System Mastery

Well, this might be divisive, if we hadn't spent years discussing how we feel about ol' John Wick and his famously terrible advice. But what about his games? Well, let's look at Orkworld, a game about Orcs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Travel through time at the behest of a futuristic society at the end of time? Sounds familiar! But before you break out the Wyld Stallyns shirt, let me burst your bubble by saying this actually has a weird war game at its weird core. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi everyone! You'll never guess that now the other one of us has COVID. This stupid planet and country. Anyway, this game is about people learning lessons in a primordial garden from the animals that live there. Cool, right? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Part of wallowing in weird old stuff unfortunately is that it's hard to keep abreast of what's going on in the last decade or so of gaming, but Jef still pretty much orders any superhero thing if he sees it on sale, and that's what happened here! This time it paid off even, as Spectaculars turned out to be in a form factor neither of us expected but both of us enjoyed, so let us tell you all about it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pssst, hey buddy, wanna buy a superhero game from 2002 that was pretty clearly written prior to 1999? How? Oh, let us explain. It's Modern Knights! At least we know that much. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey who likes lesbians what have swords and powerful yearnings related to the other sword-bearing lesbians they encounter on their wild adventures? You I bet! Let's review this game for the end of Pride Month, because we were in a hurry and this one has a big old gay word right there in the title. Nothing's gayer than swords! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This one is close to home, we both sorta like this game, used to play the wargame, and wish it all was still good. But times change. But hey, what do we think of this game now? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is it too late to call this a theme month? Because it turned out to be a theme month. Cool minimalist projects by designers we like. Weird! The Skeletons is a thoughtful game about playing as skeletons guarding a tomb, by Jason Morningstar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Who says we can't do cool modern design reviews? Or interview the cool working designers of today that make them? Whoever said that, lemme at 'em! Today we're discussing For The Queen, a game we both enjoy enough to also want get Alex Roberts (already our expert dog correspondent if you're in the Patreon) to join us to talk about her awesome game and the new edition of it that will be out the same day as this episode! (that's synergy) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Who would have thought this weird little collaborative storytelling shared narrative exercise game could be so divisive? We discuss Muse, a game that uses cards and tokens and lots of paper to help you and your group tell a story and definitely not make everyone hate each other, at all. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Starting the year off the right way, with a shovelware-style OGL game about playing as real cops. Real boring cops. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices