Masks: A New Generation RPG: Discussion – Page 18 – Powered by the Apocalypse G+ Archives

I’m curious as to how the Delinquent ability of power negation manifests mechanically.

I’m curious as to how the Delinquent ability of power negation manifests mechanically. I’m guessing to use it would be Unleash Your Powers, and on a success, the target’s powers are negated. But how does that impact the ability of the target to do anything? Do I just sort of remove super-stuff from the list of potential Moves?

Has anyone noticed a correlation between the gender of the iconic characters and the gender of PCs using the…

Has anyone noticed a correlation between the gender of the iconic characters and the gender of PCs using the playbook? From what I’ve seen the transformed is almost always male, along with the beacon. The doomed is highly female along with the outsider, but the effect is less pronounced.

Looks like I may be running Masks via Roll20.

Haven’t even cracked the book, and I was a KS backer!

Does anyone have experience/advice/tips/tools for playing via Internet? I see there’s a sheet in Roll20, but I don’t know the game well enough to know how useful it is in play.

I’m excited to run this, but nervous!

Hey all

Hey all,

Any favorite one shot ideas for a con game?

I’d love to show what Masks can do…but I’m only going to have about 2.5 hours to do it!

Any and all go-to Impressions, locales, hooks, villains would be appreciated!

Using the Outsider playbook for a character who is an angel instead of an alien: hot or not?

I’ve been thinking a lot about how this game would run with certain comics I read, and I wanted to discuss the…

I’ve been thinking a lot about how this game would run with certain comics I read, and I wanted to discuss the possibility of a Masks campaign for Adam Warren’s Empowered. (My fave book coming out these days. Read it. Just not in public.)

Granted, Emp and most of her associates are 20-somethings rather than teens, but the themes of defining oneself by other’s perceptions, not belonging to the establishment, and growing into the person you want to be are all there.

Emp herself certainly qualifies as a Beacon. Sistah Spooky is a Doomed. Beyond that, it’s a little murky. Thug Boy and Ninjette have elements of the Delinquent, the Reformed, and the Bull. And any of the given antagonists–hero and villain–would be marvelous in the Masks system.

Any fellow fans? Thoughts?

The Brain

The Brain

The Harbinger

The Soldier

I finally got a chance to take a look at the supplemental Playbooks through my Backer-kit.

I have to say that I LOVE these three way more than the previous supplemental Playbooks that have been published. I’m having a little trouble putting my finger on why but I think it’s because these three much better represent the characters I thought I might see represented in the others. Also, these character archetypes resonate with me much better.

The Brain is great at representing Tony Stark or Hank Pym, but I also think it does a 100% better job at representing Lex /Lena Luthor than the Reformed Playbook does.

The Soldier is a Playbook I can identify with because one of the Masks characters I’ve created, a Bull, would actually be much more aligned with the Soldier than with the Bull. You can also very clearly see the parallels between this Playbook and the cinematic Captain America, who is probably my favorite MCU character. This Playbook is also great for playing a character who is more like Colossus than Wolverine. It’s amazing how a shift in attitude and perspective can totally distinguish Playbooks that could be virtually identical in other types of games.

The Harbinger sings to me merely because Bishop is one of my top five favorite X-Men. And the parallels to Bishop and Cable is obvious, as is the inspiration from DCs Impulse and Booster Gold.

I also like the new Labels they have for the Soldier and the Harbinger. The Harbinger can choose whether or not they come from a dark future they want to avert or a bright future they want to preserve and their actions force the Future to move in either direction. That’s awesome! It’s a great way to distinguish The Harbinger from the Doomed. It could have been a really easy fix to give the Harbinger an analogous “Doom Track” to represent their actions shaping and re-shaping the future. But they went with this Label instead. Very cool, very elegant solution and really makes you feel like you’re playing someone who is impacting future imperfect history.

The Solider has a label called Soldier. It represents your loyalty to, the resources of, and the training by AEGIS. You can use this Label instead of any other for your actions by spending a point from the Team Pool as long as you are acting on orders or relying on your training. The theme of this Label echoes some of the moves the Outsider has access to, representing their loyalty to their people and being on Earth for a specific mission, but once again, making it a Label instead of a bunch of moves really distinguishes who the Soldier is.

And just so I don’t leave out The Brain. They have their Shame… something they are responsible for that threatens something they care about. Also, part of the playing the Brain is a little bit of an attitude or haughtiness because you KNOW you’re better than everyone else. This is what makes me think they are great representations for character that might otherwise be Reformed. Lex Luthor for example. But even someone like Emma Frost of the X-Men could be perfectly emulated with the Brain Playbook.

On the flip side, the Brain is also THE Playbook for playing young Tony Stark, Brainiac 5 and (my favorite) Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur! This is why the Brain wins for me over the Joined playbook. Instead of powers or abilities, you chose something you are known for. The list includes things that immediately remind you of Otto Octavius, Tony Stark, Hank Pym and the like. Then they had in the list “Robot Sidekick” and my mind just edited to “Dinosaur Sidekick” and BAM! Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur can finally be played in a Masks game with no fuss, no muss!

Beautiful.

So, yeah, these new Playbooks are winning me over and I would always choose or recommend The Soldier, the Brain, or the Harbinger over the Reformed, the Star, the Joined, or the Newborn.

Just complete our +-20 games run of masks.

Just complete our +-20 games run of masks. It was a blast, our heroes completed their story arc, and the players were really happy.

We ran using an open table type system (3-5 players to have a game) with a pool of 9 players, 7 of which played till the end.

Anyway, that is all

Playbook for the well adapted kid.

Yesterday I thought about Naruto with Masks. Now, most characters have a rather obvious playbook.

Naruto – Bull

Sasuke – Delinquent

Sakura – Beacon

In the next Generation:

Boruto – Star

Mitsuki – Reformed

Sarada – …

I first put her as a Protegé, but of whom? Not her mother. In a way she’s more grown-up than Mama Sakura. Not her father, who is always absent. She looks up to Naruto, but he doesn’t have a strong role in her live and they certainly do not have conflicts.

For the same reason, she probably is not The Legacy. There are no strong family dynamics there.

What Sarada struggles with are her own expectations. She tries to help old ladies, tries to succeed at school, is trustworthy. She is quite sucessful at all those things too, but not as succesful as she feels she has to be.

What’s her playbook?

Hi, everyone! This is my first post, so apologies if this has been answered elsewhere, but a quick question.

According to the rules, there seems to be a lot of leeway in terms of the Bull’s abilities, as long as they focus on combat rather than utility. What I’m curious about is whether or not an energy blast type of power is too flexible for the playbook.

I was considering making a Bull based partially around Paige Rampling from Progenitor, who has a supremely tough permanent skintight force field and massive energy blasts that are tough to minimize damage.