
System Mastery
Jef and Jon review old roleplaying games
Latest episodes

Jul 4, 2020 • 1h 20min
System Mastery Special – Things We Hate About D&D – Part 3
https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/things-we-hate-about-dd-part-3.mp3
No really, they’re the worst. Play another game. Also while we’ve got that picture of Radcliffe up there, our opinion is that JK Rowling is a TERF piece of shit, so. Everyone sucks. Just sucks. Sorry about it.
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Jun 30, 2020 • 1h 22min
SenZar – System Mastery 177
https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/system-mastery-177-senzar.mp3
With 26 races, nearly 40 classes, giant complex martial arts systems and a battle world that has run amok for aeons aesthetic, where could SenZar possibly go wrong? It’s an excess of boring riches on today’s System Mastery.
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Jun 17, 2020 • 1h 23min
High Strung – System Mastery 176
https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/system-mastery-176-high-strung.mp3
Grab your amps and start planning setlists, as we take a look at a game that eschews the classics of dungeon diving in favor of trying to make it big in the music world. Does it deliver hot licks? Or… I am bad at music, I guess cold licks? Yes, does it deliver cold licks? Well, come find out!
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Jun 3, 2020 • 1h 32min
Call of Cthulhu (5.6) – System Mastery 175
https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/system-mastery-175-call-of-cthulhu.mp3
Yes, it’s not a D&D game. Don’t worry. It’s going to be okay. We still found a classic, the Chaosium flagship and the biggest name in leaning heavily on public domain stuff Call of Cthulhu. And hey, you might just be in need right now of people dumping on the febrile racism of a cowardly germophobe (Lovecraft. I meant Lovecraft.) so here’s that, just for you all.
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May 20, 2020 • 1h 21min
Alma Mater – System Mastery 174
https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/system-mastery-174-alma-mater.mp3
We’ve posted so many episodes at this point that the only reason this one’s description isn’t just “Fuck this game” is that I’m not sure I didn’t do that for a previous odious heap. This game was banned from GenCon in the 80s because it’s got a bunch of teen sex in it. That’s one of the reasons it’s bad. Sure. Here’s an hour of other ones.
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May 11, 2020 • 1h 8min
System Mastery Special – Things We Hate About D&D – Part 1
https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/system-mastery-special-things-we-hate-about-dd-part-1.mp3
So hey, remember when we wrote that book? Jef apparently didn’t because this special content powered by pre-orders has been sitting unedited on an external HD for months. The only thing that could force him to remember was the diligent reminders from listeners couple with the completion of our second book (details coming soon!). For now, please enjoy this fine list of things that we don’t like about D&D (or D&D Culture, we may have had some crossed wires in there). You earned it!
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May 5, 2020 • 1h 14min
Smallville – System Mastery 173
https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/system-mastery-173-smallville.mp3
It was about time we discussed the Cortex engine, and what better way to have a discussion than driving 45 minutes to a Kansas farm so I can say one sentence about how I’m upset and then drive away again to reset before I do it two more times next episode? Smallville is a game all about building out a whole season of genre soap television, and also keeping Clark from flying.
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Apr 21, 2020 • 1h 15min
Darwin’s World – System Mastery 172
https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/system-mastery-172-darwins-world-1.mp3
It’s post-apocalypse OGL gaming here so it may seem like something we’ve done before, but is it? I hope not, but honestly 171 is a lot of episodes to go back through and I think we’re all a little tired right now. It’s mutants, running around an irradiated post-war Earth, and they call women “furniture” in it, so you know.
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Apr 7, 2020 • 1h 20min
Tunnels & Trolls – System Mastery 171
https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/system-mastery-171-tunnels-trolls-1.mp3
The year is 1975. The hair is stupid. The clothes are stupid. The music? Mostly stupid. The movie scene was okay (Rocky Horror? Jaws? Come on now). And the RPG scene was… heartbreakers already! Tunnels and Trolls sure was an attempt to fix D&D by doing things differently for once. Let’s look back, shall we.
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Mar 25, 2020 • 1h 38min
DragonRaid – System Mastery 170
https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/system-mastery-170-dragonraid.mp3
Someone tweeted about this, someone else linked it to us, and now we’ve reviewed it. The DragonRaid Adventure Learning System: A Roleplaying Game for Courageous Christians. It’s probably safest to just link to the review now. Happy quarantine!
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