I've never seen it as a pejorative, though some take it that way. To me, it's equivalent to calling someone an "old-timer" in the context of gaming. I know it originally referred to Napoleonic minis gamers in a gaming context, but now it's come to mean those gamers (what ones are left) and RPG players who gamed as early as the 70s.

I've always pronounced it "grog-nard," as in watered-down rum and what the wolfman has.

I alse like how it's from where Ars Magica derives the term "grog," which is the lowest tier of characters in an Ars Magica group - they're the grunts, the bodyguards, the meat shields.

Being 30, and having been introduced to the hobby in the heyday of AD&D 2e, I do not consider myself a grognard, by any stretch of the imagination. I cut my teeth on D&D RC, AD&D 2e, MERP, GURPS 2e, CoC 5e, Star Wars (D6), and soon enough, oWoD. Hardly a grognard curriculum.

I do side with the grognards on a few things, though, strictly on account of my own enthusiasm for older games and retro-games. Right now I'm playing C&C (which is as close to "old school" as the GM and I could persuade our fellow gamers to play). On my "games I want to play" list are S&W, LL AEC, CoC and Traveller, as well as nWoD, The Day After Ragnarok and Eclipse Phase.

I don't see any merit in railing against newer games, or worse, newer gamers.

But I don't see the term "grognard" as pejorative. If I was an old-timer, I'd wear it as a badge of pride, much like how I imagine Napoleon's veterans probably did.

Quote from: Cylonophile;393637In fact, I don't like some early systems. I hate random chargen as it lets the dice decide what you play. Say i want to play a scientist, and I get a character with strength 18 and intelligence 4. Wow, he's really going to be successful in the field I've chosen, right?

But Cylo, that's the beauty of random chargen. You take the cards the game deals you, and you put on a show, the best you can. It's just a matter of tailoring your expectations to the game at hand -- I approach GURPS with certain expectations, and AD&D 1e with another mindset entirely.

Also bear in mind that randomness in character generation can be dialed up or down. In fact my favorite systems are those which combine player choice and randomness. Traveller has random chargen, but you get make a few calls. OD&D becomes that way if you roll 3d6 six times and "arrange to taste" (so you can have your Int 18 wizard, instead of being stuck with the Str 18, Int 4 man-child)

My favorite and most memorable characters were the randomly generated. That they were born of a few throws of the dice makes their achievements all the more memorable. A matter of personal opinion, I know, but there you go.

Quote from: Melan;393460It is certainly overused, and has become meaningless through dilution. I believe I will soon start calling myself a Landsknecht; it is still fresh, plus there are all those halberds...

Dude, you are Hungarian.  I am German, and you can't take away the proud history of my people selling murder to the highest bidder just for your convenience.  

Considering my grandma on my father's side is Swabian, my grandpa came from a Saxon family, and I am registered as a voter on the German minority list, I will call myself whatever I want to. :cool:

Quote from: Melan;393887Considering my grandma on my father's side is Swabian, my grandpa came from a Saxon family, and I am registered as a voter on the German minority list, I will call myself whatever I want to. :cool:

Don't think you will be getting away with this, Herr Smarty-hosen.

Quote from: The Shaman;393449Is the word "grognard," as it applies to gamers, pejorative?

Well, to answer my own question, it would appear that something less than one in four think so.

Quote from: The Shaman;393449Is the word "grognard," as it applies to gamers, pejorative?

....

How do you use it, if you use it at all?

I use it to refer to those wargamers who thinkg RPGs are games not worth the paper they are printed on.  At least that is how it was first used in Dragon way back when, nicely but you could tell those guys from TSR really didn't like the grognards dismissing RPGs.