Palladium Announces New TMNT Kickstarter

Palladium Books has announced the return of the official Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles roleplaying game. Out of print for decades, the 1985 game is coming back as a pair of full-colour hardcovers featuring new artwork. It will be hitting Kickstarter on October 31st and will also include miniatures, dice, and more. You can sign up to the pre-launch page here.

Westland, MI – October 13, 2023 – Palladium Books and Paramount Consumer Products have joined forces to reissue the ever-popular role-playing game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness.

The beloved, out-of-print Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles role-playing game and its sourcebooks are sought-after collector items that have enthralled generations since its release in 1985 as one of the first licensed TMNT products. They are returning to print as two deluxe hardcover collections of the RPG and sourcebooks. Each is being completely remastered by industry veteran Sean Owen Roberson and presented in full color, and Kevin Eastman, co-creator of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, will also provide a new painted cover.

Bonus material includes an array of new artwork, never before seen behind-the-scenes info and art, plus remembrances and tributes by renowned comic book and RPG creators including Eastman, Peter Laird, Freddie E. Williams II, Steven Cummings, Sophie Campbell, David Petersen and many more.

“This is incredibly exciting! I am 1000% onboard to help bring this historic and original TMNT Role Playing Game series back in a truly deluxe collector’s edition that will thrill original fans and open the door for new ones,” said Eastman. “I've made all my archives available for expanded behind-the-scenes content as well as a few top secret surprises you need to be part of. Stay tuned!”

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness Kickstarter

The Kickstarter campaign, launching October 31, 2023, will offer a host of mind-blowing Kickstarter exclusives: TMNT miniatures based on the role-playing game, dice sets, variant book covers, art prints by legacy TMNT creatives, a card deck, and more, including special stretch goals to entice role-playing fans and TMNT fans alike. All products ship in 2024. To be among the first to hear about the entire exciting slate of releases, creators, exclusives and stretch goals to be unlocked with your support, be sure to go to the Kickstarter page and subscribe for updates.

 

[Sacrosanct]

For those pledging, you might want to read this article about their disaster Robotech KS.

I truly hope this KS fulfills with no issues. I do have questions. For example, one of the reasons the Robotech failed was because they lost the IP. It looks like they only have limited rights to TMNT for this one (as evidenced by no pdf, online play, or digital rewards). They do NOT say how long they have rights to publish these books for, which I'd like considering the history.

 

[Retreater]

Very much dislike the color art.
Feeling a little hesitant after reading the Robotech KS debacle.
The promotional associates make me feel icky.
I'm not going to actually play the game - if I were to purchase, it would be just for nostalgia.

Maybe I should pass on this one?

 

[Kannik]

Maybe I should pass on this one?

My own take on it would be this: I'm not sure this RPG would offer anything with regards to the genre than playing a game in a more refined (and perhaps expansive) other game system. I'll look through the books tonight again to be sure, but I don't recall anything in the world/setting that was really imaginative or integral than "modern world, but with some anthropomorphic martial arts animals". And there isn't likely anything in making or describing those mutants that, again, wouldn't be available or possible in other game systems. So, with the exception of the original art, there isn't much there.

Instead, I'd look at the intent of the campaign and choose a good game system to play a TMNT&OS game in. Want to lean into the story and teenage aspect of it? Cortex Prime (the Tianxia Prime hack might be the place to start) or FATE ought to be great . Want a martial arts combat focused butt-kicking game? HERO I think would work well. I bet many would say it would work well with Savage Worlds (myself I don't think it's narrative enough for the story-focused game, and I don't know if it has good martial arts refinements). Feng Shui seems like it would be a good fit as well (though I don't know it well enough to know how much hacking would be required to reflect the anthropomorphic abilities and flavor).

Again, I don't think there's anything specific in the old-school TMNT&OS game that is either crucial or that would work better to represent the genre than these other systems. The only value would be the art and a feeling of nostalgia and/or wanting to have it as part of a collection.

 

[Retreater]

Again, I don't think there's anything specific in the old-school TMNT&OS game that is either crucial or that would work better to represent the genre than these other systems. The only value would be the art and a feeling of nostalgia and/or wanting to have it as part of a collection.

For me, I like the art. It's also nostalgic because it was the first RPG I got.
I enjoy the character creation - spending BIO to create a unique mutation.
The game itself is a mess.

 

[Velderan]

For me, I like the art. It's also nostalgic because it was the first RPG I got.
I enjoy the character creation - spending BIO to create a unique mutation.
The game itself is a mess.

That’s my impression looking over the rules in the book I bought a couple weeks ago. The B&W art looks great though and I’ll certainly spend some time making characters, but I just don’t see myself ever trying to play this game.

 

[DarkCrisis]

For me, I like the art. It's also nostalgic because it was the first RPG I got.
I enjoy the character creation - spending BIO to create a unique mutation.
The game itself is a mess.

This is me. The very first RPG I ever owned before even really knowing what an RPG was, was TMNT. I bought it (had bought for me) because it was TMNT. They all had red bandanas? Which got me to read the original comics.

I still have my original book on my shelf. Still never played it.

This is purely a nostalgia buy and I may kick up my amount the extra $10 to get the B/W/Red version

 

[Weiley31]

I'll admit, I am intrigued. And I do like the cover variant where it's black and white with the red color highlights. And I've read a number of testimonies how this was pretty much one of the best rpgs done for an IP like this and how people LOVED their supplements. And the eventual creation/praise of its After the Bomb supplement/line.

My only issues are the fact that A: I've never played Pallidium rpg games before and only "kinda" loosely checked em out when they were doing Robotech. (even though I'll admit that I'm more of a Macross fan and that was my sole reason for looking into it). I'm not exactly big on percentage style rpg mechanics and Pallidium is all that mechanics wise.

The other, of course, is B: the infamous Robotech RPG Tactics kickstarter failure. Last time I heard anything about that was on the kickstarter of a whole nother thing (SMG I think?) and how they were pretty much taking care of the fullfillment free of charge, or something, in taking care of the backers who got screwed with that initially.

 

[Kannik]

For me, I like the art. It's also nostalgic because it was the first RPG I got.
I enjoy the character creation - spending BIO to create a unique mutation. The game itself is a mess.

Then it might be worth it for you indeed! (Hopefully the colouring doesn't mess up the art.)

I just re-looked at the original books and they are pretty threadbare on setting and the like (compared to, say, RIFTS), though the adventures might be worthwhile as an example of the flavour of a campaign.

The BIO-E system to create mutants doesn't feel as complete to me either, I was surprised as I had thought it would be more extensive and customized to highlight the differences for each species (other than a few attribute bonuses). Alas.

 

[Julian Kay]

People kicking in $1 just to complain/rant about the old unfulfilled KS from years ago sure is something.

Some of whom are just using the same accounts from the Rifts Board Game Kickstarter when they were making a fuss there. The grievance is absolutely legit, as that was a real tire fire in terms of backer treatment, but some are just doing harassment at this point.

By giving extra GOO-P points, those who believe in luck can do what they enjoy, and those who don’t roll so well up front will get more character creation options later. It combines the sense of mystery/discovery which entirely-built systems lack with the equality of opportunity which entirely-random systems often lack. As a GM, I can let players make characters without individual supervision (once they know how, anyway) and ‘do the math’ later to ensure they were all made fairly.

Thanks! One of the conundrums of a lot of old-school games is that you're both encouraged to roll randomly and play for months or years, which means any bad result you get stuck with. I wanted to include a lot of factors that--while not aimed at precise balance--gives a lot of different angles in which a character can apply their diverse set of abilities. I wanted to be able to replicate the strength of "discovering" a character without being punishing about it, and the only complaints I've seen are from those wary of randomness as a rule.

The BIO-E system to create mutants doesn't feel as complete to me either, I was surprised as I had thought it would be more extensive and customized to highlight the differences for each species (other than a few attribute bonuses). Alas.

I wonder if they'll incorporate the slightly more detailed animal rules from After the Bomb 2nd Edition, as that had more detail, but I haven't heard anything along those lines.

Of course, that's why I did a unique ability for every species in Mutants in the Now, even doing differences between dog breeds or a black bear and a grizzly bear. Which is exacting, but I felt it's more evocative to have a tufted titmouse or a fennec fox instead of a "wild bird" or "canine: fox". TMNT&OS has an issue where species like a badger and a wolverine will have very similar options, and so I really drilled down and researched animal abilities to be distinct.

 

[Keovar]

Thanks! One of the conundrums of a lot of old-school games is that you're both encouraged to roll randomly and play for months or years, which means any bad result you get stuck with. I wanted to include a lot of factors that--while not aimed at precise balance--gives a lot of different angles in which a character can apply their diverse set of abilities. I wanted to be able to replicate the strength of "discovering" a character without being punishing about it, and the only complaints I've seen are from those wary of randomness as a rule.
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Of course, that's why I did a unique ability for every species in Mutants in the Now, even doing differences between dog breeds or a black bear and a grizzly bear. Which is exacting, but I felt it's more evocative to have a tufted titmouse or a fennec fox instead of a "wild bird" or "canine: fox". TMNT&OS has an issue where species like a badger and a wolverine will have very similar options, and so I really drilled down and researched animal abilities to be distinct.

I am wary of randomness as a rule, and have always thought it bizarre that, in D&D and similar RPGs of that era, you get to choose almost everything else about a character, but not their ability distribution which plays such an important role is which roles you can effectively play. Some want to claim 'realism' for life to be unfair, but if that's really the goal, why not roll for class, ancestry, and even gender? Generally, people are excited to roll randomly until they get the sidekick side of the bell curve, then they want rerolls, or they show up with unsupervised rolls.
But I like how you've managed to create a system to allow those who like randomness to do what they enjoy and those who prefer making choices get extra points for making choices.
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It's true that specific animal types are more flavorful, but it does mean extra work for the GM when someone wants to play a Ragdoll cat rather than an American shorthair.