We had our fifth session of “Mega High”, the superpowered high school game I’ve been running with Masks. This is the session where I felt most comfortable with the rules, so I’m documenting some cool turns and thought processes.
I’m new to PBTA-style games, but not narrative-driven games. So I was a little stymied at first at the narrow channels that the moves funnel into. And GM moves also felt stifling at first. But once I leaned into it and let the system take my weight, I recognized the system’s tremendous potential for churning drama.
Example: I play with a lot of strong character-voice RPers, so it’s not uncommon for (say) the Delinquent and the Transformed to riff off each other in a one-on-one scene where the Delinquent waxes enthusiastic over the Transformed’s scary morph in the last big battle. These are fun, but, in most games, they lack a narrative hook by which I can tie them into the overall story arc.
Fortunately, this past session, I realized that the Delinquent was telling the Transformed who he was / how the world works. “Do you accept his judgment, or do you want to reject his influence?” Suddenly, what would have been a fun but unimpactful throwaway scene had import! Dice hit the table, labels were shifted, and the scene reached a natural, satisfying conclusion.
Once the players realized the potential of the moves, they started stepping up as well. Our newest roleplayer was the first (in our first session, if I remember) to do something drastic in order to clear a condition. We’ve had more heroes doing that since then, and the results always shift the story arc in a permanent way that I couldn’t have expected.
There are still a few stumbling blocks, but I’m much more enthused about using Masks than I was previously.
Thanks for the insights, I haven’t run the game yet but I was thinking some of those things. This helped a lot.
That is really the great thing about PbtA that initially puts traditional players off frequently. They think of the moves as rails they have to ride on, but really they are the supports you build the narrative on.
I was stuck at first because the quickstart, great as it is, doesn’t give a lot of detail to the GM moves. The example of play sent to KS backers last week was a big help in visualizing how play can work.