Category: Masks: A New Generation RPG: Actual Play

Buckle up, fans.

Buckle up, fans.

Buckle up, fans. The weekend’s Masks RPG session was off-the-chain. Torq (The Nova) was unconscious, lost in his own psyche. His teammates would have to go into his mind to save him. Fortunately, Ed Zeppelin has a ship to lend them.

Panic (The Doomed) was elected to take point on the rescue. Guess my new art for her came just in time! She would find Torq inside Torq’s mind and convince him to come back. First, though, the team would have to sail through three layers of Torq’s mental landscape.

Captaining the ship was Ed Zeppelin’s apprentice, special guest star Compass Rose (The Protégé). Rose warned the Salvatores to stay tethered to the ship, no matter what, as they sail it through Torq’s perceptions, into his hopes, and finally into his darkest fears.

And that’s where General Bowmaster (The Beacon) was swept off the ship and came untethered. He encountered a grown-up, traumatized version of his friend Kevin, living as a survivalist in a dystopian Capstone City…ruled by Salvatores who went bad!

The team ends up fighting their nightmare selves, of course. Sonia (The Soldier) tackles evil!Panic, then gets snagged and mind-controlled by evil!Sonia. Bowmaster faces down his dark self, a smooth, tuxedo-clad sniper.

Halfpenny (The Transformed) empathizes with, then fights, his dark self, a blind brawler named Cent-urion with two penny eyepatches. Panic reaches Torq and risks her own doom to shake him from hopelessness.

The darkness dissipates, the team regroups, and they all sail out of Torq into the real world. It was an epic, mind-bending start to Season Two of the Salvatores’ adventures!

Having defeated White Cobra, our heroes valiantly….. screw around in the zoo before handing her off to the police.

Having defeated White Cobra, our heroes valiantly….. screw around in the zoo before handing her off to the police.

Having defeated White Cobra, our heroes valiantly….. screw around in the zoo before handing her off to the police.

https://soundcloud.com/lttn-podcast/ragtag-teens-masks-session-4?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=googleplus

In this episode the team’s unsolicited jaunt into the local zoo is interrupted by sudden crimes!

In this episode the team’s unsolicited jaunt into the local zoo is interrupted by sudden crimes!

In this episode the team’s unsolicited jaunt into the local zoo is interrupted by sudden crimes!

https://soundcloud.com/lttn-podcast/ragtag-teens-masks-session-3?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=googleplus

Welcome to the fifth episode of the Green Hill Gamer Guild Podcast.

Welcome to the fifth episode of the Green Hill Gamer Guild Podcast.

Welcome to the fifth episode of the Green Hill Gamer Guild Podcast. Joshua is joined by Kollin, Mel, Adam, and Chris as they play Masks: A New Generation, the popular tabletop role-playing game by Magpie Games.

In an effort to bring you episodes more regularly, we’ve decided to shorten each 2+ hour episode into two roughly one hour long parts.

Part 1 of issue #4 continues the ongoing tale of the Super Punks as they continue navigating a dark future where Eagle, Hawk’s mentor, has seemingly gone crazy with power! Will they be able to figure out what happened and return to their own time? Join us and find out!

Melanie made the group some amazing chili for this session. Also, Joshua wants everyone to know that he does bathe regularly despite the humorous intro.

Special Note: This episode is marked as Mature due to some foul language getting used. We hope you can forgive our use of language for this episode.

The Super Punks are:

The Protege Hawk, real name Marshal, played by Kollin.

The Beacon Jax, real name Jasper, played by Mel.

The Innocent Wheels, real name Russ, played by Adam.

The Delinquent Deke, real name Memo, played by Chris.

‘Gravity Waves’ performed by Elliot Middleton, used under license from Shutterstock

https://www.greenhillgamerguild.com/2018/09/10/actual-play-masks-super-punks-issue-4-aftershocked-part-1/

I just realized I’d never shared my podcast here!

I just realized I’d never shared my podcast here!

I just realized I’d never shared my podcast here!

Are you seeking thrilling tales of Adventure and Super-Heroics?

Do you crave the weekly drama of Teenage Hijinks and High School Angst?

Don’t miss the next episode of PROTEAN CITY COMICS!

Protean City Comics (http://proteancity.com/ or Protean City Comics on your podcatcher) is a weekly Masks campaign designed to capture the feel of team based comics within a larger comic book universe. We play with rotating players and GMs, target diversity as one of our greatest goals, and try to make listening feel like picking up a single run that intersects with other ongoing comics.

There are 61 episodes, but don’t let that intimidate you! When new characters are introduced we have a brief 5-10 minute episode that explains who they are, gives a little backstory, and shows some of their mechanics. This allows us to have them jump onto the page when the actual game starts and feel like they have existed in their own comic run!

If you’re listening from the beginning, I strongly recommend listening to those character introductions, but feel free to skip worldbuilding. It’s pretty long and honestly just not required reading, but more intended for people who love Protean City and want to know more of the world!

http://proteancity.com/

Some shifts in our game have required fun custom move creation.

Some shifts in our game have required fun custom move creation.

Some shifts in our game have required fun custom move creation. I play a Bull turned Soldier. In our 5th session, we learned that the Forge (the group that made Sonia the Bull) had implanted mind control triggers.

In between session 6 and 7, the GM gave me a love letter where Sonia got help learning to the resist the mind control. So I wrote (consulting with the GM) this custom move for future interactions:

When you resist mind control using your mantra, roll + Conditions. If you have influence over the person trying to control you, take -1.

On a 10+, choose one:

* You do exactly what the command entails, and there’s a momentum to the mind control, you do the next thing they ask, too. No roll allowed.

* The only way to avoid letting them use your powers is to use them first! Lose control of your powers in a terrible way and mark an appropriate condition.

* Choose two options from the 7-9 list.

On a 7-9, choose one:

* You successfully resist the command, but it takes constant effort. Take -1 ongoing to all rolls, until the end of the scene or until the command is released

* You meditate, hard, and hold on until the command dissipates. But your enemy isn’t waiting for you to clear your head. You give ground, your opposition gets an opportunity.

* You resist the command, but you’re emotionally staggered. Mark a condition, and your opponent gets to ask you a question you must answer honestly.

On a miss, you hold strong and the command doesn’t seem to affect you, for now. Mark potential and the GM will tell you what the command appeared to be trying to do. Maybe take influence over the person who tried to control you, GM’s call.

But by session 8, the Forge had taken a hostage and forced Sonia to come back into their fold. She was gradually won over to their mission (if not their methods) and made a playbook shift to Soldier at the end of session 12.

That meant I wanted a way for her to work with mind control, instead of always resisting it. So, for session 15, I worked with the GM and debuted this:

When you cooperate with a Forge trigger, roll +Soldier.

On a hit it’s just like in training.

* You understand the command and blend with it, take +1 ongoing while in the grip of the mind control.

O

n a 7–9, add a complication:

* Once the command has you, you can see there was a catch. Mark a condition to resist, or else put an ally in danger.

* You carry out the command, but the transition into or out of mind control leaves you disoriented. Someone (GM’s choice) can ask a pierce the mask question that you must answer honestly.

* Shift Soldier up and Savior down.

On a 6-

* You get more than you bargained for, and you can’t hold it back. The GM will tell you if this also means you mark a condition.

This is the first episode of our podcast’s Masks Actual Play. Our characters are:

This is the first episode of our podcast’s Masks Actual Play. Our characters are:

This is the first episode of our podcast’s Masks Actual Play. Our characters are:

Orchid- The metal manipulating Reformed

Chloe- The soft spoken plant-like Transformed

Syn- The shape-shifting gas cloud Outsider

The Piper- The rat controlling Janus

Ensi- The latest in the Legacy of Gilgamesh

https://soundcloud.com/lttn-podcast/ragtag-teens-masks-session-1?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=googleplus

Yesterday was the epic season finale of our Masks RPG.

Yesterday was the epic season finale of our Masks RPG.

Yesterday was the epic season finale of our Masks RPG. The shards of the fairy mirror created seven portals in different parts of Capstone City, through which Rime Court Hunters began pouring. Uh-oh! The Salvatores leapt into action.

Torq (The Nova) focused first on the robot revolutionaries who’d hijacked the Hand of Ultimatus and stolen the fairy mirror. His gravity powers served him well there, though when he shut down the portal in Captain Invincible Plaza, he lost control and blew up the whole place.

Sonia (The Soldier) was the first to shut down a portal. She also had to fight her friend Furnace to free him from the Rime Court’s influence, and, as she confronted her Forge supervisor at the end of the adventure, accidentally was utterly changed into fire.

Panic (The Delinquent, completing her transition to the Doomed) followed her visions to a hidden sanctuary, where a skeleton gave her a cloak that will help push back against her Rime Court curse. It also changed her powers—which came in handy when she had to fight her own brother, who was also under the Rime Court’s thumb.

Halfpenny (The Transformed) raided Quartermaster’s cache, then was yanked by Rime Court chains to a rooftop, where he managed to get free and then depower the Invictus-affected kids being used to trap the adult heroes, the Crimebusters, in their base.

Captain Bowmaster (The Beacon) had a huge day: commanding F.A.T.E. soldiers, taking over a Rime Court ballista to shut down the last portal, convincing Doc Quantum to make him a deputy Crimebuster, and even upgrading his codename (he’s still deciding between Colonel and General Bowmaster).

In the end, the city was saved—though there were hints the Rime Court has something sneakier brewing. Halfpenny destroyed the last hunters but, losing control of his powers, also knocked out Torq. The team’s next mission will be a fantastic voyage inside their friend to save him!