Initial team identifiers don't matter to me in the slightest.  We will eventually come up with our own team names whether you like it or not :)

I think it would be a disservice to lump kids together based solely on age.  That gets you the Kitty Pryde Cover "Professor X is a Jerk!")  Similarly, Academic standing shouldn't trump the "what do they bring to the table".  I expect it to be like college sports... students must maintain a certain grade-point average to be eligible for field-work.   But their grade-point doesn't assign them to any specific group.

This rules-system appears to depend on a certain amount of calcification of the team roster... Or, are we prepared to assume incoming and outgoing influences on-the-fly for new roster changes?

The IC thread has had one GM update since it started, and that was a week ago.  Are we just not ready for an IC thread because there's other stuff to sort out?

I think we've put it to good use for PC interactions so far? Though I admit that interactions with NPCs being partly under our control is a bit confusing to me.

Max, I'll try and reply later, but we should probably move on to talking to Roxxon soon?

Yeah, I just don't know enough about them to RP the NPCs, which is why I was sort of putting it off :)

I think that was for if the characters parents came?  Going up to the booth and asking an NPC questiobs then answering them myself doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

We did get explicit permission to run Marvel staples like Captain America and such. I'm just not super comfortable with that because I'm still a little shaky on what's what. For instance, we're before Civil War but Bucky is already Captain America. I'm concerned about touching stuff and breaking it, y'know? Comes part and parcel of being the Bull. :P

You've all done great!  And I will get you detailed feedback on that soon. I'm still catching up to y'all.  But we will soon be at a 'plateau' where I can stop defining the universe and start running it.

Time is against me tonight.  I will have to get out the IC reply tomorrow.

Tonight I will try and finish catching up on overdue replies.

But here is some good news.  There is one bit of world-building left for now.  After that, we actually get to completing formal character creation, team assignments and posting using the rules system with your characters in the Game Present (no more freeform flashbacks).

The network of Doors that lead to the Infinite Avengers Mansion are many but the PC heroes know of these.

Pandemonium Door:  The door that leads to the Isle of Demons, the sovereign land owned by the Avengers.  The school presence there is limited to an office and emergency shelter.
Excelsior Door:  This door leads to the Excelsior Campus, the only public campus known to the public.  The Excelsior Campus is in NYC (or at least a suburb) and students attend in their superheroic IDs.   There is not much to this campus, it is more of an interface between the young heroes and the ever-fickle public.

Stanley Door:  The Stanley School for Special Students is a small, private school in the fictional town of Everton, on the coast of Long Island.  This is the primary location for the game so far. The name is meant to evoke the similarly-named Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.  And most campuses in Marvel are named after their founder;  Stanley is the fictional stand-in for Stan Lee. :-)

The 'Hellbent' Gate:  The Hellbent gate is now locked.  It originally linked to the Massachusetts Academy, now revealed as an arm of the Hellfire Club over the past year.  The Hellfire Club's existence and betrayal occurs between the current freeform flashback and the true game start using the Masks rules.  The Hellfire Club and their young students, the Hellions, are now one of the main rivals, if not actual nemesi, of the PC heroes.

The Angels Gate:  This is the gate for the 'West Coast' students, based in Los Angeles.  This is the second largest school in the US, after the Stanley School.  The Stanley and LA students have a healthy rivalry but also have each other's back when the chips are down.

I will get to the other US schools (if any) and the international campuses in a bit.   But we have enough to get on with for now.

Now I will catch up with replies and then get to that IC reply tonight or tomorrow.

My complements to Midnight for the following.  I've been having unexpected problems responding the message thread this pretty grid has been in so I will just post it.


EDIT@Meta: This is worthy of a separate thread, and putting it there decreases the need for horizontal scrolling in this main thread... :)

link to a message in this game
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:26, Thu 27 May 2021.

OK, I think I have barely caught up on the thread and message replies.  I know there is more to say and I will try and get to it.

I've been moving so fast that I realize I may have been quite gauche in doing so.  I have replied to private messages that didn't specifically address me.

This board is very different from my usual haunt (where you don't see messages unless you are explicitly invited into them).  And I responded out of reflex and didn't realize until just now.  My apologies if I overstepped and I will try to be more careful from now on.

Long-overdue IC reply tomorrow and then, although you can't see it like I can, I can be more in the present with y'all and not so much reacting and catching up. :-)

Hey all, this is Max's alter ego :)

The Watcher made me a GM to help him work on our school, so that is primarily when you'll be seeing me post with this account.

I've sent some questions to The Watcher regarding the school, and once he responds, I'll set up a separate thread where we can start fleshing out the school.

Welcome to our new GM!  Folks, once again I am busy.  I will try and get out the IC post and other stuff tomorrow night.  I apologize again for the delay and thank you again for your patience. :-)

There will be one more freeform flashback IC post from me after this and then (I hope) we will be starting the game with completed Masks characters using Masks rules at the current game continuity.

The reason for all of these chronologic twists is that Masks actually starts the game 'mid-campaign' compared to most games.  It is already assumed that your characters have been together for some time and have had adventures already (as decided backstory rather than actual ran adventures).  In this case, your characters will begin the game proper as returning 'sophomores' around September after summer vacation as is the usual custom in the United States.  In the case, sophomores refers to your second year at Stanley School, rather than referring to your second year of high school as it is usually referred to in the US.

I had hoped to offer more international options and choices but this game is so big and so fast that I need to stick to one option for now.  We can offer more global and cosmopolitan choices soon enough (again, I hope).

IC reply is up!  Sorry it has taken so long.

I believe at this point everyone has a firm enough idea as to what your character's playbook will be.  If you haven't made up your mind about the playbook or want to change a playbook you had at least mentioned before, let me know.

Otherwise, one determinant of team breakdowns will be the maximum number of duplicated playbooks.  Which, if memory serves, is currently three instances of the Brain playbook.  As playbooks shouldn't be duplicated within a team, this means three teams of roughly (again, IIRC) five team members each.  And that is probably the best team size anyway.

So here is the method I suggest:

One Brain for each team.
For doubled playbooks, a Double in each team until the 'supply' runs out.
Should there be more than one kind of Double, the second kind of Double will skip the second team and be assigned to the third team (allowing the unique combos of First & Second kind of Double in one team, First Double alone in the second  and Second Double alone in the third team)
After that, the singled playbooks will fill the teams, in alphabetical order of username, until the first team is filled up.  Then the second team, then the third and last team.  I will try to divide the teams as evenly as possible but the third team will likely be the 'runt' of the litter, last but in no OTHER way least.

If the above seems confusing, don't worry about it.  It is my math problem and is probably easier shown than explained.  Also, once the teams are set by me, players can swap teams if they can find another player to swap with them.  Again, duplicated playbooks can't be on the same team but we should be able to work it.

In our game world, the team division works like this.

Each team has a dual identity, their 'secret ID' is one of the houses of the Stanley school, their super ID is their super team (which they can name as they wish).  Every team member is assigned to a house, even if they don't actually live on campus.  The houses are actually named after various real-world luminaries of Marvel Comics History, although they have some game backstory as (like most universities) dull bureaucrats who ran the school in some way.

Provisional Houses:
Goodman House (Team 1):  This house is named after Martin Goodman, the original publisher of Timely Comics, the precursor to Marvel Comics.
Kirby House (Team 2):  This house is named after Jack Kirby, the main artist that helped shaped Marvel in the early years.  The team of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were unbeatable until their later feud.
Ditko House (Team 3):  This house is named after Steve Ditko, that other artist who helped make early Marvel, very wonderfully trippy.  He set the mood for Doctor Strange.
Thomas House (Team 4):  This house is named after Roy Thomas, one of Marvel's early editors.  This house is possibly for the NPC 'Tween' team.

There may be other houses, on the Stanley campus or others.

Let me know what you think...

I like it, Counterforce. :-)

Ignore this post.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:35, Fri 28 May 2021.

I will try to catch up on messages and threads tomorrow.  And then we move on to formal character creation and team assignments... :-)

Citizen V's backstory assumes that Steve Rogers is not Captain America anymore, to her surprise (which she already expressed in the thread). Should probably sort that out quickly, considering his prominence.

Also, Steel Ninja may be a Soldier rather than a Brain... Still think three teams iteh way to go, though.

Max, Roxxon are basically just your standard sleazy, grasping megacorp with interest in all things superhuman and good PR, as far as I could tell. If that helps.

Argh!  I completely missed the Citizen V/Captain America angle.  My apologies.  I will correct that tonight.  I am not usually so inattentive.  Thank you for letting me know, Counterforce. :-)

Just a heads-up, I'll be on vacation tomorrow through Monday with limited internet access.

Congratulations to Max on promotion to co-GM! Also, very excited to see things continuing moving forward, even if I've been a little quiet lately. Just been busy with some exciting real life stuff that I've made top priority. I'm definitely still here!

OK, I have corrected my IC reply.  Thanks again for letting me know.

Thanks to Meta and Midnight for their work on the character grids and lists.  It is so nice to have other GMs and players anticipate what the game needs.

I have caught up on messages and threads for now.

In the Polls & Debates thread, Ghost-Spider has made a provisional grid of teams and their members.  I take the liberty of reposting it here.

From Ghost-Spider in Polls and Debates


My thanks to Ghost-Spider for this.  I invite other players to put their preferred team for their character in Polls and Debates.  For now, don't worry about lopsided teams or duplicated playbooks.  Just put what team you would like to be in.  We can get everything balanced in time.  But sometimes it is amazing how much agreement there is at first blush if it is allowed to be expressed. :-)

More tomorrow night...
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:57, Fri 28 May 2021.

"red diamond" hmm betting pool for Sinister.

Oh man. Evil dopplegangers.

OK, catching up on things.

There is a new thread, "When Our Team First Came Together..."  This is an entry on every playbook to be filled in.  But the thread is optional.  Read or post in it to help spur discussion if you wish.

In polls and debates, there are some recent comments on the structure and purpose of your school (known and unknown) plus suggestions of alternatives.  If the Stanley school isn't quite ringing true to you, go ahead and read on.