

System Mastery
Jef Aldrich and Jon Taylor
Jef and Jon review old roleplaying games
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jul 25, 2025 • 1h 17min
307 - Micro Game Roundup 2
Let's lay out what we're discussing here this week. It's three games (in four books) comprising Clever Girl, #Flirt Squad, and Anyone Can Wear The Mask. We love checking in on micro games from time to time, they're a refreshing change from the elderly tomes we normally peruse. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jul 11, 2025 • 1h 20min
306 - The Expanse
More TV sci-fi! More TV sci-fi! Actually wait, hold on, this one is based on the books. No TV in here, which is probably for the best, because you guessed it, neither of us watched the show. Is this relatively modern relatively hard sci-fi space game fun? Well let's find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jun 26, 2025 • 1h 27min
305 - Time Lord
Who loves Doctor Who? Specifically and exclusively any Doctor Who made before 1991? Not us it turns out, though this game is pretty fun! It's got some neat design ideas and good advice and writing, and also a lot of information about old Doctors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jun 11, 2025 • 1h 15min
304 - Runequest (1984)
This is one of the venerable old giants of the fantasy gaming industry. Avalon Hill producing Chaosium's Runequest. Couldn't be more classic. But how does it read 40 years later? Let's all find out together. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

May 29, 2025 • 1h 12min
303 - Superhero 2044
By all account, this is the first ever superhero RPG, but don't let that fool you, it contains virtually nothing you'd recognize as a superhero game. In fact, it's wild what it contains. You'll see. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

May 15, 2025 • 1h 16min
302 - Capers
Okay the rumors that we like every supers game are scurrilous, devious, and increasingly accurate. This is Capers, and it's a supers game set in a slightly less socially shitty 1920s, which is a neat thing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

May 1, 2025 • 1h 7min
301 - The Arcanum
Hi folks, let's start up another 300 of these, what do you say? This one is about The Arcanum, an early 80s game that sure seems similar for some reasons (the same reasons they always do? Probably!) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apr 16, 2025 • 1h 40min
300 - Palladium Fantasy
Well that certainly was 300 times we did a thing, I tell you what! Let's take a little victory lap by cracking open a cask we've been saving for a special occasion, a feisty little 1983 vintage called Palladium Fantasy that definitely isn't just dust and vinegar by this point, right? Right? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apr 1, 2025 • 1h 1min
299 - Bleeding Heart
We're hard at work on our giant pile of weird old box sets, and that means it's time for Bleeding Heart, a game that Jon assures me is loosely based on something called the Corman Poe film era of the mid-sixties, and he's a total horror nerd so I gotta go with him on this one. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mar 19, 2025 • 1h 13min
298 - Wild West
I really hope you're enjoying this string of very old games, we're doing our best to get back into them quickly (ever since I found one of my old box sets fully eaten by bugs and had to fumigate). In this case, it's a game about real old timey cowboys! Like Boot Hill but not TSR! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices