SystemMastery 30 – The World of Synnibarr 1
The most requested title of all comes to System Mastery! Biogladites (whatever that is), chameleon drakes, and I guess archers engage in insane adventure and deadly battle on a hollowed out Mars thousands of years from now and light years from here. Sound engaging? Well hang on because the rules system is so incredibly crufty and complicated that we barely even talked about it! That’s right, this is our first two-part episode, so tune in and enjoy our attempt to wrap our brains around the ineffable works of mad genius Raven c.s. McCracken, and then join our battered shellshocked husks next week or so to do it again!
Let us know what you thought of Synnibarr in the comments! Have a book you’d us to cover? Let us know about that too.
Editor’s note: A LOT of business travel and personal stuff led to the lateness of this post. We apologize and are now back on our regular schedule!
System Mastery 
I hadn’t thought about it before, but the raccoon with a bazooka actually makes a lot of sense, in the context of everything in the game having been lifted from comic books.
Yeah, it’s pretty clear reading through this that the book was largely inspired by Rifts and comic books. And hair metal boobs. If a copy came with a case of Surge and a gift certificate to Little Caesar’s I think the book would resonate more strongly with a lot of people.
Doesn’t this predate Rifts?
Looking it up, there’s a comment from someone who was part of Raven’s gaming circle in Seattle on the RPGGeek review, and it looks like it was developed concurrently but did come out later. Supposedly a lot of the inspiration comes from Blackmoor, with it’s background of being a medieval society that has sprung up after an advanced civilization collapsed, and the “no limits to your imagination” Judges’ Guild (which is where Siembedia came from). So it’s likely both Synnibar and Rifts sprung from the same well.
Four years late to the party but I would absolutely love if Jef and Jon did a review of the old Judges Guild “Wilderlands of High Fantasy” setting. I’ve been starting to check out the D20 version they released and it straight up has a disclaimer at the beginning that’s all “Okay guys, we know the shit in this book is a balls-to-the-wall crazy amalgamation of Sci-Fi and Fantasy but it was made in the 70s, alright, this shit was normal back then”. It very much feels like the sort of science fantasy genre-bending nonsense of Rifts or Synnibarr but made by people who didn’t have angry Goblins living their skulls.
So… ‘single book system’, I would like to point you towards…. http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Adventurers-Guide-Raven-McCracken/dp/1881171019
Came out a few years later >.>
I have a copy from ‘way back in the day’, actually had a signed copy… The system is great, awesome… and terrible… That said, I enjoyed this never the less… And… >.> I’ve got a copy of the 3rd edition book… as it is, pure nostalgia… And… uhm… not even kind of really as broad or nifty, though it promises 6 books!
And Dark Continent is 10th level and lower, and the Garden (inside of Synnibarr) is 5th level and lower. >.> No, I’ve not totally played this game, heh XD