System Mastery
Jef and Jon review old roleplaying games
Episodes
July 10, 2025 • 79 mins
More TV sci-fi! More TV sci-fi! Actually wait, hold on, this one is based on the books. No TV in here, which is probably for the best, because you guessed it, neither of us watched the show. Is this relatively modern relatively hard sci-fi space game fun? Well let's find out.
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June 26, 2025 • 86 mins
Who loves Doctor Who? Specifically and exclusively any Doctor Who made before 1991? Not us it turns out, though this game is pretty fun! It's got some neat design ideas and good advice and writing, and also a lot of information about old Doctors.
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June 11, 2025 • 73 mins
This is one of the venerable old giants of the fantasy gaming industry. Avalon Hill producing Chaosium's Runequest. Couldn't be more classic. But how does it read 40 years later? Let's all find out together.
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May 28, 2025 • 72 mins
By all account, this is the first ever superhero RPG, but don't let that fool you, it contains virtually nothing you'd recognize as a superhero game. In fact, it's wild what it contains. You'll see.
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May 14, 2025 • 76 mins
Okay the rumors that we like every supers game are scurrilous, devious, and increasingly accurate. This is Capers, and it's a supers game set in a slightly less socially shitty 1920s, which is a neat thing.
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May 1, 2025 • 66 mins
Hi folks, let's start up another 300 of these, what do you say? This one is about The Arcanum, an early 80s game that sure seems similar for some reasons (the same reasons they always do? Probably!)
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April 16, 2025 • 99 mins
Well that certainly was 300 times we did a thing, I tell you what! Let's take a little victory lap by cracking open a cask we've been saving for a special occasion, a feisty little 1983 vintage called Palladium Fantasy that definitely isn't just dust and vinegar by this point, right? Right?
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April 1, 2025 • 61 mins
We're hard at work on our giant pile of weird old box sets, and that means it's time for Bleeding Heart, a game that Jon assures me is loosely based on something called the Corman Poe film era of the mid-sixties, and he's a total horror nerd so I gotta go with him on this one.
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March 20, 2025 • 73 mins
I really hope you're enjoying this string of very old games, we're doing our best to get back into them quickly (ever since I found one of my old box sets fully eaten by bugs and had to fumigate). In this case, it's a game about real old timey cowboys! Like Boot Hill but not TSR!
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March 5, 2025 • 69 mins
Can we review an 80s Star Trek game without our pacemakers exploding? What if FASA made it? We're looking at the Star Trek RPG from roughly 1983, which means (if you're counting) that it's based on the original series, the animated series, and the first three films. Is it okay or does it have to go home and copy 10 pages out of the K section of the dictionary? Let's find out!
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February 19, 2025 • 69 mins
Finally someone bought that game that advertises on Facebook, and it was us. It's a fantasy adventure game with some sex-themed rules, but honestly I don't want to spoil anything here because it's a tiny wee little game that could never possibly satisfy any REAL gamer. Damn it, still with the jokes. It's a sex RPG and we read it. That's for sure.
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February 6, 2025 • 53 mins
A very quick little modern game designed to be played solo or with a small group but no GM, in which you rebel against something. What do you rebel against? Whattaya got?
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January 22, 2025 • 80 mins
It's what it says! Though it's adding a lot of stuff to the venerable old combat engine of 3.X OGL, it's an OGL game where you play as primarily Greeks and Egyptians from antiquity (you can get a Scythian or someone from Thessaly in if you want, it's just not a great plan).
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January 8, 2025 • 88 mins
This is a little recent for our usual stuff, but Jon was really interested after the Fastlane review to keep looking at games that utilize classic casino games as RPG randomizers, and this one's a doozy! Combining Blackjack and Tarot stuff, no less! Right in Jon's very wheelhouse. The game is neat too! There's a ton in here, it's definitely one of those big rocks that rolled down a Kickstarter success story and accumulated content ...
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December 18, 2024 • 79 mins
Back to basics, some game you probably never heard of that we didn't like. That's the basic essence of the show, right? It has to come up sometimes. I'm talking about the show here because honestly I can't think of much to say about this sort of generic "There are secrets in the world that you can't learn about without going crazy" type game that isn't already in the episode.
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December 5, 2024 • 87 mins
Oh buddy you better believe we love it when the game has a weird alternative randomizing mechanic, and this thing is all about roulette. Yes, it straight up tells you at the start that you can use a digital one or even a dice based approximation, but for max results, you should get a roulette wheel. What else? Well, it's a generic system besides the ruleset, so we go all in on that.
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November 20, 2024 • 62 mins
As we bring Sweater Weather to a close we are faced with the realization that we accidentally double-themed this month, since both of these games are explorations of civilizations over time, and in fact would make a pretty good double feature game night played together. Weird! Anyway, this is a little box set where you make a dice tower.
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November 8, 2024 • 68 mins
Hey folks, welcome to Sweater Weather. We're going to keep things light and distracting here for the next few months, sweater weather or not, so don't worry about heavy topics. If you're looking for a getaway, we got you. Also, this book is about impending change and possible doom. So. You know, we'll figure it out.
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October 24, 2024 • 76 mins
So these aren't really furries, but hey, I think this was just called Hairy Ween, right? Like that sounds more like a dick joke anyway. Anyhow, this book is all about playing as vile, disgusting, brilliant little rats trying to retake the world from the foul humans that don't deserve it. It's a mixed bag!
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October 9, 2024 • 84 mins
Blessed Ween everyone! This year we're focusing on animal inside of us all with a Furry Ween! Or a Hairy Ween! I dunno, whatever, we just wanted to read Mutants in the Now.
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