Grogmeet – 9th to 11th January 2026

1. Why I Went

I am a grognard. In Table-Top Role-Playing Game (TTRPG) terms, a grognard (hereafter “grog”) is someone who was around in the early days of the hobby - typically about forty years ago - and still plays.

Or, at least, still holds some very firm opinions about the hobby.

There is a general impression that in some other countries (looking at you, the USA) grogs are synonymous with gatekeeping and are seen by younger players as a negative influence. In my experience, UK grogs are more like kindly old uncles: welcoming newcomers into the hobby and just as interested in newer games as the old favourites.

About ten years ago, “Dirk the Dice” started a UK podcast called The Grognard Files.

https://thegrognardfiles.com/about

The podcast shared memories of the early days of TTRPGs in the UK. It struck a chord, found an audience, and began interviewing celebrities and game designers from the period. This included me; I was interviewed about Golden Heroes.

The audience grew, a Patreon was set up, and a community - mainly men “of a certain age”, moving from middle age into their senior years - developed.

Dirk eventually arranged a meet-up. What began as a gathering of a couple of dozen like-minded souls has since developed into a full-blown convention.

I do not subscribe to or regularly listen to the podcast, nor am I part of the Patreon. I know my own obsessive tendencies well enough to recognise that I could easily get too involved, and I simply do not have the time.

I cannot remember whether I have attended a Grogmeet before. However, the chance to meet people from the same demographic as myself, catch up with people I knew only from online interactions, referee my own games, and play games new to me - refereed by people with decades of experience - was too good to miss.

2. The Shape of the Convention

Grogmeet 2026 took place in Manchester, UK. It began as a one-day meet-up of around two dozen people, but demand has caused it to expand. It now runs across Friday and Saturday, with the organisers also piggy-backing onto a local Sunday event: the Manchester Occasional Role-Playing Convention (MORPCON).

Around one hundred people signed up and booked into games via the Warhorn website.

There were five game slots at Grogmeet itself, each lasting roughly three and a half hours:

Friday afternoon (2:30pm–6pm)

Friday evening (7:30pm–10pm)

Saturday morning (10am–1:30pm)

Saturday afternoon (2:30pm–6pm)

Saturday evening (7:30pm–10pm)

MORPCON ran on Sunday from 1pm–5pm.

The venue was The Brickhouse, a trendy nightclub-style venue spread across three floors. The middle floor housed the bar and games machines; the upper and lower floors - normally used for music and dancing - were booked for Grogmeet and filled with tables and chairs. These spaces were available because much of the usual student clientele were away during university holidays.

Aside from issues noted below, the rooms were suitable for gaming, with medium-sized tables rather than large ones. Dirk had circulated information beforehand about which games were upstairs and downstairs, but many attendees had not clocked this and struggled to find the information on their phones. This led to a lot of questions along the lines of “Is the Cthulhu game upstairs or downstairs?”

This was the first - and possibly last - time Grogmeet used this venue. It was functional, but had a couple of notable drawbacks.

Firstly, it was cold. Presumably the rooms are usually filled with hundreds of younger people dancing, and the lower temperature suits that. We were older people sitting still.

Secondly, it was gloomy. Lighting suitable for a nightclub is not ideal for tabletop gaming. The staff did try to improve illumination, but it still fell short for ageing eyesight.

In addition, the only food available on-site was pizza. They were good pizzas, and there were plenty of nearby alternatives in this trendy part of town.

There was something surreal about older gamers wearing Grogmeet stickers being waved in and out by bouncers, passing through the venue’s usual youthful crowd on the middle floor to fetch drinks.

3. Games Played and Games Run

Friday Afternoon

The weekend was disrupted by a severe storm across the country. My train to Manchester was cancelled, as were all morning trains from Birmingham New Street.

I eventually caught a replacement early in the afternoon, but this meant missing my first game. I was not alone; although around one hundred people had booked, only about eighty-five made it to the convention.

My missed game was Mothership, a modern sci-fi horror RPG I had never played. Conventions are ideal places to try new systems, so I was disappointed to miss it.

I ate pizza at the venue that evening. It was good, but I knew immediately that I would not want to rely on pizza all weekend.

Friday Evening

Occasionally, people other than myself run my games at conventions. This gives me the rare opportunity to play them and see how others interpret my rules.

This can be intimidating for referees, so it comes with responsibilities. I refer to this as “designer bombing” a game session, and it takes conscious effort not to interfere.

A Golden Heroes game was scheduled for Friday evening. Given the tone of the convention, this was perfect, and of course I signed up.

The game was excellent. The referee had created a rich 1920s background, and the players were terrific.

Character generation is a major part of Golden Heroes, so we rolled characters at the table:

The Hawk (mine): armour, two-handed staff, hide in shadows, micro-vision

The Gentleman: super strength and cricket balls

The Spade: an undertaker wielding a cosmic-powered shovel

The Sidewinder: snake-themed martial artist

The Kimono Kid: magical kimono granting chameleon abilities

Pallid Jack: great name; I regretfully forget his powers

I had two technical issues with the session. Firstly, a rule introduced during Games Workshop’s publication allowed the number of powers to be rolled randomly. This is a poor rule; referees should assign a fixed number of powers. With this option used, some characters had two powers while others had seven. I had four and felt underpowered.

Secondly, common thugs had been upgraded to pose more of a threat. The game was designed so that gun-wielding goons are not especially dangerous to superheroes. This was a stylistic choice, but I found it slightly wearing.

Despite this, I had a great time, and it gave me useful insights into running Golden Heroes at conventions in the future.

Saturday Morning

I discovered that several buses ran directly from my hotel to the venue. My senior bus pass got me there in five minutes, for free.

Although I arrived only slightly early, there was already a queue of grogs waiting The venue normally opens at noon but had agreed to open at 10am. The staff member arrived shortly after that time.

My referee and I spotted each other in the queue. Our upstairs room was already full, so tables and chairs had to be fetched from downstairs.

The game was The Dee Sanction, run by its designer. I had backed the Kickstarter but never played it, and I enjoy designer-run convention games.

Set in Elizabethan England, the premise is that John Dee recruits those touched by forbidden magic to combat supernatural threats. We played pre-generated characters, including Egerton (me), an ex-temple clerk, and Fox, an ex-horse thief.

The game was well constructed, smoothly refereed, and excellently role-played – especially by Fox. Egerton wanted to banish a summoned hellhound; Fox wanted to survive, preferably at a profit.

Saturday Afternoon

Avoiding another pizza, I ate elsewhere and returned in time to run my own game: Starfleet Academy. Set between The Original Series and The Motion Picture, it proved ideal for this audience.

Storm disruptions reduced my table to three players:

T’Ralan – Andorian security cadet

Ellana – Orion communications trainee

Elarna – Kzinti engineer

The Kzinti player had asked whether The Animated Series was canon. Given the timeline, it clearly was.

Coincidentally, two characters shared the same name. We rationalised this as Kzinti naming conventions combined with them being in the same queue during enlistment.

The scenario once again descended into expected cadet chaos. One player later provided valuable feedback, which is rare and greatly appreciated.

Saturday Evening

Dinner was a burrito rather than pizza. Lessons were learned about hot sauces.

The evening game was Dungeon World. This took place downstairs, which was warmer but gloomier.

I remain unconvinced by some “Powered by the Apocalypse” mechanics, but this was a well-run game. The referee cleverly based the adventure on a Fighting Fantasy book, complete with illustrations.

Grogs playing low-level fantasy? Of course it worked. My dwarf cleric died nobly defeating the final undead threat.

Sunday

Sunday morning provided a welcome lie-in. After checking out, I found an excellent café near Fanboy 3.

Fanboy 3 is an outstanding venue: organised, welcoming, well-stocked, and inexpensive. (£1 for a canned soft drink.)

The final game used Mörk Borg: pitch-black, punk fantasy. We were thrown into a deadly megadungeon and survived far longer than expected, thanks to our grognard experience.

4. Refereeing and Play Reflections

Grogmeet is defined by its players. I may be biased, but UK grognards are experienced, friendly, and shaped by decades of British humour.

I only played one traditional game - my own - and it taught me a great deal.

If I ever referee Golden Heroes again at a convention, I will limit tables to four players, provide character generation sheets, and ensure combat references are available to everyone.

Warhorn worked extremely well for this event.

5. Cost, Time, and Value

This section reflects my personal costs and circumstances.

Convention ticket: £12

Travel: £19.94

Accommodation: £126.60

Total: £158.54
Hours of gaming: 22
Cost per hour: £7.20

6. What I Took Away

I will actively seek to attend future Grogmeets. It is well organised, and the players are my kind of people.

If you’ve been playing TTRPGs for decades in the UK, you should consider attending. 

And you really should listen to The Grognard Files.