Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle & Other Strangeness

**Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures** (shortened to **TMNT & OS**) is a book by Palladium Books and was first published in 1985.

## History

The book began a series of books that focus on Mutants and remained a major series until the loss of the TMNT license, the remaining details of the series became "The Mutants Universe" in Rifts. It was first printed in 1985 and was quickly reprinted with the mental illness Chart removed in 1985 after the chart was considered insensitive and controversial and were noted unlikely to ever return.

The RPG was a huge success and spawned many sourcebooks and additions, and even lead to a general Superheroes RPG called "Heroes Unlimited".

In later 2023, a Kickstarter was created to raise money to republish the RPG. It reached its base goal within 4 hours. This has most likely ensured the RPG is now set to return to circulation, alongside as well the Transdimensional Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sourcebook.

## About

The book was loosely based on the comics and had an adult theme, as opposed to the other media of its era, which was based on the cartoon. The book contains all the details needed to learn the basics of character creation, campaign creation, and the settings of the world. The book used the names from the TV series at the time.

The dice needed for the game consists of one or more of the following dice (number indicates sides to each type of dice); D4, D6, D8, D10, D20. A D100 is optional for % rolls, though 2D10 (two 10-sided dice) can be used instead. The % roll is the most common type of roll done by the player so the bare minimum needed for playing the game is a D100 or 2D10, but D6s and D8s are also common with D6 being the most, depending on gameplay style and Character Creation options taken.

This book was most essential for TMNT series, being the Core Sourcebook for all further adventures.

The book has two major versions, the original(referred to as "the Old system") and the Revised Version (referred to as "the New System"). The Revised Version is the closest match to Heroes Unlimited and should be the one sought out if possible over the original. Mutants Down Under, Mutants of the Yucatan and Mutants in Avalon were written with both the original and Revised version in mind. Either version is suitable for use of all Sourcebooks, but minor adjustments mean that differences are found from both. The Revised version and all its Sourcebooks are fully compatible with Heroes Unlimited and its sourcebooks, as well as Ninjas & Superspies, with additional equipment available along with weapons in Compendium of Contemporary Weapons.

Lastly, the book supplied the standard Character Creation sheet, of which details could be recorded for Players usage, it was double-sided with the second side focused on helping with character BIO-E calculations. This was a rarely supplied supplement and many books neglected such a thing.

The Revised version also removes some controversial elements, however, a number of misspellings and errors remained in both versions.

## Character Creation

### Step2 - Animal Type

The main sourcebook introduced a number of mutants to work from. Later Sourcebooks would expand to cover even more species or note species that often shared these details found in this sourcebook. Absent from the book was the ability to create insect variants and most cold-blooded species were not represented in any shape. The most common type of mutant covered by the main book was mammals and birds.

According to the book itself, the list was never meant to include every species of Animal possible, and thus by request, later animals were added in Road Hogs, Transdimensional Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mutants Down Under, Mutants in Avalon, Mutants of the Yucatan and Mutants in Orbit. However, players were allowed to make their own Mutants despite this within the GM's allowence by matching an animal to an existing one.

For a guide to making new species see Home Brewing Mutants.

For a full list of Mutants see List of Animal-Mutant Species.

#### Detailed

The following mutants are list in the book (note that they are *not* written in the layout as in the book*);*

* Aardvarks
* Alligator and Crocodile
* Apes - (Gorilla, Chimpanzee and Orangutan)
* Armadillos
* Baboons
* Badgers
* Bats
* Beavers
* Bears (Black Bear, Grizzly Bear and Polar Bear)
* Ducks
* Turkeys (Wild Turkey, Domestic Turkey)
* Wild Predatory Birds (Hawks, Falcons, Eagles),
* Owls
* Wild birds (small seed and insect eating birds about the size of a blue jay)
* Crows
* Sparrows
* Wild Fowl (Quails and peasents),
* Pet Birds (Budgies and other similar sized pets)
* Parrots
* Pigeons
* Chickens
* Boar
* Buffalo
* Camel
* Canines, wild (Coyote, Wolf)
* Canine: Fox
* Dogs (including a list of various breeds)
* Cow & Bull
* Deer
* Elephant
* Elk
* Felines (Tiger, Jaguar, Lion)
* Cheetah
* Mountain Lion
* Cat - Domestic
* Cat - Wild
* Frog
* Goat
* Hippopotamus
* Horse
* Marten & Mink
* Mole
* Monkey
* Mountain Lion
* Moose
* Muskrat
* Opossum
* Otter
* Pig
* Porcupine
* Rabbit
* Racoon
* Rhinoceros
* Rodents
* Sheep
* Squirrel
* Turtle
* Weasel
* Wolverine

##### Creation notes

* Brown Bear - is the only one of the 4 listed bears who cannot be rolled for and must be selected by the player
* Mandrills - same as Baboon
* Geladas - same as Baboon
* Artic Fox - same as fox, Fox also include both Grey and Red.
* Geese - same as Ducks, until Mutants in Avalon
* Swans - same as Ducks, until Mutants in Avalon
* Both Domestic Turkeys and Wild Turkeys have the same entry in the book, when the player rolls they actually roll for a general "Turkey" mutant, the difference between them is Wild Turkeys have Flight and Domestic Turkeys have Glide. The type of Turkey is only determined by which of the two abilities the player chooses.
* Crows was expanded in Mutants in Avalon to cover other members of the family such as Ravens and Rooks
* Wild Birds covers Jays, Cardinals, Robins, etc, with the list being expanded in Mutants in Avalon to include the British Robin, Starlings and Blackbirds.
* Parrots were not listed in the role, while Pet Birds were listed as both "Pet Birds" and "Escaped Pet Birds".
* Marten & Mink covers both animals but in the book only a Marten can be rolled for - Minks have to be chosen by the player. The Fisher species are also similar to Mink and are therefore covered by this, as mentioned in the book. This family was expanded upon to cover Ferrets in Mutants in Avalon.
* Bats represented all "Bat" species until Mutants of the Yucatan. The Sourcebook introduced Vampire Bat, Disk-Winged Bat, False Vampire Bat and the Fisherman Bat. The book also noted Ghost Bats and White-Lined bats are also ientical to the normal bat creation process except for fur colour.
* Rodent represented only Rats, Mouse, Hamster and Guinea Pig mutants. Various sourcebooks mention other Rodent species, players have to match the species to the close of the 4 represented. For example, a Dormouse, introduced in Mutants in Avalon is typically matched to the "Mouse" mutant.
* Wild Predatory Birds covered Hawks, Falcons and Eagles with specific species being named later in various sourcebooks. As with "Rodents", the species named is matched to the closet of the category.
* The Giant Armadillo was introduced in Mutants of the Yucatan, adding a new variant of the Armadillo.
* The Horse covered all breeds of horses, but Shire Horse and Pony type mutants were introduced in Mutants in Avalon,while Donkey was introduced in Road Hogs.
* Sparrows can also cover Finches.

##### Errors

In the original books the following errors were found;

* Elephants have an error in their Natural Weapon description and though they have listed "Tusks", there is no damage. This was later corrected with other sourcebooks such as Heroes Unlimited. The corrected entry should read their damage is 2D6.
* Elephants also have the ability "Advance Hearing", this is based on the belief Elephants have good hearing due to their large ears. However in reality this is not the case and the large ears are heat regulation.
* Rabbits have a Ability called "Leaping Ability", however the description of the ability reads "that does the max jump or leap of the character", this should read "that doubles the max jump or leap of the character". The misprint was never corrected.
* The Felines were missing their basic Teeth BIO-E costs, this should be set at a BIO-E 5 cost.

## Game Master Section & Adventures

This part of the book focuses on ideas for the setting of the game including campaigne ideas. The book lists possible adventures with various organistsations including "Ceaser's Weasels", "The Terror Bears", and "Doctor Feral: The Genius of Bio-Spawn", "Terror on Route 5", "The Leg of the Ninja", plus all additional NPCs for each campaign.

There are also notes in regard to Heroes Unlimited including any powers added to and only used by mutants as well as designing animals not listed any sourcebook.

Note; the campaigns are not in order but it is suggested GMs begin with;

1. *"Terror on Route 5"*, this is the games introductory setting.
2. *"The Terror Bear"*, this is ranked as easy-difficult depending on the Character Builds, it is heavy Psionic dependant.
3. *"Ceaser's Weasels"*, is a moderately difficult campaign.

"Doctor Feral: The Genius of Bio-Spawn" and "The Leg of the Ninja" are designed to be ongoing campaigns that GMs and players can return to, both starting out easy and scaling with players.

## NPCs

This section details all the character NPCs from the series including the main protagonists Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Donatello and Raphael. [

[April O'Neil]], Baxter Stockman, Casey Jones are also included as allies of the Turtles.

The Foot organisation lists Shedder and The T.C.R.I. Aliens.

In addition, the play-test stats for the group The Sparrow-Eagles (Brown Wing, Chirp Yenko and Gorba Chirp) and the criminal Fred Hamster are listed.