Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Tabletop RPG Launches Kickstarter, Gets Funded Within Hours

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness, the classic TMNT tabletop RPG, is back on Kickstarter and fully funded. Palladium Books, the game's original publisher, announced weeks ago that it would launch a crowdfunding campaign for a revised edition of the long out-of-print game. The Kickstarter went live on Tuesday and, despite the distraction of it being Halloween, managed to reach its $250,000 funding goal within hours, which also instantly unlocked the campaign's first stretch goal, an art print of the original 1985 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness cover art by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman. Currently, the campaign stands at over $414,000 raised.

"We appreciate all of you fans and friends coming on this journey with us," Sean Owen Roberson, Creative Director, Palladium Books, wrote in an update to the campaign celebrating its funding. "Just like me, many of you joined the Palladium family decades ago through the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness RPG and we're honored to welcome you back to the game you love, better than ever. For all of you just joining us, welcome to the definitive TMNT RPG experience!"

He continues, "You've made this project a reality and now you can help us make it even better. We have a lot of exciting Stretch Goals to unlock. Please help us spread the word that the Turtles are back! Nothing replaces you, our loyal fans, sharing your excitement through good old word of mouth."

The next stretch goal is an introductory Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness adventure created by Sophie Campbell, the outgoing current writer of the ongoing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book, and Palladium Books co-founder Kevin Siembieda. Other announced stretch goals include additional art prints and miniatures, with more to be announced.

What is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness is a tabletop roleplaying game that Palladium Books had developed and originally published in 1985, pre-dating the Turtlemania phenomenon that would sweep the nation in the late '80s and early '90s. As Siembieda has told it in the past, the game sold well until the ubiquitousness of the 1987Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, which was aimed at a much younger audience, made the property uncool in the eyes of the game's older demographic, causing sales to plummet. This led to Palladium dropping plans for additional products in the line. In 1997, Palladium announced designs to revive the series with a second edition, but delayed production, high licensing fees, and low pre-orders prompted the publisher to cancel the project.

However, for those TMNT fans whose interest goes beyond the '87 cartoon and into the franchise's indie comics roots, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness remains a fascinating artifact from the pre-Turtlemania days, when there were almost no other TMNT products beyond the comics themselves. That game's rulebooks included exclusive comics by Eastman and his fellow TMNT co-creator Peter Laird, turning the old, out-of-print books into items that are highly sought after by collectors, driving up their prices on the secondary market.

The new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness Kickstarter offers a remastered version of the original game, with updated and clarified text, enhanced artwork, some new indexes, and other improvements while keeping the bulk of the original material intact. The campaign collects the six main rulebooks into two larger volumes. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness Redux Edition includes the material from the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness RPG, Turtles Go Hollywood, and Truckin' Turtles sourcebooks, which is more than enough to launch a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Others Strangeness campaign. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Transdimensional Adventures Redux Edition, which is available with the other rulebook at higher pledge tiers and as an add-on purchase, collects Transdimensional TMNT, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures, TMNT Guide to the Universe, which includes rules for creating humanoid mutant dinosaurs and prehistoric mammals, adding time travel and magic to a game, and more storytelling options and adventure ideas.

More details about the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness release are available on the Kickstarter campaign's website. The campaign runs through November 28th, and its expected fulfillment date is September 2024.