System Mastery

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.

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.

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.

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/02/system-mastery-141-tenchi-muyo-resource-book-and-rpg.mp3 It’s a Tri-Stat game!  We’ve done a few of these already so you already know the basics. Weird combat system where the attacker and the defender have very little to do with each other?  Check.  A million point buy options?  Check?  Balance basically a fig leaf?  Check.  So what are we left to do but dissect the 70% of this book that isn’t RPG.  Let’s learn about harem animes!

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/system-mastery-140-leystorm-the-dominion.mp3 In a grim future where everyone is lopsided and has dreads, can a few awful chumps win a mighty rebellion against Darth Emperor of Mankind?  This mid-90s science fantasy game answers your questions and more!  Questions like “What the hell is this?”  and “Ainsley?”

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/system-mastery-139-maelstrom-storytelling.mp3 1997, a dark year indeed.  Bad Batman movies and stuff.  Seriously, it was not a good scene, unless you were crazy for middling swing music.  But hey, this book came out, and it wasn’t terrible!  It’s Maelstrom Storytelling, and while it’s a little funky and the art is not art, it’s at least a neat concept!

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/System-Mastery-138-Systems-Failure.mp3 We’re back from our very needed rest and relaxation, and working harder than ever to fill your ears with reviews of roleplaying games.  This time we’re talking the Y2K bug RPG Systems Failure, a Palladium Game with some fun twists!

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/System-Mastery-137-Kult.mp3 We’ve seen a lot of requests for this game, and now we understand why.  Come along, won’t you, on the game preachers in the 80s wished actually existed so they had something to condemn beyond nerds doing math about elves.

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/system-mastery-137-the-world-of-species.mp3 The World of Species!  Finally an RPG with a glossy photo of a young Alfred Molina in it!  This Masterbook licensed setting is rife with information about the sex-sci-fi thriller that appears to have all been pulled from the trailer.

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2018/11/system-mastery-135-age-of-ruin.mp3 1990 seems to be a downer year for RPGs as far as we can tell, but just you wait, someone’s gonna pop in any second and say that’s the year the greatest game of all time came out.  Anyhow, Age of Ruin is one of those “You either live long enough to die a dumbshit or die a grimfuck early” type post-apoc slogs.  With “art.”

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2018/11/system-mastery-134-renegade-legion-legionnaire.mp3 It’s Romans. In. Spaaaaaaace on today’s episode of System Mastery.  Thrill at the game designed to be compatible with a bunch of other games!  Marvel at page after page of legion construction flowchart!  If you’re a fan of the game, ready your emails about the stuff we forgot to mention (hint, Edge)!

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2018/10/system-mastery-133-nightbane.mp3 OLD WEEN to you all!  We’re covering the very weird Palladium title Nightbane this ween’s eve, so ready yourself for one piece of beautiful Brom art and 200 pages of … well, sloppy editing and fun ideas, basically.

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2018/10/system-mastery-132-beyond-the-supernatural.mp3 It’s Ween again, my friends!  Joyous Ween to you all!  But sadly this year White Ween was simply out of the question.  So we searched far and wide for a suitable replacement, and settled on a company that we already had two horror books from!  Surprising indeed!  Come along with us, won’t you, on a tour of the Palladium take on Call of Cthulhu sort of, packed with bizarre, ineffectual character classes and z-grade psychic powers.  It’s Old Ween on System Mastery!

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/system-mastery-131-with-great-power.mp3 Join us and our new friends the Bay City Informanauts on a tour through With Great Power, a game of superheroic discussions, mostly.

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/system-mastery-130-marauder-21071.mp3 A game that dares to ask the question “What if Bubblegum Crisis?”  Seriously, that’s the question.  The answer, surprisingly, is “No one gets the mech suits, everyone is a dirty cop shooting at a dirty punk, and the smug must flow.”

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/system-mastery-129-tekumel-empire-of-the-petal-throne.mp3 We felt a little dirty doing a “new” book last episode, so here’s our course correction.  The 1975 version of Tekumel: Empire of the Petal Throne, with all acute accents left pointedly missing from all accompanying text because I am lazy (plus come on in the book you can literally tell he was adding them by hand).  This is a weird old game about aliens and humans all sort of doing an ancient South America thing.  It’s neat and ancient and fun to talk about, which is probably why the episode is so dang long.

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2018/08/system-mastery-128-shadowrun-5e-live.mp3 We went to GenCon and we made this show and now we hope you enjoy this show we made at GenCon.  Next time we talk about Shadowrun we’ll try to find something older.  Special guest Gannon Reedy of NeoScum is here to talk Shadowrun and what his group does with it.  Find NeoScum on the One Shot Podcast network!

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/system-mastery-127-justifiers.mp3 Have you ever wanted to explore space but it’s just ever so slightly too difficult for you?  Exactly the range of too difficult where it’d suddenly be possible if you were like one-third albatross?  Well, have we ever got the hot 80s sci-fi game for you!

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/system-mastery-126-deadearth.mp3 Often considered in the top ten worst RPGs ever made, there’s a lot of weird choices in here.  A lot of bad, weird choices.  Thrill at the majesty of a D1000 table with maybe 500 ideas on it with us as we tackle the grim dystopia of deadEarth.

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/system-mastery-125-dd-4th-edition.mp3 It’s high time that someone on the internet had an opinion about this edition of this game, and you know what, it might as well be us.  Please enjoy this review of the famous 4th edition of Dungeons and Dragons.  The game that killed imagination.  Oh and happy 125 episodes of the show!