GrogMeat 2021 Meat Space is back on the menu
I've never been to a Gaming Conference before and it's been nearly three decades since I played face to face...
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| GrogMeat 2021, Manchester |
...so, I thought what better way to raise my blood pressure than to go to a con, play and run a game at GrogMeat 2021 the gaming con, coming back into meat space (virtual space games also available) post pandemic. It's run by the hosts of The Grognard Files podcasts, Dirk the Dice and Judge Blythy.
I'd spent days leading up to the con, figuring out ways to back out gracefully whilst also laying traps to stop me, posting on social media about stuff I was running, booking the cheapest but also least flexible transport and hotel.
Ultimately, work went a bit insane so my brain was kept busy with other stuff and before I knew it, I was boarding a train to Manchester, the journey was super quick and the train was very quiet, a whole table to myself. I arrived just before 12 and decamped to Motel One opposite the station [Tip: Quiet rooms are on the 8th floor, oddly numbered]. I got forty winks and then prep'd for a late-night game of Paranoia, this was a last-minute idea of joining a game from my hotel room, 11.30pm-3am. Internet was saying a download speed of 1.6MB/s, this was inauspicious. I then did a bit of prep for The Dee Sanction game I had created/stolen by mashing it up with an 80s RPG and I also took part in my favourite pastimes of procrastination and faffing.
I arrived at Fan Boy Three at about 1.15pm and almost uttered the phrase, "Hello, I'm a grognard. I'm here for GrogMeat." before stopping myself because firstly, they'd know that, because I'm old, grey, bearded and wear glasses. Secondly, I had a t-shirt on that also announced this. This was definitely the first day at school moment, as I stood in the corner, sweating, trying to clean my glasses, get a signal on my phone and find the table I'd been assigned, but within a few moments I was sitting down with Cris, James, Mark & Mark and our GM for the first game, Rick...
[I am aiming to do a full write up of each game over the coming week(s), and will add the related links below when I do]
Friday
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| Barbarians of Lemuria |
This was the bastard offspring of, not a 100 maniacs, but Neil, a multi-table event where we had to select various missions which would give us victory points, these points would then adjust a dice roll, which would give us an overall bonus that could be used in the final roll, across all the tables, to see if the world could be saved or would be overrun by Demon kind.
We started on a Rescue mission, slowly getting to grips with the system, it was pretty simple but seemed to have that little bit of variety that turns a simple & dull system into something special. The spending of hero points, to Control the Narrative was expertly utilised by one of the Marks.
We continued on, craftily combining the Kill a VIP and Destroy missions into one, but then crapped out on the roll to get our overall bonus to take into the final die roll to save the world. As it turns out, our penalty to the roll made sure the world was burnt to a crisp and the Demon horde ruled forevermore, can't win 'em all. A fantastic start to GrogMeat and some very memorable moments, which I'll capture when I write this up. A big thanks to Rick for GMing, his first BoL game, but you couldn't see the joins and he and the other players turned it into an awesome experience.
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| The Dee Sanction |
I was up next, I'd offered to run a game of The Dee Sanction, I started off as a lowly tester of a brilliant implementation of the rules in the Foundry VTT by Chris Sharp, but had since been hooked and I think the running of games now stretches into double figures. I felt very comfortable with the mechanics and sticky points of the rules. In addition, because running a game face-to-face after 30 years isn't stressful enough - I decided to write my first Dee Sanction scenario and introduce it at this time and place - I am an idiot.
My scenario, in best Grognard tradition, was a reworking of 1980s Thieves' Guild 3, The Duke's Dress Ball. When I say reworking, I'd switched Duke Fernando di Cotillion with Sir Francis Drake and the Duke's City Estate became Buckland Abbey. Also, the Thieves' Guild scenario is just a series of opportunities to pilfer items, rather than any complex plot. I added some supernatural elements, related to Drake's recent return from circumnavigating the globe and threw in one of the more interesting characters from Thieves' Guild 3, that of Flame Master Carn Ne-Seval plus the opportunity to play a few rounds of an ancient precursor to chess, Chaturanga. Lastly, I transposed some of the 60+ timed events, to give the Agents an opportunity to plan how to get into the grounds.
Again, I'll cover the actual scenario in more detail in my write up, but after a brief intro for Debbie and Martin, helped by me having run online for Arjen and Chris, we got going. I stood for most of the GMing, as this felt most natural and allowed me to project my softish voice a bit more. The group dived in headfirst to make the game special, as it still has a lot of things to iron out, but they really developed their characters and were inventive and totally immersed in the setting. A big shout out to Martin, who broke the sound barrier to make it from the train station to Fan Boy Three in perfect timing as I'd stupidly given him the wrong start time.
Overall I was pretty pleased that folks enjoyed themselves and the various things I threw in their path were fun or challenging, it got a little bit "scooby doo" at the end as I juggled timings of events and threw in the kitchen sink, plus we were all a little exhausted from early starts, long days and a fair amount of adrenaline as we went through our first fact-to-face games for many years, for some of us.
Post gaming, people headed off to the pub, I decided I needed to grab some food and dump all my stuff, with Manchester rain lashing down and discombobulated by lack of food and a post-game comedown - I ended up dropping my wallet in Tescos as I paid and obliviously heading back to the hotel.
Back at the hotel, I realised I'd done something stupid, although luckily I had all my cards/cash in another pocket, so I decided to crash out and head to Tesco's first thing in the morning to see if some kind soul had offered up a battered waller with second class stamps, a work security pass and some receipts.
Saturday
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| Troika! |
Up early and the sun was also shining, I trotted over to Tesco and was handed back my wallet, after a series of rigorous security questions, "Is this your wallet?" "Yes." "Are you sure?" "Yes." "Ok, here you go." Result!
As I was heading up to The Fitzgerald, the location for my next game, I bumped into Andrew, I'd recently played with him on an online Dee Sanction game, so we went for a quick coffee with a few other attendees at hipster joint Ezra and Gil, round the corner from Fan Boy Three.
Soon after we were sitting down in the atmospheric upstairs of a pub as Rob aka JellyRovers on The Grognard Files discord, the GM, breezed through the rules of Troika! Myself, Dirk the Dice (Chris), Daily Dwarf (argh, can't remember, apologies!), Chunky Duff (Roy) and Clownf1st (Matt) settled down to make sense of it all.
A note here, that I think everyone who comes to GrogMeat should be issued with their social media moniker - Twitter handle, discord user name - in the form of a badge/tattoo to be worn at all times.
I won't go into the mechanics or setting in too much detail, they were simple and completely hatstand respectively. But also the game is deadly, our trusty stevedore Hoist had his stamina cut from 20 to 4 in one blow, we all drew an intake of breath, this was as deadly an OSR game that there was, under the guise of a cute, psychedelic setting populated with weird and wonderful munchkin type characters.
But things got better for the group and we romped through the scenario, enjoying every moment of ridiculousness and fleshing out our already characterful characters - Vengeful Child, the Befouler of Ponds, Hoist, Donkey Oaty and a fellow of the sublime society of beef steaks ...
A word for the GM too, I'd previously played with Rob when he ran an online Numenera game, the enthusiasm and energy shone through and it was no different in this game, he kept up a rollicking pace, putting forward interesting choices and challenges and it all seemed like a seamless, meticulously planned out adventure, when I'm sure it wasn't, but then, that is his skill!
Also mention for Dirk, he was busy at the start trying to rouse players from their slumber and get them to games - he must have a hell of a lot to organise and take care of - but he was always engaged in the game and his beef obsessed boxer, was another great character.
Definitely keen to play some more Troika!
We stayed on in the pub for a few drinks, chatting with Daily Dwarf, Jonac (a player in a Liminal game I'm part of on Sunday morning) and also had time to speak briefly with Chris Sharp aka Chris Sharp (the creator of the aforementioned Foundry Module for The Dee Sanction) and Jim aka JimJimtheGrim, who I was going to be running the Dee Sanction for, face-to-face again, in a few weeks time in that there London.
Back to Fan Boy Three, pizzas had arrived and after refuelling, we moved on to the final game...
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| Reboot the Future |
I was really looking forward to playing this, a big fan of Neuromancer/Snow Crash, I'd been introduced to The Sprawl when I first came back to the hobby in 2015, but we didn't really understand PbtA games and we gave up after a few sessions. More recently Sue had run a series of Sprawl sessions, that worked brilliantly and I'd got lots of enjoyment out of them. I was keen to run some Cyberpunk, but I tend to steer away from crunchy systems, for running anyway, and I wasn't sure my improvisational skills were up to it for The Sprawl. As Reboot the Future was based on Liminal, which I love and have played and run, I thought this would be a perfect fit. Also, through a series of blog entries, Newt had touched on lots of aspects of deficiencies in Cyberpunk systems that I agreed with and that he'd planned to address in his game.
Again, I'll write this up. But Andrew from breakfast, Rob (JellyRovers, a player this time) Pookie and I, delighted in getting into the unique Cyberworld and we had a full rundown of the setting background, character concepts and rules from the designer, Newt, himself. The play moved along quickly, helped by Newt bringing characters to life and pushing us along, New Oldham was familiar but altered by future events to become somewhat baffling; Perfect for a future setting and mystery focused game.
Hours rushed by in a frenzy of chrome, dust and dubious choices and we were done. A deserved round of applause for Newt and we headed off to the pub for a few drinks. At The Fitzgerald, I settled down with more lovely folk and was fascinated to listen to Kehaar formerly of Dissecting Worlds, discuss his homebrew campaign set on the island of Tenerife and to Debbie celebrating a raucous success of her running of Savage Worlds in the afternoon - it's these chats and so many more, which makes me want to sign up to new things, but I also need to keep my marriage going and I'm on the edge with the stuff I run and play in so far.
The Kickstarter is still running for this game, just 16 days (as of 15/Nov) to go, you can sign up here.
As the clock ticked on to 10pm, I decided to go back to the hotel and get some food on the way, I had signed up for an online game of Paranoia and it started in just over an hour.
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| Paranoia XP |
I'd been looking forward to this game, I'd also been nervous about it - it finished at 3am and I didn't know after a few pints if I'd fall asleep midgame, say something wildly inappropriate or just have a breakdown(!) - this is, after all, Paranoia, perhaps this is the way it should be played.
The game started dead at 11.30pm but unfortunately one of the players had to drop out due to a family emergency. So myself, Brett, Andy, SteW and then latterly Dirk, hot-footing it from last orders, made our way through the usually pristine, though sometimes blood-splattered, corridors of Paranoia, assisted and sometimes actively not by our GM Iain from the Roll to Save podcast.
This was a return for me, as I'd played in a Paranoia game at the same timeslot at an online grogmeet a year ago (nope, didn't learn my lesson). It's something about a late nite, slightly boozy-sleep deprived mindset, that suits Paranoia so well - this is almost like therapy, or at least shouting in your mates ear in the pub as he nods along, glassy-eyed.
The players were brilliant, lots of prep provided by Iain and the mission itself occasionally popped up, but this was about trying to walk a tightrope of bureaucracy as your teammates surreptitiously wriggled the rope at either end. The music and sound effects, were again top-notch, adding so much to the flavour and setting of the game.
The scenario ended with my two best rolls ever, in a Paranoia game, you could almost call it a successful mission! I find it hard to imagine that there is someone better than Iain at running this game, the line between slapstick and jeopardy is a fine one, but he runs along it brilliantly, like some kind of arm-waving, chattering, nimble gibbon.
I collapsed into bed, setting my alarm for a close-run dash to the Frankenstein RPG live podcast and then a final game of Cthulhu Dark Ages at Go Play Manchester/Post GrogMeat comedown party.
As it was I got a call at 7.30am, a big panic about A-Level assessment and my Geography/Data skills were needed, so, unfortunately, I had to head off home early, so I pinged the organisers with my apologies and only 8 hours later I was home!
Summary
Firstly, I must say a big thanks to Dirk, Blythy and all the GMs and organisers of GrogMeat including Fan Boy Three and The Fitzgerald. It was a safe and well-run con, with a very friendly and enthusiastic set of attendees. After a fair amount of stress, I enjoyed it immensely and I'm looking forward to next year, even the 3am finish for Paranoia, which feels like this is going to be an annual occurrence!
I probably underestimated the emotional energy expended by doing a face-to-face meetup or even the shock of finding out the avatars I played with online had real humans controlling them. There were times I was completely exhausted, but I'd say by Sunday morning, even though mentally knackered, I was starting to get over this, unfortunately, other circumstances got in the way.
I hope I can keep some of the friendship and games going with folks I met, some of whom I already play and run games with, but it would be great to do more games and plan more elaborate face to face sessions if time permits.
Lastly, for me a con (real or virtual) is all about new stuff; going to new places, playing games in a new way, trying new systems out, meeting new people, letting their enthusiasm rub off on you and taking it back into your RPGs! I appreciate for some it's about reliving past glories or games, finishing off that epic homebrew campaign, reliving your youth or simply spending time with friends. All of these aspects can be indulged in at GrogMeat and everyone seems to make space for others interests or needs to make this a happy and welcoming event.
The final point is, I don't really have any point of reference having never gone to a face-to-face gaming conference before. I am sure there are bigger ones and flashier ones and ones with a broader range of games, maybe more modern RPGs, and a more diverse range of attendees but GrogMeat does what it says on the tin (if the tin is the podcast that attracted you to the community in the first place) and many of the members seem more than open to trying new things, welcoming new members.
Who knows, with the sons and daughters of The Grognard Files rapidly getting to the age that many of the current members were when they first got into gaming, I wouldn't put it past Dirk or Dirk Jr to be arranging a Progeny of Grogmeet in the years to come. Or maybe I just misheard them chatting about Prog-Rock...
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