Masks: A New Generation RPG – Page 31 – Powered by the Apocalypse G+ Archives

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I have written more adventure ideas for Masks!

There are 36 adventure seeds inspired by superhero related media (some readers may spot some direct references) all available for your use. I hope you enjoy!

Been reading through New X-men: Childhood’s End and realized that X-23 doesn’t know how to play Masks.

My second homebrew playbook, the Regressed. This playbook represents a teenage superhero who used to be an adult, but was somehow de-agified back into a youthful body and mind. Now, stuck as a kid with all of their adult responsibilities looming on one side, and the respect and stability that comes with it, and the fear, insecurity, freedom, and comfort of childhood on the other, they must come to terms with their own feelings regarding themselves, their past, the future, who they could be, and how their first go-around of life turned out.

Mechanically, the Regressed is not pulled toward any one Label. None of their moves involve rolling a particular Label, substituting one Label for another, or shifting a specific Label up or down. But they do have several ways to quickly shift their Labels around to explore themselves and become new things from session to session. Their Extra, Caught In Between, pulls them between sharp outbursts of either radical reinvention or authority and competence.

As with the Host, I do have some ongoing Masks games, and would like to eventually use this for actual play! So any critique or suggestions on how to improve are welcome. (The art for the Regressed isn’t done yet, so please excuse the blank space on page 1.)

https://imgur.com/a/YLlHnuK

Another idea to float past the fellows.

Another idea to float past the fellows. Out of the listed abilities for the Nova, I’m surprised that one of those isn’t weather control. A power that, the more I think about it, is made for the concept.

Like the Nova abilities, weather powers are incredibly open ended and limited only by imagination. Jojo’s Stone Ocean arc features a character that makes other weather masters seem like amateurs, even if some uses stretch it a bit.

Furthermore, and more importantly, weather powers are the stuff of horror stories for uncontrollable mayhem. There are so many variables in play to make weather function that creating desired effects is downright miraculous.

Probably just out of room on the playbook, but yeah. Nova controlling weather seems like a great basis for a character.

An exciting session. The Team went to the zoo and cooed over a Time Sloth.

Panic (Delinquent) gave up some of her closely-guarded secrets in order to protect her other closely-guarded secrets.

Sonia (Bull) bonded/flirted with Panic’s wholesome superheroic older brother, Adonis.

Torque (Outsider) hacked a magic wand from inside a pocket dimension it had trapped him in.

Halfpenny (Protégé) argued with his mentor Penny Dreadnought about how to be a hero, and learned that his predecessor as Penny Dreadnought’s sidekick became a villain: Red Cent!

The team also dispatched with the anagram-casting witch and hammer-wielding minotaur that had shown up to cause trouble at Adonis’s press conference. Good job, Salvatores!

WHO SHIFTS LABELS?

The move:

“When someone with Influence over you tells you who you are or how the world works, accept what they say or reject their influence. If you accept what they say, the GM adjusts your Labels accordingly; if you want to keep your Labels as they are, you must reject their Influence.”

Reading this, it seems clear the GM adjusts the labels EVEN IF the situation is a PC to PC interaction. Yet that is not the way we have played it; between PC’s we have had the Influencing PC say what is shifted. Is there a rule I am missing? Did I just get confused by the rule on page 77 which definitely says if you GAIN influence over a PC you already have influence over you (the player, not GM) decide which labels shift? How do you play this between PCs?

LOCKED LABELS AND MOVES REDUX

In a separate thread, I asked a question about locked labels, and there was a lot of interesting talk. However, on reflection it occurred to me that there can’t be that many moves that specify a label, and therefore just itemizing them and saying what happens if the label is locked might actually be easier than coming up with some kind of consistent rule. So, here they all are, with my take on what happens if the label is locked.

Bull – Punch everyone – if Danger is locked, nothing happens.

Janus – 2nd Team Move – if either Mundane or the Mask label is locked, nothing shifts, but the Influence gain happens.

Janus – the Mask – once either the Mundane or Mask Label are locked, affirming or denying your secret identity generates no effect.

Legacy – 1st Team Move – if you tell someone they are not your equal, and Superior is locked, nothing happens.

Legacy – I know what I am – if Savior is locked, then ignore the shift, you still add team to the pool the first time you defend a teammate.

Nova – 1st Team Move – If they say yes and either Danger or Superior is locked, nothing happens.

Outsider – Alien Ways – if Superior is locked, nothing happens.

Transformed – 2nd Team Move – If they say gaining, and Mundane is locked, no shift happens but you still clear the condition.

Reformed – What the hell, hero – on a miss, if Danger or Savior are locked the shift does not happen, but you still mark a condition of their choice.

Reformed – Dark Past – if Danger is locked, no shift happens, but you still choose one from the list.

Newborn – 2nd Team Move – if their response confuses/offends you and either Freak or Mundane is locked, nothing happens.

Newborn – Thermodynamic Miracle – if they open up to you and either Freak or Mundane is locked, nothing happens.

Innocent – What’s this thing? – if you act the way they tell you and Mundane is locked, no shift happens but you still clear a condition.

Martyr – if Savior is locked, nothing happens.

Joined – Powers Activate! – if the assistants Superior or Mundane are locked, nothing happens to the assistant. The leader still unleashes their powers with combined Freak.

Brain – Mission Debrief – if Superior is locked, you no longer can mark potential by downplaying your role in the mission.

Brain – Whenever you are confronted with your shame – if Superior or Danger are locked, you must mark a condition.

Soldier – I can do this all day – if Savior is locked, you cannot stop yourself from leaving the fight.

Soldier – Mission First – if Savior is locked, no shift happens, but if you avoided causing collateral damage you still clear a condition.

Two comments –

1) The only move that seems to me to simply be broken by locking the label is the Soldier’s I can do this all day. By broken I mean the move just makes no sense anymore, by locking Savior I can’t do it all day anymore? That just seems weird. Its the only one where I think considering a change in wording after the player locks Savior is worth talking about.

2) I disagreed with Brendan Conway on the Brain’s Mission Debrief.

Another series of thoughts about GM interpretation.

Another series of thoughts about GM interpretation. I’m in love with the Deck of Villainy and the characters featured in it. As well as how many different ways that the characters can be portrayed.

Specifically, I want to highlight Satin. One of their major abilities is complete body control, which gets a custom move, “Evade an attack with uncanny grace.” How would you interpret the move? Does Satin simply bob and weave around attacks? Or does their body contort in inhuman and disturbing ways that put elastic heroes off?

The rule on page 118 says about locked Labels “If that Label would shift, ignore that effect in its entirety.”

A move says “Give them Influence, and shift your Mundane up and your mask’s Label down.” If either Mundane or the mask label are locked, clearly you ignore the second clause. But do you ignore the first as well? Is the whole sentence the “effect” that is being ignored, or just the bit about shifting labels.

Category: Masks: A New Generation RPG