System Mastery

Night falls on Darkest Vancouver. Will you be ready to draw your coolest anime sword and battle the eternal dancefight against the other forever-walkers like yourself? Today's episode is a comedy game that sort of uses Highlander rules to make fun of White Wolf. It's neat! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A lightweight anime-inspired comedy game from... 1987? Damn, Mike Pondsmith must have been one of those guys that bought unlabeled anime VHS tapes from trenchcoat weirdos at comic cons when they still had walking room in them. Whatever the case may be, this is a fun, weird read. But a good game? Well let's find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

No no, not Saga Edition, the other one. This is OGL shovel-ware Star Wars. It's got a real prominent author all right, but these "Just change the names on D&D stuff" versions of OGL content are so hard to fit to anything, let alone something as demanding and iconic as Star Wars. Did they do it? Well, check it out! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To close out our year we've decided to take a little look at a couple of very little games, because we just had a lot of family business going on around this time. We discuss a solo game about surviving a zombie apocalypse in the dead of winter, and another one about being word wizards exploring a lexicon library. Merry festive times to all! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

No more Sweater Weather? Guess it's time for edgy fucked up December. Who wants to be nice to people and solve teddy bear ouchies when you can cram a firecracker in a frog or whatever as a member of Satan's grimiest little volunteer militia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you haven't played as a bear with a clothes hangar for one arm that has to help solve the mystery of where Starscream's left wing went, have you really lived? Threadbare is a PBTA game in the stitchpunk genre (more on that within) all about survival, adaptation, and purpose, and it can be played with absolutely no combat so hey, it's perfect, because Sweater Weather isn't over yet! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sweater Weather just will not let up as we take a tour through the non-combative games that are just so hard to find in RPGs. Today we discuss The Play's The Thing, a Shakespeare altering game where you play as actors changing the story as the story goes along. So will the game be twice blest? Or is Hell empty and all the devils are here? Also, just up front, we don't know the first goddamn thing about Shakespeare. Be warned. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We couldn’t get enough theme months! Welcome to a brand new thing here at System Mastery, Sweater Weather! Reviewing the games that make you feel as cozy and comfortable as a good bowl of stew and a blazing fireplace. Today, we’re discussing Golden Sky Stories, a game with a nearly microscopic focus on small, simple slice of life interactions, where you play as little animal children with whimsical powers.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As we draw this festive Ween to a close, we continue the project of a brief examination of newer space horror (Yes, that last game was a heist thing, but c’mon, you were working for the literal Devil, right? That counts!), this time with the most recent offering in the Alien franchise, a comprehensive and enormous RPG with a lot of modern design sensibilities and a commitment to getting every bit of the fairly sprawled franchise some inclusion (except Resurrection, apparently no one likes it).Announcement Masteries!The Adventuring Party: theadventuringparty.netA weekly gaming podcast with an Irish bent (because it is Irish and made in Ireland). Discussions about RPGs, CCGs, and pop culture in general with all the calm and sober tones you’d expect from a pub brawl.Valhalla Hobby: valhallahobby.com  (Use this link! It applies our code!)5% off all manner of excellent hobby products, shipped direct to your door! Get the coolest and newest hobby stuff from a wide variety of ranges including Crisis Protocol, Malifaux, Star Wars: Legion, and more! They’ve even got our books, which you know, definitely buy those! (must spend $100 for discount, shipping exclusively in the US) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The customary three great blessings of Ween to each and every one of you! Okay, so this game isn’t especially scary. By now you should have recognized that we may or may not give a fuck about tradition from one day to the next. In this case, we’ve decided to harness the power of ween to focus on a few newer games for the season. Any chance to dodge another OSR retroclone or D20 shovelware, am I right? Today we discuss Stealing Stories for the Devil, which is a heist game written by Monte Cook, so that’s two new things! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices