With Christmas behind me, it was time to prepare for Grogten, the inaugural gaming event in the lovely seaside town of Tenby in South Wales hosted by Dr Frankenstein RPG Podcast himself Bagpuss Grognard. This year I had an added complication; I wouldn’t have access to the family car, but fortunately Jeremy was able to offer me a lift.
So it was that very early on the Thursday morning I met Jeremy at a junction off the M6 and we took the long drive across Wales. The weather was fine, the conversation top notch and the time flew past. Before we knew it, we’d arrived. In some ways this is the perfect moment of the weekend (of every similar weekend), when you have the whole thing ahead of you.
Thursday: Battletech and Boardgames
After catch-ups and hugs and a particularly joyful reunion with Bagpuss Grognard who’s been missing from events for a few months, it was down to business. Food and beer! And then gaming. Thursday gaming can be a bit more varied (as in, games other than RPGs), so this year we kicked off with a game of Battletech, played out on a 3D arena constructed with engineering precision by Battletech MC Orlanth Vex. It didn’t take too long to pick our mechs and learn the rules; these were fairly simple and flowed well and before too long we were blowing the living shite out of each other. The game ran on into the evening, and as the numbers diminished the sides change, first 3v3, then 2v2 and finally a three way head to head. Despite Orlanth Vex being the overseer, somehow he ended up winning the whole thing!
After a wonderful South African supper of Bobotie and Melktert, cooked by weekend chef Jeremy we were onto the evening game. A bit of a change of pace, Bagpuss Grognard brought out Heat, a formula one racing game which turned out to the be quite a bit of fun. IIRC it was Sam who took crossed the line first, a well deserved victory (don’t tell him I said that!)
One of the many joys of the Grogten weekend is sitting in the lounge with a drink, talking bollocks and catching up, discussing plans for the weekend ahead. Thus we ended the first day of Grogten, a weekend of promise ahead.
Friday: WFRP, Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures, the Fellowship is complete
After a hearty breakfast fit to satisfy the greediest hobbit we were down to business; a WFRP adventure into the haunted rivers of the Old Empire with GM Jeremy. Our party started in Tenbyheim and were hired to get to the bottom of missing shipments, ships and crews on the river. Rumours of ghosts, nyads and dead children had us on edge from the start. I played Athanil Fireheart, an elven scout with a penchant for theft; I didn’t realise that elves are widely despised in WFRP, so it was a relief to get onto the river. Strange alliances followed which lead us to a mysterious island and the cause of the problems. We handily tacked resolved the issues in the usual WFRP way with of a bit of creativity, luck and lots of death (both PC and NPC).
The traditional pasty lunch (a staple we had 3 times over the weekend; there are a couple of fantastic bakeries in Tenby) saw us replenished, and ready to start an afternoon/evening session of Beyond the Wall and Other Adventures.
BtW featured at Grogten a couple of years ago (it was Bagpuss Grognard running it then as well). With its unique character creation process tying the party together and building their home village being so enjoyable, we went through all that again and created a mixed band with investment in the home village of Rowland. Bagpuss Grognard used the Goblin Infestation scenario playbook from Dangers Near and Far which saw our heroes and their village threatened by a goblin chieftain who not only terrorised the place, setting buildings on fire, but also enslaved villagers and orphans and carried them away. What a fiend!
The game was paused while tea was prepare and served, fantastic curries from Bagpuss Grognard and Jim “Old Man Slippers” Failing Forward. It was amazing, but I was already starting to fear facing the scales on my return home.
Back to BtW, I played the halfling outrider Gorbadoc Proudfoot, one of the nine heroes of Rowland (others included Morgan the Organ, a woodsman, and the village hero Gravel Axe!) We set out to free the villagers, encountering extreme weirdness before the adventure took a dark turn (which I won’t linger on here). Goes without saying we killed the baddies, including the terrifying War Pig, it was the least they deserved for their vile acts! A fantastic sessions with a strong old school flavour.
By the close of Friday the full company was assembled, and we settled down in the lounge to an evening of chat accompanied with fine cheese and port! How refined we are.
Saturday: Greek myths, gods, demi-gods and heroes, plus a pie and a pint
If the Friday breakfast was good, Saturday breakfast was even better. It was like first, second and third breakfasts all wrapped into one!
Another Grogten tradition is the full day Greek Mythos game, GMd by Sam using his Pendragon Mythic Greece hack. We play significant characters in these heroic adventures, mortals, heroes and demi-gods, facing the terrifying monsters of the myths (not all of whom were our enemies), our fate shaped by the fickle gods. The villain King Archon kidnapped the Princess Alexandra at the games to celebrate King Hector’s coming of age sending us on a quest featuring the lovely Medusa, Prometheus, a giant octopus, duplicitous Amazonians and a wilderness trip across the face of Atlas to reach Tartarus and face the terrible Hekatoncheries. I’ll avoid spoilers about the final confrontation, but it was epic.
Great fun as always (I played my ever popular demi-god Diomedes!) with some epic set pieces and memorable moments. Be interesting to see where this heads next as we may have pissed off Zeus just a little.
Gaming done for the day we went out for a few pints and a bite to eat at the Tap & Tan, followed by further drinks and chat in the lounge. Also, a partial watching of RRR encouraged by Doc Cowie and Of Dice and Men… I will keep my opinions to myself on this matter, other than to say I’ll never forgive them for that lost hour of my life!
Sunday: Battletech the rematch, the breaking of the Fellowship and MERP
All good things must come to an end, and so the party was split with Doc Cowie heading back very early and Of Dice and Men and Orlanth Vex setting off home after the morning session.
So after another substantial breakfast the mechs came out again for another round of Battletech. With 4 players a side it was a good old slugfest, and this time we didn’t get to play down to the last mech, good fun all the same.
Later into the afternoon and evening Bagpuss Grognard ran MERP for those left behind. Set in the town of Strayhold on the eastern edge of Mirkwood, we were hired by Gandalf to assassinate Leardinoth, an evil sorcerer believed to be allied with the Necromancer in Mirkwood. The game was choc full of flavour and adventure with the MERP system doing the job admirably well. Bagpuss Grognard handed out different crit and fumble tables to the players which really speeded up combat, and the game moved along at quite a pace.
Of course, we completed the mission set for us, with only one casualty, my character Mirathorn meeting his sad end right at the game as is appropriate for a one shot. Would love to play more MERP again.
Now thoroughly knackered, we had a brief retreat to the lounge, but most folk called it a night at a reasonable time.
Monday: Game over man
And that was it, Grogten over for another year. Farewells were said, and we all headed home. Like the journey to Tenby we had good weather, and of course there was great conversation with Jeremy all the way.
A huge thanks goes to Bagpuss Grognard for hosting us across the weekend and to everyone who was there, you’re the a swell bunch of Grognards, the best a fella’ could know!
Already looking forward to Tenby next year and catching up with this wonderful gang of gamers online and at other events.
Old Scouser Roleplaying 