This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we talk to the Benjamin Marra, artist extraordinaire! We’re supposed to talk about INTERMEDIARY MUND, his new RPG zine from Exalted Funeral, and we do, and it makes good on the promise of a lot of those pesky Satanic Panic fears from the ‘80s! But the real meat of the chat winds up musing on the central appeal …

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we check out Magic Realms: The Art of Fighting Fantasy, the most straight-down-to-it art book I’ve ever encountered. Absolutely jam packed with amazing art from across all four decades of the gamebook series. Do you dig black-and-white fantasy art, particularly from the UK in the '80s? Then buy this book, you w…

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we talk to our very own editor, R. Alex Murray about a little off-Broadway show he's in called Dungeons & Dragons The Twenty-Sided Tavern. Part actual play, part interactive theater, all rowdy-as-heck adventure, Alex and his colleagues are trailblazing a whole new (boozy) way to play with 499 friends. * * * Ins…

What RPG allows you to travel to the future to team up with the ghost of John Brown to violently overthrow corporate taskmasters? This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we look at Lords of Creation, my pick for the weirdest RPG ever made. Maybe. Designed by Tom “B/X” Moldvay, it’s one of the first multi-genre RPGs and it marked Avalon Hill’s (failed…

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we look at Eat the Reich, a beautiful game about reveling in the messiest annihilation of nazis imaginable. Become an anti-fascist vampire. Get air-dropped into Paris. Drink all the nazi blood. A one-shot(ish) of fun for adults of all ages, tuned to variable levels of experience, gorgeously illustrated. A glori…

Flip the switch to the UHF dial! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we chat with the one, the only, Joey Royale about Weird Heroes of Public Access, coming soon in hardcover to BackerKit. Unearth strange mysteries, save your community and get it done in time to tape the next episode of your show. This is your chance to get into one of the best, …

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we drag out West End Games’ weird universal system, MasterBook, and its bizarre licenses. Why would you refurbish the shuttered RPG Torg into your universal game when the D6 system was right there? Why would you think the movie Species was ripe for RPG adaptation? Or Tales from the Crypt? Mysteries abound. * * …

You’re in love with this city. This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we chat with Jacob Mooney, co-creator of Machine: Impossible, a game about cyborg superspies protecting their home and making it a better place for everyone to live. One of the many cool things about the game is how players collaborate to make the game world, so while it may defau…

The only place to go is down! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we chat with Josh McCrowell, the evil mastermind behind His Majesty the Worm. Grab your tarot deck and prepare yourself and your kit bag for the endless dungeon underneath the city. Venture deep enough and survive the darkness long enough and you might come across the Worm himself!…

Enter: the Neon Lord himself! This week on the Vintage RPG podcast, we talk with Brian Shutter, the radioactive brain behind Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland. He’s got a pair of massive goodies coming to a BackerKit: Deities & Demi-Bros, a guide to the gods of the squared circle, and Deadly Dudez/Toxic Creeps, a massive monster manual! Plus some m…

This week on the Vintage RPG podcast, we check out Brindlewood Bay. It’s a little bit Murder, She Wrote, a little bit Golden Girls and a little bit "The Call of Cthulhu," wrapped up in a Powered by the Apocalypse package. Can you meddle your way to the solutions of these TV-style mysteries? * * * Stu’s book, Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Groun…

Two weeks later and Stu is still tired. This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, Stu regales us of his adventures at GenCon 2024. The crowds. The vast convention space. The games! The revelation that the hobby at large is so very clearly a union of many smaller, constituent hobbies. It was a lot. * * * Stu’s book, Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Gr…

This week on the Vintage RPG podcast, we check out The Court of Ardor in Southern Middle-earth (1983), a sourcebook for MERP that predates MERP and significantly expands Tolkien’s world. It mainly introduces a cabal of elves in the service of Morgoth who, well, they act a lot more like the royal family of Roger Zelazny’s Amber Chronicles than anyth…

This week on the Vintage RPG podcast, we’re looking at Casket of Souls (1987), a puzzlebook by Ian Livingstone that spins out of the success of the Fighting Fantasy series. You, too, can pore over Iain McCaig’s lush art work, looking for clues to solve the riddle and win the titular, gold-plated casket! Well, you could in 1987, anyway. The contest …

This week on the Vintage RPG podcast, we’re looking at Barony (1990), a game that sought to redefine RPGs with concepts that were decades before their time. Open-ended character progression, keyword-based health, a free-form magic system that anticipates Mage — how the heck does this exist? And why don’t more people know about it? And who the heck …

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we check out The Sorcerers’ Enclave, a cool narrative art book by Aaron Howdle that mixes the intricate maximalism of finding books and cut-aways with the aesthetics of early Warhammer and other dark fantasy staples. Is it an RPG book? It isn’t not an RPG book! More like this, please. * * * Experience Points ha…

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we talk to Isaac VanDuyn about his ambitious RPG that seeks to fulfill the promise of all those evangelicals from the ‘80s who were so worried about tame old D&D corrupting the souls of their children. The result (illustrated by Kim Diaz Holm and featuring the cartography of Lex Rocket) is a lush and grim game …

Welcome to Dove’s Bay, the most horrible island in Maine (take that, Stephen King)! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we check out Grimrock Isle (1992), the second Call of Cthulhu product from Triad Entertainments. It’s both a solo and a group scenario, spread across several booklets contained in a snazzy folder. Just about every mythos threat …

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we're looking at CM4: Earthshaker (1985), the BECMI module that pits players against a 1,280-foot-tall robot run by an entire clan of gnomes. Well, not exactly, the gnomes run the robot as a tourist attraction, the players have to deal with the evil NPCs who try to hijack the robot. And they better win, because…

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we look back at Paul M. Sammon’s coverage of the making of Conan the Barbarian in the April 1982 issue of Cinefantastique. The double issue has three features by Sammon — a lengthy piece of reportage on the filming and interviews with designer Ron Cobb and director John Milius — and lots of behind-the-scenes ph…

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we chat with Tyler Vance, the fine artist behind Void: The Frontier. Tyler’s been exploring Void for a while now, having published three rules-agnostic setting zines that pair his enigmatic narratives with his equally mysterious paintings. Now he’s concocted a gorgeous card game, now on Kickstarter. We talk abo…

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we chat with Megan Dawson Jaffe about the new Nerdy City RPG Holomatixx: A New Wave Order. Spinning out of their other Omni System games like the kid adventure Rememorex and the game of transforming robots, Commandroids, Holomatixx takes on pop star superheroes in the vein of Jem and Holograms and Barbie and th…

Stu was tied up with lots of crap this week, so have a re-run! Original show notes: Make ours Marvel! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we take a look at TSR’s massive, 8-volume compendium of Marvel comics lore, The Gamer’s Handbook of the Marvel Universe (1988-1992). They’re like a monster manual of superheroes and villains, some awesome, some…

Stu’s ongoing West Marches-style Old-School Essentials campaign is a year old, so this week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we thought we’d see how things are going (and how many characters have died). And since you can’t really trust the Dungeon Master, we invited two of the players — Justin Wigard and Clay Fleischer — on to share their impressions of…

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we look at Shadowgate (1987, 1989), the point-and-click fantasy adventure videogame. Explore a mysterious castle while trying to find a way to stop the Warlock Lord from destroying the world! Tremble in fear as your torch burns low! Get eaten by every monster! Have a soundtrack-induced panic attack! All this an…

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we chat with Gavriel Quiroga about his new game, Black Rainbow Society. A sequel of sorts to Hell Night, this game doesn’t feature players in the roles of fiends from hell, but rather normal humans grappling with the knowledge that there is more to existence than the mundane world (a staple theme of ’90s RPGs, …

At the very end of last year, Bryan Ansell, a man who played a pivotal role in the world of tabletop games, passed away. To understand just how important Ansell was, this week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we chat with Timothy Linward, Wargamer staff writer and author of the forthcoming Grimdark: A Very British Hell. Tim walks us through the early da…

Where does the game end and real life begin? This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we look at Gameplayers, Stephen Bowkett’s 1986 novel. At first blush, it seems to belong in that silly microgenre of panicky novels dedicated to wondering about how kids can cope with fantasy as powerful as tabletop RPGs (see Mazes & Monsters and Hobgoblin, both 1981…

Set phasers to stun! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we check out FASA’s 1982 Star Trek RPG. It’s an interesting game in it’s own right — a hack of Traveller, when it comes down to it — but is also super interesting in regards to fandom, IP canon and licensed RPGs. Climb on board as we explore these strange old worlds! * * * Stu’s book, Monst…

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we talk to John Patrick Cooper about Get in the Van, his live music-themed Troika hack. Form a band (hardcore, hair or thrash) in the year 198X, hit the road, do battle with the audience, rock their faces off and get to the next gig. A tight, fun little ode to the road dog life. Also, surprise, Cooper designed …

There may be a million ways to die, but you’re probably only going to see the first two or three. This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we’re remembering the classic coin-eating arcade game, Dragon’s Lair (1983). That’s the one that features the cell-shaded, professionally animated (by Don frickin’ Bluth!) adventure of Dirk the Daring that was hidd…

If the Colour is out of Space it should maybe consider weeding some of its shelves, amirite? This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we’re going back to witch-haunted Arkham, Massachusetts by way of Chaosium’s latest edition of the Arkham sourcebook (previously known as Arkham Unveiled, H.P. Lovecraft’s Arkham and The Compact Arkham Unveiled). This i…

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we’re checking out Caverns of Thracia (1979)! Considered by some to be the late Jennell Jaquays’ finest work, we talk about some of the ways it differs from her previous Judges Guild module, Dark Tower, the cool way it handles random encounters and its place in the high trinity of ’70s adventure design. Fun Fac…

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we’re continuing our talk with Anthony Meloro about Mystic Punks! This is Part the Second, so be sure to check out last week’s jam to get the full experience. On tap: the imminent Kickstarter for the multiplayer Mystic Punks RPG, the majestic art of Benjamin Marra, trash culture, the healing power of reefer and…

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we’re talking to Anthony Meloro about Mystic Punks! This is Part One, because we got to gabbing so long that we got two episodes worth of chat. Within, we talk about the original Mystic Punks solo game, the imminent Kickstarter for the multiplayer Mystic Punks RPG, the majestic art of Benjamin Marra, trash cult…

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we’re talking about Roger Zelazny’s 1971 novel Jack of Shadows. Gygax included the novel — a high-concept blend of fantasy and science fiction — in Appendix N, but it isn’t one that gets talked about all that often. Perhaps because it is such an unrelentingly ugly book, featuring a protagonist who embraces his …

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we talk to Chuck Kranz and Adam Rose about their forthcoming RPG, Teenage Odyssey. Set in a small town in the early '90s, the game casts players as teens navigating humdrum lives that are periodically thrown into chaos by bizarre supernatural events. Featuring art by Marie Enger and a light and flexible system …

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we take a look at the Cold War curiosity The Price of Freedom (1986). Basically Red Dawn (or Red Scare) the RPG, it seems like a serious attempt at creating a game in the mode of similar military-focused, conservatively minded box sets that were coming out at the same time. On the other hand, it’s by Greg Costi…

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we talk to Luke Gearing and David Hoskins, the creative team behind the new RPG Swyvers, from Melsonian Arts Council. In a fictionalized, horrible sort of fantasy London full of corruption and wild magic, the only way to get yours is to take it from somebody else. Rules light, with a focus on collaborative play…

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we chat with Joey Royale about the new adventure in Ninja City: Drug Demon Disco, for DCC. A new drug is hitting the streets and turning people into demons — can you and your ninja pals save the city? Can you do it while busting out the best breakdancing moves? Find out on Kickstarter, now! We also chat a littl…

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we’re looking back through videogame history at The Temple of Apshai Trilogy (1985), the classic remake of the original 1979 game and its two expansions. Apshai is maybe (depending on the criteria) the first dungeoncrawler videogame and one of the earliest videogame interpretations of Dungeons & Dragons. The Tr…

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast we welcome back friend of the show Mark Sable, who is about to start teaching a class called Writing Adventures for Tabletop RPGs. Seems like something y'all might be interested in. We talk a bit about game design, about teaching games and the nebulous ways we've approached how-to in RPGs. Marks class is eight s…

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, Stu's crowing about one of his Christmas gifts, The Meints Guide to Glorantha, by Chaosium president Rick Meints. The books amounts to the definitive guide to all publications to include material on Glorantha in existence (well, all the ones Rick knows about, which is certainly most of them, if not all of them)…

And we're back! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, Hambone's got the reins and talking about two books from Goodman Games: the Dungeon Crawl Classics Reference Booklet and How to Write Adventure Modules that Don't Suck. Spoiler: he loves them both! * * * Stu’s book, Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground is for sale now! Buy it! Patreon? Disc…

Hello friends! We're running remastered repeats for the holidays. I can't tell you why I thought Black Angel worked for the holidays beyond being similar to that vague, dreamy vibe of The Green Knight (itself a Christmas movie of a sort). Maybe it's just because I got my first Pendragon books for Christmas circa 1991, who knows? Anyway, happy New Y…

Hello friends! We're running remastered repeats for the holidays. I thought the Coloring Album would, in some way, speak to warm memories of childhood Christmas gifts. Whether or not that's apt, we hope your holidays are rad! Original notes: This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we flip through the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Coloring Album (1979),…

Hello friends! We weren't planning to go to reruns this soon, but events conspired to prevent the recording of a new episode for this week. We're sorry about that, but also we're sure you'll enjoy revisiting this classic episode. We've got remastered reruns coming on December 25 and January 1 as well, because, well, holidays. We'll be back with a n…

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we look at (and listen to) First Quest: The Music, a double LP record of electronic music and narration for an officially licensed (and totally ridiculous) Dungeons & Dragons adventure printed on the sleeves. Is it a precursor to dungeonsynth? Sort of? Is it a precursor to the 1994 First Quest box set for D&D, …

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, Momatoes is back to chat with us about her new RPG, The Marvelous Children of Inang-Uri. It’s a worldmaking game that spans generations, has a splash of hidden traitor mechanics for flavor and involves a culture living in symbiosis with a gigantic creature/entity that they also call home — that’s the world that…

A couple weeks back, Stu talked about some books that came out in 2023 that he thought were notable. This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, Hambone’s got his own picks for books that are well worth your time. On tap we have the Fairhaven RPG universe from Get Haunted Industries; Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland, by Brian Shutter; Minacious Midway f…