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System Mastery

Author: Jef Aldrich and Jon Taylor

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Jef and Jon review old roleplaying games

327 Episodes
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317 - Fabula Ultima

317 - Fabula Ultima

2025-12-2501:14:48

Hell yeah we got something for under your tree! It's a System Mastery review of Fabula Ultima! For future readers that joke is because I put this episode up Christmas Eve. It was hilarious at the time. Ask an old person, they'll remember. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
316 - Truth & Justice

316 - Truth & Justice

2025-12-1101:15:58

Well hello there, superhero game from 2005. We saw you from across the room, and we dug your weird mix between classic and modern game design vibe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
315 - Companion's Tale

315 - Companion's Tale

2025-11-3001:09:44

A dive into the world of mapmaking games, which we've briefly touched on in the past but are definitely a growing area of game design, but also, combat free! Hooray for Sweater Weather! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
314 - Laser Kittens

314 - Laser Kittens

2025-11-1301:11:06

Welcome back to our Sweater Weather season! But wait, how can this be charming and cozy if these kittens have LASERS? Listen and discover! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Ween closes out with a bang, as we discuss a game designed to cover *cough* a wide variety of different Slasher movies that may or may not have specifically launched the genre in 1978 or so. Check it out, it's 1978 (The Night They Came Home)! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
312 - Army of Darkness

312 - Army of Darkness

2025-10-1601:19:56

Oh man, I don't know if I should just put a bunch of movie quotes here (nah, the book already made me sick of them) or a bunch of Ween stuff. Let's go with that one. It's Army of Darkness as we start a look at horror movie RPG entries in a little sequence we're weenly calling WEENS ON FILM. Weenjoy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sorry it's been a while friends! This episode is special and it took some work to get it working. We're interviewing Sean Ellis and Kira Woodmansee, two of the major names involved in getting Tales from the Floating Vagabond off the ground. Because we wanted to! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Part of this job is getting to hold extremely weird things in our hands, things we never expected to be real, and this is certainly one of those times. Three hundred and seven episodes ago we discussed Tales from the Floating Vagabond. Between then and now the author, Lee Garvin, passed away years ago. Now we have the second edition ANYWAY, and it's neat to hold. Let's talk about it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
309 - Invisible Sun Lore

309 - Invisible Sun Lore

2025-08-2101:49:41

Yeah yeah, we did the thing. God knows there was plenty more content. James is still here to help us process all this stuff. Thanks James! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
308 - Invisible Sun

308 - Invisible Sun

2025-08-0601:39:13

This is almost certainly the largest product we've ever attempted to review! As a result there are some gaps in coverage here. We may yet revisit this game just to do a deep dive on the setting, if there's interest. Otherwise, welcome to the whimsical world of not quite wizards that is Invisible Sun, recorded twice for various reasons, and featuring our network president James D'Amato, because we like that guy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
307 - Micro Game Roundup 2

307 - Micro Game Roundup 2

2025-07-2501:16:05

Let's lay out what we're discussing here this week. It's three games (in four books) comprising Clever Girl, #Flirt Squad, and Anyone Can Wear The Mask. We love checking in on micro games from time to time, they're a refreshing change from the elderly tomes we normally peruse. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
306 - The Expanse

306 - The Expanse

2025-07-1101:19:35

More TV sci-fi! More TV sci-fi! Actually wait, hold on, this one is based on the books. No TV in here, which is probably for the best, because you guessed it, neither of us watched the show. Is this relatively modern relatively hard sci-fi space game fun? Well let's find out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
305 - Time Lord

305 - Time Lord

2025-06-2601:24:13

Who loves Doctor Who? Specifically and exclusively any Doctor Who made before 1991? Not us it turns out, though this game is pretty fun! It's got some neat design ideas and good advice and writing, and also a lot of information about old Doctors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
304 - Runequest (1984)

304 - Runequest (1984)

2025-06-1101:14:36

This is one of the venerable old giants of the fantasy gaming industry. Avalon Hill producing Chaosium's Runequest. Couldn't be more classic. But how does it read 40 years later? Let's all find out together. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
303 - Superhero 2044

303 - Superhero 2044

2025-05-2901:11:53

By all account, this is the first ever superhero RPG, but don't let that fool you, it contains virtually nothing you'd recognize as a superhero game. In fact, it's wild what it contains. You'll see. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
302 - Capers

302 - Capers

2025-05-1501:11:43

Okay the rumors that we like every supers game are scurrilous, devious, and increasingly accurate. This is Capers, and it's a supers game set in a slightly less socially shitty 1920s, which is a neat thing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
301 - The Arcanum

301 - The Arcanum

2025-05-0144:53

Hi folks, let's start up another 300 of these, what do you say? This one is about The Arcanum, an early 80s game that sure seems similar for some reasons (the same reasons they always do? Probably!) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
300 - Palladium Fantasy

300 - Palladium Fantasy

2025-04-1601:39:37

Well that certainly was 300 times we did a thing, I tell you what! Let's take a little victory lap by cracking open a cask we've been saving for a special occasion, a feisty little 1983 vintage called Palladium Fantasy that definitely isn't just dust and vinegar by this point, right? Right? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
299 - Bleeding Heart

299 - Bleeding Heart

2025-04-0101:01:04

We're hard at work on our giant pile of weird old box sets, and that means it's time for Bleeding Heart, a game that Jon assures me is loosely based on something called the Corman Poe film era of the mid-sixties, and he's a total horror nerd so I gotta go with him on this one. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
298 - Wild West

298 - Wild West

2025-03-1901:13:09

I really hope you're enjoying this string of very old games, we're doing our best to get back into them quickly (ever since I found one of my old box sets fully eaten by bugs and had to fumigate). In this case, it's a game about real old timey cowboys! Like Boot Hill but not TSR! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Comments (4)

Azrael Domonov

This show has a great sense of humor, and can really introduce you to the sheer variety of rpgs out there.

Feb 13th
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doug jean

Oof. I wanted to like this podcast. I've heard about it before, and the concept sounded fun, so I finally gave it a spin. I'm not sure what I expected, but this wasn't it.

Sep 23rd
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Anthony Goff

tldl: this game is bad because hp was a racist

Jun 8th
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Anthony Goff

I don't really get the weird moralizing about the parody lore

Dec 6th
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