System Mastery

Well, this might be divisive, if we hadn't spent years discussing how we feel about ol' John Wick and his famously terrible advice. But what about his games? Well, let's look at Orkworld, a game about Orcs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Travel through time at the behest of a futuristic society at the end of time? Sounds familiar! But before you break out the Wyld Stallyns shirt, let me burst your bubble by saying this actually has a weird war game at its weird core. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi everyone! You'll never guess that now the other one of us has COVID. This stupid planet and country. Anyway, this game is about people learning lessons in a primordial garden from the animals that live there. Cool, right? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Part of wallowing in weird old stuff unfortunately is that it's hard to keep abreast of what's going on in the last decade or so of gaming, but Jef still pretty much orders any superhero thing if he sees it on sale, and that's what happened here! This time it paid off even, as Spectaculars turned out to be in a form factor neither of us expected but both of us enjoyed, so let us tell you all about it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pssst, hey buddy, wanna buy a superhero game from 2002 that was pretty clearly written prior to 1999? How? Oh, let us explain. It's Modern Knights! At least we know that much. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey who likes lesbians what have swords and powerful yearnings related to the other sword-bearing lesbians they encounter on their wild adventures? You I bet! Let's review this game for the end of Pride Month, because we were in a hurry and this one has a big old gay word right there in the title. Nothing's gayer than swords! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This one is close to home, we both sorta like this game, used to play the wargame, and wish it all was still good. But times change. But hey, what do we think of this game now? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is it too late to call this a theme month? Because it turned out to be a theme month. Cool minimalist projects by designers we like. Weird! The Skeletons is a thoughtful game about playing as skeletons guarding a tomb, by Jason Morningstar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Who says we can't do cool modern design reviews? Or interview the cool working designers of today that make them? Whoever said that, lemme at 'em! Today we're discussing For The Queen, a game we both enjoy enough to also want get Alex Roberts (already our expert dog correspondent if you're in the Patreon) to join us to talk about her awesome game and the new edition of it that will be out the same day as this episode! (that's synergy) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Who would have thought this weird little collaborative storytelling shared narrative exercise game could be so divisive? We discuss Muse, a game that uses cards and tokens and lots of paper to help you and your group tell a story and definitely not make everyone hate each other, at all. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fine, we finished it. This was truly just an awful thing to keep reading through, I think it's been a while since we've both been this angry. Anyway, if you come support us on Patreon to hear the bonus content, we couldn't be assed to make Aria characters. They suck. So we made characters in the game LIFTS instead, which doesn't suck. This is your update on that topic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yeah yeah, we hit pause on Aria, we just couldn't deal with that noise anymore. Instead, it's time to dive into the ever-generous well of dumb OGL titles, with this bizarre 2002 Fantasy Strike classic, in which the authors really really want you to know about beach lifeguards and how important and cool and... military they are. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Show update first, everything's been a bit late because of travel and the deadly scary norovirus, which isn't pretty. Sorry about that. Show news on this episode? The sound a shudder that indicates a man has seen too much, written down, thank you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gather up, all you various tankers, scrapper, controllers, uhhh... that healer one... I'm just kidding I loved this game. It's City of Heroes, sort of! Insofar as it's a Unisystem take on the popular superhero MMO. Some of one. This is just an old playtest doc. We talk about why and what and all the rest today! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This was a tough read. Active Exploits is more of a toolkit than a game, but despite basically having every possible tool any kit could ever have, especially for a diceless engine, we still just aren't seeing how the numbers line up. But hey, who knows, right? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices