TMNT & Other Strangeness

[Chrissy Boy]

Evening all,

Thought I'd create an account on here and get some sage advice from the ENWorld community.
I was recently going through and old box of books and came across some old copies of TMNT & Other Strangeness by Palladium games. I have fond memories of playing this game in the late 80's early 90's but after flicking through the books, remember that (in my opinion) the Palladium combat system was a pile of cr*p. Now, I know there will be people out there that like the system but personally it's not for me. I loved the character creation and huge range of animals that you could be though.
My question is, have any of you out there tried converting these rules to a different combat system and if so what did you use?
I'd love to play the game again but don't know if I can play with the clunky combat system.

Cheers for your time.

CB

 

[Nagol]

I played in a Champions (now Hero System) game back in the late '80s that was inspired by the TMNT universe/RPG system. It was fun.

As for what rules to use today, that depends a lot on what sort of feel you want to go for. I'd probably use Hero System, Mutants and Masterminds, Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, or Fate depending on what experience I trying to achieve. Savage Worlds with the superhero companion might be another option.

 

[Chrissy Boy]

Hi Nagol,
I've not played the Hero system but I just did a quick search on in and one of the criticisms levelled at it is "The great amount of time it can take to adjudicate combat." I didn't state in my original post (sorry my bad) but I like a nice simple combat system that lets the action flow and lets the roleplaying take center stage.

I'll take a look at the other systems you mentioned.

Thanks again for the reply.

CB

 

[aramis erak]

Evening all,

Thought I'd create an account on here and get some sage advice from the ENWorld community.
I was recently going through and old box of books and came across some old copies of TMNT & Other Strangeness by Palladium games. I have fond memories of playing this game in the late 80's early 90's but after flicking through the books, remember that (in my opinion) the Palladium combat system was a pile of cr*p. Now, I know there will be people out there that like the system but personally it's not for me. I loved the character creation and huge range of animals that you could be though.
My question is, have any of you out there tried converting these rules to a different combat system and if so what did you use?
I'd love to play the game again but don't know if I can play with the clunky combat system.

Cheers for your time.

CB

TMNT is, essentially, street level superheroes.

The best supers rules out there are Champions, MWP's Marvel Heroic RP, and TSR's Advanced Marvel Super Heroes. Several others are said to be credible, including Mutants & Masterminds, WEG's DC UNiverse, CORPS, and GURPS Supers. Spirit of the Century can easily be twisted into a supers game of this powerlevel, too; Fate Core can be used, with a bit more effort.

Pick one that does combat your way.

and, FYI, Champions combat isn't really slow to adjudicate once everyone at the table knows what they are doing. The combat round has 12 segments. In a supers campaign, most PC's & NPCs will act in 4-6 of them; in each phase, highest dex goes first. Most attacks are a to hit and a damage roll, and some have a burnout or additional skill roll. One little trick I used when running champions was a grid...
Speeds across, Characters down in Descending Dex order, intersections for the phases the players acted in. If I were to do it now, I'd use cardstock strips...
Where Hero System gets slow is that it does not encourage a seat of the pants GMing style, as you need to know what the enemy can do. GURPS Supers has the same issue. So does CORPS.

Both MHR and AMSH have the issue of "There is no balancing system"...
I don't know DCU nor M&M well enough to say anything cogent, save M&M is in print, DCU isn't.