The Vintage RPG Podcast

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!)