The Vintage RPG Podcast

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we’re looking back through videogame history at The Temple of Apshai Trilogy (1985), the classic remake of the original 1979 game and its two expansions. Apshai is maybe (depending on the criteria) the first dungeoncrawler videogame and one of the earliest videogame interpretations of Dungeons & Dragons. The Trilogy also has a rad instruction manual full of great art that, all these years later, is still worth the price of admission on its own. * * * Stu’s book, Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground is for sale now! Buy it! Patreon? Discord? Cool RPG things to buy? All the Vintage RPG links you need are right here in one place! Like, Rate, Subscribe and Review the Vintage RPG Podcast!

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast we welcome back friend of the show Mark Sable, who is about to start teaching a class called Writing Adventures for Tabletop RPGs. Seems like something y'all might be interested in. We talk a bit about game design, about teaching games and the nebulous ways we've approached how-to in RPGs. Marks class is eight sessions starting February 6 and is part of the School of Visual Arts' continuing education program, meaning anyone can sign up! * * * Mark's comic book/adventure module Chaotic Neutral is also out now. You can grab a copy from Backerkit! * * * Stu’s book, Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground is for sale now! Buy it! Patreon? Discord? Cool RPG things to buy? All the Vintage RPG links you need are right here in one place! Like, Rate, Subscribe and Review the Vintage RPG Podcast!

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, Stu's crowing about one of his Christmas gifts, The Meints Guide to Glorantha, by Chaosium president Rick Meints. The books amounts to the definitive guide to all publications to include material on Glorantha in existence (well, all the ones Rick knows about, which is certainly most of them, if not all of them). Entries consist of product photos as well as notes on production and design. He even has entries for Glorantha books that don't exist. How's that for exhaustive? There should be a book like this for every RPG line. * * * Grab a copy from Chaosium! * * * Stu’s book, Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground is for sale now! Buy it! Patreon? Discord? Cool RPG things to buy? All the Vintage RPG links you need are right here in one place! Like, Rate, Subscribe and Review the Vintage RPG Podcast!

And we're back! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, Hambone's got the reins and talking about two books from Goodman Games: the Dungeon Crawl Classics Reference Booklet and How to Write Adventure Modules that Don't Suck. Spoiler: he loves them both! * * * Stu’s book, Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground is for sale now! Buy it! Patreon? Discord? Cool RPG things to buy? All the Vintage RPG links you need are right here in one place! Like, Rate, Subscribe and Review the Vintage RPG Podcast!

Hello friends! We're running remastered repeats for the holidays. I can't tell you why I thought Black Angel worked for the holidays beyond being similar to that vague, dreamy vibe of The Green Knight (itself a Christmas movie of a sort). Maybe it's just because I got my first Pendragon books for Christmas circa 1991, who knows? Anyway, happy New Year! Original notes: This week, we check out the famous lost (and found) 1980 short film by Roger Christian, Black Angel. This gorgeous little jam occupies a neat place in Star Wars history and also happens to be a mighty fine bit of early '80s sword and sorcery cinema in its own right. And after you listen to our take on it, you can check it out for yourself on YouTube for free (with a brief intro by Christian). * * * This episode was supposed to be an interview with our pal Levi Combs, whose latest kickstarter, the John Carpenter-inspired Assault on Witchgate 13 for DCC, is live now. GET IT.  * * * Stu’s book, Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground is for sale now! Buy it! Patreon? Discord? Cool RPG things to buy? All the Vintage RPG links you need are right here in one place! Like, Rate, Subscribe and Review the Vintage RPG Podcast!

Hello friends! We're running remastered repeats for the holidays. I thought the Coloring Album would, in some way, speak to warm memories of childhood Christmas gifts. Whether or not that's apt, we hope your holidays are rad! Original notes: This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we flip through the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Coloring Album (1979), written by Gary Gygax and illustrated by underground comic artist Greg Irons. Not only is this a gorgeous coloring book (with some content of questionable suitability for kids) but it also comes with a rules lite dungeon crawl game baked in, penned by Gygax himself [Note: Stu has since learned that Gygax wrote the storybook portion of the album, but Lawrence "White Plume Mountain" Schick designed the game]. We hadn’t ever heard of this until a few months ago, but it instantly became one of our favorite Dungeons & Dragons books of all time. Bonus Fact: The map for the game portion is a modified version of the Tower of Zenopus dungeon from John Eric Holmes D&D Basic Set (1979). * * * This episode was supposed to be an interview with our pal Levi Combs, whose latest kickstarter, the John Carpenter-inspired Assault on Witchgate 13 for DCC, is live now. GET IT.  * * * Stu’s book, Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground is for sale now! Buy it! Patreon? Discord? Cool RPG things to buy? All the Vintage RPG links you need are right here in one place! Like, Rate, Subscribe and Review the Vintage RPG Podcast!

Hello friends! We weren't planning to go to reruns this soon, but events conspired to prevent the recording of a new episode for this week. We're sorry about that, but also we're sure you'll enjoy revisiting this classic episode. We've got remastered reruns coming on December 25 and January 1 as well, because, well, holidays. We'll be back with a new show on January 8. Until then, stay safe, stay warm, enjoy your holidays and cram in as many games as you can with your downtime! Original notes: In the latest episode of the Vintage RPG Podcast this week, we look at Robert Lynn Asprin and Lynn Abbey’s gritty, shared-world fantasy anthology series, the Tim Sale graphic novel adaptations and the magical moment in roleplaying history when Chaosium convinced the designers behind all the major RPGs (including Traveller!?) to collaborate on their Thieves’ World box set. It was a glorious moment, and all too brief. * * * This episode was supposed to be an interview with our pal Levi Combs, whose latest kickstarter, the John Carpenter-inspired Assault on Witchgate 13 for DCC, is live now. GET IT.  * * * Stu’s book, Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground is for sale now! Buy it! Patreon? Discord? Cool RPG things to buy? All the Vintage RPG links you need are right here in one place! Like, Rate, Subscribe and Review the Vintage RPG Podcast!

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we look at (and listen to) First Quest: The Music, a double LP record of electronic music and narration for an officially licensed (and totally ridiculous) Dungeons & Dragons adventure printed on the sleeves. Is it a precursor to dungeonsynth? Sort of? Is it a precursor to the 1994 First Quest box set for D&D, which included an audio CD full of mortifying sound cues for the included introductory adventures? Probably? Is it way a better listen than it has any business being? Absolutely, yes. * * * You can listen to the whole album on YouTube.  The main source of information on First Quest: The Music is on Blogonomicon. If you scroll down into the comments, you'll find a lengthy one by David Miller, one of the key folks responsible for the creation of the album. 2 Warps to Neptune has some additional information as well. * * * Stu’s book, Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground is for sale now! Buy it! Patreon? Discord? Cool RPG things to buy? All the Vintage RPG links you need are right here in one place! Like, Rate, Subscribe and Review the Vintage RPG Podcast!

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, Momatoes is back to chat with us about her new RPG, The Marvelous Children of Inang-Uri. It’s a worldmaking game that spans generations, has a splash of hidden traitor mechanics for flavor and involves a culture living in symbiosis with a gigantic creature/entity that they also call home — that’s the world that the players make and that the characters must safeguard (unless they’re a traitor, in which case they want Inang-Uri dead). As with ARC, a game that plays with both the idea of looming doom and also the embrace of hope in the face of it. It’s gorgeously illustrated and laid out, too! And best of all, its available NOW! * * * Until December 12, 100% of all sales of The Marvelous Children of Inang-Uri will go to Doctors Without Borders. You can follow Momatoes on Twitter or keep up with her projects on her official site. * * * Stu’s book, Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground is for sale now! Buy it! Patreon? Discord? Cool RPG things to buy? All the Vintage RPG links you need are right here in one place! Like, Rate, Subscribe and Review the Vintage RPG Podcast!

A couple weeks back, Stu talked about some books that came out in 2023 that he thought were notable. This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, Hambone’s got his own picks for books that are well worth your time.  On tap we have the Fairhaven RPG universe from Get Haunted Industries; Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland, by Brian Shutter; Minacious Midway from Dandyline Games; Attack of the New B Movies, edited by Justin Wigard; Vorpal Almanac by Levi Combs and Sally Cantirino; and Three Curses for Sister Saren by Levi Combs and Mike Pike. * * * When this drops on Monday, you'll still have all day to take advantage of Exalted Funeral's Black Friday sale! If you're picking up Attack of the New B Movies, be sure to use code HOLIDAY23 for 40% off through November 27, after which it drops to 25% off. Get it! You can snag The Legend of Sleepy Hollow for free in a variety of formats on Project Gutenberg. Washington Irving doesn't need your money, he's dead. * * * Stu’s book, Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground is for sale now! Buy it! Patreon? Discord? Cool RPG things to buy? All the Vintage RPG links you need are right here in one place! Like, Rate, Subscribe and Review the Vintage RPG Podcast!