You’re not being forced to record a podcast. And nobody’s impressed when an RPG nerd is super performative about not “knowing about” or liking specific systems. You know, if you don’t want to read a certain book and record a podcast about it… you don’t have to! You can just choose not to. This doesn’t have to be a grind or a hustle. You can’t be making much money from this anyway. Focus on your job at Jack in the Box instead.

Wanted to like this, but it ends up being 1 of 2 types of episodes: “here’s a game we played when we were 14 and so it must be good” or “I don’t know anything about this game’s source material and can’t be bothered to learn about it, so I’m just going to do some catty trash talk about it.”

This is good ear food, do yourself a favor and listen then give them tons of money on Patreon.

thank you

Crass, loud, inane banter and horribly unfunny. Often ignorant about the topics they go on and about and wrong several times in the episodes I struggled through.

All the news you can’t use about old, usually bad tabletop RPGs! I came for the reviews and stayed for the humor.

My brother introduced me to System Mastery and ever since I’ve been a fan. The hosts review old tabletop RPGs and crack jokes throughout.

They give you everything you need to know to feel like you know the game, condensed down into one funny hour. It’s a great way to go from knowing about only a handful of rpgs to knowing about a vast array of weird games.

Woke, vulgar, hard leftists that are suffering liberal guilt. Maybe it’s for you. Not as much for me.

Jon and Jef have taught me a lot about designing TTRPGs over the years, and made it fun along the way. To clarify: they don't provide instruction on good game design, but they do point out the many and varied errors of RPG design over the years. If my own RPG ever is published, I'll at least be making all-new design errors!

Great discussion of the good and the bad in RPG games. Well-deserved roasts of the worst games, and well-deserved praise for the best features of many games. The hosts are, of course, highly opinionated, but it's easy to disregard their dumber opinions because they honestly do provide a lot of useful detail, and it's easy to use that to figure out what will work well in your games. Perhaps it's intended ironically, but the humor is 100% straight-college-bro humor. So many dick jokes. It gets tiresome fast.

They haven’t yet defeated the two white dudes talking about D&D trope of being unexplainably angry and demanding about most interactions with the world. I really liked them until they continually would complain about other podcasts I liked. If you put an ad on the Flop House you’ll start to get some shared listeners with them. Maybe don’t bash The Flop House so much, because you may be getting new listeners that are more invested in them than in you.

Apparently I can listen to these two nerds talk about anything for an hour and have a blast, as evidenced by the Fenton Rises episode. Also I enjoyed the Kids Incorporated reference, and yes I stopped the podcast in order to inflict the Land of Confusion music video on my teenage son.

The podcast presents a fun and and entertaining critique on the tarot hobby throughout its many years

I decided to listen to the podcast after hearing about it on the Flophouse and this podcast brings back many memories of old role playing games.

Definitely staying for the Goof Troop slash and Krull references!

I've been listening to System Mastery for years. Jef & Jon are really good together (you don't record 100+ episodes with someone you're not good with though). They're funny and have some good gaming insight too. If I ever wrote a rpg, I probably wouldn't want them to review it because they make fun of everything, but they bring up some good points and notice good things about even the worst games.

Some good stuff but these guys sometimes try too hard for laughs. Also come on guys 4th Ed blows

System Mastery features reviews of (usually) defunct and (usually) terrible RPGs. The hosts, Jon and Jef, have great rapport and an even back and forth style that's both informative and hilariously funny. It's one of my current go-to podcasts for just something to listen to and laugh at.

If you love role playing games and comedic commentary then boy do I have a podcast for you

Really the best fish taco I've ever had.

This podcast is great. Its full of awful jokes, gags that run on too long, and just the worst rpg’s you can find. It’s the perfect intersection of comedy roast and tabletop rpgs. It’s a specific brand of humor that might not be for everyone, but it definitely works for me.

A hilarious hour and a half of bad rpg reviewing. Yeah, they sometimes go on tangents, yeah, they sometimes say immature things,and yeah,sometimes they're really 17 elephants, but I think that adds something to the show.

There are three different shows here, put on by two hilarious improv actors. 1) System Mastery, where they review (mostly) old, bad RPGs. My favorite series: they review both the good and bad parts of a game, and occasionally find a gem they'd love to play. They often stay mostly on-topic, with occasional digressions and rants. 2) Afterthoughts, where they spend about 5 minutes on a slightly-RPG-themed very-random intro, 10 minutes talking more about the game they reviewed in System Mastery, and 45 minutes doing improv-humor while answering listener questions that are only occasionally relevant to RPGs. I'm less fond of this show than I am of System Mastery, but it's still good. 3) Expounded Universe, where they rip apart Star Wars Expanded Universe books. I don't like this show - they're just ripping apart books which are clearly written for an adolescent-male audience. Frankly, you can rip apart *most* YA novels, and it feels like they're just shooting fish in a barrel. I've read a few Star Wars novels, and the quality is *definitely* variable, but I just couldn't get into this one - after listening to the first two Expounded Universe shows, I simply marked the rest as read so I won't have to hear any more. 4) There are occasional Actual Plays of various games, where they bring on a few guests to get enough players. They're generally good.

I'm not going to write a long review, because either you listen or you don't. If you don't, stop what you're doing and go push play. Shoo.

First off, I love the podcast. It's actually the only podcast I back with Patreon. The sense of humor and the tear-down of out-of-print crappy games are great. I think that while the profanity is defintely among the ingredients that makes the show what it is, there are times it just seems childish, like a little kid being proud of saying, "Poopy" and not getting caught. It's not one that you can binge listen to, but that said, it's definitely worth checking out.

I love these guys, they do a good job deconstructing some of these old games while still having plenty of witty banter.

Maybe I am just childish, but I find all their episodes utterly hilarious. I often get mad when my podcasts veer off course terribly, but I guess these guys dont bother me as much as they should.

I only listen to to this show for donkey talk. I wish it was more predictable. Oh and the rpg reviews are pretty great too

These guys are hilarious and a joy to listen too. The comedic bits and in jokes are great, especially the intros. I've learned a lot about RPG mechanics and what makes then work or not, from listening to this podcast. It has made me a better player and DM/GM from taking their advice. Cheese Dude's, Huge McDuck, and fat knife clowns are just some of the greatness that awaits you!

A fun show where everything they talk about stinks at face value. I really liked it, but after binging several episodes in a row it began to wear on me. Still, fun and well recorded.

You know when you find an rpg you really like, that has flaws and no one you know will play? They do! Jeff & Jon are funny, jerk, nerds that play off each other in an amusing breakdown of various games.

meanest geeks ever. i love it. they hold nothing back. you know those horrible travel shows where everything they eat tastes good - this is not that show. keep being awesome - we love the show.

Jeff and Jon are two great hosts that use wit and clever words to make boring game reviews of old games come alive and jump out of your speakers at you, kiss you gently then climb back in and continue on with the show. funny, interesting and not just a glossed over review.

This podcast makes me happy with its mix of humor, knowledge and RPG! Listening to the some of the terrible games I have played in the past really makes me love this podcast so much!

The guys wax hilarious on old, mostly terrible tabletop RPGs. If you want to know how NOT to design a game, listening to this podcast is a master class. If you just want to laugh your butt off, you're also in the right place. Definitely worth your time!

If you are looking for a podcast where two ridiculous guys tear apart old rpgs along with plenty of jokes, then you've come to the right place. I came for the rpgs and stayed for Jon and Jef's amazing sense of humor. Unlike many people, they realize you don't need to be offensive to be funny. I'm also a huge fan of how they analyze the sexism, racism, and homophobia of these old rpgs!

If you're the kind of person who enjoys spending an afternoon in reading through an old RPG that you will probably never actually play, but you don't have the time or resources to read through an entire book every other week, then listening to this podcast is the next best thing. This is like asking your friends to read through a book for you, and then give you the highlights. Really, they're doing a public service for us all.

I mean this as the highest level of praise. It's two genuinely affable guys talking about a subject they obviously love and being hilarious in the process. This message is in no way paid for by Tom Porkodillo and the fine folks down at Cheese Dudes.

Though you two are super wrong about Illinois*, I still love this show. Their chemistry is fantastic and I really feel like I could be friends with either of you, but I am friends with lots of beardos so that does not mean much. The inside jokes and references can be daunting for newbies, but the payoff is so worth it. All in all these two progressive minded friends who love games are worth listening to! Check them out! *Southern Illinois, while full of backwards hicks also has some amazing hiking trails and is a super nice place.

On episode 45 at the moment. It has been great! Glad to have so much to get caught up on!

I have been listening to Jef and Jon for almost a year now and am working my way through the archives for a second time. No matter how poor the game, the guys manage to provide a fun listening experience as they hammer out the issues with the game or just riff on assorted nonsense.

As someone interested in game design myself, I find the mechanical breakdowns really informative-- as fun as it can be to just rag on a bad old game, they genuinely give some of the better ones a fair shake, or describe WHY a mechanic is frustrating or unbalanced. Jef and Jon are funny guys who clearly go way back. Every so often they'll go off the rails on an Afterthought bit or say something I can't really agree with, but it's pretty obvious that this is a thing they're doing for themselves first and foremost, and I can respect that.

These guys are a pleasure to listen to. They're impressively dedicated to diving into awful games of the past, and they almost always come up with a few criticisms of the games that are insightful as well as funny. I've learned more about how systems can and should go together from listening to these guys parse out what exactly is wrong with old games than from over two decades of GMing in normal, not-too-terrible systems. You wouldn't think that knowing what went wrong in Haven: City of Violence, Vanishing Point, or Don't Look Back: Terror is Never Far Behind would help me create streamlined house rules to fix small problems in normal games, but it does.

This podcast is two dudes who sound alike and are both missing letters from their names (Jef, Jon, don't ask) doing bits regarding a variety of nerdy and niche topics, including karaoke, cheese purveying restaurants, anime, comic books, movies, and a stupid bro-country song about donkeys. Lots of referential humor and inside jokes. Sometimes they talk about roleplaying games. Five stars.

Outstanding, and bring back fond gaming memories from the 80s and 90s. Hope they keep putting out vitriol and bike for years to come!

These guys are great! I affectionately refer to them as "trash-casters" rather than podcasters. I listened to a few later episodes, and then went back to listen from the start. I was surprised at how formal they began! This podcast is a wild ride, from start to finish. They have me in stitches most of the time! I love their sense of humor, and their devil-may-care attitudes!

Those who love the famous hard to find cheese dudes refer aunt in Vegas will love this show

It's like hanging out with your best friends only you don't have to smell them in person. Great mix of humor and review keeps me looking forward to each new episode.

Unfunny, offensive, and full of misinformation. Did these guys even play 7th Sea?