OOC

Out of character discussion goes here.

Sorry for the delay but I may not get to character creation until tomorrow night.

You're fine, I won't be starting for the next few days anyway.

In the meantime, I've posted a thread with all the questions you guys need to answer before we start. I'll unlock it on Friday.

Ok GM suggested I go with Bull so I will see how that turns out.

It was a recommendation, but I'm not gonna tell you what you should or should not play.

Ok thanks ! *Thumbs up*

I do need to know which playbook you're picking by Friday though, so I can get your questions in the thread.

I will go with Bull (I dont know the system so going with the easiest is probably the best)

Fair enough, your questions have been added to the Backstories thread.

Backstories thread is unlocked!

Are we supposed to post in the backstories thread in the order our characters are listed? Or it doesn't matter? It seems like some of the questions build on each other, especially with the "when the team first came together" section.

Nah, I just posted them alphabetically by playbooks. And yeah, the part about you guys coming together is supposed to build off each other, but just post what you think, we can smooth it out once we have everyone's responses in.

Ok, thanks!

Backstories thread updated with names and Beacon questions.

One of Mimic's answers mentions a team base. Anyone want to suggest what that is?

I think my Doom is supposed to remain a secret to all but one teammate, or else I'd offer my Sanctuary. Maybe we have a little base shaped like a giant T on an island just off the coast of the city.

I think it's up to you who knows about your Doom, but at least one person knows.

Do you all have a team name?

My mentor gave us a hidden base, a vehicle, and a chem lab. If we're on an island, we totally have to have a cool aircraft like batman or the X-Men

Yeah, you can have a team transport of some kind, since you can't all just fly everywhere.

You're right. I read my Team Move as confiding in them my doom, but it's just to share a vulnerability or weakness.

As far as a team name... uuuhhhh.. don'tmakefunofmybadideas but here's a list:

The Halcyon Eight
Halcyon Knights
Halcyon Young Knights
The Novae
Young Thunders
The Sentinels
Super Sentinels
Young Sentinels
The Octawatch (Octa- for eight, that is!)

Presumably any name with 'young' in it, there'd be a standard version of the team with the adult heroes.

I like Marithyme's idea for the base.

We're a bunch of teenagers. The cheesier the name the better. ;)

You could go with a "Young _____" name, but I can't guarantee anyone would take you seriously. Which arguably works better than if they did.

I was thinking of Young Justice and Young Avengers. Even Teen Titans uses their young age in the name (although better, in my opinion).

But yeah, I was imagining that the team could've been made official by the adult heroes, and maybe even named by them, much to the discontent of the teenagers. :P

So what I'm getting from the Backstories thread is that you guys formed as part of a Crisis Crossover.

Yep! And the fans loved it.

That they did! In fact, people are celebrating it over here!

I want one :(

Young Nebulas or Nebulae? ;-)

Being a super hero takes time away from schools and our education, okay? We're only so super.

Maybe that is one of our many complaints about the name that was given to us. :p

Ok so, Doctor Destroyer, you are a genius right ?

So while you have us in this death trap could you give us a hand on our trig homework ? I mean you being a genius and all it should be no problem.

At least one supervillain has created a catsnake.

I'm not sure it would help. Even with certain novas advancing science as much as they do, science still says catsnake should not exist.

T_T What about Cat Rabbits?

Cat rabbits are totally real.

How old are each of your characters?

Polaris/Emma is 16.

Cammy/Talia is 15 going on 16.

Procyon/Jennifer is 18.

Aeon Crow - 15

Adam/Mimic is 2.

Ollie/Omen is 16.

I went and got myself a chili dog for lunch. I hope you're happy.

Bah ha ha! Hmmmm... Now I want a chili dog

What kind of chili dog?

A fancy one. An all-beef hot dog loaded with a meaty no-bean chili. I work in a building that has a butcher and their hot dogs are top-notch. I also got a second dog loaded with chow chow and kewpie mayo. It is divine.

Now I'm hungry :(

I can talk about food all day AND I'm pregnant so this is an unhealthy combo. ALL THE FOOD.

Cincinnati-style chili is and always will be the best chili.

MoMo, did you have any intent for what Sage's powers were, or is that up to me?

You're welcome to do it, if you'd like, or I can. Whichever you prefer. I left it open-ended for anyone to do.

So, this is some crazy coincidence, but my wife just told me we're having chili dogs for dinner.

Chili dogs for everyone!!!

Time for some real superhero stuff!

Hope I rolled that right! Got an 8, and charge up says this:

"When you charge up your powers, roll + conditions you currently have marked. On a hit, hold 3
burn. On a 7-9, mark a condition. On a miss, hold 2 burn and mark three conditions."

Do I get to choose the condition? Also, what counts as a hit and what is a miss?

Anything 6 or under is a miss.

Thanks!

6 or less is a miss.

7-9 is a hit, usually with some consequence.

10+ is a full hit.

Okay, so if I'm reading that right, I should have 3 burn + a condition now.

Yep! And sometimes the GM will tell you which condition to mark, but in this case you can pick.

Sounds good. Thanks!

I should say that Omen isn't always the greatest team player because #TeenProblems and #DoomedAngst, but MoMo certainly feels that she should be followed so that everyone can join in on the day-saving, superheroic fun times.

Edit: and so that Omen doesn't get beat up by herself

Possibly worth asking, for the telekinetics in the party, can you fly?

Omen always thinks she's on a solo mission. We've got her back!

Umm... I picture Omen still working on her telekinetic stuff. Probably hover and glide better than fly, but working on it.

Technically she is on a solo mission also...

She fancies herself the Batman of the group, but she's too soft

So you'd freaked out if you had a sidekick that didn't like wearing pants so they ripped them off all the time. (Only thing I know about the Batman Lego movie).

Omen doesn't take no sidekicks. That was Batman's only mistake.

Sleeping with villians...

Not half as bad as Robin.

I learned it from you Dad!

Dammit Robin not in front of the thugs!

Keep your enemies close, amirite?

That's the way!

Would it be possible to post the basic moves somewhere so we can reference them quickly or copy/paste as needed?

Oh yeah, I thought I'd posted those already. Here's a link.

Out of curiosity CosmicKeyRing what do you consider inappropriate teenage hero behavior?

Stealing tech from the bad guys?

Maybe we can repurpose the machine to make snow cones at our secret base?

If you can move the thing and it doesn't get destroyed, sure. Just replace the air conditioning while you're at it.

Can Chameleon only absorb specific types of energy, or just energy in general?

It just says energy, I thought that meant all types? I mean I imagine some are harder to safely contain/expend than others, and the more of it there is, the harder to control.

Makes sense.

Sorry Omen :-(

Thanks for trying :)

P.S. I totally picture her channeling energy like Uncle Iroh (from Avatar:the Last Airbender), firebender-style if that makes sense.

Question- if Emma is using her powers to directly engage the woman, does she roll +Danger or +Freak?

She would roll +Danger. One of the options when succeeding on "Directly Engage a Threat" is to create an opportunity or to take something from them, so that could be written as grappling with them or some such.

Something I read in the book that I didn't understand before is that "Unleash your Powers," which is +Freak, is not the "Use Your Powers" move. It's used for complicated tasks that solve problems and is kind of a catch-all move for using your powers that doesn't fit better in one of the other Moves.

That's my understanding anyway!

Huh. I think I get that. So normal use of powers doesn't require a roll?

If a person capable of flight is just flying around the city, with nothing special going on, then the game doesn't intend for you to roll for that. There's no question as to whether or not you can succeed at that, so you don't need to roll it. Of course the Gamemaster might have an interesting idea for why you might fail that you are not aware of, so that's always an exception.

If you're capable of flying and part of your action is to fly at full speed toward a supervillain and slam into his stomach, then you don't roll to activate the power before rolling to attack him, or anything. All of that is just contained in the Directly Engage a Threat move, which is always +Danger, whether or not you're using your powers to do it.

Woops, my bad! I had assumed Engage a Threat would have been more for a direct attack. I have a +2 in both Danger and Freak though, so it was a failure either way.

MoMo is correct on all counts! The moves in this game are meant to be descriptive and cover lots of things, but there's also a lot you can do without needing to use them. That said, keep your playbook moves in mind! It's what makes your character play different from the rest of your team.

Also, you can effectively use any moves in combat, not just directly engage and unleash your powers. With how combat works in Masks, they can all be equally effective at reaching your goals.

What are you having trouble with?

I think just understanding how everything works.

From seeing the posts, some actions lead to questions or odd results and I just keep thinking. I have no idea what people are talking about.

Did you read the file about the basic moves?

I felt the same way, Cosmic_Cube. I picked up the Masks RPG book from DriveThruRPG (using the Gamers Plane referral link, of course), and it's making more sense.

Basically, the Basic Moves are a description of the types of actions that you can take. The 2d6+x roll that is required in the description of the Basic Move doesn't always relate directly to your primary ability. It's kind of like FATE that way. Your 2d6+x roll is a success if you get a 7 or higher, and a great success if it's a 10 or higher.

Can we only do the basic moves ?
Also it seems almost like puzzle pieces where some actions lead to other actions.
I was trying to figure out how that worked.

Some actions are in fact meant to lead into others. And you have access to the basic moves as well as the moves your playbook gives you.

Some of the Moves generate additional information on a critical success (rolling 10+). For example, the Pierce the Mask move (in the Basic Moves playbook available for free from magpigames.com) lists:

When you pierce someone's mask to see the person beneath, roll +Mundane. On a 10+, ask three. On a 7-9, ask one.
- what are you really planning?
- what do you want me to do?
- what do you intend to do?
- how could I get your character to _____?
- how could I gain Influence over you?

For my F2F group we've gone with Fiction first and then figured rolls/moves as the GM states after the RP. That might help.

The Apocalypse system focuses really heavily on just "telling a story" as opposed to "playing a game." There are a lot of things that don't require rolls and also don't have an in-game mechanical effect; We're just sitting around going back and forth and telling a story. When an action has a significant chance of failure (as we/the GM sees it), then we can roll for it. Honestly, the moves should cover just about everything you want to do, so generally you'll choose which Move your Action fits into, and then those give you some effects for the results that you roll.

If you're unsure how to play, more so than in most games you can totally get by if you just roleplay your character and do everything you think he/she would do, and then the GM will let you know if/when you need to make rolls, and what to roll. You'd learn the system pretty quick.

So here's my understanding:

Whenever you directly engage a threat, if you roll a hit (7+), then you both hurt each other. That's what trading blows is. Target takes a condition and either you take a condition or you roll Take a Powerful Blow, up to the GM. There's an option for your "Choose One" when you get a hit, to ignore your opponent's damage, which effectively means "you hurt them, they don't hurt you." But otherwise, you kind of both hit each other.

I posted in the IC thread, I ruled that since she's fighting three opponents at once, she has her attention split and wasn't able to do much against you. Unless you want to take a powerful blow.

Okay! No problem, I just didn't know if you didn't understand how the rule worked, or something. I misunderstood!

Omen already feels Insecure, anyhow :(

I legitimately did not know. I've only played some Masks before and that character never directly engages.

Haha, my friends and I have been getting into PbtA games lately, and we just played a game of Masks two days ago. It was tons of fun.

I think you can only use Team after they roll…

It's taking me a little longer than usual to get back into a PbtA game (I used to play DW exclusively before D&D 5e took over my life), but I really like it!

I too am having trouble transitioning from 5e, but it's worth it because rules-light superheroes are my jam.

oops, sorry! totally new to masks. Help and advice welcome!

I love giving help and advice!

Here's how I understand the Team resource:

The game starts with 1 Team in the pool. Whenever we skip a significant amount of time, the pool resets to 1 Team. Several actions have results where we can gain more Team. The primary way of gaining team, though, is the enter battle against a dangerous foe as a team move. This is the one we did when we picked a leader. We got a big pool of Team added for that.

Whenever a roll is made, any other player can spend 1 point of Team to add +1 to the roll, after seeing the result. You can only do this if you can explain how your character is helping. This can be done multiple times per roll, but only once per hero. For instance, Polaris rolls a 5 while trying to bind the villain. If Omen spends 1 point of Team and describes how she grapples the baddie, it bumps it to a 6. That's still a Miss, so then Mimic runs up to help, spending 1 point of Team and describing how he formed manacles on the villain's wrists. That would bump it to 7 and Polaris would get a Partial Hit instead of a Miss (she also wouldn't get the point of Potential for the Miss).

You can also use Team selfishly. To do this, after your own roll result, you spend a point of Team to give your own roll a +1. You then have to describe how you've been selfish in this action, or have done something rude/wrong toward your teammates. The example that the book gives is that the Delinquint is trying to distract a bad guy from hitting him, and he uses illusions of his teammates to do so.

I feel it's worth mentioning, Blitz doesn't actually teleport, he's just so fast it looks like he can if it's under a certain distance.

Woops, got it!

No need to change anything, it's entirely possible your characters may not bother to make the distinction.

Probably certainly feels like teleportation.

Maybe to the uninitiated, heh.

Omen gives free Angst classes in the sanctuary, for anyone interested.

Masterclass!

Oh, I didn't notice Cosmic_Cube left. Time to invite some people, I suppose.

Drat I was hoping we could teach him the ways of pbta. Ah, well.

Yeah, though I kind of get it? We kind of jumped into things and just kind of explained as we went.

While making characters for this game I ended up buying/reading Apocalypse World, Legacy, Uncharted Worlds and Masks. Before that I didn't know jack about PbtA, except that my friends were about to start one up. I've really grown to love it, though.

Masks was the first PbtA game I played, and it's probably good it was a superhero game because I don't think I'd have gotten it otherwise.

I picked up Masks about a week ago as well, but have no other experience or exposure to PbtA. Still, I've played enough RPGs of other stripes that it isn't totally foreign.

Yeah, I'd played The Mountain Witch and 3:16, which are listed as two of AW's influences and are pretty similar. More so the former.

I feel it's worth mentioning that I could tell you exactly what that staff does, but it's probably going to be more fun to leave you guys in the dark for now.

And that's Issue 1 complete! Now, everyone involved, choose one:

• Grow closer to the team. Explain
who made you feel welcome; give
Influence to that character and clear
a condition or mark potential.
• Grow into your own image of yourself.
Explain how you see yourself and why;
shift one Label up and another down.
• Grow away from the team. Explain why
you feel detached. Take Influence over
you away from another character.

Omen grows closer to the team, especially to Cammy and Procyon, but of the two I'd say Procyon a little more. So.. influence to Procyon, who already has influence over Omen, so she gets to tell me to shift my labels up and down, right?

Also, marking potential.

You're being out-angst'd. :-p

No, see, Aeon Crow not caring as much about Omen anymore only gives Omen even more reason to mope. Aeon Crow is truly helping me angst to my fullest :)

...and that was some high quality angst, Omen.

Thanks! :)

Heh, it's an angst-off!

Polaris grew away from the team due to her own insecurity and feeling fairly useless and not all that helpful in a fight, despite the power she wields. As such, Chameleon no longer has influence over her.

So much angst!

Is that everyone?

Don't forget Mimic.

I'm excited to get started on the next Issue!

Me too!

Next issue will start as soon as Mimic does his end-of-session stuff.

Toasty, your questions are up in the backstory thread, and I need you to come up with what you were doing during the events of Issue #1.

Has anyone tried contacting him?

I did earlier, I figured he'd have posted by now.

I'm gonna be starting Issue #2 in the next couple days, can I get a roll call?

Present

Here!

(Insert witty comment as placeholder for "here")

Hello!

Yep.

I'm ready

Possibly relevant, how many of you actually go to school?

Ollie probably did go to school, and did fairly well, but ever since she realized she was only gathering more info for the Compiler that way, she has been skipping classes regularly. Her adoptive parents are not pleased.

Talia goes to school. She survives on coffee and no sleep and somehow manages decent grades even!

I'm pretty sure that might be a default move for the Janus.

And, therefore, is the coolest one among us.

She's the on-paper team leader for a reason.

Konrad is the new kid at school. Trying to navigate his way through an unfamiliar social hierarchy.

Can he pass for human?

Physically, yes he passes for human, until he uses his stretchy shapeshifty powers. But he probably seems like a total weirdo to everyone around him personality wise.

All teenagers think that they are total weirdos to everyone else. He'll fit right in.

This is a superhero series, there'll be one or two people suspicious of you tops.

Rama goes to a high achieving public high school, and struggles to remain eligible.

Sounds good.

Emma goes to public high school. She's a firmly B student, with a an A here or there.

fyi I'm still here. *Checks pulse of the game*

Me too :(

Sorry guys, I've been pretty busy with stuff lately. But I'll have a post up in the next couple hours.

No worries, *goes back to designing the Void Fist Adult size onezee*

So I know I asked if you all go to school, are they all different schools or are some of you classmates possibly without knowing it?

I'd say Konrad is classmates with someone or possibly multiple people without knowing it.

Talia is classmates with people without them knowing it's her, most likely. She attends a public school.

Rama goes to public school, as well. He'd be an outsider, not involved in activities, per se, but still there. Mostly.

Emma also goes to public school. She could definitely be a classmate of the others.

Ollie probably was a classmate of the others, until she started skipping.

Oh it's a real thing, it's just not in Halcyon City. Not to say there isn't a significant Nova population in these schools, they just aren't specialized for it.

*Checks pulse on game*

I'm here!

Present!

8-)

me too

Same

For the others in school with me but different classes if there was a school festival what would you suggest for a class project? I'd obvious pick superhero café where you get served and eat with various people dressed as superheroes.... *squee!*

Sorry for my lack of activity! Work got insane the past week with client emergencies and I totally forgot to check in. I'll toss up a post tomorrow!

No worries, needles!!! *faints*

So since I'm coming up on the end of my first semester of grad school, my ability to post (has been and) is going to be a little spotty. Should be better in a week or two, but I wanted to give you a heads up just in case!

For the most part things are returning to normal and I can continue posting later today! Thanks for your patience everyone, and sorry for any inconvenience.

still here...just realizing that Jen's hour-long class probably hasn't finished yet so am delaying for continuity.

Fair enough, but remember that you're still getting their texts.

So reading through the core book, I found at least one thing that we may or may not be doing wrong, I'm not going back to check, but regardless of modifiers, you are never supposed to have a modifier higher than +4 or lower than -3. Just for future reference.

What if you're at -3 for a stat and you get a condition? Or does the range go -2 to +3? (+1 forward in a really good conditional situation due to a roll/ability)

Labels can only range from +3 to -2. And same rules apply, even with a condition marked and a -2 in the relevant Label, that's still just a -3. Same with the opposite situation, no matter how many bonuses you have, +4 is the limit.

This makes me feel a bit better about all of these Powerful Blows, seeing as I'd be rolling +6.

Hey guys I'm really sorry but I have to drop out of the game, as my life has gotten really busy lately and I'm going back to school. Thanks so much for accepting me into your game though! Masks is a lot of fun and you guys were great to play with. Hope you continue to have an awesome campaign!

No worries man, I understand, real life comes before RPGs. You're welcome to come back if you ever feel like dropping back in.

Just a heads up I'll be out of state from the 20th to the 23rd in Chicago, IL so I'll likely won't be posting.

Hey all. I've been given the go ahead to hop back in after my absence (apologies!), and I'm just trying to catch up on what I missed. I've started reading through the thread, though if anybody could give me a synopsis, that would be cool. :)

Not long after everyone got to school, stuff got crazy because students started spontaneously developing powers. Almost the entire faculty and student body is unconscious or frozen, and the building got hit by an EMP so no one's phones work except Procyon's, because she wasn't there when it went off.

Outside of the school, some of your team was dealing with the fallout of the first issue, with Omen getting visited by the device's creator who promptly reclaimed it, but not before revealing that she knows about Omen's little problem and offering some assistance. Meanwhile, Rigel was displeased with the fact that Procyon let Omen take the device to begin with.

In other news, Mimic was interrupted getting his face fixed, and something's going on with Blitz but none of you know what it is yet.

Thanks for the overview! I tossed Emma back in. Hope that works!

So the Internet has made me aware that today would have been Gary Gygax's birthday, and while this is not in fact a D&D game, chances are most RPGs wouldn't exist without it, so I'm choosing to acknowledge it anyway.

In honor of this, each of you mark three potential.

Wow, thank you! This is also an awesome thing to do in a game, so I might convert this over to some of mine. :) And Happy Birthday, Gary.

Checking all of y'all's sheets, I now see that that'll push you over the edge into your next advancement. I'll say you can go ahead and pick what that'll be, but depending on your choice I may have you wait until the end of the issue to be able to use it.

Thank you, CosmicKeyring!

I'd like to take Burn and three flares from the Nova playbook, represented as Omen's telekinesis developing beyond her control.

Thank you, CosmicKeyring!

The good news is, if she can get it under control that's a huge power spike. (And she might not have to rely entirely on her doomsigns now).

Omen isn't good with words :(

I chose my 3 flares, by the way. I went with Moat, Worship and Snatch, to avoid overlapping with Emma.

Hi CosmicKeyring, I think that I'm going to drop this game. I'm spending too much time gaming online and need to drop some stuff. Thanks for having me, and showing me the PbtA system, though!

That's fine, are you going to leave now or wait until the end of the issue?

I'll stick around to the end of the issue if that works.

Hey all, I don't want to be a problem, but I joined this game more than a month ago, and I'm still waiting to play. I don't want to force y'all to move fast or finish things up or anything, but I'm just trying to get a feel for when the next issue will begin and I can throw Beacon into the mix. Sorry to be a problem, I'm just excited to get into this game.

Not a problem, House. We're just waiting on the GM to continue. We're excited for you to join in!

Sorry guys, I've been really busy lately, but I should be good to go from here on out.

And I'm gonna do what I can to finish up this issue soon.

Is this game dead?

I would like it not to be, but I think it's safe to say this "issue" hasn't been a great one. And my schedule seems to have gotten less intense now, so I should be able to have time to post now.

Apparently I accidentally deleted Omen's character sheet when deleting a slew of NPCs for a game I was running. I'll have to remake it when I have time, hopefully Thursday or Friday.

CK, I've resubmitted Omen after accidentally deleting her sheet. It's accurate to the best of my knowledge!

With the new player coming in as a Beacon this would probably be a good time to write out Void Fist in the story.

She's just named Beacon, she's using the Legacy playbook. But yeah, there's going to be a short timeskip after this issue, so if anyone would like to leave during that time let me know.

As previously discussed, I'll drop Aeon Crow after this issue, as well.

I'm going to drop off at the end of the issue as well. Thanks for letting me play!

I apologize for making a confusing name. But yes, Beacon is actually a Legacy. And it seems that as soon as I join, we're losing half the team. Darn.

I think this is a good spot to bow out, I didn't expect the pacing to be where we've gotten to. I looked at the second session which took about 7 months versus our first session that took 1 month. Thanks for running man. It was fun playing the cheerleader of the group.

Drop me a line if/when you decide to start things up again. I need to clean up my list of games in the meantime as I've joined way too many...

Yeah, sorry about this, guys :/ I may just reboot the game rather than continue on.