Category: Masks: A New Generation RPG

So, this is going to be more how to deal with teen heroes in general, but the question came up.

So, this is going to be more how to deal with teen heroes in general, but the question came up.

So, this is going to be more how to deal with teen heroes in general, but the question came up. 

How do we make sure the story and action stays on the teens? I mean, obviously, the story has to-they’re our heroes and protagonists, they need to be the center of their stories and being awesome-but Halcyon City is explicitly filled to the brim with heroes. One or two silver age teams, bronze age teams, a bunch of solo agents. The Legacy existing means you have a small suite of older heroes with a collective interest in our young persons activities. 

How do you explain it when no one else shows up to deal with a zombie invasion? Or making the giant robotic gorilla a thing only they deal with? The bigger the threat the more impossible it seems that it’d fall into the heroes lap, but stuff like the Outsider summoning in an army shows that we’re clearly not trying to be small potatoes here. 

Any thoughts or suggestions? I’d love just ideas so that way they don’t deal with the ‘conspicuous absence’ 

I have a query about marking potential and the Team Pool.

I have a query about marking potential and the Team Pool.

I have a query about marking potential and the Team Pool. Currently my Janus is in the middle of a cloud of tear gas and my Transformed body horror gal enveloped him in a natural filter made out of her body’s wings and transformative powers.

Meat of the issue: My Transformed botched her Defend roll (6) but the Janus wants to boost it to a 7 (success). Would she Mark Potential for originally missing the roll or since it was boosted to a success does she not mark potential? I’m leaning more towards the latter myself.

Just ran the first session of my game today and ran into a little problem.

Just ran the first session of my game today and ran into a little problem.

Just ran the first session of my game today and ran into a little problem. How do you handle minions? Like, we just went with a “treat them like a group, take them out with one condition, but it takes time if they’re a lot of them.” There wasn’t rules in the GM reference for them.

How much of a tank is your Legacy ?

How much of a tank is your Legacy ?

How much of a tank is your Legacy ?

Hi, I got a wonder woman style Legacy in my sessions, with the move Never give up, never surrender. Basically, with Savior+3, and frequently defending,  she can clear Condition quickly without making hard choices to clear them, and you can’t really get her out of fight with Never give up, never surrender.

Even on a 6- , you get some advantage, and I find this move too powerful and positive for the moment when you should suffer and fear the dice result. Basically, if she defends a teammate from a powerful blow, she gets 4 advantages, 2 from Defending and 2 from getting hit…

Maybe having only one option at 10+, staying in the fight with a vulnerable opponent at 7-9 and simply going down at 6-. Or reverting to the normal powerful blow move, but deducing your Savior value from the roll, as this move is full of opportunity that the Legacy doesn’t have access to when he selects Never give up

“> □ Never give up, never surrender: When you

take a powerful blow, use this move instead of

the base move. Roll + Savior. On a hit, you stand

strong and choose one. On a 10+, choose another.

– You get an opportunity or opening against your

attacker.

– You rally from the hit, and it inspires the team.

Add a team to the pool.

– You don’t have to mark a condition.

On a miss, you go down hard but leave your

opponent off balance and vulnerable.

Opinions ? Experiences ? 🙂

Well I managed to get a quick game in last night.

Well I managed to get a quick game in last night.

Well I managed to get a quick game in last night. It was my first time running a PbtA game and everyone’s first game playing one, which wasn’t ideal, but everything went fairly smoothly.

Character creation was fantastic. With about half an hours work we had a team that worked together well. Everyone had strong ideas about who their character was, what they looked like, and how they felt about each other. We even ended up with an awkward love triangle, which was just perfect.

Following the first session advice, I dropped them into a bank heist. ‘Murder’ (Our Outsider, a shapeshifting crow) was in the process of setting up a bank account when the bank was robbed a pair of villains. Adi, our Nova, gathered power, while the Unicorn, our Bull, beat on one of the villains. He had set up some bombs, but Adi casually hurled them out into the sky, while Murder smashed him into the ground with her powers. 

At which point, the other villain revealed himself by taking hostages. Some back and forth occured, with a few failures complicating things (Poor Murder did not do nearly as well against the second villain) and the Unicorn taking bullets aimed at her teammates and the civilians. Eventually, Adi unleashed her powers and telekinetically grabbed the villains weapons, disarming both him and the situation. 

Situation resolved, the team handed the villains off to the police who were just now arriving, and received fairly reserved thanks from the Police Commisioner, along with a request that in the future they be a bit more careful about escalating the situation – They had, after all, turned a simple robbery into a situation that threatened innocent lives, and the property damage they had caused both within the bank and without could easily match the amount being stolen. Adi and Murder listened and felt contrite – They would be careful to escalate situations less, and try to act more appropriately (-Danger, +Mundane), while the Unicorn felt herself grow more confident in her actions – She’d stopped a robbery damnit, and she wouldn’t be made to feel bad for it. The bad guys were in jail, and it happened because she jumped straight into the situation (Police Commisioner lost influence).

Overall, I loved it. Everything was easy. The group aren’t too experienced, but everything gelled perfectly. The Influence system did really well (although I could have been implementing it more thoroughly throughout the session) and there were a few things I definitely didn’t give enough focus to, but overall, I’m happy.

And for a very short session, we managed to achieve a fair amount. Considering that includes character gen, it’s nothing short of amazing.

#MasksRPG #Halcyoncityjailbreak

Amazing what you can do when you sit down in one place.

Amazing what you can do when you sit down in one place.

Amazing what you can do when you sit down in one place.

I present to you eleven pages of PREMIUM AMAZING CONTENT, the first full length Masks Supplement, In 400 Miles, Turn Left!

INSIDE:

Chase rules!

How to meet girls!

Three new villains!

Contents, clearly table-ized!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RX1ov1KyvwG61dZaBGvZ_UqmYuNOOmi9iaGzjz6_EIQ/edit#

Read soon; under Creative Commons, I’ll likely revisit this, add art, and release it on DriveThru.

NOW HIT THE ROAD!

Although Halcyon City is the game’s core location, I’m feeling the call of the open road.

Although Halcyon City is the game’s core location, I’m feeling the call of the open road.

Although Halcyon City is the game’s core location, I’m feeling the call of the open road. What would you like in a 4-5 page Road Trip Supplement?

Edit: I made it, and it came out to 11 amazing pages! https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RX1ov1KyvwG61dZaBGvZ_UqmYuNOOmi9iaGzjz6_EIQ/edit?usp=sharing

My regular group is getting keen to play Masks, and we use Roll20 as the core toolset for everything we play.  So…

My regular group is getting keen to play Masks, and we use Roll20 as the core toolset for everything we play.  So…

My regular group is getting keen to play Masks, and we use Roll20 as the core toolset for everything we play.  So using my astonishing powers of outdated half-remembered HTML from computing classes 15 years ago, yesterday I started fudging together a Roll20 Masks character sheet template.  It’s based on an existing template for Apocalypse World, and it’ll take some more fiddling to stop it breaking in a coupla places, but it’s getting there.  Having playbook-specific fields come up to track things like The Nova’s Burn or a Doomtrack is doable, too, but that stuff’ll take more than one day’s effort.

Also, apparently the people in Halcyon City don’t respect my mighty lineage of Australian authority. 🙁