The Vintage RPG Podcast

Strap in, cuz we got bootleg toys! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, direct from the five and dime, we check out Stu's Dragonriders of the Styx toys from the early 80s. For a bunch of cheap fantasy toys, they actually have a fun and weird intersection with Dungeons & Dragons!

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we take a look at another board game:  Return to Dark Tower . This is Restoration Games' new sequel/revamp of the 1981 Milton Bradley electronic board game  Dark Tower  that…if not a classic, certainly has a compelling mystique born from the intersection of its rarity, its D&D-like fantasy theming and its place at an exciting and highly nostalgic early era of...

The ring of invisibility is one of the most iconic magic items in RPGs. But where does it come from? (Hint: it isn't Tolkien!)

Getting lots of actual playtime in lately. This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, Stu's fresh off his first session of  Troika  and he's keen to share his impressions. It's weird and easy and did we mention weird?

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we've got an after action report for the first half of the  Dungeon Crawl Classics 67: Sailors on the Starless Sea , which Zog is running us through. Granted, we're only on the edge of the really weird stuff, but we've seen enough to start ruminating. And there are plenty of corpses already. Honor the fallen!

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we're back on  RuneQuest , talking about some of the stuff that makes the world of Glorantha special, specifically its approach to mythology, time and its surprising meta-commentary on roleplaying games themselves! That's two  RuneQuest  episodes and we're  still  barely scratching the surface.

Scream for me, Fae Wray! This week, the Vintage RPG Podcast travels to Skull Island to discuss some of the surprising influences of the greatest monster movie ever made:  King Kong ! The 1933 version, of course, get that remake trash outta here. You can see the still from  Son of Kong  mentioned in the episode at the bottom of this post.

I recently came into possession of like five feet of  Traveller  and it made me realize, holy crap, there is a lot of  Traveller ! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we take a look at the span of the  Traveller  RPG through the 20th century. That's a quick look at both versions of  Classic Traveller  (1977 and 1983),  MegaTraveller  (1986),  New Era  (1993),  T4  (1996),  GURPS Traveller  (1998...

You know what kind of sucks? Awards. Oscars, Grammys, whatever. RPG awards are no exception. But Joe DeSimone doesn't think they need to be that way. So he's starting his own awards for RPGs called  The Awards . And you know what? They might suck, too! He's upfront about that. But if they do, they'll suck in a completely new way and maybe even pave the way for something good. This week on the Vint...

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we barely scratch the surface of  RuneQuest  (1978), Chaosium's classic first foray into RPGs. We talk about the games origins in the earlier wargame,  White Bear & Red Moon  (1975), the skill-based RPG, the limitations of class as a concept, the different sorts of magic and, seriously, that's more than enough for one half hour. We'll be returning to  RQ  seve...

Ever buy an old RPG box set and find some maps or a character sheet inside? For me, it conjures up a specific sort of warm feeling. This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we take a look at some of Tim Hutchings' efforts to preserve that sort gaming ephemera in  The Habitation of the Stone Giant Lord , a book collecting homebrew D&D adventures written and illustrated by kids. We also look at Hutchin...

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, Hambone talks to Charlie Ferguson Avery and Alex Coggon of  Feral Indie Studios  about  ZiMo 2022 , their indie RPG zine showcase, running the whole month of February! ZINES! Get 'em! * * * Stu will be back next week, promise!

"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." That's the first line of William Gibson's 1984 novel  Neuromancer  and, just like that, he pretty much codified the aesthetic of cyberpunk. This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we go ga-ga over the novel and look at the way it influenced cyberpunk RPGs. Or was ripped off by cyberpunk RPGs. We've heard it both ways. * *...

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we go way over the top and check out the Dungeon Crawl Classics  RPG. It's got gonzo for days, horrible dooms, epic spell failures, weird ass dice and enough old school style art to fill a museum with. What's not to love?

It ain't just D&D that's getting hacked and cloned! Want to play a system that retains the flavors of 80s-era British fantasy? Warlock, from Fire Ruby Designs, has you covered by being a bit more robust than Advanced Fighting Fantasy and a lot less cumbersome than Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. We check it out on this week's Vintage RPG Podcast.

Happy New Year! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we return to Appendix N and check out  The Broken Sword , a novel by Poul Anderson. Unlike  Three Hearts and Three Lions , it's a fantastic, violent and often unparalleled work of influential fantasy.

We got you some monsters for Christmas! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we talk about the  Monstrous Compendium  (1989) for second edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. You know what else we talk about? Office supplies and how great they are. Join us for another thrilling episode!

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we talk about the  Campaign Sourcebook and Catacomb Guide  (1990), the first Dungeon Masters Guide expansion for second edition Dungeons & Dragons. That might sound dull, but I promise you, it is a wild ride into the substrate of the RPG psyche — it's one part deconstruction of the hobby and one part a kind of everyperson's treatise on RPG design theory, writt...

Back in October, Stu ran "Chariot of the Gods," the cinematic scenario in the  Alien Starter Set . Not once, but twice! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast we talk about how it went. Who survived? What was left of them? Well, we aren't telling because that would spoil the fun. But we do dig into Stu's general impressions of how the game works and the experience it delivers.

It's a little late for a holiday gift guide, even without the worldwide supply chain issues and shipping delays, so let's call this episode of the Vintage RPG Podcast "Cool RPG stuff that came out this year (and is maybe made by our friends)." While it may be too late for the December holidays (though PDFs make for fine gifts, too!), the monopoly December has on gift giving is silly. Give your tab...

We did Fighting Fantasy last week, so this week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, it seemed like a fun idea to take a look at a board game inspired by Fighting Fantasy, the spectacular  Escape the Dark Castle , from  Themeborne . So many great things about this game: the gnarly throwback art, the punishing difficulty, the narrative focus, the incredible ease of learning it. Snag it, throw it on the tabl...

On the Vintage RPG Podcast this week, the guys talk about the famed adventure gamebook franchise, Fighting Fantasy, developed by Ian Livingstone and (English) Steve Jackson. Hambone also has a chat with Ryan Verniere about his forthcoming RPG,  Blackbirds , now up for pre-order on  BackerKit . This forthright post is brought to you by Stu's head cold. We'll return to our regular number of exclamat...

Did you know that there's a Rocky and Bullwinkle RPG? Yup: the  Bullwinkle and Rocky Role-Playing Party Game ! Do you even have a clue who Rocky and Bullwinkle are? Did you get that the first line of this post is a reference to their cartoon? Maybe you did, maybe you didn't, but that doesn't change the fact that this particular cartoon license is a bit of a head-scratcher for TSR circa 1988, and d...

Ships and desert islands and sea shanties and secret treasures: we're getting nautical on this week's episode of the Vintage RPG Podcast. First up,  N4 — Treasure Hunt  (1986), one of the finest introductory scenarios for first edition Dungeons & Dragons. It's one of the only modules to successfully pull of the "you've been captured and lost all your stuff" trope and introduces the underloved idea...

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we're talking  3, 2, 1… Action!  with  3, 2, 1… Action!  creator Hambone! You probably remember Hambone kickstarted an adventure for the system,  Rocket to Russia , back in February during ZineQuest. That scenario is a prelude to  Point Nemo , which is hitting Kickstarter on Tuesday.  Follow now to be notified on launch ! We chat a little bit about  Point Nemo...