#Ninjas & Superspies

[baronfulmen]

I'll never need a reminder because I grew up playing Palladium Games RPGs and they didn't have an editor so they just pasted the same equipment section into every single book they ever made no matter how little it made sense, though they sometimes remembered to change the cost from gold to dollars or whatever.

Friendly reminder

[legionofmyth]

Ninjas & Superspies by Palladium Books

🥷🌐 Dive into the world of espionage and martial arts with "Ninjas & Superspies" by Palladium Books, Inc.! 🥋🔍 Check out our written overview of this thrilling tabletop RPG. Engage in covert operations, master martial arts, and uncover secrets! #NinjasAndSuperspies #TabletopRPG #PalladiumBooks #MartialArts #Espionage #RolePlayingGame #RPG #GamingCommunity

Ninjas & Superspies Ninjas & Superspies Ninjas & Superspies is a role-playing game published by Palladium Books, set in a (1980s/1990s) contemporary world of espionage, martial arts, and high-stakes adventure. Players can take on the roles of elite spies, martial arts masters, or a combination of both, navigating a world filled with intrigue, danger, and covert operations. The setting emphasizes…

[thydungeongal]

I don't anon but awhile back (12 hours ago time stamp on my screen) you asked for curious anons.

Your love of and advocacy for Rolemaster is well known.

You likely don't mind games with lots of rules.

So, I'm curious: Do you have any experience with any of the Palladium Megaverse system games like Rifts, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness, Robotech, Ninjas & Superspies, Heroes Unlimited... ?

That whole branch of gaming has sadly eluded me! I know of their reputation but have yet to actually sit down and read any of them. Purely based on their reputation I can actually see a lot of that weird eighties design I love in RPGs, so like I would probably find at least something to vibe with in there!

Now I have sort of interacted with those games via one degree of separation, since Mutants in the Now (cool game) is explicitly inspired by the author's first experience in RPGs being Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness, and while it of course seeks to modernize and clean up a lot of the Megaverse system's quirks, it maintains some of its idiosyncracies (like, as far as I've understood, combat and skills effectively running on two different systems?). Anyway, Mutants in the Now is great and I would actually love to see similar treatments of old obtuse RPGs with some modern sensibilities to make their rules presentation a bit easier to understand.

Anyway, one of these days I'll actually sit down and read Heroes Unlimited. Actually, there's a game that would undoubtedly benefit from the Mutants in the Now treatment, seeing as that one's also heavily about table-based character creation.

[danglovely]

Kim Possible Episode Tiers: The C-Tier

The C-tier is probably best defined as episodes that I'm never really eager to rewatch, but I'm pleasantly surprised when I do. It's a good show, so they're good episodes . . . but at least one thing sticks in my craw about these ones.

Attack of the Killer Bebes: Drakken origin story! It's silly, but I still fall on the side of thinking that it mostly works. It's not a strong conviction, but let's roll with it.

Oh Boyz: Honestly, this would be lower if they didn't boy-band-dance their way through some lasers.

Larry's Birthday: I'm a little surprised Larry gets as much screen time as he does. I'm even more surprised that I kind of really like this episode. The twist, Dementor, it all sort of works for me.

Rufus vs. Commodore Puddles: It's a random 15 minute episode, but I just want to highlight one of my favorite Drakken quotes in it.

Mathter and Fervent: Two things I don't particularly love in Kim Possible: B villains and examining the relationship between Ron and his parents.

Two to Tango: I've mentioned it before, but Shego and Jr. have some winning chemistry and I've probably rated this episode too low.

Partners: This episode had some real potential. It tried to analyze Ron/Monique, Drakken/Amy + commentary by Shego, and Kim/Random Character all at once. It would have benefitted from being a bit more focused.

Monkey Ninjas in Space: It's sort of absurd to theme an episode of Kim Possible around a father's crisis about his kid growing up too quickly. She's an international superspy. That's the sort of plot you cede attempting when you created this universe.

Ron Millionaire: Why didn't Shego just take Ron's money? It's fine, but I never outright enjoy the "Ron loses sight of what's important" episodes.

Rewriting History: This could've been in a higher tier if it was more confident in itself. Why are Ron and Kim imagining this all in a shared dream?

Cap'n Drakken: Look. Drakken gets possessed by a pirate spirit. That plot being a C-quality episode for me is frankly, amazing. It could've easily been the worst episode in the series.

Team Impossible: This is the one time the show ever questions whether Kim is the best possible person to be doing this sort of work. Maybe it's important that it isn't a recurring question . . . but I found it particularly entertaining that it ends with a member of Team Impossible doing James's taxes.

Return to Wannaweep: The frustration of Gil clearly being a villain again and no one believing Ron (who saved everyone the first time they were here). I would say the Bonnie and Kim rivalry, which I'm normally fine with, left me exasperated.

Queen Bebe: RIP Steve Harwell.

Kimnation Nation: It's alright, but I thought the clone angle was underexplored and I don't particularly love Drakken riding solo for an episode.

Mothers Day: I have to say it. I don't like Drakken's mom. I think she removes anything threatening about him as a character and I don't think she adds all that much in her own right. What I did like was Ann being a great sidekick for Kim.

Bonding: I don't know what to make of Bonnie and Kim. I really like Bonnie as a character, I'm interested in her opinions and what it's like being the high school rival of an international super hero. I don't like petty drama. Maybe there was more to explore here.

Car Alarm: What were the Ed and Shego interactions in this episode? I will say the birds in car joke got me multiple times.

Homecoming Upset: There's a story to tell about Bonnie's feelings about Ron that I'm not sure I've totally figured out yet. This is a good subversion episode and it has my favorite bit of CCR voice acting.

Rufus in Show: I think I would outright hate this episode, except it's surprisingly funny.

Animal Attraction: There's natural humor in giving all your characters a romance test and having the results pair them with the most ridiculous outcomes. It would probably be higher if the villain plot was a little better than "revenge for getting kicked out of the billionaire club."

Vir-Tu-Ron: This is actually a pretty good episode and maybe I'm just bitter about Ron and Zita never being appropriately resolved by the show.

[agrownupgeekgirl]

So if you didn't realize I was a huge nerd.. here we go lol I absolutely love Rise of the TMNT and my daughter who is 26 does as well. So my daughter asked if I would want to play in a TMNT text based RP and I was like hell yea! (I got both my kids into gaming young btw so at this point they are old pros) .. so I'm sitting here snagging stuff from the old Palladium books Ninja's and Superspies, TMNT, and Mystic China to work out a system for a Rise of the TMNT game. Wish me luck lol Also if those books don't give away that I'm an old nerd I don't know what would ;)

[leam1983]

Emotional Ninjas

Another thing people who haven't experienced loss tend to mishandle is the structure of human emotions. When everything's hunky-dory, it's easy to think of your mood as a causal system. See or experience something sad, and you'll get sad. See or experience something happy, and you'll get happier. See or experience something that should uplift you, and, well - ad absurdium.

But emotions aren't always that. Grief, especially, is a fucking ninja. Grief watches you act as a functional adult within your Emotional Gray Zone of Relative Okayness, and perches itself in the rafters, waiting for the time to strike. It's a Yoshiaki Kawajiri-directed superhuman sengoku-era superspy that blows a poisoned dart your way and stays in sight just long enough to grin smugly and say "Deal with me now, chump."

It takes a long while before your Mental Kickass Katana Deflection Game is up-to-point - and a lot of annoyingly small darts have to find purchase in you.

Oh, and there's also false comforts, like video games or consumerism or thinking that scheduling a Friday night to down a bottle of rum with your SOs while watching Home Alone is going to patch you up. They're the Venomous Kunoichis of this analogy of mine.

Yeah, don't ask. Teletoon Quebec kind of turned Ninja Scroll into a Christmas vacation TV regular, even if its Feudal Japan setting has nothing to do with Christmas - or even with grief.

[theseventhoffrostfall]

Spiral Arm making its superspy intrigue storyline a matter of the loose anarchistic coalition's stylish rockstar James Bond Fianna vs. the nightmarish Stalinist empire's flamboyant Franco-Burgundian Ninja was a lot more colorful than I'm used to, but goddamn if Flynn didn't make it work.

[wuxiaphoenix]

TV Series Review: Undercover Geisha

Five out of five for great story, acting, and amazing stage performances. Now this is a series I wish had lasted more episodes!

Undercover Geisha (“Yozakura Osome”) is the Tokugawa-era story of the artist, performer, and sometimes spy Osome, who lost her family in a fire when she was young and is still looking for her surviving brother.

Along the way she uncovers more of her family history, gains a few enemies, and some interesting allies. Including a down-on-his-luck ronin, a merchant who may be more than he seems, and a “roofer” who’s definitely more than he seems. (Otoji does work as a roofer. In the daytime. Check out his outfit change in the first ep, so cool, superspies eat your heart out....)

The characters are great, the various cases and shenanigans intriguing, but if you have an interest in either fine points of Japanese history or live stage performances, this is a particular gem. Every episode shows acting, dance, acrobatics, juggling, and the like; much of the show revolves around the theater Osome teaches and performs at, with the actors and stagehands dragging in all kinds of drama and trouble. The head of the acting troupe’s ongoing relationship with a married cop, for example, deserves all the sympathetic facepalms it gets.

There are also interesting bits like, travel was heavily restricted in this era, but if you had an official letter of revenge you could legally head anywhere and claim you were looking for the guy you needed to kill. Or the Edo custom of “stones of the lost” - with so many fires and people in the city, people might get separated, especially children. So neighborhood areas had a stone where you could post up the equivalent of “missing” posters, in hopes someone, somewhere, might know where your family was.

Also watch for the ep where Osome gets drunk because Family and Problems, and constructs a Jenga-esque tower on the table out of sake cups, chopsticks, and anything else available. Then starts carefully pulling it apart....

Trivia note: The actress playing Osome, Mayumi Wakamura, is the same as the actress who played the geisha Tsutakichi in Gokenin Zankurō. Both excellent but different characters, good acting there.

All told it was a very upbeat series in comparison to some jidaigeki, with less gore and relatively few people dying. Would definitely feel okay putting this as PG-13.

You can find the whole series on the Samurai vs. Ninja YouTube channel.

Undercover Geisha (2003) ep 1.

[inloveamateursatbest]

pinterest hoard challenge: “graham foster”

      requested by @robertssofttouchxaaronssoftlad

[legionofmyth]

Compare & Contrast: Palladium Megaverse Games

Whether you're looking for a new game to play or you're already a fan, you need to check out this complete overview of the Palladium Books Megaverse: • After the Bomb • Beyond the Supernatural • Dead Reign • Heroes Unlimited • The Mechanoid Invasion Trilogy • Nightbane • Ninjas & Superspies • Palladium Fantasy RPG • RECON • Rifts • Rifts: Chaos Earth • Rifts: Phase World • Splicers • Systems Failure • TMNT & Other Strangeness • Robotech The Role-playing Game

After the Bomb After the Bomb After the Bomb is a post-apocalyptic role-playing game set in a world devastated by a nuclear war after a virus that led to widespread death and mutation. Created by Palladium Books, this setting features anthropomorphic animals, the result of genetic manipulation, who now struggle to rebuild civilization amidst the ruins of human society. The game is rich with…

[newwavedetectives]

That’s an excellent point and I wouldn’t have thought of it that way! A freeform system would be much better for players who don’t want to think as much about / deal with mechanics in a ttrpg and want more to explore roleplaying possibilities and concepts.

For a while, it was fashionable for systems to be as crunchy as possible and, at the time, 3e definitely felt less crunchy than, say, Alternity or Ninjas & Superspies or Champions, systems which could take nearly several hours just to generate your characters. 

However, 5e felt like too much of a swing in the other direction, that by streamlining the mechanics to make it more accessible, it flattened the game.

If you want to make a princess or a pirate or a diplomat or a disgraced noble, it can be difficult to make your character sheet actually reflect that character mechanically without DM intervention or by using other sourcebooks.

Sure, you could write down on your sheet that you were a princess in exile with extensive training in courtly manners and the fine art of persuasion, but in terms of actual feedback from the game, have fun with your measly +3.

A pirate born on the sea, who sailed her whole life, will have, mechanically, the same bonus to sailing checks as a landlubber mercenary with the same proficiency skill. It’s fine, and 5e is fun and stuff, but it doesn’t feel right.

And other, more flexible or freeform systems would definitely provide an alternative to that.

D&D's bad this and D&D's bad that. I just think it's time to admit that 5e sucks. 3rd edition was the best. Remains the best. You can make a character with +30 to basket weaving. You can make a character who's terrible at fighting but can talk her way out of anything. +8 to bluff at first level if you play your cards right. Can easily get to +20 in a few levels. She can sell salt to slug. Sure, she can't hit a broad side of a barn with a sharp stick but why bother when you can convince the evil henchmen you're the evil emperor's consort with the roll of a dice. You rolled a 10, that's 30 to diplomacy, sorry, looks like you're the DM now.

Can't do shit in 5e. Just try to make a talky character. Ooh great +3 to persuasion at level 10. Awesome. Oh I get advantage? Two opportunities to roll like shit. Great. Love this system where I don't get to pick skills and my paladin can't even detect evil

[gameabledisneypodcast]

Gameable AU: Exosquad

Exosquad meets Ninjas & Superspies as Grant Woodward joins Kris to create an Exofleet officer using the labyrinthine Palladium system. Along the way, Kris narrates an "audio trading card" to explain character creation's twists & turns. Check out the episode here!

[prince-atom]

When You’re Tired of Dungeons and Sick of Dragons

Here’s a series of posts that are going to be me basically just rambling about RPGs I have played and/or collected that aren’t D&D and don’t use any version of the OGL.  I am not presenting these in any kind of order and these are just my opinions.

I can’t really do this series and forget to shout out to @vintagerpg, who’s been doing this for years.  You can also hear him talk about various games in depth on his podcast, The Vintage RPG Podcast.

Palladium Fantasy RPG:  Palladium’s self-titled debut album fantasy game formed the basis of everything else they’ve put out, and they put out a lot.  There’s RIFTS(R).  There’s Ninjas & Superspies.  There’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles And Other Weirdness.  There’s After the Bomb, which tried to tie TMNTAOW in with RIFTS(R).  It hasn’t really been updated since the early 90s, and uses percentile-based skill checks.  Everybody gets a d6 hit points whenever they level, and it’s possible to have even medieval armor that’s tougher than you.  The only character who can use a longbow is the Longbowman OCC.  In RIFTS(R), you can play a dragon, or a dude with a chromed-out mecha and a gun that makes everyone in your party deaf and everybody in front of your party dead, or a cyborg, or a dude who thinks he has to eat Twinkies to unlock his powers.  If you think all of that sounds awesome, and it is, you might want to check out Savage RIFTS(R), which is most of that done in Savage Worlds.

The older books and the RIFTER periodical are perfect bound, and their covers are prone to delaminating.  Interiors are matt black and white, but the art is quite good.  Later books, especially RIFTS(R) Ultimate Edition, are hardbound, and RIFTS(R) Ultimate Edition has glossy color sections.

Play Palladium games if you like:  Percentile based skill resolution, point-based spellcasting and psionics, psionics in the core book, remembering how many attacks you have left this round, remembering if you have to sacrifice an attack to defend yourself, being a mecha pilot with a fuck-off gun, or rolling to see if you get a new mental illness after you go down in combat.

Where to Get It:  palladiumbooks.com, drivethrurpg

[the-infamous-eel]

It wasn't just RIFTS, either. Palladium pumped out SO many games in the early 90s. TMNT, Ninjas and Superspies, the super hero one, the fantasy one, and more. And EACH if those games had supplements. So many supplements.

Now imagine all those games and all their supplements.... and that was only half of Palladium's catalog. The other half was RIFTS. It was like the 3.5 glut of source books, but it was all coming from Palladium. And most of them were bad. Like, BAD bad. So finding them offloaded to a used bookstore makes sense. Anyway, that's my theory.

I'm trying to figure out why, specifically, the game shop I went to in my middle/high school years' used TTRPG books section (pile of boxes under everything else, basically, that I sorted in 4 hours for $10 in store credit and a free book) was nearly 2/3s by title and half by weight, old Palladium sourcebooks, as I know nothing about the system in question and thought you might be able to shed some light.

Bear in mind this was ~2009-2016, if that helps.

Okay so I don't know for certain why there were so many used RIFTS books, and I have never actually played RIFTS, so a lot of this is going to be me relaying information I've picked up via reading.

RIFTS is a multi-genre RPG set in our world but post-apocalyptic. It wasn't the first multi-genre RPG, but to my knowledge it is and still remains the most multi-genre RPG. Like, it's a real everything and the kitchen sink post-apocalyptic sci-fi setting but also magic is real.

What I know about RIFTS is that the system is at best okay, but at worst doesn't seem to agree with itself and changes its mind about how specific rules work from one supplement to the next. The lead designer, Kevin Siembieda, is very protective of his IP to the point of sending fans cease and desist letters for making fan sites, but based on what I remember he's also been so protective of his setting staying true to his vision that he's pretty much just thrown out work done by freelancers for supplements and written over it later.

Anyway, it's the type of game where you can find Glitter Boys (mech pilots so named because of their special mechs with, like, some type of glittery armor?), Juicers (drug-fueled supersoldiers who have a limited lifespan after character creation), and other such nonsense. Apparently one of the best ways to increase your Strength is to train the Boxing skill. It sounds weird and I kinda wanna try it some day.

(A lot of the above is half-remembered and based on having listened to a lot of the System Mastery podcast back in the day! I recommend their episodes on RIFTS if you want to know more! Jeff and Jon are funny guys.)

[stackthedeck]

i wasn’t the anon who sent the clint/matt ask but i love your HCs for them, please use this to add more if you want!!

Welcome back everyone to my Matt/Clint brainrot, I just think they're cute and I'm all for ships that are just some guy x some guy

Matt makes Clint start taking better care of himself, but like completely by accident (It's Matt Motherfucking Murdock, this man is not an expert on self-care). Clint has gotten scurvy three times in his life, once because shit happens when you grow up in the circus, the second was nutrition isn't always available when you're a superspy deep undercover, and the third time was he's just like that. Matt comes over to Clint's apartment and is like "I can name every preservative and chemical you've put in your body in the last week, if you ever want me to kiss you again, you will eat a goddamn vegetable."

but like if Clint is going to be cutting junk food and eating fruits and vegetables and sure he feels better and has more energy but it's the principle he's going to force Matt to improve himself too. Thus the brooding jar is born. Anytime Clint catches Matt sitting on top of a building doing some angsty nonsense, isolating himself, keeping secrets to "protect others" Matt's gotta put a twenty in the jar. After the jar is full they go on a date, Matt picks the restaurant and they go to some fancy organic place and Clint removes the brooding jar because that is a step too far. But the principle sticks around and Matt gets better about actually talking about his problems.

They're both very touchy people. Even when they're not talking through tactile sign language, Matt just likes to have Clint's hand in his. Matt likes just holding him, knowing he's there without having to listen for a heartbeat. Clint likes that Matt makes him feel wanted and important. There's always someone to hug him after a mission when he just needs to decompress, always someone to pop his shoulder back into place. They're both pretty isolated just because of superhero shit, so there's something so special about having someone that gets that and wants to keep them around, wants to have their presence known.

one time in the middle of a fight, Matt needed an arrow, and Clint without thinking fired it instead of throwing it like a normal person and Matt fucking caught it. They're both too busy in the middle of the battle to freak out about it, but afterward, they're just like holy fucking shit that was the coolest thing ever!! Thus the new date night activity is born of Clint firing arrows at Matt while Matt tries to catch them with his ninja skills. They never manage to do it again. It is their white whale. Foggy finds out about it and nearly has a stroke.

I'm highkey stealing this from Matt and Echo in the comics, but they watch movies together. Clint signs the visuals into Matt's hand, but here's the thing, Clint is absolutely making everything up. They're watching Alien and Clint is describing a romantic kiss. Clint turns off his hearing aids and Matt signs what the people are saying to him. He is also absolutely bullshitting everything. This leads to them "yes and-ing" each other with the stupidest story while a movie plays in the background.

Matt is not a dog person. He loves Lucky but that dog stinks and it is hell on his senses but also his fur is so soft. Clint hates cats and he resents that Matt is a cat person, but they can stop in the middle of patrol to pet every feral cat they find. Matt gets a black cat that he also calls Lucky because he thinks he's funny he's not. Clint and Kate call it different demon names because that cat is evil and also Matt should have committed to the hell theme

Matt and Clint are both incredibly skilled fighters, but they don't have any special powers, defense, or healing ability and this has led to them being treated as fragile by their teams. This mixed with ableism frustrates both of them to no end. After a mission where the other heroes were just trying to help, but they got pulled away from the fight one too many times, they got to Fogwell's gym and absolutely fucking wail on each other. They know their limits and there's something so right about taking a punch and being able to throw one back without someone worrying about them.

[rppr-podcast]

Preview of After Hours Episode 74: Ninjas and Superspies Part 1

Preview of After Hours Episode 74: Ninjas and Superspies Part 1

NOTE: This is a preview of our most recent After Hours episode. If you want to listen to the full episode, subscribe to the RPPR Patreon for only $2 a month! There’s one Palladium RPG we’ve barely mentioned and it’s now time to dissect it. Ninjas and Superspies is a bizarre mix of high tech espionage and martial art mysticism. It supposedly contains 41 unique martial art forms but as Baz, Rob,…