System Mastery – System Mastery

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Episode 38 – Stormbringer

ELRIC!  Thy book is a thousand times more execrable than thou!  Though I have to admit I had this iconic piece of nerd power fantasy confused for the early part of my young life with the other one, Raistlin, this guy is apparently quite pedigreed.  The doomed albino of deficient blood and his evil runesword more or less dominate this book, much to our chagrin.  Can you save the ancient world of Melniboné and the young kingdoms?  Spoiler alert:  no.

Let us know what you thought of Stormbringer in the comments!  Have a book you’d us to cover?  Let us know about that too.

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System Mastery 37 – Deliria

During the 90s, a lot of the small-market games were about trying to fix one issue that the author had with basement-ready games from the 70s.  By 2002 a renaissance was required!  No longer were games just for mega-nerds programming Scorched Earth into their graphing calculators!  Now the games were for normal people, like baristas, ravers, hackers, and burners.  Nothing encapsulates this era of special-snowflake appreciation better than the fairy tale LARP enabler, Deliria.  Do you ever get the feeling that you’re special?  That there’s magic in the world?  That your eyes would really be grey flecked through with shards of gemlike amethyst if you had your way?  This is the game for you!

Let us know what you thought of Deliria in the comments!  Have a book you’d us to cover?  Let us know about that too.  If you really love us, show your support over on our Patreon page and help us keep the mics hot!

Editor’s note:  Special thanks to Grant at Saving The Game for this book submission.  Visit his show at savingthegamepodcast.com!

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System Mastery  36 – Dungeons & Dragons

We take a much needed break from endless reading of defunct gaming manuals, but that doesn’t mean we don’t seek to entertain!  This week, System Mastery brings you fresh coverage of the 2001 hit film, Dungeons & Dragons.  It has a Wayans, and a Riff-Raff, and more!  This film might be extremely terrible written, but at least it also has horrible visuals and unappealing acting!

Let us know what you thought of Dungeons & Dragons in the comments!  Have a book you’d us to cover, or some gaming film we should watch?  Let us know about that too.

Special thanks to our new friend Grant at Saving the Game, for sending us our next big project.  Check out his podcast when you’re all done here.

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System Mastery 35 – Vanishing Point

If you’ve read any Neil Gaiman or just been stuck in line at a convention behind steampunk people, you’re all set for Vanishing Point.  It’s a neat little RPG about visiting a planet shaped like a brain, populated by weirdos classified by insanities, and choked full of more British flavor than a steak and kidney pie.

Let us know what you thought of Vanishing Point in the comments!  Have a book you’d us to cover?  Let us know about that too.

Editor’s note:  Jon was basically dying of plague through this whole thing, you’ll just have to excuse the chair creaks and coughing.

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SystemMastery 34 – Fantasy Imperium

This game was surprisingly difficult to find art for.  The cover is easy enough, since it’s got a famous story behind it, but apparently no one wanted to put any of the many boring knights or cheesecake witches inside the book on the internet.  We stuck some fairies on the homepage that get the point across pretty well.  Come along as we review Fantasy Imperium, an Interactive Storytelling Game.  How is that different from an RPG?  More charts, more pictures of swords, and more sweet, sweet sexism.  Enjoy!

Were you somehow a fan of Fantasy Imperium?  Were you briefly hoping this was a review of Twilight Imperium or Palladium Fantasy?  Tell us!  Hell, tell us anything in the comments below.  If you really love us, show your support over on our Patreon page and help us keep the mics hot!

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SystemMastery 33 – Maid

This week, we’re joined in studio (my living room) by a guest host!  Our friend Claire joins us because we just didn’t feel comfortable tackling this sexist minefield without her.  It’s Maid!  The RPG where you wear a frilly sex uniform and tee-hee your way through a day of almost-charming almost-sex that is almost always almost-rape.

Let us know what you thought of Maid in the comments!  Have a book you’d us to cover?  Let us know about that too.  If you really love us, show your support over on our Patreon page and help us keep the mics hot.

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SystemMastery 32 – Darkurthe: Legends

The least requested game of all time comes to System Mastery!  We discuss Darkurthe, a world of isolated city-states, deep racial convinctions, and clans, guilds, cults, and freeholds.  Play as humans, elves, dwarves, gross elves, mean dwarves, and anguls.  Check out a great spell system that is 100% spell creation!  I’m hyping this way more than it’s worth!

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SystemMastery 31 – Synnibarr 2

The final chapter in our saga of Synnibarr.  Impossible continents, insane monsters, and ludicrous facts about this maddening world.  This time around, we even try to tell you how you were supposed to play the game!

Let us know what you thought of Synnibarr in the comments!  Have a book you’d us to cover?  Let us know about that too.

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SystemMastery 30 – The World of Synnibarr 1

The most requested title of all comes to System Mastery!  Biogladites (whatever that is), chameleon drakes, and I guess archers engage in insane adventure and deadly battle on a hollowed out Mars thousands of years from now and light years from here.  Sound engaging?  Well hang on because the rules system is so incredibly crufty and complicated that we barely even talked about it!  That’s right, this is our first two-part episode, so tune in and enjoy our attempt to wrap our brains around the ineffable works of mad genius Raven c.s. McCracken, and then join our battered shellshocked husks next week or so to do it again!

Let us know what you thought of Synnibarr in the comments!  Have a book you’d us to cover?  Let us know about that too.

Editor’s note:  A LOT of business travel and personal stuff led to the lateness of this post.  We apologize and are now back on our regular schedule!

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System Mastery Special Edition – Synnibarr

Today, we bring you a little something special.  A dramatic reading of the brilliant beginning to the tale of The World of Synnibarr.  Tune in next week for our full review.

Let us know what you thought of Synnibarr in the comments!  Have a book you’d us to cover?  Let us know about that too.

Editor’s correction:  Business travel is keeping us from doing a full review on time.  Enjoy this tidbit in the interim.