System Mastery

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/systemmastery26.mp3 System Mastery 26 – Car Wars Strap in, it’s going to be a dense, chart-heavy ride.  Steve Jackson’s Car Wars is heavy on near-future apocalyptic flavor, and equally heavy on complex movement and combat rules.  It’s a battle of cars, bikes, trucks, trikes, trars, trike-trucks, truck-trikes, and for some reason, helicopters on this 80s-charged episode. Let us know what you thought of Car Wars in the comments!  Have a book you’d us to cover?  Let us know about that too. Editor’s correction:  Upon research, we have determined that Steve Jackson does not look like a Bruce Vilanche type, but rather like the sort of guy that designs beige pebble-plastic 80s computers that can run Oregon Trail.  We remain convinced that he is a cool dude, however.

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/systemmastery25.mp3 SystemMastery 25 – D&D Set 1 Basic Rules We celebrate a year’s worth of RPG reviews with a return to a true classic.  The original Red Box D&D, complete with the white crayon for your dice and the $30 registration form for the 1981 RPGA.  Take to the dungeon as a fighter, a magic-user, or perhaps a halfling in one of the earliest iterations of the Dungeons & Dragons name. Let us know what you thought of D&D Basic in the comments!  Have a book you’d us to cover?  Let us know about that too.

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/systemmastery24.mp3 SystemMastery 24 – C°ntinuum: Roleplaying in the Yet It’s a time travel game!  More accurately, it’s a game about keeping meticulous detailed notes because the DM might check to see if you did at any second!  Join millions of other time travelers working and playing together, but try not to accidentally erase yourself from existence!  It’s shockingly easy to do, after all.  We review C°ntinuum – Roleplaying in the Yet, all the while wishing it was Roleplaying in the Yeti. Let us know what you thought of C°ntinuum in the comments!  Have a book you’d us to cover?  Let us know about that too. Editor’s correction:  For some reason, we spent the whole podcast thinking this game was called C°ntinuum – Adventures in the Yet.

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/systemmastery23.mp3 SystemMastery 23 – Star Wars RPG Our second look at West End Games takes us to a galaxy far, far away, where an antagonistic GM is expected to control the party with an iron (if capricious) fist.  We’ll discuss whether or not Boba Fett lives up to his hype, what the deal is with all that expanded universe stuff, and maybe even briefly talk about the actual RPG we’re ostensibly here for. As always, if you’ve got a suggestion for an RPG, let us know!  We’ve got a little list together and are reading into some of your great suggestions already!

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/systemmastery22.mp3 SystemMastery 22 – After the Bomb Wounded and battered from months of learning new systems, we take a brief respite to review something we knew already.  This week, we spend a lot of time talking about Bio-E, the difference between the rad animal men of yesteryear and today’s watered-down furries, and general Palladium shenanigans.

  https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/systemmastery21.mp3 SystemMastery 21 – Nobilis Have you ever dreamed of being the god of something?  Perhaps the god of socks, or the god of internet memes, or the god of cabbage?  This odd, dense game may be as close as you can get to realize your weird boring dreams, internet friends!  Take a tour through the mind of Rebecca Bergstrom, aka Jenna Moran, aka the Writer clad in Ranunculus, aka the Auctor Errabundus, as we look into the crazy (but interesting) Nobilis!

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/systemmastery20.mp3 Episode 20 – Cthulutech It might just be because we like 75% of the brazenly lifted source material, but Cthulhutech passes our review gauntlet and comes up looking pretty fun.  We discuss the many variations on giant robot and giant monster robot you can play as, discuss the latest iteration of merits and flaws, and hash out the concept of poker dice in our latest episode.

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/systemmastery19.mp3 SystemMastery 19 – Furry Pirates This week, we take hold of a book with a bifurcated design sensibility.  Will we actually discover “Swashbuckling Adventures in the Furry Age of Piracy”?  Or will we find that the furries appear to have been added to this book late during development?  Is this a case of Type 1 or Type 2 Furabetes?  What social rank must a male furry be at before he is expected to wear a wig (unless he is a Puritan)?  We struggle to answer all these questions in our 19th episode.  Special thanks to Ryan for the suggestion.  Never suggest anything again, Ryan (keep suggesting things).

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/systemmastery18.mp3 SystemMastery 18 – Big Eyes, Small Mouth We sit down for a rousing discussion about the many varieties of anime, and the game that tries to let you play them all.  Big Eyes, Small Mouth is a charming attempt to capture the entirety of a diverse range of shows into a single ruleset.  There are a few glaring errors, but that’s what new editions are for, we guess. In the meantime, let’s make fun of an old book and a bunch of TV shows!

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/systemmastery171.mp3 SystemMastery 17 – Don’t Look Back:  Terror is Never Far Behind Don’t Look Back is a mid-90s Horror RPG, featuring hilarious send-ups of your favorite 80s horror film tropes!  Oh no wait, that’s just the cover.  The actual text appears to be a middle school math book with some surprisingly opinionated digressions about what constitutes a “techno-nerd.”  With a name like this, we didn’t really expect a realism heartbreaker of a game.  Dig in with us as we discuss the first RPG we’ve seen to use absolute values (note, the math kind, not the moral kind) on this week’s System Mastery Podcast!

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/systemmastery16.mp3 In today’s installment of System Mastery we seek to determine if one dad could beat up another dad, assuming the dads were Susano-O and Papa Legba. We’re reviewing Scion, a White Wolf game of thoroughly modern godlings in a modern world, battling titans to stop hell on Earth or some damn thing. Special guest host Claire joins us in our discussion of a stereotype battle to determine if this book’s Japanese gods of anime could be more offensive than its bloody bloody blood bloods of Mesoamerica.

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/systemmastery15.mp3 This week, we test the very limits of what defines an RPG, with a game that removes a core element to the concept.  There are seven characters in this game.  There is no character creation in this book.  There is however a lot of high adventure, archaeology, and … light sexual abuse of a student.  We review Indiana Jones, the 1984 RPG from well-remembered developer TSR.

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/systemmastery14.mp3 Editors Note: Before pressing record on this podcast, I had to press Forward, Down, and Down-Forward.  We take a look at the 1993 White Wolf storytelling classic, Street Fighter.  A grim parade of cheap stereotypes, or a surprisingly charming fighting system?  Can’t it be both? System Mastery is always looking for suggestions.  If you have a specific old RPG you think we should discuss, love it or hate it, let us know in the comments below.

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/systemmastery13.mp3 The worst thing about this book is right there in the picture.  Someone really had a …fascination with drow, and their apparent immediate abandonment of spider-themed fetish gear for spider-themed raver gear.  The best thing about this book?  Nearly everything else!  Join us for a surprise example of a D20 product we didn’t hate in today’s review of D20 Modern:  Urban Arcana. System Mastery is always looking for suggestions.

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/systemmastery12.mp3 Seriously, another edgy urban game with no magic or sci-fi elements at all?  Well, almost.  D20 Modern wants to be every game for everyone, as long as it’s not D&D.  We discuss Stat Heroes, the most boring feats ever, and a crazy wealth system in today’s episode.  Tune in next time as we do our first expansion review, as well.  We’ll be tackling the crazy awesome or awesome crazy D20 Modern: Urban Arcana, the one with the gnoll pimp. System Mastery is always looking for suggestions.  If you have a specific old RPG you think we should discuss, love it or hate it, let us know in the comments below, find us at https://www.facebook.com/systemmastery, or email us at SystemMastery@gmail.com.

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/systemmastery11.mp3 Delivered straight to your grim, gritty earholes, System Mastery brings you a review of Haven:  City of Violence.  This “hyperkinetic action simulator” boasts a three-line deep Wikipedia page that tells of it’s glorious record as “the first game to be optioned for a movie before the game was complete!”  They probably should have just stopped writing at that point.  We talk racism, sexism, Sepultura, wicked sweet wrestling moves, and more in this ultra-realistic 11th episode.  Enjoy!

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/systemmastery10.mp3 Seriously, just look at that.  It’s ridiculous.  That’s the cover of one of the supplements.  They wanted you to buy that book.  They didn’t want you to hide it a featureless brown paper bag and try to smokescreen the purchase with a Snickers bar and one of those Bic lighters.  Anyway, this week we read and discussed Exalted, the White Wolf anime demigod simulator.  Can you wear a maxi pad instead of any sort of pants in this game?  Probably!

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/systemmastery9.mp3 Guest host Brian joins us to discuss Legend of the Five Rings, a game of swords, sorcery, swords, etiquette, and swords.  It’s one of those katana things.  We dig into the vast array of clans and the tiny array of classes that make up this surprisingly good Asian-themed RPG.

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/systemmastery81.mp3 We dug pretty deep to find this game, a sci-fi/fantasy far-future romp on a distant planet where all the magic is colored orbs and there are three different sizes of humans!  Come with us as we grapple to understand the deepest reserve in history of sci-fi fantasy names, dig into a graph-derived combat system that we still don’t quite get, and for some reason spend a lot of time talking about breakfast cereal mascots.  We understand the writer of this game is a fantastic guy, so apologies to him in advance!

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/systemmastery7.mp3 We’re joined for the first time by a guest host, our good friend Russ, as we discuss Everquest D20, an unholy confluence of 3rd edition open-source D20 gaming and the first modern MMO.  Is that a tank mechanic we found?  And just exactly how much can we digress to talk about Everquest before it’s just an MMO podcast?  We seek those answers here.