Aliens, Cyborgs, Mutants, and Stage Magicians share the pages of the 1998 classic “Heroes Unlimited.” We dive into the odd but oddly beautiful Palladium Games engine, discuss the plight of the mutant animal in a world that rejects them, and try to figure out how to destroy the invincible door in the first ever episode of System Mastery. Enjoy!
System Mastery 
Nice podcat!
Re-listening to some of these older episodes. You guys need to do more Palladium games. Maybe a whole Rifts series or something. This is too much fun.
They’ve released newer versions of Rifts (I mean, they didn’t change a thing, but whatever), so you can do the first version.
Also, whatever happened to this Batman rpg?
The Batman RPG is still on my shelf and isn’t anywhere near as interesting as we thought it might be.
There are plenty of Palladium Books still coming out. :)
Oh yeah, I hope Simbieda never stops. I’m not sure what we said different but then again you’re telling that to 2013 Jef and Jon and those guys are dead and buttholes besides.
Hi! I’ve just started listening to your podcast, and you’re funny as hell, so you can probably expect to see some comments from me over the next few weeks.
Regarding Heroes Unlimited, I just wanted to say that you’re totally right about how it’s better to just ignore the mechanics entirely. I played in a game that started as HU and eventually went deep space insanity; it lasted for several years and after the first few weeks didn’t involve dice at all. Balance is a laughable concept in this system, but it’s still got some merit. ;)
Honestly the random roll thing in these games is a terrible rule and usually ends in nonsensical characters. The only way to play these systems is to allow the players to -choose- their powers. My GM had a system where he gave us like, 5 points. Minor powers cost 1 point, major powers cost 2 points and mega powers cost 3 points (is he was allowing them). Ended up with decent thematic characters.
I just want to point out, that on re-listening to this, most of the random tables allow you to choose. For instance, the Mega-Hero Power chart on pg. 181 says “Select one or roll….” That’s pretty standard for Palladium Games products.
I love me some Rifts! I was laughing so hard I farted in my cubicle at work while listening. Fuckin’ Cosmo Knights!
oops, this was supposed to be on episode 71.
Hi, was trying to go back and relisten to this podcast, and found that none of the feeds/etc I can find, whether through my podcasting app or elsewhere, that will let me listen through said app, seem to include anything older than ep 95. Obviously it’s still available here on this site, but that doesn’t work particularly well with anything else, app-wise.
Is there some way to make the older episodes continue to be available? I’d love to listen again, after having dropped off for some reason I don’t remember but likely amounts to “irl sucks,” but… I can’t find it within myself to start at anything other than the actual beginning of the podcast, nor to listen without the controls I’m familiar with on my podcasting app.
If there’s nothing to be done, I suppose that’s all there is to it, but I hope that’s not the case.
Ah, Heroes Unlimited or False Advertising as I call it.
The character creation might give you idea for a character in a better supers RPG like DC Heroes/Blood of Heroes.