System Mastery

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/01/system-mastery-217-conspiracy-x.mp3 What if everything you thought you knew was actually all evidence of a secret conspiracy?  Deja Vu?  Real psychic powers.  Men in Black?  Lizard people in black.  That’s the premise of Conpiracy X, a late 90s secret agents vs. everything game with a surprisingly complex combat engine.  Oh man.  Surprisingly complex. Announcement Mastery Solo But Not Alone 2Grab a ton (101!) solo RPGs for yourself for only 10 bucks while supporting a vital cause at the same time.  Help people in real need by joining Jasper’s Game Day in their needed efforts preventing suicide.  It’s a win win and it can be yours to support or just get games you want at https://itch.io/b/1227/solo-but-not-alone-2.  Act fast, this fundraising event will end March 2022!    

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/12/system-mastery-216-psychosis-ship-of-fools-1.mp3 Post-Show PS:  Turns out there is at least one more of these, Jef’s on-air googling failed to turn up Psychosis: Solitary Confinement.  Cool?  Cool. Well, when the name of the mental disorder is right there in the title you know you’re in for something at least a little iffy.  Luckily this is so far removed from reality regarding how far everyone is removed from reality that it mostly comes out okay in the wash.  It’s a game where you never quite know what’s going on, and the entire story is a spoiler alert.  From the decade that brought you Steal My Sunshine, it’s Psychosis: Ship of Fools.    

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/12/system-mastery-215-blue-rose-2.mp3 Let’s dispense with the obvious question first.  This is the OGL version.  Now before that gets too depressing, note that this is one of the most modified OGL games we’ve come across, going so far as to do that one thing everyone always says you should do with D&D stats (not get rid of them, the other thing).  It’s got some good ideas!  But do we like it?  Well, let’s find out.  You know, again. Announcement Mastery! Roar to Heaven is an anime inspired sci-fi AP podcast where the heroes fight an invading angel army with battlesuits powered by music!  They’re currently kickstarting to pay their staff and cast, and your support will help!  Plus also definitely listen to their cool show.  Links to follow:Show Page: https://www.peachgardengames.com/about-roar-to-heaven Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/peachgardengames/roar-to-heavenItch.io Link for Those With Understandable Kickstarter Concerns: https://pe

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/11/system-mastery-214-mystic-forces.mp3 Heck yeah, one of those weird games so little known I couldn’t GIS the cover and had to take a picture of our copy!  Mystic Forces is a 2000 RPG about light vs. darkness featuring some very unique ideas (though Jon has some ideas as to where a lot of them are coming from), and a world that doesn’t have elves, dwarves, or even humans.  Are they contained in a probably somewhat too complicated engine?  Well yeah, obviously.    

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/11/system-mastery-213-the-book-of-vile-darkness.mp3 Just because Ween is over doesn’t mean we can’t stay spooky!  Or at least one would hope.  This is more evil by way of edge than anything else.  Jef sought out a list of historically terrible supplements for us to look at in the future, and this one just kept floating to the top.  Evil races, prestige classes, and so, so many terrible spells.  Dare you enter this edgelord realm?  

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/11/system-mastery-212-outbreak-undead-1.mp3 Okay so maybe it’s November, and maybe we forgot when October started this year, but that won’t stop us from delivering our yearly load of horror ween stuff!  Here’s Outbreak Undead.  It’s 460 pages long and is a fairly generic zombie horror survival type thing.  Announcement Mastery Looking for game and fantasy editing?  Or just need a short form RPG or adventure in a variety of genres?  Go support ATypicalFaux.com, today’s Announcement Mastery Sponsor.  Jordan is a multi-published editor with a proven track record and a desire to work on your RPG (while designing his own!) Website: ATypicalFaux.com Games available at: https://atypicalfaux.itch.io/  

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/10/system-mastery-212-all-flesh-must-be-eaten.mp3 Behold our triumph, the ZombieWeen!  It’s alive!  Well, sort of alive.  This ‘Ween around we’ll be focusing on zombie RPGs, investigating games about surviving short infestations and full-blown apocalypses.  This time, it’s All Flesh Must Be Eaten, which means it’s also our first time talking about the Unisystem Engine in eight years.  Should all flesh must be eaten?  Should all zombies be in your head?  In your head?  Zombie (Ween). Announcement Mastery Crimson Gold Agonies!in the world of 197X, superheroes fight against the two imperial powers; they are champions of the Third World and heralds of an alternative path for democracy and socialism — the Heroes of the Cybernetic International! Check out this new AP and a whole completed series of additional AP podcasting that rotates games as needed to tell the best story possible with the Crimson Gold Agonies actual Play! Links: Show | Twitter | Showrunner Twi

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/10/system-mastery-210-amber-diceless.mp3 Oh geez, this one is gonna get us some letters.  Lemme just warn you in advance if you’re as hot on this property as everyone on the internet seems to be for Moorcock stuff, you might wanna just go check out a Movie Mastery or something.  Otherwise, welcome to Amber Diceless, a game that has rules it would probably just be better off without. Announcement Mastery Eventide!Available today on DrivethruRPG: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/359061/Eventide How and why the world as we know it came to be changed forever has long been forgotten. It’s been hundreds – maybe even thousands – of years since anyone even spoke of the Cataclysm or the time that came before, and the memories of that world that once was, faded into dust. To the people inhabiting the world of Eventide, this isn’t a post-cataclysmic world, it’s just the world that is. And the world that always was, as far back as anyone living in it can remember.

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/09/system-mastery-209-supplement-spectacular-3.mp3 Well how about one of these?  It’s only the third one in 209 episodes, so I hope they sort of feel special by now!  It’s Supplement Spectacular, where we dig through our surprisingly ample library of followup books to games you’d never think would have them, and talk about how those games expand and change.  This week, it’s Chill: Voodoo and A.C.E. Supers, so you’re getting a little horror and a little superhero stuff.  Together at last!  

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/09/system-mastery-208-mutant-chronicles-4.mp3 This takes a while, but on the bright side we really find out some new fun and not so fun stuff about the game in the process. Good on ya for being patrons, you’re learning stuff no one else will. Unless they… read the game, I guess? Or just find someone else doing this. We can’t be the only ones.  

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/08/system-mastery-208-pokemon-jr..mp3 Desperately trying to hit a book deadline, we found ourselves in need of something fairly small, so we finally broke the tiny sheet of glass in front of the smaller RPG we have, the Pokemon Jr. Adventure Game: Pokemon Emergency.  60 pages long and smaller than a checkbook, this is a tiny little thing.  But it has a rich history, and there’s a lot to talk about, so as always, we found a way.  

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/08/system-mastery-206-ork.mp3 Comedy roleplaying game anyone?  Maybe one that’s got a bunch of jokes about how dumb orks are and how they have special blood that keeps them from ever being smart (yikes factor: some yikes).  Well grab a big rock and use it to murder a different big rock because Ork am game about mindless violence.  

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/07/system-mastery-205-delta-force.mp3 My friends, in the interest of transparency, I am only just now realized this game has a subtitle!  So don’t look for that in the episode, we didn’t notice.  It’s Delta Force: America Strikes Back!  And it is, among other things, by the same people that made Prime Directive and from around the same time frame, so… well you can take from that whatever you want.  

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/07/system-mastery-204-engel.mp3 Well hey, surprise OGL!  Nothing on the cover, and so when Jon selected this old Sword & Sorcery product to take home and started reading, he was suddenly (after 190 some pages of fluff) shocked to see that 3.x material.  So what is this?  Well it’s the far future and you play as Latin-speaking angel children who fight giant bugs.  OR DO YOU?  

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/06/system-mastery-203-theatrix.mp3 So what we have here is a rarity, in that it is an early (1993-1995) LARP game that is also a universal generic system.  So there’s not really a story or core power scale or anything, just pure LARP rules and advice, delivered in a sort of theatrical directorial stype.  Oh, and of course it’s not great advice. Announcement Mastery:  Back to the Rifter, a 174-page book going over the original 1990 Rifts rulebook to give a detailed, mocking, page-by-page review, dipping into other Palladium books where necessary to make sense of things (or where it was funny), and insights gleaned from talking to people in the industry. Also there’s an in-depth criticism of the game’s Nazi apologism.  Purchase it in in PDF or print on demand at DriveThru RPG today!  

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/06/system-mastery-202-providence.mp3 My friends, this is a weird one.  The vast majority of this book is difficult to explain rules, and then there’s a chunk of fascinating story hidden away towards the back, a neat story about a caste society of the winged and winged-not trapped in a bubble prison dimension.  Check it out!    

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/06/system-mastery-201-terror-network.mp3 I think we bought this one on the cover alone (and especially the back cover, which is bullet points and a photo of the Twin Towers mid-fall).  I mean, look at that!  Look at the endorsement!  But can it deliver? Announcement Mastery! Today is a great day to launch a KS, and a better day for you to go support one!  Go check out Extreme Meatpunks Forever, a hot new RPG written by cool people and produced by cool people too.  Fight Nazis on a meat planet while riding your meat mecha!  Oh, and here’s a link:  Extreme Meatpunks Forever on Kickstarter    

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/05/system-mastery-200-marvel-superheroes-role-playing-game.mp3 Hey, we made it to 200 episodes!  I’m sure that’s some sort of milestone!  And while the choice of game to cover this time may feel kind of arbitary, I can assure you it’s very special to us here at the show.  You’ll find out why and learn all about TSR’s attempt to encapsulate the Marvel experience way back in the mid-80s on today’s show!  Enjoy.    

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/05/system-mastery-199-stuperpowers.mp3 Heck yeah, comedy superhero parody game from 1997 coming in hot.  You know it’s gonna make us mad, it’s just got to!  Anyway, this game is designed to be LARP-ready, dice light, and aggressively, consistently middle of the road.  Just painfully.  In more ways than one.  You’ll see. Announcement Mastery: It Came From The Sea Podcast Host Sarah uses her degree in oceanography and lifelong love of the sea and all things nautical as she drags her friends along on her journey to share this aquatic enthusiasm with the world at large. New episodes of It Came From the Sea drop every other week and bonus episodes are available at all tiers on our patreon. You can find a link to the patreon and all the latest podcast news at twitter.com/FromTheSeaPod. GMJ: Pro DM Check out GMJ and their recurring campiagn “Darkest Quest” set in the Quest RPG system on the online DM-player connection service StartPlayingGames.  Drop in with a new

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/04/system-mastery-198-hellcats-hockeysticks-1.mp3 We’ve had a great track record with games set in high schools, right?  So obviously one set in a secondary school should be at least as good as Alma Mater or Panty Explosion right?  Well, it’s certainly something!  Join us as we explored the hallowed halls of a school for delinquent little monsters and their various criminal goings on. Announcement Mastery: Sorcerously Advanced is a game of cutting-edge magic. It’s pay-what-you-want at DriveThruRPG. If you like it you can buy a physical copy.  Also: If sci-fi games are more your thing, check out our sister game, Sufficiently Advanced. The second edition is also on DriveThruRPG. http://tiny.cc/sorc or http://suffadv.wikidot.com/