I’m running Masks at a convention next week. I’m not new to Powered by the Apocalypse games, but I’ve never run Masks before. I’ve read the book, taken notes, and sketched out a scenario, however–I wanted to get some feedback beforehand.
What rules are most likely to be forgotten or misapplied, and how much does it hurt the game when they are?
Of the elements unique to Masks, what seems to be the hardest concept to get across to players, or to grasp when running the game?
When you first ran the game, what surprised you the most that you didn’t expect either from reading through the book or running other AWE games?
Thanks in advance, and wish me luck!
I’m as new to the Apocalypse Engine as I am to Masks, but the thing I’ve noticed in the game I’m playing in is determining when a Move is triggered, and exactly which Move to us.
It helps to thoroughly read through the Moves chapter and be comfortable with how they work.
Oh, and hey, good luck! Let us know how it goes! 🙂
Easiest rule to forget: whenever a villain takes a condition, you have to make a hard move as determined by the condition they take. It’s the main tool to keep fights exciting and escalating even when the heroes are rolling well, and it hurts a lot when you don’t do it.
Also, it’s not a rule, but have your villains talk constantly during the fight! Banter, taunting, evil monologues, it all keeps things fun. And talking encourages the heroes to do the same, which brings in the talking moves like Pierce the Mask and Comfort and Support; since the conditions are all emotional, sufficiently heavy talking can also result in a Powerful Blow or Directly Engage.
Also you’ll want to use Influence to tell a hero who they are or how the world works at some point, and having the villain do it is nice and juicy. Remember that every adult has influence over the heroes, evil adults included.
And when the action is done, take time to let the heroes hang and highlight the team moves (celebration, vulnerability, whatever seems appropriate for their interactions). Also have some epilogue time to look at their civilian lives, especially if you have a Janus.
That said, warning: the team moves are a bit hit or miss, especially when it comes to vulnerabilities. A lot of them suggest further actions that don’t immediately feel related to the trigger of sharing a vulnerability in the first place. All I can tell you is to suggest that the players play into the team moves when they come up, because they do lead to cool moments.
One minor thing: in Pierce the Mask trips people up with the two choices “what are you really planning” and “what do you intend to do?” It’s dumb and confusing wording, but one of them is about the short term and the other is long term. Just ask which one the player wants to know about and that should clear it up.
The hardest concept to grasp is that it’s not really an action game. There’s action there, and it’s cool and fun, but the meat of the game is character drama: who has influence over who, incurring emotional conditions and taking dramatic action to clear those conditions, dealing with growing pains and generational differences. The action and superpowers are there mainly as a framework for that stuff (and yeah, to have fun beating up bad guys).
What surprised me the most was how nicely everything slotted together. The mechanics all feed into one another, and everything that happens suggests a next step to take. It’s the first game where I felt like I knew what I was doing as a GM.
Best of luck to you, and let us know how it goes!
These fellow said it much better than I and nailed it. I think having them understand that the entire game revolves around how the characters see themselves is critical. Along these lines they need to realize that part of their identity as teenagers is that they care how others see them. This is shown in the rules when other PC change your stats around. It is a fantastically wonderful and fun part of the game but needs to be explained.
A think that confused my players was Take A Powerful Blow. It is a roll, you want to loose.
As the GM, it’s critical to recognize when moves are being triggered–and because Masks is very much a game that focuses on the social interaction, many of them can be triggered just by different kinds of talking to each other–that makes it a little bit harder than games that are more action focused. Be careful with the “unleash your powers” move, following the trigger closely. Using powers might actually be engaging, defending, provoking, etc. instead–and don’t use it as the general catch-all. It’s not “Act under fire”.
In my latest game, the rules on how to use the Team Pool (as a team or selfishly) threw my players. I had to reexplain throughout the whole session.
Even “innocent bystander” adults have Influence over the heroes, so having a citizen say, “You’re the best hero ever” or “You’re nothing more than a hoodlum” at the right moment can shift Labels too.
and +1 on everything else said above
I ran my first session Sunday. First I want to say I was amazed at how well everything clicked together. This system was my first time running AWE, and it went great overall. Things I overlooked:
1. NPCs make a move every time they get a condition. I completely forgot to do this. James Etheridge just to clarify the book specifically recommends soft, not hard moves in that scenario: “make [a move] immediately after they take the condition. these should almost always be softer moves, setting up future action and results. “(p. 149)
2. the doom track. I had a player who was new to RPGs pick the Doomed. They set up a lot of great hooks and nemesis but I didn’t end up using any of them. I might recommend leaving the Doomed out of your game for a oneshot.
3. difference between ‘unleash powers’ and ‘directly engage’. I erred on the side of using unleash powers when i wasn’t sure. I probably should have gone the other way.
Things I wanted to go better:
1. clarifying what abilities and their limits. we spent a lot of time midscene defining the limitations of abilities. I think that is intentional but I would have liked to talk about how each player saw their abilities working ahead of time. e.g. the Doomed chose ‘psychic constructs’ but had very different ideas than I did about what that meant.
2. Spotlight management/scene setting. This is a problem area in all AWE, but it was something I want to do better. I had trouble engaging more cautious players. They were not grasping the “if you want to do something, do it” philosophy, so as a result they weren’t engaged in the fiction as well. I may try implementing MHR/cortex initiative if I run it again.
3. Banter. I totally blanked on mid fight banter. I had 2 villains to keep track of and neither had a very engaging personality at the table.
As for surprises, they were all positive. Players took well to character creation and the system as a whole. I really couldn’t have asked for a better session.
I ran my first game of Masks on Saturday. Lots of Masks GM rookies posting here.
It took a little while for the table to clarify how Influence worked, but once it clicked the game really took off. As a GM I loved being able to challenge players beyond simply beating them up. Damage is kind of dull. Emotional conflict and tough decisions are awesome.
A major appeal of the Influence rules is that it really amps up the impact and complexity of NPCs for me. One of my weaknesses as a GM is that my NPCs tend to be very functional, and consequently very shallow. They’re opponents, mouthpieces, roadblocks, or resources, but not very engaging characters. The Influence system means they have values, perspectives and beliefs that matter to the characters, which creates a framework that makes it much easier for me to breathe some life into them.
The main thing I kept forgetting was that player conditions have mechanical consequences. We were treating them more like hit points, forgetting to apply the -2 modifications to moves (e.g. Afraid : -2 to directly engage a threat).
I also occasionally forgot to remind players to mark Potential on a miss. That’s one of my favourite rules in PbtA games – I can’t remember which one introduced it, but it seems to be becoming the norm – so I’m not sure why it wasn’t too of mind on the day.
Lastly, I’m still having issues running the opposition from a mechanical POV. This was the fourth PbtA game I’ve rune (Monster if the Week, World Wrestling, and Worlds in Peril being the others), and while the “narrative first” approach gives me freedom, conversely it means I often feel as if my calls on what the bad guys can do are somewhat arbitrary.
These are great stories, guys!
I’m re-reading the book again (on paper this time, since I was finally able to score a hard-copy) and I’m focusing on grokking how to actually run a game, so these kind of testimonials are really helpful. Thanks!
This is some great stuff. I’ve made another pass on my notes for the game to highlight some of this advice and when to use it, and more importantly, I’m even more excited about running this on Saturday.