Secret Identities.
These are sometimes a thing! When I envisioned this game, I thought of two of the best two teenager hero shows I’d seen-Teen Titans and Young Justice. Which… do not feature much of the secret identity life. Its not something that comes up, not nearly as much as just being a hero and working together.
Not so in Masks. While the Transformed, Outsider, and Legacy are unlikely to need to care about hiding who or what they are, its at the very core of the Janus character.
What are some ways you use to make secret identities relevant? How do you keep them involved and interesting?
The Janus does it with the downtime move.
(More later)
Ask questions! Supervillains are one part of being a teen, but pesky younger siblings, burnt-out bosses and pesky older siblings can be just as dangerous.
The life away from the team in oyur normal day should definetly be part of play as well. You are still playing your character liek a real person, not someone that is part of the team and we only see them in the context of the team and everything else doesn’t matter.
Young Justice is like that; even when we see a character alone it’s only to put something into the world that the team will interact with.
Build your world like a CW show. It’s easier if the Protege’s dad is the Outsider’s gym coach or the Delinquent’s parole officer. The influence system allows you to have more powerful NPCs than you would in, say, Monsterhearts.
Yep. Conservation of NOCs is a good way to link characters., and help provide context for out-of-costume interactions.
NOC?
I actually see kid flash of Young Justice as a Janus more than a Legacy.
He had school, had to report to his (muggle) family, and they came up a few times.
I would highlight it during GM moves in either flashback or maybe as a reason a character is CURRENTLY distracted.
I think the key is to keep pushing them into a web of deception and lies to the people that are part of their mundane lives. There have to be up-front costs associated with people finding out (lost jobs, relationships, homes) and consequences if people do find out. At the same time, the superhero work they are doing is too important to ignore. It’s that push and pull that determines whether they are drawn closer to the team or pulled away from it. Whichever they focus on, apply pressure from the other side until they really feel it.