System Mastery

By Jef Aldrich and Jon TaylorLeisure Games Hobbies

System Mastery episodes

December 18, 2019 Glyphs: RPG Blueprint (Part 1) – System Mastery 163

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/system-mastery-163-glyphs-part-1.mp3
Let’s finish off the year with something wild, what do you say? How about a game that uses a flicked token carom style mechanic for all random resolution? This thing is huge and bizarre and we will have to come back and finish it later because you are not prepared… for Glyphs.

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1 hr 5 min
December 04, 2019 Star Thugs – System Mastery 162

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/system-mastery-162-star-thugs.mp3
Time for some sci-fi! This game takes all the futuristic space convention you love and just DUMPS on it, haha yeah rad, fuck Star Trek! Anyhow come along won’t you? On a journey that starts as a surprisingly innovative CCG-inspired spaceship combat simulator and somehow ends on some deeply misinformed understandings of cross-dressing and gender play? That doesn’t sound right!

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1 hr 27 min
November 20, 2019 Quest of the Ancients – System Mastery 161

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/11/system-mastery-161-quest-of-the-ancients.mp3
Have you missed the good old fashioned heartbreaker game paradigm? Well fret no longer friend, because this one has it all! Elves! Dwarves! Saracens for some reason! This reprint of a game published in 1982 might just be the best sword and sorcery product of the 90s (according to the back cover) but we’ll find out, won’t we. (the cover image is a cow from the island that this game’s sole continent shares a name with, Islay).

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1 hr 20 min
November 06, 2019 Godlike – System Mastery 160

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/11/system-mastery-160-godlike.mp3
Superheroes! World War 2! Greg Stolze? What’s not to like? Well, there’s plenty to like, such as the fascinating superpower design system and the fairly fun dice mechanics. But could be there be more stuff coming we’re not fans of? Well, the episode is huge, so you take a guess!

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1 hr 24 min
October 23, 2019 Dark Realms – System Mastery 159

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/system-mastery-159-dark-realms.mp3
We didn’t know it when we started, but there’s a theme to this year’s Ween episodes beyond just leftover horror games floating around the library. And that theme is “Oops we thought these were horror games, sorry!” Dark Realms is a horror to people that like comprehensible mechanics, anyway.

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1 hr 18 min
October 09, 2019 Chill – System Mastery 158

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/10/system-mastery-158-chill.mp3
It’s a nice day for something! Welcome back to our October content. This year the theme is a little looser since we’ve reviewed enough White Wolf games for two lifetimes and Jef’s Palladium stock is running low. But that’s okay! Here’s the first edition of Mayfair Games’ Chill, a horror game… in theory.

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1 hr 14 min
September 25, 2019 Space Master – System Mastery 157

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/09/system-mastery-157-space-master.mp3
Well, we had to take a look at a Role Master game eventually, and this one chose us. This 1985 RPG is deeply, deeply mathy, and features a fantastic story with … oh no wait it’s Space Rome and a corrupt mega-Catholic star church again.

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1 hr 26 min
September 10, 2019 Eoris Essence (Part 2) – System Mastery 156

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/09/system-mastery-156-eoris-essence-part-2.mp3
Well, after last week with Jef failing to figure out what the heck any of this is using just the rule book, can Jon save the day? Will his comprehensive notes about the story book explain everything? Spoiler alert, no.

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1 hr 21 min
August 27, 2019 Eoris Essence (Part 1) – System Mastery 155

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/08/system-mastery-155-eoris-essence-part-1.mp3
A lavish box set full of tomes of full color wonder! A comprehensive vision of an exciting and vast universe! But System Mastery! Could it be… completely impossible to read? We dive into the madness of Eoris Essence, in a weird way that we’ll just have to explain in the show.

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1 hr 10 min
August 14, 2019 WWE: Know Your Role – System Mastery 154 (live!)

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/08/system-mastery-154-wwe-know-your-role.mp3
Live from GenCon 2019, it’s System Mastery! We’re covering the greatest entertainment to come out of the squared circle in 2005, actual wrestling! Wait… no, probably some video game! Or a CCG? Oh god it was an actual OGL licensed RPG based on wrestling in that exact year? Oh, oh no. No no no. We are joined by special guests Jim McClure(Aaron Cross, future owner of battleship) and James D’Amato (TVs, twice-published, the Latino Heat) on stage to discuss this bizarre relic of the DevOGLnian period of RPG history!

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1 hr 16 min