Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

[Super Squirrel]

Is anyone watching this show?

I'm really liking it and I have been using some of the episodes for inspiration. In my First A.C.T. campaign, I actually ran a session that involved ninjas stealing artifacts from a museum the same day that the turtles encountered the Foot stealing swords from a museum.

I'm really impressed with the new show. I'm thinking about it constantly in Hero terms. I felt that the previous series had April O'neil as either a follower or player but now she is more of an 8- DNPC. I'm also impressed that they were able to keep Raph and Mikey with the same personality and not taint the show. Though they still need some work on Mike, they are no longer making it as campy as it was.

I haven't been impressed with the episodes involving non-Foot badguys but they are still interesting. The garbage collector one was just weird but the AI nanites episode definitely had potentials as far as Hero type campaigns go.

I'm also looking forward to next week. Turtles vs. the Shredder in their first battle of the new show.

[Pattern Ghost]

TMNT are back? Coolness. How does it compare to the original? (toon vs. comic for that matter). What network is it on? What day/time?

[Super Squirrel]

Fox, Saturday Mornings at 10:30 a.m. It is between two painful cartoons so I shudder to think of any poor souls who try to find it on their own.

Basically as a long standing Turtles fan, I have frequented the official webpage on a regular basis. When they were back on NBC, NBC has severe restrictions for them. As a result, they lost a lot of creative license for the show. As you can see in the original, it is very light hearted and goofy. Characters had little to know development and plots were not extremely believable.

Now, Fox has essentially told them they can do whatever they want with the show. Their format is awesome. The episodes are more serious and the origin story is simplified. At the start of the series, the turtles have never been to the outside world. They don't both explaining how the turtles got into the sewer, it is just left in the air. Splinter's origin is like the First movie. He was a rat in a cage who studied his mentor. However, they only recently revealed this and parts are changed.

April O'neil is not some ditzy reporter for a news agency. She was a lab assistant for Baxtor Stockman. She suspected he was up to something with the Mouser project and investigated it. At the last episode she was in, she was unemployeed. Casey Jones has been in more episodes than April.

The greatest change is that of the Foot. The Foot clan is still run by Oroku Saki. However instead of always walking around in armor, we see more of Oroku Saki as a classic ninja master wearing master robes. In fact, if you change the colors around Splinter and Saki wear identical outfits. "Shredder" has only appeared twice. Once in a flashback to the death of Splinter's Master and the most recent encounter.

The Foot clan does not have Rocksteady and Bebop. Instead they have this huge brick. The footsoldiers are actual ninjas that wear enhanced suits designed by Baxtor Stockman. Krang does not exist that we know of though in the most recent episode Shredder made a very cryptic statement that leads me to believe that he may or that something else weird exists. (Basically he said to Leonardo that he was in fact unusual but he long ago learned that there are very unusual things in this world).

The plots and plans seem to be subtle instead of obvious. Shredder had the clan steal a sword that was used to locate an ancient piece of armor. The turtles got the sword and as a result, Shredder is angry that he cannot locate "everything" else. Baxtor studied the armor very briefly and it was enough to give the foot soldiers super strong armor so it is a big question as to just how powerful that armor is. We have yet to learn why that armor is so important, what it is, and whatelse is out there.

Shredder tried to buy over the Turtles to his side. And he did so in a very unusual way. He offered a legendary sword to Leonardo. I can't help but wonder just how well connected he is if he can give out legendary swords like that.

Furthermore is this other group that is against the Foot. We don't know much about them other than they are weary of the turtles and their leaders seem to be three people with a 'collective' mind.

Overall, the new show is great. I think of it as required viewing for any true Hero fan.

[Pattern Ghost]

Thanks! Sounds great. I'll have to check it out next time I'm conscious that early on a Saturday. =)

[Mark Taylor]

You just reminded me of TMNT The Roleplaying Game. I wish I had a copy. Maybe I'll look out for it on ebay or something. Apparently Metallica used to play it on their tour bus. Presumably that was back when they had a sense of humour.

[Super Squirrel]

Great Idea. I just bid on the set on ebay. :)

[MarkusDark]

I loved the character creation rules for TMNT's RPG - including giving bonuses to players who are willing to go the turtle route and all be made from the same species. I use this book when coming up with new critters that are created by ZORAC - the Zoological Organization Researching Animal Chromosones. And I actually made this without conciously knowing about Space Ghost's band leader ;)