Category: Masks: A New Generation RPG

Gotta share, I got to play in a game at Metatopia, and even after running it twice, and playing in it once, I got a…

Gotta share, I got to play in a game at Metatopia, and even after running it twice, and playing in it once, I got a…

Gotta share, I got to play in a game at Metatopia, and even after running it twice, and playing in it once, I got a better handle on this game and MAN am I psyched to run the long campaign.  I used The Bull to create Rhino, a boy magic’d into becoming a human rhino hybrid, deep loner looking for team support.  Pigheaded, he ran into the fray, got in trouble that got his team mixed up, and then got into a fight with a pretentious jerk “hero” who tried to “save” someone I let go.

Thanks to a great team who left me to deal with this on my own, and to Brendan Conway for running and really enjoying our characters.

Am I out of luck until the game is in print because I didn’t hear about the kickstarter in time?

Am I out of luck until the game is in print because I didn’t hear about the kickstarter in time?

Am I out of luck until the game is in print because I didn’t hear about the kickstarter in time?

So tonight I’m running my second session of this for some friends – having never played with the PbtA rules before,…

So tonight I’m running my second session of this for some friends – having never played with the PbtA rules before,…

So tonight I’m running my second session of this for some friends – having never played with the PbtA rules before, which is it’s own set of challenges – and at the end of the session, the players managed to talk the villain down from his diabolical plot, and then let him walk away. Obviously, this seems like a prime hook for a session about the reaction of the city and the superhero community at large (‘why did they do that?’ etc). While I’d appreciate any advice on how best to make that happen, I was looking at the way you create supervillains, and wondering: could you use these to create other threats for the group, ie, an antagonistic television persona looking to stir up this story for ratings, or some other J. Jonah Jameson type?

Thought there weren’t enough powers in each playbook, so I added some!

Thought there weren’t enough powers in each playbook, so I added some!

Thought there weren’t enough powers in each playbook, so I added some! Eight shiny new moves, designed to make your life more complicated.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xiuMo8PN6F0wH7vL53mDoZ7P8PDIVBU0_Thpw-OErZE/edit?usp=sharing

I have been thinking a bit about the genius of the “lock a label” advancement.

I have been thinking a bit about the genius of the “lock a label” advancement.

I have been thinking a bit about the genius of the “lock a label” advancement. On the surface it is a mechanical advantage, generally ensuring that either your highest or lowest stat is placed in a fixed state. But this is really a representation of your character maturing, of them deciding who they are and being committed to that idea regardless of what the world around them may say. This is one of the things that is empowering about growing up in real life, but the flip side is that in deciding who you really are you sacrifice the flexibility to be someone else. If you go all the way down to five year olds, they are almost literally different people every day. They are trying on new roles and ideas, imitating the world around them, and playing with their own identities as much as they are with their environment. By the time a person is a teenager their patterns have become much more firm, and a big part of that time is the acceptance or repudiation of values and ideas that contribute to a person’s construction of themselves. Earlier this construction was heavily influenced by adults and peers, and they still hold considerable sway, but the individual person is now assuming control. But their is something sad about that lost plasticity, the ability to be remolded or to remold oneself easily, even when it is replaced by a thing we crave. It is gone, and will not come back.

So, having finally found both the community and the rules for Masks, and having calmed down over my initial bluh of…

So, having finally found both the community and the rules for Masks, and having calmed down over my initial bluh of…

So, having finally found both the community and the rules for Masks, and having calmed down over my initial bluh of a reaction.

 

Why is transgressing still being used as an appearance option for this? This has made myself and introducing every AW book super uncomfortable to show off to my trans and nonbinary friends. Especially when it was in Urban Shadows and there was the section about playing queer and poc characters. Now that it’s however many iterations on the rules, can it be changed to something that’s less of a gut punch of “you’re breaking rules by existing, trans player” to a more neutral term? It shouldn’t be too hard to control F and replace instances of “transgressing” with a less accusatory option like, “nonconforming” to make the game more welcoming and still showcase that playing a trans or nonbinary character is valid choice.

So, we had a really good first session!

So, we had a really good first session!

So, we had a really good first session! A Transformed, a Doomed, a Protege, an Outsider and the Legacy, in the future of an old superhero setting we played in for a long, long campaign. It was great!

The Legacy (Icarus) was in a fight against a plant-controlling woman named Rose Red with the Outsider (Lava Lass) and the Transformed (Kaiju). When Icarus took a powerful blow defending Lava Lass from a monstrous tooth-flower, he chose to lash out verbally at a team mate (he didn’t see the ; there in the description, but this isn’t about that).

I was like, “Sure! How are you doing it?” And he jumped in as Icarus, shouting “Do something! Don’t just stand there, come on! What the hell are you doing?! Why are you so useless?!!” and I was like, oh, use Directly Engage! So Icarus did and got a 10. Then, Kaiju defended Lava Lass, sticking up for her, giving Icarus an 8 instead. He chose to “Resist or avoid her blows” so that she couldn’t respond (or if she did he didn’t care), but she wasn’t intimidated by him. This was a great moves spiral that took the focus of the fight off of Rose Red and the vine monsters and onto the interpersonal teen drama, so I loved it! It helped push the hard move from Protege’s 2 on the Team Roll to enter the combat (Convey to him his mistakes).

After Rose Red escaped, it ended up with Lava Lass taking a powerful blow from Icarus telling the Doomed “At least you did something– not like LAVA LASS OVER HERE” in earshot of her– !! It was super amazing. I am loving the system and how it can effortlessly switch gears from superheroics to teen drama.

Now, the question:

Later the PCs told me they didn’t like that arguing was Directly Engaging and they don’t think it works. I think it does! Resisting their blows, creating an opportunity, taking something from them, frightening or impressing, it’s a shouting match! And that’s what happened right there. But they don’t think that Danger is the stat for arguing, but Superior, so the whole thing doesn’t work. I was thinking that a lot of arguments I’ve had have been solved by not who was the smartest or the smuggest but by the loudest! The other person’s implied or overt anger steers the argument faster and harder than actually being right.

What do you guys think?