System Mastery

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/system-mastery-169-rampant-live-action-roleplaying-1.mp3 Lightning bolt!  Lightning bolt!  Lightning b… you get the idea.  It’s a LARP game!  And for us, a weird one, since we’ve never actually encountered one before that just looks like local park dress up goodtimes with boffer weapons, and yet here we are!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/system-mastery-168-timeship.mp3 Timelord!  Would you like to play an RPG as yourself and then, you know, get rewarded for showing up to the table with weapons and German soldier uniforms and stuff?  Well here you go!  Timeship is a mad game from the early 80s where yeah, there’s not much in the way of stats, because you’re playing as yourself!  What do you do as yourself?  Well, you head to the end of time to solve the murder of Count Dracula, then… wander around Gomorrah, just, you know, gettin’ involved.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/system-mastery-167-supplement-spectacular-2.mp3 A fun side effect of doing what we do is that listeners send us stuff.  All the time.  We have just tons of books.  Jef’s room is basically two used RPG bookstores with a hidden bed in it.  And we don’t just get core books.  Heaps of fascinating supplements arrive from time to time as well, like so many Garfield phones washing up on the beaches of England.  We occasionally (very occasionally) do pileup reviews of these things, and here’s one of those times.  Books covered:  Giant Psychic Insects from Outer Space, Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire Sourcebook, various After the Bomb supplements.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/01/system-mastery-166-dream-park.mp3 This has been on Jon’s to-get list for most of the time we’ve made the show, and who should suddenly show up with a copy of the thing but our network head?  He always gets us the best stuff.  Dream Park has a PEDIGREE.  Based on a Larry Niven/Steven Barnes sci-fi novel series and written by Mike Pondsmith for Talsorian, there’s a lot of promise here.  Does it stick the landing?  Well, come on it, won’t you? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/01/system-mastery-165-toon.mp3 Time to tackle some more Steve Jackson stuff.  No GURPS still (somehow we still don’t have a copy) but I do have Toon so here we go!  Play as a cartoon character, do cartoon stuff, and honestly it’s not half bad! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/system-mastery-164-glyphs-part-2.mp3 This thing is huge and bizarre and we have come back to finish it because you are not prepared… for more Glyphs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/system-mastery-163-glyphs-part-1.mp3 Let’s finish off the year with something wild, what do you say?  How about a game that uses a flicked token carom style mechanic for all random resolution?  This thing is huge and bizarre and we will have to come back and finish it later because you are not prepared… for Glyphs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/system-mastery-162-star-thugs.mp3 Time for some sci-fi!  This game takes all the futuristic space convention you love and just DUMPS on it, haha yeah rad, fuck Star Trek!  Anyhow come along won’t you?  On a journey that starts as a surprisingly innovative CCG-inspired spaceship combat simulator and somehow ends on some deeply misinformed understandings of cross-dressing and gender play?  That doesn’t sound right! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/11/system-mastery-161-quest-of-the-ancients.mp3 Have you missed the good old fashioned heartbreaker game paradigm?  Well fret no longer friend, because this one has it all!  Elves! Dwarves!  Saracens for some reason!  This reprint of a game published in 1982 might just be the best sword and sorcery product of the 90s (according to the back cover) but we’ll find out, won’t we.  (the cover image is a cow from the island that this game’s sole continent shares a name with, Islay). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/11/system-mastery-160-godlike.mp3 Superheroes!  World War 2!  Greg Stolze?  What’s not to like?  Well, there’s plenty to like, such as the fascinating superpower design system and the fairly fun dice mechanics.  But could be there be more stuff coming we’re not fans of?  Well, the episode is huge, so you take a guess! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices