Masks: A New Generation RPG: Discussion – Page 63 – Powered by the Apocalypse G+ Archives

It sucks that my first post here is kind of a complaint, but I’m not sure how I feel about the new wording for I Am…

It sucks that my first post here is kind of a complaint, but I’m not sure how I feel about the new wording for I Am What You See. Whereas the previous move [which got an okay amount of use between friends and I] encouraged our Janus to be really readily shifting Labels, it seems like its been changed massively in how it triggers.

First of all being that it doesn’t require influence to trigger.

Second of all that the Janus has to, presumably, be in their civilian identity and hanging out with their teammates still, to talk about their teammate who is totally not there?

The latter seems odd to me, because in many sessions of the game, I can count on one hand the number of times our Janus really hung out with people in their civilian form – we always played with their civilian stuff happening off screen, or them getting interrupted at their jobs/schools when stuff went down, and they suddenly had to be heroes.

Is it supposed to be more common for the civilian identity Janus to just hang out and have fun with their teammates? Because their team isn’t supposed to start off knowing their identity, so it just seems… very odd.

Can I just say that You haven’t killed anyone (yet) as a defined rule for Masks is awesome!

Can I just say that You haven’t killed anyone (yet) as a defined rule for Masks is awesome!

So, the history of Halcyon city in the gold and silver ages is pretty different in the final text than it was in the…

So, the history of Halcyon city in the gold and silver ages is pretty different in the final text than it was in the playtest materials.

Both address the idea that older comics lacked diversity and upheld a problematic status quo, but they do so in very different ways. In the playtest version, we’re presented with the world as it was perhaps remembered. The text describes a city bereft of diverse heroes and complicated motivations, and then it criticizes the city for that lack. In the new version, the text focuses instead on the world that was partly forgotten. Heroes that faced barriers based on race, gender, or sexuality, or defied ideological status quos.

I think the first approach is stronger in terms of broad theme of generational change, while the second is stronger in terms of verisimilitude in a superheroic setting. I’m not entirely sure which I like better, but am glad I had the opportunity to read both. What do other people think?

Masks: A New Generation

Masks: A New Generation

I’m a total newbie when it comes to Powered by the Apocalypse game. Being a back to the Kickstarter, I was able to download the pre-release, art free version of the core book for the game.

I’m on page 36 of the PDF and I just wanted to say that I love everything I’m seeing so far. The description about how to play this roleplaying as it being a conversation is perfect. My six-year-old daughter described her first experience with The Secrets of Cats in a similar way: We sit at the table and share our thoughts.

I totally love the backstory of Halcyon City. A megalopolis that is the “center of the world” when it comes to super powered shenanigans for some unknown reason. As a result, the city sports advanced sciences and magic, alien enclaves and architecture, and every type of living condition and person found in any part of the world.

The breakdown of the three generations of super heroes in Halcyon City is a great analog to comic book history. It even made me think of the books Generations and The Fourth Turning by demographers Neil Howe and William Strauss. I think that if this sort of discussion interests you and could inform your game, definitely read one of those books. The latter is extremely apt to the PCs of Masks: A New Generation.

Anyway, I’m off to read more and I’ll keep posting what I think as inspiration strikes me. Thanks for your time!

Two things I noticed with the basic move phrasing

Two things I noticed with the basic move phrasing

Comfort

When I read this first I thought they get to choose

– mark potential

– clear a condition

– decide to open up to you and shift labels

when in fact they need to choose to open up and then, if they do they can choose one of the options. Maybe this can be made a bit clearer?

Defend someone

I feel like this move would be better if it was structured:

On a 10+ you keep them safe and choose one

* list

On a 7-9 t costs you

* escalate

* put yourself in danger

The way the move is right now (in the core book, page 67) it is very confusingly set up.

The optional rules for Harm in the pre-release really answer a question I’ve been struggling with.

The optional rules for Harm in the pre-release really answer a question I’ve been struggling with. Conditions are emotional states. But what if you have a character that has no emotions. Such as a soulless automaton attacking the city. It’s pretty hard to justify inflicting emotional conditions on a robot the fiction says has no emotions. Having harm boxes instead of emotional conditions is forehead slapping common sense. I probably wouldn’t use it for PCs but when they’re facing off against robots, I can definetly use it there.

I notice that the version going into release has removed the “create a second character” option…makes me curious.

I notice that the version going into release has removed the “create a second character” option…makes me curious. It seems that option fits in wonderfully for explaining Young Justice season two.

1. Hurray for the book being out, at least in some form!

2. How do you handle influence for people joining the team after creation? New people join with no influence (which makes sense), but is that balanced that the new kid is THAT new?

So, ran a one shot recently and one of the players brought up a question: what if you want your character to be…

So, ran a one shot recently and one of the players brought up a question: what if you want your character to be aromantic/asexual? He had chosen the Doomed and was unsure what to put in the ‘You want to kiss __ before your doom comes” relationship. He eventually decided to change his character to be interested in trying out at least one romance, but it doesn’t feel quite answered to me. Should I have changed the question? Would “no-one” be a good answer to that? I realize that Masks is about relationships between characters, romantic or otherwise, so putting no-one in there feels like he’d be missing out on some potential interactions if the game hadn’t been a one shot

Random thought: using Masks to run a dramatic Mecha game.

Random thought: using Masks to run a dramatic Mecha game. The more physical and superpowered side of your playbook represents your mecha’s abilities, while you as the pilot take on the social role. Mecha shows (at least the ones I’m familiar with) tend to feature young protagonists with suitably volatile emotions, so I think it would be a good fit.

My Sunday evening is free this weekend; anybody want to test this out with a one-shot?