The Vintage RPG Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Monstrous Arcana Jun 27, 2022

Show notes

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we chat about Monstrous Arcana, a series of sourcebooks and adventures late in the D&D 2E days that explored three of the game's most iconic monsters in alarming detail. The series is one of several crystal balls through which we can see some inkling of what 3E might be — in fact, the sourcebooks lead pretty directly to the excellent Lords of Madness sourcebook in a couple years.

Monsters n' Dragons Jun 20, 2022

Show notes

Another week, another discovery of some weird ass bootleg D&D toys! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, Stu discovers Arco's dime store line of little plastic monster dudes, Dragons n' Monsters. This one is more bootleg than most! We also chat a bit about Arco's weird tie-in toy line for the movie The Sword and the Sorcerer and the forthcoming "lost wave" of LJN Dungeons & Dragons toys from NECA.

Dune Jun 13, 2022

Show notes

Desert power! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we look at the classic strategy game Dune (1979 from Avalon Hill, though Stu played the 2019 reprint from Gale Force Nine). There are a lot of cool things in Dune that have become staples of modern board game design, but it still manages to deliver a unique, spice-flavored experience.

Reverse Dungeon Jun 06, 2022

Show notes

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we take a turn at being the villains in Reverse Dungeon. An adventure from very late in the 2E D&D line, it is very much the D&D-ification of the classic videogame Dungeon Keeper, but with some unexpected twists and turns.

Dead Mall May 30, 2022

Show notes

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we do some urban exploration and investigate Dead Mall, a neat Tunnel Goons hack about the ruined temples of capitalism. We also discuss Nate Treme's Tunnel Goons and Satanic Panic at Crowley Place Mall, a zine scenario for Dead Mall.

Central Casting May 23, 2022

Show notes

If you like tables, we've got some books for you! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we check out Jennell Jaquays' series of Central Casting books, for use creating both player and non-player characters of alarming depth and, sometimes, bizarre circumstances. There are three flavors: Heroes of Legend (1988), our focus, which tackles fantasy backgrounds; Heroes for Tomorrow (1989), for science fiction characters; and Heroes Now! (1991), for characters from worlds not unlike our own.

Borderlands May 16, 2022

Show notes

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we run to the border…lands. OK, never mind, I'll leave the jokes to Hambone. For real: this week we're talking about the RuneQuest box set Borderlands (1982), an excellent campaign about getting a job and doing it well. There's no real narrative arc, no cackling villain, no dark plot. Stuff happens and the players take care of it, but the real point of Borderlands is to build and maintain a home in a strange land, a pretty unusual concept, then and now!

Dread May 09, 2022

Show notes

Aaaand we're back! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we take a look at the horror storytelling game Dread and its unusual method of task resolution (hint: it involves a Jenga tower). And heck, let's make it a double: we also discuss the storytelling game of doomed romance, Star Crossed, which also uses a Jenga tower!

Players Handbook Rerun May 02, 2022

Show notes

A re-run? Yep, sometimes you just gotta rest the brains. So have a remastered Players Handbook! Originally aired to a whole different world, on December 23, 2019.

Original hype text: We crack the cover of the classic Players Handbook (1978) for first edition Dungeons & Dragons. We talk a lot about Trampier's iconic, forbidding cover, of course, but also dig into the equally iconic interior illustrations, the philosophical state of the game at the time, the D&D multiverse, the previous owners of our personal copies (who left their names in the front covers) and much more!

The Fantasy Trip Apr 25, 2022

Show notes

Coming from an era of RPGs in which you could still get away with just naming your game Wizard, this week on the Vintage RPG Podcast we're looking at Melee, Wizard and the larger Fantasy Trip RPG. We focus on its innovative use of point-buy mechanics, but also get into the game's larger place in RPG history.

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