Looks like I may be running Masks via Roll20.

Looks like I may be running Masks via Roll20.

Looks like I may be running Masks via Roll20.

Haven’t even cracked the book, and I was a KS backer!

Does anyone have experience/advice/tips/tools for playing via Internet? I see there’s a sheet in Roll20, but I don’t know the game well enough to know how useful it is in play.

I’m excited to run this, but nervous!

28 thoughts on “Looks like I may be running Masks via Roll20.”

  9. The penultimate arc was a worldwide alien invasion, and in preparation, I made sure we had a city map to help communicate the scope and scale of events. One of my players (Thomas Anastasio) was kind enough to create a version of Halcyon city using Cities: Skylines, and we used the map for a few sessions in advance of the invasion. In retrospect, I wish I had it even sooner, since having a sense of the city’s geography added depth to those last few months of play.

    https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/4TRFG1QNYwnqRHLA2teqKAiBERxcMsy8OJFWBBYvP5erGovuT6GQh-5hNPnTt1XErhjTusv77lKZ9xItoabnc4reXtCgs3N3mQA=s0

  10. I just got to (but have not finished) the GM section of this book. This is my first GM experience for a PbtA and I have to say I am daunted. Is there direction on when to use which of the array of GM Moves? Will it become intuitive?

    I will begin digging into your stuff here later this week (need to make sure I have my ducks in a row for the next couple Nights Black Agents seasons first).

  11. Alan Scott terrific stuff. Thanks. What is Cities: Skylines? Doyce Testerman I finished the book (more or less)! I have a question: There doesn’t seem to be much mechanical support for villain moves (as in what they do mechanically when they go off). Like, what is the effect of “Vent through unthinking violence”? Does that trigger a Defend? If the heroes don’t Defend, what are the consequences? Property damage, sure, but what if the target is a hero? Instinctively I say “Take a powerful blow” but I am unsure that’s right. I will check out your session links and the AP podcast. Thanks everyone!

  12. Oh before I get too gone: Should I send everyone the playbooks and have them do basic creation before we meet online? How tied to Halcyon city is the game mechanically? It SEEMS like I could just have an Astro City type analog in an existing game world and it would work. Am I wrong?

  13. Christopher Hatty

    Halcyon changes to whatever you decide it is. If you want all superpowers to be magical when running it they are, if super science then that.

    For villain moves you could set it up as someone needs to do a Defend or a Take a Powerful Blow, but you could also have the villain be completely dismissive of a hero and just straight up give them the condition Angry. Look over the hard vs soft move stuff for the villains again and realize that their moves can be hard or soft depending.

    As for character creation that is group work. Let players look over the playbooks and talk about the tropes they package before your session 0. But you want the characters to feed into one another without toe stepping, which means it needs to be done together.

  14. I am back! thanks Doyce Testerman and Andrew Matiukas. Do you all see any problem with setting a game in the 1980s?

    One of the players expressed a concern I realized I had unconsciously. My group is, with one exception, a bunch of people in their 40s, and there’s concern that portraying Millennial teens with powers would result in unfair caricature rather than from-the-heart RP.

    I decided on my own to use a mash up of existing supers properties to save myself some effort in thinking up new stuff. Initially it was just gonna be a lot of pastiche, but the group requested I skip the middle man and just use the characters from DC and marvel I want to use.

    We’re starting Friday and I am so unprepared.

  16. Christopher Hatty if your players are actually concerned with that the it will be fine, possibly still off in presentation but being worried about it means it won’t be offensively off. But worries about playing teens is something that shows up periodically and what I generally suggest in those cases is go with college students, so still figuring out how to adult but they aren’t kids either.

    As for setting the game in the 80s, there are a few things to be careful with. How old members of golden and silver ages are needs to be adjusted and your players will be members of bronze (also expect some to have tons of tiny pockets on their costume), so some of the game expectations need tweaking. For example the legacy expects a fair amount of previous members and you are cutting out one of three previous generations. Also the lack of cell phone or requiring going to the library for all research often gets forgotten about while playing 30 years ago (it is a long time, but short enough people don’t think “olden times”).

  17. Andrew Matiukas I didn’t think about the Legacy aspect. That may change things if someone wants to be one. The players who liked the idea of the 80s preferred the notion of “no cell phones; no internet”. I really have no idea. I am vacillating on it.

  18. Christopher Hatty oh it can work, but I’ve seen timeshifts of back a bit bite people in unexpected ways. Generally we think of a few big bits that are different but forget the little things or cultural drift in things like food or other things. And legacy can work just that it is less “old crotchety grandparent” for eldest and more “forced to retire grandparent”. Tweaks to the feel but not the base tropes.

  19. two questions as I lunch: 1) What do the numbers on the Deck of Villainy cards mean? 2) What happens when a villain makes a move like Arcknife’s “throw a deadly object” and the target decides not to defend? Do I get to automatically inflict Conditions? Doyce Testerman do you deal with this in your game recordings? I listened to the Whelmed Actual Play and am now addicted to the podcast, but they don’t get into it much.

  21. Christopher Hatty if they are throwing things at a player and they can shoot back it could trigger Directly Engage of course if the player isn’t trying to avoid stuff and just firing back then no ‘resist or avoid’ option. If the player is ducking and weaving then maybe Take a Powerful Blow? If they come out fine then good dodging otherwise… Of course Defend could be triggered as well, just it triggers in player B after A gets something thrown at them.

  22. is it that Villain Moves are sometimes narrative cover or justification to trigger other moves (be they player or GM)? So if Sharknado is Throwing a Shark, that can trigger you to Take a Powerful Blow or even trigger the GM to inflict a Condition?

  27. More questions: is there any recommendation as to players keeping their backgrounds secret from each other OOG? Including the answers to the questions? One of my players who’s played before says they should be secret if possible, while another, who has played in the same campaign, says the opposite. Also is there guidance on having NPCs on the team?

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