The Vintage RPG Podcast

You can't have Dungeons & Dragons without the dungeons! When you stop and think about dungeons as we understand them from fantasy roleplaying games, they're pretty weird places. We talk about some of that weirdness (where is all the construction debris?), random dungeon generators – particularly Task Force Games' Casting Call: Dungeons – and the joys of exploring underground death traps with your pals. * * * I am still unclear on the connection, if there is one, between Task Force Games, Flying Buffalo and several other small labels. I suspect someone (Task Force?) was acting as a distribution for a time, but that is just a guess. If you can lay it out for me, get in touch, I'd be obliged.

This week, we talk to the incomparable artist Russ Nicholson. Russ has created countless iconic illustrations for tabletop RPGs – you probably best know his work from the original Dungeons & Dragons Fiend Folio or from countless fantasy gamebooks, like the Fighting Fantasy series. We chat about his work, his career, Ouija boards, Scottish accents and more in what, as far as Russ can recall, is his first podcast interview ever! * * * A few notes directly from Russ after the fact: "Sorry about my memory and going off at side tangents so often but I enjoyed that…funny I have never talked in regards to the source of my artwork about the 'happenings' at our old house when I was growing up before. At least as I age, these awarenesses are rare and our present bungalow is so new there is nothing directly 'there.' Now artists – there are a few I especially rate (although I made a point of never copying) – Albrecht Durer, the Brueghals, Rembrandt, El Greco, Hals, Velazquez, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Mucha, Klimt, Toulouse Lautrec, Doré, Beardsley and Rackham, to name a few. Also pulps – Sax Rohmer, Howard, The Shadow, Weird Tales, Black Mask stories, Poe, Edgar Wallace, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Merrit, Hamilton, Jules Verne, Rider Haggard and the old pulp serials I saw at Saturday morning children's cinema – loved it all. From age ten on, when I left the countryside life for life in the city, I read a lot (up until then my mother thought I didn't read anything except comics). And that silent film I was trying to talk about – it had something similar, where a man is sitting by a rock pool (?) and these squidgy tentacled things (similar to the Grell toy Stu sent me) come out of the water and drag him to his doom. Scared me as a lad but I was in my teens so no screaming attacks (laf) and am still not fond." * * * You can see scads of Russ' art on his blog, The Gallery.

A short and sweet look at Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monster Cards from 1981 – these are four sets of 20 cards with original full color illustrations by an all-star team of TSR artists on the front with stats on the back. These cards introduce a number of monsters to the game and are the first (and sometimes only) time many of them were depicted in color. They're a beautiful, lesser known slice of early D&D!

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!

We dig into the original Monster Manual (1977), which is the dividing line between the old white box and the new first edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Along the way, we talk about how we organize our shelves, the mysteries of Dave Sutherland's shifting artistic style, the incomparable Dave Trampier, monster nudity, wood burning, the perils of slickness and more. Monsters!

Because Star Wars is hitting the critical mass point for 2019, we figured we'd add to the fun with an episode that looks at the Galaxy Guides series of sourcebooks for the West End Games Star Wars Role Playing Game. We take a quick tour through each of the twelve volumes and chat about what they added to the RPG experience and how they formed the backbone of the greater Star Wars Expanded Universe.

This week, we chat about the new monster art book Dungeons & Drawings, by Blanca Martinez de Rituerto and Joe Sparrow, which collects a little bit of folk lore and pop culture, a little bit of tabletop RPG context and a whole lot of beautiful original art. We also touch on the tradition of monster books beyond RPGs, particularly in the 70s and 80s. Daniel Cohen forever! * * * Stu mentions two books used by Mike Mignola as inspiration for the stories in the Hellboy comic universe. They are The New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology, by Felix Guirand, and The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology, by Rossell Hope Robbins.

Hi gang! This week, we're getting ready for the holidays and wanted to help give you a leg up on your gifts for your friends and family around the gaming table (and maybe yourself too, let's be real). Below you'll find link to everything we talk about on the show, plus info on the coupon codes. Han Cholo (ha, that name) for all your nerd jewelry and apparel needs. Dellamorte & Co. (whoops, said that wrong on the podcast) and Black Rider Industries for sculptures and decorative housewares. (see coupon code info below!) Ice Cream Dice and Level Up Dice for, well, sweet dice. Exalted Funeral, for all your weird, dark, indie, occult, metal RPG needs (see coupon code info below!). Zweihander (For the other books in the line, check this link) The Young Adventurer's Guides Chaosium – RuneQuest, Call of Cthulhu Starter Set, Miskatonic University – The Restricted Collection, Khan of Khans Noble Knight Games, for all your tabletop needs, new and old (see coupon code info below!). Invisible Sun (Stu said on the podcast that it was a relaunch and he has no idea why he did that – it is a new, original game)

We are back with the second part of our epic interview with Jim Zub! This time, Jim chats about his work on Dungeons & Dragons comic books, as well as the Dungeons & Dragons vs. Rick and Morty box set, and we learn he does a pretty good Rick Sanchez impersonation. For more from Jim, you can head to his official site or follow him on Twitter and Instagram. Learn all about Jim's Young Adventurer's Guides for Dungeons & Dragons in Part One.

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.