So…I’ll be running my first sessions of Masks this weekend. I’ve run a bunch of DW and a little bit of AW. First session advice? What to avoid? What definitely to do? Any advice is welcome! Thanks.
So…I’ll be running my first sessions of Masks this weekend.
So…I’ll be running my first sessions of Masks this weekend.
Inform your players on what themes Masks explores, if you haven’t already. Make sure your players understand the themes of the particular playbooks. You don’t want someone to pick a Bull and then downplay their Love and Rival, because then they’ve not made a Masks character.
Try to get a decent amount of material out of your table at the start. In terms of heroes, villians, loved ones, anything you can put back into the story that the characters might have reactions to beyond “beat it up and throw it in prison.”
Speaking of which, emphasize the fact that they are teenagers going through teenager-y stuff first, and superheroes punching bad guys second. This goes back to my first point, so apparently I’ve run out of advice.
https://plus.google.com/communities/110704683035976001273/s/running%20first%20session
You don’t really need to come up with a villain for the first session; just come up with a villainous situation, and use one of the villains that the playbook questions generate. You’ll have a few to work with by the end of character creation, I promise, and like pretty much any pbta game they’re mechanically very simple.
Also: make sure your villain talks. Constantly. Threats, taunts, whatever, just keep the banter going. Tell someone who they are or how the world works at least once, because it’s an awesome mechanic and it gets players invested in and thinking about the relationships the game builds.
Familiarize yourself with the playbook-specific GM moves for your table’s characters, they’re a really great resource. Also, remember you need to make a move when a villain takes a condition, and hit them hard when you do; it’s the easiest way to keep the situation exciting, as any fight with a villain should be.
One last trick: for the team pool, when they go into the fight ask who the team leader is and what their primary purpose in the fight is, then ask if anyone else has a different purpose. It’s the simplest way to suss out any differences in goals, since that’s an easy question to roll over on. It’s good to establish who the team leader is early on anyway.
Definitely hold back heroes from pre answering the origin questions in their playbook till you’re answering them together.
It definitely helps when it’s a group discussion.