System Mastery 294 – OGL Ancients

System Mastery – System Mastery

System Mastery 294 – OGL Ancients

32:48

America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders is back for its second season! Kay Adams welcomes the women who assemble the squad, Kelli Finglass and Judy Trammell, to the Netflix Sports Club Podcast. They discuss the emotional rollercoaster of putting together the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. Judy and Kelli open up about what it means to embrace flaws in the pursuit of perfection, how they identify that winning combo of stamina and wow factor, and what it’s like to see Thunderstruck go viral. Plus, the duo shares their hopes for the future of DCC beyond the field. Netflix Sports Club Podcast Correspondent Dani Klupenger also stops by to discuss the NBA Finals, basketball’s biggest moments with Michael Jordan and LeBron, and Kevin Durant’s international dominance. Dani and Kay detail the rise of Coco Gauff’s greatness and the most exciting storylines heading into Wimbledon. We want to hear from you! Leave us a voice message at www.speakpipe.com/NetflixSportsClub Find more from the Netflix Sports Club Podcast @NetflixSports on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and X. You can catch Kay Adams @heykayadams and Dani Klupenger @daniklup on IG and X. Be sure to follow Kelli Finglass and Judy Trammel @kellifinglass and @dcc_judy on IG. Hosted by Kay Adams, the Netflix Sports Club Podcast is an all-access deep dive into the Netflix Sports universe! Each episode, Adams will speak with athletes, coaches, and a rotating cycle of familiar sports correspondents to talk about a recently released Netflix Sports series. The podcast will feature hot takes, deep analysis, games, and intimate conversations. Be sure to watch, listen, and subscribe to the Netflix Sports Club Podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Tudum, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes on Fridays every other week.…

about a year ago

MP3•Episode home

It’s what it says! Though it’s adding a lot of stuff to the venerable old combat engine of 3.X OGL, it’s an OGL game where you play as primarily Greeks and Egyptians from antiquity (you can get a Scythian or someone from Thessaly in if you want, it’s just not a great plan).

Announcement Mastery

Coffee, Cults, and Empires is a brand new AP launching February 2025 that is a story, within a story, within a festive autumnal squash. Wait, no, it’s within a third story! Hang out with the intern that takes down the story of several professors playing RPGs as the world around them prepares to end!

315 episodes

System Mastery 294 – OGL Ancients

System Mastery – System Mastery

19 subscribers

published about a year ago

MP3•Episode home

System Mastery 294 – OGL Ancients

Announcement Mastery

315 episodes

All episodes

1
System Mastery 306 – The Expanse

7 days ago

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System Mastery 306 – The Expanse 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.…

1
System Mastery 305 – Time Lord

21 days ago

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System Mastery 305 – Time Lord 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.

1
System Mastery 304 – Runequest (1984)

5 weeks ago

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System Mastery 304 – Runequest (1984) 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. Neon City Outlaws! Go support an awesome game, you’ve got like two days and a late pledge window if you’re lucky! Jef’s been reading it and it’s so good!…

1
System Mastery 303 – Superhero 2044

7 weeks ago

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System Mastery 302 – Capers 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. Mutants From the Archives: Pet Shop Blues Kickstarter ! Go support this at once, you! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arbco/mutants-from-the-archives-pet-shop-blues jk! Games site: j-k.games…

1
System Mastery 302 – Capers

9 weeks ago

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System Mastery 302 – Capers 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.

1
System Mastery 301 – The Arcanum

11 weeks ago

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System Mastery 301 – The Arcanum 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!

1
System Mastery 300 – Palladium Fantasy

13 weeks ago

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System Mastery 300 – Palladium Fantasy 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? Announcement Mastery! Check out Gamer Mom: The Mom Who Games right now on Kickstarter!…

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System Mastery 299 – Bleeding Heart: A Game of Gothic Romance

15 weeks ago

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System Mastery 299 – Bleeding Heart 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. Announcement Mastery! Obelisk is launching on Kickstarter April 7th. Visit obeliskttrpg.com/kickstarter to get notified when it launches! Help listener Alex Shaw and his family recover from a devastating home fire! https://gofund.me/92b44dd2…

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System Mastery 298 – Wild West

17 weeks ago

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System Mastery 298 – Wild West 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!…

1
System Mastery 297 – Star Trek the Roleplaying Game

19 weeks ago

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System Mastery 297 – Star Trek the Roleplaying Game Can we review an 80s Star Trek game without our pacemakers exploding? What if FASA made it? We’re looking at the Star Trek RPG from roughly 1983, which means (if you’re counting) that it’s based on the original series, the animated series, and the first three films. Is it okay or does it have to go home and copy 10 pages out of the K section of the dictionary? Let’s find out! Go forth and support Celestial Bodies on Kickstarter! It’s a game about harvesting the remnants of dead gods in cool upgradeable mechs out in space, which is… pretty cool really.…

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System Mastery 296 – Lewd Dungeon Adventures

21 weeks ago

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System Mastery 296 – Lewd Dungeon Adventures Finally someone bought that game that advertises on Facebook, and it was us. It’s a fantasy adventure game with some sex-themed rules, but honestly I don’t want to spoil anything here because it’s a tiny wee little game that could never possibly satisfy any REAL gamer. Damn it, still with the jokes. It’s a sex RPG and we read it. That’s for sure. Oh and hey, go support Solo But Not Alone 5 , okay? Good cause. We’re supporting it. You get a lot of solo games for a small amount of money and contribute to a cause that’s literally never been needed more.…

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System Mastery 295 – Insurgent

23 weeks ago

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System Mastery 295 – Insurgent A very quick little modern game designed to be played solo or with a small group but no GM, in which you rebel against something. What do you rebel against? Whattaya got?

1
System Mastery 294 – OGL Ancients

25 weeks ago

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System Mastery 294 – OGL Ancients It’s what it says! Though it’s adding a lot of stuff to the venerable old combat engine of 3.X OGL, it’s an OGL game where you play as primarily Greeks and Egyptians from antiquity (you can get a Scythian or someone from Thessaly in if you want, it’s just not a great plan). Announcement Mastery Coffee, Cults, and Empires is a brand new AP launching February 2025 that is a story, within a story, within a festive autumnal squash. Wait, no, it’s within a third story! Hang out with the intern that takes down the story of several professors playing RPGs as the world around them prepares to end!…

1
System Mastery 293 – Alas Vegas

27 weeks ago

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System Mastery 293 – Alas Vegas This is a little recent for our usual stuff, but Jon was really interested after the Fastlane review to keep looking at games that utilize classic casino games as RPG randomizers, and this one’s a doozy! Combining Blackjack and Tarot stuff, no less! Right in Jon’s very wheelhouse. The game is neat too! There’s a ton in here, it’s definitely one of those big rocks that rolled down a Kickstarter success story and accumulated content as it went, so we made some calls on what to focus on that we’ll explain within. At the end of the day, this is pretty dang neat. Announcement Mastery Ravenswool.com ! Check them out, they make awesome yarn colorways, and they’re even maybe making some based on our very jokes, it’s super cool.…

1
System Mastery 291

30 weeks ago

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System Mastery 292 – Unbidden Back to basics, some game you probably never heard of that we didn’t like. That’s the basic essence of the show, right? It has to come up sometimes. I’m talking about the show here because honestly I can’t think of much to say about this sort of generic “There are secrets in the world that you can’t learn about without going crazy” type game that isn’t already in the episode.…

System Mastery – System Mastery

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System Mastery 291

32 weeks ago

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System Mastery 291 – Fastlane Oh buddy you better believe we love it when the game has a weird alternative randomizing mechanic, and this thing is all about roulette. Yes, it straight up tells you at the start that you can use a digital one or even a dice based approximation, but for max results, you should get a roulette wheel. What else? Well, it’s a generic system besides the ruleset, so we go all in on that.…

System Mastery – System Mastery

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System Mastery 290 – Icarus

34 weeks ago

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System Mastery 290 – Icarus As we bring Sweater Weather to a close we are faced with the realization that we accidentally double-themed this month, since both of these games are explorations of civilizations over time, and in fact would make a pretty good double feature game night played together. Weird! Anyway, this is a little box set where you make a dice tower.…

System Mastery – System Mastery

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System Mastery 289 – The Quiet Year

36 weeks ago

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System Mastery 289 – The Quiet Year Hey folks, welcome to Sweater Weather. We’re going to keep things light and distracting here for the next few months, sweater weather or not, so don’t worry about heavy topics. If you’re looking for a getaway, we got you. Also, this book is about impending change and possible doom. So. You know, we’ll figure it out.…

System Mastery – System Mastery

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System Mastery 288 – Rats!

38 weeks ago

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System Mastery 288 – Rats! So these aren’t really furries, but hey, I think this was just called Hairy Ween, right? Like that sounds more like a dick joke anyway. Anyhow, this book is all about playing as vile, disgusting, brilliant little rats trying to retake the world from the foul humans that don’t deserve it. It’s a mixed bag!…

System Mastery – System Mastery

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System Mastery 287 – Mutants in the Now

40 weeks ago

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System Mastery 287 – Orkworld (Crunch) Blessed Ween everyone! This year we’re focusing on animal inside of us all with a Furry Ween! Or a Hairy Ween! I dunno, whatever, we just wanted to read Mutants in the Now.

System Mastery – System Mastery

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System Mastery 286 – Orkworld (Crunch)

42 weeks ago

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System Mastery 286 – Orkworld (Crunch) Oh, oh no. We thought all the worst stuff was going to be in the fluff and descriptive section. We were wrong. If you’re a fan of angry Jef and Jon, well, you probably already noticed the 84 minute runtime of the episode and got your hopes up, correctly.

System Mastery – System Mastery

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System Mastery 285 – Orkworld (Fluff)

44 weeks ago

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System Mastery 285 – Orkworld (Fluff) 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.

System Mastery – System Mastery

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System Mastery 284 – Time Master

45 weeks ago

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System Mastery 284 – Time Master 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.

System Mastery – System Mastery

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System Mastery 283 – Eden

48 weeks ago

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System Mastery 283 – Eden 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?

System Mastery – System Mastery

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System Mastery 282 – Spectaculars

51 weeks ago

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System Mastery 282 – Spectaculars 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. Announcement Mastery! Develop both company as well as your character as you navigate the downtime phase, prospects of mutiny and the ever-closer reaching hand of old age, as you try to survive in a time of terror, violence and terrifying wickedness. SOUDARD! The Core Rulebook is available on itch.io/soudard-crb as well as DriveThruRPG and will soonish be joined by the campaign which will take you on the journey through the first war and allow you and your friends to experience the late middle ages as never before. SOUDARD!”…

System Mastery – System Mastery

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System Mastery 281 – Modern Knights

1 year ago

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System Mastery 281 – Modern Knights 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.

System Mastery – System Mastery

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System Mastery 280 – Thirsty Sword Lesbians

1 year ago

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System Mastery 280 – Thirsty Sword Lesbians 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! Announcement Mastery! Collapse of the State of Iron is a weird book (definitely read the preview) about the end of a collapsing state, and is available on Amazon right here!…

System Mastery – System Mastery

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System Mastery 279 – Iron Kingdoms

1 year ago

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System Mastery 279 – Iron Kingdoms 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? Announcement Mastery! Branch Riders (which funded in eight hours already) is currently on Kickstarter!…

System Mastery – System Mastery

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System Mastery 278 – The Skeletons

1 year ago

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System Mastery 278 – The Skeletons 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.

System Mastery – System Mastery

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System Mastery 277 – For the Queen (feat. Alex Roberts)

1 year ago

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System Mastery 277 – For The Queen 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) Announcement Mastery Find Amerarcana on Kickstarter between May 14th and June 14th. Search for Amerarcana, spelled A-M-E-R-A-R-C-A-N-A or find it here: https://tinyurl.com/Amerarcanaprelaunch…

System Mastery – System Mastery

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System Mastery 276 – Muse

1 year ago

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System Mastery 276 – Muse 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.…

System Mastery – System Mastery

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System Mastery 275 – Aria: Canticle of the Monomyth (Part 2)

1 year ago

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System Mastery 275 – Aria: Canticle of the Monomyth (Part 2) 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.…

System Mastery – System Mastery

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System Mastery 274 – Tower 22

1 year ago

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System Mastery 274 – Tower 22 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. Announcement Mastery: Seriously, go help out Owen KC Stephens already, get yourself a bundle of goodies and help out a positive force in this industry! https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/473197/owen-kc-stephens-is-rad-bundle…

System Mastery – System Mastery

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System Mastery 273 – Aria: Canticle of the Monomyth

1 year ago

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System Mastery 273 – Aria: Canticle of the Monomyth 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.

System Mastery – System Mastery

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System Mastery 272 – City of Heroes Playtest

1 year ago

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System Mastery 272 – City of Heroes Playtest 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! Today’s Announcement Mastery was brought to you by LET’S QUEST, a non-profit helping to provide fun and learning for kids after school via supplying RPGs and accompanying tools to schools across the US. Learn more, especially about how to assist and contribute, at www.letsquestafterschool.org .…

System Mastery – System Mastery

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System Mastery 271 – Active Exploits

1 year ago

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System Mastery 271 – Active Exploits 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? Today’s Announcement Mastery was brought to you by Perfect Draw!, a tabletop roleplaying game based on the PBTA engine that combines collaborative storytelling with trading card game mechanics in the realms of shows about those games, drawing inspiration from shows such as Duel Masters, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and Cardfight! Vanguard. Back it today while there’s still time at Backerkit using the following link: https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/double-summon-games/perfect-draw-a-ttrpg-about-people-who-play-card-games…

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System Mastery 270 – Marvel Super Heroes Adventure Game

1 year ago

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System Mastery 270 – Marvel Super Heroes Adventure Game I think… I think this is all of them? If you count the review of the Multiverse pre-test (we’ve skimmed the final version, it’s pretty close), then yeah, this is the last of the Marvel licensed RPGs we hadn’t covered yet. Saga edition, with the card deck and one of the two diceless systems. Is it cool? Will it Marvel? Do we have to start tracking down DC games now?…

System Mastery – System Mastery

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System Mastery 269 – Strike!

1 year ago

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System Mastery 269 – Strike! This one is a little near and dear to us, we’ve used it to run Blimpleggers content in the past! Strike! is an RPG that sort of combines the very abstracted narrative structure of a FATE style game with the tactical grid combat of a 4e D&D style game, and for the most part, it works. Let’s talk about how! Announcement Mastery Links Support Solo But Not Alone 4 on itch.io here: https://itch.io/b/2256/solo-but-not-alone-4…

System Mastery – System Mastery

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System Mastery 268 – Crime Scene Police Investigation

2 years ago

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System Mastery 268 – Crime Scene Police Investigation Starting the year off the right way, with a shovelware-style OGL game about playing as real cops. Real boring cops. Announcement Mastery Links Check our Knight: Remastered, now on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/armouredgames/knight-remastered Support Solo But Not Alone 4 on itch.io here: https://itch.io/b/2256/solo-but-not-alone-4…

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System Mastery 267 – Mörk Borg

2 years ago

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System Mastery 267 – Mörk Borg Whoa, the art and layout in this thing is cool! What about the rest of it? Is it also cool? Can love bloom on the retroclone-style battlefield? Well, let’s read it and find out.

System Mastery – System Mastery

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System Mastery 266 – Cozy Town

2 years ago

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System Mastery 266 – Cozy Town Welcome to a charming little community where the townsfolk are all made up and the real world doesn’t matter. It’s Cozy Town, a game that we figured could not have a better title to fit the Sweater Weather time here at the show. Make a whole adorable village, populate it and plan their year of events and charming happenings. It’s cute, basically. Super cute.…

System Mastery – System Mastery

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System Mastery 265 – Monster Care Squad

2 years ago

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System Mastery 265 – Monster Care Squad Oh boy it’s time for Sweater Weather! You know, our now two year running thing where we review specifically non or low-combat games, helping folks learn that there’s more out there than the traditional “put sword into orc” model (you’d be amazed at what people on the internet are putting into orcs these days), and we’re starting this year with Monster Care Squad, a neat game about rescuing wounded monsters in a world that’s evolved past some of the worst instincts of humankind.…

System Mastery – System Mastery

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System Mastery 264 – Monsterhearts

2 years ago

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System Mastery 264 – Monsterhearts Okay, I do have a few more books with Witch in the title, and yes the urge to do Strike Witches was fairly strong, but we’ve been wanting a good excuse to talk Monsterhearts for a while anyway and there’s a witch skin in there so you know, you get what you get. It’s the first edition of one of the biggest PBTA games, in which your high school gets all monster-fied and everyone’s out to mess with everyone else!…

System Mastery – System Mastery

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System Mastery 263 – Witch: Fated Souls

2 years ago

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System Mastery 263 – Witch: Fated Souls It’s witches aplenty this ween, and that means more than just crooked triangle hats, as we see here in a multicultural witch festival including witchy types from all over the world. The game is a little bit White Wolf and a little bit rock and roll, relatively recent, and we’re covering the 1st edition (my understanding is that a second also exists). How powerful are these witches? Let’s find out!…

System Mastery – System Mastery

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System Mastery 262 – Witch Hunt

2 years ago