System Mastery

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/08/system-mastery-206-ork.mp3 Comedy roleplaying game anyone?  Maybe one that’s got a bunch of jokes about how dumb orks are and how they have special blood that keeps them from ever being smart (yikes factor: some yikes).  Well grab a big rock and use it to murder a different big rock because Ork am game about mindless violence.   Learn more about yo...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/07/system-mastery-205-delta-force.mp3 My friends, in the interest of transparency, I am only just now realized this game has a subtitle!  So don’t look for that in the episode, we didn’t notice.  It’s Delta Force: America Strikes Back!  And it is, among other things, by the same people that made Prime Directive and from around the same time frame, so…...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/07/system-mastery-204-engel.mp3 Well hey, surprise OGL!  Nothing on the cover, and so when Jon selected this old Sword & Sorcery product to take home and started reading, he was suddenly (after 190 some pages of fluff) shocked to see that 3.x material.  So what is this?  Well it’s the far future and you play as Latin-speaking angel children who fight...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/06/system-mastery-203-theatrix.mp3 So what we have here is a rarity, in that it is an early (1993-1995) LARP game that is also a universal generic system.  So there’s not really a story or core power scale or anything, just pure LARP rules and advice, delivered in a sort of theatrical directorial stype.  Oh, and of course it’s not great advice. Announ...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/06/system-mastery-202-providence.mp3 My friends, this is a weird one.  The vast majority of this book is difficult to explain rules, and then there’s a chunk of fascinating story hidden away towards the back, a neat story about a caste society of the winged and winged-not trapped in a bubble prison dimension.  Check it out!     Learn more about your a...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/06/system-mastery-201-terror-network.mp3 I think we bought this one on the cover alone (and especially the back cover, which is bullet points and a photo of the Twin Towers mid-fall).  I mean, look at that!  Look at the endorsement!  But can it deliver? Announcement Mastery! Today is a great day to launch a KS, and a better day for you to go support o...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/05/system-mastery-200-marvel-superheroes-role-playing-game.mp3 Hey, we made it to 200 episodes!  I’m sure that’s some sort of milestone!  And while the choice of game to cover this time may feel kind of arbitary, I can assure you it’s very special to us here at the show.  You’ll find out why and learn all about TSR’s attempt to encapsulate the Marvel...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/05/system-mastery-199-stuperpowers.mp3 Heck yeah, comedy superhero parody game from 1997 coming in hot.  You know it’s gonna make us mad, it’s just got to!  Anyway, this game is designed to be LARP-ready, dice light, and aggressively, consistently middle of the road.  Just painfully.  In more ways than one.  You’ll see. Announcement Mastery: It Came F...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/04/system-mastery-198-hellcats-hockeysticks-1.mp3 We’ve had a great track record with games set in high schools, right?  So obviously one set in a secondary school should be at least as good as Alma Mater or Panty Explosion right?  Well, it’s certainly something!  Join us as we explored the hallowed halls of a school for delinquent little monsters and...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/04/system-mastery-197-ironclaw.mp3 So many people have requested this that we finally thought we’d throw you all a bone.  Ironclaw is an anthro medieval RPG, so you’ll be playing a lot of foxes, bats, foxbats, Batmans, Manbats, and Sons of Kong.  Is it fun?  Let’s find out!     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/03/system-mastery-196-inspectres.mp3 Wanna hunt ghosts but not necessarily dedicate your whole life to it?  Consider just getting a daytime job hunting ghosts, goblins, nilbogs, and Son of Kong with InSpectres, a game from the early 2000s that’s actually kinda funny for once.     Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/03/system-mastery-195-lords-of-creation.mp3 Who wants to take over the multiverse?  Okay, great!  Let’s start you out as a nobody with nothing and you can grind XP in… I don’t care, let’s say mythological Ancient Greece for a thousand sessions.  It’s one of those 80s games!  Just like old times.  Literally old times. Announcement Mastery: Comics, Game...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/system-mastery-194-sentinels-the-roleplaying-game.mp3 From an old hero game to a new one, it’s time to talk about Sentinel Comics: The Roleplaying Game.  Sentinels is an expansive setting with a vast cast of characters old and new, but we barely have time to even mention that as we go into detail over the Cortex-reminiscent and innovation ruleset. ...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/system-mastery-193-skraypers.mp3 As go the tides, so come the times we’re both dealing with something and need a nice easy Palladium game.  Skraypers is both a Rifts and a Heroes Unlimited setting, so this is like a double supplement spectacular!  Heck yeah! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/01/system-mastery-192-shadowrun-anarchy-1.mp3 It’s Shadowrun!  But… faster?  Is that the point here?  It’s honestly sort of hard to tell the exact point of this Shadowrun 5e adjacent game, but damn if we aren’t at least going to try and figure out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/01/system-mastery-191-boot-hill.mp3 Boot Hill is a colloquial term from the cowboy days for a cemetery.  You might think there’s some sort of metaphor their for our opinions pertaining to the game, but really I just wanted to say it before anyone on twitter felt like telling us.  Boom, shut down!  This is a 1990 cowboy game from TSR.  It is exactly th...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/system-mastery-190-interstitial-our-hearts-intertwined.mp3 Have you not gotten your fill of Kingdom Hearts yet?  Of course not, no one has.  Not until someone bursts Nomura like a pinata and eats all the ideas that come spilling forth will anyone be satiated.  But in the meantime, why not check out this game definitely not modeled after it at all (...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/system-mastery-189-new-gods-of-mankind.mp3 Now here’s some good old fashioned back to basics shit.  Got to be, right?  Name like that?  Shirtless axe dude on the cover?  Well, color us surprised because this thing is basically the top down part of Actraiser as an RPG.  Neat ideas abound, but can it get to the desired double “would play?” This week’...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/system-mastery-188-star-crossed.mp3 Oh my, a game about the uncertain moments at the precipice of romance or disaster?  Neat!  Star Crossed is a 2018 game by Alex Roberts that creates tension and titillation through the use of some sort of well-recognized wooden brick tower.  It’s not out of print or anything!  We’re trying something relatively new...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/11/system-mastery-187-marvel-universe-roleplaying.mp3 Out of the four Marvel RPGs that have happened over the years, this is one of them.  Specifically, the 2003 diceless one made, inexplicably, by Marvel Comics themselves?  Anyhow, it’s certainly got us talking a great deal, so you know that’s always good. This week’s Announcement Masteries Inspirati...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/11/system-mastery-186-supermegatopia.mp3 There’s nothing quite so exciting to find as a unique blend RPG.  Here we see a blend of comedy, furry stuff, light breast expansion and pregnancy fetishes, and superheroes.  I bet you didn’t know you were missing that unique swirl of content!  Well, anyway, you shouldn’t. This week’s Announcement Masteries “Di...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/10/system-mastery-185-teens-in-space.mp3 Ween or Treatween!  Wait, what? This game is new!  How the heck did that happen?  Well, Jef’s supply of alien books isn’t low, but neither of us wanted to read something in Phoenix Command style rules and end the season mad, so we called an audible.  Ever wonder what we think about much more modern game design?...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/10/system-mastery-184-mib.mp3 Oh no, are your pumpkins ablaze?  Have you written out your list of mischief targets exclusively for the eyes of Ol’ Weeny?  Well, get ready, because this October, it’s all new, all different IN SPACE, NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU WEEEEEEEEEEN adventures.  We’re doing alien games.  Pretty simple.  And we’re starting with this one....

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/09/system-mastery-183-rifts-world-book-3-england-1.mp3 Ooh look, a supplement!  People love it when we do the supplements, right?  We sort of needed a break for a bit while Jef navigates some medical shenanigans, so we tried to keep it light.  And failed, this episode is huge.  Oh well!  More millennium trees for the rest of you!   Learn more about yo...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/09/system-mastery-182-itras-by.mp3[/audio] Check out this wild game!  No, literally, go check it out!  This is a wild read of improv-driven story focused diceless gaming set in a surrealism-infused Norwegian dream city in the 1920s.  It’s neat!  Come on by for a rare System Mastery win.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices