Category: Masks: A New Generation RPG

A dramatic, family-focused Masks session last night. Fletcher Loxley (The Beacon), met his grandfather Errol—still alive and the director of F.A.T.E.! They collaborated to kidnap Fletch’s mind-controlled parents, in a scene involving snipers, a rocket car, and a Moment of Truth. Fletcher changed playbooks from the Beacon to the Legacy!

Panic (The Doomed) went home to Greenville to come clean to her parents, only to find her doppelgänger Sapphire usurping her life! The team captured Sapphire and Panic had a sweet moment with her mom Maribel—but Panic’s Doom inched closer as she sprouted Rime Court horns!

Sonia (The Soldier) used a Moment of Truth to reconnect Aislin and Furnace to the mystical Kiln. Her alliances and enmities with the various Forge scientists grew more complex. And she dealt with facing Panic and Sapphire by blasting them both, planning to sort it out later!

Halfpenny (The Transformed) got himself exorcized, lessening Mr. Hunt’s hold over him. His transmuting and telepathic powers shifted in the process, leaving him unable to return to his mundane form but able to turn his arms into strange materials and communicate with squirrels.

Torq (The Nova) didn’t blow anything up (though he needed it to be explained to him why Panic minded Sapphire usurping her family). At session’s end, the team was bruised, battered, and prepping to leave this plane of reality on a quest to rescue Baron Devastation.

A final ChristMASKS Love Letter, for Halfpenny the Transformed (a former Protege, who also has Doom Track). This one has the hardest miss I’ve ever written for a love letter or any custom move. Let’s see what happens!

Dear Halfpenny,

The time has come, you’ve decided, for auld acquaintance to be forgot.

You’ve learned what you can from Mr. Hunt, but this thing where he controls your body for fourteen minutes, forty seconds of each day is getting old. Time to kick him to the curb. What’s the worst that can happen? (Oh, you poor, naïve soul.)

The Forge has been working on a way to assist you with your Bad Penny problem. The procedure is relatively simple: Two circles of salt and flame are ignited, one around you and one around the card of Mr. Hunt’s that Sonia delivered to Dr. Nix. Once the wards are secure, Candelabra will also set the business card on fire. In theory (in theory!) this should weaken Mr. Hunt’s hold on you, as he’ll also be pulled to his card and (hopefully) caught in that ward. Then the Forgeling can attempt to exorcise his remaining grip and free you.

Only Nix and Candelabra are here. You worried about what dangers your teammates might be exposed to if they watched. You alone decided to eat the Bad Penny. You will face these consequences alone too. If this works, you can speak to your team freely without worrying about Hunt for the first time in a long time. If this doesn’t… well, it’s best they don’t have to see whatever happens to you, you think again, trying to silence the nagging thought that you’re making an even bigger mistake than before.

Nix looks you over. “Pray this works, Halfpenny. Your situation is untenable. If this fails…” she trails off, then walks briskly to an observation station. “Candelabra, update.”

“Ready to light.” The intense young girl steps away from the flickering barrier she’s erected around you. It doesn’t look like much, especially given your inhuman strength and bulk. But you’ve seen Candelabra work her magic before. You feel the telltale shiver of the Penny reacting to what’s going on. Is Hunt…afraid? impatient? Either way, you’ve had enough of him living rent free in your body. You give Candelabra a final thumbs up, then hunker down. You wanted to have a clever quip here, but your throat has gone dry.

Candelabra lights the circle. Your vision woozily shifts, and once more you’re in that boxing ring with Mr. Hunt glaring at you from the other corner…

(But, of course, there’s no way to know how your transformed body will react to all this magic. Perhaps you’ll find yourself even more monstrous by the time the ritual is done.)

Roll +your +1 forwards on the Bad Penny, that is, +3.

On a hit, Mr. Hunt’s presence within you is curbed. A part of him remains within your mind, but much of him is banished to…elsewhere. Clear a Doomsign.

On a 10+, you manage to ask Mr. Hunt a question as this goes down. The GM will give you an honest answer. Then choose one complication from below.

On a 7-9, choose two complications.

—The nature of your transmuting flesh shifts radically. You can do freakier things, like coat a whole arm in metal or form spiky protrusions, but you can no longer shift back into your mundane Felipe form.

—Your animal telepathy kicks into overdrive. Now you realize that you can reach out to mammals…but being around them when they’re excited can cause painful feedback that makes you risk losing control of your powers.

—Wherever you go, coins are attracted to you as if by magnetism. They propel themselves towards you and embed in your flesh.

On a miss, things go very badly. Mr. Hunt was wilier than you thought. Instead of him being exorcized, you are booted from your body and find your mind floating in the ether, unmoored. Mr. Hunt has full control over the body that, once, was yours.

What is it like being a free-floating spirit in the in-between? What does Halfpenny see or experience there that is most disturbing? Mark an appropriate condition. Then make your doom track thrice. Then tell me how you get in touch with Panic psychically to plead for help.

Happy New Year, Felipe Farthing. Hope you get the chance to see it.

XXOO,

Your Gamemaster

P.S. What, you expect more love letters? Not a chance. Go on, get out of here! There’ll be adventure enough on Saturday.

A ChristMASKS Love Letter for Sonia, the former Bull turned Soldier.

Dear Sonia,

In Darkhavia, the winter holidays are a time of chilling ghost stories, children cowering in fear of shaggy beasts with whips and sacks, and the omnipresent threat of severe punishment for misdeeds. Of course, that’s pretty much how things are year round there… Enjoying your new citizenship? Well pull up a blanket and try to get cozy. It’s going to be a very Darkhavian Christmas.

Viscount Consternation, current ruler of Darkhavia, has come to Capstone with two goals in mind. The first: throw his weight around with F.A.T.E. to teach them there’s a cost to kidnapping Darkhavian citizens.

The second: make it clear to everyone at the Forge that his care for Darkhavia is so deep and so magnanimous that he will rise to the defense of even someone who deserves it as little as you do.

That’s fine by you, of course, since you have a plan to recruit the recovering Invictus junkies at the Forge to humiliate Viscount Consternation. These kids are all jonesing for superpowers, right? Why not recruit them to the Forge’s cause and fire them up for the fight against the Rime Court. Of course, you know that Consternation can’t comply with this plan, because Nix says it will take Baron Devastation to grant fire powers to more Forgelings. But forcing Consternation to confirm this publicly should knock him down a peg, and help underline the need to bring Devastation back. That’s the idea, anyway.

Roll +Soldier, that is, +1.

On a hit, choose someone at the Forge to join your conspiracy. The GM will tell you what important resource or intel they bring to the table.

But if this works, Consternation will be looking for revenge. On a 10+ choose two, on a 7-9 choose one.

He doesn’t find a way to take his humiliation out on:

You, Sonia

Dr. Nix

Furnace and Aislin

On 6-, he turns the tables and Nix joins in (for cover, she says). Still couldn’t she have distanced herself without stooping to breaking that promise/betraying that trust? What happened and what condition do you mark?

Hope your little scheme turns out to be worth it. Merry Christmas, Sonia Ignacio.

XXOO,

Your Gamemaster

P.S.: You haven’t been forgotten, Halfpenny. There’s still room in your stocking for a little loose change…