System Mastery

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!

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2018/06/who-buys-this-cheap-shit-1-the-travails-of-simple-men.mp3 Ugh we ate Oreos so nasty that we had to tell someone about it, and guess what, you’re someone.  Enjoy.

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2018/06/system-mastery-124-albedo-platinum-catalyst1.mp3 Behold a galaxy of unchecked exploration and progress, as made by very fussy little animals that don’t like to be touched.  It’s sort of like if the Wind in the Willows was about space, and also Mr. Toad wasn’t there because he was too excitable.  Also, Jef’s back!

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2018/06/system-mastery-123-mekton-zeta1.mp3 Longtime friend of the show and fan-favorite guest Claire comes by to discuss Mekton Zeta with Jon, who knows nothing whatsoever about your precious animes.  This episode sadly concludes Jef’s paternity leave, so we’re afraid he’ll be back next time.

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/system-mastery-122-7thirteen.mp3 It’s another week of special guests with friend of the show, Quinn, stopping by to help discuss this inscrutable book with an unhealthy obsession with the numbers 7 and 13. There are 12 hours of existence and factions fight for control and your characters will definitely somehow interact with this setting, probably.

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/system-mastery-121-dragon-lines.mp3 While Jef is too occupied with baby to do the time consuming prep on the show, we are kicking off the first of our guest appearance series. Joining me to talk about fantasy China is Josette from the Swallows of the South podcast.

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2018/04/system-mastery-120-book-of-erotic-fantasy.mp3 It’s the Supplement Spectacular again!  Or, it was going to be before a child was born into this world who ate all of Jef’s time.  Luckily (for you, not for him), he got most of the way through The Book of Erotic Fantasy, one of those things that seem like the sad logical outgrowth of the OGL being mined just a little too heavily. Get awesome critical pride t-shirts right here.

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2018/04/system-mastery-119-the-xro-dinn-chronicles.mp3 The Xro Dinn Chronicles is, for lack of a better description, the unholy combination of Ninjas & Superspies, Babylon 5, and the sort of mindset that led to the Winchester mansion.  Loopy rules that terminate nowhere, downright crazy stories, and so much more await you.

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/system-mastery-118-wild-skies-europa-tempest.mp3 Sail the skies in heavily armored airships and nimble fighter planes as a variety of sexy little animals.  It’s the early 1930s and Europe is embroiled in really weird battles all over the place.  Look, there’s a chance this game might still be in print.  But we didn’t hate it and besides, what are you gonna do, tell on us?  Our manager is just Jef with a fake mustache on over his real one.

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/system-mastery-117-rpg-13-b-movie-game-system-scared-stiff.mp3 Today, we’re reviewing an earnest attempt to capture the very specific magic of the B-Movie.  You know, so there’s gonna be like a ray gun that changes the frame so the victim is just a classroom skeleton, or close-up footage of a happy lobster terrorizes a small town.  At least that’s the plan.  Before too long it’s rules for what happens if you’re “tricked” by a drag queen, and explanations on the difference between gender and sex.

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/system-mastery-116-wegs-old-skool.mp3 OSR, or Old Sam Raimi, is a concept in gaming that the most fun game stuff already happened and was mostly done by the early 80s, and that games resembling or utilizing the tools of that era are preferable to modern RPG stuff.  WEGS Old Skool is our first game that is marketed as an OSR design.  Will we like it?

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/system-mastery-115-brave-new-world.mp3 So this is Brave New World.  What’s in the core book?  Enough superhero stuff to sort of play, if you call this playing.  A wizard class with no spells, a gadget class with no gadgets, and four or five superheroes mostly relegated to “slightly stronger than a normal guy.”  Buy more books for actual content! Okay, so on research it turns out Houdini died in 1926?  Whoops.  Please be sure to excoriate Jef in the comments for that gaffe!