systemmastery – System Mastery

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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 counts!), this time with the most recent offering in the Alien franchise, a comprehensive and enormous RPG with a lot of modern design sensibilities and a commitment to getting every bit of the fairly sprawled franchise some inclusion (except Resurrection, apparently no one likes it).

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The Adventuring Party: theadventuringparty.net
A weekly gaming podcast with an Irish bent (because it is Irish and made in Ireland).  Discussions about RPGs, CCGs, and pop culture in general with all the calm and sober tones you’d expect from a pub brawl.

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It’s Horrortoberfest and that means I get to force Jef to watch a dumb horror movie and I timed this one to coincide with one of the worst franchise horror films around. Aint I a stinker?

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Cue the Strawberry Alarm Clock, because it’s time for a trippy flight through a rainbow space montage!  Also there’s sabotage afoot, and fighters attacking!  Exciting times indeed.

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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 day to the next.  In this case, we’ve decided to harness the power of ween to focus on a few newer games for the season.  Any chance to dodge another OSR retroclone or D20 shovelware, am I right?  Today we discuss Stealing Stories for the Devil, which is a heist game written by Monte Cook, so that’s two new things!

A sequel of sorts to the excellent A Goofy Movie, this film sees Max going off to college. This is such a big life change that the characters all seem to suddenly stop acting like they used to and mostly being unlikable idiots/assholes.

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Well, it may have been a bit, but dang it we aren’t continuing the intriguing tale of Lando in jail, Rokur Gepta in monologue, and Klyn Shanga and his motley fighter squadron in space.  Also joining us this week are the worst cop ever, a cop that is Big Bird, and Lob Doluff, recently bereft of his goddamn cool.

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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 that enough to help it shine beyond it’s fairly timeworn genre?  Well, let’s find out!

Part of the larger “Roger Corman goes to Argentina” Cinematic Universe. Just be aware, this one has a lot of rape in it and is deeply uncomfortable to watch.

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Finally some quality time with Rokur Gepta, who is rapidly shaping up into one of those villains who already knew you were going to do that, which might suck, but let’s face it, his method of torturing his own underlings are funny as hell.  Meanwhile you’re never going to guess what Lando’s doing!  Oh, no you will.  He’s playing cards.

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Next book!  And whoa, this one starts out with the libertarian coming on strong.  Man, how did I not notice this when I read these at 14?