InsaneJournal

The first published, furthest future of the TMNT
Behold, the last of my future TMNT posts (until more are published, at least). Today's scans come not from a comic book, but from an old RPG book. How can this be? Understanding is below the cut.


Back in the 80s', Palladium published a series of role-playing books based around the TMNT. Interestingly enough, it was published before the turtles became media sensations with action figures, cartoons, and bland cereal with disgusting slimy marshmallows that I ate anyway because I was a kid and the commercials told me to make my parents buy it, and was every bit as dark and grimy as the original (and like most Palladium games, it had a wonderfully fun and inventive character creation system wrapped in an awful layout and a really terrible rule system. To this day if I play a Supers campaign, I'm tempted to make players roll on the Heroes Unlimited tables, then design their character around that).

The 80's were a big year for post-apocalypse fiction, and RPGs were no exception. Gammaworld, Cyberpunk 2020, Paranoia, and so forth and so on. Palladium had already dipped their toe in the radioactive post-apocalyptic waters, and published After The Bomb in 86', where the dying human race struggled to survive in the post-nuke world and mutants outnumbered humans. A supplement, Road Hogs, published later that year went into more detail on the ruined middle and west-coast America, which had suddenly become heavily inspired by Mad Max (but with more mutants).

I found these scans floating around the internet a while back while looking for old Rifts stuff to make fun of. If you wanted a more complete set, I don't know where you could check.

The story opens with a gang of Road Hogs (not all actual mutant hogs) scouting out a farming village in preparation for a raid. The engage in conversation with the naive mutant farming turtles.


Who are, of course, not so native or dedicated to farming.


The villagers prepare, while the Road Hogs head back to base. The leader (a mutant rat, ha) knows that something is up, and they attack that night, only to find traps already laid and a legion of of mutant ninja animals waiting for them. A massive battle ensues.


The rat leader makes his way to the village's temple, and confronts the new Mutant Ninja Turtles, knocking one out and threatens their aged teacher. Whoops.


Thoughts:
I really like Raph being called "Old Whiskers," teaching students, and being a pillar of the community. Splinter would be proud. It's also pretty D'awww that Raph misses Mike, even then. D'awww. I also dig he weapons of the new ninja turtles, each just similar enough to the original TMNT's weapons. Lastly, I really like this story in the greater context of later TMNT futures, especially the Archie comics where Raph's anger comes from how his brothers and he are unique creatures who can never start a family or join society, and will be the first and last mutant turtles on the planet. In this future, Raph is no longer alone. He's a mentor, part of a "family", and there's even more mutant turtles. True, he's a little senile , but people care about him and he seems happy. Oh, and he can still kick ass.