System Mastery

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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