Masks - A Cool New Game About Playing Young Superheroes

[Campbell]

Anyone else checked this out? If you back the project you get access to the beta version of the playbooks and basic moves.

It's a Powered By The Apocalypse game that models the experiences of young superhero teams finding out what kind of heroes the want to be. It's mostly focused on the emotional element of being a young superhero. Yours stats, called labels represent how you and others see yourself and can get shifted up and down based on the influence mechanics in the game. Basically when people who have influence over you encourage you or tell you who you are, you can accept the way they see you and your stats get changed or you can try to reject their influence and shift them based on how you see yourself. It's a really cool way to model the emotional journey we all go through while growing up.

The available playbooks handle this in extremely interesting ways. For example, the Protege playbook which largely represents characters like Robin and the Red Arrow is all about accepting or rejecting the way your mentor handles things. They get moves like Venting Frustration (which allows you to use the label your mentor rejects when attacking if you're angry).

Summoning [MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION] and [MENTION=6696971]Manbearcat[/MENTION]. I'd really like your opinions.

 

[pemerton]

I've had a quick look. If I was 20 years younger and had the time to play this with a group of comics fans, I would think it looks pretty good! But given my realities, and my budget, I don't think I'll be backing. There's a chance I might be playing some MHRP tomorrow, but that would be the first superhero gaming I've done for over two years, and would itself probably be a one-off.

 

[Manbearcat]

Anyone else checked this out? If you back the project you get access to the beta version of the playbooks and basic moves.

It's a Powered By The Apocalypse game that models the experiences of young superhero teams finding out what kind of heroes the want to be. It's mostly focused on the emotional element of being a young superhero. Yours stats, called labels represent how you and others see yourself and can get shifted up and down based on the influence mechanics in the game. Basically when people who have influence over you encourage you or tell you who you are, you can accept the way they see you and your stats get changed or you can try to reject their influence and shift them based on how you see yourself. It's a really cool way to model the emotional journey we all go through while growing up.

The available playbooks handle this in extremely interesting ways. For example, the Protege playbook which largely represents characters like Robin and the Red Arrow is all about accepting or rejecting the way your mentor handles things. They get moves like Venting Frustration (which allows you to use the label your mentor rejects when attacking if you're angry).

Summoning [MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION] and [MENTION=6696971]Manbearcat[/MENTION]. I'd really like your opinions.

Hey mate. So sort of a Monsterhearts Smallville mashup from an aesthetic and trope point of view. Doesn't surprise me that there is a PBtA Kickstarter for something like this. The system handles this stuff extremely well. Dungeon World has playbooks where you're basically playing a sidekick whereby the fiction-first Moves of your playbook and your Bonds reflect your relationship with the members of and your position in the "fellowship" in a Frodo/Bilbo-like way. Range of conflicted emotions/attachments as you do your best to find your place/way and contribute (and all that).

I can Kickstart it if you're wanting to playtest it or something.

 

[Campbell]

I would definitely be interested in playing out a play by post game down the line. It's really exciting to me to see how a game that was primarily interested in high impact unfolding setting exploration has been tuned to tightly support meaningful character exploration with a focus on teamwork and finding one's path. My favorite element of Masks is how all adults (including villains) default to having influence over the PCs. You care about what they have to say. It helps build in the trope that in the comics all fights against villains are as much a social conflict as they are a physical conflict. When Slade tells Robin "You were trained to be a killer. You just don't realize it yet." that has a meaningful impact on the game.

In general it is really exciting to see these second generation Apocalypse World games that are diverging from the base game in dramatically different ways. You have emotionally charged games like Masks which fully embrace fictional positioning and narrative roles contrasted against Blades In the Dark's setting exploration and progression which uses the power of abstraction to measure a group of rogues' ascent to power within a very tightly tuned setting that has down time rules and utilizes a massive amount of countdown clocks to measure the progression of dozens of factions. It's like fronts on steroids.

 

[Campbell]

I've had a quick look. If I was 20 years younger and had the time to play this with a group of comics fans, I would think it looks pretty good! But given my realities, and my budget, I don't think I'll be backing. There's a chance I might be playing some MHRP tomorrow, but that would be the first superhero gaming I've done for over two years, and would itself probably be a one-off.

Part of my excitement stems from having found a secondary outlet for gaming. I'm now part of a Monday night group which focuses on short form play. These days I'm becoming less and less interested in long term campaign play. I'm most likely going to run some Masks, maybe get some Blades going, and might even look into encouraging some structured freeform play.

 

[pemerton]

For anyone following along: due to a confluence of circumstances there was no MHRP today. Instead I vacuumed the living room and repaired a puncture bike tyre. Living the dream!

 

[Manbearcat]

I would definitely be interested in playing out a play by post game down the line. It's really exciting to me to see how a game that was primarily interested in high impact unfolding setting exploration has been tuned to tightly support meaningful character exploration with a focus on teamwork and finding one's path. My favorite element of Masks is how all adults (including villains) default to having influence over the PCs. You care about what they have to say. It helps build in the trope that in the comics all fights against villains are as much a social conflict as they are a physical conflict. When Slade tells Robin "You were trained to be a killer. You just don't realize it yet." that has a meaningful impact on the game.

In general it is really exciting to see these second generation Apocalypse World games that are diverging from the base game in dramatically different ways. You have emotionally charged games like Masks which fully embrace fictional positioning and narrative roles contrasted against Blades In the Dark's setting exploration and progression which uses the power of abstraction to measure a group of rogues' ascent to power within a very tightly tuned setting that has down time rules and utilizes a massive amount of countdown clocks to measure the progression of dozens of factions. It's like fronts on steroids.

Hokey doke. Backed. I'll have more commentary after I read through the PDF. The PBtA chassis is extraordinarily malleable though. It can handle all sorts of thematic material and emotional quality with a "play to find out what happens" aesthetic. This seems a natural fit.

For anyone following along: due to a confluence of circumstances there was no MHRP today. Instead I vacuumed the living room and repaired a puncture bike tyre. Living the dream!

Real Life: 2
pemerton: -1

You need to whip out some plot points and get this thing turned around STAT.

 

[Campbell]

Here's a villain I've been messing around with:

Blood Stained
Real Name - Josiah Rose
Bronze Age Villain

Drive: To stay relevant

Josiah Rose was the lead singer of Blood Stained, a grunge band that nobody remembers. Contempt for his privileged suburban upbringing overwhelmed him. His pain is a telepathic cantagion. As his feelings sink Josiah begins to cry tears of blood that stain his white t-shirt.

Moves

• Inflict emotional turmoil
• Question the sincerity of heroism
• Share pain inflicted on him

Conditions

• Angry
• Hopeless
• Insecure

Moves When Hopeless

• Inflict pain on everyone who can see or hear him.

I'm still very much in the brain storming stage. The idea is to start the game off with a tragic villain that will allow the players to get their feet wet and decide what kind of heroes they want to be. I'm going to prepare a couple more possible first session villains and decide who to use based on whats in play.

 

[Campbell]

I just had an amazing time running this game over Google+ Hangouts. It was intense - probably the most emotionally intense role playing game session I have ever been a part of. As a GM it felt like being inside the gutters of a Chris Claremont comic book. I'll have more thoughts later. So much awesome!