System Mastery

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/systemmastery16.mp3 In today’s installment of System Mastery we seek to determine if one dad could beat up another dad, assuming the dads were Susano-O and Papa Legba. We’re reviewing Scion, a White Wolf game of thoroughly modern godlings in a modern world, battling titans to stop hell on Earth or some damn thing. Special guest host Claire joins us...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/systemmastery15.mp3 This week, we test the very limits of what defines an RPG, with a game that removes a core element to the concept.  There are seven characters in this game.  There is no character creation in this book.  There is however a lot of high adventure, archaeology, and … light sexual abuse of a student.  We review Indiana Jones, the 19...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/systemmastery14.mp3 Editors Note: Before pressing record on this podcast, I had to press Forward, Down, and Down-Forward.  We take a look at the 1993 White Wolf storytelling classic, Street Fighter.  A grim parade of cheap stereotypes, or a surprisingly charming fighting system?  Can’t it be both? System Mastery is always looking for suggestions. ...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/systemmastery13.mp3 The worst thing about this book is right there in the picture.  Someone really had a …fascination with drow, and their apparent immediate abandonment of spider-themed fetish gear for spider-themed raver gear.  The best thing about this book?  Nearly everything else!  Join us for a surprise example of a D20 product we didn’t hate...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/systemmastery12.mp3 Seriously, another edgy urban game with no magic or sci-fi elements at all?  Well, almost.  D20 Modern wants to be every game for everyone, as long as it’s not D&D.  We discuss Stat Heroes, the most boring feats ever, and a crazy wealth system in today’s episode.  Tune in next time as we do our first expansion review, as well. ...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/systemmastery11.mp3 Delivered straight to your grim, gritty earholes, System Mastery brings you a review of Haven:  City of Violence.  This “hyperkinetic action simulator” boasts a three-line deep Wikipedia page that tells of it’s glorious record as “the first game to be optioned for a movie before the game was complete!”  They probably should have...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/systemmastery10.mp3 Seriously, just look at that.  It’s ridiculous.  That’s the cover of one of the supplements.  They wanted you to buy that book.  They didn’t want you to hide it a featureless brown paper bag and try to smokescreen the purchase with a Snickers bar and one of those Bic lighters.  Anyway, this week we read and discussed Exalted, th...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/systemmastery9.mp3 Guest host Brian joins us to discuss Legend of the Five Rings, a game of swords, sorcery, swords, etiquette, and swords.  It’s one of those katana things.  We dig into the vast array of clans and the tiny array of classes that make up this surprisingly good Asian-themed RPG. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/ad...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/systemmastery81.mp3 We dug pretty deep to find this game, a sci-fi/fantasy far-future romp on a distant planet where all the magic is colored orbs and there are three different sizes of humans!  Come with us as we grapple to understand the deepest reserve in history of sci-fi fantasy names, dig into a graph-derived combat system that we still don’t...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/systemmastery7.mp3 We’re joined for the first time by a guest host, our good friend Russ, as we discuss Everquest D20, an unholy confluence of 3rd edition open-source D20 gaming and the first modern MMO.  Is that a tank mechanic we found?  And just exactly how much can we digress to talk about Everquest before it’s just an MMO podcast?  We seek tho...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/systemmastery61.mp3 Is Slimer the Judas of the Ghostbusters franchise?  We delve into the long-gone Ghostbusters RPG, and apparently hit our heads on the bottom.  This RPG is tiny and weird and unfinished, but definitely worth a look.  Enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/systemmastery5.mp3 The mild, heartwarming scares continue with our first Horrortoberfest podcast of October!  Orpheus is a weird, weird outlier from the Old World of Darkness family.  Get some friends together to play as sexy secret agent ghosts or the world’s worst bicycle messengers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/systemmastery42.mp3 This episode goes out to Dan, the only person we know of who ever played this game.  We have to assume he hated it as much as we did.  We’re discussing, Prime Directive, the Star Fleet Universe RPG.  Come along and learn about everything from Toltec Space Lizards to Glowing Maori.  Just be careful not to say Star Trek.  No amoun...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/systemmastery3.mp3 This time around, we review Tales from the Floating Vagabond, from Avalon Hill.  It’s a comedic sci-fi roleplaying game set the exact center of a cartoon universe.  Shticks, poorly named skills, boring alien races, and space NAZIs abound!  With such zany highlights as [a cat meows] and [I think one of us farts], we delve into fin...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/systemmastery2.mp3 Hey there Mr. Skippy!  Not sure how you found your way to our little corner of the web, did you get lost while trying to find that hot new nightclub?  Anyway, we have one of those things, a pod-thing, that you should check out.  We get down on some awesome reviewage of this basically okay roleplaying game! There, that was the bes...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/systemmastery1.mp3 Episode 1 – Heroes Unlimited Aliens, Cyborgs, Mutants, and Stage Magicians share the pages of the 1998 classic “Heroes Unlimited.”  We dive into the odd but oddly beautiful Palladium Games engine, discuss the plight of the mutant animal in a world that rejects them, and try to figure out how to destroy the invincible door in the...