Category: Masks: A New Generation RPG

Yesterday we played a long demo, two sessions (that I should have broken in three, probably), that managed to…

Yesterday we played a long demo, two sessions (that I should have broken in three, probably), that managed to…

Yesterday we played a long demo, two sessions (that I should have broken in three, probably), that managed to totally win me over to the game. Apart from a few doubts on the Bull I understood how the game avoids the “Emotional dartboard effect” of Influence and was delighted to see how well and smoothly the moves snowballed into an exciting and thematic fiction.

So… great gaming day.

We weaved some cosmic stuff, with a cult trying to resurrect a cosmic villain visually inspired by TV Flash’s Zoom whose soul was trapped in the Doomed and a nice Pact with the Devil thing going.

Since we have the awesome Luca Bonisoli​​ at the table we also got some veeeeeery nice portraits.

You can admire Flare the Nova, young, sturdy, bent to be a TRUE hero, that was revealed to be the only one whom could stop the cult without summoning Zoom himself (and the Bull didn’t like that, since he was her rival… having to exalt an already powerful Nova to play on the Bull rivalry really excalated things!)

Hope was Alexandra Zanasi​​’s Doomed, the true vessel of Zoom but unwilling to wield the power. 17 years in age, about 33 in cynism, her very superhero name was Zoom’s last word: “You are my only hope”.

Creepy memory manipulation and “who watches the watchmen” effect apart her relationship with the Bull was a beutiful example of emotionally damaged people trying to cope (but she wanted to kiss the Beacon, so only bllood and tears could emerge).

Sarah rarely used her “Icy Glare” superhero name. Francesco Berni​​ described her as a mix of Luke Cage (from Jessica Jones series) and Dumbing of Age Sarah. Calm, cynical, emotionally drained, liked to punch things instead of talking to them, but was a true team mum.

Lavinia Fantini​​’s Beacon Mist (real name Zoya) bordered  on the manic pixie girl trope: superhero enthuxiast, daughter of a Bronze Age retired (and damaged) speedster, she had a lot of conflicts with her doting but protective parents and started to come at odds with the more cynical part of the team. When you steal your mother’s costume and start to phase around things get dangerous…

But she also managed to get really drunk, so yay

On the villain side we can admire The Invader: former Golden paragon, time displaced, mind controlled, punched and zapped hard.

So much patriotism, so much chin, so much racism.

Sara didn’t like him.

Last but not least, Mary: natural daughter of Zoom, Hope’s nemesis and on a mission to get back HER legacy. I actually think she got a point: nobody was doing anything to contrastate the cult, late Zoom’s power was needed and she was willing to wield it, if Hope couldn’t accept the same fate.

A nice turn of events was starting to show us that in all her angst Hope was actually jealous of her power and didn’t want to share…

As I said: nice game, nice drawings, excellent game ^^

Fun things to do with the Protege’s Mentor:

Fun things to do with the Protege’s Mentor:

Fun things to do with the Protege’s Mentor:

– they are in prison

– they are family

– they are dead and you only communicate through visions/memories/mystical summons 

– they forced it all on you

– you were always their second choice

– you blackmailed them into training you

– they are very overprotective 

– they only took you in because they know you otherwise would become a supervillain

– you are their clone

– both of you were sent from another planet, you were older and should protect them but you got caught in the…. okay just the premise of Supergirl okay? 

So, I’m playing a campaign with a nova, and we played a long demo yesterday where I played a bull.

So, I’m playing a campaign with a nova, and we played a long demo yesterday where I played a bull.

So, I’m playing a campaign with a nova, and we played a long demo yesterday where I played a bull.

I like the idea of the bull, I like how my character turned out, but I could not shook the sensation that there was something missing, something more human.

The combat moves are perfect, the bull fight and do it well, and nobody can hit as hard, but I missed something, something more human some more hooks, something more than a couple of +1 forward to help or hinder love and rival.

The GM moves where good too, the bull is in the centre of of a tornado of things that happen to other people she cares about, I think it just miss something stronger on her moves list, can’t exactly pinpoint what.

The rest of my friends had the same sensation reading it and playing with it in team.

Did I miss something? Somebody else had the same sensation?

I think (I hope, anyway) that I’m incrementally closer to an understanding of how to run this thing.

I think (I hope, anyway) that I’m incrementally closer to an understanding of how to run this thing.

I think (I hope, anyway) that I’m incrementally closer to an understanding of how to run this thing. Anybody have sample villains that they want to share? There’s the one example in the GM PDF, but I’m looking for other examples, hoping to broaden my horizons…and with a second example (perhaps not too far from the first) I might be able to tackle it.

I suspect that when I run a session (tentatively scheduled for Sunday), I’ll have a two-condition villain to start in medias res, let them defeat that villain (suddenly I’m thinking about a two-condition guy from the golden age who has busted out of the retirement home because he’s immortal and he wants to die, dammit, so he’s hoping a nice exertion will make his heart explode. That might be too dark for a first playtest), and the consequences of the first fight, whatever it is, will lead into the second fight. Or do folks normally start in media res but with the session’s big bad?

Okay, old dog trying to learn new tricks.

Okay, old dog trying to learn new tricks.

Okay, old dog trying to learn new tricks.

Been roleplaying for umpty decades, which I can tell is an impediment here. Never read a PbtA game before. Probably thinking in an old-style way, and the couple of actual plays I’ve read have been heavy on the fiction rather than the mechanics, so I’m confused. If someone has a resource that has this written down, I’ll happily go there.

Basic resolution mechanic is 2d6. 7-, fail; 8 or 9, fail forward or fail in a “Yes, but” kind of way, and 10+ is a success. Only players roll (so if villain attacks NPCs, it’s a GM handwave what happens: the fiction determines it).

The fiction shapes everything: rather than the roll and creating the fiction based on it (that is, roleplaying is often a kind of pareidolia), we create the fiction and see if we need to roll.

Damage. Damage is inflicted by imposing conditions. Okay. How do you as a player inflict a condition on a villain? Is it a move, and which move is determined by the fiction? Is there a point where a character is out of the scene, or is that determined by the fiction? If a villain gets all their conditions marked, then they’ve lost…is there an end of scene version for the player characters?

More questions to come, I’m sure.

Greetings

Greetings

Greetings,

Well it isn’t an actual play but it is a drafting invoice, for you, young hero and heroine.

The all mightful Justic League of America is drafting you to help them to protect Earth when the Justice League heads to Polaris star system to aind the Thanagarian to get rid the threat which came with the Spider Guild expansion plans

You should reply on this post informing when you are avaiable and where over the world you are. There are time slots avaiable for Asia-Pacific, Europe and USofA/Canada time frames

This game are going to happen at Roll20 and the games might be interconnected and they will share the same universe

Curious how people would model this character idea…it’s a rather bizarre concept.

Curious how people would model this character idea…it’s a rather bizarre concept.

Curious how people would model this character idea…it’s a rather bizarre concept.

The basic concept is a shapeshifter that can take on various forms from pop-culture.  Basically, power by cosplay. (I had eight forms in addition to the original guy’s). He got it by walking into one of those magic costume shops you see in some TV shows on Halloween specials or in some internet fiction, but instead of buying a costume, he disrupted the magic accidentally and absorbed it.

This sounds like basic thematic shapeshifting but the twist is that each form has its own mind and soul (4 male and 4 female). Either a soul trapped in the costume was moved to him or his own soul split into eight separate new identities.  Regardless, they mostly view each other as siblings that have to share one body….I envisioned a peanut gallery going on constantly for whoever was in control at the moment.

Eventual aim for them was to each get their own body to live in.

I later did a variation of this where there was only the main character’s soul and personality but it would be filtered through whatever character she was channeling…for example, channeling a villainous and seductive werewolf from an anime caused her to become somewhat of a bastard with wolf like powers and somewhat more charisma…channeling a reckless loose cannon cop gave her some martial arts skills and a loose temper…the third persona she started with was a pre-teen magical girl…she got very childish and idealistic….some hair color and body shape changed, but age and gender did not….her basic moral character was the same so she stayed good, though the werewolf persona was much more willing to manipulate people to get what she wanted

The second one is rather easy to do….it’s the one with nine fully separate souls and minds trapped in one body that is difficult to model….

Has anyone houseruled or revised the Legacy’s End-of-Session moves?

Has anyone houseruled or revised the Legacy’s End-of-Session moves?

Has anyone houseruled or revised the Legacy’s End-of-Session moves? The questions are cool, but they’re entirely punitive (get between +0 and -3 forward) and rely on consensus (i.e. go between yes, no and maybe).

My thoughts: If you’ve completely upheld your Legacy, either mark potential, take +1 forward, start the game with +1 team, or ???

So because my group is going to be out of town next weekend, I decided to have a little “what happened the week we…

So because my group is going to be out of town next weekend, I decided to have a little “what happened the week we…

So because my group is going to be out of town next weekend, I decided to have a little “what happened the week we were away” thing.  I just wrote up a Major Comics Crossover event, complete with blurbs for fifteen books.  At the end of tonight’s session, I’m going to ask them “Which of these other books are you cameo-ing in?’, and then start off the week after with an AW-style love-letter based on their choice.