The Vintage RPG Podcast

We start off talking about Steve Jackson Games' Munchkin, specifically the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle variant. It features art by Kevin Eastman and some rules variants that may surprise you if you're a long time Munchkin players. In the main segment, we talk about Masks of Nyarlathotep. What's that you say? We've already covered Masks on a previous podcast? Well, yea, that is true, but Chaosium released a new, updated version of the campaign last year and they changed enough of it that we think it warrants a revisit. Finally, we talk to Ryan Verniere and Carmen Acosta, two of the folks behind the upcoming Auction of Many Things, a Los Angeles auction of D&D-inspired art benefiting the surviving creators of Dungeons & Dragons. If you're in LA, you can attend the auction on March 2. Follow @DnDArtshow on Instagram to see all the awesome art and to keep updated on future events!

This week, we're playing Heimlich & Co., a modern issue of a clever espionage-themed game originally from 1984 (you may know it as Top Secret Spies, Under Cover or Detective & Co.). Over on our Patreon, folks who back us at the $25 level get to call the shots for an episode. This week, Sara Clemens asked us to cover Mouse Guard, Burning Wheel's RPG adaptation of David Petersen's beautiful comic series. Over the holiday break, we made some characters and ran the game so we could give you our impressions. It is pretty cool! We wrap things up discussing Stu's recent experience setting up a Blades in the Dark game on Roll20.

This show is entirely dedicated to the works of the late, great Greg Stafford, who we dearly miss. Stu takes the helm and starts us down Stafford's tabletop RPG history with the wargame White Bear & Red Moon (also known as Dragon Pass). From there, he touches on RuneQuest, the Ghostbusters RPG, the entire world of Glorantha, HeroQuest and Pendragon, all the while trying to convey how widely Stafford's work influenced the hobby. We'll be covering most of these games in more depth on the Instagram feed this week, so look for that.

Happy new year! For starters this episode, we check out the seance-themed board game Mysterium. It is sort of like Clue meets Dixit, but spooky. The main event is TSR's Marvel Super Heroes RPG. We revel in some 80s-era nostalgia, discuss the weirdness of the game and somehow wind up on the 1987 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Marvel float. Seriously, go watch that video. We also talk about Blades in the Dark, a dark fantasy heist RPG that Stu is preparing to run online for members of the Unwinnable staff.

Happy holidays, folks! We're breaking from format this episode to dig deep into the nostalgia and look at the Sears Wish Book, an important part of our childhood Christmas experiences. Specifically, we're looking at the catalogs from 1982, 1983 and 1984, which contained, you guessed it, Dungeons & Dragons stuff. They are so much more than that, though, as you'll discover when you listen! And, while we have you, let us offer our tremendous thanks for following Vintage RPG on Instagram, listening to the podcast and making this whole project fun and rewarding on a daily basis. All the best this holiday season!

It is Stu's Birthday! We lead things off with Chaosium's Khan of Khans (01:30), a fast-paced boom and bust board game about cattle thievery in Glorantha, by Reiner Knizia. The main event: Dragon Magazine (05:38). Stu gives a brief history of the publication (06:00). Hambone remembers seeing it in book stores in the mall (07:45). Stu reveals how Dragon Magazine gave him the collecting bug (09:41) and how his large run functions as a sort of history of the tabletop RPG hobby (11:00). Stu talks about how editor Tim Kask worked to keep Dragon semi-independent from TSR (13:00). Editor Roger E. Moore's tenure comes up (13:54) along with Dungeon Magazine. While Dragon slowly became an advertorial publication, Stu doesn't mind because it allows us to see D&D evolving on a month to month basis (15:00) and Hambone segues into the Dragon+. Stu gets into Dragon's experimental tendencies (17:30) and explains how Forgotten Realms was (kinda sorta) born in the magazine (19:22). Preservation comes up (21:00). A brief encouragement to subscribe to Unwinnable Monthly during our Holiday Subscription Drive (24:25). Stu gets excited about completing his Planescape collection (25:00). See you in two weeks! * Clarification: Stu meant Rubbermaid, not Tupperware Correction: Despite his whip-fast certainty, Stu was wrong. Pong came out in 1972.

In this episode, we break format to give you some gifts suggestions of the holidays – whether you give them to your favorite tabletop playing pal or add them to your Christmas lists is entirely up to you. First up, the Dragon Heist platinum edition (02:15). We chat about dice (07:00). Artisan makes very nice dice. We talk about Wormwood dice vaults and accessories (09.00). Stu laments that he didn't own the Masks of Nyarlathotep prop set from the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. It comes in two flavors, regular and holy crap that is expensive (09:45). Art & Arcana inevitably comes up (13:50). Both the regular edition and the limited edition are on sale on Amazon. You can read more of Stu's thoughts on the regular edition and the limited edition on the Insta. Hambone suggests the D&D 5E conversion of X1-The Isle of Dread from Goodman Games (17:38). We thought this one would be out in time for the holidays, but alas, it's hitting shelves in January. You can pre-order it now, though and put a picture of the cover in a card or something. Or you could nab them Into the Borderlands. We wanted to plug the webstores of World Champ Game Co. and Bodie, but both their webstores are closed right now. Instead, why don't you throw them a couple bucks on their Patreons: you'll get some cool stuff every month (19:20). Hambone hits a couple quick gift suggestions (19:50) like Ghost Fightin' Treasure Hunters and SRG Super Show Finally, every year, Hambone's mom buys his a pound-o-dice from Chessex for Christmas, and that is pretty cool. See you in two weeks! * Correction: The singular of dice is die.

After the opening banter, Hambone leads us off with the SRG Super Show, a card-based professional wrestling game (01:30). The main event arrives: Middle Earth Roleplaying, also known as MERP (08:27). Stu breaks down the dissonance between Tolkien's work and MERP (10:32) and the weird timeline the setting uses (11:20). Stu explains how Iron Crown Enterprises got the Middle Earth license (12:00) and discusses ICE's downfall (12:30). The MERP map of Middle Earth comes up (14:23) and Stu laments that fact that the game will never see the light of day again. They discuss the difference between the Star Wars Expanded Universe and MERP (15:30). Stu brings up the legendary critical hit and fumble charts (17:00). Stu makes some closing remarks (17:50). Stu talks about how excited he is about Ben Robbins' Follow. (18:20) See you in two weeks!

Hambone breaks it down (00:18). The guys start off with Ghost Fightin' Treasure Hunters, a co-op board game about finding treasure in a haunted house (01:33). Stu explains how it reminds him of another co-op game, Flash Point, about fighting fires (03:03). Hambone talks a bit about the games two expansion (04:41). Hambone introduces the main course of our feast, D&D module I6 - Ravenloft (06:23). He declares it the best stand-alone module for D&D, though Stu disagrees (06:42). An unexpected hypothetical interlude about the 1979 cult classic film, The Warriors (08:38). Back on track. Hambone explains how much he loves the idea of a dungeon crawl through Dracula's castle (09:55) and goes ga-ga over the maps (10:28). They discuss how experimental the module was for the time (12:00) and what kind of music Strahd is probably into (13:49). Stu breaks down how important Strahd is in terms of villain design (14:53). Hambone talks about how difficult it is to run Strahd as a master tactician (17:00). Curse of Strahd for 5E comes up (19:20). Stu offers his final thoughts on the module (21:00) and touches on House on Gryphon Hill, the sequel to Ravenloft (22:00). Castlevania: Simon's Quest comes up (24:10) and Bram Stoker's Dracula, too (25:34). Hambone briefly gets excited about Mixtape Massacre (28:00) and the guys say their farewells. * Clarification: Let's talk dates. Ravenloft came out in 1983. House on Gryphon Hill came out in 1986. Castlevania came out in Japan in 1986 and North America in '87 while Castlevania II: Simon's Quest came out in Japan in '87 and North America in '88. Judging from the art on the cover of Simon's Quest, it is pretty clear that Ravenloft was at least on the radar of the videogame developers.

It begins with a pizza joke, naturally (00:30). The guys talk about the Choose Your Own Adventure: House of Danger board game (01:15) and Stu breaks down the basics (01:46). They discuss the stupidity of group decision making (03:00) and where to get it (05:00). Conversation turns to the main event: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness (05:39). Stu admits to not being a TMNT fan (05:54) and Hambone sketches out the basic history of the franchise (06:20). Stu talks about the (07:09) original TMNT comic book series, which Palladium Books licensed almost immediately for an RPG (07:53). Stu recounts how Palladium's license of Robotech led to the development of the TMNT cartoon and, ironically, the downfall of the TMNT RPG line (08:43). Stu talks a bit about the (complicated) TMNT RPG system, which is a component of Palladium's Megaversal house system (10:55). He falls into the trap of trying to explain the Megaversal system and eventually gets to TMNT's juicy center: the mutation rules and the After the Bomb campaign setting. (14:40). The guys talk about the rarity of the book (15:53), in particular the very first edition of TMNT and Other Strangeness that contained controversial mental illness rules (16:13). Cowabunga. Hambone gets excited about Pocket Dungeon Quest (17:20) and he walks through its charms (cloth map!)(17:45) See ya next time! (21:22) * Clarification: We tend to use "Choose Your Own Adventure" as a catch-all term for pick-your-path game books but, like iPods and Kleenex, that's actually a brand name for the series published by Bantam Books in the 80s and 90s. The Marvel and Dungeons & Dragons gamebooks Hambone mentions were published by TSR (the latter known as the Endless Quest series). Correction: Stu is totally wrong, TMNT did not start off as a Daredevil pitch, it was a conscious parody of Daredevil (and also Ronin, Cerebus and New Mutants, apparently) from the get-go.