Category: Masks: A New Generation RPG: Actual Play

A ChristMASKS Love Letter for Sonia, the former Bull turned Soldier.

Dear Sonia,

In Darkhavia, the winter holidays are a time of chilling ghost stories, children cowering in fear of shaggy beasts with whips and sacks, and the omnipresent threat of severe punishment for misdeeds. Of course, that’s pretty much how things are year round there… Enjoying your new citizenship? Well pull up a blanket and try to get cozy. It’s going to be a very Darkhavian Christmas.

Viscount Consternation, current ruler of Darkhavia, has come to Capstone with two goals in mind. The first: throw his weight around with F.A.T.E. to teach them there’s a cost to kidnapping Darkhavian citizens.

The second: make it clear to everyone at the Forge that his care for Darkhavia is so deep and so magnanimous that he will rise to the defense of even someone who deserves it as little as you do.

That’s fine by you, of course, since you have a plan to recruit the recovering Invictus junkies at the Forge to humiliate Viscount Consternation. These kids are all jonesing for superpowers, right? Why not recruit them to the Forge’s cause and fire them up for the fight against the Rime Court. Of course, you know that Consternation can’t comply with this plan, because Nix says it will take Baron Devastation to grant fire powers to more Forgelings. But forcing Consternation to confirm this publicly should knock him down a peg, and help underline the need to bring Devastation back. That’s the idea, anyway.

Roll +Soldier, that is, +1.

On a hit, choose someone at the Forge to join your conspiracy. The GM will tell you what important resource or intel they bring to the table.

But if this works, Consternation will be looking for revenge. On a 10+ choose two, on a 7-9 choose one.

He doesn’t find a way to take his humiliation out on:

You, Sonia

Dr. Nix

Furnace and Aislin

On 6-, he turns the tables and Nix joins in (for cover, she says). Still couldn’t she have distanced herself without stooping to breaking that promise/betraying that trust? What happened and what condition do you mark?

Hope your little scheme turns out to be worth it. Merry Christmas, Sonia Ignacio.

XXOO,

Your Gamemaster

P.S.: You haven’t been forgotten, Halfpenny. There’s still room in your stocking for a little loose change…

A ChristMASKS Love Letter for Panic, the former Delinquent, now Doomed. I’m incorporating the advance she took (move from another playbook: Kirby-Craft) and some consequences for her recent arrest and escape.

Dear Panic,

Ho ho ho.

Well, you’re sprung. But you were locked away from your cloak for a little while. As soon as you get combobulated, you notice two important things: your right arm and the whole right side of your torso is cold to the touch. And there are tiny little horns starting to poke out of your forehead! Your immediate worry is about how to explain this to Uncle Cas and the rest of your family. Fortunately, your bangs are able to cover the horns…at least for now.

When you fish your phone out of the bag of belongings Kevin and his team snagged, your heart drops. There are sixteen missed calls and nine voicemails from Uncle Cas.

Dreading facing your guardian, and remembering that he’d said he’d have to tell your parents if you got arrested again, you decide to first check in at the Sanctuary. Edith is pleased to hear how you helped so many kids who’d been ensnared by the Rime Court to possibly get free. (In your telling, you minimize the fact you’d handed them over to the Forge.) But she is distraught by the ever-growing effects of your curse. She thinks the teleportation powers you discovered are not safe to rely on. “You’ll just turn faster that way, Elodie. But if it’s transportation you need, the Sanctuary can provide.”

With Edith’s help, you summon a ship made of bones.

Tell us about your bone ship. What does Panic call it? And what’s the exotic fuel source you’ve chosen for it?

Then, it’s time to talk to Uncle Cas. You have a plan: come clean about the prison thing, and let him know you’re actively planning to tell your parents (and, most frighteningly, your mom) about your superhero exploits. You talked to your aunt about it and everything! Surely that should be good enough for him, right? You can even show him your bone ship and offer to bring him along to Greenville.

Roll +Mundane. [If you don’t know this, I can tell you soon.] On a 10+, you mostly get what you want. But choose one complication. On a 7-9, choose two.

You frighten Uncle Cas with your powers and the danger you’re in. Mark your doom track.

Uncle Cas’s distressed emotional reaction to your situation rattles you. Mark a condition.

Demonstrating your bone ship summoning without Edith’s guidance leads you to overexert yourself. Mark your doom track.

On a miss, Uncle Cas is teary-eyed but stern. He wants you to understand how in over your head you are. Choose one of the above complications, and the GM will shift your labels. Cas shows a copy of the letter he’s already mailed to your parents. If you want to break the truth to the Greenville family your way, you’ll have to beat the postal service there.

Well, no bones about it, Panic. Christmas is a time for family.

XXOO,

Your Gamemaster

P.S.: Stay tuned, other Salvatores. I hear jingle bells on their way. Jingle. Jingle.

Another Merry ChrisMASKS love letter I’ve sent out to a player, the Beacon named Fletcher Loxley (who recently upgraded his codename from Captain Bowmaster to General Bowmaster).

Dear Fletch,

All right, big shot. You’re alive and out of jail. And you’re a general now, apparently. But what will you do when the battle comes home to you?

Fletch wakes up at Kevin’s parents’ garage, and gets a confused recap of the rescue mission from Kevin—and Craig (?) and apparently Katya was involved but also Red Cent turned up (?!) and something big happened with the mayor… but the biggest thing Fletch hears is something disturbing about his parents. What happened in the mayor’s office after he jumped into the painting? Fletch races home to find out.

Back home everything seems…weirdly unchanged. Bart is reading the paper, Evelyn is making spaghetti. But it all seems a little too normal, like that one film of your grandfather’s, “The Stridebridge Husbands.” Tell us about some very usual details here that now strike you as disturbing.

Of course you want to get to the bottom of this…but also a part of you doesn’t, since your parents seem totally unstressed and fine for the first time in a while and your dad isn’t even taking issue with your superheroing. Roll +Savior and -Mundane, that is, +1.

On a hit, ask the GM a question that he will answer honestly. Then tell us how you uncovered the answer.

On a 10+, take +1 forward on one of your parents. How are you preparing for facing off with them in one way or another?

On a 7-9, you get your answer, but it costs you. What aspect of normal life can’t be the same for Fletch anymore? Why is this important to you?

On a miss, you give away a teammate’s secret while attempting to investigate. How? Whose secret? Mark an appropriate condition. What grand gesture are you now planning to make it up to them?

Merry Christmas, Fletcher Loxely.

XXOO,

Your GM

P.S.: Waiting to find out if you’re on the naughty or nice list, other Salvatores? Sit tight, you’ll know soon enough…

I wrote the following Merry ChristMASKS Love Letter and sent it out today. I used the mechanic of bonuses for answers rather than stats because none of us have access to the players’ playbooks while traveling over the holidays. The love letter follows the former Outsider, now the Nova, at his new school situation. One of his classmates is Bernice/Candelabra, a worryingly intense little girl from the Soldier’s organization:

Dear Torq,

Well, well, well. Once again, you have been plucked from imprisonment by your resourceful friends. I guess you must be feeling like you dodged a bullet. Flush with luck and untouchable by the cares of the world. Little do you know what new challenge awaits you in your civilian life: A group project book report!

That’s right. The good sisters at St. Rose of Lima’s Caritas schooling program have paired up students to read a work of edifying non-fiction and deliver a book report or creative presentation on it to their classmates. As luck would have, Cody Nicholson and Bernice [fake last name] are assigned to collaborate.

Answer the following questions honestly and take +1 for each “Yes”:

Is Torq is able to focus on the assignment, given everything else going on in his life?

Is Torq is able to collaborate well with Candelabra, given her eccentricities?

Is Torq able to frame their report or presentation for an audience of humans, given their alien worldview?

Tell us what book you’re reporting on. Then, roll +any relevant bonuses. No matter the result, describe something about the report or presentation.

On a 10+, choose two. On a 7–9, choose one:

Shift labels as you choose, moving Mundane, Superior, or Savior up and another label down. How did this project affect Torq’s self-image?

Take Influence over Candelabra. How did you two bond during your group assignment?

Take Influence over Sr. Lucia Marie. How did you positively surprise her with your work?

On a 7–9, also tell us how the book’s material was particularly difficult or upsetting for Torq and how he dealt with that.

On a miss, tell us how Torq manages to bungle this report, and why this failure is important. Mark an appropriate condition. What foolhardy action is he now planning?

Merry Christmas, Cody Nicholson.

XXOO,

Your GM

P.S.: Don’t worry, other Salvatores. Santa hasn’t forgotten you. And Christmas is a season, not a day…