System Mastery
Jef and Jon review old roleplaying games
Episodes
April 17, 2024 • 73 mins
Fine, we finished it. This was truly just an awful thing to keep reading through, I think it's been a while since we've both been this angry. Anyway, if you come support us on Patreon to hear the bonus content, we couldn't be assed to make Aria characters. They suck. So we made characters in the game LIFTS instead, which doesn't suck. This is your update on that topic.
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Mark as Played
April 1, 2024 • 75 mins
Yeah yeah, we hit pause on Aria, we just couldn't deal with that noise anymore. Instead, it's time to dive into the ever-generous well of dumb OGL titles, with this bizarre 2002 Fantasy Strike classic, in which the authors really really want you to know about beach lifeguards and how important and cool and... military they are.
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March 23, 2024 • 59 mins
Show update first, everything's been a bit late because of travel and the deadly scary norovirus, which isn't pretty. Sorry about that. Show news on this episode? The sound a shudder that indicates a man has seen too much, written down, thank you.
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Mark as Played
March 7, 2024 • 80 mins
Gather up, all you various tankers, scrapper, controllers, uhhh... that healer one... I'm just kidding I loved this game. It's City of Heroes, sort of! Insofar as it's a Unisystem take on the popular superhero MMO. Some of one. This is just an old playtest doc. We talk about why and what and all the rest today!
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February 22, 2024 • 78 mins
This was a tough read. Active Exploits is more of a toolkit than a game, but despite basically having every possible tool any kit could ever have, especially for a diceless engine, we still just aren't seeing how the numbers line up. But hey, who knows, right?
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Mark as Played
February 8, 2024 • 76 mins
I think... I think this is all of them? If you count the review of the Multiverse pre-test (we've skimmed the final version, it's pretty close), then yeah, this is the last of the Marvel licensed RPGs we hadn't covered yet. Saga edition, with the card deck and one of the two diceless systems. Is it cool? Will it Marvel? Do we have to start tracking down DC games now?
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Mark as Played
January 25, 2024 • 86 mins
This one is a little near and dear to us, we've used it to run Blimpleggers content in the past! Strike! is an RPG that sort of combines the very abstracted narrative structure of a FATE style game with the tactical grid combat of a 4e D&D style game, and for the most part, it works. Let's talk about how!
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Mark as Played
January 12, 2024 • 63 mins
Starting the year off the right way, with a shovelware-style OGL game about playing as real cops. Real boring cops.
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Mark as Played
December 13, 2023 • 68 mins
Whoa, the art and layout in this thing is cool! What about the rest of it? Is it also cool? Can love bloom on the retroclone-style battlefield? Well, let's read it and find out.
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November 29, 2023 • 59 mins
Welcome to a charming little community where the townsfolk are all made up and the real world doesn't matter. It's Cozy Town, a game that we figured could not have a better title to fit the Sweater Weather time here at the show. Make a whole adorable village, populate it and plan their year of events and charming happenings. It's cute, basically. Super cute.
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Mark as Played
November 15, 2023 • 95 mins
Oh boy it's time for Sweater Weather! You know, our now two year running thing where we review specifically non or low-combat games, helping folks learn that there's more out there than the traditional "sword goes into orc" model (you'd be amazed at what people on the forefront are putting into orcs these days), and we're starting this year with Monster Care Squad, a neat game about rescuing wounded monsters in a world that's evolv...
Mark as Played
October 31, 2023 • 77 mins
Okay, I do have a few more books with Witch in the title, and yes the urge to do Strike Witches was fairly strong, but we've been wanting a good excuse to talk Monsterhearts for a while anyway and there's a witch skin in there so you know, you get what you get. It's the first edition of one of the biggest PBTA games, in which your high school gets all monster-fied and everyone's out to mess with everyone else!
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Mark as Played
October 18, 2023 • 85 mins
It's witches aplenty this ween, and that means more than just crooked triangle hats, as we see here in a multicultural witch festival including witchy types from all over the world. The game is a little bit White Wolf and a little bit rock and roll, relatively recent, and we're covering the 1st edition (my understanding is that a second also exists). How powerful are these witches? Let's find out!
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Mark as Played
October 5, 2023 • 71 mins
What's that upon the roof I hear? Could it be the pitter-patter of seasonally appropriate witch feet 'pon my shingles? Why, 'tis! Blessed Ween to each and every! This year, it's Ween 3: Season of the Witch, and yes I know this isn't the third Ween, thank you very much. We're starting our witchy run of RPGs with Witch Hunt, a game about Salem in 1692, so you know it's gonna just be super tasteful, right?
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Mark as Played
September 19, 2023 • 72 mins
Let's examine a post-apocalyptic game with a penchant for low-budget outre 90s cinema styles, and a fairly simple core mechanic to boot. It's octaNe, and it's pretty interesting, even if I personally never wanna read about Six String Samurai ever again.
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Mark as Played
September 8, 2023 • 76 mins
And I said GO!
If you're wondering if we liked this game,
We liked this game,
It's mostly fine,
But it could use some work.
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Mark as Played
August 22, 2023 • 67 mins
Sold to us as the first ever sci-fi RPG (a claim we have learned is dubious), Starfaring is basically Tunnels & Trolls, but with some Star Trek jokes and moving the racism largely from the spell titles to the art. It's still Ken St. Andre, it's still like maybe half a game, and it's still sort of important just because of the era (1977!)
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Mark as Played
August 8, 2023 • 69 mins
Allow us to introducing our game... It's finally here, the box set that sat on my shelf for four years while we waiting for GenCon to be a thing we were willing to do again, and it's still not a live recording, because GenCon was a thing but they forgot to give us a room wired for recordings. What's in this thing? How do you play it? How will our heroes get out of this one? Find out in today's episode of System Mastery OOOOOOOOOOOO...
Mark as Played
July 28, 2023 • 76 mins
Apparently what we have here is often considered to be the first stab at a DM-less RPG system! It's from 2003, and boy is it unusual. How does it handle GM-less play, or many of the other things it's stated to handle (such as being an overlay over your current RPG!)? Well, that's what we're here to find out, isn't it?
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Mark as Played
July 11, 2023 • 86 mins
This one is interesting! It seems to be a compilation of two books, but is largely a single game about steampunk furry anime fantasy guys that also have airships and cool guns. The character builds can actually be pretty dang satisfying, but does it make any sense? Let's find out!
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Mark as Played
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