Been running Masks for a few sessions now, and come across a bit of a problem. One of my players, a Janus, has an obligation of ‘delivery person’ and I’m really stuck on how to bring this into focus/what to do with it. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas that I could use?
Been running Masks for a few sessions now, and come across a bit of a problem.
Been running Masks for a few sessions now, and come across a bit of a problem.
Keep in mind the obligation exists because the Janus desperately needs that job. The money makes a difference to them, perhaps because it keeps their family in shelter or because they need to prove they are responsible to avoid some kind of consequence.
You might also ask some following questions- What kind of delivery person? Amazon? Uber? Pizza? Are there places they have to go they do not want to? What makes their job harder? Who is it that they work with that they are trying to avoid, and why?
Once there is a reason for them to care and a set of relationships, insert a disruption. The classic Spider Man disruption is a tension between their heroic and mundane responsibilities. An example: the hero stops to rescue a person from a burning building, but the pizza gets to the address late and the cost comes out of the character’s pocket. If they screw up again they will lose their job, and they now do not have enough money to pay for the books they need for class.
More fun you can have is while the Janus is in their mundane persona doing deliveries, expose them to things their super-hero would be more appropriate to deal with.
Have them deliver stuff to the bad-guys’ base. If the packages don’t arrive on time and in good condition, the Janus might lose her job. But if it does arrive, the villains will use it to do something horrible. What will the Janus do?
Have them overhear sounds of violence as they are doing a delivery. Do they break in and put a stop to it, even if doing so risks exposing their mundane persona? Or do they let that go until their team can take care of it, possibly feeling guilty forever because it didn’t have to be so bad if they hadn’t waited?
Have the boss call in the middle of the team taking care of something important, because the other employees are all sick or whatever and someone desperately needs to cover or they could all be out of business. Maybe they’re all sick because of what the team is trying to deal with. Does the Janus stick with the team, or go out delivering and save the company in its time of need?
Another thing that “Delivery Person” is good for is providing an opportunity for them to mix up their identities. You might not be able to get through this traffic jam in your beat-up delivery van, but you could with your rocket boots. Is that something you would do? Or is that crossing a line in some way.
It doesn’t always have to be a negative either. And it really depends on what is being delivered. But….
There’s a bit in Justice League Unlimited where the crew needs to go incognito for awhile (see the scene here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5RRWEYBZY4). Ninja supposedly also disguised themselves, not as black-clad stalkers, but as common citizens, beggars, and so on – people who could blend in.
How many offices are in downtown Halcyon City? How many of them have deliveries from companies like Fedex? It’s a natural human reaction to be social and helpful, so if a guy with a uniform and a package is stuck outside a locked door, somebody might let him in. Some offices cater food for their late-working employees. And so on. There’s so many ways for a delivery person to get in and out. If something needs to be obtained from such a place, or the team needs to do recon on a layout, sometimes the best way is to look like you belong.
This angle doesn’t put pressure on the Janus to pick an identity. Rather, it reminds them why they keep paying the price of maintaining both identities.
youtube.com – Flash, Batman and Superman Unmasked
Get the player to help you define at least one coworker and the boss. Make a point of mentioning them or playing out mini-scenes with them every session, so the job has some narrative weight. Then you can bring them in on a missed roll or to complicate the Janus’ life and it won’t feel mechanical. The coworker can be a nice connection to the world of normal Halcyon teenagers, if they invite the PC to a house party or involve them in their messy social life.
Just wanted to say thanks for all these ideas; on the back of this I had a chat about some of these things with the relevant player and we came up with some really interesting ways to codify how his work impacts his superhero life, and how we can pull on them together. So, yeah, this really helped me figure things out 🙂