Looking for a new year's resolution? Why not join us at the GROGNARD files Book Club. First Sunday of the month. It's a Sunday School for Geeks.

Feed: "The GROGNARD Files" By: Dirk on Wednesday, December 24, 2025

Met @magnusseter.bsky.social today. I first met Magnus 38 years ago when he and @algstrand.bsky.social ran a rpg club at the Library in my hometown in Sweden - Those were fun times and introduced us to a wide range of games. He brought his excellent book that @thegrognardfiles.bsky.social covered.

Finally some gaming podcasts - Shut Up And Sit Down for board games, The Grognard Files for vintage and modern TTRPGs and The Good Friends of Jackson Elias for Cthulhu and horror www.shutupandsitdown.com/podcastle/ thegrognardfiles.com blasphemoustomes.com

After fifty years, Denis Gifford’s Pictorial History of Horror Movies continues to inspire me. Like, I still enjoying a rummage around online to check out if any more silent horrors have been restored. Eg. Conrad Veidt’s Student of Prague (1926) is now on blu. An eerie faustian tale.

One from the festive vaults! The Radio Times edition from 1982

Thanks to @thegrognardfiles.bsky.social for Dirk’s Dossier, which has seen me through the Christmas washing up nicely. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

Went to local with son before he went out with his friends - he caught me and the dog having a detailed discussion. Happy Christmas all!

Not sure what to do with your left-overs? we have found the solution ... Dirk's Dossier thegrognardfiles.com/2025/12/24/d...

"Hey Clarence, show me the world where Uncle Billy was never born." "Er, um, well..." [Magnificent paradise where George can hear out of both ears, partnered up with Sam Wainwright, built a hydroelectric dam on the Bedford Falls falls bringing prosperity to all, and had nine kids with Violet]

I finally uploaded my Mr Benn/Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion pic to Redbubble so here's some ideal Christmas gifts for the Gen X Fantasy Nerd in your life www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/1769...

No Shacket Required Merch for GROGMEET 2026 www.redbubble.com/i/t-shirt/No...

If you use the tag #grogmerp you will find a campaign that I hope had some influence on the production of @thegrognardfiles.bsky.social ‘s production of the MERP rpg file back in 2020. All posts transfered from that eX place. What strikes me is the enormous amount of supplements done for the game.

And now I find out that The Salt Path wasn't even published by a real penguin.

Mulled cider & pints of mild to ward off the dark winter after yesterday’s #DCC game in Manchester. Harley Stroh’s Blades against Death is inventive & excellent, but as deadly as the title suggests, with the party (just) surviving the Charnel Pits of Punjar (including a very near TPK). Huge fun!⚔️☠️🔥

There’s a great episode of The Grognard Files (episode 46, part 1) where Chris Klug talks about his first group being drama kids and this was back in the early 80s… @thegrognardfiles.bsky.social can correct me if I’ve got this wrong…

It’s about to begin again … my mission to watch all of the films in the Sight and Sound top films of the previous year. 2026 looks good.

Great insightful chat about Chaos and the evolution of Warhammer 40k with @tomasrawlings.bsky.social … in an actual podcast studio (we’ve changed)

The new winter issue of @senetmagazine.bsky.social has arrived, looking forward to diving into this later today Grab a copy now over on their website where at the moment you can also get 25% off back issues senetmagazine.com

I don’t do many podcasts, for obvious reasons, but couldn’t say no to The Smart Party, alongside The Grognard Files they’re more to blame than anyone for my return to games not just being one of my usual temporary obsessions (🤔, where do I send the bill for that?) Anyway was a pleasure to do this

Someone actually knows Maelstrom and talks it up The GROGNARD Files: Arion Games and other RPGs (with Graham Bottley) Episode webpage: thegrognardfiles.com/2025/10/31/a... Media file: thegrognardfiles.com/wp-content/u...

Monday morning bump for all those who, somehow, had something better to do over the weekend than hang around on social media

Back in 1989 Games Workshop designed a Christmas game for Sounds magazine to advertise the UK Grindcrusher tour for Bolt Thrower. My latest video takes a look at this wonderfully weird little bit of Warhammer ephemera, watch now on YouTube: youtu.be/C30rbcWED6k

Monday

Kicking off "Six Seasons in Sartar" on the actual-play podcast this evening. It's an ideal group for this coming-of-age tale; we're made up of folks who range from a little experience with RQ and Glorantha (including me) to some with none at all! www.patreon.com/posts/new-se...

A reminder there’s about a day left of @drivethrurpg.com’s site wide sale & you can pick up our new issue for just over £2 or get all 7 issues for roughly a third of the price I just paid for a burger at a Christmas market that I suspect I may see again soon 😑 www.drivethrurpg.com/en/publisher...

I dont think I've ever been in the top 3% of anything before @thegrognardfiles.bsky.social www.spotify.com/wrapped-shar...

The current dilemma: do I break my pledge of listening to all the episodes in chronological order or listen to this *new* episode right now? I’m so damn close it feels like I’d be cheating, but… but… (choked, rasping whisper) the fomo..!

Lovely write up about the pod and more from @thermalsatsuma.bsky.social - Thanks!! dogwoodtales.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-...

Just caught the first notable anachronism in Stranger Things, but it’s very niche. One character tells another that wizards learn magic from books but sorcerers have innate magic. That didn’t come up in D&D until 3E in 2000.

Ten hours to go in our Black Friday sale, ends 11.59pm PT tonight. Get 40% off *all* of our special collector leatherette editions. And 50% off our Starter Sets. Important note, not all products available in every warehouse location, while stocks last! www.chaosium.com/blogsave-50-...

That’s in English, not Swedish. English, not Swedish.

Well worth a listen for the low down on the Swedish RPG scene. I'm now browsing through my Mutant Year Zero PDFs (picked up in some bundle), it sounds great.

Great stuff... I've picked up MYZ for a read off the back of this ☢️🙂

That mention of Hack Green Bunker towards the end reminded me of the game 'dead air' - www.blackwellwriter.com Suffice to say I ordered a copy post-pod

fantastic episode, *especially* if you're remotely into Swedish RPGs and/or/obviously Free League games. I NEED that book. Maybe @magnusseter.bsky.social could persuade his publisher that a humble minis and scenery producer who also sells the odd RPG and aligned stuff could hold UK stock 👀

Yesterday's word count = 517 Oh that first burst of enthusiastic amateurism.

SAVE THE DATE! Chaosium Con UK 🇬🇧 is returning in 2026! Dates: Thursday 21 May - Sunday 24 May 2026 Location: Cranfield Management Development Centre, Bedfordshire 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (same venue as 2025) Badge sales, GM event submission, and hotel booking details coming soon!

There’s cool and then there’s Yoko Ono in a phone box with a poster of herself on cool.

Inspired by @thegrognardfiles.bsky.social podcast on Spotify... Everybody’s grumbling ’bout Crit-tables, fumble-tables, spell-fail, wound-labels, Chart-ism, part-ism, elf-weight, pack-prism, Page-flipping, math-dripping, pace-killing schism…

Hmmm...I reckon @thegrognardfiles.bsky.social RPG collection fell off the shelf and caused this... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Lovely stuff, I really want to play Mutant: Year Zero now. youtu.be/gnTMIspoGCU?...

An actual play write up of my Virtual Grogmeetish game, The Shrine of Chaos, introducing the D101 Hack a fantasy D20 class level rules light system I'm currently developing. #dnd #bosr #ttrpg #d101hack sorcererundermountain.d101games.com/2025/11/20/t...

This was a fun episode. Now I wonder what Free League thinks a second edition of Mutant: Year Zero looks like.

A perfect gift - beautifully done. Highly recommended

Need a present for the 1980s fantasy fan in your life? Give our @mulgraveaudio.bsky.social play 'Fellfoul' a go... written by @andreworton.bsky.social, starring Aja Dodd and with music by Belbury Poly, it's a love letter to classic swords and sorcery. 10" vinyl comes with John Ridgway comic artwork!

A perfect pre-Christmas treat!

Can there be any TTRPG fans on my timeline who don't already follow the Grognard Files podcast? Surely not, but just in case ... their latest episode sees the dulcet duo dissecting Mutant Year Zero, and interviews Magnus Seter about his book about Swedish RPGs, which sounds fascinating.