Of all of the social trends that come with the role-playing community the one that I find most distressing is the willingness to attack early games on the basis of simply being old. Most gamers will publicly voice their reasons for disliking previous-generation games, usually citing its unsophisticated rules or immature setting. Lately Palladium Games has come under fire, with many people on both sides of the debate angrily defending their positions. Instead of making an argument I've decided to go back and review one of Palladium's earliest, and without a doubt finest, role-playing games: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness game.
Based on the Eastman/Laird comic series and published in 1985, way before the marketing blitz of the cartoon series, the TMNT game was probably one of the first games accessible to mainstream markets. Most youngsters and potential gamers were still isolated from the influence of Dungeons & Dragons, which many still viewed at the time was satanic and evil. TMNT was a gateway game, mild enough to be read by Grandma but still gritty enough to keep the attentions of pre-teens and teenagers. It's the only rpg that I've ever seen stocked in public libraries and on the shelves of public school classrooms. Like many pre-goth gamers it was my first role-playing game.
So let's discuss the game. The setting is postmodern, more or less a precursor to the World of Darkness. Mutant animals are a genetic mishap in which some animals have humanoid features and intelligence, and they more or less are trying to coexist either openly or secretly with society. The artwork is black and white, drawn by Eastman and Laird and reflects an edgy feel of 'not quite human'. A good example is an illustrated scene of a mutant boar and gorilla playing a game of tug-of-war with a screaming dog/cat/lizard thing. It's surprising how much good art was packed into the game, years before anyone really cared about such things (and, thank God, a decade before the internet and the Furry movement).
Character Generation is next, and remains arguably Palladium's real stroke of genius. A random animal type is rolled along with cause of mutation and education/upbringing. The high point is the BIO-E system, whereby you purchase human features (Hands, Biped, Speech, and Looks), natural weapons (such as tusks, antlers, fangs, etc.), an animal powers (winged flight, turtle shells, heightened smell, etc.), along with increases in overall Size Level. Psionics are an optional feature that may also be bought if you’re interested in a few psychic tricks. More BIO-E can be obtained by reducing your animal Size Level, thus you can have a gigantic man-eating frog or a knee-high elephant man. The concept of building your own mutant from scratch creates an instant bond between Player and Character and makes character generation at times more fun than the game itself. There are 16 pages of animals in the main book, dozens more in the supplements, and the author even includes a section in the main book detailing how you can make your own animal templates for creatures not listed. That’s right, open-source mutant rules. Genius.
And now we get to the rules section, or like some people call it, “Oh no, not the Palladium system again.” For those that claim that the Palladium system doesn’t work, has never worked, et al my only response is the TMNT Palladium system. It works! No Mega-Damage, no convoluted O.C.C.s, and it has the perfect excuse for using SDC in the notion that people are playing hideous mutant freaks. There is still a level-based system and skills are still handled using percentiles but they more or less fit in with the game itself. Most people won’t complain about the lack of realism in the rules when they start playing a game about rabid ninja weasels.
The book rounds out with a section on weapons/equipment, a couple decent quick-play scenarios and finally stats for the ninja turtles themselves. In all a good book loaded with good stuff at the stunningly low price of $9.95. Review over, right? Not quite. Next I’ll give a very brief review summary of the TMNT supplements, each worthy of their own review but thrown in here just to give a sample of the entire line. For word count considerations I’ll keep this short and to the point.
Transdimensional Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant dinosaurs, time travel, dimensional hopping, magic, time lord magic, historical weapons/equipment, humanoid mutants, new psionics, and a small mini-scenario. Interesting but not very useful. $11.95.
Turtles Go Hollywood: A module-sized scenario about Colombian drug-runners, mutant supervillians, sleazy Hollywood movie executives, and of course a criminal ninja clan, somehow all involved with each other. Silly but it has a few cute action scene setpieces. $7.95.
Truckin’ Turtles: Another module-sized scenario, this one having to do with the characters going on a cross-country road trip protecting a cargo semi from a criminal ninja clan (unrelated to the ninjas in Turtles Go Hollywood). Like most modules it’s a pretty straightforward railroading but it’s also pretty fun. $7.95.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Guide to the Universe: A outer space supplement with rules for spaceships, aliens, and a few scenarios too. Not totally useful or necessary, but it’s a good foundation for designing your own space setting. $6.95.
After the Bomb: Not the new jumbo book, the original version. Palladium’s non-Eastman/Laird TMNT setting. It’s post-apocalypse and mutant animals are the new society. The surviving humans wage genocidal war using lasers and smart bombs and high-tech robots against your spear-throwing little chipmunk. Most of the book consists of scenarios, which are pretty good and interesting. Details the east coast of the United States. Not necessary for other After the Bomb books, meaning you don’t have to buy it if you don’t want to. $6.95.
Road Hogs: After the Bomb west coast U.S. supplement. New animal templates (dolphins, octopi, etc.), Road Warrior style setting, car combat rules, and a few scenarios. Useful for the new animals. A fun read for the atmosphere. $7.95.
Mutants Down Under: After the Bomb in Australia. Even more new animals, aboriginal dreamtime magic, giant riding insects, new psionics, zeppelin combat, and a few more scenarios. A cute look at the continent and the bizarre mysticism of the aborigines. $7.95.
Mutants of the Yucatan: After the Bomb in Central/South America. New animals and a jungle setting that’s nasty enough to make even hardened Call of Cthulhu players flinch. A damn fine supplement, I must say. $7.95.
TMNT Gamemaster’s Screen: A GM’s screen. Comes with ‘Adventures in the Yucatan,’ a mini-supplement for Mutants of The Yucatan. Details a town, has 2 scenarios, and includes a quick-roll table for villains. Not terribly useful but not worthless either. $11.95.
Mutants in Avalon: After the Bomb in England. Pound for pound one of the most intelligent and well-researched game supplements ever published. New animals, mutant riding insects, druidic magic, post-apocalypse medieval feudalism, evil human invaders from France, a couple scenarios, and the mutant animal version of the King Arthur myth. It even has a bibliography page, before including those was considered cool. $9.95.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures: Contemporary TMNT setting. A slew of scenarios, some of which (a human-looking bear raised in an abusive fundamentalist christian household) are actually quite touching. A real gem is the section detailing rules for purchasing Heroes Unlimited super powers using BIO-E. Your games will triple in entertainment. $6.95.
You’ll notice that the entire product line is fairly inexpensive, with most individual books costing less than ten bucks apiece. This illustrates one of the attractions of TMNT, which is its blue-collar charm and down-to-earth attitude. A session can be as free-spirited or solemn and meaningful as the Players like, without any pressure to conform to a solid standard of what is “good role-playing.” You will not find any pretentious snobbery printed here and nobody questions how you have fun.
Is TMNT simple? Yes. But its simplicity is based off of Palladium’s earliest attempt to produce a game capable of pleasing everyone, and at an affordable price. But far too often gamers mistake simplicity with simplemindedness and they attack publishers and game systems that dare to make themselves accessible. Kevin Siembieda has said that people would come up to him and ask, “If your book is so great, how come you sell it so cheap?” When I think about that and look at the ever-publishing madness that is Rifts it makes me really sad for the state of the gaming industry. Gamers are the only animal that chew off their paws before putting them in the traps.
Go to forum!
(Due to spamming, old forum discussions are no linked.)