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Fate of the Teenage Mutant Ninja PAG E S

Turtles, Part 3: When the evil  About me

Shredder attacks (one-  Games I’ve made

 Games I’ve played

shot adventure)
 August 20, 2016  Stephen Mor ew
G A M E S I’ V E W R I T T E N A B O U T

7th Sea Agon Apocalypse World Band

of Blades Breaking the Ice Call of Cthulhu CAMELOT
Trigger Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-

Granting Engine Cold City Cortex

Follow
Cortex Prime Cypher System
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeon World Fate Fate
Core Fate of the Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles Feng Shui 2
Fiasco Force and Destiny Genesys Heroes of
the Hearth Honey Heist Hubris Box
InSpectres Kagematsu Kindred of the East Lady
Blackbird Lasers & Feelings Lord Scurlock Magister Lor

Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Masters of

Umdaar Michtim Microscope
Monsterhearts Necessary Evil Path nder
Powered by the Apocalypse Predation Primetime

Adventures Psi*Run Put Away Childish Things

Savage Worlds Set a Villain Sig: City of Blades

Smallville Sorcerer Swords

Without Master The Bloody-Handed Name of
Bronze The Dance and the Dawn The Library The

One Ring The Three Rocketeers

TinyFate Undying Unknown Armies

In this third part in my series about adapting Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) as a Vampire: The Masquerade Victoriana
roleplaying game, I outline a one-shot adventure and a handful of featured NPCs. (In part Warhammer Quest With Great Power
1, I explained why I was using the system from The Three Rocketeers, a World of Aventure
for Fate Core. In part 2, I produced character sheets of the four main characters to use in a
campaign.) RECENT POSTS

Although I made a big deal about making the character write-ups exible enough to apply  Losing the Tether: First thoughts on Sig

to multiple versions of the characters, in this post I largely throw that out of the window in City of Blades
August 18, 2021
pursuit of a di erent goal: streamlining and simplicity. This involves featuring one main
 A random generator to make D&D
threat (the Shredder), focusing on one main plot hook (Splinter is kidnapped), and cutting
pantheons more believable
out everything that doesn’t support these (sorry, April).
January 24, 2021

 What I accomplished despite 2020

Inspiration December 16, 2020

 Beyond Dwelfs: Even more mixed race

The TMNT setting is a vast, sprawling universe. As well as ninjas and mutant turtles, it’s got options for Dungeons & Dragons
mad science, aliens, robots, magic, time travel, ancient civilisations, ghosts, Lovecraftian 5th edition
March 22, 2020
monsters, parallel dimensions, and straight up superheroes. It’s a kitchen sink world that’s
just as multi-faceted as any of the mainstream comic book universes from Marvel or DC.  Uncle Step needs YOU… to check out

The di erence is that the whole universe is seen through the eyes of the turtles RPG Museum!
January 31, 2020
themselves.

It’s a perfect setting for a long-running RPG campaign, but for a one-shot we need to
RECENT TWEETS
narrow down our focus onto a small number of elements that we care about most.
Although I love the 2003 4Kids! series for the way it explored the wider universe, for a
tighter story I’d look instead to other bits of TMNT media: Stephen Morffew Retweeted

Sidney - Taurus Alpha pilot

@SidneyIcarus
The 1990 lm, which still stands today as a surprisingly great movie, is a relatively
I think the biggest issue behind the ttrpg
grounded story about street level gang crime in New York City (plus, you know, language and jargon discourse is that we
don't have a good 101 to point people to,
ninjas and mutant turtles). Shredder and the Foot Clan are the sole villains, and the
because everything is either on twitter
force that drives the turtles into their nal confrontation with the Shredder is his (nebulous), g+ (gone), or the forge (rather
hostile to read and otherwise outdated).
kidnap of Splinter partway through the movie.
The old beat-em-up video games such as 1991’s Turtles in Time let in more weirdness thread

but are narratively even simpler. Shredder is the villain, and the turtles must ght
their way through a variety of enemies in a variety of locations to thwart his plan, May 31, 2021

culminating in a ght with Shredder himself.

Stephen Morffew Retweeted

Jennifer Kretchmer
In short, use the Shredder as your main villain. Most people familiar with TMNT will expect @dreamwisp
him to show up anyway, so you might as well go with it. Any other enemy NPCs should be Here it is, friends. A massive compilation of
resources, documents, tools, and more
clearly and unambiguously subordinate to Shredder (so leave out Krang or Kitsune for a
one-shot). To draw the turtles into the plot, have Shredder kidnap the turtles’ Master
Splinter early on, forcing the turtles to follow the trail in order to rescue him. Finish with a
climactic battle against the Shredder himself.

Anything not directly supporting and facilitating this story should be cut out. This does
unfortunately mean that we don’t get some of the key TMNT supporting cast, particularly
April O’Neil. I am aware that this basically reduces gender diversity to zero, and I’ll remedy
that in Part 4 of my blog series, but I also think it’s better to exclude April than have her be
nothing more than a damsel in distress.

For structuring my one-shot, I have used the excellent format from the pre-set adventure
in Dave Joria’s Masters of Umdaar. Also, thanks to Kenneth Holpert for his Umdaar write-ups
of the villainous NPCs Shredder, Baxter Stockman, and Bebop and Rocksteady. I referred
to them regularly while I was writing my own versions.

Player characters
This short adventure is intended to be played by the four turtles themselves (Leonardo,
Raphael, Donatello, Michelangelo).

I prepared proto-PCs for those characters in the last blog post, which players could ll in
before a game if they have the time to do so. Tying in with the simpler plot hooks
discussed above, make sure all of the players know how important Splinter is by giving
each turtle an unambiguously positive aspect that relates to him. He’s their teacher, their
father, and for a long time he was their only protector. Now it’s time for them to protect
him.

However, time is precious when running one-shots and I’d prefer not to make the players
spend time to nalise their character sheets. As such, I’ve also drafted some versions of the
PCs to use in this one-shot. Check ’em out, then try ’em out in the game!

TMNT character sheets – Proto-PCs

TMNT character sheets – One-shot PCs

Scene 1: Sewer Sweet Sewer

The story starts in the turtles’ home, their lair
Master Splinter
in the sewers beneath New York City. They are
relaxing in their various distinctive ways. This
is a good chance to get players involved by
explaining what the characters are doing. The
turtles’ activities should follow from their
aspects. Perhaps the players can even roll to
create advantages, either on their own
character aspects or on new situation aspects.

While this is going on, their Master Splinter, a

mutant rat who is both their ninjutsu teacher
and their adoptive father, is meditating in his
private quarters.

Suddenly, the tranquility of their home is

disrupted as an army of Mousers bursts
through the walls of Splinter’s room, chewing
through the very brickwork and pipes to get to Splinter won’t be an active participant in
him. Whoever arrives on the scene rst any ghting after being caught by
witnesses Splinter being swallowed by a single surprise by the Mousers in the rst
Giant Mouser. While the other Mousers scene. He has a handful of aspects, but
menace the turtles with their snapping jaws, no approaches or stunts.
the Giant Mouser attempts to escape with
Splinter trapped in its prison-like head cavity. Mutant Rat Ninja Master
It can no longer burrow through solid stone, Hunted by the Shredder
so if the turtles wish to catch the Giant Father of Four
Mouser, they’ll need to chase it through the Wisdom of Age
sewers and tunnels.

The turtles’ objective: Rescue Splinter from the Giant Mouser

The Mousers’ objective: Deliver the captive Splinter to the Mousers’ operator
Recommended scene type(s): Contest to re ect the sewer chase, switching to a
Con ict if the turtles catch up
Situation aspects (ask for more): Absurdly Spacious Sewers; We’ve Got To Save
Splinter!
Success: Splinter is saved, but the turtles’ enemies seem to know the location of
their lair. Splinter orders the turtles to seek the source of the Mousers to stop
further attacks.
Failure: The Giant Mouser disappears through a mysterious door in the sewers,
leading to the next scene.

Mousers

The Mousers are sleek, shiny robots about a foot tall with
powerful crushing jaws. They were built by Dr Baxter Stockman,
supposedly to help clear up New York’s rat problem, but really to
commit crimes on his behalf. Now that Stockman is working with
the Shredder, the rat they are hunting is Splinter!

Rodent-Hunting Robots
Powerful Jaws
Weak But Numerous

Skilled (+2) at: Biting, Ganging up, Getting in the way, Literally chewing the scenery
Bad (-2) at: Defending against attacks

There are 4 groups of 3 Mousers each (plus the Giant Mouser), but they have no Stress
boxes or Consequence slots.

Giant Mouser

The Giant Mouser is a scaled-up version of the regular robots. Its round head is large
enough to keep Splinter trapped inside, but it can’t use its jaws without letting Splinter
escape.

Prison Cell For a Head

Skilled (+2) at: Holding captives, Running

Bad (-2) at: Lateral thinking

Single-Minded: The Giant Mouser gets +2 to contest rolls or overcome rolls to escape a
scene with a captive.

Stress: 2 boxes

Scene 2: There is Gloom and Doom While Things Go

Boom… in Baxter’s Lab!
The source of the Mousers is an apparently empty warehouse in topside NYC. But of
course, it isn’t really empty: it is the secret laboratory of Baxter Stockman, the evil robotics
genius who works for the Shredder.

Finding the lab shouldn’t be di cult. If the turtles didn’t follow the Giant Mouser all the way
there, they should be able to nd it easily by other means, no roll required (e.g. Donnie
could identify a homing signal by tinkering with the Mousers’ remains, or TV reporter April
O’Neil might contact the turtles with a tip about Mouser sightings in a particular
neighbourhood).

Baxter is prepared for the turtles’ arrival, however, and he has converted his lab into a
deadly death trap… of doom! He controls everything from an inaccessible control room in
the centre of the warehouse, which the turtles will need to reach in order to confront
Baxter and move on. The various weaponised machines will try to attack the turtles each
turn (with a +2 rating).

Before that, though, Baxter will gleefully monologue about how doomed and inferior the
turtles are, and how foolish they are for thinking they could match wits with such an
unparalleled genius as he is. Conversation can go two ways, and Baxter can try to in ict
mental attacks on the turtles, just as they can in ict mental attacks on him.

Importantly, this is an opportunity for Baxter to reveal the whole plan: he is indeed
working with the Shredder, supreme master of the Foot Clan of ninjas. Shredder has a
vendetta against Splinter and the turtles, and provided Baxter with a sample of Splinter’s
mutated DNA so that his Mouser robots could track Splinter down. Both Splinter (if
captured) and Splinter’s DNA sample are being kept in the Foot Clan’s secret headquarters,
miles below the city, which is accessible only through an elevator in Baxter’s control room.

The turtles’ objective: Reach Baxter’s Control Room

Baxter’s objective: Capture the turtles for Shredder
Recommended scene type(s): Con ict (physical vs the trap, mental with Baxter)
Situation aspects (ask for more): Spinning Blades; Laser Turrets; Robotic
Grabbing Arms; Inaccessible Control Room
Success/victory: The turtles break into the control room and come face-to-face with
Baxter Stockman
Failure (optional): The turtles are captured, taken to the Foot Clan headquarters
and locked in a cell. Replace scene 3 with an escape from the cell (but scene 3’s
con ict can be used largely unchanged).

Baxter Stockman

Baxter Stockman considers himself to be the smartest man in

New York City, and is constantly aggrieved that he isn’t
recognised as such by the people around him. He works for
Shredder because the ninja master gives him the resources
he wants and supports his unethical experiments, but there
is very little respect between them.

Criminal Mad Scientist

Why Can No-One Recognise My Unparalleled Genius?
Attack, My Robot Minions!
You’ve Got In My Way For The Last Time, You
Chelonian Clods!
Snivelling Coward in a Fair Fight

Approaches:

Flashy: Great (+4)

Clever: Good (+3)
Sneaky: Fair (+2)
Careful: Average (+1)
Quick: Average (+1)
Forceful: Mediocre (+0)

Stunts:

You Imbecilic Ignoramus! Baxter gets +2 to Flashily attack by insulting the

intelligence of those he has power over.
Recalibrate on the Fly: Baxter gets +2 to Cleverly create advantages by manually
redirecting the lab’s traps and weapons to target the turtles more e ectively.

Stress: 2 boxes

Consequences: Mild (2), Moderate (4), Severe (6)

Scene 3: Like a Bull Rhino In a China Shop

The turtles break into the lab’s control room, from which Baxter Stockman has been trying
to capture the turtles with his robotic equipment. Baxter himself is a weakling and won’t
ght in person, and like a coward he’ll tell the turtles whatever he thinks they want to
know. If there’s any information he didn’t reveal in the previous scene, he’ll blurt it out
here: he’s working for the Shredder to capture Shredder’s hated enemy, Splinter; if Splinter
was captured, then he has already been sent down to the Foot Clan headquarters deep
beneath the city; if Splinter wasn’t captured, Baxter also reveals that the way they found
the turtles’ lair was through a sample of Splinter’s mutated DNA combined with one of
Baxter’s ingenious inventions (but the remaining sample of DNA is in the Foot
headquarters).

After the key information is out, but before the turtles can interrogate Baxter for too long,
they are interrupted by the arrival of Bebop and Rocksteady. The mutant double act has
come up on an elevator to check on Stockman’s status. The elevator goes all the way down
into the Foot Clan headquarters.

The turtles’ objective: Access the elevator and get down to the Foot Clan
headquarters
The enemies’ objective: Capture the turtles
Recommended scene type(s): Con ict
Situation aspects (ask for more): Delicate Equipment; The Only Way Down
Success/victory: The turtles incapacitate Bebop and Rocksteady and use the
elevator to descend into the Earth’s crust and access the Foot Clan Headquarters
Failure (optional): The turtles are captured and locked up in a cell in the Foot Clan
headquarters, which they’ll need to escape before scene 4.

Bebop and Rocksteady

Bebop and Rocksteady are

Shredder’s loyal, pea-brained
enforcers. However, what they lack in
smarts they more than make up for
in strength and resilience. When they
ght, they are liable to destroy
everything around them (which will
surely upset Baxter, if he’s still
around).

Bebop and Rocksteady are two

separate characters, and do their
own actions, but they share a single
character sheet.

Musclebound Mutant Double-

Act
Dumb and Dumber
Don’t Know Their Own Strength
Say Ya Prayers, Toitles!

Approaches:

Forceful: Great (+4)

Quick: Good (+3)
Flashy: Good (+3)
Careful: Mediocre (+0)
Clever: Mediocre (+0)
Sneaky: Mediocre (+0)

Stunts:

My Man! Bebop and Rocksteady can invoke aspects created by each other (but
not themselves) for +4 instead of +2 when used as part of a teamwork action.
Make Way for Bebop and Rocksteady! Bebop and Rocksteady get +2 to
Forcefully overcome physical obstacles by smashing or slamming into them.
When they do this and succeed, create a Damaged Equipment or Debris aspect
on the scene.

Stress: 4 boxes each (!)

Consequences: Bebop and Rocksteady share a Mild (2) and a Moderate (4)
consequence slot.

Scene 4: Foot Stomp

Deep beneath the New York City streets,
Foot Ninjas
deeper even than the turtles’ sewer home, is
the secret headquarters of the Foot Clan. It is
The rank and le of Shredder’s army are
connected to the surface by a series of
his Foot Ninjas. They obey his every
elevators, one of which connects to Baxter
command. If he orders them to attack,
Stockman’s lab. It is a large complex, teeming
they will descend on their enemies
with Foot Soldiers, and with every kind of
without mercy. If he tells them to stand
amenity they need as a base to in ltrate the
aside while he handles it himself, they
world above.
will watch without making a sound.

The main area of the headquarters is a large

In nite Waves of Ninjas
chamber, decorated like a traditional Japanese
dojo. At one end, Shredder himself presides Skilled (+2) at: Ninjutsu, Ganging up,
over his clan, sitting in full armour on an Obeying their master
imposing throne. The turtles’ goal (either the Bad (-2) at: Fighting alone, Disobeying
captive Splinter or the sample of Splinter’s
DNA) is kept by the side of this throne in plain Keep them occupied: The Foot Ninjas
view, as a sign of Shredder’s absolute power get +2 to create the advantage Pinned
and authority. down on their enemies. Enemies with
this aspect can only engage the Foot
When the turtles are discovered, Shredder will Ninjas or try to overcome the aspect (i.e.
at rst order his Foot Ninjas to attack them. they can only use passive opposition
There are more Foot Ninjas present than the when attacked by anyone else).
turtles could ever defeat, although doing
signi cant shifts of damage should give some brief respite. While the Foot are keeping the
turtles busy, Shredder will use the opportunity to Sneakily attack his enemies while they
are defenceless. After one or maybe two exchanges, unless the turtles are dominating the
ght, Shredder will order his ninjas to stand down so he can nish the turtles himself.

The turtles’ objective: Destroy the sample of Splinter’s DNA or Rescue Splinter
(depending on the results of earlier scenes)
Shredder’s objective: Destroy those meddlesome turtles!
Recommended scene type(s): Con ict
Situation aspects (ask for more): Deep Underground, Classical Japanese Dojo, The
Enemy’s Lair, Shredder’s Throne Room
Total victory: The turtles take out the Shredder and break his hold on the Foot Clan.
They are free to return to the surface with their objective.
Partial victory (Shredder concedes): The turtles succeed in their objective and
escape to the surface
Partial defeat (turtles concede): The turtles are forced to retreat with the objective
unful lled. Either Splinter is at Shredder’s mercy, or Shredder has the means to
attack them in their home again and again by using Splinter’s DNA as a tracker.
Complete loss: The turtles are overpowered and at Shredder’s mercy…

The Shredder

Oroku Saki. The Shredder. The turtles’ most persistent and fearsome opponent. He
rules the Foot Clan with an iron st, covered in razor-sharp blades. He is swift, cunning,
and deadly.

Ruthless Ninja Master of the Foot Clan

I Am Surrounded By Incompetents
Scarred By Splinter
Tonight I Dine On Turtle Soup
You Must Face My Blades!

Approaches:

Quick: Superb (+5)

Sneaky: Great (+4)
Forceful: Great (+4)
Clever: Good (+3)
Flashy: Good (+3)
Careful: Good (+3)

Stunts:

Lightning Re exes: When Shredder Quickly succeeds with style on a defend

action against a physical attack, he can turn the tables on his attacker. Instead of
receiving a boost, he can choose either to in ict a 2-shift physical hit or to attach a
situation aspect with a free invocation to his opponent.
Inverse Ninja Law: Shredder gets +2 to Forcefully attack enemies when he ghts
alone and outnumbered.

Fighting Stunt:

Tekko-Kagi Claws: Weapon:1

Intimidation: Gain +1 to Flashily create an advantage when threatening others,
either explicitly or implicitly.
Ninja Master: When you use the last free invocation on your side of the Ninjutsu
action! aspect, generate two free invocations for your next exchange instead of
one. [See Part 1 for a reminder of the Ninjutsu action! aspect.]
Opportunist: Gain +1 to Sneakily attack enemies who are Pinned down by Foot
Ninjas.

Stress: 3 boxes

Consequences: Mild (2), Moderate (4), Severe (6)

There were some scenes that I wanted to include but didn’t have the space for. If players
have a longer time slot for this one-shot, they could expand things by making Baxter’s lab
in an occupied o ce, so that the turtles have to in ltrate without alerting the innocent
civilians.

I also wanted to include an encounter with Karai, Shredder’s con icted second-in-
command (or daughter or granddaughter). If the turtles fail one of the earlier scenes,
perhaps she is the guard of their prison cell when they are captured, or perhaps she
merely encounters them in the Foot Headquarters outside the throne room. Karai is willing
to talk to the turtles as respected adversaries, and disagrees with Shredder’s obsessive
vendetta against Splinter. If the turtles succeed in convincing her, she may even help them
(short of going against Shredder herself, that is), and if Shredder is utterly defeated it will
be Karai who takes over the Foot Clan and promises the turtles safe passage. (Unlike
Shredder, Karai is a ninja who actually has Sneaky as her peak Approach (+4), followed by
Careful and Quick. Other than that, though, I’m afraid you’ll need to provide her stats
yourself.)

And that’s the adventure. Hope you like it, and as ever I would love to hear if any of these
ideas ever get used in a game.

Next time: Longer campaigns and other strangeness!

Images used in this blog post are:

TMNT by Juan Fernando Garcia, via Black Bat Studios

I made a funny hahaha by Hans Tolvaly (Elden-rucidor), via DeviantArt

TMNT – Mouser by Nahlej, via DeviantArt

Crop of TMNT – Baxter Stockman concept by RayDillon, via DeviantArt

Rocksteady and Bebop by Joelchan, via DeviantArt

Shredder from TMNT – Mutants in Manhattan

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STEPHEN MORFFEW
October 12, 2018 / 1:41 pm

With the announcement that Google+ will be closing, I’m copying over some of the comments
that people have made there about my blog posts.

Kenneth Holbert:
I notice that many of them boil down to con icts, and while that sort of makes sense you might
want to throw out more opportunities for: challenges, contests, and chases

Stephen Mor ew:

+Kenneth Holbert Yeah. I had planned for the rst scene to be a chase through the sewer and the
second to be a challenge to escape the trap, and then when I was writing them up I realised that
even if they are run in that way, the way I’ve written them allows the possibility of taking damage,
which the book de nes as a con ict. I’m still fairly happy that the con icts are su ciently varied,
but your point is well taken.

Kenneth Holbert:
OMG they made a reference to your one shot on “The One Shot Podcast” @ 00:04:00! You’re
famous!

Link: http://oneshotpodcast.com/?powerpress_pinw=1622-podcast

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