Groglaw 2025
Heading off to the ancient Chancery Lane, a place where the Knights Templar created the lane to connect their ‘old Temple’ in Holborn with their new property south of Fleet Street. Ancient knights and dames tramped the streets to a hidden location…
Alex, JimJim, DaveP put on a bi-annual convention of all things RPG, oscillating between Love and Law; they actually have these two words tattooed on their knuckles. Today, we chose Law.
The venue for GrogL has shifted between some interesting locations, but returned to its original home for 2025, Brewdog, Chancery Lane. Whatever you may think of the owners (an aside, they’re dicks), you can’t fault the location and the setup and the lovely staff. Black Heart on tap, followed by 1200 calories of sticky, messy Buffalo Chicken Burger. London, Chancery Lane, at the weekend is dead, but this Brewdog was alive with the clash of swords, the explosion of gunpowder and the roar of a Lawmaster as it circumnavigates Mega-Way 7 between Benny Hill Block and Boing™ Boulevard.
It’s one of the friendliest, but also a very convenient con for me, 20 minutes to London and then 20 minutes round the Met, Circle, etc lines to Farringdon and then a brisk walk, just enough time to scan through The Secret of Castronegro, a classic Call of Cthulhu scenario by Chaosium.
Speaking of which, David Scott from Chaosium had helped deliver a bevvy of Call of Cthulhu, Pendragon, Runequest and other goodies, free to GMs and a donation for players, plus some lovely pin badges, all to celebrate 50 years of Chaosium, extremely generous.
After a brief summation of what to expect today, from JimJim, we settled down at our respective games. I think I counted around 7-8 tables, a good turnout of 30-40 folks. Turning back to our table, Alistair got us started with Blackpowder and Brimstone, a Borg hack that fuses gunpowder, witchcraft, grim-dark fantasy and gothic folk horror. The GM took an old Warhammer RPG scenario, The Grapes of Wrath, from White Dwarf 98, Feb 1988.
This is a Mörk Borg hack, somewhat deadly but simple to pick up and play. The GM added several excellent Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay elements. e.g. past careers that went well with the scenario, which, of course, starts on a carriage travelling across the Old World. It is not too long before the carriage comes to an abrupt, esoteric stop, and the party escorts the young ladies and the injured driver to the nearby town of Pritzstock.
Thus begins an investigation into supernatural goings on, some lovely exorcist flavoured improvisations from the GM and the uncovering of plots, betrayals and the incursion of Chaos. We, as players, were kept busy sneaking, interrogating and tramping around the vineyards of boisterous Bretonnian Henri-Philipe Rocheteau. A fairly sandbox situation allowed the players to poke around and have free rein in the village until they uncovered what was driving the spooky encounters and found out about even bigger threats.
A desperate battle with some innovative play secured the 800 gold piece bounty and a comeuppance for all behind the dreadful shenanigans. Loads of flavour and mechanics that didn’t get in the way of the story, an excellent first session, thanks to the GM, Alistair and players, George, Mike and Matthew.
A brief break, and we moved on to Judge Dredd Games Workshop (1985). Mike, the GM, had put together some gentle hacks to run through a scenario from the Judge Dredd Companion, Channel 9 Crime Time Special. In it, we played Judges sequestered to take part in a TV show, chasing down a mob boss as a TV crew interviewed suspects, and the Judges followed close behind.
We move from block to block, encountering the denizens of Mega City One, taking out gangs, confiscating umpty candy, dealing with the furriest of citizens, riding and almost plunging to our deaths on an aeroboard and eventually taking part in a tense shoot out in a penthouse apartment, far above the blocks and crime.
As the curtain fell, the Meatwagons were called in, and the Judges faced their assessment from senior Judge Squeer. So ended an excellent scenario, with a wealth of handouts, maps, and standee figures. An excellent item was a 3-4 panel comic strip handed out at various stages. Not only did this add to the atmosphere, but it also contained key clues if you looked hard enough.
The mechanics were as I, mainly remembered them, Mike had changed the initiative system, there are six phases in a turn, and players rolled 4-5 six-sided dice, the numbers explaining when the PCs acted in each phase. Players roll a percentile dice against their skills, trying to get under. Mike had bumped these up, as they start ridiculously low for beginning Judges, so we even had some skills over 50% 😮. Fun was also had in choosing from a range of ammo for our Lawgiver and using our Lawmaster to smash through doors, or, in the case of one polite Judge, waiting for the automatic doors to open!
Thanks again to Mike for turning a bit of nostalgia into an excellent con scenario and to fellow judges Karlsson (Alistair) and Everitt (Andrew) for upholding the Law.
So, a few more drinks and putting the RPG world to rights before I headed off and Groglaw was done for another year, roll on Groglove in February next year. 10/10.
Though for those wanting a quicker fix, check out Dice in a Dead City on Saturday, 15th November, still a few places left.
