Masks: A New Generation of Heroes

Game Master Cwethan

Honestly, not as bad as I expected everything to go. XD

So, since there are some stakes to this scene, let's figure out what happens on Kilt's miss.

I'll suggest that he chooses between either marking a condition of his choice since everything is so out of his frame of reference, or allowing Wingblade to ask him a Pierce the Mask question. If that works, go ahead and pick, Kilt.

FYI, Kilt, Wingblade's wings weren't visible during that whole exchange. Not sure where you got "flying lass" but her wings had been glamoured away by a charm that got damaged.

I was referring to Mercy. From my perspective, she came flying in.

Ah! Okay. Understood.

Ah, for the future, normally I use bolded and italicized text to indicate spoken & thought words. (Like telepathy).

I'm okay with having muttered that or something though, so no need for any retcons :-)

Oh shoot, so you didn't;t actually say that!? My bad!

Say, do we know what state Halcyon is in?

Nope!

I actually like to keep it vague. It's a big city that has all that you could ask for in terms of buildings, neighborhoods, parks, monuments, waterfronts, skyscrapers, empty warehouses, and abandoned structures for interesting villain lairs, etc.

I'm thinking we're somewhere east of the Mississippi? And next to a large body of water, but I'm not even sure if it's a big lake or the ocean. I guess if we had to put it somewhere, we could, but I kind of like the thought of it always being wherever it needs to be.

For the purposes of some NPCs I've got planned, would anybody mind if it's ocean adjacent? (And no, I'm not going to explain why they need the ocean.)

wait... is it another game i was in where it was more or less explicitly "fantasy New York"?. Cause, I've been picturing it as New York. I guess Chicago works just as well.

I picture Halcyon as somewhere between New York City and Boston myself.

I'm picturing some inter city rivalry, NY sports fans hate all other major cities hahaha

I always pictured it as New York-esq. Somewhere in the NE anyway. But that's because its the only place in the States, other than LA and surrounds, that I've been to and LA doesn't quite work (don't know why).

New York-esque but not technically New York is how I generally read it too.

Also, I'm back so now I'll actually get to replying now that I've started muttering in Welsh :-p

Leave to start a small-time villain thing? Just a powered Mugger maybe? something to make Alexandra reveal her Identity to Kaoru.

Fine by me.

Idea for small time villain: Kanga Ronnie, kangaroo hybrid and petty crook! Watch out for his kicks powerful enough to smash cars!

Okay first, if you're wearing a kilt, pants are definitely illegal :-p

Also - Herman! Where should we tag you in? Or do you want to do a solo scene with his parents or someone?

OK, have finally come up with people who's respect Cassie wants:

Your parent’s greatest victim: Dr Emily Stevens (AKA, The Mouse): An archaeologist and expert in prehellenic mediterranean civilisations, who was deciphering a tablet from Crete with script in Linear A. In obtaining the tablet from the doctor, Circe killed her husband and baby son, and turned her into a mouse. Despite her handicap, she now works at the Museum of Antiquities (adjacent to the natural history museum) deciphering manuscripts and avoiding cats.

Your personal idol: Prestige: A cape- turned musician who briefly operated in the early 2000s using illusions. In 2007, he gave up crime-fighting and became a musician, releasing a number of fairly successful singles. Prestige's early music was very niche but he has achieved some success for his impressive stage shows.

I love The Mouse!

Fine fine, no pants. I’m keeping the combat boot though.

Love the concept for The Mouse! Very on-brand for Circie to!

...I want the Mouse to have her own little pair of spectacles and a
Tiny bullwhip and tiny hats. Am I the only one?

Um, ..."this belongs in a mouse-eum"
Haven't posted a)to let the diner scene percolate and b) tomorrow I have a whole keyboard to write with again.

I had a thought, and I’d like an opinion from the more experienced players: would unleash my powers also cover me producing a new gadget I hadn’t previously established? Like a smoke pellet or a grappling hook or something like that? The Brain playbook has a move that works similarly, but I wasn’t sure if that was exclusive to that particular move or if that’s just something anyone can do. Because of that’s something anyone can do, my kilt is officially a knock-off/spin-off utility belt.

You can assert that you have things like that, as long as its not too stupid, without having to roll. Especially if you've established that you have something like a utility belt - you don't have to list everything it can do, just work with the narrative.

Edit: since its not one of your powers i think its fine but don't go overboard... If you're close to advancing anyway, have a look at moves from other playbooks and see if one would allow you to do that.

... You can also get creative. E.g., Kilt uses his sword to slice a nearby pipe emitting a cloud of steam and obscuring his form...

Good thoughts there from He. Also, just generally speaking, I probably would have described webbing The Kilt up as more of an Unleash, since Trading Blows really doesn't seem to be what was supposed to happen there.

Good thoughts Hex. And hey, learning experiences all around!

Good thoughts there from He. Also, just generally speaking, I probably would have described webbing The Kilt up as more of an Unleash, since Trading Blows really doesn't seem to be what was supposed to happen there.

Fair enough. The effect is the same either way this time because the roll was pretty good :)

Haha, poor Shaun. It's really not your day. :-P

Had an idea. Decided to run with it without consulting anyone. Hope you all like it.

:-)

Oh s!+*! The missile?! :scream: *Has now gotten far enough in the archive that Wingblade just got reborn*

Yeah, one seriously bad night for my boy...

Uh, missile? What missile? WHAT MISSILE? 8/

I keep hesitating to insert Herman into any of the threads because I don't want to step on any toes. He could feasibly run into/help Shadow, but I don't want him to be a third wheel in a scene between you two.

Yeah, one seriously bad night for my boy...

Uh, missile? What missile? WHAT MISSILE? 8/

You should archive dive for it (or I suppose just click this link, though it's better in context). It's seriously really good. Somehow I got drawn into reading the non-gay stuff as well.

Edit
@Herman: I kind of thought we were trying to give you an opening to jump in? I'm mostly just trying to see how the scene starts to go down, and if Kaoru's going to feel a need to try to distract Ronnie/give Silver Shadow an opening/help out.

@The Kilt: The catalyst for the SIDEKICK laws that (mostly) forbid unauthorized and underage vigilantism was when the promising young super hero Wingblade was struck and killed by a cruise missile.

It was pretty rough.

@AD: I think the Shadow scene is a good place for Herman to show up. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like Kaoru is planning to hide and watch for now.

If the Silver Shadow thought she had everything under control because 'a well-placed tranq dart could end things with Kanga Ronnie quickly.' Then it could be interesting to see AD and the Shadow meet as they share the profoundly easy takedown of a C to D-lister, amicably or not...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like Kaoru is planning to hide and watch for now.

With her -1 Savior and complete lack of experience in these things, Kaoru's only stepping in if she thinks Silver Shadow's in trouble.

Jeez, that’s rough. Who’d she piss off that much?
...
...OH. Oh snap.

Just gonna throw out there that anyone who pays any attention to the cape scene knows the Silver Shadow. Alexandra as the Silver shadow is untested and unproven, but the outfit and name are pretty recognizable.

Hey AD, I had an idea for a potential direction we could try to nudge Kaoru/Herman's relationship in and wanted to see what you thought.

Love it. I'm totally in.

Okay, so regarding the provoke into "Stop the Supervillain!" interaction.

The beats work like this. Silver Shadow provokes Herman into Stopping the Supervillain.

You then choose if you want to go along with that or not - no matter how high someone rolls to Provoke your character, you're the one in the driver's seat.

As far as what you're doing to Kanga Ronny, I'd say that picking up a car and threatening Ronny is actually more of a Provoke roll yourself. Directly Engaging a Threat is really for when you and another character are whaling on each other. If one or both of you are completely impervious to what's going on, and you either aren't or aren't able to Exchange Blows, then it's probably another kind of roll.

In this case, I'd say Provoke because the outcome you're looking for isn't hurting Ronny, it's making Ronny do something.

Now, your Superior and Danger are the same, so the roll will still work out. Are you trying to make Kanga Ronny surrender? I'll pass it over to Shadow to figure out how he'll react since he's her villain.

Also, can you copy your 'character sheet' into a profile? It's a lot easier to reference for you and everyone else :-)

Ahhh, ok. Thanks for your patience, first time with the system. So, yes, that should have been a provoke.

No problem at all! The whole point of the opening arc is to get everyone comfortable with the characters and the system.

No stress at all! Like all systems, there's a learning curve.

This is a really good reference. Let us know if you have any questions, but remember, there's also no need to roll if the outcome isn't in doubt. That's the key: you only need to roll if there's some uncertainty about what's going to happen next.

If you look in the campaign details for this game under the "Basic moves: better explained" spoiler, there's also a good primer on moves. And personally, I found looking over some other battle examples in gameplay useful for getting a feel for how things go.

This is a really good reference. Let us know if you have any questions, but remember, there's also no need to roll if the outcome isn't in doubt. That's the key: you only need to roll if there's some uncertainty about what's going to happen next.

My problem is figuring out if something is in doubt or not. Specifically for if I'm not rolling opposed by someone. But I gather there's initially some amount of trying to figure out the baseline for your character's abilities, and figure someone will tell me if I don't roll and should.

(Like there was no roll involved to pick up the truck. The uncertainty is all in how you influence Kanga Ronny)

EDIT Wow. Forgot the "Basic Moves: better explained" was in there. I was about to go write up my notes. Talk about a timesaver!

I think Kanga would double down on the Agressive, erring (and giving +1 forward) rather than back down

Also, having dental surgery tomorrow, so if Alexandra is really weird for the next couple days, that's why.

Remember when running villains, they have Moves of their own (see Page 2). They should have two to four interesting moves, and then whenever they receive a condition, they get to make a condition move automatically.

Weak villains only have one or two conditions before they're tapped out. Moderately-powerful villains have three or four, and powerful threats have all five conditions that must be checked before they can be taken out. Also, many villains will seek to flee before they're knocked out, choosing to fight another day.