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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gradine" data-source="post: 8364600" data-attributes="member: 57112">In my experience with brand new players, they don't know a single thing about what "neo-trad" is and are highly adaptable to whatever the conceit of the game is, provided they're willing to buy-in at all in the first place. New players don't enter the hobby in however many neatly pigeon-holed boxes this or that RPG philosopher has decided upon. Sensibilities are developed over time, and they can be remarkably flexible, provided your players are buying what you're selling.Masks is designed to tell a very specific type of story with very deliberate connections between gameplay and thematic elements, and if players aren't interested in pursuing that type of story then of course they will chafe against its mechanics. A player with the Scion playbook who did not expect their villainous parent to play a major role in their character development, emotionally and mechanically, is someone who has not been sufficiently explained the point of the game they're playing, or at least weren't paying any attention.That tight focus between mechanics and theme is what makes Masks such a well-designed game (well, some of the playbooks were definitely less well-thought out (or too overthought) than others), but it also makes it incredibly niche. This is true of most PbtA hacks I've seen... hell, even Apocalypse World is only really great with its particularly style of post-apocalypse. You find very few genre-generic PbtA games and fewer still that work particularly well (Monster of the Week being the exemplar of that particular field)I think what makes Magpie games such a good fit for this property is that they are, once again, dealing with young heroes. While the context is quite a bit different, it hits a lot of the same thematic notes as Masks. Characters in the world of Avatar have complicated relationships with their families, their companions, their nations, and ultimately, their own destiny. The genre is different, and the stories you can tell with the setting are quite a bit more varied, but the foundation I expect to be very similar. My only concern is that with all the different eras of play they might be spreading their focus a bit too thin.</blockquote>

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