PODCAST · leisure
System Mastery
by Jef Aldrich and Jon Taylor
Jef and Jon review old roleplaying games
Episodes
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338 - Very Horror Stories
Welcome to Trashween! It's all garbage this time, baby! This game isn't awful, but it is trash-themed. Stay tuned for next time! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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337 - Double Cross
Big old anime RPG, and actually from Japan for once! Vaguely superhero but realistically sorta shonen, let's talk about Double Cross. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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336 - MisAdventures
Finally, everyone's favorite thing, a universal OSR system! And in such a straightforward and simple 36 pages! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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335 - Tide Breaker
It's a rules light game! By which of course we mean it has like several hundred rules, but none of them are especially heavy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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334 - Delta Green
Well, at least now people can't keep asking us to talk about it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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333- Marvel Heroic Roleplaying LIVE
Recorded live at GenCon 2026, this episode sounds like fuzzy butt because we didn't have a way to test the house equipment. If you can endure it, you're the true Marvel Hero (ic roleplaying RPG). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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332 - 13th Age
Well, I guess it's better than 5e. How's the 2nd edition of this? Obviously we're taking them in order. Sound off in the comments and smash that like and subscribe or whatever the youtubers say. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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331 - Blood and Vigilance
Shoot, we accidentally made a supplement episode. I thought this was a core book! Oh well, it's basically a superhero patch to be applied to D20 Modern, so at least it's sorta interesting to take a look at! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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330 - Justice League Unlimited Preview
We've been pretty clear in our Marvel fanboy natures, especially when it comes to comics (we're pretty equal opportunity with films and cartoons), but that doesn't mean we can't pay equal time when the Distinguished Competition also puts out a preview version of their new RPG, so here we are…
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329 - Jukebox
Hey how about we let Jon pick a game, that's what I said. And then of course the moment I said okay we get a game with a karaoke mechanic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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328 - Heavy Metal Thunder Mouse
I still can't remember if this is our first FATE game or not, I think it might be? It's about mice, that are bikers. There's also frogs and stuff. It's fun. Let's talk about it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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327 - Alternity
Sci-fi, TSR style. I can't figure out why I thought this would be D&D based, maybe because it came out so late in the TSR lifecycle that I thought it was WOTC? Anyway, it's certainly interesting to talk about! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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326 - Ryutaama
Okay at this point I think it's starting to get obvious that the two of us are down with the cozy games. This one is cute as heck. Get on a little journey. Jef is only moderately puzzled by some decisions! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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325 - Root RPG
Sure it's PBTA but really we want to talk about the rare-ish process by which specifically board games become specifically RPGs. Plus these animals kill each other and are cute. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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324 - Zenescope Presents: The Dark Age RPG
Western boob comics! Remember these? They've long since supplanted by that single mega milk manga image, you know the one. Anyway somewhere between the original Vampirella and that, there were a bevy of buxom comics companies that made titles like Gen13, Red Sonja, Danger Girl, and more. And also...
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323 - Dragonbane
Let's take a look at a game out of Sweden, née as Drakar Och Demoner, a classic dungeon crawl game with fairly simple mechanics, sleek layout, and pretty nice art. But does it have enough other stuff to get to good? Well, let's talk it out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit...
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322 - Incursion
Find out which one of us gets mad enough to break the no research rule as we dive in to discuss this game of alien abduction and intergalactic comedy exploration from the far off year of 1992. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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321 - Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai
Just one of your everyday run of the mill licensed games made out of Jim Jarmusch movies. Can't tell you how sick I am of playing Palladium's version of Down By Law. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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320 - Amazing Engine, Bughunter
Fine you want major trash that time forgot? You got it, buster. You're gonna sit write there while we review the whole pack. Of Amazing Engine, from TSR Games in 1993. And also Bughunter, one of the games it... sorta powers. It's complicated. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit...
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319 - Red Dwarf
Who's ready for licensed comedy property RPGs? These are always the best, am I right? Today is Red Dwarf, an RPG based on a British comedy sci-fi series. And boy is it ever something. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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318 - Man, Myth & Magic
Two games in one box? What a bargain! MM&M here comes with basic and advanced rulesets for its historical fantasy Earth setting, though the differences are so odd that it's almost like two (bad) games! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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317 - Fabula Ultima
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...
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316 - Truth & Justice
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
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315 - Companion's Tale
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
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314 - Laser Kittens
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
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313 - 1978 (The Night They Came Home)
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...
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312 - Army of Darkness
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....
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311 - Tales from the Floating Vagabond 2e, Part 2: An Interview
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....
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310 - Tales from the Floating Vagabond 2e
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…
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309 - Invisible Sun Lore
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
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308 - Invisible Sun
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...
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307 - Micro Game Roundup 2
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…
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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. Learn more about…
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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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit...
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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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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303 - Superhero 2044
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
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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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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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!) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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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? Learn...
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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. Learn more about…
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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! Learn more about...
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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…
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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...
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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? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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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). Learn more about your…
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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…
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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,...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Jef and Jon review old roleplaying games
HOSTED BY
Jef Aldrich and Jon Taylor
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does System Mastery have?
System Mastery currently has 347 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is System Mastery about?
Jef and Jon review old roleplaying games
How often does System Mastery release new episodes?
System Mastery publishes regularly with 347 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to System Mastery?
You can listen to System Mastery on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts System Mastery?
System Mastery is created and hosted by Jef Aldrich and Jon Taylor.
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