System Mastery

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/01/system-mastery-166-dream-park.mp3 This has been on Jon’s to-get list for most of the time we’ve made the show, and who should suddenly show up with a copy of the thing but our network head?  He always gets us the best stuff.  Dream Park has a PEDIGREE.  Based on a Larry Niven/Steven Barnes sci-fi novel series and written by Mike Pondsmith for Talso...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/01/system-mastery-165-toon.mp3 Time to tackle some more Steve Jackson stuff.  No GURPS still (somehow we still don’t have a copy) but I do have Toon so here we go!  Play as a cartoon character, do cartoon stuff, and honestly it’s not half bad! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/system-mastery-164-glyphs-part-2.mp3 This thing is huge and bizarre and we have come back to finish it because you are not prepared… for more Glyphs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/system-mastery-163-glyphs-part-1.mp3 Let’s finish off the year with something wild, what do you say?  How about a game that uses a flicked token carom style mechanic for all random resolution?  This thing is huge and bizarre and we will have to come back and finish it later because you are not prepared… for Glyphs. Learn more about your ad choices....

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/system-mastery-162-star-thugs.mp3 Time for some sci-fi!  This game takes all the futuristic space convention you love and just DUMPS on it, haha yeah rad, fuck Star Trek!  Anyhow come along won’t you?  On a journey that starts as a surprisingly innovative CCG-inspired spaceship combat simulator and somehow ends on some deeply misinformed understand...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/11/system-mastery-161-quest-of-the-ancients.mp3 Have you missed the good old fashioned heartbreaker game paradigm?  Well fret no longer friend, because this one has it all!  Elves! Dwarves!  Saracens for some reason!  This reprint of a game published in 1982 might just be the best sword and sorcery product of the 90s (according to the back cover) but...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/11/system-mastery-160-godlike.mp3 Superheroes!  World War 2!  Greg Stolze?  What’s not to like?  Well, there’s plenty to like, such as the fascinating superpower design system and the fairly fun dice mechanics.  But could be there be more stuff coming we’re not fans of?  Well, the episode is huge, so you take a guess! Learn more about your ad choices....

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/system-mastery-159-dark-realms.mp3 We didn’t know it when we started, but there’s a theme to this year’s Ween episodes beyond just leftover horror games floating around the library.  And that theme is “Oops we thought these were horror games, sorry!”  Dark Realms is a horror to people that like comprehensible mechanics, anyway. Learn more about you...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/system-mastery-158-chill.mp3 It’s a nice day for something!  Welcome back to our October content.  This year the theme is a little looser since we’ve reviewed enough White Wolf games for two lifetimes and Jef’s Palladium stock is running low.  But that’s okay!  Here’s the first edition of Mayfair Games’ Chill, a horror game… in theory. Learn more a...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/09/system-mastery-157-space-master.mp3 Well, we had to take a look at a Role Master game eventually, and this one chose us.  This 1985 RPG is deeply, deeply mathy, and features a fantastic story with … oh no wait it’s Space Rome and a corrupt mega-Catholic star church again. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/09/system-mastery-156-eoris-essence-part-2.mp3 Well, after last week with Jef failing to figure out what the heck any of this is using just the rule book, can Jon save the day?  Will his comprehensive notes about the story book explain everything?  Spoiler alert, no. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/08/system-mastery-155-eoris-essence-part-1.mp3 A lavish box set full of tomes of full color wonder!  A comprehensive vision of an exciting and vast universe!  But System Mastery!  Could it be… completely impossible to read?  We dive into the madness of Eoris Essence, in a weird way that we’ll just have to explain in the show. Learn more about your ad...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/08/system-mastery-154-wwe-know-your-role.mp3 Live from GenCon 2019, it’s System Mastery!  We’re covering the greatest entertainment to come out of the squared circle in 2005, actual wrestling!  Wait… no, probably some video game!  Or a CCG?  Oh god it was an actual OGL licensed RPG based on wrestling in that exact year?  Oh, oh no.  No no no.  We are...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/08/system-mastery-153-amethyst-foundations.mp3 Did you know there were licensed RPGs using the 4th edition D&D engine?  Well here’s one now!  It has lots of fancy elves, a bunch of tech-based classes, and so much worldbuilding!  Enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/07/system-mastery-152-snarfquest-d20.mp3 Sometimes we get a book and we aren’t sure the exact percentage of RPG that’s going to be in there, so we end up reviewing like, a show synopsis or a treatise on life, and this is one of those times.  Snarfquest is a comic strip that ran in Dragon Magazine in the early 80s, and here is a D20 version of it for y...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/07/system-mastery-151-ddizzle.mp3 In retrospect we probably should have saved this for episode 175.  Anyhow this is a short comedy game mixing Dungeons and Dragons with hip-hop flavor pulled from the 80s and 90s.  We review it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/06/system-mastery-150-dd-5th-edition.mp3 Happy episode 150!  Still can’t believe it’s gone on this long.  Here’s D&D 5e.  It’s a game. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/06/system-mastery-149-kobolds-ate-my-baby.mp3 Every once in a while we’ve both got so much else going on that we have to rely on what we call “The Emergency Stack”, a collection of books short enough that we can read them quick and get everything else done that week too.  Well, right now we’re swamped, so we grabbed KAMB off the stack.  It’s got every...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/05/system-mastery-148-recon.mp3 Well, so we can probably do a whole hour of laughy laughs on the … wait, Vietnam War?  Is that right?  Okay then.  Recon is from 1982, and it is about playing soldiers murdering each other in a jungle.  Have fun with it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/05/system-mastery-147-fading-suns.mp3 Sorta 40k, sorta Vampire, maybe a little Dune in there?  Anyway it’s a space RPG where there’s a church that’s basically Catholicism through a greasy mirror and a bunch of surprisingly recognizable races.  Apparently there was a good 4X video game set in this world once?  Cool. Learn more about your ad choices. Vi...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/04/system-mastery-146-of-gods-and-men.mp3 Hey who wants an old-fashioned case of the Heartbreakers?  Because that’s what we’ve got right here.  And it’s a doozy!  In that it’s one of those small-batch ones that you never did hear of and it’s got almost no web presence.  Check out this high-res picture I found of the cover! Learn more about your ad cho...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/04/system-mastery-145-bliss-stage.mp3 Straight from one bleak future to the next, only this time it’s kids.  Why it’s almost as dystopic as the movie Kids!  Basically the future is dream robots that put all the adults to sleep and it’s up to plucky young rebels to battle it out in dream-logic robosuits.  All that and some squick too! Learn more about...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/system-mastery-143-cyborg-commando.mp3 So a decade or so after D&D, Gary Gygax had a brand new idea.  What if cyborgs with dustbuster crotches defended the world from giant bugs made of erectile tissue?  Also what if there were a spectacular amount of boring graphs in there?  The result… was history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphon...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/system-mastery-143-cadillacs-and-dinosaurs.mp3 With Jef still recovering in the hospital, Jon turns to fan-favorite guest Claire to join in and help review this RPG based on a comic book. It promises two things up front and delivers on none of it. Booo. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/02/system-mastery-142-unknown-armies.mp3 You want true power and to really know the truth?  You have to really really want it in Greg Stolze’s Unknown Armies, a game of obsession, power, and the power of themes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices