Masks question…
I’m the nova in a game and I’m not sure if Burn/charging up takes TIME as a move or not? Like it doesn’t make sense if I’m using moat and then I run out of burn to have to stop the moat and do a powerup and take time meanwhile the barrier goes down… so someone help? Like if it’s the first thing in the scene and someone is falling out of the sky can I go to roll burn and FOLLOW UP with an actual action or no? Like it makes no sense for me to be able to roll burn and but not be able to actually do a thing immediately after that to spend that burn until my next turn..
Can someone help me with what the official ruling is on this?
You can still use all your powers normally without Burn, however in order to actually use Burn it needs to be charged. Charging can come in many forms, be still focus, a mantra/phrase, or dramatic screaming.
So using the example you could still roll to defend the person who is falling, but would not be able to do so with a Flare until you took a action to charge. I suppose it is a weakness of Nova’s in that they need the burn to do there cool stuff and they are far more limited if they dont get the chance to do that, or are caught unaware.
The book says “When you charge up your powers, the burn you generate it lasts until the end of the scene. To charge up your powers, tell the GM what you’re actually doing, what that looks like for you.”
This seems to confirm its an action, your having to do something to get that power, and the wording of it being Charging also goes along with this. Some GM’s may interprete it differently though this is simply my view on it from the material available and experience.
I think that there is no thing like turns in masks. In order to make a burn you need to do something like charge your powers but nothing say that you can’t use a flare immediately after. The GM can say that you don’t have enought time to do everything before the man fall down, but is not a thing of turns, it’s becouse the fiction demands
You are correct that there aren’t turns in PBTA games, but it’s likely that the GM will just switch focus while it’s happening to make sure everybody gets their chance to play. Example.
GM: “The Cyborg T-Rex roars and starts stomping toward you, (Nova), what do you do?”
Nova: “I begin to channel my lightning to build up enough power to take the dino on.
GM: “Sounds like you’re charging up your power, roll (Label).”
Nova: “I got an 11.”
GM: “You begin to generate electricity, It crackles all around you as you hold it in and allow the charge to build up within your body. Now, (Beacon), you see your friend preparing to unleash their full power as the T-Rex is bearing down on you, what do you do?”
As others have said, there aren’t really “turns” – this can be hard for players used to initiative-based combat rounds to wrap their heads around.
How long does it take you to charge up burn to use your flares? Well, however long is narratively appropriate.
Be aware that as the Nova, you essentially have cosmic-level powers at your disposal. What’s stopping you from hogging the spotlight and handling everything yourself?
1) The GM should be actively managing spotlight time to give everyone a chance to show off how awesome they are.
2) You as a player, should be aware of the team aspects of the game and be making sure not to solve everything with your Nova before anyone else has a chance to act.
So, if things are desperate and your Nova is the team’s last hope, then it might be dramatically appropriate to focus on you powering up and immediately go into triggering a move to use your flares, because you’re so freaking amazing and powerful you can do that and save the day.
But when things are just starting out, when there’s a whole team who wants to do things to help, it makes sense to share the spotlight, and when you start to power up, you can describe what that looks like and move on to the other team members doing their part before you unleash your cosmic powers when focus comes back around to you.
Tell a good story. Even if your character is a self-absorbed jerk who wants to do everything by himself and feels like he doesn’t need a team, you as a player should still set things up to include the rest of the players in the action as often as possible.
When I GM Masks (or any other PbtA game), I use a standard rule of everyone gets to do something before anyone can go again. So it’s like turns, but very loose, just to make sure everyone at the table gets a chance to act without one person taking all the spotlight.
However, that action should be something significant. If the Beacon shoots an arrow, and the Bull punches the villain, and the Outsider rigs up some alien tech to save innocents, the Nova… gets to charge up? Nah, that’s not narratively interesting. I would generally let them charge and then do something with it as their “turn.” Just like if the Beacon looks around for some useful gear, I’m not going to make them spend their round of the narrative just glancing around the room. They find the gear and get a chance to do something with it.
That being said, if the Nova wanted to take some extra time charging up (like absorbing all the energy off that nuke or gathering excess magical energy), then I might let them take that as their narrative “turn” and give them an automatic hit or a +1 forward or something cool in exchange.
TL;DR – Yeah, I kinda use turns, but everyone’s turn should be something fun that adds to the narrative. A “Burn” charge isn’t narrative fun (generally).
i don’t take “turns” what i do, after describe a situation and ask “what you do?” Is listen what everyone wants to do and the resolve the order of the actions. The conversation of each player depure the action because sometimes everyone want to focus in the same problem, then i remember that is a team and if two o more o them want to do the same thing then one of them do the main action and the rest helps that action
I usually do skip to another players turn after the Nova uses burn, or else I’ll describe how at least some time passes. I find this somewhat offsets the fact that the Nova is much more able to do what they want with their actions than anyone else, as they often don’t have to roll.