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.

 

[jdrakeh]

Yeesh. At least it looks like their pre-order page has shifted to "be notified when the pre-order comes" and is a $0.00 preorder for the preorder.

That's better, I suppose. I believe that they did take pre-order money for years, though.

 

[MGibster]

I do have to give props Palladium always has imagination and was still producing new spins on their game system in $25 softbound when everyone else went to $40 hard bounds.

I'll give them props for that too. As beatiful as some of these RPG books are today especially compared to what was available 30 years ago, there's something to be said for keeping expenses down.

 

[overgeeked]

I'll give them props for that too. As beatiful as some of these RPG books are today especially compared to what was available 30 years ago, there's something to be said for keeping expenses down.

One of the big reasons I love the OSR. Books filled with amazing black and white art instead of full-color printing. DCC RPG and Old-School Essentials are the leaders of the pack as far as I’m concerned. Single volume, hard-cover base book for $40? Yes, please.

 

[Haiku Elvis]

I’ve had my copy since the 80s, and still to this day have not been able to play it

You weren't supposed to play it you were just supposed to sit down with your mates roll/make your character whilst trying to game the skills system so you got stupidly large bonuses to combat skills, damage and SDC and picked the coolest ninja weapons. By that point it was time for your mates to go home and by the time they came round again everyone had lost their character sheets so you started again.
We spent hours with the game - never played it once.

 

[MGibster]

You weren't supposed to play it you were just supposed to sit down with your mates roll/make your character whilst trying to game the skills system so you got stupidly large bonuses to combat skills, damage and SDC and picked the coolest ninja weapons.

Always take Boxing because it gives you an extra attack. I think. It's been more than 30 years.

 

[billd91]

The excuse one Palladium representative said to me when I tried to buy TMNT and Other Strangeness 2 years ago was that no self-respecting teenager wanted to buy a RPG based off a kiddie cartoon. This was after the first TMNT cartoon came out. Since then there have been a couple of slightly edgier TMNT cartoons that have come out. There was the 2003 version that more closely followed Eastman and Laird's original work. Then there was that CGI one where April was a Human/Krang hybrid with psychic powers.

Of these two, I would like to see a TMNT RPG based off of the 2003 series.

I wonder what that rep would have said about seeing a media room full of adult men watching My Little Pony at a convention?

 

[Jer]

I’ve had my copy since the 80s, and still to this day have not been able to play it

TMNT was one of the first non-D&D RPGs I was a GM for. I'm still not 100% sure I actually used the rules of the game as written to play it. I still have the copy I had when I was a kid, though it's one of my more beaten up RPG tomes (and the plastic is peeling off the cover - though that's been true since almost when I bought it).

If I were going to try to run a game like it again I'd definitely run Mutants in the Now instead.

 

[Kannik]

I do have to give props Palladium always has imagination and was still producing new spins on their game system in $25 softbound when everyone else went to $40 hard bounds.

For all I wrote above, and all my trepidation, I too will give them props for the worlds they create and manage to invoke quite well, even in their staid, 2 column, no frills format (but often with lots of sweet art). In the circles I ran and ran into, playing something Palladium but in a different ruleset was something of a meme... and our best Rifts games were the ones where we never touched the dice once (and therefore never had to interact with the rules).

Always take Boxing because it gives you an extra attack. I think. It's been more than 30 years.

Yep! Palladium life hack 101 and #1. Going to be piloting a giant mecha? Bristling with guns and missiles? No matter! Take boxing, and get that extra attack with your GU-11 and waste the opponents away all day long.

(Better, yet, convince the GM to let you use the martial arts from Ninjas and Superspies, ignore Thai Boxing because that's just silly, but do take Leopard Fist Kung Fu to get 4 attacks per turn... then take boxing... then climb into your giant mecha, and go to town, baby! )

 

[Von Ether]

You weren't supposed to play it you were just supposed to sit down with your mates roll/make your character whilst trying to game the skills system so you got stupidly large bonuses to combat skills, damage and SDC and picked the coolest ninja weapons. By that point it was time for your mates to go home and by the time they came round again everyone had lost their character sheets so you started again.
We spent hours with the game - never played it once.

True story.

I used the Marvel SAGA RPG as a generic system to play RIFTS. You remember TSR's SAGA system, it was the one with the card deck resolution system and leaned heavy into narrative play? They rewrote Dragon Lance just to make the setting jive with rules.

Anyway, we made PCs in five minutes and cinematic combats lasted 10 minutes. I loved it. My players hated it.

Their feedback was specifically that their love of RIFTS was for the build play and to them a RIFTS session was just a combat simulator to verify the success or failure of their builds.

It's a thing for a lot of gamers.

I can't play the starship wargame, Full Thrust, with the local guys. They only play once a month and they do it to see how successful their new designs are. I'd be much more into campaign play and designing whole fleets that support certain style of tactics.

 

[Von Ether]

For all I wrote above, and all my trepidation, I too will give them props for the worlds they create and manage to invoke quite well, even in their staid, 2 column, no frills format (but often with lots of sweet art). In the circles I ran and ran into, playing something Palladium but in a different ruleset was something of a meme... and our best Rifts games were the ones where we never touched the dice once (and therefore never had to interact with the rules).

Yep! Palladium life hack 101 and #1. Going to be piloting a giant mecha? Bristling with guns and missiles? No matter! Take boxing, and get that extra attack with your GU-11 and waste the opponents away all day long.

(Better, yet, convince the GM to let you use the martial arts from Ninjas and Superspies, ignore Thai Boxing because that's just silly, but do take Leopard Fist Kung Fu to get 4 attacks per turn... then take boxing... then climb into your giant mecha, and go to town, baby! )

And don't forget the backstory you had to invent to claim all your front loaded stuff as a mutant animal who traveled to Atlantis to make deal with a devil so the dragon would give you ... something? And on, and on, and on.