I’m a recent convert to Masks, from previously mostly playing mutants and masterminds for my superhero roleplaying needs. I had some questions about how more experienced Masks GMs handle aspects of the game.
First of all, how do you usually go about keeping the older, more powerful heroes from taking over and solving the PC’s problems for them? In Teen Titans, for instance, the young heroes were given their own city to protect, but the setting being Halcyon city doesn’t really seem to allow for that.
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The revolving scale of superhero problems is a great tool for this. “Why isn’t [Superman expy] here solving this?”
“He’s off planet fighting [omnicidal galactic overlord] – there’s no time!”
“You ought to stay out of this, kids!” say the older heroes, while ignoring the trouble caused by [modern villain] because it’s not as dramatic as the machination of their arch-nemeses, the League of Doom!
Etc.
Also it’s not always about large scale villens. What if the local gang leader got super powers and started a gang war in the neighborhood? JLA doesn’t have time for that. Or you can fly but do you have a date for the spring fling? Keep it small and local.
What if it’s just part of the culture? Like, normal teenagers hardly have anyone solving their problems for them. Why would super teenagers?
What others have said, but you can also use it as an opportunity to show non flattering sides of the adult heroes. “Out of my district, so not my problem” or “It’s my day off” or other non heroic ways of blowing it off. The adults are supposed to be shown to be irresponsible and kinda fuckups as a contrast to your players’ up and comers. Don’t do that all the time but once or twice followed by an adult blowing them off as kids and trying to take over dealing with a villain can help drive things.
If you have a delinquent or a rebel in the party, absolutely have Adult Heroes ‘solve’ their problems once or twice. The less nuance they use, the better.
Alternatively, if you have a Legacy or Protege on the team, have those adult heroes have overblown expectations for the team! Judge them for not doing everything as perfectly as the adults!
When superheroes are as commonplace as Halcyon City, that means there’s plenty of villains to go around. Adult heroes would focus on the major threats and not have time for the small stuff – so when it turns out that the robbing of a high school science fair (not worth the time of high-profile heroes!) is actually a really big deal (teenage super-genius invention that has a very dangerous option when used for evil – the teen heroes are the only ones aware and with enough information to take the threat seriously.
Also, the adults are well-known, and so the villains who are worth anything have studied them and know how to predict what they’ll do and prepare for it. The kids are new and unknown, unpredictable forces the villains couldn’t plan for.
They just never show up in time to help, but they might show up in time to save the kids’ bacon, yell at them for doing it wrong, or both.
First of all, it a matter of scale. Think about what happened with the Avengers after the battle for New York – all of them set out for more grand things, while NY was left mostly left for Spider-man and the Defenders (and at different boroughs, at that),
Secondly, you don’t have to play in Halcyon, or keep the same high-saturation super-heroic setting. Personally I’ve being working on an adaptation to Masks that includes a “create your city” section which lets the group decide what is happening in their city.
They can have a district of the city to patrol. This depends on how organized you think heroing is in your play. If you want to go there, there might be disagreements about jurisdiction among the heroes.
There might also be things that prestigious heroes explicitely ask the kids to do. Look no further than Young Justice animated series. In Ward by Wildbow there are certain critical points that need protecting and the hero teams take turns.
Also there should be villains who have beef with the kids themselves. When in doubt, make it personal.
Another take: Don’t.
Let the adult superheroes try to handle things, but have them do it in a way that is in stark contrast with the teens’ idealistic philosophy. Introduce them to adult “heroes” who are jaded and pragmatic and 9/10ths of the way to becoming villains and plunge deep into the drama of arguing philosophy about doing what’s right, stopping what’s wrong, taking the law into your own hands, nominating yourself as judge jury and executioner, etc.