18 thoughts on “Bright Colors, Explosions, Zords.”

  4. There’s a sometimes forgotten rule in Masks, which says that no two characters on the Team can have the same playbook at the same time. Since this Playbook actively encourages multiple players to have it, it’d be nice if there was some special note about the change in rules and how the GM should handle it (there is also no GM moves, which are very very nice to have).

    The Ranger lacks a central conflict, like all the other playbooks have, and the decisions that come with it. For example, The Transformed’s conflict is about being seen as a monster, and the decision they face is whether to embrace what they’ve become and the consequences that come with embracing/rejecting it. These conflicts become really clear in other playbook’s Moment of Truth section, which always have a “but…” at the end. This, combined with strange mechanics that don’t follow existing rules, makes The Ranger not really fit into Masks.

    I’d rather see The Ranger as a teenager with attitude that is a member of a ‘sentai’ team, that they’re now trying to distance themselves from. The poses, mechs, suits, and being a role model is fun and all, and they’re a valued member of that team, but they’re not sure if that’s what they want to be for the rest of their superhero career. The GM Moves would center around the ridiculousness of their sentai team and the quote-unquote threats they deal with. The Masks Team fights real bad guys and does real good, but the beloved Sentai Team spends most of their time with ridiculous poses (that everyone but The Ranger seems to love) and fighting equally silly villains whose crimes can barely even be called crimes (“He ate all the pizza in the mall!”).

    The Ranger’s features and moves would center around this ridiculousness, and being pulled between the Sentai and Real Hero worlds.

  6. Creator here! Having Erik post this because I’m not actually approved to the group yet.

    First, thank you so much for the detailed feedback! I’m basically thrilled that you read it, and read it closely enough to have a response/critique. That kind of makes my day.

    Regarding GM moves and rules– I am not a fan of the one playbook per team rule in Masks, personally, and haven’t enforced in my home game (though we don’t actually have any overlaps right now). Regardless of that, though, the Ranger’s encouragement of multiple players with the same playbook is basically it’s playbook gimmick, much like the doom track, or the Nova’s burn. So yes, rulebreaker! But rulebreaker specifically designed for the story I want to tell.

    (And I haven’t actually written the GM moves yet, but I’m going to! And include a note about rule breaking in it, thank you for pointing that out.)

    Speaking of story. I am sold on the story you are talking about telling with a Ranger varient. To the point that my brain is now working on a compendium class for a retired Ranger, or someone who’s had all the god damn color-coded heroing she can take, and is ready to break out.

    But that isn’t the story I wanted this Ranger to tell. My goal for her was someone who isn’t sure if her powers ARE the Mecha, or if they’re helped BY the Mecha. I tried to write her moment of truth to be the point where she decides if she is her Mecha Form, or if her Mecha Form is just the tool she uses to be awesome. (With the idea being that the choice is–embody your Mecha Suit, and embrace that it IS the hero, or step away from it, be heroic without it, and choose to see it as your tool.) I think some of that might have gotten lost in translation from brain to page though. I might take a look at the wording and see if I can clarify that story arc better.

    (I thought about doing a different conflict for each Ranger trope. It was too big for me at the moment. Made the project larger than I felt like taking on. I wanna see what you write for them!)

    While I love the idea of a ‘retired’ or retiring Sentai, who is over all this shit. But that’s sort of the Bronze Age version of what I’m doing here. My Ranger is basically someone with Golden Age sensibilities, even though her powers etc aren’t really. I wrote Original Power Rangers. I feel like your story is the Power Rangers movie reboot.

    I think I didn’t entirely translate my mental story arc of this character onto the page as well as I’d like, but for the record? In my head, this is the bright, primary color story of a team who is pretty thrilled about being a team, in love with their robots, and mostly just bouncy and optimistic about everything. Except…except what if all they ARE are teenagers in big robots? What if there’s nothing else? What if you take the robot away, and they’re just your regular, everyday citizen of Angel Grove? What do these wacky powers mean if they aren’t in their Mecha Form?

    And, you know, a hefty dose of really silly genre conventions!

    Again, I very much appreciate your notes, and will think about updating to make the desired narrative clearer. And maybe write a compendium class for when the Ranger is so over this shit. You know, when they’re OLD. Like maybe 19.

    (And I didn’t find a blank playbook. I photo manipulated the existing ones, and matched fonts as best I could. Which isn’t great. But I don’t know what darn fonts they use!!)

  7. Hi there,

    Thank you for the playbook, It is an interesting concept, and I can see how if the players agree, it is a fine breaking of the “no two players can have the same playbook” rule. While that rule is in place so that all players can have their own story, I can see how a collective story can work. It’s like taking the “Joined” character as step further. I do agree though, the “Moment of Truth” could be tweaked with a “…but” statement to move the story along a new angle. Maybe something along to do ” Do you and the team even need each other anymore?” which gives space to explore if you really want to stay part of the team, or is time to move on and retire/become a paragon. or something along those lines.

    Having said all that I do have a few specific questions:

    1) The playbook seems to use the words “move(s)” and “power(s)” interchangeably. Are they interchangeable, or do they mean 2 different things?

    1b) If they mean 2 different things, which are moves and which are powers?

    2) (depending on your answer to questions “1”) Under the condition “Catastrophic Damage” (CD going forward) it says the “Mecha Form moves” cannot be used. But in clearing the condition the first option is disable a “Mecha form power” at a critical moment. But if you can’t use the moves how will there be a critical moment for that to be disabled? I just cannot see how that first option works.

    3) Me being nitpicky – “Beautiful Like a Rainbow” requires all members of the team to wear different colors NO MATTER WHAT PLAYBOOK. This seems to unfairly restrict player costume options. Let’s say there is a blue ranger and the Nova wants to play an elemental control focusing on water, so would like a blue costume. I guess this is just a player agreement thing, and me being nitpicky.

    4) “Posed Group Shot” – Says “Everyone involved can shift your labels as desired”. That seems extremely powerful. (what is to keep someone from putting everything at +3 or -2?) Maybe everyone involved may shift one label up and one label down, OR

    at a minimum require that the total at the end is equal to the total at the start.

    Finally, on a personal note, I love that last “join us” move where you give the character a taste of the Mecha and then the option to become a Ranger absorbing them into the Hive. I can totally see using this as a “villain” in a game, trying to get the team one by one to give up their team and join the Ranger core. that is kind of cool

  8. (Creator again! Still not approved here.)

    Oooo! I’m so excited for this feedback! Thank you so much!

    I comment now!

    (((1) The playbook seems to use the words “move(s)” and “power(s)” interchangeably. Are they interchangeable, or do they mean 2 different things?)))

    This is my failing, and my error. They’re used interchangeably (and incorrectly!) 🙂

    I’ve got trouble with keeping names straight in my head. I’m running everything by someone who is better than I at that, but I think he was focusing more on the mechanical effects than the terms I chose. I think I’ll probably go through and unify it to the Masks terminology. Thank you for pointing this out.

    (((2) (depending on your answer to questions “1”) Under the condition “Catastrophic Damage” (CD going forward) it says the “Mecha Form moves” cannot be used.)))

    This might just be a lack of clarity on my part, but while DAMAGE can be cleared with that move, CATASTROPHIC DAMAGE cannot. So, you can clear the “damaged” condition with the disable a move thing, but CD is a more intense category, and requires maintenance or time or whatever to fix.

    I need to add a part that explains how to clear CD. I totally overlooked that. Thank you!

    (((3) Me being nitpicky – “Beautiful Like a Rainbow” requires all members of the team to wear different colors NO MATTER WHAT PLAYBOOK. This seems to unfairly restrict player costume options. )))

    It does! Restrict unfairly I mean. Absolutely and intentionally! It’s mean! But by choice. Because team building hurts! Or something.

    (((4) “Posed Group Shot” – Says “Everyone involved can shift your labels as desired”. That seems extremely powerful. (what is to keep someone from putting everything at +3 or -2?) )))

    Poor phrasing again on my part! I really will focus on getting my terms more correct moving forward. I meant “shift labels” in the very specific Masks sense (one up, one down). I’m questioning now if “shift labels” is an actual move or if I just made it one in my brain.

    I was trying to make a move that let you work together, and move your own labels, to better fit the situation at hand.

    I meant that everyone in the scene can shift one label up, one down, as in an influence move. And that they can only shift their OWN. I should have written it as “On a hit, everyone involved may shift one of their own labels up, and one down.”

    Will fix!

    Re: moment of truth phrasing.

    I like what you added. I’m going to poke at that. In a week or so. I need a break from this particular playbook.

    Thanks for the positive feedback too! I really like the Pass the Torch move too. It might be my favorite bit.

    I really appreciate the notes. A lot a lot!

  9. You could just sub in a few of these moves on the Soldier and it would work just fine as someone whose loyalty is divided between his team and his intergalactic robot squad.

    You absolutely should not break the one-Playbook per game rule. You can get away with it in some PBTA games but not Masks.

    Don’t have the mecha take damage, throw all that out and just use the Conditions as they are. Ultimately the only thing that matters in mecha source material is the emotional state of the pilot, just like in Masks.

  10. Please tell me more! I found Masks after the kickstarter so I don’t have access to the backer previews.

    These new playbooks aren’t available to the public yet, are they?

  12. (creator again)

    I’m curious as to why you feel the one playbook thing is a strength in all situations. I absolutely disagree, and I’m interesting in what you see it as adding to the game.

    Obviously, it’s all about group dynamics for your personal group, but I LIKE the idea of the dynamics that can happen when the same playbook challenges itself.

    Just talked to a friend about this, and he pointed out that it’s helpful to have individualized roles so there are clear narratives. That isn’t something I seek out, because writing those narratives myself is my personal in to gaming. So I’m thinking this might just be a case where I don’t likea rule because it doesn’t work for me.

    So I want to hear why it works for you, because you’re now the second person to mention this.

    That said, though, for this particular playbook, and the narrative it tells, having others share it is a large part of the story arc and conflict. Am I my team? Is my team me? Are we just robot pilots? How do I stand out from them, and how do I prove that?

    Regarding the additional condition. I think I got enthusiastic about mechanics, and just thew in the kitchen sink. I will likely revisit this in a couple weeks, after I see it play tested by the group that’s going to try it. Will take this into consideration!

    Thank you.

  14. (Creator yet again! Someone approve me, yo. 🙂 )

    I’ve been talking about this more, and I think I’ve been kind of assuming my group’s character/game building style.

    Elaborating a bit, because I’m coming in with assumptions that I don’t think are really generalized/generalizable.

    We come in with character ideas, and then write the full on characters themselves collaboratively. When I think about 2 people playing the same playbook, I’m not thinking about Player A and Player B coming in independently, both saying “I want to play a Doomed!”

    I’m thinking about Player A and Player B talking with each other, and deciding they want to see what happens when the character who sold his soul to Lady Luck has to work with (and around!) the person whose internal nuclear power source will degrade in 321 days.

    I get a little myopic about my gaming style, because I’ve got a stupidly tight-knit group with really similar styles and outlooks.

  15. Why don’t you read this ? https://www.henshingame.com please read this is exactly your kind of game…different conflict for different color: Red be Leader or solo player ? Blue stay in or out protocol ? Black be a Paragon or the Team Jester and so on.

    It comprehend all team pool rules (and you can recognize some name of the Mask Alpha P.Test) then you can re-think about your RainbowRangers design.

    henshingame.com – Home

  16. (Creator. Again.)

    Oo! Thank you!

    That is a game I can’t wait to look into.

    I don’t really want to do a re-design of this particular thing, but having another option for playing out this story, outside of Masks, is neat.

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