Hey folks. New guy here about to be running Masks for my local group. They’re more interested in established worlds and character, though, so we will likely use either DC or Marvel as a basis. Anyone done this before? I know a character can be played with several different playbooks, but I’m curious to know what people have done before.
Hey folks.
Hey folks.
DC teen titans…no problem
It’s definitely been done before! The big thing that I like to see is characters who are more about their character than their powers. If you get bogged down in which playbook fits which powerset it can get hard to get the game going. If your players are set on playing established characters, definitely ask them a ton of questions about the backstory and where these people are. Masks works best when it’s about teenagers and character-forward.
Putting your original characters in established universes is much easier to do than playing Wiccan as a Nova or Aqualad as an Outsider.
The author has… he ran a sample game using Young Justice on the Whelmed podcast.
AD Kohler yeah I’ve been listening to that. It’s interesting that Kid Flash is a Beacon in that game.
Don’t do this, but if you must, have them pick the playbook first, THEN think about what character they want to portray as that type. You can run around in circles forever arguing about who Superboy “really” is when there is no “there” there; Superboy is exactly what his creative team needs him to be this issue.
When they start to agonize over the backstory questions you will understand why I said “don’t do this”.
An interesting facet of the game is that you can never take the same move twice. Meaning, once you switch Playbooks, you can’t go back to it. Or rather, you can, but it will be a ‘dead end’ where eventually all you can do is retire or paragon. In other words, you have to ‘grow up’, which is a pretty fun idea.
As such, I like to view the Playbooks as not 10 different superheroes, but as 10 different phases of a superhero’s life. Thus, any developed superhero should work fine with any of the playbooks as is. An interesting exercise here, is to make Batman as each of the 10 playbooks. Remember that Outsider doesn’t necessarily mean Alien, and that Transformed doesn’t necessarily mean Monsterman.
My recommendation for your game, would be to make some ‘Canon’ premade characters; Scarlet Witch, Spiderman, Robin, Superboy, etc.; but allow your players to create their own OCs if they wish. Any canon character that isn’t claimed can be injected into the storyline as an NPC.
Yeah, one thing to remember is that the same hero can be portrayed by different playbooks. Ms. Martian is probably an outsider in most of season 1 of Young Justice but a Nova by season 2. Though there is some consideration for powers in playbooks, they are more about “what drama your character is dealing with”.
I’ve been in games that have done it several times, and it works fine with original characters in established worlds. It would probably work fine with established characters too. Just have to play it like an alternate timeline/earth. They can’t expect to do everything the established character can do right out of the gate. Put them in the position of just starting out.