Not many players expect a TTRPG adaptation of a retro arcade brawler. Even fewer expect it to be based on D&D 5e. Yet, that appears to have happened with G-Mode officially publishing an official Joe and Mac D&D 5e one-shot, adapting the prehistoric caveman brawler to the world's most popular TTRPG.
The Joe and Mac D&D 5e One-Shot
For those not aware, Joe and Mac: Caveman Ninja was one of many different arcade games released by Data East. This was the same company that produced other quarter-swallowing games of the era such as Super Burgertime, Gate of Doom, and Bad Dudes. The gameplay and story were simple: evil cavemen kidnapped your friends, go stop them. Move to the right. Fight some cavemen and the occasional dinosaur. Don't die. There was a single game of Joe and Mac released in 1991 before getting ported to home consoles, and there is even a remake coming out this December published by Microids.
The Joe and Mac D&D 5e adventure can be downloaded as a PDF from Hobby Japan's website right here. It even has an official English localization. You will need a copy of the D&D 5e Player Handbook and some friends, but the one-shot will run for about 1-2 hours and is designed for characters level 6-8. There's even character template if you want to play as Joe or his friend Mac.
As for what happens in the Joe and Mac D&D 5e adventure, its an adaptation of the first stage of the arcade game. The adventure is linear, effectively a series of events. The adventure is meant to be played abstractly, no map or minis required, with enemies assumed to be at least 10 feet away. Finally, all enemy initiative counts are treated as 0 to keep the pace fast. With those changes to the rules, the adventure is about what you would expect. A lot of combat with cavemen and dinosaurs, random events where you might get power-ups, and it ends in a boss fight. There's even a mechanic where defeated enemies might drop health pick-ups. The adventure includes unique statblocks for all enemies as well as a special Barbarian subclass: The Path of the Caveman Ninja.
