The Vintage RPG Podcast

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we descend into The Maze of Peril (1986), a fantasy novel by Dr. John Eric Holmes. Holmes is best known for creating the first D&D Basic Rules box set (1977), but he also wrote fantasy fiction (in addition to his day job as a neurologist). At a glance, Maze of Peril doesn't inspire much confidence as to its quality, but it winds up being a fun adventure that captures something of the spirit of the early days of Dungeons & Dragons — something countless other hard-trying fantasy novels have failed to do. * * * New year, new Noble Knight discount code! Use VRPG23 for 10% off all your purchases online or in the store! 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!

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we're talking to James Wallis about his forthcoming book Everybody Wins. It's a fantastic book that charts the recent history of board games through the lens of the forty-three winners of the German Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) award, from 1979 to 2022. We also talk a little bit about RPGs as well — how could we not, as James was behind Hogshead Publishing and their New Style series of RPGs (we're going to have him back to talk at length about The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen, promise). * * * Everybody Wins is in stores on March 14 — pre-order it now on Amazon (and pretty much everywhere else, too). You can also check out the Everybody Wins Podcast. James has a couple other audio/visual projects of interest. Ludonarrative Dissidents, with Greg Stolze and Ross Payton, is a podcast that looks at a different RPG every episode, while Inside the Rookery, is a weekly stream on RPG and storytelling in geek spaces. You can further interface with James on Twitter, on Mastodon, through his outdated website or on Drive-Thru.

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we're looking at The Unspeakable Oath, the Call of Cthulhu fanzine from Pagan Publishing (and later, Arc Dream). Debuting in 1990, the zine feel emblematic of its time, while also illustrating a continuity of DIY tradition from the early days of the Amateur Press Associations into the current RPG zine scene. All that plus tentacles!

Stu took a sick day so this week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, Hambone called in Tony Vasinda of Plus One Exp, Adam Vass of World Champ Game Co. and Levi Combs of Planet X Games to chat about what's going on and what's cool this Zine Month. Hot damn! * * * New year, new Noble Knight discount code! Use VRPG23 for 10% off all your purchases online or in the store! 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 [email protected]. 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!

Old friends, new looks! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we're looking at NECA's Ultimates versions of the LJN Dungeons & Dragons action figures Warduke and Grimsword. We also check out Hasbro's Dungeons & Dragons cartoon series figures — Venger, Dungeon Master, Hank, Diana, Bobby and Uni. All these toys are honkin' BIG, but are they all GOOD? How much nostalgia is too much? Find out wherever pods are cast!

Dying malls and office buildings corrupted by extradimensional entities? Sounds like this week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we're talking about Liminial Horror. A hack of Cairn from Goblin Archives, Liminal Horror takes the barely-there D&D framework of that earlier game and applies to the tropes of investigative horror. It works shockingly well! We also touch on The Mall and The Bureau, two scenario zines. The Mall has intriguing mechanics for introducing stress-related agendas in play that are particularly exciting.

Here we are in the brambles. This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we're looking at Cairn, Yochai Gal's ultra-lite hack/remix of Into the Odd and Knave. How few mechanics can you have and still have a D&D-esque RPG? It's both more and less than you expect, probably. Cairn actually highlights Into the Odd's differences from D&D by pulling the Odd mechanics in a more old-school direction (Into the Odd lacks a recognizable spellcasting system, for instance). We run it all down. Next up: Liminal Horror!

We're embarking on a tour of ultra-lite RPGs for the next few weeks on the Vintage RPG Podcast. Up first: Into the Odd Remastered, Chris McDowall's extremely streamlined D&D-esque ruleset that is so distilled it becomes a sort of commentary on the tropes of roleplaying games broadly. Next up: Cairn!

Back the third party publishing of the 80s — this week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we take a look at GameScience's Fantasy Gamer's Compendium (1983), a collection of six smaller books originally created by the short-lived Little Soldier Games (in the mid-70s). Which is also the short-lived Phoenix Games (in like, 1980). It's a little confusing, and we iron that out. The books themselves, though, are an inspiring collection of monsters, demons, skills, magic systems and new character classes, kinda sorta for D&D, but also for other fantasy RPGs of the time. It's a great example of the DIY nature of the hobby that's been with us from the start, and will continue on well into the future.

And we're back! Hope y'all had an excellent holiday season. This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we sort of tackle the third edition of D&D. Not so much the system (though we hit the broad strokes), but the idea of it, where it came from, where it went, what it inspired. It's sort of a ruminating ramble that seems even more relevant now with the recent kerfuffle over the OGL (though we recorded before that bomb dropped, believe it or not).

We decided to take a couple weeks off for the holidays, so we remastered a couple older episodes for your enjoyment. We'll be back with a new episode on January 9. Original show notes: Hey, we're weekly! We talk about what that means for the podcast going forward (forget that we say its December in the episode. It isn't. Schedules change, OK?). It would be rad if you joined us on our Patreon, because that definitely helps keep us going. We also talk about the classic D&D monster, the rust monster. It was born from a cheap Hong Kong "dinosaur" in the 70s and has since become the bane of adventurers everywhere.

We decided to take a couple weeks off for the holidays, so we remastered a couple older episodes for your enjoyment. We'll be back with a new episode on January 9. Original show notes: Happy holidays, folks! We're breaking from format this episode to dig deep into the nostalgia and look at the Sears Wish Book, an important part of our childhood Christmas experiences. Specifically, we're looking at the catalogs from 1982, 1983 and 1984, which contained, you guessed it, Dungeons & Dragons stuff. They are so much more than that, though, as you'll discover when you listen! And, while we have you, let us offer our tremendous thanks for following Vintage RPG on Instagram, listening to the podcast and making this whole project fun and rewarding on a daily basis. All the best this holiday season!

War hedgehogs! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we check out Dragonroar, the first major fantasy RPG out of the UK, and boy is it British. Beware, for man-eating penguins lie in wait. And war hedgehogs!

Fighting Fantasy? That's for babies. This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we look at Advanced Fighting Fantasy, the full-fledged RPG rules derived from the (not really for babies) Fighting Fantasy gamebook series. There are three delightful volumes - Dungeoneer starts things off with dungeons rules, Blacksand! takes players to the city streets and Allansia explores the great outdoors. Lots of fantastic art by John Sibbick and Russ Nicholson, plus a lightweight and versatile system with a surprising modern legacy!

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we look at the amazing fantasy RPG-inspired art book, Down in the Dungeon (1981), by Don Greer. This amazing collection of art retells the adventures the author experienced while exploring Zarakan's dungeon after discovering it on a camping trip somewhere in the American Southwest. We talk about the enduring appeal of this sort of art and speculate a bit about what a book like this said about the broader RPG scene at the time of its publication. * * * A large number of the paintings from Down in the Dungeon can be viewed at the Monster Brains blog. And hey, you know what is awesome? The ownership of Noble Knight has agreed to recognize the union! We're firm believers in the non-controversial idea that all workers should be fairly compensated by their employers. Unionization and collective bargaining are an excellent way for workers to ensure they get that fair share, and we're psyched the NKG owners came around.

Horror stories on vinyl! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we digress a little bit to talk about Cadabra Records and their "nightmares on vinyl." These are spoken word readings or full cast audio plays of classic horror stories, set to atmospheric soundscapes and wrapped in evocative sleeve art. They're part of a larger tradition of (often horror-centric) storytelling recordings but, primarily, they're just plain cool as heck! Pick one up, dial the lights down low and have a spooky evening! * * * Our friends at Noble Knight are organizing a union and we support their efforts whole-heartedly! We're firm believers in the non-controversial idea that all workers should be fairly compensated by their employers. Unionization and collective bargaining are an excellent way for workers to ensure they get that fair share. For updates on the process, follow the union Twitter and put "We Roll Together" in the notes field of your online orders to show your support! (And just to be clear, we're speaking from the heart on this - no one is paying us for our solidarity)

Back to back heresy, just like we like it. Last week, we did Heirs to Heresy, this week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we're talking about John's new adventure Heresy of Rot, co-authored by Levi Combs and published by Necromancer Games. We talk a bit about horror in RPGs and we also briefly discuss Lodestar to Karamouska, a system agnostic RPG setting zine by Matheus Graef that Stu published through Unwinnable. Go buy the things! * * * Buy Heresy of Rot! You can also get it at DriveThru. Buy Lodestar to Karamouska!

They seem to be at the center of every occult conspiracy mystery ever written, so of course they have an RPG! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we take a look at Heirs to Heresy, Allan Bahr's RPG centered on the Knights Templars (and their persecution in 1312). We also talk a bit about Osprey Publishing's whole RPG line and some of the many surprises contained therein! * * * Our friends at Noble Knight are organizing a union and we support their efforts whole-heartedly! We're firm believers in the non-controversial idea that all workers should be fairly compensated by their employers. Unionization and collective bargaining are an excellent way for workers to ensure they get that fair share. For updates on the process, follow the union Twitter and put "We Roll Together" in the notes field of your online orders to show your support! (And just to be clear, we're speaking from the heart on this - no one is paying us for our solidarity)

In 2021, Call of Cthulhu turned 40 years old! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we're looking at some of the print products that came out in 2022 to celebrate that mind-blasting anniversary — the sinister-looking 40th Anniversary edition of the Keeper Rulebook, the Kickstarted reprint of the first edition Call of Cthulhu box set with its accompanying stack of scenario books and, mostly, the advice-filled Keeper Tips book, full of little anonymous koan-like thoughts on how to run good games. (Stu forgot all about the revamped 40th Anniversary Starter Kit and its handsome new cover, to his eternal shame. Whoops!)

FLASHBACK to October 29, 2018. Two friends in a remote club house. Lightning flashes. Thunder roars. The rain hammers the window in torrents. Within, they discuss…I6: Ravenloft! Yep, this week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we're airing a remastered repeat. One of Stu's microphone cables died under mysterious circumstances and we couldn't replace it in time to record a new jam. We'll be back next week with the Halloween episode Stu had been planning, and that's all right, since everyday is Halloween if you want it to be. The original, laborious show notes, featuring now inaccurate timestamps, follow: The guys start off with Ghost Fightin' Treasure Hunters, a co-op board game about finding treasure in a haunted house (01:33). Stu explains how it reminds him of another co-op game, Flash Point, about fighting fires (03:03). Hambone talks a bit about the games two expansion (04:41). Hambone introduces the main course of our feast, D&D module I6 - Ravenloft (06:23). He declares it the best stand-alone module for D&D, though Stu disagrees (06:42). An unexpected hypothetical interlude about the 1979 cult classic film, The Warriors (08:38). Back on track. Hambone explains how much he loves the idea of a dungeon crawl through Dracula's castle (09:55) and goes ga-ga over the maps (10:28). They discuss how experimental the module was for the time (12:00) and what kind of music Strahd is probably into (13:49). Stu breaks down how important Strahd is in terms of villain design (14:53). Hambone talks about how difficult it is to run Strahd as a master tactician (17:00). Curse of Strahd for 5E comes up (19:20). Stu offers his final thoughts on the module (21:00) and touches on House on Gryphon Hill, the sequel to Ravenloft (22:00). Castlevania: Simon's Quest comes up (24:10) and Bram Stoker's Dracula, too (25:34). Hambone briefly gets excited about Mixtape Massacre (28:00) and the guys say their farewells. * * * Clarification: Let's talk dates. Ravenloft came out in 1983. House on Gryphon Hill came out in 1986. Castlevania came out in Japan in 1986 and North America in '87 while Castlevania II: Simon's Quest came out in Japan in '87 and North America in '88. Judging from the art on the cover of Simon's Quest, it is pretty clear that Ravenloft was at least on the radar of the videogame developers.

There were terrors lurking in the shadows when the world was young! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we take a look at Time/Life's classic series, The Enchanted World. Over 21 lushly illustrated volumes, the books portray a world of magic and monsters in a delicious, in-universe style. Perfect for pillaging for roleplaying games! * * * We mentioned the television spots for the books on the show. Here's four: a general overview of the series, the "I'm a witch" commercial and both of the Vincent Price ads (one with just his narration, one with him on camera (no cat, though). There are a bunch more!

Game over, man! Actually, wait, no, as usual, we can't always trust Stu's first impressions. This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we look at the Colonial Marines Operations Manual (2021) for Free League's Alien RPG. This sourcebook introduces campaign play to the system and continues the metaplot established in the cinematic adventures along in a big way. Game on!

And now for something completely different! Well, not completely, but it has been a while since we did an interview. This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we chat with Brian Saliba and Craig Schaffer about Monty Python's Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactment Programme (which totally isn't an RPG at all, no sir, not one bit).

Hambone is setting the pace this week on the Vintage RPG Podcast as we talk about WHPA-13: Weird Heroes of Public Access (2022) from Get Haunted Industries. It's an RPG zine about strange goings on around town and the romance of UHF TV, what's not to love?

Deeper and deeper we go. This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we look at the first issue of DNGN (2022), a megadungeon zine for Old-School Essentials from Singing Flame. We also discuss the one-page dungeon format and a little bit about the infamous Stonehell.

Chaos lurks just under the surface. This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we talk about the Enemy Within campaign for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. We recap the original, theorize about where it went off the rails, enthuse over Cubicle 7's five-volume remaster and discuss the perils of satire.

Chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarge! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we look at the Battlesystem, TSR's mostly failed attempt to shoehorn wargaming back into the Dungeons & Dragons experience. We also talk a bit about TSR's failed foray into making miniatures. Mess after mess. But at least it gave us that amazing Jeff Easley painting!

Nothing is what it seems! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we look at the classic Dungeons & Dragons monster, the Mimc. Or do we? Here be twists and turns!

Lost, now found. This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we look at NECA's "Lost Wave" of Dungeons & Dragons toys. When LJN Toys shut down the D&D toy line, these four toys — Valkeer the Barbarian, Skylla the Sorceress, Pulvereye the Cyclops and a Kelek variant — were in various states of completion, but unreleased. Now, thanks to some miracle or the blackest of magic, forty years later they've been released as a San Diego Comic Con exclusive. Fancy that!

For years I've said I wasn't going to paint miniatures. No talent, I said. No patience, I said. Too expensive, I said. I have enough hobbies, I said. This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we talk about how I've started painting miniatures!

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we look at The Bestiary (1987) for Bard Games' Atlantis RPG. While I'm fond of the stuff Bard Games made generally, this book is over-the-top awesome because it is primarily illustrated by legendary comic artist Bill Sienkiewicz. Page after page of gorgeous, scratchy inks! Join us as we wax rhapsodic!

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we check out Luka Rejec's special Halloween scenario Let Us In (2021), a lean, mean, system agnostic horror zine that uses a timetable to keep play at a tight three hours. Black, white and orange goodness, all the way through.

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we're lost in Christopher Manson's Maze (1985). This is an unusual book, part armchair treasure hunt (for a $10,000 prize), part pick-your-path gamebook. The aim of the game is simple: find your way to the center of the maze and back in the least number of moves, then answer a riddle. The deeply enigmatic art in the book is meant to transmit both question and answer, but it also creates a compelling dungeon-like environment of interest to RPG hobbyists.

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we check out the classic board game Dungeon! (1975). The origins of the game are entwined with the origins of Dungeons & Dragons, and all the dungeon crawling board games since owe Dave Megarry's creation a debt of gratitude.

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we check out Chaosium's new Call of Cthulhu sourcebook, Cults of Cthulhu. Despite the big squid being in the title of the game, the Great Old One is oddly absent in the majority of the RPG's material, partly because he's snoozing on the job, mostly because Nyarlathotep, that ham, steals the spotlight. This book aims to correct that by sketching the history and structure of a global Cthulhu cult that's a worthy foil for investigators. Who cares if he's asleep when his agents lurk in every shadow?

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we take a look at TSR's massive, 8-volume compendium of Marvel comics lore, The Gamer's Handbook of the Marvel Universe (1988-1992). They're like a monster manual of superheroes and villains, some awesome, some doofy, some downright perplexing. They also amount to being an interesting in-universe history for one of the most important transitional times in the comics industry.

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we travel down the darkened hedgerows of British folk magic traditions with a look at Of Shadows: One Hundred Objects from the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic (2016), from Strange Attractor Press. As the title says, this is a collection of objects selected by photographer Sara Hannant that present in all their shadowy glory a kind of whirlwind tour of occult and folk traditions of the British Isles. Beautiful in its own right, we talk about the ways it might resonate for folks who play RPGs.

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we chat about Monstrous Arcana, a series of sourcebooks and adventures late in the D&D 2E days that explored three of the game's most iconic monsters in alarming detail. The series is one of several crystal balls through which we can see some inkling of what 3E might be — in fact, the sourcebooks lead pretty directly to the excellent Lords of Madness sourcebook in a couple years.

Another week, another discovery of some weird ass bootleg D&D toys! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, Stu discovers Arco's dime store line of little plastic monster dudes, Dragons n' Monsters. This one is more bootleg than most! We also chat a bit about Arco's weird tie-in toy line for the movie The Sword and the Sorcerer and the forthcoming "lost wave" of LJN Dungeons & Dragons toys from NECA.

Desert power! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we look at the classic strategy game Dune (1979 from Avalon Hill, though Stu played the 2019 reprint from Gale Force Nine). There are a lot of cool things in Dune that have become staples of modern board game design, but it still manages to deliver a unique, spice-flavored experience.

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we take a turn at being the villains in Reverse Dungeon. An adventure from very late in the 2E D&D line, it is very much the D&D-ification of the classic videogame Dungeon Keeper, but with some unexpected twists and turns.

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we do some urban exploration and investigate Dead Mall, a neat Tunnel Goons hack about the ruined temples of capitalism. We also discuss Nate Treme's Tunnel Goons and Satanic Panic at Crowley Place Mall, a zine scenario for Dead Mall.

If you like tables, we've got some books for you! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we check out Jennell Jaquays' series of Central Casting books, for use creating both player and non-player characters of alarming depth and, sometimes, bizarre circumstances. There are three flavors: Heroes of Legend (1988), our focus, which tackles fantasy backgrounds; Heroes for Tomorrow (1989), for science fiction characters; and Heroes Now! (1991), for characters from worlds not unlike our own.

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we run to the border…lands. OK, never mind, I'll leave the jokes to Hambone. For real: this week we're talking about the RuneQuest box set Borderlands (1982), an excellent campaign about getting a job and doing it well. There's no real narrative arc, no cackling villain, no dark plot. Stuff happens and the players take care of it, but the real point of Borderlands is to build and maintain a home in a strange land, a pretty unusual concept, then and now!

Aaaand we're back! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we take a look at the horror storytelling game Dread and its unusual method of task resolution (hint: it involves a Jenga tower). And heck, let's make it a double: we also discuss the storytelling game of doomed romance, Star Crossed, which also uses a Jenga tower!

A re-run? Yep, sometimes you just gotta rest the brains. So have a remastered Players Handbook! Originally aired to a whole different world, on December 23, 2019. Original hype text: We crack the cover of the classic Players Handbook (1978) for first edition Dungeons & Dragons. We talk a lot about Trampier's iconic, forbidding cover, of course, but also dig into the equally iconic interior illustrations, the philosophical state of the game at the time, the D&D multiverse, the previous owners of our personal copies (who left their names in the front covers) and much more!

Coming from an era of RPGs in which you could still get away with just naming your game Wizard, this week on the Vintage RPG Podcast we're looking at Melee, Wizard and the larger Fantasy Trip RPG. We focus on its innovative use of point-buy mechanics, but also get into the game's larger place in RPG history.

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 consumer electronics. How does the new version hold up in comparison? Well, you're gonna have to listen!

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!)