System Mastery

By Jef Aldrich and Jon Taylor

Hobbies

What's System Mastery about?

Jef and Jon review old roleplaying games

5.0

118 ratings

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LAST EPISODE

244 - Teenagers From Outer ...

01.24.2023

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 ...

System Mastery episodes:

01.24.2023 244 - Teenagers From Outer Space 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 ...
01.10.2023 Episode 243 - Star Wars D20 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 ...
12.28.2022 Episode 242 - Like a Rogue, One-Page Apocalypse Vol 1, Christmas Fallout 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 ...
12.14.2022 241 - Kill Puppies For Satan 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 ...
11.29.2022 240 - Threadbare 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 ...
11.16.2022 239 - The Play's The Thing 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 ...
11.03.2022 238 – Golden Sky Stories 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, ...
10.19.2022 System Mastery 237 – Alien 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 […]
10.19.2022 237 – Alien 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 ...
10.05.2022 System Mastery 236 – Stealing Stories for the Devil 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 […]
10.04.2022 236 – Stealing Stories for the Devil 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 ...
09.20.2022 System Mastery 235 – Ray Winninger’s Underground https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/09/system-mastery-235-ray-winningers-underground.mp3 Hurray, one of those edgy 90s games where people have superpowers but aren’t superheroes! You know, like the other ones? This one at least has an interesting angle of entry by being more about society failing veterans, but is ...
09.07.2022 System Mastery 234 – Apocalypse World https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/09/system-mastery-234-apocalypse-world-2.mp3 Wait, from Psi World to Apocalypse World? Two worlds? One network family? Oh right, I should probably mention that because we both have been down for a bit with the old Covid-19, James stepped in to help record this ...
08.25.2022 System Mastery 233 – Psi World https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/08/system-mastery-233-psi-world.mp3 Back to the old psionic grind! This game has almost exactly two whole paragraphs of story. Everything else we’ve had to glean from the margins and unusually informative rules. Wanna… I guess be a psychic refugee in the near ...
08.10.2022 System Mastery 232 – Leaked 6th Edition Playtest https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/08/system-mastery-232-leaked-6th-ed-dd.mp3 Hell yeah, we got some leaked documents up in here! Shame we gotta do it to them. But such is the rule of law here on the wild internet frontier. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
07.27.2022 System Mastery 231 – Kevin & Kell RPG https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/07/system-mastery-231-kevin-kell-rpg.mp3 A rare occasion where the “How the hell did this even happen” question seems fairly obvious (some company wanted a furry game in their line and this was close enough) but hot damn is this ever the weirdest thing ...
07.12.2022 System Mastery 230 – White Box https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/07/system-mastery-230-white-box.mp3 Let’s GOSR! This here is one a them retro-type clones where the goal was extremely straightforward: The author liked Sword & Sorcery White Box and wanted another edition, so here it is. Wanna play as a Dwarf? That can ...
06.28.2022 System Mastery 229 – Underworld https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/06/system-mastery-229-underworld.mp3 Ever had dreams about the world deep below the world you know? A world where magic and madness swirl, where animals may just speak aloud, a world where the ancient myths of the surface are terrifyingly true? Did you ...
06.16.2022 System Mastery 228 – Star Wars: Age of Rebellion https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/06/system-mastery-228-star-wars-age-of-rebellion.mp3 Well, FFG was sort of driven off this project (it’s a really sad story) so the most recent line of Star Wars games is now in our wheelhouse, I guess. And who better to help us tell the story ...
06.01.2022 System Mastery 227 – Wizards & Gunslingers https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/06/system-mastery-227-wizards-gunslingers.mp3Ooh, it’s one of those cowboys and also a different thing games! You know, like cowboys and ninjas, or cowboys and dinosaurs, or cowboys and the slow crushing onset of modernity… this one is wizards though. It’s mostly percentile, it’s ...
05.18.2022 System Mastery 226 – Star Munchkin https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/05/system-mastery-226-star-munchkin.mp3 Uh oh, someone better stop us before we get to level 10. It’s Star Munchkin, the RPG! Did you know there were RPGs of these games? You should have guessed. Munchkin has the same marketing team as KISS. It’s ...
05.06.2022 System Mastery 225 – Marvel Multiverse RPG Playtest https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/05/system-mastery-225-marvel-multiverse-rpg.mp3 Reviewing a playtest? That doesn’t seem right! Well, it certainly isn’t in our usual bag of tricks, but hey, this is a rare situation where someone writing a modern game ASKED for our opinion (sort of, they asked for ...
04.20.2022 System Mastery 224 – Fiasco Classic https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/04/system-mastery-224-fiasco-classic.mp3 Mea culpa time (Jef version): This is one of those games where I knew exactly what it was and have been recommending it for years for any RP session that needs to be about spiraling into failure… but I’ve ...
04.07.2022 System Mastery 223 – Tephra https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/04/system-mastery-223-tephra.mp3 Ooh, a steampunk one! You can tell because of the brown and the gear and the goggles and all. Oh, I guess it also says steampunk on there, in retrospect I suppose that was a dead giveaway. Anyhow Tephra ...
03.23.2022 System Mastery 222 – Umlaut: Game of Metal https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/03/system-mastery-222-umlaut.mp3 Uh oh, every once in a while a time comes in which we are commanded to rock, and that time has come again. We’re discussing a game in which every play takes the reins of an entire metal band, ...
03.09.2022 System Mastery 221 – Santa’s Soldiers https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/03/system-mastery-221-santas-soldiers.mp3 Happy Christmas in July in March! It’s time for some holiday cheer, because we were looking for a different game but ended up with this one (it’s explained in the show). Suit up as an agent in Santa’s elf ...
02.23.2022 System Mastery 220 – The Secret Fire https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/02/system-mastery-220-the-secret-fire.mp3 This is a pretty bog-standard “Recapture the D&D I remember when I was 11” moonshot game, where the lessons learned about what D&D used to be like seem to be that it was awful but we loved it. Does ...
02.09.2022 System Mastery 219 – The Lawnmower Man RPG https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/02/system-mastery-219-the-lawnmower-man-rpg.mp3 How often do we get to do theme weeks? This is great! We have the Lawnmower Man RPG, which is set immediately after the events of the movie, as the Southern Gothic horror gives way to … troop team ...
01.25.2022 System Mastery 218 – Silver Age Sentinels https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2022/01/system-mastery-218-silver-age-sentinels.mp3 Oh boy another supers game! You know how we love those! SIlver Age Sentinels is from the Big Eyes, Small Mouth folks, so you better believe it shares the insane customizability, tri-stat system, and more with that anime simulator. ...
01.12.2022 System Mastery 217 – Conspiracy X 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. ...
12.29.2021 System Mastery 216 – Psychosis: Ship of Fools 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 ...
12.15.2021 System Mastery 215 – Blue Rose 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 ...
11.30.2021 System Mastery 214 – Mystic Forces 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 ...
11.17.2021 System Mastery 213 – The Book of Vile Darkness (3.x) 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 ...
11.03.2021 System Mastery 212 – Outbreak: Undead 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 ...
10.20.2021 System Mastery 211 – All Flesh Must Be Eaten 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 ...
10.06.2021 System Mastery 210 – Amber Diceless 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 ...
09.22.2021 System Mastery 209 – Supplement Spectacular 3 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 ...
09.10.2021 System Mastery 208 – Mutant Chronicles 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 ...
08.26.2021 System Mastery 207 – Pokemon Jr. 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 ...
08.11.2021 System Mastery 206 – Ork! The Roleplaying Game 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 ...
07.27.2021 System Mastery 205 -Delta Force 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 ...
07.14.2021 System Mastery 204 – Engel 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 ...
06.29.2021 System Mastery 203 – Theatrix 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 ...
06.15.2021 System Mastery 202 – Providence 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 ...
06.01.2021 System Mastery 201 – Terror Network 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 ...
05.18.2021 System Mastery 200 – Marvel Superheroes Roleplaying Game 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 ...
05.04.2021 System Mastery 199 – Stuperpowers 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. ...
04.23.2021 System Mastery 198 – Hellcats & Hockeysticks 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 ...
04.07.2021 System Mastery 197 – Ironclaw https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2021/04/system-mastery-197-ironclaw.mp3 So many people have requested this that we finally thought we’d throw you all a bone. Ironclaw is an anthro medieval RPG, so you’ll be playing a lot of foxes, bats, foxbats, Batmans, Manbats, and Sons of Kong. Is ...

Older episodes

System Mastery

What's System Mastery about?

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System Mastery episodes:

244 - Teenagers From Outer Space

Episode 243 - Star Wars D20

Episode 242 - Like a Rogue, One-Page Apocalypse Vol 1, Christmas Fallout

241 - Kill Puppies For Satan

240 - Threadbare

239 - The Play's The Thing

238 – Golden Sky Stories

System Mastery 237 – Alien

237 – Alien

System Mastery 236 – Stealing Stories for the Devil

236 – Stealing Stories for the Devil

System Mastery 235 – Ray Winninger’s Underground

System Mastery 234 – Apocalypse World

System Mastery 233 – Psi World

System Mastery 232 – Leaked 6th Edition Playtest

System Mastery 231 – Kevin & Kell RPG

System Mastery 230 – White Box

System Mastery 229 – Underworld

System Mastery 228 – Star Wars: Age of Rebellion

System Mastery 227 – Wizards & Gunslingers

System Mastery 226 – Star Munchkin

System Mastery 225 – Marvel Multiverse RPG Playtest

System Mastery 224 – Fiasco Classic

System Mastery 223 – Tephra

System Mastery 222 – Umlaut: Game of Metal

System Mastery 221 – Santa’s Soldiers

System Mastery 220 – The Secret Fire

System Mastery 219 – The Lawnmower Man RPG

System Mastery 218 – Silver Age Sentinels

System Mastery 217 – Conspiracy X

System Mastery 216 – Psychosis: Ship of Fools

System Mastery 215 – Blue Rose

System Mastery 214 – Mystic Forces

System Mastery 213 – The Book of Vile Darkness (3.x)

System Mastery 212 – Outbreak: Undead

System Mastery 211 – All Flesh Must Be Eaten

System Mastery 210 – Amber Diceless

System Mastery 209 – Supplement Spectacular 3

System Mastery 208 – Mutant Chronicles

System Mastery 207 – Pokemon Jr.

System Mastery 206 – Ork! The Roleplaying Game

System Mastery 205 -Delta Force

System Mastery 204 – Engel

System Mastery 203 – Theatrix

System Mastery 202 – Providence

System Mastery 201 – Terror Network

System Mastery 200 – Marvel Superheroes Roleplaying Game

System Mastery 199 – Stuperpowers

System Mastery 198 – Hellcats & Hockeysticks

System Mastery 197 – Ironclaw