only thing that's sort of missing, according to the publishers, they needed to put me in the box. Those deck of cards is sort of the, the instruction, but step by step, rather than reading a book or even a manual, you've got, okay, take the first deck, take turns reading the card. Okay, this is step one. Everybody please take a prompt card for the dungeon. Okay, the ruler of the dungeon is a creature. Second card, second player. Tell me, what do you know about this creature? And so on. And there's a lot of, over the time, me running the game, I've came up with silly little questions about, okay, we're doing the party. Tell me, who's your favorite other adventurer? What do you find so nice about him? Oh, you were the favorite one. Tell us what you find especially annoying about another player. So you're going to have all those steps a bit like this. Kind of more games in that vein developing. I find lately there's Lovecraftesque in a very different vibe, which is a bit like that, you know, kind of in between the board game and the role playing game or story game I already mentioned. For the queen, which has got this Cryptid deck of cards. Alice is missing is another one which is again very different team vibe and format. But this idea that you got a box, you can find it in a game store, you can pick it up and with depending on the game, very little or no preparation. You can have fun for two or three years and have your introduction for a role playing game or you have something to play quickly because the game master was feeling tired this evening and decided to cancel last minute. And you already got the snacks and the other players, so why not play something else? Kind of your analog atmosphere, we should.

[Dirk]

Say that Marie Kondo has actually given up on tidying up, hasn't she? Since she's had children, she said that.

[Callum]

It was not sparking joy anymore, so she got rid of it. She Marie Kondo. The Marie Kondo method. So yeah, it's great. And you know, we decluttered the title, the original title. Well, Paris Gondo, which was a nod to Gondor and Paris. I wanted a gender neutral first name. Still sound a bit like Marie Kondo. So Paris Gondo, the Life Saving Magic of Inventoring. Because Marie Kondo's book is called the Life Changing Magic of Tidying, we declutter the title. Now it's Magic of Inventory because it's much shorter to put in a skit because we don't do tweets anymore. Uh, it's also. I found, you know, running it at convention and having also been very lucky to have people run it for me at convention sometimes. I mean, for me, for themselves. Uh, we found that we have listing in convention and they shortened the title and it was just written Paris Gondo. And you show up in UK Games Expo and you like the hold of the Thing. Warhammer or Call of Tulu. The Mystery of Innsmouth. Paris Gondo doesn't mean anything. It's not evocative at all. Why? Magic of Inventory. If you read that, you're like, hang on a minute. Magic Inventory. What is that? And people click on the link and look at the description.

[Dirk]

So just remind us, Callum, when that Kickstarter from and to.

[Callum]

So it will be running from January 27th all the way to middle February.

[Dirk]

Well, good luck with it and thank you very much for coming on the.

[Callum]

Grognard Files, and thank you very much for people who made it through my ramblings, my excited ramblings all the way till the end of the episode.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

The Groggies welcome to the room of rolling rambling. It's January and the wind is whistling around our ears. We're up in the attic. The little pigeon is hidden away in its nest. It is so cold. Me and Blythe are here to warm our cockles with a cup of tea and a bit of chat. Are you all right, though, Blythe?

[Blythe]

I am, yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Let's get this out of the way. Happy New Year.

[Blythe]

Happy New Year.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

It sounds like it's the 2nd of January.

[Blythe]

Happy time of recording me. 2nd of January. Legitimate to say Happy New Year. Yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

This is the groggies and your groggies. I have been through the painful process because we had a conversation the other day, didn't we, trying to recall some of the things that we'd done in previous groggies, the awards we've given. So I've been through the painful process of looking at the transcription. So, you know, nowadays you get this AI thing whether you like it or not. That Chomsky podcast, I thought it won't take me long just to go through the various podcasts where we've done groggies and just look back at the. It did take quite of time.

[Blythe]

I can imagine. Yeah, I. I like the transcription. They do it on Spotify. You get subscription now, don't you? And it gets everything. It gets words wrong.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

It does.

[Blythe]

It just gets words wrong.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Have you seen me die, Spike?

[Blythe]

Things like that.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Sounds More sinister than a 10 does.

[Blythe]

It doesn't.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Have you seen me die, Spike? Yeah, I might actually change it to.

[Blythe]

That Cyto podcast, See me die Spike.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

I've got a little bit of a prefab sprout game, actually, based on the transcriptions that I've observed. So these are common phrases that we use within the podcast that have been transcribed by AI let's see if you can recognize them.

[Blythe]

Transcribed incorrectly.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Incorrectly, yeah.

[Blythe]

Yeah. Well, much of a game if you just told me the correct transcription.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Okay, the first one. Let's see. You can get this one. Lesson, Gary.

[Blythe]

Lesson Gary.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Yeah, Lesson Gary. You're struggling here, aren't you?

[Blythe]

Yeah, but it does do this, doesn't it, that it transcribes things in such a weird way. I need to come to that conclusion. Lesson Gary.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

It's all made up a word, hasn't it? Yeah, of course.

[Blythe]

Listen, Gary. Listen, Gary. But neither of us is sure, Gary. In would we say, listen, Gary. Listen, Gary again, Sounds menacing. Listen, Gary.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

If you listen. If you listen to the AI gurus, what they'll say is, this is a form of hallucination of hallucination. Hallucination, yeah.

[Blythe]

Who's hallucinating?

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Precisely. And what they say is that the AI if it can't find the results, it hallucinates a result. Now, hang on.

[Blythe]

Hallucinate. So get out of it. It just guesses. Hallucinate. Why are they attaching such a grandiose concept? Hallucinated. Hallucinate.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

This is a market spin. It's a market spin to give the idea that this isn't a load of, like, numbers.

[Blythe]

It can't be just a computer guessing or guessing. Roll something. Hallucinating.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Yeah.

[Blythe]

Because it's like a mind. Yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

No, you won't be able to have a 4 trillion marking capitalization value if you actually said, oh, actually, it's wrong.

[Blythe]

Well, yeah. What it does, what it does. Sometimes when it doesn't know what's being said, it. It just kind of guesses and basically makes it work.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Gets it wrong.

[Blythe]

No, no, it's hallucinating. Yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Lesson Gary, is the lasso, Gary. Of course. Now you say it.

[Blythe]

They say it. It's obvious, isn't it? I bet people listening have got that. I'm just sitting here not getting it. What about oboe?

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Oboe, as in the woodwind instrument. The oboe.

[Blythe]

The oboe. It's hallucinated on oboe already. Good at this.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

You'll never replace AI.

[Blythe]

If you got AI to guess obo, would it get the right word? It would. You'd elucinate backwards and get the right.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Word then I doubt it.

[Blythe]

Go on. What is it?

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Oh, boy. It's Owlbear.

[Blythe]

Owlbear.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Owlbear and the Wizard Stuffer. We mention it a lot. So, okay, what about elbow?

[Callum]

Elbow.

[Blythe]

Elbow, yeah. Well, I'd say that could be Elbert as well.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

That it is.

[Blythe]

It's elbow as well. You got one. Right. It hallucinates elbow on oboe. Yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

What about Albert?

[Callum]

Albert.

[Blythe]

Is that Albert as well?

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Yeah.

[Blythe]

So you can have an oboe Albert. Albert's elbow.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Oboe Albert. And the wizard staff is what this should read.

[Blythe]

Aldo on the wizard stuff. Dagger Harvey will turn up.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

So pre slab spout going. It was a perfect spout Again. Perfect spout. Okay, so this is the Groggy Awards and I have gone back and looked over them and I've got some observations of when we do this. Right. Because when we set resolutions, the first thing I'd say is that we always said that we're going to focus on one or two games.

[Blythe]

Yeah, yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

We'll dismiss that. Just tell as a giver.

[Blythe]

Yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

We get hung up on things and the facts say otherwise.

[Blythe]

Okay.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

You give me an annual Bad Time of the Messianic Megalomaniac Award. And why do you do that?

[Blythe]

Because you want to award it to yourself.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Yeah. The evidence shows, Mr. Blighy Blythe, that over the years, I've actually awarded it to other people. And you nominate yourself every time you.

[Blythe]

Have awarded it to other people. But I still maintain you want to give it to yourself. That's my point. I think every time I can see in your face, people can't see this because it's just. It's an audio medium, isn't it? But people see the look in your face. You want to images. Oh, you do, you do, you do. Well done for not doing that.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

I've got this. I've got this beautiful envelopes here.

[Blythe]

Yeah. Okay.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

And we'll do this as a tradition. It's not always been a tradition. We started doing this in 2016. In 2019, we decided not to do it, but didn't explain why we didn't.

[Blythe]

We just got fed up of it.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

We do that sometimes.

[Blythe]

Did anyone notice?

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

I was the kid. We replaced it with the first ever thunder phase. All right.

[Blythe]

Highly original idea.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Never been done before. And also in the first ever awards, we had two categories that we never used again.

[Blythe]

What were the two called? What were the two? As you work out why we never used them again.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Okay. The first one was called back in. Back in the day. Today and that was supposedly scenarios that we'd revived and played. Ah, right.

[Blythe]

Okay.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

And the winner of that was the Sea Cave and Fungi from Yogarth. So Fungi from Yogurth won it in that first year and it's the only thing that Azalea won because we've never done that again.

[Blythe]

No, it's a one off award.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

And then the other one was the rigged rolling award. And this was supposedly a moment that was created by dicewell, usually by Daiso. A moment of excitement. The nominees for that was Numenera where etiquette rolling ones.

[Blythe]

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He did Succession of War. Never played that again, did we? Someone was the game's fault.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

And then the other nominee was actually Stormbringer game that you played at the first ever Grog meet with Dimbid. Oh yeah. Who sadly passed away. So Andrew Jones is the first ever games master of Grogme because he ran that feng shui game.

[Blythe]

He did. Didn't he grog me Eve?

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

He had a series of megacritics particles in your game. Do you remember that?

[Blythe]

I don't remember that but possibly you.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Wouldn'T have made it up.

[Blythe]

Everything says otherwise unless I hallucinated it.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Yeah. So those are two categories that we've never. I'm not proposing when bringing them back.

[Blythe]

No.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

In fact I'm thinking of dropping some of these even less.

[Blythe]

Even less for these.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Well, I was just saying one year we did actually did one year we said Game of the year and just had that.

[Callum]

That's it.

[Blythe]

That's just Game of the Year. That's it all you're getting.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

There's some looking back at some of that transcript. I'm glad I've done it now.

[Blythe]

Forget it for doing it.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

I've got it out to my sister there.

[Blythe]

Your sister realized you although you were looking for some consistent patterns. There are no.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

There are.

[Blythe]

So it doesn't matter.

[Callum]

It doesn't matter.

[Blythe]

You can just make it up again.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Okay, so let's deal with the calling it now the Games master moment of the year.

[Blythe]

Games Master moment of the year.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Yeah. So this is the world. This is formally the messianic Megalomanium game. Last year we decided to retire that as a man.

[Callum]

No.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Yeah, you did.

[Callum]

You know.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Yeah, yeah. This is a good thing about these transcripts. I can go back and prove things with you.

[Blythe]

I'll show them in court of law. Even though I'm the judge. I feel I've been turned on me. You know, I put it to you in 2021. You said this could have all written down here.

[Callum]

Yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

So but it is.

[Blythe]

You've got to already know. But it's an AI transcript, so who's to say they're not hallucinations? Yeah, I can't remember these things. That would be the weak part, weakness in your evidence, wouldn't it?

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

What's your game as master moment of the year?

[Blythe]

Gaming Master moment. Well, up front, right, I am banning myself and I'm banning you as well. Talking about pirate string axe. Okay. Yeah, because that's a big part, been a big part of that game in life, hasn't it, over the last few years and we're probably going to coming to an end and we're going to talk about that in a future episode, aren't we? So I'm going to ban it from the awards because recently I have joined Andrew McDonald's DCC game. He's a regular face to face game in Manchester. I was, I've been invited to play it for a while for, for a while because of one thing or another, I couldn't make it. But now I've been to several games and I think it was the first time in my gaming career, if you want to call it that, that I had to roll a literally save versus death or die role. That might sound unusual, but back in the day, even nowadays and even when I'm gaming, I always kind of recoil in the idea of, right, give me a 12 or more on a D20, otherwise you're dead. That's something you think. I know people at Old Scouser Neil loves that kind of thing, but I've always thought, okay, it's a bit architect, isn't it?

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

So three dice rolls away.

[Blythe]

Yeah, well, this was one dice roll where we were on a magical platform floating across the ravine in Andrew's game and the wizard lost his concentration and so we all had to make a saving throw. Otherwise we plummeted into the crevasse and were dead and that was it. And I managed to make it, but I realized that's the first time. So I might nominate him the GM moment where the GM looked us all in the eye and said, right, save us. That's it. May I save you. So otherwise, that's it. I was astonished.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Maybe we should restore the name of messianic megalomaniac.

[Blythe]

Well, you know, he's not particularly. I don't think he's a mean gm. I'm not saying he's a mean gm. Yeah. But it was that moment where I realized, I thought, blimey, that was a proper make this role or that's it. Unfortunately, one way or another, we all made it.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

You first mentioned DCC back in 2022. Now we kind of get this sense that it's fairly new thing for you, but you have been.

[Blythe]

Yeah. Slowly being converted over a period of time. Yeah, yeah. It's a slow process. Get in the end.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Because Andrew first played DCC when you ran it, didn't you? Now he's running it.

[Blythe]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

He's passed the baton over.

[Blythe]

People would say, I wouldn't be. When. When you get to those kind of roles in those kind of games, Save versus poison or die, Same versus this or fall into a crevasse, you're dead. People kind of think, oh, that's an easy thing to do for a gm. It's just a mean easy thing to do. But it's not actually, is it? Because I never want to do it. I never have the nerve to do that to players. You know, they'll be playing an old school game of the spiders and the spiders are same versus poison or die. I always got. I'll say this is poison or lose some hit points or whatever because it always seems too harsh. So it actually quite gets quite a bit of nerve I think as a GM to go. And we're all like third and fourth level characters. We've been playing our characters a bit as well. It's not like it's a funnel where they go, you're dead.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Did everybody survive?

[Blythe]

Everyone survived.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

The true test of those moments when somebody goes though, isn't it?

[Callum]

Maybe.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

But we all.

[Blythe]

I think people, some people might have failed roles but they. Some people did it. So I just, I just made the road. But people perhaps spent. Bit of luck. But you don't know as a gm, do you? I mean, I know like you said, the test of it is, well, did a character die? But as a gm, when you say make the saving throw, otherwise you fall into the crevasse and you're dead. You don't know, do you? We could have all failed.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

I've been in circumstances like that last year when doing one of my games, one of the players was petrified halfway through.

[Blythe]

Halfway through, yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

So as a gm, it's not about having those incidents and occurrences, it's what happens afterwards is players taking the newly formed statue and finding ways to un petrify it, which they didn't do. They just left him there. But it's what to do with the players. Do you just kind of handle the character and catch up with the others?

[Blythe]

Well, I Think we would have. What would have happened in that game is we would have had to roll some more zero level characters who would have appeared on the scene at some point, play those and work your way up from the bottom. But as a moment, say I enjoyed it because I survived. So it was like, oh, yes, I was brave and exciting and I managed to do it.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

I probably GM'd fewer times this year than I would do normally. And we need to bring up the subject of GM itis.

[Blythe]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Which I'd be afflicted with this.

[Blythe]

There's no way we could give you the award this year.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Well, we say that, but looking back at the transcripts, GMITIS first raised its head back in 2017. I just finished doing my first ever actual play with other players from the RPG Academy and they filmed it on YouTube.

[Blythe]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Callum]

I remember that.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

I became terribly self conscious of seeing myself. A crisis of confidence.

[Blythe]

You're witnessing yourself and all your ticks and quirks.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

And so that brought that on J Mitis and that passed. But this year I think jmitis was different. And I don't like talking about it because you know what happens blindly when you mention James. You get people saying, are you okay?

[Blythe]

He's okay. Before you start, he's okay, but.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Right.

[Blythe]

It's got a bit of a GM wobble, you know, I don't think it.

[Callum]

Is a wobble, though.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

I do not think it's a wobble this time. I think it was different last time. That was about self conscious, becoming self conscious and thinking, all right, I'm playing with different people. And we've never done that before. We. And you become very aware of, you know, that first time you start doing that, you start becoming aware of your GM techniques or lack of them, and they need to build them up. This time it's more to do with. And I understand why people ask, are you all right? Because when you stop enjoying something that you really enjoyed, it could be an indicator of something else. But I think in my case this year, I've done other things. I've been on a course for One thing, for 10 weeks, I've been watching more films and reading more books than I've ever, ever done. And it makes you realize that it's just part of your life. Into RPG and GMing.

[Blythe]

It is time consuming. We've said this before, haven't we? It occupies more of your brain than being a player. Being a player, you've got to turn up and switch on during the session and you might think about Things outside the session but you don't have to prep anything. You might play a game and it's part of a campaign. You might leave table and think, I wonder about this next time. I wonder about that as a player but that's kind of formal to do that. But it's not too time consuming. Whereas a gm you think, right, what's going to happen next time? I need to think about that before. Even if it's a pre written scenario or a pre written campaign, you still have to do prep, don't you? It's very rare that in my experience anyway. It's very rare I think in yours that you sit down with the pre written scenario and just run it completely as written.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

And it's that lonely fun thing, isn't it? That is the bit that I've not had the space to do.

[Callum]

Yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

That time just to sit down and think I'm going to create some characters today are. Yeah, I'm going to have a think about how that scene is going to work but just. I've just not had the space to do that. So I think I've enjoyed playing but the thought of GME I've just kind of moved away from.

[Blythe]

You can do too much GMing. I think that's the thing with the hobby generally. I think it's good to be both things of a balance of playing and GMing. It's like conventions in it. I like, I like to GM a bit but I also like to play. I wouldn't want a GM every session. These people go to Expo, they run a game every session, don't they? They get the free hotel. And when I, when I ran a game at Expo they messaged me just clarifying, you just run in one session. You know, this doesn't entitle you to anything in the hotel or smart. And I've emailed them, I said, yeah.

[Callum]

I know, I know that.

[Blythe]

I'm not bothered about that. I've got a hotel paying for. I'm not. But there is that thing, isn't there? If you do too much of it, maybe just give you a certain perspective that's just one sided. Yeah, Doing both things is, is important.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Yeah.

[Callum]

Yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

And I think it's just important because I think the other thing is that people, you know, when you read discourse over RPGs people just beat themselves up a bit too much about.

[Blythe]

Yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

How much they do and how little they do.

[Callum]

Yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

And these can say, well just enjoy it.

[Dirk]

Just.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

And do what you can and just enjoy it.

[Blythe]

Yeah, there is, there is A lot of that isn't there, like GMs, people who, you know, particularly people who've not GM before and they were really anxious about it all and getting a bit worked up and you'd think, be all right, just have a go on, just have a go, visit some of your friends, it's okay.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

But even with established people, there's a sense that unless there's like a purest sense to it of, you know, unless you're doing it right or doing. Yeah, and I used to participate in that. I used to be part of that problem where I would say, look this, look at what I'm doing, look at what I'm reading. And there's a. A natural thing of saying that. But it does have a consequence, doesn't it? That when people see that, they kind of think, you know, you can see it, can't you? With people, this idea of fear, of missing out. If I'm not doing that, am I doing it right?

[Blythe]

That's an interesting thing because this year, as I said, going back to Andrew's DCC game, what I would say there two things there relative to what you've been talking about. I've run a lot of dcc. I've not played a lot, but now I've played quite a bit and I've quite enjoyed playing it. And it gives you a different perspective on it as a player. So there is that. But the other thing I would say about that game, because it's face to face, and as we've said, that's slightly different dynamic to playing online face to face. We meet at 1 o' clock in the Pop in Manchester, have a pint, go to fanboy for 2 o', clock, play till 6, have a pint afterwards.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

It's quite good.

[Blythe]

It's good fun. We have a laugh. It's good for. People would say, oh, is it beer and pretzels kind of game? I would say is, no, I think it's just how it's supposed to be. I don't mean this in a detrimental way to Andrew or any of the players, but it's fun, it's good fun. There's a lot of laughter around the table and I sit down and thought, this is really. All this kind of.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

This is what it's all about.

[Blythe]

So it's all about, oh, it's damn stuff. You read about it. Oh, shut up.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Like podcasters going on.

[Blythe]

Podcasters going on, giving awards to people. But the reason that there's a lot that you can read, you read and listen to a Lot of stuff about how to do it. Here's how you do it. But I don't think anyone around that table's really read anything about how to do it. We're just doing it, just getting on with it.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Just getting on with it.

[Blythe]

And it's fun. It's fun. You come away thinking, oh, I really enjoyed that. It was a laugh. It was great. You know, one of the things I.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Get asked and one of the thunderfest questions that we've been given is in our kind of deck of ones to ask. So I'll ask it now. Is around, how do you find the time? You seem to have a full and active time in doing it. How do you find the time to do it? What's your answer to that? How do we find the time?

[Blythe]

I think, like anything, I've always held the view that you. You have to make the time.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Yeah.

[Blythe]

If you try and find the time, you'll never find it. That's. That's the thing to do, isn't it, to you? I think you've just gotta be a kind of quite disciplined and think, right, tonight or this morning or whenever I've got a bit free time, I'm gonna do that.

[Callum]

Yes.

[Blythe]

I'm gonna do this.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Yeah.

[Blythe]

And do it. I think it's about making the time. Finding the time is you'll never find it.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

The other thing that I've changed my attitude to is I look back over the transcripts, we make lots of references to real life getting in the way.

[Blythe]

Yeah, yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Sometimes it says royal life getting.

[Blythe]

Royal life getting in the way, but.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Real life getting in the way. And we've discussed this, haven't we? Off air, then. Quite a few of our sessions and play has been disrupted one way or another.

[Blythe]

Yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Sessions have been canceled because of family or things that just got in the way of it happening. But we've said. Well, actually, we say real life has got in the way, but playing games is part of our real life.

[Blythe]

It's part of real life. That's part of life.

[Callum]

Yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

And I think that's maybe an attitude that you've got to have, isn't it? You've got to think that this is part of who I am. Yeah.

[Blythe]

This is what I do.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Blythe]

This is something I do. So I'm going to make time to do it because it's something I do.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Part of the reason why we got back into this, it came out of the deep freeze back in 2010, was the inspiration of my sister. Now my sister has got five children ranging from five to 25. She got three dogs. She works full time, but she watches Bolton Wanderers every weekend, come what me. And she'll go to her away matches, home matches, and she makes the time to do it because it's part of who she is.

[Blythe]

I mean, whether you'd want to make time to do that is. That's a questionable decision. But I tell your point.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

If she doesn't go for whatever reasons and other cases where she can't go, she doesn't say, oh, my real life has got in the way because going much in boat Wanderers is her life.

[Blythe]

It's not a separate thing. I mean, maybe we're more prone to say real life because most of the games we play or all the games we play are about fantasy worlds that aren't real, so. But I know you may.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

I've never seen Bo Wonders play.

[Blythe]

I would say that's a fantasy or not nightmare. Well, who's your nominee? Nus.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

My nominee.

[Blythe]

You're talking around the houses here, aren't you? Yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

And look at the transcripts. That's what we do every time.

[Callum]

Yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

But my nominee is going to be Roy Duffing. This year I started and concluded the six Seasons in Sartre campaign for Marine Quest Grand Theft and I really enjoyed it. It was on every Thursday, every fortnight. And for people who don't know what that campaign is, Six Seasons in satire is a published campaign. It's part of the.

[Blythe]

Yeah, I've heard of it.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Community content. The way that it works is that you're part of a tribe. It's actually in all the stuff that you do on tables, character creation. You remember that it takes three and a half hours.

[Blythe]

Takes three and a half hours. And then Eddie's character was killed in the first hour. You just have to do it again.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Well, imagine doing that over six months, right? That's what you're doing.

[Blythe]

Okay.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

What you're doing is creating your character, but taking them from being teenagers to being part of the tribe and going season upon season, year upon year, till they get to the point where you're fully initiating part of the tribe. So you're actually playing through.

[Blythe]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like a life path kind of thing that you're playing through.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's very distinctive. And Roy has played this a number of times now, taken a lot of players through it. It's got a bit of a legendary stat, particularly the way that he does it, because last time we talked about a cast of thousands, didn't we? Now this campaign has a cast of hundreds. You're part of a community. They all have a significant role and consequential role in your life. But rather than having a big data dump of these are the people and why. Very cleverly. And there's like a pretty sequence, so you have like a credit sequence for each session before each season. And part of that is to establish who you are in that season, so what stage you're at, but also foreshadowing some of the people that you're going to meet.

[Blythe]

You're going to meet. That's a good idea, isn't it?

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

So the names stick and you've also got.

[Blythe]

So you've not met them yet?

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Not necessarily, no.

[Blythe]

But they'll be.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Yeah, they're part of your community. So they might be your uncle. Yes, but it's just reminding you that this uncle is going to be a part of this next session. And what that allows you to do during the session is just look up, just remind yourself who he is, of what relation he is to me.

[Blythe]

Yeah. So it's not like sprung on you where you go, oh, I remember. He's my uncle, isn't it? God, well, I forgot about him.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

And then you have to have a break. Yeah. Everything's explained to you. And what helped me appreciate it is that this Haribon clan is up in the hills, up in the mountains, quite far removed from other people in Dragon Pass. And the analog that Roy used was, you know, Afghan tribes up in the hills. So whatever. Whatever's happening, whatever form of movement is in the rest of the country, they're hardly touched by it because all they're bothered about is surviving from one one week to the next. Forming their own community brings out the background through incident. So you learn about the culture and the relationship between the cultures. You discover this ancient secret. It's revealed to you through adventure and things that you've got to interact with. So that was really good. And Roy had a really good way of presenting it and presenting all the characters. He did do that thing of saying, so how does your character think about that? And that was good. And I think what that drew out of us as a group of characters, so they were like teenagers. So it's like a teenage. That sense of being between knowing that you're going to go into adulthood, but also dealing with the fact that actually you're a bit naive and you're not very good at some of these things. So you really handled that those well. And it was formed a really strong bond between the other players as well during that session.

[Blythe]

The games we've both been talking about. You're not playing in my DCC game and I'm not playing in your inquest game. So we've nominated GMs. I can't say give it to Roy, you can't say give it to Andrew because you're not in that game. That's quite weird though, isn't it now?

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

It is weird.

[Blythe]

That's weird. I mean, talking of your transcript and going back to 2017 or 2018 or whatever, I never really used to handle it at all. We might have done at conventions we'd play different games, but we were never stuck into campaigns or ongoing games separately, weren't we? That's kind of a strange thing. And what's also strange about it is the difference between those two games. There are different ends of the gaming spectrum, aren't there? Mine involves going to the pub, going into a game shop, and fighting monsters in a completely bonkers gonzo dungeon. And yours is like a life path creation. What do your characters think about this kind of thing? It's really. It's kind of really interesting that both ended up this year.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

My grandfather died in battle and I fell.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Actually grief and emotion, real emotion. A sense of, oh, this is really.

[Blythe]

Sad that this year that's what's happened. We've gone slightly different directions, but opposite ends of the game. In quite opposite ends, but very different. Yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Within the spectrum. It's very different.

[Blythe]

It's very different. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that has to be a joint ward.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

We're growing as people. Blythe.

[Blythe]

Yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

I can give it to you and I'll give it to you.

[Blythe]

Oh, okay. Okay.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Next up.

[Blythe]

That's not fair. Give it to Roy and Andrew. Come on, come on, don't be mean. I'll give it to Ryan and Andrew.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

There you go.

[Blythe]

Joint. Sure.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Ignore this. It's a rug covering a hole. Okay, and here we go. Next is the Olive Kingsburg players. Players and the people who play this. This is the one.

[Blythe]

I never remember who it's for or why.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

I suppose this is your player experience.

[Blythe]

And you've kind of touched on that, I suppose. Yeah. Yeah. The DCC experience has been.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

What other experience would. Has been a highlight this year as a player?

[Blythe]

I. I think again. Oh, sorry. I do sound like a cultist, don't I? One of my highlights as a player was playing in Brendan lasalle's X Kroll Classics game.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Oh, yeah.

[Blythe]

Expo, which I really enjoyed largely because he's quite. He's a good GM and he's kind of quite energized and everything. That's what was good about it.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

And he allowed you rogue to be a rogue.

[Blythe]

He allowed this. This is the fascinating thing about it. You see, again, in Andrew's game, it's the first time I've ever had to make a roll. Fifteen or more of you dead. In Brendan's game, I would say that's the first time I've ever been allowed by a GM to be rogue. So it was like they're not quite in ex con, they're not quite rogues, but it is essentially a rogue. You know, move silently, climb surfaces, all the kind of thiefy things. At one point, I apologize, I apologized to him because I was kind of. Every room we went in, I said, can I try and hide the shadows? And he went, yeah, yeah, try it. So, yeah, you're hidden, right? Okay, can I climb along the wall? Yeah, you can do. Yeah, roll it. Yeah, you know, okay. So I was kind of hiding and backstabbing all the time and climbing the walls, climbing the ceilings and scouting ahead and all these things. And I said at one point we had a break and I said, I'm not ruining this game, am I, by doing all this? And he said, no, that's what you should be doing as a rogue. That is what you should do every time you go in a room. Roll for this, roll for that. What was amazing was he allowed me to because I've played so many of those kind of games where you say, can I. Can I hide in shadows? Oh, no, no, no, no, no. GMs. Is there. No, no, there's not enough shadows here. Not enough shadows. Or you're in the room now or. And you think, what's the point of this? What's the point? And of course, the point is in those games, you know, people often look at all thieves in D and D. Oh, they've got 30% chance of hiding the shadows. What's the point? Well, the point is you should roll it every time, every room, roll it and be allowed to roll it, because that's what you're supposed to do.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

And we talked, didn't we, in our DCC episode about playing Likemar? Because that was a DCC campaigner. We participated. That's probably the longest run that I've done of dcc and I enjoyed it.

[Blythe]

Yeah, I really enjoyed being a player because again, it gave you that feeling of I've played these kind of characters before, but I've never always feel like I've never quite been allowed to do the things they're supposed to do. And that's what made it a very enjoyable experience.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

We've managed to play quite a lot of games. Well, six. And that's probably the most we've done for the last few years.

[Blythe]

With Eddie.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

With Eddie gm.

[Blythe]

Yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

His Han campaign, which for me is probably the most nostalgic experience that we have. If we want to say that part of this experience is rekindling what we had back in the day, that's got to be it, hasn't it?

[Blythe]

Yeah, yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

There's just something about the sun coming through the window. Edited. They're only short sessions.

[Blythe]

Car maps and all that. Carlos come out.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Yeah. And it's a typical Eddie scenario as well. It's got all the characteristics of an Eddie scenario. Slightly the best on Lord Valentine's castle. Robert Silverberg's.

[Blythe]

Oh, yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

About the amnesiac.

[Blythe]

That's right. The amnesiac kind of print. Print, yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

That we're on the hunt for.

[Blythe]

We're on the hunt for. And his soul's been trapped in a jar somewhere, hasn't it? So he just can't. He's not. He's kind of an amnesiac, but he's not quite himself, is he? No. His personality's been sealed up and there's.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Some conspiracy that we're slowly on earth. It's from place to place that that is trying to swap out the rulers.

[Blythe]

And I suppose as well with system. It's open quest, isn't it? So it's kind of basic role playing. So again, that has a nostalgic kind of.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

And it moves fast the way that Eddie plays it. It moves fast, as I say, the short sessions because we have a good old chat afterwards, don't we? We have a quick game and then have a chat. So I've enjoyed that.

[Blythe]

Again, it comes back to that thing, doesn't it? That's part of what the hobby's about, is about socializing with people and. And having fun rather than worrying too much about the finer points of it.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Yeah, but that's not my nomination.

[Blythe]

Oh, okay.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

I'm gonna nominate one that's completely absorbed and is. It is about the finer parts of it. You can see that I'm gone down it.

[Blythe]

We have gone down to nine different roles, haven't we now? Yeah, we have.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Because we never play again together every fortnite. Except when I don't. We're playing unknown Arvis.

[Blythe]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Which has been a great experience. We've learned the rules and the setting as we've gone along. As players and as a gm. It's set in modern times, which is unusual to do, isn't it? To set it in contemporary environment.

[Blythe]

Yeah, yeah. People. Yeah. Things are often set in modern times, but not quite. No.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

You know, I mean.

[Blythe]

Yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

So we are a group of campaigners. Crap. I can't remember what it stands for, but we're the title of.

[Blythe]

Maybe it doesn't stand for anything.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

It's another campaign. Maybe you just are crap in Hereford. This is a real world issue. Why the river is polluted. We're trying to get to the bottom of why the river is being polluted. It's part of some technocr.

[Blythe]

The worst kind of necromancy that they're.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Trying to build up regulations and to kind of bureaucratize. I think by pointing the river they're going to get more regulations. But obviously it has real world consequences. And we're unearthing great plots by various Fay and the Clone Prince as represented by Boris Johnson. One of the highlights of this year, my character is an adept who's obsessed with fire and was blowing up a Rotary club where Boris Johnson was visiting. So that the sewers exploded in a demonstration. If that isn't eccentric enough. What about releasing loads of battery ends during a rave? Because you need to have the rave as part of the ritual magic.

[Blythe]

I think blowing up a rosary club for Boris Johnson present wins you the award. I think indisputable that as a player.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Nobody was harmed during this explosion. It was just. It was kind of visible.

[Blythe]

Was anyone harmed in the game? In the game world, I mean. No one was harmed. No, no, no. Just clarity. No one was harmed.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

There might be people who were treated for dysentery, both as players and in the real world. What. But that's an interesting point you're making there. Because it started to. We've got so into it. We've got so into it that it starts to overlap into our lives.

[Blythe]

You know, you see Boris Johnson as the clown prince. You see him that way. I've always seen him as. Well, you've always seen him that way.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

That's not changed. Yeah, but part of our role is we're trying to engage with Fergal Sharkey as an influencer to try and get win our cause. And Kia, who's also playing, was also trying to. In his real world life, tried to contact. And I said, well, I can do better than that. Because as part of the game we're lobbying the council at Hereford. And I just so happened that the next day we played, I was in an event with a Hereford councillor sitting next to me. It was like the real world was bleeding into the game.

[Blythe]

What about that clown Pringside? Yeah, the dysentery outbreak at the Rosary Club. What are you talking about? Those chickens, he said sat next. And he's leaning to his Eastern Rotary Club. A bunch of technomancers.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

I could go into the mechanics. Then the mechanics work. But maybe we should do that. Another game. I'm going to run a game for you.

[Blythe]

Oh, that sounds good. That sounds good.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

It's. And I think my enjoyment of unknown armies has been helped by the release of one battle after another. Which doesn't have magic in it, but is essentially that story of broken people trying to make the world a better place.

[Blythe]

You do get Fugal Shark involved, don't you? Invite his perfect cousin. Irritating fellow. Yeah, well, the sheep is a betio.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Yeah. And what I like to do, he doesn't. All right, next up.

[Blythe]

So you see what I'm going to go into that is going to your experience playing that. Then you're forgetting about the award if you're getting them. Opening the golden envelope. Open the golden envelope.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Oh, God.

[Blythe]

It's like the golden emblems don't exist.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Okay, let me open this.

[Callum]

Yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Always had games with Eddie, but it wasn't even nominated. But gets it by a win.

[Blythe]

Well done, Eddie. Are you sure?

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

It's my round.

[Callum]

New kids on the top.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

The tabletop. So this is a new game that we've played of experience during this year. Yeah. And what have you got?

[Blythe]

Mythic Bastion. Lod playing Mythic Bastion.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Oh yeah, we did, didn't we, Missy?

[Blythe]

Bastian Land.

[Callum]

Like that.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

And this is a kind of Pendragon type game, isn't it?

[Blythe]

It is. It's a bit like Pendragon where you play knights. Different types of knights. It uses the into the odd system, doesn't it? But it's a little bit tweaked, the combat system. There's a little bit more to it, which I think actually makes it better. A bit more going on. There's a few, like your knights have different tricks and stunts that they can do and they have special powers. It's a much more magic rich world than Pendragon, I would say. And some of the knights have magical abilities, don't they? You know, they can like shape change or do stuff like that.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

So I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna do that callback actually to Lioness. It feels like a much more tight Valancian world, doesn't it?

[Blythe]

Yeah. And the idea is with it. And this is. I suppose there's a slight problem with it, but we'll come on to that in a minute. But the idea is you explore. It's like a hex crawl. So you have an area of land that has knights. You have to go into that land and tame it and deal with certain myths and legends and problematic characters that might be monsters or they might just be misunderstood. That's the idea. You go in and it's got in. The rule book is basically the rules are relatively simple, but the rule book is a load of. It's quite an achievement, actually. Got a load of playbooks, nights kind of playbooks. So I'm sure there's about 70 odd different nights you can play. You pick one, you roll the stats, but you get, you know, like a playbook thing. There's a lot of them and then there's a lot of these kind of myths that it's called. These myths that are all like little plot hooks that are adventures in themselves. And again, there's probably about 70 odd of those as well, or different ones. Myth of the goblin, myth of the wyvern, myth of the. This myth of that. And you basically it tells you how hex and create an area and drop in three or four of these myths to be resolved. And then there's these things called omens, which are like encounters that hint at what's going on. So it's like a procedural game, but there's also the lonely fun thing of creating a landscape.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Yeah. And I'd say the experience of playing it. And this is what Chris does really well, isn't it, is that sense that the players are discovering the world as it emerged from playing in it. So it's, you know, we were talking earlier, weren't we, about the data dump thing. But it's just relevant to the encounters that you have that you find out the significance.

[Blythe]

Yeah. But I suppose the tricky thing with it is we've played it as one shots and it does work as a one shot. It's worked and it's been quite. It's been good for. But it does feel like more of a campaign game. It does feel like a campaign game where you explore an area and things gradually emerge. Whereas as a one shot you've got to try and direct things a little bit more. And it does have a bit of guidance in the rules about running it for one shot, how you should do it. But I suppose it's the same game, but the flavor of it, the style of it is slightly different. In a one shot, I played Blade.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Runner for the first time. I run a game of Blade Runner, but it was the height of my J mitis at Hobo or Albert.

[Blythe]

Albert. Elbow. Albert's elbow. Albert.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

The wizard staff ran it there, but it wasn't quite satisfactory. I didn't quite get what I wanted from it. It just came away fairly inside. A bit nonplussed by it.

[Blythe]

Yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

I feel like I need to give it another go out.

[Blythe]

Yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

And give it a bit more time. Probably doesn't fit in a convention. Probably needs a few sessions to get it working. So I'm not going to nominate that. Although that's a new game. I'm going to pick one that is fairly new to us even though we started at the very beginning of the year and that's Fall of Delta Green, which is the Gum shoe. As was it taking Delta Green into culture at the end of the 60s, early 70s and all the kind of world events that were happening there. This is a point where Delta Green was an official organization within the U.S. government. It was recognized before the ages became burned out and had to go under cover. And I've enjoyed getting to grips with the Gumshoe system because, you know, Plague Knight, Black Agents. But like lots of systems, little quirks in each iteration of it.

[Blythe]

Yeah, yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

And trying to catch you out a.

[Blythe]

Bit because you think, I've played this game before, it'd be fine. And then there's little quirks and you think, oh well, that's different. I have to remember that.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So one of the things is the lethality rating of guns because it's. This has been more real world consequences. Whereas next Black Agents is all about the movies. Movies. Yeah, yeah. Whereas this is. Yeah. If a gun's got lethality rating and automatic fire, it just does 12 damage regardless and whatever you roll on top of it. So which is enough for you usually to shred people or be shredded. Yes.

[Blythe]

That's the other problem, isn't it? Yeah. I mean, let's not forget. Well, as players you were fine to shred the enemy, but don't onto us.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

I'm also getting to grips with how stability and sanity work. In effect. You are getting that steady disintegration of your characters as they're getting hardened by events that they're exposed to. Which is what you want you expect from like.

[Blythe]

Yeah, that's the kind of game it is.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Yeah. Cthulhu game. So I'm really enjoying getting to grips for that. But we did discover a flaw with Gumshoe didn't we? That we want to point out. So the investigative skills thing were the straw man that, yes, Grump Shoe is meant to defeat is you get the clue, don't you? You get the clue. You never get to a point where you roll on.

[Blythe]

So you've got. If you've got history, for example, you've got a point in history. That means you're an expert in history. And therefore, if there's a history clue, you get it. You don't have to roll for it. You have to make a history roll at 30%, I conclude.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Yeah, he's playing out that thing, isn't it, where, you know, he might have botany. Well, you might have it at 10%.

[Blythe]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the GM wants you to get botany or the clue. Therefore, if you've got in gumpture, pointing Botany, you'll get the clue. There you go.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

The difficulty is if you don't have.

[Blythe]

Botany, if you don't have Botany, you've nobody's chance, which is what happened. No, no one's got botany. Oh, right. Well, does that mean they can't have the clue? Oh, right. That's just as.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

In fact, it's worse because you've got 10%.

[Blythe]

If everyone's got five players and they've all got 10% bottom it, someone might do it. But if no one's got it or you can't have it, then you can't have the clue. But I thought the whole point of this game was to give us the clue. Yeah, it's a bit odd like that. I find it a peculiar. I must admit. I'm enjoying the game. I'm enjoying the kind of. That Vietnam setting. It's a good, good game. Good scenario and everything. But the game itself is a bit. Is a bit peculiar, I find. Yeah, it's one of those games. And this happens sometimes, doesn't it? There are. Sometimes there are games that you read and you think, not sure about this now when you play them, you think, oh, it's really good. Gump Shoot. Paul Delta greens. It's the opposite. When I read the rules, I thought, oh, yeah, I like this. I like all this. It's good. But when I play it, I always think weird. This Ben's system is odd as well.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Yeah. On general abilities.

[Blythe]

Yeah, it's really on the general abilities, where to do stuff. Basically, you've got a roll of four or more and a. And you've got points. So if you've got four points in.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Advance, it might be a different.

[Blythe]

It might be a Different threshold. It'd be something more difficult if you set four basic, sustainable. And if you've got athletics, four points. Athletics before you roll, you can spend a point, two points, three points. Spend all four, couldn't you, if you wanted to?

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Yeah.

[Blythe]

You know, spend three points and guarantee success. Or two points when you run out of points. It's kind of weird things a play away. You think, oh, so my character's an Ecto Marine and he's got. I think he's got 11 points in shooting firearms. So he's like a crack shot. But it's surprising in a fight how you run. You run out of those points and then you think, well, what is it? You forgot how to use a gun now?

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Yeah.

[Blythe]

I mean, I know they explain it as a narrative thing. I think this is what's odd about it. They explain it in the game, I think, as a narrative device. Yeah.

[Callum]

Seven up.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Because when you'll need them, you'll need them.

[Blythe]

You'll need them. You might need them against the big boss at the end, but of course, as a player, you're thinking, this might not be the big boss, but it's a fight, and if I don't spend the points, they might. They might beat us. So I'm gonna spend points. I don't want to stay alive. I don't want to go. I've got 11 points in shooting everyone. But, you know, I'm not gonna spend any fighting these Viet Cong bad guys who've got machine guns because I want to save them for later. But people would say, if you do.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

That, we're gonna get taken.

[Blythe]

They're shredded out with by their machine guns. Suspend the damn things. But I know right now I've spent them all. All right, now it's the big boss at the end. Which end of this gun do I use? I can't remember now. It's odd. I find. I do find it. I'm enjoying playing it. Don't get me wrong. I don't think it's like a terrible system or anything, but there are bits of it that are quite difficult to get your head around as a player. Maybe it's me. Not quite. No.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

I think.

[Blythe]

I don't think it is in it.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

I think the measure of those points and the general abilities of those spotlight ties where your character is meant to make the significant difference by being part of it. But you're right, if you got an adventure or a scenario like the one we've got, where you're in a place of danger, you're going to need to.

[Blythe]

I think you're right. That's a good observation. And that's how it's kind of been actually when we've played it. So when we've been in like Saigon investigating stuff, it all seems fine.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Yeah.

[Blythe]

I'll spend a point of preparedness to have a torch or I'll spend a bit of hours to sneak and fall some. That's not fine. But when we got dropped into the jungle and we crash landed in the jungle and we thought, oh, we're really in a mess now we're really in trouble. It was athletics roles to get out of the helicopter alive. Oh, I've lose all my athletics now. That brought it in quite sharp focus where I thought, oh, this. We're burning through these points, aren't we? We've not really done much. We're just staying alive. We're not even out of the jungle. Yeah, that's kind of. Yeah, that's hard to think about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Callum]

You're right.

[Blythe]

When you're in. When the. When the danger cranks up, the points disappear pretty quickly.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Yeah. And what the. What something like night blockades does because you're more capable, because it is more of a movie emulator, is that it gives you chances to refresh during the game. Now, you know I'm being a bit more generous in because it's a big operation.

[Blythe]

Yes.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

So I'm giving points where you can't refresh and I think you have done now that you go to the jump.

[Blythe]

Yeah. Let's get the envelope. Okay.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Mythic Bastionland.

[Blythe]

I wonder what. Wonder what AI will make of that one in the transcript. Mythic Bastion World.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

One of the things that we do as part of this is to give awards to other people. The groggy of the year.

[Dirk]

Yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Because this thing of ours has been built up like an online community. But it has a physical dimension as well, doesn't it? Grog meet next week.

[Blythe]

Yeah, next week by me.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

When we put this out, it'll be all over with.

[Blythe]

It'll be over. Yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Let's hope those tables and chairs turn on. If those tables are chairs, nobody will hear this because it'll affect me on death.

[Blythe]

Your own death.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Yeah.

[Blythe]

That is the point where take your own death. Yeah. And take my own death as well.

[Callum]

Yes.

[Blythe]

But I'm not hanging around. Take the wrap. You're going to leave your clothes inside the beach. So that'd be different. Beach looks weird if it's on the same one. You go to Sagport, I go to Mark Okay.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Same day.

[Blythe]

Yeah. Because I kind of build up a.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Story once and make everybody feel guilty about how they were complaining.

[Blythe]

Yeah. To drop me.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

There were any tables.

[Blythe]

Not complaining now. Well, maybe they are. So maybe they would be.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

So part of. Is an online community, part of this physical community. People get together who had played like four, five, seven years ago and they playing together as a consequence to listening to the podcast, which is a great thing, but it's not really. It's something that's happened by accident. And it's not down to us. It's happened. It's down to the people out there who do it.

[Callum]

Yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

So I'm going to put forward this time for nomination for creating a London chapter of Grog Meet Grog Law.

[Blythe]

Yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

It's called Grog Law because it was near the law courts originally and Grog Love. And so I'm going to nominate Dave Patterson and Jim Mosley for creating that song.

[Blythe]

Absolutely.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Joint winners.

[Blythe]

Joint winners have to share it.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Yeah. For creating that mantle piece and put it on your mantelpiece.

[Blythe]

Well done.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Groggies of the Year.

[Blythe]

Excellent.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Good painting.

[Callum]

Yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Dave and you.

[Blythe]

Yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

And then the last bit of business we have is who do you think's been nominated or who do you think won the Grog pod of the year as none. As voting on by the listeners. God.

[Blythe]

Oh, no. I'm not good at this. I can never. I. I think we have a. We have a bit of an in joke, don't we, Me and you? But what do we know?

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Yeah, what do we know?

[Blythe]

What do we know? Because we can never really tell when things are going to take people's interest on.

[Callum]

Not.

[Blythe]

It's kind of quite unpredictable.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

So I don't know if this works when things are joint. So I'm just gonna say that there's a joint second and first place because there's two on each.

[Blythe]

Okay. Joint first and joint second.

[Callum]

Yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Yeah.

[Callum]

I never know how it works because.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

In some, you know, in those rankings, it means if you got a joint first, it eliminates the second place. Do you see what I mean?

[Blythe]

Yeah, I see what you mean.

[Dirk the Dice]

Yeah.

[Callum]

Yeah.

[Blythe]

Does it? It doesn't have to. You can make it up. It's all made up. It's not like no one's gonna. Surely no one's gonna complain. Hang on. I'm sorry about this, but in traditional awards, if there's two joint. You know, you'd be surprised. I would be, yeah.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Second place. Okay. Is in joint second place, Dungeon Crow Classics with Brendan and ten Years of the Grognard Fireloss. Okay, There you go. That was intense. So in joint first place and tested right to the bitter end of the poll closing magic in RPGs with Stu Horvath. Oh, yeah, somebody said that. That was like listening to David Bowie and Kate Bush talking about role playing games. I don't know what they meant by that.

[Blythe]

Who said that? But there you go.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

And then the other joint winner I'm.

[Blythe]

Going to come back to that is.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Swedish RPG Magnus Theatre. And you like that one?

[Blythe]

I like the all, obviously, apart from the bits where I'm speaking.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Yes.

[Blythe]

But I take Bush and David Bow.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

I try and cut as much as.

[Blythe]

I as I can, but you can't cut it all out. That's what makes me laugh. But Kate Bush and David. But who's who, though?

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

I'd like to think I'm Kate Bush.

[Blythe]

Oh, God, no. That's a thought. Don't put that thought in my head. The lovely Kate Bush is you.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Yes.

[Blythe]

And he's David Bowie.

[Callum]

Way out on the white.

[Blythe]

What AI will make of that?

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

I've got all ear tabs underneath this chainmail.

[Blythe]

One babushka. Cheers, Bly. Thanks. You've ruined everything. There isn't another bit.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Thanks to Callum for spending the time and talking to us about French speaking RPGs and his new Kickstarter. I'll put a link to that in the show notes. I do promise to look at some more gaming cultures. If you want to recommend somebody who can give us a good account of other places where games are played.

[Dirk]

I'd love to hear from you. Thank you for listening, thank you for.

[Host (possibly the main Grognard Files host)]

Subscribing, thank you for sharing this and most of all, thanks to the patrons who keep this show on the road. And we have a whole host of different things you can get. If you're a patron, you can get extra podcasts, access to our online gaming community and loads of stuff. And do you know what? We've got another project bubbling away in the background, which I don't really have time or space here to tell you about, but I will do next time. We did promise last time that we would be going chaotic. Well, we bumped that along and that will be coming quite soon, so hold on to your hats for that. Get ready to rock.