The Vintage RPG Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Pacesetter's Chill and an interview with Nathan D. Paoletta Oct 14, 2019

Show notes

Gather round, Chill Masters! This week, we're discussing the horror roleplaying game Chill (1984), by Pacesetter Games. Is it scary? Is it campy? We don't know, because Chill never really figured that out for itself.

We also welcome game designer Nathan D. Paoletta of Worldwide Wrestling fame. We chat about wrasslin' briefly before turning to his latest, the psychological monster hunting game Imp of the Perverse, set in Jacksonian America.

Ultraviolet Grasslands and Luka Rejec Sep 30, 2019

Show notes

This week, its all about artist, writer and game designer Luka Rejec. We discuss Witchburner, Luka's system agnostic witch hunt scenario. Then we dig into the forthcoming Ultraviolet Grasslands, a psychedelic heavy metal road trip RPG powered by Luka's ultra-light, ultra flexible SEACAT system. Finally, we talk to the man himself (for not nearly long enough).

Endless Quest Sep 02, 2019

Show notes

This week, we're talking TSR's Endless Quest gamebooks. They're like Choose Your Own Adventure, but with D&D and, well, boring. Sort of! Maybe we're being too hard on them. We dig in to the first few, the history of the series, the unusual places it goes and there is, perhaps, a surprising turn-around of opinion. We learn a lot about ourselves on this podcast, folks.

We're already getting excited for Halloween (what, its after Labor Day) so we've got a couple games we're excited about. Stu finally got a hold of the rulebook for Mummy: The Resurrection, which tickles his funny bone. Meanwhile, Hambone is amped for Horrified, a new board game from Ravensburger.

Dragonlance Aug 19, 2019

Show notes

We dive right into it, talking the history of Dragonlance – the modules, the novels, the…animated movie? It is the first major metaplot in tabletop RPGs and catapulted Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weiss onto the bestseller list, but never quite coalesced into the major D&D campaign setting it should have. We talk about the reasons why.

After that, Hambone sits down with Craig Bergman, assistant manager of the Fantasy Flight Games Center about, well, the awesome Fantasy Flight Games Center event space. If you're in Roseville, Minnesota, drop on in!

LJN Dungeons & Dragons Toys Aug 05, 2019

Show notes

We start off with a videogame! We both logged a lot of hours in Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. Lots of videogame food was made.

The main course is the LJN Dungeons & Dragons toy line. We run through an overview of the entire line, talk about some of the toys that were never produced and even discuss the amazing concept art by comic artists Timothy Truman, Steve Bisette and John Totleben. And more. We go deep on this one, folks.

[Hambone is a wrestling fan of the sort who uses wrestling lingo in real life. When he says "job" as a verb, as in "jobbed out by a unicorn," he means losing, usually in a fashion that puts the winner in an unusually favorable light]

Finally, we chat about the new Young Adventurer's Guides: Monsters & Creatures and Warriors & Weapons. They're geared towards kids, entirely lack rules and focus on how the world works and teaching players how to roleplaying. They're pretty great.

Forgotten Realms Jul 22, 2019

Show notes

Welcome back to the Vintage RPG podcast!

We kick things off with the super-appropriate-for-July, Target-exclusive board game adaptation of Jaws. Its fun!

The main course is Forgotten Realms, Ed Greenwood's classic campaign setting. We walk through the creation of the world, its absorption into Dungeons & Dragons and just barely scratch the surface of all the stuff that has happened with the Realms over the years. The Realms are huge, so we'll be visiting them again, no doubt.

We wrap things up with a look at Things From the Flood, the follow-up to Tales From the Loop, the RPG about the 80s that never existed. Flood moves things up to the 90s and now your kid characters can die, because the 90s are gritty!

Paper Anniversary/Planet X Games Jul 08, 2019

Show notes

We made it one year! To celebrate our anniversary, we talk about some of our favorite things, and ramble through a number of seemingly random topics, like our love for sniveling cowards, whether Lord Soth listens to Sisters of Mercy, the glorious badness of the D&D cartoon, murder hobo average intelligence and jeeze, that's just the first 15 minutes.

We also have a chat with Levi Combs of Planet X games. We talk about his first 5E D&D module Jungle Tomb of the Mummy Bride and learn some of the secrets in his new one, An Occurrence at Howling Crater, now on Kickstarter! (The video Stu mentions is the video at the top of the campaign page).

Tony DiTerlizzi Interview Jun 24, 2019

Show notes

We have a very special guest this episode. Tony DiTerlizzi graced us with a full length interview. We chat about his influences, Dragon Mountain, the Monstrous Manual, Planescape, Magic the Gathering, the Spiderwick Chronicles, Hong Kong dinosaurs (you can read Tony's post on these and their influence on Dungeons & Dragons here) and so much more - and barely scratch the surface, honestly.

Tony's retrospective art show, Never Abandon Imagination, opens June 22 at the Mint Museum Randolph, in Charlotte, North Carolina, and runs through November 3. If you're in the area, be sure to check it out. You can also follow Tony on Twitter and Instagram.

Dungeons & Dragons 1.5 Edition Jun 10, 2019

Show notes

We start off with Hambone's experience playing the classic fantasy themed board game Talisman for the first time. He played the recent fourth edition from Fantasy Flight.

Did you know there was an unofficial 1.5 edition of Dungeons & Dragons? There was! Beginning with Unearthed Arcana and following through Oriental Adventures, Dungeoneer's Survival Guide and the Wilderness Survival Guide, it was partly a natural evolution of the system, partly a desperate attempt to save the company from financial ruin. Stu walks us through the history.

Finally, we started playing Pendragon and we chat about character creation and the first introductory session. (Stu never explicitly states it, but the tedious bit was not the character creation itself, but rather working through the family histories).

Lovecraft Country/Ghosts of Saltmarsh May 27, 2019

Show notes

A double meat episode! First off, Stu gives an overview of Keith Herber's series of Lovecraft Country sourcebooks for Call of Cthulhu: Arkham Unveiled, Return to Dunwich, Kingport: City in the Mists and Escape from Innsmouth. They are an important piece in the puzzle of how to present large regions in a way that is helpful and engaging for roleplaying games.

Second, Hambone is a-glow for the new Dungeons & Dragons adventure compilation, Ghosts of Saltmarsh, which reprints a number of classic D&D scenarios, including the U-series: Sinister Secret of Salt Marsh, Danger at Dunwater and The Final Enemy. Surprising no one, Stu is less enthusiastic.

Don't let that grump stop you, though. Ghosts of Saltmarsh is for sale now at our sponsor, Noble Knight Games. From May 27 to June 15, use the promo code CLASSICS, in store or online, to get $5 off purchases of $25 or more!

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