The Vintage RPG Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Hârn Dec 14, 2020

Show notes

Building off our recent episode on Chivalry & Sorcery, this week we look at another realistic medieval RPG world, N. Robin Crossby's Hârn. Unlike C&S, though, Hârn was originally created as a system agnostic setting. That'd change later, with the HârnMaster system, but with or without the rules, the Hârn remains one of the the most ambitious and stunningly detailed ever created. Let's take a look around, eh?

Palace of the Vampire Queen Dec 07, 2020

Show notes

Most folks would say Steading of the Hill Giant Chief was the first published adventure for Dungeons & Dragons. And they'd be wrong! While Steading was the first D&D adventure published by TSR, it was Palace of the Vampire Queen from Wee Warriors that was actually the first adventure module. A bit thin by modern standards and definitely more gonzo, we take a look at this often overlooked piece of history on the new episode of the Vintage RPG Podcast.

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You can find the reprint of Palace of the Vampire Queen and all the other old Wee Warriors publications, at Precis Intermedia!

Chivalry & Sorcery Nov 30, 2020

Show notes

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we take a look at Chivalry & Sorcery. One of the earliest RPGs, it is another example of D&D players feeling like D&D failed in some way and making their own game to correct it. In C&S's case, Ed Simbalist and Wilf Backhaus felt D&D wasn't realistic enough, so they set about making a game that reaaaaally leans into simulation and is pretty tedious, even for its time. However! They also created not one, but three extremely detailed campaign settings, which no one was really doing at the time. We take a look at those, too. One has dinosaurs! Very realistic!

Holiday Gift Guide 2020 Nov 23, 2020

Show notes

This year, instead of digging up gift suggestions ourselves, we've turned to the professionals. First up, we talk to Matt Kelley about the strange sights you can see at Exalted Funeral (as ever, they're gonna have a big Black Friday sale). Jess Carrier fills us in on a small slice of the stuff you can find at Noble Knight Games (they've got it all, for real, and their sale is going on right now). Finally, Josh Look from the It Came From the Tabletop Podcast suggests some notable board games to consider putting under the holiday centerpiece of your choice (or right on the shelf, if the holidays aren't your thing).

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Nov 16, 2020

Show notes

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay! Grab your axe, smear some mud on your clothes, strap on some desperation and delve with us into the grim and perilous Old World. Stu laments having avoided WFRP all these years (don't hold your breath for 40k though). Then he delights in the game's systems and world building and art. In addition to the main rules, we also chat, broadly, about The Enemy Within campaign. This is some grade-A roleplayin' right here.

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Gonna drop some truth here: Tzeentch is the best and most interesting Chaos God. The end.

Miskatonic Nov 09, 2020

Show notes

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we chat with our pal Mark Sable about his imminent comic series Miskatonic, which takes on Lovecraft, cosmic horror, racism, the Red Scare and more. We chat with Mark about all that, plus the Call of Cthulhu RPG, the symbiotic relationship between playing RPGs and being a writer and plenty more!

Miskatonic #1 is on sale digitally and in comic stores on Wednesday, November 11.

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For more on Mark's work, check out his author pages on Comixology and Amazon.

Xenolanguage Nov 02, 2020

Show notes

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we chat with Kathryn Hymes of Thorny Games about Xenolanguage. Thorny Games makes games about language (see the rather sublime Dialect for example) and their latest effort, currently on Kickstarter, draws inspiration from Arrival, Contact and "The Story of Your Life" to create an experience that is about first contact with an alien species, but also about learning to see the world differently. And the game mechanic centers on a talking board!

Ravenloft Campaign Setting Oct 26, 2020

Show notes

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we travel the dark and twisting paths of the Ravenloft campaign setting for Dungeons & Dragons. Prepare yourself for horrors beyond imagining, diabolical villains and a lot of near-hysterical praise for the art of Stephen Fabian!

Vampire: The Masquerade Oct 19, 2020

Show notes

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we slip into the shadows of Vampire: The Masquerade, a topic far too sprawling for just one episode. We try to cut to the heart of the game's early era, the wild lore, the Storyteller system, the LARPing, the Tim Bradstreet art, Milwaukee. We probably just scratch the surface. But we manage to find time to also discuss Near Dark and the vampire courts of the late 90s/early 2000s goth club scene! Weird!

Thieves' World Oct 12, 2020

Show notes

In the latest episode of the Vintage RPG Podcast this week, we look at Robert Lynn Asprin and Lynn Abbey's gritty, shared-world fantasy anthology series, the Tim Sale graphic novel adaptations and the magical moment in roleplaying history when Chaosium convinced the designers behind all the major RPGs (including Traveller!?) to collaborate on their Thieves' World box set. It was a glorious moment, and all to brief.

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