Palladium Books is bringing back its Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles RPG from the 1980s. The RPG publisher will produce a collector’s edition of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness, and TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman is along for the ride.
According to the Kickstarter, which launched on October 31, the books are expected to come out in September 2024. The crowdfunder also includes goodies like dice, and miniatures of the setting’s mutant heroes and villains.
The Kickstarter for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness (Redux edition) launched on Halloween, October 31, 2023 and hit its goal of $250,000 in less than 24 hours. At time of writing the tabletop RPG has raised $420,000, pushing towards stretch goals like an introductory adventure and additional RPG miniatures.
From the crowdfunder page, it looks like the Turtles RPG provides for a wide variety of adventures, from fighting in sewers to stopping alien invasions. It has systems for creating your own mutant animal, and the deluxe version touts new beasts in character creation, like the gecko, penguin, and great white shark. Backers can pledge extra for a second title, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Transdimensional Adventures, another relaunched book, this one with a focus on time travel, space, and magic.
A remastered version rather than a brand new RPG, the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness book will include upgrades such as color artwork, and an updated equipment list (it has been 40 years since the game was released). The text has apparently been upgraded with new content and edited for clarity and usability with rules clarified, typos corrected, and a back index installed.
There’ll also be new artwork by comics illustrators, including TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman. Eastman is quoted on the Kickstarter page, saying he is “1000% onboard” teasing “expanded behind-the-scenes content as well as a few top secret surprises”.
The baseline pledge to receive the book is $50, but backers can also pledge to receive bonuses. These include custom dice and dice rollers, and miniatures of the turts, Shredder, and more esoteric villains such as the Terror Bears.
The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness came out in 1985, just a year after Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird’s first comics. As such, the licensed RPG was released before the Turtles achieved mainstream popularity, or became the child-friendly versions we know today.
Creator Palladium Books let the license lapse some time before 2000. The publisher’s main game right now is Rifts, a multi-genre, multidimensional TTRPG that’s been around from 1990 to the present.
Check out our DnD books and DnD settings guides for some more tabletop inspiration. And check out these tabletop RPG dice systems that are better than Dungeons and Dragons (in our opinion).
Source: Wargamer
