For my wife’s birthday, I commissioned a tumblr fan artist to illustrate her character from our Masks…
For my wife’s birthday, I commissioned a tumblr fan artist to illustrate her character from our Masks campaign—Sonia, the Bull turned Soldier. The notes I gave on the draft were to make the character a touch bulkier and strengthen her chin. Here’s the final version. My wife interprets it as a possible future version of Sonia from a few years from now, when she’s grown into leadership in her organization.
Big session of our campaign.
Big session of our campaign. Panic (The Delinquent, changing to the Doomed) reconnected with her hometown friend Margot. Then Panic used her Moment of Truth to spring a trap and sever her connection with her doppelgänger Sapphire…but caused a rift in her team in the process.
Torq (The Nova) and Halfpenny (The Transformed) discussed their respective new bodies (Torq in a much more humanoid body, Halfpenny in more monstrous shape), then got arrested by F.A.T.E. for the damage they’ve caused. They get a chance at redemption when Porpentine runs amok.
It turned out the battle was a set-up, part of Panic’s trap for Sapphire—which she’d coordinated with F.A.T.E. and The Forge, but not her teammates! F.A.T.E. and The Forge argue about where to hold Sapphire, with Sonia (The Soldier) taking The Forge’s side next to Candelabra.
The Rime Court makes a dramatic move: The hand of Ultimatus appears above the city, and fires a tractor beam into the F.A.T.E. Dorm. Captain Bowmaster (The Beacon) charges in, sees the hand is tractoring up the Fairy Mirror, and, mid-leap, fires a bomb arrow right at the Mirror—
—Boom. The mirror shatters. A sinister voice seems to whisper, “I can work with this.” Mirror shards fly all over the city, and icy rifts blossom from them. End of session! To be continued…
So, it seems to me there’s potential for a custom playbook about characters who bond with an alien or magical…
So, it seems to me there’s potential for a custom playbook about characters who bond with an alien or magical artifact. I’m thinking of examples like Ben Ten, the Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle, a young Green Lantern. The central conflict for the playbook would be about the young hero dealing with the artifact’s arcane expectations or different ideas of heroism. Playbook name might be The Recruit.
What do people think? Do you have other examples of characters in this wheelhouse? What sort of moves and abilities would make sense in a custom playbook like this?
I was amused to realize you could run a Masks game set in the Marvel universe, where all the PCs are teenage girls…
I was amused to realize you could run a Masks game set in the Marvel universe, where all the PCs are teenage girls Wolverine has mentored.
Kitty Pryde: The Beacon
Jubilee: The Delinquent
X-23: The Bull
Plus you can throw in whomever he is mentoring most actively at present (Armor?) as the Protégé.
What do you guys think?
(Art credit: Albert Nguyen. https://www.instagram.com/p/BEzAFb_Dj6Z/)
Went back to illustrate a Masks session full of battles fought, new powers developed, identities revealed, and…
Went back to illustrate a Masks session full of battles fought, new powers developed, identities revealed, and disturbing visions granted.
Pictured clockwise starting in center: Kid Cyclone (Legacy, gust star) rescuing her cousin, Captain Bowmaster (Beacon) reveals his identity to his mother, Torque (Outsider) develops a flame-body power, Sonia (Bull) confronts a horned hunter of the Rime Court, Panic (Delinquent) weathers the blow of an icy attack but receives a disturbing vision, and Halfpenny (Protégé) kicks away Rogue Wave’s harpoon gun.
One of the highlights of DexCon this weekend was playing Masks as a PC for the first time.
One of the highlights of DexCon this weekend was playing Masks as a PC for the first time. I played a haughty Outsider: Xanthea, a demi-goddess raised on Hyper Olympus. She had stunning beauty (a divine radiance she could dial up and down) and alien weaponry (A golden discus that responded to her mental commands).
I’m GMing my home campaign, so it was a treat to be a player character here. Many thanks to the GM and other players of this one shot!
At a recent Masks session, my sister guest-starred as a Legacy.
At a recent Masks session, my sister guest-starred as a Legacy. She was the child of adult heroes that had already been introduced in the campaign, and their powerset didn’t match one of those listed for the Legacy. So we took her parents’ powers (weather control) and created a track of abilities for them:
*Temperature control
*Precipitation control
*Wind control
*Lightning control
*Flight
This worked well. She picked Temperature control, wind control, and flight. Which are pretty cool on their own! But the lack of lightning and rain, snow, hail etc. also gave the sense she had room to grow into her heroic mantle. It’s cool to break down a classic powerset into a suite from which the Legacy has to choose what they can do already and what they aspire to get to do.
Last night’s Homecoming dance episode of our Masks RPG was lit.
Last night’s Homecoming dance episode of our Masks RPG was lit. We decorated for the “Arctic Bliss” theme, made a playlist of high school dance classics, and then had our teen superhero characters attend Homecoming. What could go wrong?
While the others picked out their outfits, Torque (The Outsider) was busy faking his death. Panic (The Delinquent) saw his robot body turned into paper clips by his alien overseers. It was tragic! But…
…he showed up at Homecoming in his new, much-more-human body. Hooray!
Of course it turned out his powers had transferred too, and were much more unstable, which we discovered when he accidentally reversed gravity. Oops. (Playbook change: Outsider —> Nova)
Sonia (The Soldier) was asked to the dance by Kevin, and, suspiciously, her Forge handlers gave her permission to go. Furnace turned up and they had a heart-to-heart, and even shared a brief kiss. But it turns out the Forge somehow got a tracker on Furnace!
Captain Bowmaster (The Beacon) had a full night: dealing with his mom chaperoning, flirting/fighting with Red Cent and Katya (who may or may not be the same person…). Oh, and he was crowned Homecoming Prince!
Halfpenny (The Protégé) struck out with his date, Katya, by dropping her on a dip.
In response to a crisis at the dance (punch spiked with superpower drug Invictus) he took drastic action: ingesting some Invictus and the Bad Penny, he transformed into a monstrous new form! (Playbook change: Protégé to Transformed)
The day was saved, but the ramifications of the Salvatores’ actions are bound to be major. But no one can deny this was a Homecoming night to remember!
I ran the Homecoming dance episode of our campaign last night (fuller recap coming soon).
I ran the Homecoming dance episode of our campaign last night (fuller recap coming soon). I thought folks here might enjoy the custom moves for dancing I came up with:
____________
When you bust a move on the dance floor, roll +Freak. On a hit, you attract the attention of anyone you want, or gain Influence over one onlooker.
On a 7–9, choose a complication:
–You attract unwanted attention also
–You take a condition due to your awkwardness
On a miss, the GM will tell you what happens.
__________
When you initiate an intimate moment at Homecoming, roll +Mundane. On a hit, the other person must reciprocate or mark a condition.
On a 7-9, they get to ask you a question you must answer honestly.
On a miss, the GM will tell you what happens.
Last night at Masks we had a special guest: My younger sister, an actual teen in our teen superhero RPG!
Last night at Masks we had a special guest: My younger sister, an actual teen in our teen superhero RPG! She played Kid Cyclone, the Legacy, daughter of Professor Hurricane and Lady Hurricane.
Kid Cyclone had a first solo outing as a superhero—cutting a ribbon at the grand aquarium re-opening. The Salvatores had been tasked by her dad with watching out for her. All was fine—until Hurricane family nemesis Rogue Wave appeared, threatening KC’s cousin, Bubble Boy!
Panic (The Delinquent) began putting pieces in motion for a long con on her doppelgänger. Halfpenny (The Protégé) leapt into the fray and bonded with Kid Cyclone. Torque (The Outsider) developed and wielded a new power, turning into fire, so as to fight a Rogue Wave’s backup…
…a horned hunter of the Rime Court! Sonia (The Bull), confronting what the Forge had always meant for her to fight, discovered the iron knuckles built into her arms and embraced being a Soldier of the Forge. (Our first playbook change, from Bull to Soldier.)
Captain Bowmaster (The Beacon) made a choice just as major. After defying and defeating Rogue Wave, who said he didn’t belong in the superhero world, he encountered his mom, Assistant District Attorney Evelyn Loxley—and revealed his secret identity to her!
The team all agreed that Kid Cyclone had upheld her family’s heroic legacy, and her parents agreed! She leveraged their happiness to make a play for a getting a dog. But not just any dog: Thunderbolt, the Lightning Dog!
