Author: Alan Scott

Masks unbound is really cool generally, and the Spiderweb playset is really cool specifically.

Masks unbound is really cool generally, and the Spiderweb playset is really cool specifically.

Masks unbound is really cool generally, and the Spiderweb playset is really cool specifically.

And yet, I find myself not really digging the central conceit: that it takes place in a parallel timeline in which there were no costumed heroes until the present day.

To me, that seems like a needless distraction. The DC and Marvel universes are full of examples of dark, street-level stories that take place in a world full of costumed heroes. The existence of the Avengers doesn’t negate Daredevil and the gritty world he faces.

I think if I run the playset, I’m going to ignore that aspect, while still matching the tone, using the extra agenda and custom moves and so forth.

Other folks: have you run/played spiderweb yet? How much has the parallel timeline stuff come up or mattered?

Just ran RoB for the first time, and everyone had lots of fun.

Just ran RoB for the first time, and everyone had lots of fun.

Just ran RoB for the first time, and everyone had lots of fun.

A question did come up, though: Do Founders get to convert harm to wounds? Or are they just limited to taking five harm that’s it?

Universe-wide Crossover Events are a thing that happens in comic books.

Universe-wide Crossover Events are a thing that happens in comic books.

Universe-wide Crossover Events are a thing that happens in comic books. The modern format seems to be a main limited series with all the big actions scenes and major plot points, a few more limited series that focus on an integral-to-the-event character or team, and then tie-ins in all the ongoing books. Some books end and others begin.

In actual practice, it’s often terrible, because the centerpiece is an eight issue hero-vs-hero slugfest, and those are usually the least entertaining sorts of superhero comics. But if played as a genre trope, you can get some wonderful results. There was the great episode of Justice League Unlimited that followed Booster Gold as every superhero except him was battling a cosmic evil.

Is this a trope you’ve integrated into your games? My own answers in the comments.

So AW and many PbtA games have playbook advances that include “take a move from another archetype”

So AW and many PbtA games have playbook advances that include “take a move from another archetype”

So AW and many PbtA games have playbook advances that include “take a move from another archetype”

The thought being, once the character is established, one of the directions it can grow is outward, expanding or changing its focus.

An event in one of my recent games made me realize another, admittedly wonky, way of allowing the character to expand in a new direction:

*Take a basic move from another PbtA game.

Thoughts?

I was planning on just using maps from Darker Streets for my current game, but then we decided to go for a different…

I was planning on just using maps from Darker Streets for my current game, but then we decided to go for a different…

I was planning on just using maps from Darker Streets for my current game, but then we decided to go for a different city. https://snazzymaps.com/ to the rescue.

Something occurs that I haven’t had the chance to consider previously.

Something occurs that I haven’t had the chance to consider previously.

Something occurs that I haven’t had the chance to consider previously.

MH2 includes rules on asexuality. Are those for the main characters only? or is it kosher for me as the MC to invoke those rules in regards to a side character?

So, how should we choose the next Magus:

So, how should we choose the next Magus:

So, how should we choose the next Magus:

It’s been revealed over the course of the game that Magus Everard, the defender of Earth against magical threats from beyond, is a fake. The magic staff he’s wielding isn’t the true Agate Staff, and the process by which he was chosen was influenced by dark powers beyond our ken.

In a recent session, Night-eye the Doomed returned from the Dark-night Dimensions with the true Agate Staff, while Hollow the Transformed use his moment of truth to defeat Everard and drain him of his powers.

So now, they’ve got the Agate Staff, and the various magical PCs are wondering if they might be the ones to wield its power and become the next Magus.

It’s been established in the fiction that the Magus is chosen when prospective candidates enter the top of the Agate Tower (located on the Equator in Northern Brazil), and then whoever leaves from the bottom of the tower holding the Agate Staff is the next Magus.

It’s pretty clear that the PCs are heading to the Agate Tower to find Answers and/or infinite magical power, but I have no idea what tests they should face within.

“Does destroying the Arc de Triomphe count as breaking something important?” –Stonewall the Reformed

“Does destroying the Arc de Triomphe count as breaking something important?” –Stonewall the Reformed

“Does destroying the Arc de Triomphe count as breaking something important?” –Stonewall the Reformed

I’ve heard “don’t include the doomed” as advice for running one-shots.

I’ve heard “don’t include the doomed” as advice for running one-shots.

I’ve heard “don’t include the doomed” as advice for running one-shots. This last weekend, I ignored that advice and I’m glad I did because the Doomed really drove the climax.

The Wildcards consisted of:

Sol the Outsider

Shadow the Doomed

Exo the Transformed

ATLAS the Newborn

Glimmer the Delinquent

Since ATLAS was a robot and Glimmer and Exo were both the victims of unethical experiments, I decided that they would be facing Iron Flag and Rampage, respectively the nazi robot and the unwilling experiment from the villain deck. I also decided that both villains would have been coerced into this attack by Shadow’s nemesis, a dark wizard.

The fight started in the park, with the villains trying to get inside the adjacent “History of Science” museum for an unrevealed reason. It was rough for the wildcards at first, but Exo and Glimmer managed to trap Rampage in a sculpture while ATLAS, Sol, and Shadow put a lot of dents in Iron Flag. When a villain’s monologue revealed that Shadow’s nemesis was behind this, Shadow used his dark vision doom sign to learn exactly what the bad-guys were after.

Since I hadn’t included any of Sol’s backstory yet, I decided that the villains’ goal was something from her people’s homeworld. Sol’s player decided it was a probe sent to Earth, the first contact between Humans and her species.

And when he learned this, Shadow decided that the probe must be destroyed so that his nemesis couldn’t acquire it. Not only did he destroy the probe, he also used his doom sign powers to crush what was left of Iron Flag like a soda can.

So Sol the Alien got to see her teammate destroy an important artifact of her people, while ATLAS the robot got to see his teammate destroy a robotic being without any hint of remorse. Normally after that intro fight, my Masks one-shots go to NPCs showing up and cheering the team for their heroics and/or berating them for their failures–but this time, the fallout was all internal to the team. Somber reflections on the price paid in desperate situations, New grim lessons on what humanity was capable of for the non-human members of the team.