[Masks the Next Generation] Masks: Starfall

damiller · Dec 13, 2018

So my group and I decided to tackle Masks the Next Generation again. Last time I assumed that it was a story game, and abdicated my role as an Editor. This time around I did my due diligence to develop some arcs, and found that it has really enriched my experience and made Masks one of my favorite games.

This will be the thread where I share the stuff that happens, and backstory stuff I develop.

The basic boil down for the Campaign is something like this:

This is a story about how evil creeps into a silver age comic book world.

First up some Characters:

First Character

Sharkface/Maya Griffin

Beacon Playbook
Is an 8th grader who wears a shark hoodie and can blend in with her environment.
She is a member of the Mislabeled and a former member of Everyman's Rangers.

damiller · Dec 14, 2018

Frostfire
Scion playbook

(copied from players description)
Look: man, South Asian, slender body, hand-me-down clothing, bright costume
Lineage: master thief, actively adversarial, superhuman martial prowess, arsenal of weapons and gadgets, supremely honed skills
Powers: cosmic energies
Backstory: Supervillain father is Shadow Thief. I learned about his true nature from my mother. I chose to become a hero in order to oppose him. My mother helps me on my path. I care about the team because they are helping me on my path.
Respect:
Shadow Thief’s greatest enemy: Centurion
Respect: Advancement:
Halcyon City’s greatest hero: Morning Star
Repect: Advancement:
Black Label is the only one who understands what I’m going through. I told them which part of me I wished was more like my parent.
My father once fought and thrashed Tesla. I’ve got to find a way to make it up to him.

damiller · Dec 17, 2018

Tesla

The Doomed Playbook

(from Player info)

Tesla was a normal kid until one day when he was approached by an older man who informed him that he had powers and was on a higher path. This man became Tesla's mentor, teaching him how to unlock his powers, and guiding him through his early years. Then it all changed, when his mentor vanished while fighting Shadow Thief, father of Frostfire. After that, Tesla wandered about a bit, before being approached by Black Label to join a new team of supers she was putting together. Tesla set aside his apprehensions, and eagerly joined in. Unfortunately, their first outing saw Black Label vanish, when a teleport attempt by Aamir went awry. Tesla still works with the mislabeled at times, though he doesn't entirely trust them. He also knows that his doom fast approaches. He sees the visions, and they speak of dark times ahead.......

damiller · Dec 18, 2018

I still have to draw the 4th member of our group, but in the meantime, some backstory about how Our Masks world is shifting from Silver Age to the Modern Age. The characters pictured here are NPCs: Silver Fox (a Zorro Legacy character) and Dr. Aperaham.

damiller · Dec 20, 2018

Megiddo
Playbook: Delinquent - likes to cosplay as the Goblin King

That is the last of our PCs

damiller · Dec 22, 2018

Okay with that stuff out of the way, here is a synopsis of our First Issue:

Food Fight

The group known as the Mislabeled met each other at the Young Super Champions Association (a cross between a Y and a Boys and Girls Club - for superkids). They had their first adventure last Thursday. They stopped a first time villain who named himself Big Bad Villain. In that fight, Megiddo - the teleporter - teleported the Group Leader Black Label and Sharkface away from danger. In doing so, he lost both of them. Sharkface ended up near home, but Black Label has yet to be heard from.

So the action starts at the YSCA. Frostfire was working out on some of the Gym Equipment. He received a call from the Front Desk (a Mrs. Hamilton): there was someone here to see him. Megiddo was putting on a show for the kids in the children area (ie "helping out"). Sharkface was at home, her parents said she couldn't go to the club today. And Tesla was playing pool with a friendly rival.

Frostfire got to the front desk, and was greeted by a man in a black suit. He introduced himself as Agent Donovan. They went to a side office. There Agent Donovan introduced himself as the new agent "On the Case." This made Frostfire feel insecure. Agent Donovan then met with all the other team members because of their association with Frostfire (whose father is the reviled Shadow Thief). Megiddo rejected any emotional attachment, and impressed Agent Donovan. Tesla got pissed off (and threw a basketball at him - via telekinesis). Sharkface wasn't around, but Donovan went to her home - she was rather insecure about this.

During all of the "meetings" Megiddo had helped feed the children, and they were going to be served some weirdly labeled (in fact unreadable) Sphaghetti Os (the kids call them Cthulhu-Os). He didn't like that they were being fed to the children, and went to ask about it. He was given the runaround, therefore he and the others investigated the storage room. There they found a device that happened to have on it, similar writing as the cans of "Cthulhu-ohs". However, they activated a defense droid.

The droid went into full attack mode. Shooting its beams all over the place. Frostfire tried to contain it with his cosmic constructive energies and did, but it blew a hole in the wall. Tesla teleported it out of the room, but only into the gym. There it threatened more children. Frostfire intervened protecting them, and one of the kids hugged him and then sneezed on him. Tesla and Megiddo worked together to knock the thing out of commission, as Frostfire held up the caved in ceiling.

When the droid was deactivated the "janitor" Fowler appeared (he is a ghost that is the building) and he repaired the damage to the buidling.

damiller · Dec 27, 2018

One of the Major NPCs is Morning Star. He is a light constructor like Green Lantern, but his constructs are "Sunlight" colored. He is a silver age super, and his mentor was Centurion (I borrowed the Sentinel from Silver Age Sentinels).

Morning Star's arch nemesis is Dr. Vile. They tangled many times through the years, no one getting the upper hand. In a final act of desperation Dr. Vile found a way to strip Morning Star of most of his powers. At the same time Dr. Vile ended up falling in a vat of acid that horribly disfigured his face. And yet they continued to fight.

Finally, in their last battle, Dr Vile had determined he must finally kill Morning Star. He had him on the ropes, so to speak. Morning Star was nearly beaten, and was very distressed, and this emotional distress allowed him to access his powers. This ended with an explosion, a dead Dr. Vile, a crater in the middle of Halycon City, and a missing Morning Star.

Months passed, and a meteor landed in Halycon City. Some supers went to investigate and found an unconscious Morning Star. Now there were two craters in Halycon City.

A few weeks later Morning Star had recovered, and since then he has been the leading super in the city. An investigation exonerated him of the death of Dr. Vile. His powers returned, and amplified, he wants to make sure no more supers are killed.

damiller · Dec 28, 2018

Another NPC, albeit by game time - dead:

Dr. Vile
(yes he is an homage to Dr. Evil, they both are/were silver age villains of a sort - and yes he has a minion - Little Viler (who may still be alive))

Dr. Vile was Morning Star's foe for as a long as there has been issues featuring them. The typical Silver Age Shenanigans occurred with monthly regularity. Dr. Vile would hatch a scheme to "finally stop" his hated arch nemesis, and every "month" it looked like he just might do it.

Eventually he tired of this routine. He wanted something different. So he enlisted the help of scientists of all the vilest sort. They worked and worked to discover anyway to defeat Morning Star once and for all. Most of the ideas were rehashes of his own.

Then they approached the burgeoning science of DNA. Dr. Vile's interest was piqued, "What sort of genetics does a 'superman' have?" he wondered. So he resorted to his tried and true schemes, got caught, and got a hair sample. Well, the results were not as quick as 23 and me, so he there were a couple more issues before the scientists came back with the results.

Turns out Morning Star is a plant based sapien (his mama was an oak, his dad a cactus). "This explains his ability to capture and use the sun's energy." Dr. Vile was furious, "I've been knocked around by a ^@*!(#) Potted Plant!!!"

Well he demanded to know how he could uproot this weed in his garden. The scientists threw out many ideas. He shot down all of them. "Its brainstorming, there are no right answers." they complained, and he shot them (in Silver Age land evil minions can die, its okay - and off camera - in fact it looks like one of those gag guns, but shoots real bullets).

Finally they came up with one idea: Sunblock. As one of the scientists explained, "If we keep him from being able to absorb sunlight, it may reduce his powers, or even kill him." Dr. Vile loved that idea, especially the killing part. So he set them to work, and science is slower at this time, so it took a couple more issues before the tincture was done. Then, to his dismay, Dr. Vile found out that the formula would have to be applied in stages, which meant a couple more issues of getting beat up. But he decided it was worth it.

And it was worth it. Six Issues, and many butt kickings, later, Morning Star noticed a hug lack in his powers (he could only generate a shield sized light construct). Dr. Vile was all set to whoop #@!. That issue, things were going swimmingly well. Morning Star, without his powers, had to rely on his physical prowess, which wasn't as great, but still good. Dr. Vile however was using all manner of devious ways to knock the hero about: mechanical men, laser bolts, and mechanical men with laser bolts. It was all going really well, until Morning Star "threw" his shield at Dr. Vile. Dr. Vile dropped the control pad, and the laser bolt armed mechanical men started firing wildly. Also, Dr. Vile was hiding behind a vat of liquid, well that vat was hit, that vat leaked and Dr Vile, as heretofore mentioned, was near that vat.

The liquid in the vat was an acid, it burned Dr. Vile's face and he ran away. Morning Star cleaned up the raging robots.

Back at his lair Dr. Vile brooded and ate a lot of ice cream.

He decided he had to end Morning Star for good - this time. And so he decided to work up a #6. It took him an issue or two to get it just right. He did, the town was terrified, and right on cue, Mr. Morning Star showed up! Still he was "powerless" the sunblock hadn't worn off. Dr. Vile stockpiled a lot of guns. "No elaborate plans this time. I am going to just shoot that #$%^ head." He said to himself.

The tussled. Eventually Dr. Vile did get the upper hand. It helped that he was able to administer the final dose of sunblock. Stripped completely of powers, and not THAT good of an athlete Morning Star was pressed to his limits. Especially when bullets were flying at him.

One shot pierced his thigh. Morning Star was down. In the dirt. Dr. Vile closed for the kill, a gleeful look of evil spread slowly over his face (it took a whole panel, it was creepy). A shadow fell on his face as well, he brought the gun to bear, Morning Star held up his hand - futilely.

BOOM!!!!

The town was rocked by a massive explosion. The battle had taken place downtown. It leveled a city block. 1000s of people were killed or wounded. Neither Dr. Vile or Morning Star could be found. Their location had been tracked by the Cities Supers, but no bodies there remained.

damiller · Jan 3, 2019

Hera
another GROWN up from Masks: Starfall.

She is a god who has come to earth. She hides her identity under a guise of a mortal: Cindi Larter. As a mortal she is a successful business woman, called the "SheShark" by dubious colleagues, she has an almost supernatural ability to turn a profit for businesses. But never in questionable ways. However when the need arises she unhesitatingly heeds it and transforms into her true self: Hera. As Hera she has fought numerous threats to the City and around the world.