The Vintage RPG Podcast - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness

10/15/18 • 22 min

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.

It begins with a pizza joke, naturally (00:30).

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)

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.

Previous Episode

Planescape

The guys kick off by talking about the Werewolf party game (01:18). Stu briefly explains how the game works (01:45) and Hambone describes how they play it at their annual New Year’s party (02:20). Stu runs down the different roles that alter the game (03:11). Stu touches on the game’s negative reputation (03:43) and the guys discuss why it is a handy thing to have in your game arsenal (04:20).

Planescape! Stu explains the initial aesthetic appeal of the campaign setting (05:25) and the basics of what it contains and how it works (06:10). The pronunciation of Sigil comes up (06:50). The Lady of Pain (07:35) and the factions (08:00) come up. In Planescape, ideas can change the multiverse (08:34).

Hambone explains his first impression of Planescape (08:48) in the context of a larger on-going campaign. Stu talks about how his Planescape campaigns were his first real ongoing RPG campaigns (09:32) and why it works better than most D&D 2E campaign settings (10:08). Which isn’t to say there isn’t an Achilles Heel: while all the Planescape material is generally very good, there just isn’t enough of it (11:31). The biggest problem is the metastory, which eventually wraps up (in Faction War) with an unappealing and unsupported shift in the setting’s status quo (12:00).

Discussion briefly turns to Planescape’s origins in Jeff Grubb’s Manual of the Planes and how the party in Stu’s game dealt with an Astral Dreadnought (13:30).

Hambone gives his impression of the setting from the perspective of a DM running mostly introductory games (14:49) and Stu poo-poos D&D 5E (15:18)

The guys nearly forget to mention one of the most important things about Planescape: Tony DiTerlizzi’s art (15:32). Stu waxes ecstatic and talks a bit on how Planescape’s aesthetic was developed (16:00).

Final thoughts on Planescape collecting (17:21). (Note: we’ll be coming back around to Planescape in future episodes)

Wrapping things up, Grant Howitt comes up again (see our previous episode on Masks of Nyarlathotep for more about his RPG Spire: The City Must Fall) with his hilarious one-page RPGs (18:29).

See ya in two weeks (21:54)!

Correction: We call it Werewolf, but the Asmodee’s version (which we use) is called The Werewolves of Miller ’s Hollow, and it retails for $13.

Correction: Original Planescape material tends to be expensive and several later Planescape publications can be routinely found on the second hand market for astronomical prices (The Great Modron March, Dead Gods, The Inner Planes, Faction War and The Blood War box set). While Stu characterizes them as impossible to find at a reasonable price, he finally did – though it took like 20 years to do it. If you want them cheap sooner than that, grab them from DriveThruRPG as PDF or print-on-demand.

Correction: The one-year collection of Grant’s one-page RPGs (13 games) is $30.

Next Episode

Ravenloft

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.