Running my first session Saturday – Common Mistakes/Problems?
Hi gang, finally getting Masks to the table. I have the playbooks, reference sheets, moves all printed out.
We have 6-8 hours (a full day!) I plan to run through character creation, and then throw them into the action – something classic – a robbery, or hostages at the mall, etc.
My players are a mix of D&D player, Anime fan who loves the idea of RPG but hasn’t yet tried it, and two guys who can help me drive the story with their role playing and thinking.
Anything I should keep and eye out for with respect to common mistakes, or issues? I’ve GM’d lots of Fate, and a fair amount of Dungeon World. I’m trying to make notes like “A second Influence on a PC allows labels to shift” and “Whenever a PC misses, make a GM move”.
Thanks in advance.
Not using all the moves. My group still seems to think in ways that only use unleash your powers, defend or directly engage.
Suggest and be open to ways of using the other moves more often so that a few labels aren’t the wnd all be all.
Whenever mechanics are engaged, resolve them fully and immediately. Don’t let players continue the roleplay until the mechanics are fully resolved, otherwise things get unwieldy.
Whenever a villain marks a condition, immediately have them make the appropriate Condition Move, following the advice above. Also keep in mind that Directly Engaging isn’t necessarily the only way to inflict conditions. If you think they now have a condition at any point, go ahead and mark it.
Blaze Azelski said what I was going to say. If you don’t have the villains make a move after getting a condition it really lowers the risk for the PCs.
My other piece of advice is don’t skimp on character creation and the When Our Team First Came Together process. Those moments really help the characters connect to each other and it’s usually where my best story ideas come from.
Make your villains absolute chatterboxes. It’s really easy to devolve into mute slugfests (god knows I do that too often), but half the fun of comic fights is the talking. Motive rants, taunting, witty banter, whatever. Give every panel at least one speech bubble. It reminds everyone that the villains are characters, not just sets of moves and conditions.
Take Breaks.
Thanks gang! I’ll let you know how it goes tomorrow.
How’d it go?
Sorry – forgot to link the post here!
plus.google.com – You guys! You guys! Finally getting it to the table!!!!
In recap, it went really well. I have one traditional RPG-er, one newbie to RPGs, and one who’s played lots of the newer PbtA and Fate type player agency games. They didn’t quite drive the story as much as I hope they one day will, but they DID help steer move triggers, and specific moves that are being triggered.
We played about 4-ish hours (not counting chargen, or food and breaks), and got through more scenes than I am used to playing Fate.
– A bank robbery by Seismic Prime (why does he even want money?!)
– The group being scolded by the Golden-Age Moonfist for the structural damage of the bank (not to mention the Rockling minions I made on the fly getting away with the $ while the players saved/helped civilians.)
– A visit to the lab that created Seismic Prime, to find that several of the researchers on the animation project (Project Gaiform) were let go, and/or dead.
– A visit to the living lead researcher, who turned out to be Carlo the Assassin. A fight broke out (he jacked up the Outsider pretty good with a rug and a bookcase, but was just overpowered by the heroes.)
– Turns out, he had Seismic steal money to pay for a reversal of Seismic’s being alive (so he could later sell the technology to Moonfist’s nemisis – The Slime Dragon!)
– Session end – all the players really really liked the system, and the freedom of how it flowed.
As a GM I would have liked to incorporate the backstories for the Outsider and the Doomed more. Doomed marked only one single doom tick. Since the session was 100% on-the-fly improve (thank you Deck of Villainy!) and lots of questions to steer the story, I’m happy and proud with how it turned out. Thanks for all the great tips here guys!
This may be too late, but one minor, practical suggestion I have… fold the playbooks and cheat sheet in half. This way, the players will see what they’re supposed to see in order.
I’ve run Masks as a one-shot multiple times at various cons and I’ve discovered that giving them the cheatsheet without folding it in half so they’re presented with the standard moves first can confuse players new to the game (and new to PBTA). Folding the playbooks in half also leads them through character creation more easily.
Second, make sure to pay attention to the order of the ‘How we came together’ questions and figure out how to compensate for the missing questions (since you’re unlikely to have ten players). These questions are important and help establish the tone of the game right off the bat if done right.