The Vintage RPG Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Dungeon Masters Guide/MIichael O'Brien Interview May 13, 2019

Show notes

First up, we talk about Miskatonic University: The Restricted Collection, the latest Chaosium board game. It's a great companion to 2016's Khan of Khans.

The main course this episode is the first edition Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Masters Guide. We discuss how the book is a peak into Gary Gygax's brain and how that echoed through tabletop roleplaying games for a long time and marks a kind of frontier for game design circa 1979. We get pretty meta with it.

Finally, we chat with Michael O'Brien, vice president of Chaosium about Miskatonic University: The Restricted Collection, some Call of Cthulhu conventions, RuneQuest and more Chaosium news!

Skyrealms of Jorune Apr 29, 2019

Show notes

We start off this week with Monarch, a set collecting game about sisters vying for the throne. It has very lovely art.

We also announce our partnership with Noble Knight Games. You can use the coupon code NOBLEVINTAGE online or in-store to get $5 off any purchase of $25 or more. Offer expires May 12, so get on that!

The main event is Skyrealms of Jorune, a very strange RPG from the 80s, created by Andrew Leker with gorgeous illustrations by Miles Teves. It is weird and wild and I bet if you are a certain age, you for sure remember the advertisements for it in Dragon Magazine. We also talk about weird dice and the lost art of paste-up work in the age before digital layout for publishing. This one goes places, folks.

We wrap up with a chat about the games that never grabbed us and the games we never want to play again. Let us know which games you hate! Drop us a line at the email below!

GURPS Apr 15, 2019

Show notes

We start by blowing the dust off an older board game, Cyclades, a deceptively straightforward, combat light strategy game with lots of cool miniatures that riffs on ancient Greek mythology.

For the main event, we discuss GURPS - Generic Universal Role Playing System - from Steve Jackson Games, the RPG that can be any kind of game you want, so long as you have the sourcebooks. And dear god, there are a lot of source book. We look at a couple of the stranger ones, talk about the appeal of the generic and reveal some of our old Supers characters.

We wrap up with Stu giving the rundown on character creation for his upcoming King Arthur Pendragon campaign.

Red Box Apr 01, 2019

Show notes

First up, we talk about Mixtape Massacre, a fun little independently produced horror board game that riffs on classic slasher movies and 80s pop culture.

Our main course this week is the iconic Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set red box. We talk about its place in popular culture, where it sits in the larger history of D&D, touch on the other BECMI boxes, talk cartography, the importance of indexes and more. The Isle of Dread inevitably comes up, as does the Goodman Games reissue.

Finally, Stu is excited about his great mail day and walks us through some of the cool stuff he picked up from Exalted Funeral. They sell very cool indie TTRPG stuff and occult books.

Couple cool Kickstarters to hip you to, as well. The first, through Exalted Funeral, is The Ultraviolet Grasslands, a psychedelic road trip RPG. The second is Welcome to Tikor, the setting book for the Afropunk Sci-fi/Fantasy RPG Swordsfall. Both campaigns have crushed their goals and we're sure to be talking about them a lot in the future, so consider getting on board now.

Couple cool Kickstarters to hip you to, as well. The first, through Exalted Funeral, is The Ultraviolet Grasslands, a psychedelic road trip RPG. The second is Welcome to Tikor, the setting book for the Afropunk Sci-fi/Fantasy RPG Swordsfall. Both campaigns have crushed their goals and we're sure to be talking about them a lot in the future, so consider getting on board now.

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Join us on the Vintage RPG Patreon for more roleplaying fun and surprises!

If you want to buy any of the stuff we mentioned on the show, there's a pretty good chance our sponsors at Noble Knight Games have it in stock!

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 two weeks from now for the next episode. Until then, may the dice always roll in your favor!

James Lowder, Cthulhu Starter & Dagon, Oh My! Mar 18, 2019

Show notes

Long episode for you this time around!

We kick things off with a couple of unusual Beginning Readers books from Chaosium, R. J. Ivankovic Dr. Seuss-esque adaptations of H.P. Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu and Dagon.

We also discuss the new Call of Cthulhu Starter Set, a box set packed with short scenarios and an introductory version of the rule meant to be a gateway for beginning RPG players.

Finally, we have a long chat with James Lowder (Ring of Winter, Prince of Lies) about his work at Chaosium, as well as his long history in the RPG industry as an author, fiction line editor and game designer. Interesting anecdotes abound!

* * *

Join us on the Vintage RPG Patreon for more roleplaying fun and surprises!

If you want to buy any of the stuff we mentioned on the show, there's a pretty good chance our sponsors at Noble Knight Games have it in stock!

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 two weeks from now for the next episode. Until then, may the dice always roll in your favor!

Spelljammer Mar 04, 2019

Show notes

We start off discussing the tile placement/currency exchange game Alhambra, which is themed around the 14th century construction of the Alhambra palace in Granada.

The main course this week is Spelljammer, the space fantasy setting for D&D released in 1989, in which players sail ships into space. It is exactly as weird and silly and bizarre and absolutely awesome as you imagine.

We wrap up answering questions from our listeners!

Masks of Nyarlathotep (Again) Feb 18, 2019

Show notes

We start off talking about Steve Jackson Games' Munchkin, specifically the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle variant. It features art by Kevin Eastman and some rules variants that may surprise you if you're a long time Munchkin players.

In the main segment, we talk about Masks of Nyarlathotep. What's that you say? We've already covered Masks on a previous podcast? Well, yea, that is true, but Chaosium released a new, updated version of the campaign last year and they changed enough of it that we think it warrants a revisit.

Finally, we talk to Ryan Verniere and Carmen Acosta, two of the folks behind the upcoming Auction of Many Things, a Los Angeles auction of D&D-inspired art benefiting the surviving creators of Dungeons & Dragons. If you're in LA, you can attend the auction on March 2. Follow @DnDArtshow on Instagram to see all the awesome art and to keep updated on future events!

Mouse Guard Feb 04, 2019

Show notes

This week, we're playing Heimlich & Co., a modern issue of a clever espionage-themed game originally from 1984 (you may know it as Top Secret Spies, Under Cover or Detective & Co.).

Over on our Patreon, folks who back us at the $25 level get to call the shots for an episode. This week, Sara Clemens asked us to cover Mouse Guard, Burning Wheel's RPG adaptation of David Petersen's beautiful comic series. Over the holiday break, we made some characters and ran the game so we could give you our impressions. It is pretty cool!

We wrap things up discussing Stu's recent experience setting up a Blades in the Dark game on Roll20.

Greg Stafford Remembered Jan 21, 2019

Show notes

This show is entirely dedicated to the works of the late, great Greg Stafford, who we dearly miss.

Stu takes the helm and starts us down Stafford's tabletop RPG history with the wargame White Bear & Red Moon (also known as Dragon Pass). From there, he touches on RuneQuest, the Ghostbusters RPG, the entire world of Glorantha, HeroQuest and Pendragon, all the while trying to convey how widely Stafford's work influenced the hobby.

We'll be covering most of these games in more depth on the Instagram feed this week, so look for that.

Marvel Super Heroes RPG Jan 07, 2019

Show notes

Happy new year!

For starters this episode, we check out the seance-themed board game Mysterium. It is sort of like Clue meets Dixit, but spooky.

The main event is TSR's Marvel Super Heroes RPG. We revel in some 80s-era nostalgia, discuss the weirdness of the game and somehow wind up on the 1987 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Marvel float. Seriously, go watch that video.

We also talk about Blades in the Dark, a dark fantasy heist RPG that Stu is preparing to run online for members of the Unwinnable staff.

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