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Message: <blockquote data-quote="overgeeked" data-source="post: 8940411" data-attributes="member: 86653">Let's dive into Masks: A New Generation. Like most PbtA games, it is a very focused game that seeks to use mechanics to tell a singular style of story. The teenage coming-of-age tale...all the angst, loneliness, anger at all the adults telling you what to do, who you should be, what you should do...only with superpowers. Think the early days of X-Men, Spider-Man, New Mutants, New Warriors, Generation X, Gen 13, X-23, Invincible, Logan, Teen Titans, Runaways, Young Avengers, Arrow, Flash, Supergirl, Smallville, on and on and on.The playbooks in Masks are not focused on the powers, they're focused on the drama. Because it's PbtA. That's what they do. They're all fantastic, but...to me...the standout playbook is the Janus, named after the two-faced Roman god of gates, transitions, and duality. It's a perfect name because the Janus playbook focuses its story on juggling the duality of the character's normal life as a teenager and their life as a masked superhero. Think the early days of Peter Parker and Spider-Man.All the playbooks have a hook and mechanics that drive their story. You don't have to squint to see the inspiration of the playbooks. They wear their inspiration on their sleeves. The powerless but overly enthusiastic one. The alien fish out of water with strange powers who's just trying to fit in. The second- or third-generation superhero who's trying to avoid being crushed by legacy. The one with vastly more power than control trying desperately to not destroy everything and everyone around them.The game centers relationships in a big way. Both between the teenage PCs and the adults in their lives. Characters who have influence over you can tell you who you are and what you should do...and this changes your stats to reflect their point of view. If someone with influence over you tells you how dangerous you and your powers are...you become more dangerous.This shifting of your stats is part of the play loop. A teacher at school tells you you're just an ordinary kid...and you become a little more ordinary. This makes you angry so you sneak out at night to crack some skulls, but you over do it and your cop friend calls you out for the over-the-top violence (and you become a little more dangerous). When you get back home you find your sickly aunt is waiting up and worried sick. She reminds you of your obligations this weekend and you have to ease her mind and get her to go to bed. When she's finally off your back you notice the stack of unpaid bills on the kitchen table and vow to help her with your next check, instead of blowing it on a new suit or gadget. When you finally get to bed, you notice your phone blew up while you were out playing superhero. Your boss texted and called all night. You missed work again and you're fired.And every step of that is mechanically supported and reinforced. That paragraph above is the Janus in play. There are ten playbooks in the core book. And ten more scattered across three supplements. Each with a unique story to tell with mechanical reinforcement, supporting and pushing that story.Part of advancement is to figure out who your character wants to be and, over time, solidifying your stats one-by-one. So that adults and others cannot tell you who you are anymore. You've figured that part of yourself out. When you've solidified all your stats, when you've figured out who you really are going to be as an adult...you retire your character. They level out of playing the game by figuring out who they are.And that's not even touching on the cool superpowers and beating the snot out of supervillains.Honestly, anyone who even kinda likes teenage superhero comics and RPGs should at the very least have a serious look at this book. It's just that good.</blockquote>

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