Bringing occult detective work to the common man! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we hang out with reporter Carl Kolchak, TV's most important monster hunter. Truly, you don't get stuff like The X-Files, Supernatural, Buffy and even maybe The Sopranos without Kolchak, not to mention a couple of Dungeons & Dragons monsters! * * * Instagram? Old…

Don't get too attached to those characters... This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we're joined by Justin Wigard and Clay Fleischer, two of Stu's victims...er...players in the Patron-only West Marches game that has been running for two years now. They share anecdotes about the adventures they've had, and a bit of the trauma. You should sign up! It…

Sometimes you just gotta shoot the breeze, ya know? This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, it's a little bit of this and a little bit of that. There's Stu's new radio show, Games People Play (co-hosting with Unwinnable's own Sara Clemens)! There's Hambone's reaction to Sinners! There's the Rifts calendar! There's the Warriors of the Galaxy play set …

Embark on a quest for the most perfect green paper! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we chat with Clint Marsh, the man behind the Fiddler's Green Peculiar Parish Magazine and many, many other zines that intersect with esoteric pursuits, genre fiction and tabletop roleplaying games. We talk about his history with RPGs, the Shrieker newsletter, …

Let's get rich! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we chat with Games Omnivorous mastermind Andre Novoa about The Job: Boxset Edition! Now on Backerkit, this is the deluxe expanded edition of Andre's excellent 2023 heist game, inspired by flicks like The Italian Job and Ocean's Eleven. Unlike most Games Omnivorous game products, which hew toward…

A treasure trove of counter-culture! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we chat with Phil Hine and Rodney Orpheus about Delinquent Elementals, a massive book collecting the best material from Pagan News, the zine they ran from 1988-1992. As Pagan News' existence paralleled and lampooned the UK Satanic Panic, we talk quite a lot about that. Also …

Plan? We don't need a plan! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we make it up as we go along. We had a scheduling issue with an interview and couldn't come up with a topic on short notice, so we riffed for a bit. Stu talks about the monster book, Joseph Payne Brennan's short story "Slime" and the classic monster movie The Blob. Hambone runs down …

You never know what you might find down the old straight track. This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we look at Through the Hedgerow, an RPG game steeped in a perfect brew of British folklore. Play as agents of the Light, moved through time to oppose the rising Dark in a brilliant extrapolation of stories like Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising seq…

Which sick witch is the sickest witch? You! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, Justin Sirois of Severed Books stops in to tell us all about the Sickest Witch RPG. Born of both a now out-of-print board game and, sorta, out of an earlier RPG, Sickest Witch has you harvesting and salting body parts of their enemies to cast horrible spells in order …

Is that the streetlight buzzing, or an insectoid monster wanting to lay eggs in my eye? This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we welcome the Goblin Archives on to chat about the Liminal Horror! A minimalist game spinning out of Cairn, LH has been wowing folks for a while with its sharp mechanics, spooky visuals and horrifying modules. And a Deluxe …

Still playing with toys after all these years. As promised, this week on the Vintage RPG Podcast we chat about the latest Dungeons & Dragons toys from Super7. That giant Tiamat comes up again, as well as wave 1 of their 6-inch figures based on the '80s cartoon series (which means we also talk again about those crap Hasbro figures). Also on tap, the…

What's the point of painting all these miniatures if they're never going to see the battlefield? This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, Stu breaks down and admits he really wants to play a miniature wargame: Mike Hutchinson's Hobgoblin! It's a lightweight, minis agnostic, quick-playing set of rule to get your miniatures on the table and killing each…

Oh, the Libyan Gorgon. [Tries to look like he knows what he's talking about] This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we crack open an ur-Monster Manual, Ernst and Johanna Lehner's 1969 A Fantastic Bestiary. Essentially a Dover clip art book (and reissued by Dover under a different title) with some light historical context, there are textual clues tha…

Who needs the sky, anyway? This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we chat with Yamil about When the Sky Comes Looking for You, a zine for both Weird Frontiers and Dungeon Crawl Classics. Hired by a luchador loan-shark to collect a debt, the characters need to stop an airship before it gets to the otherworldly Near to make good on the contract. Sorce…

Have you done all you can to prevent a würm infestation? I doubt it. This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we chat with Brian Colin about Sqwürmish, a delightfully gross, over-the-top miniature skirmish game for his Vast Grim RPG setting. Derived from Forbidden Psalm, in Sqwürmish you build a crew, pop 'em on the table and do your damnedest to surv…

I think the horrible little spider guy might be up to no good. This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, Christopher Drellow joins us to discuss Glumdark, a collection of system neutral random tables that will inject plenty of darkness, terror, vileness, random teeth and silliness into your campaign. Yup, silliness too! Inspired by grim and perilous RP…

So an assassin, a dwarf and a goodie-two-shoes walk into a bar... This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we're catching up on NECA's Dungeons & Dragons toys that have come out since the last time we talked about NECA's Dungeons & Dragons toys: Zarak, Strongheart and Elkhorn Ultimates. We'll cover the Super 7 D&D toys soon, promise! * * * Instagram? …

Gotta build some muscles to swing a sword (and some cardio to run from monsters)! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we talk to designer Tyler Welch and illustrator Graham Barey about their new exercise-oriented zine The Adventurer's Guide to Exercise. Tyler's a personal trainer and has created a work-out regimen tailored to your inner Fighter, …

Podcasters take a break, forget how to podcast. This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, Stu and John come back from the longest break they've taken from recording since the start of the podcast and find it difficult to knock the rust off and get back tothe normal format. Instead, they chat about games they're playing, places their going and play a si…

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, Stu and John discuss their recent trip to Philadelphia for PAX Unplugged! The tabletop convention keeps the vibes chill and because of that, it was our favorite of the year. Cool games, good pals, a great way to close out the year. * * * Stu wrote about his PAX Unplugged trip as well. * * * Instagram? Old news.…

Adventure gamebook? How about an adventure gameworld? This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we look at Fabled Lands, a seven-volume series of adventure gamebooks by Dave Morris, Jamie Thompson and Paul Gresty, featuring art by the legendary Russ Nicholson. Unlike most gamebooks, which tell one story, each volume of Fabled Lands is dedicated to a si…

Hone that tradecraft, or you'll find out what they do to spies around here... This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, Hambone takes the lead, talking about running Top Secret: New World Order. He also played in a session of Renegade's G.I. Joe RPG, so we talk about that, too! Also: Ron Meischker chats with Hambone about PAGE 2, coming in January. Use…

Whimsical, but also dangerous. This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we talk to Jean deMers about Ballads of Oræd, forthcoming from Exalted Funeral. A setting book for Old-School Essentials, it's a 232-page gazetteer of a mysterious world full of music, talking animals and, of course, horrible monsters and dangerous locales. It's also a massive por…

Talkin' 'bout collecting! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we talk to the Rick Meints, president of Chaosium! He doesn't just run the company, he's its biggest fan, with a collection of Chaosium games, art, documents and ephemera that likely dwarfs all others. We talk about collecting, RuneQuest (Rick's primary RPG passion, as he penned the wo…

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we talk to the Benjamin Marra, artist extraordinaire! We’re supposed to talk about INTERMEDIARY MUND, his new RPG zine from Exalted Funeral, and we do, and it makes good on the promise of a lot of those pesky Satanic Panic fears from the ‘80s! But the real meat of the chat winds up musing on the central appeal …

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we check out Magic Realms: The Art of Fighting Fantasy, the most straight-down-to-it art book I’ve ever encountered. Absolutely jam packed with amazing art from across all four decades of the gamebook series. Do you dig black-and-white fantasy art, particularly from the UK in the '80s? Then buy this book, you w…

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we talk to our very own editor, R. Alex Murray about a little off-Broadway show he's in called Dungeons & Dragons The Twenty-Sided Tavern. Part actual play, part interactive theater, all rowdy-as-heck adventure, Alex and his colleagues are trailblazing a whole new (boozy) way to play with 499 friends. * * * Ins…

What RPG allows you to travel to the future to team up with the ghost of John Brown to violently overthrow corporate taskmasters? This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we look at Lords of Creation, my pick for the weirdest RPG ever made. Maybe. Designed by Tom “B/X” Moldvay, it’s one of the first multi-genre RPGs and it marked Avalon Hill’s (failed…

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we look at Eat the Reich, a beautiful game about reveling in the messiest annihilation of nazis imaginable. Become an anti-fascist vampire. Get air-dropped into Paris. Drink all the nazi blood. A one-shot(ish) of fun for adults of all ages, tuned to variable levels of experience, gorgeously illustrated. A glori…

Flip the switch to the UHF dial! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we chat with the one, the only, Joey Royale about Weird Heroes of Public Access, coming soon in hardcover to BackerKit. Unearth strange mysteries, save your community and get it done in time to tape the next episode of your show. This is your chance to get into one of the best, …

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we drag out West End Games’ weird universal system, MasterBook, and its bizarre licenses. Why would you refurbish the shuttered RPG Torg into your universal game when the D6 system was right there? Why would you think the movie Species was ripe for RPG adaptation? Or Tales from the Crypt? Mysteries abound. * * …

You’re in love with this city. This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we chat with Jacob Mooney, co-creator of Machine: Impossible, a game about cyborg superspies protecting their home and making it a better place for everyone to live. One of the many cool things about the game is how players collaborate to make the game world, so while it may defau…

The only place to go is down! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we chat with Josh McCrowell, the evil mastermind behind His Majesty the Worm. Grab your tarot deck and prepare yourself and your kit bag for the endless dungeon underneath the city. Venture deep enough and survive the darkness long enough and you might come across the Worm himself!…

Enter: the Neon Lord himself! This week on the Vintage RPG podcast, we talk with Brian Shutter, the radioactive brain behind Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland. He’s got a pair of massive goodies coming to a BackerKit: Deities & Demi-Bros, a guide to the gods of the squared circle, and Deadly Dudez/Toxic Creeps, a massive monster manual! Plus some m…

This week on the Vintage RPG podcast, we check out Brindlewood Bay. It’s a little bit Murder, She Wrote, a little bit Golden Girls and a little bit "The Call of Cthulhu," wrapped up in a Powered by the Apocalypse package. Can you meddle your way to the solutions of these TV-style mysteries? * * * Stu’s book, Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Groun…

Two weeks later and Stu is still tired. This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, Stu regales us of his adventures at GenCon 2024. The crowds. The vast convention space. The games! The revelation that the hobby at large is so very clearly a union of many smaller, constituent hobbies. It was a lot. * * * Stu’s book, Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Gr…

This week on the Vintage RPG podcast, we check out The Court of Ardor in Southern Middle-earth (1983), a sourcebook for MERP that predates MERP and significantly expands Tolkien’s world. It mainly introduces a cabal of elves in the service of Morgoth who, well, they act a lot more like the royal family of Roger Zelazny’s Amber Chronicles than anyth…

This week on the Vintage RPG podcast, we’re looking at Casket of Souls (1987), a puzzlebook by Ian Livingstone that spins out of the success of the Fighting Fantasy series. You, too, can pore over Iain McCaig’s lush art work, looking for clues to solve the riddle and win the titular, gold-plated casket! Well, you could in 1987, anyway. The contest …

This week on the Vintage RPG podcast, we’re looking at Barony (1990), a game that sought to redefine RPGs with concepts that were decades before their time. Open-ended character progression, keyword-based health, a free-form magic system that anticipates Mage — how the heck does this exist? And why don’t more people know about it? And who the heck …

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we check out The Sorcerers’ Enclave, a cool narrative art book by Aaron Howdle that mixes the intricate maximalism of finding books and cut-aways with the aesthetics of early Warhammer and other dark fantasy staples. Is it an RPG book? It isn’t not an RPG book! More like this, please. * * * Experience Points ha…

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we talk to Isaac VanDuyn about his ambitious RPG that seeks to fulfill the promise of all those evangelicals from the ‘80s who were so worried about tame old D&D corrupting the souls of their children. The result (illustrated by Kim Diaz Holm and featuring the cartography of Lex Rocket) is a lush and grim game …

Welcome to Dove’s Bay, the most horrible island in Maine (take that, Stephen King)! This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we check out Grimrock Isle (1992), the second Call of Cthulhu product from Triad Entertainments. It’s both a solo and a group scenario, spread across several booklets contained in a snazzy folder. Just about every mythos threat …

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we're looking at CM4: Earthshaker (1985), the BECMI module that pits players against a 1,280-foot-tall robot run by an entire clan of gnomes. Well, not exactly, the gnomes run the robot as a tourist attraction, the players have to deal with the evil NPCs who try to hijack the robot. And they better win, because…

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we look back at Paul M. Sammon’s coverage of the making of Conan the Barbarian in the April 1982 issue of Cinefantastique. The double issue has three features by Sammon — a lengthy piece of reportage on the filming and interviews with designer Ron Cobb and director John Milius — and lots of behind-the-scenes ph…

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we chat with Tyler Vance, the fine artist behind Void: The Frontier. Tyler’s been exploring Void for a while now, having published three rules-agnostic setting zines that pair his enigmatic narratives with his equally mysterious paintings. Now he’s concocted a gorgeous card game, now on Kickstarter. We talk abo…

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we chat with Megan Dawson Jaffe about the new Nerdy City RPG Holomatixx: A New Wave Order. Spinning out of their other Omni System games like the kid adventure Rememorex and the game of transforming robots, Commandroids, Holomatixx takes on pop star superheroes in the vein of Jem and Holograms and Barbie and th…

Stu was tied up with lots of crap this week, so have a re-run! Original show notes: Make ours Marvel! 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…

Stu’s ongoing West Marches-style Old-School Essentials campaign is a year old, so this week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we thought we’d see how things are going (and how many characters have died). And since you can’t really trust the Dungeon Master, we invited two of the players — Justin Wigard and Clay Fleischer — on to share their impressions of…

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we look at Shadowgate (1987, 1989), the point-and-click fantasy adventure videogame. Explore a mysterious castle while trying to find a way to stop the Warlock Lord from destroying the world! Tremble in fear as your torch burns low! Get eaten by every monster! Have a soundtrack-induced panic attack! All this an…

This week on the Vintage RPG Podcast, we chat with Gavriel Quiroga about his new game, Black Rainbow Society. A sequel of sorts to Hell Night, this game doesn’t feature players in the roles of fiends from hell, but rather normal humans grappling with the knowledge that there is more to existence than the mundane world (a staple theme of ’90s RPGs, …