The Vintage RPG Podcast

Latest Episodes:

World Action & Adventure Oct 05, 2020

Show notes

Join us in the latest episode of the Vintage RPG Podcast as we investigate the extremely earnest World Action and Adventure RPG, a universal RPG system from 1985 that codifies the real world into a semi-playable game. There is poetry. There is clip art. There are so many charts. Most importantly, the creation of World Action and Adventure scored author Gregory L. Kinney (right) credit for five college courses! Easily one of the oddest RPGs we've ever encountered.

Beasts & Behemoths and More! Sep 28, 2020

Show notes

Friend of the show Jim Zub is back on the Vintage RPG Podcast this week, with a bag full of fun new projects. First off is the Skullkickers Kickstarter: Caster Bastards and the Great Grotesque, a comic and RPG supplement that celebrates the 10th anniversary of his love letter to pulp and D&D. We also talk about the forthcoming Beasts & Behemoths, the latest installment of the Young Adventurer's Guides, and the Stranger Things: Dungeons & Dragons comic book.

Lankhmar: City of Adventure Sep 21, 2020

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This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we walk the shadowy streets of Lankhmar: City of Adventure, one of the greatest RPG city sourcebooks. Based on the Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories by Fritz Leiber, Lankhmar is both a city and a larger campaign setting for Dungeons & Dragons (using a modified character creation system) that captures the atmosphere of the original stories. The real genius of the book is the approach to the city, which uses modular geomorphs for the tangled and ever-changing back alleys. We also talk a bit about Leiber, his Lankhmar co-creator Otto Fischer and the stories themselves, which form one of the biggest influences on early Dungeons & Dragons.

Stormbringer Sep 14, 2020

Show notes

Steal your strength and guard your soul: this week, the Vintage RPG Podcast looks at Chaosium's Stormbringer RPG. Designed by Ken St. Andre, Stormbringer is a high power and high risk RPG set in the world of Michael Moorcock's Elric stories (for our money, perhaps the greatest fantasy series ever written). One of the more straightforward of the games using Chaosium's Basic Role Playing system, it has piles of fatalistic atmosphere and dark themes, perhaps most notably the magic system that relies on mind altering substances and is entirely arranged around summoning and binding demons and other supernatural entities. Most Stormbringer games end in death or corruption – the fun is in figuring out which is the better fate.

Tales From The Loop Sep 07, 2020

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This week, the Vintage RPG Podcast travels back in time to the 80s that never were with Tales From the Loop, an RPG where extraordinary science fiction mysteries crash into the dreariness of everyday life. Based on the mesmerizing artwork of Simon Stålenhag, this Year Zero engine game from Fria Ligan is one of our favorites – easy to pick up and play (especially for beginners), gorgeous to look at and full of enigmas. Check it out if you were ever a kid.

The Green Knight Aug 31, 2020

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This week, the Vintage RPG Podcast cracks open The Green Knight: A Quest for Honor. Don't let the fake scuff marks fool you: this is a brand new box set from @A24, a marketing tie-in for their forthcoming film The Green Knight. We talk a bit about the original 14th century poem (and how perplexing its intricate commentary on the dueling systems of knightly and chivalric honor might be to modern audiences). Then we dig into the surprisingly novel game system presented in the box, which is arranged around a sliding honor/dishonor scale that focuses on the motives and morals behind player action rather than combat. An easy knock-off of Dungeons & Dragons this is not!

Rifts Aug 24, 2020

Show notes

Welcome to the Megaverse, folks. This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we take a look at Palladium's Rifts. Introduced in 1990, Rifts is like all of 90s nerd culture smooshed into one gonzo RPG. Mixing genres with wild abandon it is perhaps the ultimate form of the age old comic shop game "Who Would Win in a Fight?" Sorcerers and aliens and superheroes and biomechanical aliens and interdimensional beings and mutants and knights and the four horsemen of the apocalypse and mechs and more all rub shoulders with each other here, pushing each new sourcebook further over the top, so don your Glitterboy armor, pray to your gods and dive in. I hope you like explosions. * * * Through September 7, use the code ROLLDICE to get $6 off any purchase $25 or more at Noble Knight! Hang out with us on the Vintage RPG Discord! If you dig what we do, join us on the Vintage RPG Patreon for more roleplaying fun and surprises! Patrons keep us going! Like, Rate, Subscribe and Review the Vintage RPG Podcast! Available on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, Spotify, YouTube and your favorite podcast clients. Send questions, comments or corrections to info@vintagerpg.com. Follow Vintage RPG on Instagram, Tumblr and Facebook. Learn more at the Vintage RPG FAQ. Follow Stu Horvath, John McGuire, VintageRPG and Unwinnable on Twitter. Intro music by George Collazo. The Vintage RPG illustration is by Shafer Brown. Follow him on Twitter. Tune in next week for the next episode. Until then, may the dice always roll in your favor!

Three Hearts and Three Lions Aug 17, 2020

Show notes

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we return to Appendix N and check out Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions. Even though it starts off in World War II and features lots of scientific theories to explain magical effects, this 1961 novel is a formative text for Dungeons & Dragons. It establishes many of the feels of a D&D adventure, with its travel and towns and non player characters and random encounters. Perhaps most importantly, it introduces a terrifying take on the troll that Gygax would essentially Xerox for the game. Interesting stuff!

Arduin Grimoire Aug 10, 2020

Show notes

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we crack open David Hargrave's Arduin Grimoire! The eight book series, started in 1977, is a treasure trove of house rules and hacks for the original Dungeons & Dragons. There's insect people and laser guns and the dragon from Neverending Story in here – if Hargrave had a design ethos, it was probably "IDGAF," for better or worse. One of the earliest gonzo RPGs and an important block in the foundation of the OSR.

The Schwarzenegger Conan Movies Aug 03, 2020

Show notes

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we look back that the Arnold Schwarzenegger Conan films, Conan the Barbarian (1982) and Conan the Destroyer (1984). They're great fantasy films (OK, one of them is great) that certainly influenced RPGs, but there are some indications that Dungeons & Dragons might have had a little bit of influence on Destroyer. We discuss the high points of both films, nearly forget to talk about the amazing Basil Poledouris soundtracks and totally forget to talk about that King Conan teaser that's been tormenting folks for nearly forty years. Oops!

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