My Life With Master - Critical Reception

Critical Reception

My Life with Master won the 2004 Diana Jones Award. In addition, it also won the 2003 Out of the Box Award for Best Sui Generis RPG and the 2003 Indie Roleplaying Game of the Year.

Steve Darlington, in his review, stated that "even if you never play this game, you will be smarter simply for having read it" since "it quickly becomes hard to distinguish choice of attributes from a high-level academic deconstruction of the character tropes in gothic horror films at a level which could easily be found on a college reading list." He also said that it is "one of the very few horror games that may actually need disclaimers, and maybe even safe words too" for its "darker subtext" about escaping from abusive relationships.

According to Heather Barnhorst "Czege writes with wit and doesn't fear to let his understanding of game theory shine through. Colin Theriot's illustrations evoke exactly the right mood for the setting and are enjoyable as stand-alone art."

Reviewer Matthew Pook warned that "Despite the simplicity of the mechanics ... they are not as clearly written as they need to be ... The GM will need to make a close read of the otherwise well-written text to help grasp how the outcome of a scene will alter a minion's statistics." He concluded his review stating "although not going to be everyone's cup of tea, My Life With Master is the most interesting roleplaying game released this year and perhaps the most challenging."

Game designer Greg Costikyan said that "My Life with Master works because Czege has chosen as the theme for his game a story genre (Gothic horror) that has a defined narrative arc: hubris and terror, followed by a fall" and that "It evokes emotions and feelings rare in games".