

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

Feb 14, 2017 • 1h 6min
Star Frontiers – System Mastery 88
https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/system-mastery-88-star-frontiers1.mp3
It’s the space 80s! Feather your hair and ready your giant wrap-around bubble glasses for some interstellar adventure where the computers are so advanced that Oregon Trail has four colors! This game is, in a shocking surprise to us, imaginative, relatively simple, and fun! Join us for Star Frontiers: Alpha Dawn.
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Jan 31, 2017 • 1h 27min
Nephilim – System Mastery 87
https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/system-mastery-87-nephilim.mp3
The early 90s seem positively ripe with games that are more character creation tool than game, and Nephilim is no exception. Join the ranks of weird energy spirits that have a collection of past lives, possession capability and spells, and honestly, really seem like the bad guys.
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Jan 17, 2017 • 1h 21min
XCrawl (D20) – System Mastery 86
https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/system-mastery-86-xcrawl.mp3
Man, I hadn’t even seen the regular cover of this til I was putting this together. That’s uhh… well I guess Luke Cage found some chain mail made by Stussy or Jnco? Also someone give Katana back the rest of her outfit, she looks like a member of 90’s X-Force. This is XCrawl. The game of professional modern-day dungeon crawling in a Rome-themed American dystopia. You read it right. The premise is actually pretty great! Plus they seem to be making this still on kickstarters and in upscale nerdstropubs, so good for them!
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Jan 3, 2017 • 1h 22min
The Babylon Project – System Mastery 85
https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/system-mastery-85-the-babylon-project.mp3
Get ready to recreate the dramatic adventures of Captain John Sheridan, psychic lady Ivanova, kindly space vampire Londo Mollari, and – did the doctor guy get a name? I forget – but you know, be sure not to do it on the actual space station the show was on, and that you don’t set it in any time period after season 2, and that you don’t let too many Narn be on your team, with The Babylon Project, a stuffy game about that space show you only vaguely remember.
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Dec 20, 2016 • 1h 4min
Nightlife – System Mastery 84
https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/system-mastery-84-nightlife.mp3
Looking for a game where you can play a vampire, werewolf, ghost, frankenstein, demon, or …Native American nature spirit? And you you say you want it to predate 90% of White Wolf? Perhaps it’s ridiculous 1991 mullets you crave? Well look no further because we bring you Nightlife!
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Dec 6, 2016 • 1h 17min
Champions – System Mastery 83
https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/system-mastery-83-champions.mp3
Time for the HERO system, one of the big dogs of generic systems, in what is arguably it’s most popular incarnation, the very, very modular Champions. Build a hero absolutely any way you want. Literally any idea you have for a crazy hero, you get right on it and make that hero. Just, you know, bring some graph paper, and a calculator, and a mechanical pencil, and some .7 lead, and some Jolt Cola (it’s 1989 in this paragraph).
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Nov 22, 2016 • 1h 36min
Cyberworld – System Mastery 82
https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2016/11/system-mastery-82-cyberworld.mp3]
In today’s episode we gather to pass judgement down upon Cyberworld, the story of a distant future where an emperor that bizarrely shares the first AND last name of the book’s author (what a coincidence!) rules both North and South America with an iron fist that probably has a snap bracelet on it and an Alice in Chains CD clutched in it (1992 jokes people). Join us won’t you, as we dive in to a dystopian cyber-future LARP. That’s right, this is also a LARP. With the rock paper scissors and everything.
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Nov 8, 2016 • 1h 28min
Over the Edge – System Mastery 81
https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2016/11/system-mastery-81-over-the-edge.mp3
Well lookie here! Written by Jonathan Tweet (author of 3rd Edition D&D). Designed by Tweet and Robin D. Laws (Author of Feng Shui). There’s basically no way this won’t be crazy and interesting. It’s Over the Edge, almost definitely the only tabletop roleplaying game that purports to be based on the writings of William Burroughs.
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Oct 25, 2016 • 1h 20min
Vampire: The Masquerade (2nd Edition) – System Mastery 80
https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/system-mastery-80-vampire-the-masquerade.mp3
We’re drawing ever closer to the terrifying end of White Ween, and we figured why not tackle an 800 pound gorilla a week before every sad internet friend you hate puts on their makeshift Harambe costumes. It’s Vampire: The Masquerade! The seminal White Wolf classic which is dripping with blood, gore, and pretension!
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Oct 12, 2016 • 1h 17min
Promethean: The Created – System Mastery 79
https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/system-mastery-79-promethean.mp3
Happy October, dear listeners! You didn’t think we’d skip it, did you? Halloween is so easy to play around in it’s basically the podcaster Christmas. So it’s all White Wolf, all month long at System Mastery, and we’re getting started with Promethean, the game that hoovers up the leftover mythology after all the other White Wolf monster titles and somehow adroitly bakes it into a man.. with blonde hair and a tan, and he’s good for relieving our…. tension.
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