Author: Jason Cox

You know, I really want to play a Doomed. I’m not sure what this says about me or my taste in superhero fiction, but there it is.

I am very fond of Gotham Academy, and I have been idly wondering how a game of Masks would work in that setting. All the characters are a bit lower on the power scale, but have all the drawbacks of the playbooks you would use… maybe a bit more. Olive, for instance, is a Doomed who doesn’t even know she is one for a good long while. The relatively few times she has unleashed her powers they have been hellaciously effective and have threatened her sanity. Her best friend Maps is probably a Beacon, but generally the thing she collects and adapts for her own uses are… well… maps.

I think it is more a tone thing than anything else really. Having players who are willing to make alterations to play in such a game, where the characters feel like the powers and quirks they have are more like an intense hobby or interesting medical condition than a defining characteristic. Of course, the adults in the series do not always agree…

Could be fun.

I have been thinking a bit about the genius of the “lock a label” advancement. On the surface it is a mechanical advantage, generally ensuring that either your highest or lowest stat is placed in a fixed state. But this is really a representation of your character maturing, of them deciding who they are and being committed to that idea regardless of what the world around them may say. This is one of the things that is empowering about growing up in real life, but the flip side is that in deciding who you really are you sacrifice the flexibility to be someone else. If you go all the way down to five year olds, they are almost literally different people every day. They are trying on new roles and ideas, imitating the world around them, and playing with their own identities as much as they are with their environment. By the time a person is a teenager their patterns have become much more firm, and a big part of that time is the acceptance or repudiation of values and ideas that contribute to a person’s construction of themselves. Earlier this construction was heavily influenced by adults and peers, and they still hold considerable sway, but the individual person is now assuming control. But their is something sad about that lost plasticity, the ability to be remolded or to remold oneself easily, even when it is replaced by a thing we crave. It is gone, and will not come back.

I skimmed the playbooks this morning and they look boss. My love for the game and fervor to play continue undiminished! However, two things did stick out. Firstly, I don’t recall any shape shifting powers listed, which seems a shame given Beast Boy’s prominence. I would probably add it to the Delinquent and drop technopathy. Secondly, it is a bummer that the only role that emphasizes gadgets requires a mentor. My playtest character actually had the fact that nobody supported his capability in that regard as essential to his background, so I am sentimental about it, and it seems very limiting in a broad sense. You COULD be a tech adept… Cyborg and Spider-Man really just have a decent Superior rather than a gadgets power. But the idea that the ability to create is tied to mentorship fundamentally bugs me.

I have been waiting for this community to appear since Origins.