System Mastery

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/systemmastery15.mp3 This week, we test the very limits of what defines an RPG, with a game that removes a core element to the concept.  There are seven characters in this game.  There is no character creation in this book.  There is however a lot of high adventure, archaeology, and … light sexual abuse of a student.  We review Indiana Jones, the 1984 RPG from well-remembered developer TSR.

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/systemmastery14.mp3 Editors Note: Before pressing record on this podcast, I had to press Forward, Down, and Down-Forward.  We take a look at the 1993 White Wolf storytelling classic, Street Fighter.  A grim parade of cheap stereotypes, or a surprisingly charming fighting system?  Can’t it be both? System Mastery is always looking for suggestions.  If you have a specific old RPG you think we should discuss, love it or hate it, let us know in the comments below.

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/systemmastery13.mp3 The worst thing about this book is right there in the picture.  Someone really had a …fascination with drow, and their apparent immediate abandonment of spider-themed fetish gear for spider-themed raver gear.  The best thing about this book?  Nearly everything else!  Join us for a surprise example of a D20 product we didn’t hate in today’s review of D20 Modern:  Urban Arcana. System Mastery is always looking for suggestions.

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/systemmastery12.mp3 Seriously, another edgy urban game with no magic or sci-fi elements at all?  Well, almost.  D20 Modern wants to be every game for everyone, as long as it’s not D&D.  We discuss Stat Heroes, the most boring feats ever, and a crazy wealth system in today’s episode.  Tune in next time as we do our first expansion review, as well.  We’ll be tackling the crazy awesome or awesome crazy D20 Modern: Urban Arcana, the one with the gnoll pimp. System Mastery is always looking for suggestions.  If you have a specific old RPG you think we should discuss, love it or hate it, let us know in the comments below, find us at https://www.facebook.com/systemmastery, or email us at SystemMastery@gmail.com.

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/systemmastery11.mp3 Delivered straight to your grim, gritty earholes, System Mastery brings you a review of Haven:  City of Violence.  This “hyperkinetic action simulator” boasts a three-line deep Wikipedia page that tells of it’s glorious record as “the first game to be optioned for a movie before the game was complete!”  They probably should have just stopped writing at that point.  We talk racism, sexism, Sepultura, wicked sweet wrestling moves, and more in this ultra-realistic 11th episode.  Enjoy!

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/systemmastery10.mp3 Seriously, just look at that.  It’s ridiculous.  That’s the cover of one of the supplements.  They wanted you to buy that book.  They didn’t want you to hide it a featureless brown paper bag and try to smokescreen the purchase with a Snickers bar and one of those Bic lighters.  Anyway, this week we read and discussed Exalted, the White Wolf anime demigod simulator.  Can you wear a maxi pad instead of any sort of pants in this game?  Probably!

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/systemmastery9.mp3 Guest host Brian joins us to discuss Legend of the Five Rings, a game of swords, sorcery, swords, etiquette, and swords.  It’s one of those katana things.  We dig into the vast array of clans and the tiny array of classes that make up this surprisingly good Asian-themed RPG.

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/systemmastery81.mp3 We dug pretty deep to find this game, a sci-fi/fantasy far-future romp on a distant planet where all the magic is colored orbs and there are three different sizes of humans!  Come with us as we grapple to understand the deepest reserve in history of sci-fi fantasy names, dig into a graph-derived combat system that we still don’t quite get, and for some reason spend a lot of time talking about breakfast cereal mascots.  We understand the writer of this game is a fantastic guy, so apologies to him in advance!

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/systemmastery7.mp3 We’re joined for the first time by a guest host, our good friend Russ, as we discuss Everquest D20, an unholy confluence of 3rd edition open-source D20 gaming and the first modern MMO.  Is that a tank mechanic we found?  And just exactly how much can we digress to talk about Everquest before it’s just an MMO podcast?  We seek those answers here.

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/systemmastery61.mp3 Is Slimer the Judas of the Ghostbusters franchise?  We delve into the long-gone Ghostbusters RPG, and apparently hit our heads on the bottom.  This RPG is tiny and weird and unfinished, but definitely worth a look.  Enjoy!

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/systemmastery5.mp3 The mild, heartwarming scares continue with our first Horrortoberfest podcast of October!  Orpheus is a weird, weird outlier from the Old World of Darkness family.  Get some friends together to play as sexy secret agent ghosts or the world’s worst bicycle messengers.

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/systemmastery42.mp3 This episode goes out to Dan, the only person we know of who ever played this game.  We have to assume he hated it as much as we did.  We’re discussing, Prime Directive, the Star Fleet Universe RPG.  Come along and learn about everything from Toltec Space Lizards to Glowing Maori.  Just be careful not to say Star Trek.  No amount of this game is Star Trek.

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/systemmastery3.mp3 This time around, we review Tales from the Floating Vagabond, from Avalon Hill.  It’s a comedic sci-fi roleplaying game set the exact center of a cartoon universe.  Shticks, poorly named skills, boring alien races, and space NAZIs abound!  With such zany highlights as [a cat meows] and [I think one of us farts], we delve into finding out if this classic is worth the paper it’s printed on, and it is printed on surprisingly cheap paper.

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/systemmastery2.mp3 Hey there Mr. Skippy!  Not sure how you found your way to our little corner of the web, did you get lost while trying to find that hot new nightclub?  Anyway, we have one of those things, a pod-thing, that you should check out.  We get down on some awesome reviewage of this basically okay roleplaying game! There, that was the best attempt we can make at recreating the roughly 300 pages of Buffy-style dialog we slaved over to bring you a hot fresh System Mastery.  Enjoy!

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/systemmastery1.mp3 Episode 1 – Heroes Unlimited Aliens, Cyborgs, Mutants, and Stage Magicians share the pages of the 1998 classic “Heroes Unlimited.”  We dive into the odd but oddly beautiful Palladium Games engine, discuss the plight of the mutant animal in a world that rejects them, and try to figure out how to destroy the invincible door in the first ever episode of System Mastery.  Enjoy!