The Vintage RPG Podcast

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.