We came, we gamed, we Grogmeeted!

So it was Grogmeet 2025 last Saturday, and I spent eight hours in the Whitworth Locke side of the convention, running games and catching up with folk.

This is the Grognard Files podcast’s annual convention, attended by Grognards of all ages. It is not specifically an OSR or OSR-inspired convention, but games tended to hark back to the 80s and early 90s, when many attendees took a break for careers and raising families (aka going into deep freeze) before returning to gaming recently.

Grogmeet 2025 at Whitworth Locke, Manchester
OMG its all full of Grogs!

It was the convention of the Ziggurat! If you followed the madness that was the Raise the Ziggurat sale at the end of last year, I brought it, and a couple of tubs of old 80s Citadel figures and some aquarium scenery to act as props for my two games.

Game 1 Saturday Morning: Ziggurat of Gloom

System: Grim and Dangerous (an Oldhammer RPG)

Beddington’s Brewery has hired your battalion of adventurers to escort a wagon train carrying barrels of its finest brew from Dwarfchester across the Painine Way to the thirsty students at the Royal College of Magic in the town of Uddersfield. 

The problem is that Night Goblins are following you and have been forced to take defensive positions off-road at the strange rain-soaked stone structure locals call The Ziggurat of Gloom!

Grim and Dangerous is a reimagined roleplaying game inspired by the early editions of Warhammer, aka Oldhammer. It has a simple roll under D20 mechanic, with characters having career focuses and special abilities to distinguish themselves from one another. This adventure draws heavily on the White Box of Warhammer, Warhammer 1st Edition.   Please note that this game is in development at playtest stage.

I’ll be posting more about Grim and Dangerous in its own future post when it gets revealed. This is game in development looks hard at the Oldhammer games (Warhammer 1st, its second edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle, up to first edition Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay) and inspired by the feel of those games and does its own rules light roll under skill on a D20 thing. This was its inaugural game, and overall, the prototype rules held up and did what I wanted them to, aided and abetted by players who grasped its concepts and ran like heck with them.

Happy players at Grogmeet 2025
Happy players after their characters had defeated waves of screaming Night Goblins and cracked open the Ziggurat.

Special thanks to Andy Hemming (pictured on the far right in the above photo), who provided the entire force of Night Goblins (from the 80s!), some female adventurers and dignified elven followers to compliment my scruffy 80s Citadel lead. To say Andy was like a child in a sweet shop would be an understatement.

Ziggurat of Gloom at Grogmeet 2025
Initial troop deployments at the Ziggurat of Gloom
GM Newt Newport at Grogmeet 2025
Myself in my element GMing

Intermission: Newt Socialises!

A three-hour break(?) due to unexpected scheduling adjustments gave me ample opportunity to catch up with folks I’ve not spoken to in a couple of years. This was one of my aims of the day, because I unexpectedly had to drop out of my regular convention attendance a couple of years ago due to family commitments. This really was nice because the space and time around the games to chat and catch up really makes a con for me.

Then all of a sudden, the gaming room filled up, and it was time for Game 2.

Game 2 Saturday Afternoon: The Pyramids of Marn

System: Beyond Dread Portals

Three pyramids have been discovered in the jungles of the world of Marn. Three factions are bidding for a license to explore them in the Hall of Departure in the Explorers Guild of Ys. Ys ruler, the Autarch, to prevent in-fighting, is only allowing one group at a time to walk through a portal in the Guild Hall to the ancient ruins. Since your explorers will be risking life and limb in this strange world, they get to choose who will be their patron for this expedition.  Choose wisely. Not only will it determine how profitable the visit to Marn will be, but who you potentially make enemies of.

Beyond Dread Portals is a world-hopping D20 Fantasy game by Paul “The Tweed Meister” Mitchener. Loosely based on early D&D, modified to meet the needs of the setting. A baroque decaying renaissance-era world of the city of Ys and the worlds connected to it by a system of magic portals.  As members of the Explorer’s Guild, there are expeditions to join, loot and secrets to be found, and a web of powerful patrons to navigate carefully. All under the deathly gaze of the undead ruler, the Autarch!

Regular readers of this blog will know Beyond Dread Portals by now. It’s within a hairs breath of being released (just waiting for a proof). This adventure was quickly conjured up, as an excuse to use the Ziggurat again on the table. Combined with the aquarium scenery, that worked very well, and a list of bullet points was fleshed out to become a weird and wonderful game of exploration. Despite the characters being capable 5th level, they managed to weasel their way away from getting involved in any combat, with some very clever problem-solving. I’ll be writing this one up for future release in some format.

And then it was all over and home to an evening back in the loving embrace of my family.

Big thanks to all my players and co-organisers Chris “Dirk the Dice” Hart and Blythy.

Here’s to 2026.

Ziggurat miniture with dice and flyer

BTW, if you are wondering where I got the Ziggurat from, it is made by Ian from Fenris Games and is available via his website.

D&D 2024 Pre-Release Anticipation

So, I’ve been largely ignoring the new version of D&D, with the exception of the 50th Anniversary Celebration stamps put out by Royal Mail featuring the art of Wayne Reynolds (a personal friend). I’m too busy being obsessive about my own games and the resurgence of Chaosium with RuneQuest (of which I’m a huge fan).

Full disclosure: this is where I stand with D&D, summed up by three takes on it.

  • My D&D: Crypts and Things – which leans heavily into Grimdark Swords and Sorcery genre-wise and uses OD&D (via Swords and Wizardry) as a clean base with some comfort of life changes to make it less creaky. Runner up Beyond Dread Portals,which brings a looser post-D&D but still class/level-based game to the table.
  • My Modern D&D: Vanilla would be 13th Age, and I recently backed the second edition. I’ve played and run this more than I can remember, and every time, it has been a smooth experience that’s made everyone around the table have a good time. Setting-specific and slightly lighter, but in the same narrative ball park, and slightly post-D&D, I’d go with Paul Mitchener’s Beyond Dread Portals game.
  • My OSR D&D. Until recently, I would have said Swords and Wizardry, but Old School Essentials intrigues me greatly and, more importantly, seems to have a greater pull to the table than S&W.

I like 5th Edition. I’ve run a few games, mainly testing/pilots, but I find it lukewarm. While the players have always had a good time, it’s not the AMAZING LET’S PLAY THIS AGAIN time that 13th Age or Beyond Dread Portals is, and I’m a bit ho-hum as a GM.

I had a go at publishing material for 5th Edtion, with the Sorcerer Under the Mountain, and had a line of modules written by others lined up, which will soon see the light of day. Still, COVID really knocked the wind out of my sails on that one. Hence the huge delay and getting the stretch goals for Tales from the Sorcerer of the Mountain Kickstarter out.

But I genuinely like D&D, despite my D100 addiction (see OpenQuest/RuneQuest), so I’ve watched with fascination as Wizards of the Coast has geared up this edition.

Dropping into bullet points, some thoughts while I wait for the book to arrive today.

  • While it was harsh in the amount of upset it caused at the time, I’m actually quite thankful for the OGL Crisis. It showed that despite Corporate owners thinking otherwise, D&D is a public phenomenon that transcends them practically and creatively. It also caused a lot of publishers, including myself, to clear up their relationship with the OGL going forward (or not, as the case may be).
  • The digitalisation of D&D? Whatever, for me, it’s a physical book and friends around a gaming table. I shall be gleefully encouraging this approach but with a group down at a local club or a home family game.
  • One D&D, D&D 6th, D&D 2024? Again, what they call it transcends what the player base calls it (see MyD&D above for my definitions). As a computer software developer it amuses me that they have dropped editions from the nameing, which makes it much easier for them to roll out changes and not have to answer the whole thorny “is this a new edition, do I really need it?” (answer from my 40+ years of experience, no).
  • If D&D 5th was their chance to “unite the tribes” of D&D, perhaps D&D 2024 as well as being their 5.5 part marketing move to make more money out of it, but also a chance to make D&D 5th more its own thing.
  • As a GM I hope to really click with the new version. For the last ten years of 5th Ed has been like some party that the world and his dog have been invited to, and I’ve been strangely absent except for a bit of popping in to see what is going on. I’ll be first to admit that its my own fantastism over D100 games, where its very easy to default to D&D being an inferior game system, and being busy exploring the OSR. Perhaps its time to take the launch of the new version as a chance to run a campaign and take a real deep dive?
  • I’m going to run it. Hopefully, it will be a laid-back, once-a-month/week game, and I can publish anything new I come up with through D101.
  • Is familiarity why I keep coming back to D&D, even when I’m being obsessively nerdy about other games? It’s my wife. When she tells work colleagues what I do with D101 Games, she simply says, “It’s D&D.”
  • I’m genuinely excited about this! (not going to think to hard why).

So Happy D&D Release Day!

Beyond Dread Portals Ending Soon

Beyond Dread Portals is an exciting roleplaying game of world-hopping fantasy by Paul Mitchener (author of Liminal). The easy-to-learn rules are built from a core loosely based on the world’s first fantasy roleplaying game, tailored to fit the setting.

It’s in its final five days of funding.

Backers have already funded extra content. Adventures, NPCs, and background information. Here are the highlights of what the campaign has achieved.

  • All backers will receive an extra introductory adventure, Fort on the Edgelands. A mini sandbox that takes a classic adventure from the 1980s and reimagines it through Beyond Dread Portals baroque fantasy take on D20. In the final five days, more stretch goals are up for grabs!
  • Also, during the campaign, the Signed and sent version of the book has been upgraded from a POD copy to a properly printed version with sewn pages, better-quality paper and a ribbon.
  • We have achieved several community goals through backer numbers, such as the Traveller’s Guide to Polydrones, a mini-supplement combining new monsters, game lore, and adventure ideas.
  • VTT support has been added via Role VTT (playrole.com).

But quick, it’s coming to the end of Kickstarter in five days.

Fort on the Edgelands at Grogmeet 2023

Over the weekend, I took this introductory adventure out for a spin at Manchester’s premier Old School convention run by the Grognard Files Podcast.

Grogmeet 2023 in full flow

I had a full table of four players, one of whom Chris (hello 🙂 ) was a backer.

After going through the pre-generated characters, which are included in the main rulebook, and using them to explain the setting and the system, we grabbed coffee and got stuck into it.  The game unfolded in three acts.

Act 1 was a gentle stroll around the City of Ys. From the grand Guildhall of the League of Explorers, where there characters, who the players already knew each other, found out that a special treasure hunting license was being issued to go to Erebus, which is normally closed. All they had to do was navigate the ever-shifting streets of Ys and make their way to the Ruby Court.  The crimson-clad Judge Vinter gave them the license, which gave them superior treasure rights. 5% taxation upon return to Ys rather than the usual 20%. The players then choose which of the two available Patrons they wanted to back their expedition. This gave them the promise of more rewards, plus a mission to pressure. The liberation of the Fort’s Garrison, who were trapped on Erebus.

Act 2, stepping through the Dread Portal, the characters emerge into the courtyard of Lion Fort. They spent most of this act getting a sense of where they were and what factions were present in the fort. The most important one was the Agent of the Autrach, a skeleton in a gibbet who sinisterly waved hello when the characters arrived. This strange creature is also the gatekeeper of the portal, which is now shut until the characters fulfil their mission and can kill with its mind!  After finding out who was who in the fort. they quickly made friends with the Garrison commander, and a plan was forged to kill the Agent, open the Portal and return to Ys with the Garrison.

em>Act 3 was a quick raid into the nearby Mushroom Caves and executing the plan to free the Garrison and get home. While the other acts had leaned heavily into roleplaying with all the fantastical NPCs they met, with the occasional skill test, this act was all about action. Sneaking past the ruined colony and its undead farmers, ambushing the goblins in the entrance cave – which escalated into a quick combat. Then, seizing the magic Spear of Dawn from the Goblin’s leader and using it to set the fungus-based creature on fire. Rushing back to the fort, sneaking up on the Agent, thrusting the burning Spear of Dawn, a potent anti-undead weapon, into its bones killing it. Finally, the group’s wizard opened the portal, and back to Ys, where they squared it all with Judge Vinder.

Phew. And this is only one way through the adventure, which is a mini-sandbox.  I’m highly happy with its initial outing and overjoyed to find when I got home that it has been funded and will be available to backers as a stretch goal.

Beyond Dread Portals is in its final week over at Kickstarter and is available to back until Sunday 19th November.

Onwards to the Fort on the Edgelands!

Beyond Dread Portals is ticking along constantly through the mid-campaign doldrums.

If you were holding off backing because the Signed and Sent version was POD, we’ve now enough backers so that the book will be a properly printed book with sewn pages, higher quality paper and a ribbon.

Since we are bearing in on the 2nd Stretch goal, the adventure The Fort on the Edgelands, and it is Sunday, my traditional time to write DnD adventures going back to the 80s, I’ve posted a big update about that adventure, which I’m running next Saturday at Grogmeet (places still available).

The Road to Hell for One Pound!

It’s Halloween today, and to celebrate, I’ve made my OSR Horror adventure The Road to Hell, £1 in PDF over the next twenty-four hours.

This is one of my favourite things that I’ve put out as D101 Games. It has a dream team of Jonny Hodgson on the cover, Glynn Seal on the maps, and Daniel Barker on the interior art.

Back Beyond Dread Portals, WIN PRIZES!

The Beyond Dread Portals Kickstarter opens tomorrow. If you back in the first two days, not only do you get an Early Bird Backer gift of the League of Explorers Character Roster, but you also get entered into a Prize Draw.

Go to the Kickstarter page, which is in prelaunch mode now, and sign up to be notified when we launch.

The Early Bird Gift is a pdf of the League of Explorers Character Roster. This supplement will have 20 characters at least that you can use as premade characters and non-player characters for your games.

Art by Dan Barker