Welcome to the Bullpen, named in homage of the original Marvel Comics' 'Bullpen', that is to say, the staff who made all of the magic happen.

This is our OOC (Out-Of-Character) thread where people can post freely.  It is where readers and visitors are encouraged to post.  And it is the catch-all thread.  If you don't know where to post something, this thread is the first choice at best, and the second choice at worst... :-)

At this writing, only a small number of people know about this game. It has not yet been advertised.  This is intentional to some degree.  When a restaurant opens, it usually runs quietly for a few months before having its 'Grand Opening' so they have time to work out the kinks first.  If this alone gathers enough interest to keep a game going, maybe it can remain a 'best-kept secret'.

Right now, as far as I am concerned, joining this game only means you like to hear more about it.  You are not otherwise obligated in any way.  If you just want to join to read along and comment, that's fine.  Feel free to post in the OOC (this) thread. :-)

Please don't be dismayed at the current underdeveloped state of the game.  I intend that it builds itself around you and soon.  And we will be building the game together.  Masks is a very player-involved setting.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:43, Fri 30 Apr 2021.

OK, let's get started.  Here is what I see as the bedrock assumptions of the game.

1. It takes place in the Marvel Universe, more specifically, it is an alternate timeline among countless others in what is more rightly called the Marvel Multiverse.  This parallel world has whatever continuity we want it to have.  The Mainstream Marvel Continuity is Earth-616 (the one from the comic books).  Our alternate timeline is Earth-682 (named after my native Fort Worth Area Code).  I welcome other suggestions, 682 was the closest number to 616 that I could think of that had any significance to me.

2. Your characters are superhuman teenagers.  That is, you either have superpowers or you are such a superior specimen of humanity that you can actually compete with superpowered beings.  You are in the teen years, thirteen to nineteen inclusive.  If your character doesn't have a normal lifespan, you have been judged to be adolescent at least psychologically.  This means your character could be either a minor or a legal, if young, adult.

3.  Your characters are part of a formal school.  More than other comic book universes, Marvel uses actual schools as settings for superpowered teens.  The X-Men are perhaps the best example of this for Marvel, if not all of pop culture.  Most Masks games consider the teens to be self-founded and self-governing as a default.  But I want to start with a formal school and adult supervision.  This is for at least three reasons:

a. Schools are very Marvel.

b. This is my first foray into Masks and Marvel (at least on this board).  I want at least an extra level of control (responsible adults as teachers) while we learn about each other.

c. This first Masks game should set up the main teen supergroup, powerful, formal, legally-sanctions and well-populated.

d. And, if (when!) you rebel, it will mean something because you are giving up something you helped build.

4. The school seems mundane for mundane courses, superhero training is held at an alternate location.  There are ways to disguise unique anatomies or those with secret identities while on campus.  The mundane part of school can be home schooling, mixed in with unknowing regular students on an unknowing ordinary campus.  Or it can be the usual boarding school setup favored by Marvel teen supers.

5. The board of your trustees of your school is, openly or covertly, at least partially composed of the great and good supergroups of Marvel (Avengers, Fantastic Four, X-Men, etc).  There may be other groups unique to our game.  There may be corporate or other interest that have to be humored to keep funding.  The exact mix will be decided by the players.  If one group is obviously favored, the player characters may simply be the newest and youngest incarnation of the Avengers, Fantastic Five, X-Men, etc.

6.  This team will likely be among the most powerful of teen superheroes and given legal sanction, at least as much legal sanction as teen soldiers should be allowed to have.  The Marvel Universe seems to have a greater tolerance towards deputation and vigilantism than our Earth.

7. And, from the Masks Core book (p. 36)...



OK, let me know what you might like to change.  This is the 'wet cement' phase at the beginning of the game.  Let me know soon.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:33, Fri 30 Apr 2021.

If you decide that you might join and stick around for a little while, here are some questions you can answer in your profile (under your name and possibly avatar in every post).

Nickname: If you have a long username, you can say how you would like it shortened as a diminutive.  It used to very Marvel to have a staffer listed with alliterative nickname in quotes in yellow panels when needed* [*As mentioned by "Wacky Watcher"]
Gender/Pronoun: If your username doesn't suggest either of these, let us know how you would like to referred to and addressed.  For myself, if I am unclear I use they/them/their for a singular individual.  This is becoming more accepted as time goes by.  If your character differs from you in this respect, you might make that clear in context.
Nationality/Location: I want this to be an international game and might ask to pick your brains to add authenticity.
Online Time:  If we use Discord or other real-time methods, when is the most likely time for you to be on?
OS/Browser:  Certain graphical elements work better with some platforms than others.  Letting me know what you use will help me make the game more efficient for you.
Text Background:  This game will use colored text.  Let me know what color your text is displayed on and I can try and make the game work better for you.
Anything Else:  Whatever you feel like sharing. :-)
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:54, Fri 30 Apr 2021.

And here is a blank version of that form for your use.

---

Nickname:
Gender/Pronoun:
Nationality/Location:
Online Time:
OS/Browser:
Text Background:
Anything Else:
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:45, Fri 30 Apr 2021.

And here is my personal version of that form

---

Nickname: GM or Gerry (my real-life name) but I don't really mind.
Gender/Pronoun: In real life, I am male. Online, I might be anything.  But, playing so many characters, they/their is probably the easiest to stick with.
Nationality/Location: I was born in England but have lived in Texas for most of my life.  I am currently just outside Fort Worth.
Online Time: Tuesday nights are usually the best for me but I can usually make anytime with just a little notice.
OS/Browser:  I alternate between Windows 10/Edge browser and iPhone 5 (yes, that old)/Safari browser.
Text Background: I use the default light background and sometimes the dark background.
Anything Else: I start every super game with the Mystery Men soundtrack.  It has been a good luck charm.  I will be playing it first IC reply.
https://www.youtube.com/playli...uPPux2LP6_R9_Y6y-Xkl
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:53, Fri 30 Apr 2021.

Ha! I opened up the game to get it ready.  And it looks like others have already found it and said Hi.  I am pleased.  So I have invited them to the game as tribute to their mad ninja skills and am about to open the game up to everyone. :-)

Updates:

The game has been announced in both the planning thread and another game of mine with long-suffering and well-deserving players.

At this time, I think there will be enough interest that I do not need to advertise.  And I think the might-be players who do know of the game are preselected for excellence.

But if membership gets sparse, I may yet advertise.

---

I have made a Recap Page that will eventually be the one-page intro to the game for new visitors.  For now, the OOC thread is still probably the best introduction.

---

I have made a Forms & Templates page for various types of information we will use more than once.  The brief player form is the first form to grace it.  I repeat it below.

---

---

If you are a new player, you may want to fill out that form here in OOC and then copy it to your profile so we know what name to place to such style! ;-)
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:43, Sat 01 May 2021.

Hey everybody, I'm super excited for this game!

I'd like to throw out my request out to play the Delinquent if no one objects.

Just popping in to say hi as well.

I have also been thumbing through the playbooks. Mostly looking at Bull, Nova or Doomed. Mostly leaning toward Nova at this point.

* waves *  :)

For better and/or for worse, I am more of a roleplayer than a rollplayer, and game mechanics isn't my strength.  I have minimal knowledge of the Marvel Universe and minimal knowledge of Masks.  Hopefully this is a newbie-friendly game... ;)

Hey, if you don't like game mechanics, then Masks is the perfect game for you.

(... skims through https://www.magpiegames.com/wp.../Masks-Playbooks.pdf ...)

I think you are right!  Yay!  :)

Newbie Question: if I want to be a healer, what options do I have?  Is Nova/Biokinesis the only one?  If so, would KraznyOctobr be OK with me going in that direction?  :o

Hmm, there's nothing I see super obvious, but if you want to be a true healer, I don't think Nova is the way to go. Really the defining characteristic of the Nova (beyond their powers) is their lack of control of their powers. From the main book:



Probably not great for a healer. Now, anyone that lists gadgetry could work if you heal through some sort of gadget.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:13, Sat 01 May 2021.

Ooh, if you want to get the Unbound playbooks (not sure if they're free or not), the Scion could be cool. Basically you're the child of a supervillain. Magical Aptitude and Cosmic Energies are two of the ability options that could probably cover healing.

The idea of having a supervillain parent with Dark Sorcery (you also pick your parents powers) who you try to distance yourself from by using your Magical Aptitude to protect and heal people could be cool.

I prefer "powers" over "magic", with a relatively high "Savior" label.

If this was MSH FASERIP, I would go for something like a Troubleseeker with some type of Healing (even better, Empathic Healing)...

Masks really works more off the particular conflict of the character rather than their power set. Obviously a power set has something to do with the character, but its more secondary or plot device. Like with the Nova you need some sort of power that you can see being difficult to control or having some great destructive potential. Just like with a Doomed you need a power set that really corrupts or threatens the character.

So really you want to think about the drama of the character first, select a book and then sort of match the power to that character.

If you were thinking for instance of the Nova then you could look at the character having some sort of strange control over others bodies and when they lose control people are torn to pieces or start having horrific wounds on their bodies. This might have driven them toward the healing, thinking that this would help them stay in control.

Healing could also work for like a Legacy character, following in the footsteps of their bloodline. Could also look at a protégé style character that is learning the ability to control their healing power from another. There's many ways to really approach the character and their power.

Beacon may also be something to consider.

Personally I'd probably look at Doomed, really play up the martyr thing as your character sacrifices themselves to help others and takes their pain onto themselves.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:33, Sat 01 May 2021.

Well, the Scion starts with a Savior +1, and you could always use you +1 to raise it to a +2. And you might be able to make an argument for using Cosmic Energies for healing...or the Scion (and a few other playbooks) gets Regeneration. Maybe instead of that being self-regeneration, you're able to regenerate other people?

Nickname: Oak
Gender/Pronoun: he (player), she (character)
Nationality/Location: Los Angeles native, but lived in Singapore for a dozen years before returning to LA
Online Time: Varies, relative to Pacific Time (I'm a prof, so when I'm not lecturing/grading/etc. :)
OS/Browser: MacOS/Firefox
Text Background: Periwinkle
Anything Else: Roleplaying since '78, RPoL-ing since '04
This message was last edited by the player at 02:32, Tue 04 May 2021.

That sounds interesting, if our friendly GM is open to such things.  The supervillain parent conflict is also interesting...

Yeah, I think the Scion is a pretty cool playbook.

In reply to KraznyOctobr (msg # 17):

Lots of good points here.  IF available powers were decoupled from character conflict...

Doomed: Very interesting, if it was the power itself (empathic healing) that was the threat (taking someone else's wounds can be fatal), rather than some type of supervillain enemy

Legacy, Protégé, Nova, or even Outsider are also potentially interesting possibilities to me.  :)

EDIT: Therefore, newbie question: can available powers be decoupled from character conflict?  :o
This message was last edited by the player at 04:48, Sat 01 May 2021.

Hi all I was thinking of Scion or doomed I was looking at a character who can open portals so a kind of teleporter but can move the group about. I thought they could open small ones in mid air to attack at distance through for example open one being the thug and one next to the character who can then punch the thug from a distance.

If I went doomed or scion I was looking at it being an infernal power either they were part of a dark magic ritual that went wrong (doomed) or their parent is actually an evil demon villain they want to distance themselves from (scion)
Need to read the play books a bit more

Or is there any other playbook anyone can suggest

Of course theoretically you can choose any power for any playbook (assuming the GM allows it), although the rules recommend against. Also, you might want to open the aperture a bit, since this isn't really a game where lots of damage is taking place, so being "just a healer" might get boring.

That said, the Doomed has Body Transmutation as an ability; you could say you can transmute others and choose to use that power to heal them. But having a nemesis is pretty integral to that playbook.

Oops, sorry for the double post...

GM, if you have the Unbound book, you might want to look at the Phoenix Academy Playset; it might be a good place to get ideas for running the game at a school.

The Harbinger (Unbound) gets Teleportation and Portals

In reply to Prince of Boredom (msg # 26):

Cheers I'll have a look at that :0)

Oh, and just an FYI; if I go with the Delinquent, I plan on go with teleportation as well.

In reply to Prince of Boredom (msg # 28):

How do you see that looking? Would it be just you or others to? Would it be night crawler type of effect?

The only reason I ask is I was thinking my character actually opens doors using their infernal powers perhaps through a demon dimension and steps through them allowing them to move others rather than a personal power

Oh his would definitely be a personal power, although he might be able to take someone with him if they're holding hands or something.

I plan on him being a mutant, so no traversing another plane or something, just instantaneous transport to another location (bending space or some such effect).

For my character I will probably look at something with lightening style effects. I really just like the thought of him having these massive displays of power with lightening flashing everywhere, things sparking and blowing apart while he tries to reign in the power. Very cinematic in my mind at least.

I would love some type of Troubleseeker power, where I am teleported to where I am needed.

If we were allowed multiple powers, portals would be high on my list, but I grabbed healing already, so it is only fair that you get to grab your first priority power also... :)

In reply to OakMaster (msg # 32):

I've been looking at the harbinger playbook and posted the gm for approval of its ok with them I was going to take teleport portals power as my main abilities

Nice power choice.  I would like to do a portal-powered character someday...  :)

My character will probably be more devout, and may not want to traverse via your power source...  :o

In reply to OakMaster (msg # 34):

That might be a good in character situation as I saw my character as a result of a dark magic ritual gone wrong so if your character is devout in nature and mine is internal in nature the character interplay could be interesting

Wow!  This game has taken off like wildfire.  I am very grateful, believe me.

Give me a day or two to catch up to y'all.  Some quick notes:

If you can read this, you are IN the game! :-)  I just haven't had time to process you yet.  Don't worry about how many players this game can have at this time.  Just join if you want.

OK, for those that know Masks; I likely have access to any playbooks you do and will generally approve of any playbook otherwise.  In short, it is probably allowed.  You don't have to worry about duplicating another player's choice of playbook.  Players using identical playbooks almost can't help still making very different characters.  And I could actually use nearly identical playbooks for a few players.  I have some plot ideas regarding twins or clones (possibly involving the otherwise difficult Joined playbook).  You may freely choose what powers go with what playbook, even if those powers aren't listed under that playbook's abilities.

I am happy to say that I seem to have some very insightful players.  Also there is a very cosmopolitan mix of players in real-life.  Enough that I think I can make the game more international in scope.  Both major comic houses tend to be rather pro-U.S. centric at times and this would be a welcome change of pace.

Initially, I had thought to make this first super-group very formal and adult supervised.  But I think this group might be mature enough I can take off the training wheels.  I would like to keep the boarding school aspect if that is not unpopular as that is so Marvel.

I am writing a few pages on character creation.  But it may take a day or two.  So, I think I can take a chance on this group and say that if you want to write down a paragraph of your character idea in plain English while we are waiting, the concept will almost certainly be legal (and the rest will probably just need a little tweaking).  If you do know Masks, you can use game terms like Playbooks and Moves but it is not obligatory.  And if you would rather wait until I get the full character design notes up (so as to have to repeat yourself), that's fine as well.

I will get back to work...

Well I'm more or less set on my basic concept / powers and I was thinking of using the code name Gateway for them

I envision my character as a devout and dedicated empathic healer who is drawn to where there is need for such abilities.

That could mean MSH-Troubleseeker-Style being teleported to the scene, or that could mean some type of spidey-sense vision ("Uh oh...  The Clueless Klutz just fell off the bridge!  I've got to get over there right away!").

At this point I am leaning toward a thirteen-year-old Chinese female.

Would game balance allow for any other Empath-related powers (empathy, telepathy, precognition, postcognition, etc.)?  Only our Faithful GM knows for sure... :)

I cannot think of any fatal objection to any character idea I have heard so far.  Which mean just will probably work just fine second glance as first blush.

In this game, raw power is really just a storytelling factor as much as the lack of power is.  In most games, the Nova (barely controlled powers) character is usually as powerful as the rest of the team put together.  But the Nova has the burdens of trying to maintain control and the ethical use of great power, such as to even use it at all.

In short, add the powers you wish.  Nothing is truly infallible in this game and sometimes a heartfelt moment of sharing may save the world as easily as a cosmic bolt.

Hi all.

I'll be working on figuring out masks for a couple days.

I think you're still too hung up on your powers,  which are really almost ancillary to the game itself. Like Krazny said, Masks is really more about character interaction and drama, than what your particular powers are.

So I'd recommend looking at these descriptions of the playbooks and see which seems most to fit the personality of the character and figure out the powers later.

Main Book:
THE BEACON - The heart of the team. Low powered, low angst. They’re a hero because they  want  to be, and they’re driven always upward.

THE BULL - The bruiser with a heart of gold. Created to be a weapon. Caught between being a cold, gruff fighter and caring deeply about teammates.

THE DELINQUENT - The troublemaker and attention-seeker, rabblerouser and rebel. Tricks, deception, and  provocation are their hallmarks.

THE DOOMED - The dramatic martyr. Cursed to ultimately lose their self to some terrible fate, and up against a terrible nemesis.

THE JANUS - The hero with a dual life. Required to have a secret identity; they struggle to manage two lives at once.

THE LEGACY - T he latest in a family of heroes. Part of a larger tradition of heroism with its own enemies, rules, and obligations.

THE NOVA - The overpowered conflagration. They can reshape the world—but it’s hard to control so much power, and if they fail, others get hurt.

THE OUTSIDER - The alien with strange powers. They’re from somewhere else. And they’re trying to decide between staying here or  going  home.

THE PROTÉGÉ - The extremely well-trained understudy. Defined by a strong relationship with one adult figure—their mentor.

THE TRANSFORMED - The monstrous appearance and human mind. They used to be a regular person, but they were changed forever.

From Halcyon City Herald Edition:
The Innocent  – a younger version of a modern-day villain, come forward in time.

The Joined – a “second-half” connected to and bonded with another hero.

The Newborn – a brand new entity, just come into existence.

The Reformed – a former villain, attempting to redeem themselves.

The Star  – a celebrity with a demanding audience.

From Unbound:
The Harbinger:  A time traveler  come back to  fix  the  future by  changing the past...but unsure how exactly to do that.

The Nomad: An experienced roamer of the cosmos, settling down a bit.

The  Scion:  The child of a major supervillain, doing everything in their power to prove they’re different.

So, with this game being set in a marvel dimension, are most people basing their character off of a canon-ish Marvel character or is it mostly originals?

I mean, Masks really is based off such things and embraces the tropes so I think we would all find ourselves being either inspired or similar to an actual character from the comics.

Well my character is very loosely based on Magik from new mutants minus the sword and the like

I am going to electrocute creepy smiley face mask men.

That observation about Masks is useful and informative.

I suspect that my initial focus upon powers is because (1) my power preferences were less settled than my character's values/personality/goals/etc., and (2) none of the playbooks are quite an exact fit.

Of the possible contenders included above, I'd say Beacon is closest.  Whether or not "heart of the team" or "low powered" apply, she is more low-angst and driven always upward...

If we were going to be playing existing characters I was going to go with Gwen Stacy/Ghost-spider/Spider-Gwen - in masks by tweaking background a bit I could fit that character to any of: The Janus, Protégé, Legacy, and maybe others.

So it seems like they'll be some flexibility.

If no one else is using an existing character I'll make a new one as well.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:03, Sat 01 May 2021.

It's a sad thing but a young Justin Bieber keeps popping into my head as a visual inspiration for this character. I'm sorry.

I have Callum, going by Cal, picked out as his name. Pretty standard, upper middle class kid from the Southern region of the United States. I really want to stick with him having a sort of "charmed life" feel to him. The weight of his power and what it really can do being a slowly growing weight on his conscious.

Otherwise though he is that kid that seems to know everyone, smiling and trying to talk to whomever and get them interested in having fun.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:36, Sat 01 May 2021.

I will definitely be going with a new character. But you could go with a Protege or Legacy connected to Gwen Stacy.

Definitely a new character for me, especially given how clueless I am about the Marvel Universe... ;)

OK, I have some spare time.

I am trying to catch up to all you written.  Other GM's would kill for such problems.  Please don't fret if I haven't responded to you specifically and directly yet.  I want to and I am working towards that end.

There are some other things I need to attend to first to keep this game's momentum going.  Let me get started.

With so many players applying, it is time for me to get you some character instructions.

For now, I just need a few sentences of your character idea in simple words.  Formal Character Creation in Masks is so very easy, it can take place at the end of the process.  In fact, it is so simple, I could make your character from your paragraph in about five minutes.  So just describe your hero as you would to a good friend who likes comics but doesn't necessarily understand gaming.

You see, Marvel, then Masks, then Me are so forgiving, practically any character idea you have will be acceptable without you having to read pages of rules.  And the few that aren't initially kosher need just a bit a tweaking.

Let me give you the general bounds:

1. You are playing a teenager:  For regular humans, this would be between the ages of thirteen and nineteen inclusive.  If your character does not have a typical human lifespan, you have been rated as an adolescent at least psychologically.  The range of age allows you to play a minor character or an actual legal, albeit young, adult.  For this game, I recommend a minor but won't preclude the older teens.  The Masks game proper suggests ages sixteen to twenty inclusive and I think that is a good idea (so you can actually be twenty if you want).

2. You are superhuman:  You have rare powers and abilities beyond the scope of most people.  Or you are one of the few 'ordinary' humans so capable and trained that you can compete with actual empowered characters.   Were you not moral, you could easily dominate normal folks and how to use that power wisely is a constant test for you.

3. You live in the Marvel Universe:  More specifically, you live in one of countless ultimate timelines in what is more rightly called the Marvel Multiverse.  What this means is that you can use or ignore Marvel continuity as you see fit, at least in terms of your character.  For now, our game world of Earth-682 is almost identical to the Mainstream Marvel Earth-616 except where you tell me it isn't  Truly world-shattering changes will need my approval but you should be able to shape the character history you want.

But you should include at least one Marvel Universe Multiverse element in your character.  Here's my rule of thumb, if Marvel would sue if your character was published by another company; you did good.  For those that know Marvel, you are basically playing a What If comic based on your character.  You can use public domain characters and make them Marvelous as Marvel did with public domain Thor, turning him into the Mighty Thor.

You are allowed to use settings that Marvel is allowed to use:  For example, you can use Marvel's New Universe or The Ultraverse (Malibu Comics' setting, now bought by Marvel).  Here is a partial list of possibilities
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...verse_(Marvel_Comics)

And, finally, as Marvel is owned by Disney, you can draw from (grits teeth) any Disney property (subject to my approval).  It is possible for some Disney princesses or Jedi to be singular dimensional castaway PCs.  I say this partly because one of my most talented real-life players played a modern-day Frozen's Princess Elsa to fantastic and tragic effect (a runaway Nova, for those who know Masks).

4. Per the Masks book...:  You want to do good, even the more delinquent characters deep down (maybe really deep down).  You have chosen to be a part of this group.  There is nothing that keeps here but your choice and will.  You are not a killer and you hope you will never have to be.  To the general public, you are still an unproven hero who deserves a chance to succeed or fail (they are taking bets).

5. Your characters can be from other countries, or even more exotic places:  The X-Men really picked up in sales and gravitas when Chris Claremont added X-Men from beyond the U.S.  We have a very cosmopolitan and urbane group and it would be a shame not to use and feature that.

6. I welcome you to use the full spectrum of humanity in making your characters:  Marvel has been rather forward-thinking on this issue and I wish to continue that.

7. Here is a far-from-complete list of character possibilities:  You will come up with even better ideas.

You could be an already existing mainstream Marvel teen hero (well, this Earth's version of) played as true as this game will allow:  Marvel has great Masks characters right 'off the shelf'; Spider-Man, Ms. Marvel, Cloak and/or Dagger, any of the X-Men when they were teens.  This would be a bit like a new actor in the role of James Bond.  The challenge is to bring something new to such a narrow portrayal.

You could be Earth-682's teen version of an adult Mainstream Marvel Earth-616 hero:  Many classic Marvel heroes started their hero career as adults but it doesn't have to be this way.  Perhaps you had your 'origin' early.  Or you have been 'de-aged' (see below).

You are a existing hero but with a different... gender/nationality/orientation/ethnicity/race/religion/etc:  She-Hulk started out a merely 'girl Hulk' to claim copyright on such a character before another company could claim it (a distant possibility under then copyright law) but became a character in her own right.

You are a heroic version of a Mainstream Earth villain:  The best villains were almost heroes but had one really bad day.  And some probably would have worked better as heroes to start with.  Maybe Magneto was rescued by the Allies before the Nazis kidnapped his family and was thus inspired to be a hero, as just one example.  Or maybe here, you are truly wanting to repent and redeem yourself.

You are the child of existing Marvel heroes:  You like both these characters.  You like both their powersets.  So give them a kid.   If regular children aren't possible from such a combination, there is always magic or weird science.

You are a dimensional exile from a Marvel-owned property:  Perhaps you fell from the New Universe, the Strikeforce Morituri Universe, or the Ultraverse setting among many others.  You will find your way home but first you need to find friends here.

You are a member of a superpowered minority: In the Marvel Multiverse, there are races of beings that have innate superpowers at a low level.  A small sample could be; Inhumans, Eternals, Asgardians, Mole Men, Skrulls, Werewolves, Vampires, etc.  On Earth-682, peaceful members of such communities are considered minorities, not monsters (and they are probably peaceful because they are recognized as people).  So, in addition to, say, Chinatown, there may be a 'Vampire Town' in major cities.

You could be 'merely' human:   It is possible for a plucky kid, with gadgets and training, to compete with at least minor heroes.  After all these years, 'superhero' has become a career option for ordinary people.  It is bit like trying to be the Top Model, Top NFL Draft Pick, Olympic Gold Medalist, Movie Star, Rock Star, etc.  It is possible but very unlikely.  That doesn't stop most kids from giving it a try and then, dreams crushed, picking a more sensible and sane career.

There are two special origins available to this game:

You are a fully-aware clone, with your donor's memories and identity as well as their genes.  And the original is already living 'your' life with the family you remember: Mr./Ms. Sinister (among others) often clone existing heroes, hoping to get an army of their most hated nemeses working for them.  It always fails but what happens to the poor clones, especially the ones with donor memories and not just genes?  In the Ultimate Universe, Spider-Man was cloned into a female version but with his original cismale memories.  In the DC Young Justice series, a clone of Superman was made and the noble Superman's honest awkwardness at facing his 'son' (essentially 'born' of Superman's violation) are poignant for both characters.

You are an adult hero, now de-aged:  In this game, not long before the start, the world's heroes foil a magical plot to give the villains immortality by stealing life energy from the rest of the world.  The plot is foiled but many heroes are de-aged to a teenage form.  They still have their adult memories but a teenage neurology.  And there are moral and technical wrinkles to be dealt with.  Slight spoiler:  Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman of the Fantastic Four and the most well-adjusted 'Mom' character has been de-aged to a thirteen year-old girl.  Her kids are 'older' than her now and her attraction to Reed Richards is now more remembered than felt.  And that young Namor is awfully cute.  This is just one example of how sudden youthening can wreak havoc.

You are an 'expy', a character from another copyrighted universe that you really <b><i>want to play:</i></b>  Talk to me, maybe you are 'Ratman' whose parents were murdered in front of you in, um, 'Gothic' City.

That's it for now.  And you will likely come up with even better options...

A number of folks were thinking of creating new characters.  Is that OK, or do you specifically want us to play some variation or relative of existing characters?
This message was last edited by the player at 01:57, Sun 02 May 2021.

New characters are quite fine.  I would just prefer you add in some element of the Marvel Universe in your origin and backstory.

In other words, could Marvel sue to prevent your character from being published in another company's comic books.

My thanks to the Prince of Boredom for listing the available Playbooks.  I will add some notes for how the Playbooks might work in this game.  If you don't yet know about Playbooks, don't worry about it now.  And, again, don't worry about duplicating Playbooks and you can choose whatever powers you want to work with whatever Playbooks you want.

If I don't add anything to these Playbook capsules, that is because they are pretty much as they are written.

Main Book:
THE BEACON - The heart of the team. Low powered, low angst. They’re a hero because they want  to be, and they’re driven always upward.  Fine as written.

THE BULL - The bruiser with a heart of gold. Created to be a weapon. Caught between being a cold, gruff fighter and caring deeply about teammates.  Fine as written.

THE DELINQUENT - The troublemaker and attention-seeker, rabblerouser and rebel. Tricks, deception, and  provocation are their hallmarks.  The Delinquent is one of the hardest Playbooks to play because at times they are actually working against the team.  Also, your Delinquent has chosen to be here so they can't be an utter sociopath.  So the Delinquent player must be aware of when that actually serves the group story and when it doesn't   And, remember, it is part of the teen super genre that a Delinquent's mischief is always discovered.  Always.

THE DOOMED - The dramatic martyr. Cursed to ultimately lose their self to some terrible fate, and up against a terrible nemesis.  A Doomed isn't necessary doomed to a horrible fate, they are just destined to leave forever.  Think of Doctor Manhattan from DC Comics' Watchmen.  He was pretty much fated to transcend and leave humanity forever (effectively dying for those who left behind).

THE JANUS - The hero with a dual life. Required to have a secret identity; they struggle to manage two lives at once.  By the Playbook, your character doesn't start the game having revealed their secret ID to all their teammates.  But you can tell them all once the game begins if you want without compromising the Janus Playbook.  And, you may freely have one person from your normal life know about your super identity.  This person is loyal to you and would never willingly reveal who you are.   Batman needs Alfred to know who he is so they can talk and the audience can follow along.  Not all people with secret identities have to be a Janus.  Janus characters are those who struggle to maintain both identities.

THE LEGACY - The latest in a family of heroes. Part of a larger tradition of heroism with its own enemies, rules, and obligations.  The difference (as I see it) between a Legacy and a Protoge Playbook is that the Legacy was born into their legacy or inherited it.  They might welcome their legacy or reject it.  But at least someone they care about expects them to use it.

THE NOVA - The overpowered conflagration. They can reshape the world—but it’s hard to control so much power, and if they fail, others get hurt.  Fine as written.

THE OUTSIDER - The alien with strange powers. They’re from somewhere else. And they’re trying to decide between staying here or going home.  Fine as written.

THE PROTÉGÉ - The extremely well-trained understudy. Defined by a strong relationship with one adult figure—their mentor.  Unlike a Legacy character, a Protege chooses every day to be a Protege.

THE TRANSFORMED - The monstrous appearance and human mind. They used to be a regular person, but they were changed forever.  Not all heroes changed from normal human to obviously NOT are Transformed.  She-Hulk prefers her green goddess form even though she can switch between both.  And not all Transformed are obviously so.  Rogue of the X-Men looks normal.   What makes the Transformed is that the hero would give up all of their power to just be a normal human.  Some 'Transformed' are born that way.  Nightcrawler was always blue and fuzzy but some versions of him would happily give that up to be like everybody else.  Same for Beast.

From Halcyon City Herald Edition:
The Innocent  – a younger version of a modern-day villain, come forward in time.  Fine as written.

The Joined – a “second-half” connected to and bonded with another hero.  The Joined playbook usually riffs off an existing PC.  And that should be done with that other player's permission.  If you want to be a Joined and no other player is interested in being your 'better half', I will make an NPC partner for you.

The Newborn – a brand new entity, just come into existence. Fine as written.

The Reformed – a former villain, attempting to redeem themselves.  Fine as written.

The Star  – a celebrity with a demanding audience.  Fine as written.

From Unbound:
The Harbinger:  A time traveler  come back to  fix  the  future by  changing the past...but unsure how exactly to do that.  A Harbinger may not be from the future, necessarily, but from somewhere else.  It could be that the Harbinger is from another doomed and lost dimension, trying to save this dimension from the same fate!

The Nomad: An experienced roamer of the cosmos, settling down a bit.  A Nomad probably has every reason to believe that they could leave this dimension one day even if that is not possible at this moment.  They might feel they have to go then, even if they don't want to.

The  Scion:  The child of a major supervillain, doing everything in their power to prove they’re different. Fine as written.

There are two other 'official' Masks Playbooks:

From the AEGIS Sourcebook:

Brain:  You've heard of an Evil Genius, you are a Good Genius!  Fine as written.

Soldier:  Technically, most teen supers are considered available deputies or even vigilantes.  But you are a professional soldier, your patron isn't a caped crusader but an organization.  You are likely a legal adult but you can be a minor cadet.  In this game, SHIELD is probably your patron.  Fine as written.


There is a third-party Playbook available on DriveThruRPG.  I have a copy if needed.

Meta:  You 'know' that you are in a comic book (or RPoL game) and sometimes directly address the audience.  Less comically and annoying, you know the secrets of the superhero world you find yourself in better than anyone else.  This is the Deadpool or Gwenpool option and can probably be tolerable for just a few PC heroes.  Otherwise, fine as written.

One Reddit user has made three custom playbooks.  I will consider them on request.

The Link, The Symbiote and The Wielder
https://www.reddit.com/r/PBtA/..._3_custom_playbooks/

If there are any remaining Playbooks out there, I have not found them.
If you don't have access to all Playbooks, let me know and don't worry about it for now.
Again, if you don't know enough about Masks to understand Playbooks, don't worry about it for now.

In a pinch, here are some formal character templates for most playbooks.  You can cut-and-paste them if you wish.  I will work on getting the other playbooks up...

http://juniorsentinels.wikidot.com/playbooks

Whew!  I have been busy as you can see.

But now I can change tack.

Tomorrow, I will approve all players and get to the mail and the posts I have not yet been able to get to today.  I appreciate the patience of all of you. :-)

Bingo.  That is just the droid that I am looking for.

My character's empathic resonance is such that her super-perception and super-intuition can glimpse beyond the fourth wall.

Perfect.  Sign me up for Meta.  :)

So I for Callum there will need to be someone he blows off steam with and also someone that he has hurt with his powers.

I also will be handing influence over him to three people on the team.

So guess it's time we started bringing this group of misfit and malcontents together.

Hi, everyone!

I was thinking of going with the Brain playbook and choosing power armor and robot sidekick. The robot can merge with the armor for a mini-mecha approach.

Welcome to the new folks!  :)

Howdy.

UPDATES:

Hi, Team,

If you check the Recap Page Notice, you should find your name there as a player.  And, if you haven't yet filled out the player form (completely optional but don't hide your light under a bushel)  here it is.

Nickname:
Gender/Pronoun:
Nationality/Location:
Online Time:
OS/Browser:
Text Background:
Anything Else:

You might want to fill that out post that into the OOC thread so we all know your brilliance (and then perhaps copy that into your avatar's profile).  I will add the form to the Recap Page.

Now, I don't know why, but I can't add some of you to the group as players in the most TECHNICAL sense.  I am working on this and I hope to get some help from my brainbox players.  Don't be discouraged.  If your name is in the Recap Page, you ARE a player even if I can't yet convince the RPoL server of that yet.  If your name is NOT on the Recap Page, let me know.  It should be.

I am gratified that my three previous players from my last game have decided to chance this one.  They are the reason I stayed on RPoL and offered Masks.  We are all better off for their participation. :-)

OK, I am looking for moderators.  The job is pretty much open to those who want it.

Your first job as moderator is to tell ME how to make you a moderator in RPOL's (to me) non-intuitive way of doing things.  And then your second job will be to make sure that everyone who isn't officially logged as a player gets that way.

I appreciate y'all's patience.  I am trying to catch up with you.  It is just taking some time...

Quick possibility before I go to bed...

Anyone not yet allowed as a player, if you messaged me using an alias, let me know your true username.  If you messaged me using your true username, let me know your alias (if you have one).

Friendly instructions sent via private thread.  :)

Nickname: Kylie
Gender/Pronoun: Female (She/Her)
Nationality/Location: Canada
Online Time: Off and on from 7 PM EST, to 4 AM EST usually.
OS/Browser: Win10 FireFox
Text Background:Default stuff
Anything Else: I'm a big fan of PbtA games. They've been my main games for the past 5 or so years. New to RPol specifically, so a little hazy on how to format things sometimes.

I was thinking that I'd take The Soldier playbook. In our continuity Mac Gargan (The Scorpion) was created as the result of SHIELD experiments with creating a super soldier. The experiments altered his mind, and he went rogue, becoming a villain closely resembling The Scorpion of the main continuity.

My character would be a result of their later attempts to perfect the process. She possesses super strength and durability, along with a mechanical scorpion tail similar to the original. Here's an image that I'm basing the character on: https://imgur.com/a/m6zmys4 Although my version's tail has acid spitting properties similar to the original scorpion's design.

Anyway, let me know if our GM likes the sound of the character so far.

Hello, everyone. You're probably wondering why I gathered you all here today.

It's to introduce myself! :D I'm Nintaku, a long-time RPoLer and one of the GM's aforementioned other players. It's my great pleasure to be here and join a Masks game (one of my favorites), especially with such a creative and friendly set of players. Given how I am, I have several character concepts ready for use and have a hard time deciding between them. Allow me to pitch, and humbly request the group's opinions on which would be most fun to see play out.

Ricochet - A former child movie star and prodigy martial artist, kidnapped by Mysterious Organization (probably Weapon X, Mr. Sinister, or AIM) along with a bunch of other teens, and turned into a nigh invincible fighting machine. Her powers allow her to absorb and redirect kinetic energy, while also giving her amazing kinesthesia, meaning she's even more durable and agile a fighter now. After a failed attempt at leading the other teens in an escape attempt, she ended up one of the few who made it out and now suffers extreme guilt over not having protected the others well enough. Sees herself as a shield to the rest of any team she joins. Definitely the Bull, no doubt about it.

Indigo - A comic book geek with the powers of telekinesis (more construct creation, really) and telepathy, both accompanied by a dark stream of energy that gives him his name. Because his telepathy includes such powers as mind control and memory manipulation, he has this horrible fear that becoming a supervillain is just one flash of anger away. Obviously, those are Designated Evil Powers, so he has to be super careful about everything he does and try to keep himself from hurting anyone. He could work as the Nova or Doomed (with his nemesis being a version of himself that travels the multiverse draining other Indigos of their powers while looking for a version of him that can stand up to the evil counterpart, thus creating the perfect hero).

Chronon - A more or less normal kid who happens to have inherited time-manipulation-related super speed and has joined a Legacy of speedster heroes. The Legacy has a supervillain from the future whose battle with the first of their line brought the two of them into the past to create the Legacy in the first place, and now that villain intends to change the present and prevent them from coming to be so he can conquer the future with impunity. Time travel, man, it's nuts. Chronon can work either as the Legacy (clearly) or the Janus.

PHOTON - A teen found out about a teacher's secret project: a wearable computer system that can control light. He helped perfect it into the PHOTON suit, and now battles evil by shooting lasers and stuff. The pair created a non-super version of the computer system as a new form of optical data transfer and now sell it as the newest and fastest information technology on the market. A rogue military commander wants the suit for making super soldiers, because obviously, and will stop at nothing to get it, because also obviously. I figure he could work well as the Doomed (that nemesis is killer), Nova (new powers, who dis?), Janus (maybe too high powered), Protege (except his teacher has no actual powers), or Star (I mean he's basically Kid Iron Man but flashier).

Cyclops - Let's imagine a timeline in which Scott Summers isn't the worst person in the world. He has some control over his powers (turning them on or off, still needs that visor for fine control), actually has some charisma and strategic skill, and is generally a decent guy. Looking at Protege of a much less slimy Professor X, like the movie version instead of the comic one.

Octopus - Otto Octavius got the mechanical arms as part of a science project while on the fast track to university, things went horribly wrong, and he became a young supervillain. Since then, he's been shown how he could serve the public good like he'd originally intended, and now seeks to redeem himself. Definitely the Reformed.

Also, I'd like to point out that we actually have enough players for two entirely separate teams! If there's no restrictions on the number of playable characters, I could absolutely play multiple. :P
This message was last edited by the player at 19:29, Mon 03 May 2021.

I am definitely a fan of time travel plots, temporal knots and paradoxes, etc., so one guess which concept gets my vote.  :)

just waiting for some of my questions to by our gm then I'll be in the position to post my concept :o)

Folks, I'm sorry I have been so unexpectedly busy this week.

If it helps, I have made a Discord server for this game.

https://discord.gg/WVEc4rHd

Using the Discord server will always be OPTIONAL for this forum-based game.  But it is an option for those who want it and may speed the game up.

For myself, I keep Discord on in the background and will be notified of text messages left in the server.  I will drop in if I can but I am off and on the PC usually.  With a little notice, I can usually schedule showing up for myself.

Tonight, I am a little busy and there is a tornado watch in the area so I won't likely be available for Discord chat.

Good News!

OakMaster has volunteered to and be promoted to GM!  Which I have done.  I have seen some of what OakMaster has done on this board and consider us to very lucky indeed.

So we both now wield the Power Cosmic!

If anyone else wants to be promoted to superpowered status, let me know.

I have to admit the rewards being a GM/Editor/Moderator in this game are mostly intangible.  But there is one for those that want it.

You can GM your own game in this forum if you want.  It is not like we are running out of 'forum' or 'Marvel Universe'.  You can carve your own little section of threads and start a game if you wish.  This is more or less how Marvel started, a bunch of separate stories in a shared universe.  In fact, one of the reasons early Marvel Comics so outdid its other competitors was that one title would sometimes reference another.  It made the young readers feel that they were a part of an ever-changing and growing world.  And, if you were the tyke that bought both titles, you knew more than your other friends and thus felt closer to your heroes.  Stan Lee was originally in sales, which is another word for applied psychologist.  And he learned his lessons well.

In any case, I can't run every story in this wide universe.  The offer remains open and we still welcome more GMs and moderators if you are so moved.

OK, again, my apologies for how slow this game has been to take off and for me to respond.  I will try and rectify some of that tonight.

For those wondering about their character ideas, I like ALL of the ideas that have been presented.  There are details to fill out and time to get those details.  Your characters are about as far along as they CAN be at this stage.  Y'see, Masks is a collaborative game.  All of the players work together to make not just the game world but also to help make other characters.

Masks mavens (those familiar with the game) know that vital parts of character creation, such as Influcence Relationships, When Our Team First Came Together..., etc, are group efforts and I want to get all players onboard before that gets nailed down.

In the meantime, there is much I can do and I will get started.  Thank you all for your patience...

REAL NAME - Cam Turner
Code name - Steel Ninja
Look - White, tight and trim body, robotic exo-suit
❑ Take another move from your playbook
 ❑ Take another move from your playbook
 ❑ Take another move from your playbook
 ❑ Take a Sanctuary from the Doomed playbook
 ❑ Take Drives from the Beacon playbook
 ❑ Someone permanently loses Influence over you; add +1 to a Label
 ❑ Rearrange your Labels as you choose, and add +1 to a Label
 ❑ Unlock your Moment of Truth
 ❑ Unlock your Moment of Truth after it’s been used once
 ❑ Confront your Shame on your terms; if you survive, change playbooks
 ❑ Take an adult move
 ❑ Take an adult move
 ❑ Lock a Label, and add +1 to a Label of your choice
 ❑ Become a paragon of the city for however long you have left
 ❑ power armor
 ❑ robotic sidekick

    Labels
(at character creation, add +1 wherever you choose)
BRAIN Moves
(Choose three)
 DANGER FREAK SAVIOR SUPERIOR MUNDANE
-2 -1 -2 -1 -2 -1 -2 -1 -2 -1
0 +1 +2 +3 0 +1 +2 +3 0 +1 +2 +3 0 +1 +2 +3 0 +1 +2 +3
❑ Above the fray: When you enter battle as a Team against a dangerous foe, if you have Influence over the leader and provide tactical input, add 1 Team to the pool. When you contradict the leader during the battle, you may return Influence over the leader to add an additional 1 Team to the pool.
   ❑ Mission debrief: During a debrief, when you downplay your role in helping a teammate during the mission, mark potential and shift Superior down and any other Label up. When you exaggerate your role in helping a teammate during the mission, clear a condition and either give them Influence or lose Influence over them
❑ Always prepared: When you have a chance to restock your supplies, hold up to 2-gadgets. When you unleash your powers by producing a brand new minor invention or gadget from your supply, spend 1-gadget and roll + Superior. When you reach 0-gadgets, mark a condition.
  ❑ Tactical genius: When you point out the obvious flaw in a known foe’s plan, roll + Savior. On a hit, you’re right, and another teammate (your choice) can take advantage; they get +1 ongoing to act on your information. On a 7-9, pick one:
    Conditions
❑ Afraid
❑ Angry
❑ Guilty
❑ Hopeless
❑ Insecure
(-2 to directly engage a threat)
(-2 to comfort or support or pierce the mask)
(-2 to provoke someone or assess the situation) (-2 to unleash your powers)
(-2 to defend someone or reject others’ influence)
- You missed something important. The GM will tell you what.
 - You look like a showoff. Your chosen teammate takes Influence over you, and you lose Influence over them.
 - You make your teammates feel like little more than pawns. Your chosen teammate marks a condition.
 On a miss, you’ve played into your enemy’s hands; watch the trap spring.
 ❑ Logical angle: When you comfort or support someone by rationally pointing out their mistakes so they can do better next time, roll + Superior
 instead of + Mundane. If they do not open up to you, mark a condition.


  Backstory
• How did you first reveal your genius to your friends or family?
• Why did you decide to use your intellect for the benefit of others?
• What accident or misfire taught you some sense of humility or responsibility?
• Who helped you realize you need other people?
• Why do you care about the team?
Once you’ve finished your backstory, introduce your character to the other players, and then determine what happened when your team first came together, the relationships between you and your teammates, and who has Influence over you.
When our team first came together...
I created something lasting and beneficial for the whole team. What was it?
Relationships
You told ____________________ about your shame and asked them for their confidence. You wish you could be a better hero, more like _____________________.
Influence
You need these people as much as they need you. Give Influence to two of your teammates.
Your Shame
You have a deep and abiding sense of guilt for something you have created or had a hand in creating. It could have been something you invented when you first came into your genius, or something you set into motion that you no longer have the power to stop. It may even be something beyond your ability to achieve again, this once-in-a-lifetime creation. Juast as you are a world-class intellect, your shame is a world-class problem. Whatever the case may be, your role in its creation is not publicly known...yet.
What is your shame?
Whenever you are confronted with your shame, either mark a condition or shift Superior down and Danger up. If your shame is an NPC, they can never lose Influence over you.
At the end of every session, answer the question:
• Did you take steps to make amends for your shame?
If the answer is yes, mark potential. If the answer is no, give Influence to one of your teammates.
❑ Scientific insight: You have achieved mastery over a field of science and technology. Name it: Robotics. Whenever you assess the situation and your field of study is directly relevant, you may ask a single follow up question.

 ❑ A cosmic phenomenon

     Moment of Truth
Freedom isn’t free. But not every mission ends in tragedy. When things look bleakest, when your back is against the wall, when it seems like the dawn will never come...you find a way forward without violence. Your enemies lay down their arms and surrender; your allies step back from the brink of chaos. Of course, the people you’ve saved aren’t going to forget what you’ve done here today; they may even come to see you as a symbol of the higher cause you claim to serve...
Team Moves
When you share a triumphant celebration with someone, tell them what they need to do achieve their full potential. If they accept your advice, take Influence over them and add two Team to the pool. If they reject what you have to say, mark a condition.
When you share a vulnerability or weakness with someone, ask them what cause they serve. If you find it to be a worthy cause, tell them how you will fight for it, clear a condition, and add a Team to the pool. If they don’t have a cause (or you find it unworthy), mark a condition.
POTENTIAL >❑ >❑ >❑ >❑ >❑ Every time you roll a miss on a move, mark potential.
Advancement
When you fill your potential track, you advance. Choose from the list below.
When you’ve taken five advances from the top list, you can take advances from the list below.
Other Moves
Abilities
A.E.G.I.S. found you before you got full control of your abilities. They helped you master your gifts, maybe even augmented them with some new tech. Now you have an opportunity to do some good, using your powers to protect and serve humanity. Choose any two of the following.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:32, Wed 05 May 2021.

Although I have the exalted title of Co-GM, a more accurate title might be "Tech Support".

It is my humble duty to gently take a large baseball bat and beat upon the various RPoL interfaces and databases until they are happy, freeing our actual GM to do all of the creative stuff.  :)

I believe that everyone who was in the queue has now been successfully granted player access.

We now have an impressively populous cast list.

Welcome to all of the newcomers!  :)

All received player summaries have now been updated in the Recap Page thread.  Let me know if anything needs changing.  Enjoy.  :)

"1 post"?!?  What's up with that?  ;)

Now catching up on the Bullpen thread...

As has already been mentioned, you can freely choose your powerset and the power levels for the most part.  You aren't godlike necessarily but you can be among the most powerful of Marvel's teen heroes (Young Jean Grey as the Phoenix as just one example).

But Masks is about emotional stakes rather than physical ones.  The masked hero coming out to their family can reap as much emotional reward and progress onto the character arc as Phoenix saving or trying to destroy (depending on the latest storyline) the world.

Most superteams have a wide range of power, from the deluded kid in a silly outfit to the mutant with barely controlled power over time and space.  They also have a different set of emotional stakes.  In the New Mutants, Cannoball wonders whether he can overcome his awkwardness and (to him) social inferiority.  While Magik, his teammate, worries about losing her soul to eternal darkness and taking the world with her (whiny teenagers, what are you going to do?).

And both had their history paper due on Monday or Professor X. would fail them.

In short, write down who you WANT to play and some how, we will get it to work or very, very close.

Prince, I completely forgot about the Phoenix Academy and I have had the Unbound sourcebook since it first came out.  Yes, I will be using the Phoenix Academy as an inspiration.  Thank you for reminding me! :-)

It is worth restating that your initial conceptions are all good so far.  That, and my lack of time, is why I haven't necessarily addressed any conception in detail.  Y'all are very imaginative.  The game will come together as the players do.   Again, the character creation process is collaborative.  Every player shapes every other character and not all players are in the game yet (working on it...).

I would like but (sigh) will not insist that you have a Marvel element in your backstory and origin.  But, to my mind, playing in a Marvel game without a 'Marvelous' character is like having a free trip to Italy but not sampling the food, visiting the sites or meeting the people.

Oak, the Meta playbook is copyrighted so I will message the link to you so as not to violate the rules of the forum.  Speaking in general, there will be a lot of copyrighted material for this game.  So I will eventually get all players into a private group so we can share stuff without accidentally distributing it.  A private group is like a virtual 'gaming table' between friends and you should be able to share info like old-fashioned photocopies.

Nintaku, yes, multiple groups will be an option, especially given the number of players we do have.  This also lets the players divide themselves into the Straight-Arrow Stooges and the Reckless Rebels (as they might see each other).  And, as I mentioned somewhere else, great ideas.  You are darned near a super team all by yourself.

Kylie, I love PbtA games myself but am still learning how to GM them (hear that, folks, you are my lab rats :-) ).  But I do consider them the next wave in gaming.  People who otherwise don't seem to 'get' RPGs almost make Masks or its sexy and brooding (or do I repeat myself) older sibling Monsterhearts like a duck to water.

So I ask the group in general?  What PbtA games do you like, if you do?

Hello, all!

I can't claim to be particularly creative, so I'm probably just going binge-read a bunch of 90s comics and try to play Jubilee, my favorite Marvel heroine.

Thank you, Meta!  In my life, 'Tech Support' has sometimes been the angel that saved my job so I would consider the title an honor.  And, I am for beating up some computer systems with a bat on principal (loved the Goodfella riff to the poor printer 'PC Load Letter' in Office Space).

Thank your for updating the player summaries in the recap thread.  That is quite a help to me this storm dodging day.

OK, all players are added.  Now the game can really begin!

Oh!

Gender/Pronoun: Female (She/Her)
Nationality/Location: West Coast United States
Online Time: Pacific standard times, various, usually not early in the morning
OS/Browser: Windows 10, Edge.
Text Background: Actually, I had no idea you could change that until just now.

In reply to FPSMC (msg # 83):

Recap Page entry for FPSMC updated.  :)

Hello everyone! Glad to be here.

Nickname: dlantoub, or character name.
Gender/Pronoun: Male
Nationality/Location: Dublin, recently moved from the UK.
Online Time: Varies currently any best, but likely to move to evenings only
OS/Browser: Android iPhone/PC
Text Background: default. The only time I hate default is April fools.

Anything Else: A long tradition of female characters. I just feel more at ease with it. I think it comes from hating male designs in video games.

I have a fairly fixed idea on what I would like to play, but if it's going to clash, not going to work, or not be "marvellous" enough. I crave your patience while I revise the concept, or have to develop an entirely new one.

Going off the Character creation thread I'd say dlan going for Outsider or Transformed depending on how you want the changes to be at this point. Outsider could be interesting if you are playing up the idea that she considers herself part of these people more than her own ancestry.

Happy to have you, dlantoub!

Looks like we have 13 players. If everyone plays just one character, that still gives us three or four whole teams. Probably a better idea than one huge team, to be honest. Assuming we don't want to have a massive team, what do we think about multiple teams? Same world so they can interact? Different dimension, or location, or time? We've got all the options in the worlds.

Also, does anyone but me want to make multiple characters?

A link is worth a thousand words: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_1602 :)

Nintaku, you and the team deserve a better answer than I have time to give you tonight.  But, yes, I have thought about the seemingly high number of players in the game and what to do about that.  Quick notes:

First, no one is getting kicked out.  You are all welcome, unlucky number that you are (ya little coven). :-)

Second, multiple teams and characters are one of the answers.

The rest I will say tomorrow night.  And I will try to catch up on the messages.  Sorry for the long delay and, as always, I appreciate y'all's patience.

After that, then this game really gets into gear.  We might be posting In-Character by the weekend.  How can we do that without fully-realized characters?  Answers tomorrow. ;-)

Hey now, the dwarves wanted to add Bilbo to be their lucky number 13. :P

And yeah, I asked about different time periods because I saw you and the Watcher getting all excited about 1602, OakMaster. n.n Definitely didn't want to discount that option.

Actually they wanted him to be 14. "Or you can stop at 13, and have all the bag luck you  like."

Free, free at last! Thank you for letting me in. I'm very happy to be here.

I suspect I might just be suggesting what the Watcher was going to do anyway, but I think it could be nice to have some pre-play interactions before assigning Influence and Relationships. Having seen that done in one Masks game online, I think that game was definitely better for that. It established some initial character dynamics rather than people just guessing.

For the record, I'm completely fine with the boarding school angle, and I don't think adult supervision would be necessarily a bad thing. It could be a fun element to deal with, especially if (when) we go against their wishes.

Nintaku, those are all great in my opinion. :) Are you sure that Indigo is not an Innocent? That said, out of all of them, I think I like Octopus most. Probably because I have a soft spot for heroic versions of villains in particular.

Speaking of which, I have a few ideas as to characters right now. Currently, one sticks out for me in particular, but we end up going the multiple characters route, I suspect I won't resist that temptation for long. Still, I'd rather pitch what I've thought about the most for now.

---

What I have so far is (as far as I know...) an original character with a loose connection to the universe who doubles up on the Brain playbook. I'll take your word for all of that being okay, though I'd still really appreciate any feedback you (the Watcher and any other players) might have at this stage.

Basically... The kid prodigy daughter of a disgraced Russian scientist with a loose familial connection to many Soviet super-scientists of yore colouring her worldview. Her father had some revolutionary ideas about harnessing bio-energy, but wasn't quite brilliant enough to pull them off. The kid was. Her "improvements" to his devices got him hired by a Western corporation's local branch, and her brought along as an "assistant". She sought to use their resources to develop tech for harnessing various exotic energies swirling around in this universe. There were all sorts of benign uses in her mind, but also she thought that it could make superheroes obsolete. As far as she could see, they harmed a lot of people over the years, including her relatives. Besides, their superpowered drama had repeatedly endangered the entire the world. Wouldn't it be better if there was some way to check and to replace them?

Unbeknownst to her, the company actually agreed with that much - because it was actually a front for A.I.M.! When she created an experimental device that could harness, drain, and manipulate various energies in the field for law enforcement needs, they saw fit to use it in an attack on the Avengers. Long story short, they managed to capture some of them for use in human experimentation, the Brain found out, helped them get free, got captured herself, and was rescued. In the aftermath, the Avengers extended an invitation to this school (or the recruiting event or what have you). She wasn't sure whether to accept it at first, but the tech she developed was still out there, being used by A.I.M. and whoever they sold it to in the worst ways possible. According to how her grandmother had taught her, that was her responsibility. So she tuned up her miniature personal energy manipulator/force field generator and set off for America, hoping to find resources, training, and everything else she'd need to make this right.

I'll write everything down in my character thread once it's a bit more settled in my head, I think. Also, I guess that was two paragraphs, but I figure it's better to give you more info to work with at the start. What do you think?

My idea was to have someone who is mostly an outsider to the broader setting (since that would be sort of immersive for my level of knowledge) and with some negative preconceptions going in that were only somewhat challenged by her first run-in with actual superheroes. Her technology obviously has world-changing potential for good or ill, as I think a Brain's invention should. It could also have fun interactions with many other characters' powers, potentially. Of course, just how strong both her current device and the stolen tech are is something that can be adjusted. I have some tentative notions on that count, but I said too much already for the first pitch. :)

EDIT: I will add this, it doesn't have to be A.I.M. and Avengers. My research suggests that 1) A.I.M. are fond of all kinds of technology and are also capable of spreading something that could be wielded as a weapon against many types of supers far and wide and 2) Avengers have (historically had) some energy-based members and are high-profile and independent enough to fill this role. Also, there are many layers of irony in having, say, Iron Man be the one to make the offer to her. But if there are other suggestions, I would welcome them!
This message was last edited by the player at 11:10, Tue 04 May 2021.

@von_das
Now this is interesting. Assuming my character keeps going on the same mould (not changing playbook), maybe my characters parents contributed to some of your research and vice versa. Although maybe from opposite ends :)

I'm not sure how connected her family is to the wider super science community... but then again, some of her distant relatives are a different story. Genetic science isn't exactly her or her father's speciality, but of course plenty of genetic variants seem to feature abnormal energy generation (see: lots of mutants, but I'm sure there are other examples too), so I wouldn't count it out entirely...

Incidentally, I've provisionally settled on a name: Svetlana Kragova. Going by Counterforce as a hero name.

True, but bio-energy is your sphere, and at some point that will link back to genetics, either natural or synthetic. What pool of genes directly creates the most bio-energy?

So.. if you hear about an actual experiment to create a sentient biological weapon, you might be offering information on how much bio-energy might be needed to create x-effect; and of course be interested in how much energy is generated by their test subject.

After all the most obvious example in nature of bio energy is.. the electric eel, and some sharks may have something similar.

Good points all. :) I think that's definitely a plausible connection, though I'll need to think some more about the backstory before I decide how to fit it in exactly.

I have updated character names received thus far.  :)

Hey, can you add Max to mine? Thanks!

Is Max your "normal" name or "super" name?

Yes :)

Hmm... By the way, are there any preferences about portrait style? i.e. real life vs. cartoon?

Done!  :)

Unknown.  I'll wait for The Big W to weigh in on that one.  :)

Argh!  I'm unexpectedly busy these next few nights but I will write what I can.  I should be free (well, more free) Thursda night.  Believe it or not, I still think we will posting IC by Monday at the latest.

Quick answer to one question:  Use whatever portraits make you happy. :-)

I am still trying to catch up your individual posts and messages.  Thanks still for your patience.  The following paragraphs should clarify things.

First, most GMs would call thirteen players too many for a game.  For myself, I don't yet know.  Y'all are going to tell me.

Second, I don't have participation requirements for a game.  You are in the game until you quit it.  Should you not post as timely or often as the group as a whole, the worst that should happen is that your character is simply written 'off-panel' indefinitely.  This is not punitive, it is simply practicality.  And your character is written back 'in-panel' just as simply as they were written off when you are back to posting speed.

Third, sad to say, most of you will likely leave the game.  You may not quit per se, just sort of fade away.  It is no one's fault.  It is just the nature of the beast.  Sometimes the chemistry just isn't strong enough to sustain your interest.  I do understand! :-)

And some of you will leave because there are just too darned many players in the game.  As players leave, the remaining players will find themselves more comfortable with the remaining amount.  As the active players dwindle, you will find me getting effectively more repsonsive per person.

So the game will find its own correct number and mix of players, whatever it might be.  This is why I didn't set an arbitrary limit on the number of players.  This was something the game has to figure out.

Also, you have probably put heart and soul into a character idea for other games only to have it not make the cut.  I know I have and I hate that.  I also hated rejecting player applications as I did in my earlier games.  Knowing their character will be accepted also makes a prospective player bring their A-game.

And for what it is worth, I can never tell what players will last for the long haul.  That bright potential at the beginning might just fade away.  And the unassuming dark horse might really come into their own as time goes by.

In short, the game will, on its own and over time, find the right mix and number of players.  And it will just take a little patience.   In the end, the game will be for those who want it the most.  So, take heart, you are in this game and long as you want to be.

All that said, we may still end up with a lot of players.  So we may divide the characters into teams.  Research (which I will link to when I have time) shows that the ideal number of people in a group (in general) should be an odd number (to break ties) of maybe five or seven (so Captain America was perhaps right when he limited the Avengers to seven members).

Should we do different groups, the characters will likely be divided by player preference (some like the standard bearers, some like the rebels) and posting frequency.

So I will soon ask, what is the likely posting frequency you can maintain?  I mean, we would all like to respond daily but that isn't always an option.  So let me know and I will add it to your forms (it was my mistake to have left it out the first time).

So we could have team for the faster-posting players and one for the slower-posting players.  And both would be happier for it.

Posting styles might be a factor.  Some players want to post lengthy posts about what their characters think.  And others shorter posts about what their characters do. Both approaches are valid but each should belong to different groups.  Speaking of which, comics themselves have changed somewhat.  They used to have thought balloons where characters would think to themselves.  In some cases, they would narrate out loud even when sneaking.  More modern comics simply show the action, revealing the character through their actions (like a movie).  This is, IMO, more rewarding but harder to write. I will speak more on this later but I wanted to make a quick mention now.

To sum up: the number of players is likely to reduce to the true believers, and of those, they can be split into different teams to help handle large amounts of players later.  And remember this if nothing else, I don't reject players (unless they are actually being deliberately disruptive).  So you are in this game for as long as you WANT to be.  :-)

Stopping for tonight.  Brief notice tomorrow. Lots more Thursday, I hope.  Still think IC launches by Monday. :-)

That makes sense to me, and strikes me as a good approach. Player attrition is a fact of life, it's good to plan around it.

When it comes to posting frequency, I find that depends on what I'm posting. Big, detailed opening or introspective posts require more concentration and I probably won't be able to do those every day (definitely once a week at least though), while smaller actions and responses during scenes are something I could often manage to do daily... but not always. I'll err on the side of caution and say I can post every other day on average.

Also, I missed the question about other PbtA games before. I was actually introduced to the system through a Monsterhearts variant adapted for Evangelion (of all things? but then again it made a lot of sense). Monsterhearts is not for everyone, and sometimes it's not for me, but I definitely get the appeal of it. I also played in a Legacy: Rhapsody of Blood game (think generational Darkest Dungeon), which was also fun while it lasted. Another game I never actually played, would dearly like to try some day is the splendidly named The Sword, The Crown, and The Unspeakable Power, which is like the original Apocalypse World adapted for dark fantasy intrigue.

thanks to a great suggestion from Nintaku I have tightened up my concept a bit though any other suggestions are still welcome please have a look at my character thread and post any ideas you think I can add to my basic concept :o)

Quick notes while I have some time today:

My thanks to Meta for making all of the character creation threads.  I was about to ask for help on that.  But our Tech Support Guy has Spider-Sense as well and got there already.

The only last 'technical' hurdle I might ask for is for all players to be also in a private group.  There are rules, maps, and other things that can be forgiven for being posted in a private section of the game rather than a public one.  With that, all actual server demands on the game should be met.

I have posted 'The Marvel Method', the IC thread that gets the game started.  We are almost ready to start... :-)

More tonight if I can get to it...

In reply to The Watcher (msg # 107):

For the private group, you'd just create threads in Group 1 instead of Group 0 (or edit them to move them into Group 1) and assign everyone to be able to see Group 1 threads. Meta would probably be able to knock that out in under a minute. We're super on track, boss!

Already done.  :)

Hey gang!  I'm late to the party but I wanted to toss out a few character ideas before I did any detailed character creation to avoid stepping on somebody else's concept or maybe finding something that might align well with another character.

Here are the quick elevator pitches ....

Heartbreaker (Protégé or maybe the Beacon playbooks)
  A prophecy put this young girl in jeopardy from a supernatural cult that was willing to do anything to capture her and see that it was fulfilled.  She was rescued by an established hero who reluctantly allowing her to assist him with his vigilante activities while he kept watch and protecting her.  Her skills grew with experience and eventually enough time had passed that the prophecy failed to come true.  It should have been the start of an exciting new chapter but her story took an unexpected turn when that hero decided to step away from fighting crime to focus more time on his personal life and get married.  She was losing her mentor, her partner in justice, a father figure, and romantic crush.  Those who may have knew her as this innocent sidekick would probably see that she is being a little bit immature by changing her heroic identity, costume, and acting out to get attention that she had lost.
  Looking towards martial arts and equipment or some minor telekinesis if it's not the Beacon playbook.

Itsy-Bitsy  (I was thinking the Delinquent playbook, but he's more class clown than vandal.  Maybe another playbook would work better)
  An unwise decision to explore a hidden location that turned out to be an abandoned lair of a supervillain caused this young man to be exposed to the materials left behind for schemes that had yet to be unleashed when the room collapsed around him out of disrepair or from tripping some hidden trap.  When he crawled out from the wreckage, he was only a fraction of his former size.  His personality allowed him to see the humor in the situation and possibilities to use this power for his own amusement.... and maybe to help others.

I like size-changing characters so I could also maybe play a young Marvel character with a similar power like Cassie Lang / Stature.  That would probably be the Legacy playbook I think.

My favorite Marvel character is the She-Hulk.  It might be fun to play a young version of her (not de-aged, but one who was teenaged when she got her powers).  For our Mean Green Teen, I'm thinking Nova playbook for the Savage She-Hulk at Sixteen.

Opinions are welcomed.  What will work best with your characters?

Hi! I'm really interested in Heartbreaker, particularly in diving deeper into what that prophecy was (could still be?) and who the mentor was (is? Protege still has one, after all), and if those elements can connect with others. There's a whole lot of cool potential there!

Thanks, Nintaku!

I didn't really have anything specific in mind for the prophecy in the backstory for Heartbreaker.  It was a convenient way to explain why the mentor would have had to protect her over a long time rather than defeating the villain of a one-shot story.

Now that you bring it up, I think that it would be awesome if that could connect with someone who is playing the Doomed playbook with a supernatural aspect who may have been made to take her place in the prophecy --
"It should have been you, Heartbreaker!  I could have had a normal life if it wasn't for you!"

As for the identity of the mentor, I don't know if there is currently an established Marvel hero that fits the profile or could be adapted to that role or if that character would need to be made up as well.

You wouldn't really need an excuse for a mentor to take her in and take long-term care of her. Just "I found this child and now she is my child" is generally more than enough reason in worlds like this. But once you bring up a prophecy, you gotta expect people are gonna dig way deep into that one. :3 Heartbreaker could well be the Doomed! Can't have a prophecy in a Marvel universe without it coming to pass and ruining everything, after all.

As for the mentor's identity, what are the requirements? If no one in universe fits, we can just invent someone who fits into Marvel themselves. Or, maybe if you don't want to go Protege, you don't even need a mentor. Could have been taken in by the Team itself, and thus tie yourself to our group that way.

If we're going all future prophecy, maybe Bishop? (before they trashed his character with that whole Mutant Messiah arc.)

OK, folks, we are doing fantastic! :-)

Again, my apologies for the delay!  It has been a busy week in real-life.   And this game has thirteen players without being advertised (which is why I didn't advertise it)!  Most games would kill for half that much interest after advertising.  I would love to take personal credit for all of this interest but I'm new to most of you.

It just seems that Masks scratches some itch that other games don't.  I've always thought that superheroes were a metaphor (amongst many other metaphors) for adolescence.

It is bittersweet to see just how well you are getting along without me. ;-)

So tonight I am going to finish up IC Thread #0 if I am lucky.  And then I will open up IC Thread #1 if I am really lucky.  Once that is done, you are posting In-Character and the game will actually have begun.  Otherwise, the odds are that the real IC thread will be opened up Saturday nights.

I realize how frustrating it must be to have questions about the game and your characters that I haven't yet responded to.  I do want to and, once y'all are posting among yourselves IC, then I can start catching up.

There is a quote I love by Churchill (although these days, Churchill's legacy is a little tarnished).



The thing is, you are probably used to more OSR (Old-School Roleplaying) games where knowing your stats, map position, rules and tactics was vital to your survival.  In those games, it made sense to be absolutely sure of what your character can-and-cannot do.

But in Masks, we are writers, not chess players.  You are very talented, self-selected and pre-selected players with excellent taste (I mean, you chose this game :-D ).  And I am God Almighty in this game with Marvel's soft-focus view on science so I can fix anything.

So, try your first blush at a character when we start playing in this freeform beginning.  Lean on what you are sure of and gradually hint and what could work for your character.  If that doesn't work, try another character and another until you find one that does.  Characters in Masks take a paragraph of description if you don't know how to play and five minutes of work if you do.

You are already ready already and I should get to your questions in a couple of days. :-)

My thanks, as always, with your patience.

A lot of great character concepts seem to be flowing, and I look forward to seeing more. I know my character, but I haven’t dug deep because I am still watching what others are doing. The relationship parts of the (back)story are kind of up in the air for me until I get more information on others. But I am watching everything grow, and am open to connect with others on bond forming, world building, and storytelling.

Steel Ninja. A mini mecha. Easy going. Fun loving. Ready for adventure.

Steel Ninja, thanks and you have just made a good example of a character 'blurb'

Let me explain...

For this first IC thread I ask that instead of posting In-Character, you post a one-to-three sentence blurb/high concept/elevator pitch of your character.

This is how Marvel Comics often introduces its characters in the recap pages and other places.  They know that each Marvel comic might be the first a reader picks up in that storyline, in that series, or even at all.

This blurb will also help the other players (and myself) to keep track of who everyone is in this very busy game.  Me or Meta will collect the blurbs and put them into the Recap Page among other places when they are compiled and collected.

Here is how I might do a blurb for a teen hero...

"The Amazing-Spider-Man (Peter Parker):  Bitten by a radioactive spider, young Peter gained super-strength and agility, along with the power to cling to walls, sling webs and a mysterious 'spider-sense'.  A momentary lapse into apathy and indifference cost Peter someone he loved.  Now, realizing that 'With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility", the 'friendly neighborhood Spider-Man' protects the people of New York City from injustice..."

Of course, your blurb doesn't have to be so descriptive.  Any secrets or secret identities revealed in the blurb are for the benefit of other players.  The other characters only know what is revealed over the course of the game.  BTW, secret identities are what you want them to be in this game.  The only exception is the Janus who HAS to try and squeeze two identities into one life.

I'm looking forward to your blurbs (and hearing them in Stan Lee's voice).  Go ahead and put your blurb at the end of IC Thread #0

The next thing I am working on is IC #1.  About an hour of consistent work and the game is ready to go (if I can find a hour in bits or pieces).  This game is about to happen, folks...

I'm sorry nintaku but I read partway down your thread and I can't resist.

"Octo as the brain
Octo as the brain.
He might be a genius
He might be insane.

He has four mighty arms.
You'll fall for their charms.
He's Octo,
Octo as the brain

Before the day is done,
His plan will be unfurled
He'll ensure the fight is won
He's gonna save the world.

He's Octo, Octo as the brain
Brain, brain, brain
Brain, brain, brain
Brain, brain
Squid!"

does anyone have any suggestions for my character let me know in my character thread. If not i'll start looking into my playbook a bit more and fleshing him out

Just started wat hung Jupiter's legacy on netflix...... Not sure if it will be any good wondered if anyone else was watching it

Haven’t started watching yet, but it is on my list.

Terribly busy tonight.  But I hope to launch the IC thread tomorrow... :-)

Oh dang, I keep meaning to mention, being set in a complete Marvel universe of our own design means that we can reintegrate properties that were split off or canceled entirely, like Transformers and Doctor Who. And those are actually the only ones I know of. But yeah. :D

Hello everyone.  A bit late to the party, but hopefully the more the merrier.  I am looking forward to trying Masks and seeing what it has to offer.  Its been many years indeed since I've played a Superhero game, but I ran Marvel Superheroes back in the day and I know the Old Marvel Universe well (before they messed with it and made all sorts of silly retcons that made no sense).

As requested, I wrote this out by way of introduction

Nickname: Well lilbug obviously lol or occasionally DD for Dangerous Dan
Gender/Pronoun: He/Him is good for me
Nationality/Location: I am Canadian, though I now live in Texas in the Dallas area.
Online Time: I work nights, so my online time is limited.  Central Time and definitely not on Wednesday nights.
OS/Browser: I use Windows 10/Firefox
Text Background: Default
Anything Else: Been gaming since I was about sixteen and I'm 54 now.  I have never played Masks before and I'm eager to try :)

Welcome to the team! We're happy to bring aboard players new to Masks. It's a very simple system at its core, so long as you're okay with improv.

OK updated my character concept changed my playbook and my marvel connections without I hope changing the overall concept.

Ricochet many thanks for you comments I've actually taken a lot of them on board with these revisions :o)

Hmm... I think I will stick to one character for now. That said, would I be able to add another one or two later, if I find myself inspired and with enough time and inspiration to do that? Could be fun to add to the roster during play, if we're going for a super-large team/group of teams anyway.

Game is finally begun.  Go ahead and post In-Character in the IC Scene #1 thread. :-)

Sleepy.  Will post more tomorrow..
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 07:57, Sun 09 May 2021.

I'm a bit confused about the use of holofilters. I take it we can all use them to create and adjust our respective holographic disguises? Are there terminals or portable devices we can use to control them?

I'm still refining my character, and getting some amazing ideas from Counterforce and Ricochet :)  Hopefully I'll have him hammered out shortly :) Great to see the game officially beginning.

Happy Mothers Day to all the amazing Mothers out there :)

So has there been any movement regarding teams? Just wanting to see how we're doing the influence section of our playbooks.

Quick Question: Although we may not be in the same team as each other, do you want me to run up a new character because Stone and I are quite similar Ability wise?

I, personally, wouldn't think that's an issue. If you want to maybe switch playbooks I could see that. Bull might be interesting, but really it's about how your character feels about themselves, not so much of their power set. Of course if you just don't think you'd have fun, then of course roll something else.

This being a masquerade, are we supposed to dress up?

Don't forget, you can hop into the IC thread without your character being totally complete. Part of the idea seems to be to help us get a feel for who we want to be and find the character's voice through play.

As for teams, I don't think that's relevant just yet, and probably won't be until we hammer out who everyone is and what would work best.

Leviathan, don't worry too much about being too similar. It almost certainly won't be a problem, and could even be a cool RP element.

Jubilee: We've been given permission to dress up or not do that, depending on whether we want to conceal our identities or such. So go nuts. :D

I don't think Stone Cold's and Leviathan's abilities are that similar (they share armour, but that's it for now), and even if they were, the flavour is very different. I wouldn't worry about it.

Thanks everyone. Not a problem then, just me overthinking.

I decided to just make some assumptions about the area and the tech, but do correct me if they're wrong.

Also, it really feels like someone could take Jubilee's prompt(?). I thought of doing so myself, but it just didn't make much sense in-character, as Svetlana wouldn't think X-Men would want a non-mutant and wouldn't want to waste time on asking.

If anyone wants to be bumped into and chat, I would be up for it. Otherwise, I would just post again to push on to one of the stands later this week, I think.

I've got ideas on taking both Leviathan and Jubilee's prompts, but wanted to wait until we got the green light to interact first.

I thought we had one? "You can interact with other PCs if you wish."

Oh hecc, you're right! Well I know what I'll be doing soon.

I'd like to make a small request that everyone put their characters' ages in either their description or biography (or both like I did). It's helpful because age difference is a much bigger deal at this age range; a 13 year old is going to elicit very different reactions than a 17 year old, especially from another 17 year old.

Good idea.  :)

There ya go!

Hey, Team;

Sorry I wasn't available yesterday.  I will try to make up for this today.  I am not on my usual laptop and now having trouble logging into Discord.  I should be able to fix that in a day or two.

Let me try to catch up...

The discord invite is no longer valid.

Try this one: https://discord.gg/vWbZVQFT

I will be on Discord intermittently tonight.  But this shady attendance makes me realize that we could probably use a co-'Alpha' (whatever they are called) of the Discord Chat room.  Would anyone like to volunteer?

What would that consist of?

Pretty much just keeping the Discord server running and doing tasks that only the bosses can do.  It is not that big a deal as anyone can make their own Discord server for the game.

UPDATES:

Cursed cruel fate for not allowing me to use Discord tonight when I could have really used it.  I will try and get this fixed in the next couple of days.

Added Extra Credit thread and will soon develop it.  Some games have a carrot-and-stick approach to player motivation.  This game is all carrots! :-)  Player or character inaction is never punished but only interaction is rewarded.  There will be rewards for completing tiny OPTIONAL tasks beyond the mere contribution of posting for your characters.  Some of these rewards will be tangible Masks system assets (Potential, Influence, Team, etc), others will be intangible (character relationships, game secrets, the enduring awe and admiration from your fellow players and GM).  Some Extra Credit assignments will have a time limit and others will not.

Added Polls and Debates thread and will soon develop it.  There are timely questions that could use player input and I think structuring them as a poll will help spur that along.  Sometimes I will offer Extra Credit to answer a poll in a timely manner.

Defined three Extra Credit assignments: First, simply post IC in the latest IC thread.  Second, vote on who sponsors your school. Third, post on where your school is.

I am adding two more Extra Credit Assignments for now.  If all of the current Extra Credit Assignments are done, the character will get a new Advancement for their character.

The first is to post in the Beloved Ghost character thread with your thoughts and or votes.  In the future, I may not make such a special thread for just one question.  But I am learning.

To recap, the Beloved Ghost is a team member who we only know in flashback.  BG has left the team for perfectly mundane or horribly tragic reasons.  Who is BG and why did they leave?  You tell me.


And the final Extra Credit Assignment for now:  You had an adult Team Mentor, an established Marvel character or someone new.  They have also left the team, like Beloved Ghost.  How were they and why did they leave?  You tell me.

The deadline for Potential points is Midnight, May 21, 2021. :-)

No big worries for now.  But the next Extra Credit Assignment (starting next week) will not be for Potential, it will be for Influence.

You will get to choose (within limits) another NPC who cares about you.  This can be an existing Marvel character (Earth-682's version anyway) or someone new.  The character can be an adult who is a mentor.

Or it can be a teen peer.  If you can't think of any other reason for the connection, you can crush on them (and them on you). Crushes can be reciprocal or they might not.

Alternately, this character can be a rival or even nemesis.  Such characters can be as useful for your character progression as boon companions.

Anyway, don't worry about it now.  Just by mentioning it to you, your subconscious mind will put this on a back burner.

Doesn't gifting us with an extra Advance pose the same problems as gifting us with extra Potential, but five times more? We might do better with more in-character rewards instead of mechanical blessings.

OK, now I can get to all of the messages and threads I am behind on.  I really appreciate your patience.  I hope to reward it tonight and onward... :-)

Ricochet,

My bad.  I explained myself badly.  Currently, I am only offering five Potential points if all current Extra Credit Assignments are completed.   These five Potential points alone can equal one Advance at best.

Which I don't mind, one of the Advances is to get a move from another Playbook.  This alone gives your characters slightly more character options than any other small advantage.

Anyone reading, please correct me if I am wrong in my interpretation of the rules or if I have misjudged and am (in your opinion) too generous.   I really want to know.  I am still learning this, not just the rules, but the 'feel' of Masks.  So I appreciate whatever help I can get.

Well, that still moves us closer to being out of play sooner. And the option to pass someone else Potential just means scooting them out faster instead.

Ricochet,

I see your point.  How do others feel about this.  I would really like to know.  Offering Extra Credit is a new experimental thing for me and if it not a good idea, I want to know.

What else could be offered as a reward for extra effort if rewards otherwise work.

And I will say that Extra Credit Potential does not have to be used by the player that earned them.

Let me know what y'all think...

Whew!  I believe I have answered all of the mail (or at least made needed replies).  If I have missed someone, let me know.

You can probably see that I am catching up on all of the threads.  If I haven't quite got to the one that matters to you tonight, I will probably get to it tomorrow.

Thanks for your patience, as always. :-)

Well, it'd help me out, because I have a skill outside Beacon I was targeting. The fact that you're supposed to eventually move on from the character when you advance too much is probably my least favorite part of Masks.

I wonder if I can't reserve some Potential for a later character. Or maybe trade it in for some other thing of interest. Not sure what it could be, though. Straight up Fate Points for rerolls may be too strong and could mess up the system. More control over the story or setting? But we already have that...

Yeah me too, even though it makes sense.  I am hoping eventually that Stone Cold will mature a little though, and maybe then he'll gain mastery of his form so that he can change at will, rather than always being as he is.  From what I understand I'd need Potential to do that, but I'm not in a rush anyway, its more of a long term goal.

I do like the idea of being rewarded though, in some form.  I just don't know enough about the system to decide on the best way to go about it.

Maybe things like Influence over an NPC, or 1 hold that can be spent for a +1 to a roll (kinda like Team but personal). That's the sort of thing I was thinking.

Heck, there's a lot going on! I'm starting to fall behind. Hopefully I can catch up tonight.

Jait, you made it! :D Welcome to the party. Pull up a chair, we've got plenty of weirdness to go around.

Whew!  Got most threads answered.  I hope to address newer messages and the IC threads tomorrow.  Then I am at least treading water for a bit.  Thanks for all of y'all's patience. :-)

Real life caught me as well.  Thanks for being patient.

Of course! n.n The best part about a forum is that it waits.

@ghostspider. I just love this. "Webs are the best way to get around.." barring pigeons, falcons and insects.

Amazing that Spiderman has never actually hit one.

There's an elaborate pigeon sidequest in the Spider-Man PS4/PS5 game & a smaller version of it in the Miles Morales game.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:25, Thu 13 May 2021.

Slowly catching up to you kids but it is nice to know I can leave you young punks 'home alone' for a bit.

I am hoping to post the next IC reply on Sunday.  Y'all's first posts have given me a great deal to go on and I thank y'all for the clues on where to go next.

I was able to popup on Discord for a bit and the ideal of multiple GMs was discussed.  In this sense, members who actually run scenarios for other players.  I am for it.  Different stories in the same universe is how Marvel started out and continued.  And we will not run out of 'forum', allowing a new GM and new player characters to fill their own threads won't do any harm to no one else.

Of course, a better progression might be for a player to start a new Masks game entirely.  So it is said, that has my complete blessing (not that I had any power to stop it in the first place)!  This game has so many players, this could be a viable option.

Either way, I (shuffles feet, looks down, hat in hand) might actually get to play in this wonderful game and setting. ;-)

Otherwise, you are all certainly welcome and this topic can be discussed later if there is interest.

I will keep on working tonight, adding a few more posts to the Bullpen and catching up on new messages.  I appreciate your patience, as always.

I would suggest going ahead and getting some character concepts ready for just that eventuality.

I had dozens since before this game was begun. :-)  You just can't help but come up with ideas during the dull parts of the day.

I have started a new poll in the Polls and Debates thread.

I want to know if a structured and defined 'rewards for extra credit' system works for this game.

It is a slight effort to run such a program but the rewards in terms of creativity and enthusiasm could be well worth it.  I would say that the right answer depends on the views of the players in a particular game.

This poll is optional and there is no reward beyond the satisfaction of being counted.  But I would love to know what you think. :-)

Hm. Would Otto recognize Gwen in her disguise, even as rudimentary as it is?

Maybe I need a 'Hello my name is Ghost-Spider' nametag.

Your call either way.

Steel Ninja: How big is Grey, anyway? Power suit sized? Power Loader size? Are we talking Hulkbuster or Iron Man, here?

I was thinking 7 feet tall would work.

I have begun composing the IC reply to y'all's contributions to IC Thread #1.  I hope to post it Sunday.

I'm otherwise trying to catch up and expand the game...

I know I am still slowly getting to questions but there is one I wanted to answer.

This game is set in the Eternal Present, as is most of Marvel Continuity.   That is, Peter Parker is still a young Spider-Man even though the character debuted in the Sixties.

I feel I have to do this as most of Marvel continuity does.  Otherwise, we have to consider the effects of aging and replacement for practically every Marvel character (and they number in the thousands).

Actually, to be fair, Marvel characters do 'age' and progress but they do so very, very slowly.  The rate of time is about one-year passes for characters in Earth-682 for every four or five in the real world.

I will tend to use relative times when referencing events.  So, this character got their powers 'two years ago' instead of 2019.

Let me know what you think.

Still trying to catch up but the game has now taken a great leap forward.

Presenting our new Wiki, editable by you!

It is very small now but we will make it grow...

http://wiki.rpol.net/?id=76369/Home

There's a quick question I could use the answer to now in Polls and Debates.

Do you want your team to be the first or second class at this new and barely tested school?

Quick question when we start talking to the recruiters at the tables do we just write what happens or will we be interacting with you as gm?

Just wondered how to formulate my next post

Hi,everyone!

Due to some family drama I'm a very late arrival but our GM graciously let me stay.

Welcome Yun74.  Better late than never as they say :)

And right you are! :D

BTW, I plan on finishing my IC post with having my character bump into a certain "living lawn ornament". (Her words, not mine ... ;) )

In reply to Yun74 (msg # 184):

Recap thread updated!  I currently have entries for all current players except for jait and TDM7.

Everyone, please feel free to give me a gentle nudge if I miss any needed info updates anywhere...  :)

Yun74, let me know your superhero name as soon as you know, so that I can update your character name.  :)

Ah, apparently, I misunderstood what you meant by "here are some questions you can answer in your profile"...  I put the info I'm comfortable providing in my character description.

Updated!  :)

Sigh!  Super-busy tonight but IC post should post late tomorrow.   Welcome, Nadine! :-)

*peers at V*

o.o

Seconded. I had assumed it was the latter.

Also, should we move on to the booths before the big IC post, or is that not critical yet?

I've posted the next IC reply.  Unfortunately, because I am pressed for time, it is a wide sledge rather than a delicate scalpel.  You can go ahead and initiate positive interaction with known Marvel characters for now.

I may not be able to post much tomorrow and tonight.  I appreciate y'all's sorely-tested patience.  I know I am behind on replies.  I hope to make this up mid-week. :-)

Hmm... Perhaps the X-Men have a larger booth due to all the prospective mutant recruits? From what I understand Jubilee is helping out there.

And I suppose there is still a bit of a window for interactions among ourselves for now.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:57, Mon 17 May 2021.

For Ricochet it was a crucial moment, but for V ... it was Tuesday.

;)


But seriously, V would gladly serve as your rival.

In reply to Citizen V (msg # 196):

Amusingly, V seems rather like Jubilee's rival from Generation X Monet St. Croix.

Thanks for the name as I've never heard of her!

V falls very far from Monet's "near pefect human being" status, though. Raised under very isolated circumstances in a number of elite (and elitist) boarding schools all over Europe and perceiving herself to have no real superpowers, V uses what she has at her disposal to make her mark.

I'd originally been envisioning Jubilee as Ricochet's Rival, but wow, V is just so perfect. XD

Honestly, I'm not really sure how to have Ricochet proceed from here. Since we're all pretty aligned on the school being sponsored by all of these groups, it's hard to really assess what we're really doing here at the event. The heroes are definitely all under the impression that we're choosing which school to end up in, so maybe they've been deliberately misinformed as part of a less-biased assessment over where they'd like to place their futures? Basically just having a hard time deciding how the interaction at the Avengers booth should go.

Thinking about teams: I'd really like for her to end up on a team with Jubilee and Counterforce, while I'd like Otto to end up with Gwen and probably Skorpio, if possible. I have ideas. (I also have further preferences on who I'd like to team up with, but it's early days yet. I might need another character. XD)

Well, if we go with my idea of the school being sponsored by the Illuminati, it's very likely that most of the recruiters here have no idea about, as their leaders would keep it a secret.

My concept was also that we would all be accepted into one of the schools, but then be "rerouted" to the Illuminati school, possibly staying on the official books of the original school.

Finally, we're not the only ones here ostensibly, so maybe we pick our schools (along with all of the NPC kids) and then through some sort of assessment we got chosen to be sent to the Illuminati school.

So for our characters, this decision feels really important, it's just that we as players know it won't matter in the end. It's also possible the Illuminati school doesn't exist yet, and we'll all spend 6 months to a year in the schools we choose, before being sent to the Illuminati school when it opens. Which means we could be the first, and only, students there if it just opened.

With that being said, if we went the Illuminati school route, our characters would need to pick the schools aligned with the X-Men, Avengers, Fantasic Four, or Shield (assuming we add Nick Fury to the Illuminati) for them to get sent to the school. And I still stay Gateway could just have Doctor Strange choose him for the school specifically (maybe this was just Doctor Strange giving him a chance to socialize with children "his own age" before sending him off to the school).

So someone will need to talk Max out of going to Roxxon :)




I'm truly hurt Ricochet doesn't want to be on Max's team :)

Hey, I was just saying who I already have ideas for being on a team with, didn't exclude anybody. :P

I can go either way on the teams so long as we avoid playbook overlaps... that said, having Max and Leviathan in the same team as Counterforce would make the most sense if we can swing it. Ricochet should fit in too, given what we discussed and her interactions with Abi. V would be... funny.

I still have no idea who I'd give my Relationships to, mind. As it is, Counterforce sort of likes Max (against her better judgement), but doesn't trust him. So that's probably an Influence if they are on the same team.



Will give it a shot.

Terribly busy, will try and start catching up tomorrow... :-)

I think I might just change my description to that :)

Arc - Nova
Basaq - Doomed
Citizen V - ?
Counterforce - Brain
Gateway - Doomed
Ghost-Spider - Legacy
Jubilee - Beacon
Leviathan - Transfomed
Max - Delinquent
Octopus - Brain
Resonance - Meta
Ricochet - Bull
Skorpio - Soldier
Steel Ninja - Brain
Stone Cold - Transformed
TDM7 - ?

——
ETA : Updated
This message was last edited by the player at 00:07, Wed 19 May 2021.

Ghost-Spider has shifted to Legacy, but otherwise I think that's all right.

Now we gotta figure out who's getting relationships with who, since that'll be a strong determinant on who ends up on who else's team. Unless we're going to have the separate teams be part of one larger team and have the teammates intermingle among each other! :o

We go two years into the future next, correct? That leaves relationships open to be developed however people want them without having to decide on a team yet.

I was thinking that instead of breaking up into two distinctive teams we could have shifting assignments, but a mainstay of 2-4 field leaders. Ideas?
This message was last edited by the player at 00:12, Wed 19 May 2021.

Once TDM7 arrives, we'll have 16 heroes. That's enough for four full teams. Usually your Relationships are supposed to be with your teammates, and since we're seeing people putting Relationships together already, it's looking like those people will end up on the same teams, else they'll have to swap out Relationships.

And I think the current scene is a single year ago, rather than two. Still plenty of time in universe.

I'm with Ricochet on this, and it's also why I've held off on working any relationships.

I'm thinking we need to get more settled on how many teams we're going to have and who cannot share a team (because of sharing playbooks), and then start deciding who to team up with, and finally set our Relationships with each other. Gotta have clear steps laid out to keep it all relatively organized.

Yep, I completely agree.

It is my pleasure to observe that all players now have hero names!  :D

Whew!  I am back for a bit.  Let me see what I can do about catching up to all of this.  I'm sorry if I have mentioned some of this before.  And I apologize if it seems I have missed or overlooked something.

UPDATES:

1.  Real-life has become a little more temporarily complicated than I had foreseen.  And this game is already past five hundred posts and climbing.  So it will take me a little time to catch up.  If you are frustrated by this lag, beyond posting IC, you can probably wait until Sunday to read closely.  I will try and keep updates here in the Bullpen.

2.  I'm going to dispense with the formal, structured and defined means of rewarding players for Extra Credit contributions.  I think y'all are internally motivated and I am grateful for it.  I will be asking for help in the Extra Credit thread.  There's no real reward except maybe a No-Prize (hey, it worked for Marvel), the gratitude of your fellow players and a chance to have a greater influence on the game at large.

3.  If I am guessing right, there will be two more freeform prequel IC 'rounds' and then we will start actual playing with complete characters.  To that end, if you do know how to make a Masks characters, you can start making them now.  Any standard Masks character you can make should be legal.  There are Playbooks that are in the Private Thread you can use.  I will try to get better character sheet formats for the game in a few days.

But I really don't mind how you format your characters as long as they are comprehensible.  If any old hands at Masks want to help the new players with their characters, you have my sincere thanks.  Your characters get a free Advance, grandfathered in by the game's short-lived and promised formal reward structure.   I recommend a move from a another Playbook but that is completely up to you.  And, yes, you can have the same Playbook as another character, because...

4.   The players will be split into separate but related teams.  I don't know how many yet but at least two.  The number of team mates on a particular team will probably be around five or six.  According to research I don't have the time to link to, five is the ideal number for a given group (odd numbers can stop stalemated votes) but seven is still within range (so Captain America was probably right when he limited the Avengers to seven members.  This has also been done by the 'classic' Justice League and the quite literal Seven from The Boys.  But perhaps the latter is not the best role model).

As much as possible, duplicate Playbooks will be put into separate teams.  Then generally groups into posting frequency (lots of short posts often vs. long post more slowly).  It could be they are roughly divided by ages with a Senior, Sophomore and Junior team as possible examples.  Some teams might then have 'niches', the muscle team, the stealth team, the 'face' team, etc.).

5.  I would love to have had a long 'coffee klatch' conversation about the world, school and teams we are making but I don't have the time.  So (sigh) I am just going to post my first blush and then encourage you to 'change my mind' when you think it a good idea.

Your school is run the by Illuminati, a group of so-called 'heroes' secretly trying to make the world a better place.  Most of the Illuminati member factions and member are truly sincere in their goal.  But it is a slippery slope when you begin to think that you, and only you, should have secrets from other people.
The heroic members of the Illuminati may have had to make alliances with less-than-savory allies.  These wouldn't be outright villains, mind you, but perhaps a little grey, compromised and compromising.

Your school is one publicly-known open super-campus in New York City that you attend for a few classes in costume.  This open campus is secretly connected to a series of other covert schools and related locations by dimensional doors.  These doors allow for instant travel between fixed and predefined locations (possibly via the now-wonky Infinite Avengers Mansion).  This means that students could attend a class in each continent on a long day but avoids the deus ex machina of Star Trek-style teleportation.  It also allows for a international flavor (or is that 'flavour') to the game that can really play to the international complement of players that we have.

Each student may have a different sponsor and citizenship status.  The schooling arrangements vary from student to student.  It could be home schooling, attending a normal school in a secret ID for the most part, or even boarding school.

6.  You will notice a goofy bar at the end of this post.  You will start to see a bar like that at the end of my posts.  Ignore it for now.  It will evolve and mutate (very Marvel) as time goes by.

I've got to go.  I will try to catch up more tomorrow.  As always, I appreciate your patience...


P.S. My goodness, we are now at six hundred posts! :-)

---

---

This message was last edited by the GM at 08:17, Thu 20 May 2021.

Very cool, that's a lot of useful stuff. Personally, I'm gonna not use that free Advance after all the talk about how getting too much Potential too fast isn't what we really want. If anyone wants to use a character sheet template, I've got mine free to share:

https://docs.google.com/docume...oBo/edit?usp=sharing

As for team setups, I think Steel Ninja's list can help us out a lot.



So we have only a little bit of overlap, particularly if SN is going Outsider rather than Brain. Counterforce/Octopus, Basaq/Gateway, Arc/She-Hulk, and Leviathan/Stone Cold are pairs that cannot share teams.

Does this help visualize things to sort us into teams? If we're doing teams of 5, then we'll have three teams with a couple of extras. I think we could adjust those sizes based on who we want to team up with, since they don't all need to have the same team sizes.

Quick reply to above

You don't have to use your free Advance.  The team sizes of five are just my best guess, there  is no set number.

Thanks to Ricochet for the post and Steel Ninja for the Playbook roster. :-)

OK, let me get to catching up.

First, I could use some help from any and all intrigued players.  Check out the Extra Credit thread for info.  But here's an easy one, if you know of a link/URL/website that would be of use to the game, just suggest it in the Extra Credit thread any way you can.  Either I, Meta or someone else will eventually collect and index them.

Second, if you want to suggest details about the setting of our new world, go ahead and suggest it in the Polls and Debates thread.  What survives that crucible will be posted in the Earth-682 thread for now.

Hey all,

Sorry I didn't post anything yesterday.  I'm still very busy this week.  I believe I still will get the IC reply up Sunday night.

You can see below that I am getting the 'mini bar' more and more functional.

Here is more of my thoughts on your school  Again, I am forced by time to simply state my thoughts and let you change my mind (easier than you think).

Some quick thoughts:  Yes, there will  be separate super teams.  For each instance of the most duplicated playbook, there will be a super team.  So if, say, there were three Beacon playbooks used (more than any other playbook), there would be three super teams.  Other duplicated playbooks characters would be placed into those separated super teams as long as the 'supply' lasts.  The super teams should be fairly even in numbers.  I will add a GM NPC to each team as a measure of control.  These NPCs will be team players in every sense of the word, loyal, cooperative but not the most imaginative members of the team.

Beyond sharing a few mundane and super classes together plus the emergency super team training, your characters can very different situations from one another.  I will explain that all later.  What that means is that your characters have the most freedom such a situation can allow.

For those students who board, the dorms are separated into Boys, Girls and Non-Gendered as needed.  Within those divisions, the dorms are communal.  That is, rooms are shared.  Individual rooms are offered as rewards to older or distinguished students.  While the super-school can easily afford individual rooms for the students, the staff feel that living together with peers rather than family is an important part of growing up.  This is the general setup used by the X-Men and Hogwarts.

All characters know how to speak English.  This was a bone of contention between the trustees, to force one language as mandatory.  But whether it deserves the title or not, English is arguably the most useful second language.  It also helps that the players of this game all speak English, which lends itself to a shared knowledge of pop culture and memes.  Learning English is a priority and the students can speak it well enough to be effective, although it may be heavily accented and not as skilled as a fully native and idiomatic speaker.  The characters will also have basic translation capacity for all common languages via their Avengers communicards.  The translation assumes the other speaker is making an earnest attempt to be understood correctly.

Finally, a little world-building:

Three Years Ago:  The Illuminati (a collection of heroes and heroic organizations secretly working to improve the world) learned, via a secret study, that an educated, 'civilized' young superhuman was most less likely to cause damage than a less-educated one.   They made plans.  So did the few supervillain groups that were privy to the study's findings.

Two Years Ago:  The Illuminati's study's findings were independently replicated by the combined efforts of SHIELD and the UN.    The world began to prepare for super-schooling with the Illuminati (among others) having a head start.  Guided by the Illuminati, the Avengers asked the UN for a small gift after saving the world for the umpteenth time.  They asked to be given the rediscovered and uninhabited Island of Demons, off of the coast of Newfoundland, as a sovereign nation.   This would also the Avengers diplomatic status and its members alternate citizenship.  This was granted.

One Year Ago, one of the first super-schools opens...

---------------

I'm repeating the little bit of world-building above in the Polls and Debate thread for discussion.

OK, let me get to catching up to you all...

Whew!  I have finally caught up with all of the private messages (for now at least).

Midnight, I can't explain why but I cannot reply to your message thread as I have to every other message thread since I joined RPOL several years ago.  The errors I am getting don't make sense.

No worries for now.  But the character dashboard you have made is so beautiful that I ask you to share it here in the Bullpen (for starters).  I would do it myself but it is for you to reveal. ;-)


I will start catching up to long-waiting threads tomorrow...


This message was last edited by the GM at 08:02, Sat 22 May 2021.

Almost all of that sounds good to me, Watcher. The only bit I'm hesitant about is having GM team members. That sounds like a bad idea, for several reasons. Most importantly, it isn't how PbtA games are intended to be played.

Again, if you'd like to play a character, some of us are willing to dip our toes into GMing for Masks.

As a long time DM/GM/Storyteller etc, I think having an NPC character in each team is brilliant.  It is a very useful way for the GM to have a voice in the team, in case he needs to impart information or remind a group of something they've forgotten, or as an additional character to role play with.

I am eager to learn more about the Island of Demons as well.

Isn't that why we have so many other NPCs around, and supervisors and mentors and such? There are a lot of ways to go about that without having an NPC teammate in each group.

I'm with Ricochet here. Masks isn't really setup for having NPC team members. But having the GM voice is exactly what the adult characters are for, and they have influence over all of us.

I have seen GMPCs in Masks games. It can work, but it is indeed not what the system is set up for, and I don't see the need for it when there are already so many PCs about. If it's about making the teams even in size, I'm not sure if it's a strict necessity, but also, I'm sure some of us are up to the task of filling them in further. :) Perhaps when there is a clearer idea of what our teams look like to start with.

I would like to know more about the teleportation system. At the same time, I think that the boarding school aspect is a key part of the idea. I could be wrong, but I suspect most of us want to play it out, neat as the ability to visit home without too much effort would be.

OK, I think I can get the IC post up tomorrow night.

Hm.  Tell you what.  How about this regarding GM characters.  I will start the game without them and go from there.  With several teams, there might later be a 'with GM characters' and 'without GM characters' option, just like plain and peanut M&M's. :-)

But I would like to have some other super peers at school.  So I might make a team of GM NPCs only.  This team might be made of younger heroes (tweens, not teens) even more unsure and awkward than your PCs.  This would put your heroes in the uncomfortable positions of being the only adults in the room (or the next best thing).

And, yes, I would love to have other GMs and to play in a game.  I'm sorry it took so long to reply to that offer.  My thanks for it being offered.  My character creation thread will be up soon. :-)

Some more world building:

The Illuminati did want to train young supers but as students, not child soldiers (although that might be avoidable, at least the illusion could be maintained).  This would mean multiple campuses across the globe so that students could stay close to home with friends and family as much as possible.

Most populous nations could field a super-school of their own young citizens.  Less populous countries could pool their resources for a multinational school.  To avoid problems, every nation that hosted as school was allowed a representative on campus.  The actual identity of the students was still kept from the government liaison but almost every other secret was shared.

There are several new nations in the Marvel Universe, the mutant nation of Krakoa, the Vampire Nation of Dracula are just a few examples of them.  I have read an article (but, regrettably, forget to save and link to it) that Marvel would like to move from standard comic tropes to actual science-fiction speculation.  That is, how the world would change if there were actually superhumans.  Their conclusion (and I feel that they are right) is that most subcultures would form their own sovereign nations.  There are likely super-schools in this new nations as much as more conventional real-world ones.

The school offers a separate citizenship in the Avengers Nation and limited diplomatic immunity for students acting 'on school business'.  The Avengers Nation (looking for a better name) accepts multiple citizenships even if some nations (like the US) doesn't.  In the Marvel Universe, laws against vigilantism are very limited or the threshold of forgiveness is very low.  Also, legal emancipation in a limited capacity at least is legal precedent on Earth-682.  It probably HAS to be given all of the super teens fighting crime.  The new Marvel event/series Outlawed actually deals with the moral and legal aspects of letting teens be superheroes.

That all said, the super-school has the advantage of having campuses linked by fixed gateways to the Infinite Avengers Mansion.  When working, it is but a brief walk between linked destinations, no matter how otherwise far they are apart on the globe.  At its best, the Infinite Avengers Mansion can move heroes quickly across the world faster than almost any other method.  This tech has not been easy to replicate due to unique advantages of the super-school  This puts the Avengers and SHIELD in the terrible position of allowing teenagers to be the FIRST to respond to any threat.

Stopping here for world-building tonight, copying relevant sections to Polls and Debates.  Let me know what you would like changed.  Let me know soon.


This message was last edited by the GM at 07:58, Sun 23 May 2021.

More quick world-building:

The super-school uses a House system.  Every team is part of a House in their mundane identity.  Every student, whether they board or not, is part of a House.  And the House has provisions for them to live at the school in case of emergencies.  The Houses of Hogwarts from the Harry Potter series is probably the best and well-known example of School Houses.  Houses in the super-school will be likely less formal.

Every super team will be able to name themselves (like the X-Men Training Squads).  But for internal office use, the teams are simply numbered.  That is, Team 1, Team 2, Team 3, etc.  The numbers are simply descriptive, no team is superior to any other, numerically or otherwise.

Would anyone like a different sequencing of team names?
Team Letters; Team A, Team B, Team C, etc.
Military Alphabet; Team Alpha, Team Bravo, Team Charlie, etc.
Girl's Names, like the OSS/SOE Jedburgh teams of WWII; Team Amy, Team Becky, Team Christine, etc.
Team Zodiac (or Birthstones): Team Scorpio, Team Sagittarius, Team Capricorn, etc.

Not all slots available to a team have to be filled.  Team Alpha doesn't necessitate a Team Zulu, for example.


This message was last edited by the GM at 08:15, Sun 23 May 2021.

Argh!  I have GOT to stop here tonight.  If I didn't get to reply to you, I will do my darnedest to do so tomorrow. :-)

Maybe alphanumeric teams? :P 1A, 1B, 1C for the first years, 2A, 2B, 2C for second years, etc. Just a silly idea - not sure if school classes in English-speaking countries have alphanumeric designations like they do here anyway.

I like the junior team idea. Incidentally, though, it occurs to me that our classes probably aren't age-based. Most of us seem to be around 16, but some are a good deal younger (Gateway, for one...). The first class would presumably consist of everyone who joins around the time of the starting event. The second class may be people who joined up more recently. It's possible that the school will switch to age-based classes later anyway, but I am not sure if that would work well if it is meant to train superhumans - people of different ages discover superpowers all the time, after all, and it would probably make more sense to put those novices in beginner classes than with more experienced pupils of the same age.

All that is to say that the junior team may, of course, be made up of tweens, or it may be second year students of different ages, with the unifying factor being that they lack the experience we gained in our first year. Then again, if you already have younger characters in mind, they could be both - a flurry of parents deciding this school isn't too dangerous after all and enlisting their superpowered kids as early as the school would take them.

I also like the first responder twist. It makes one wonder what they were thinking. Any organisation can commit strange oversights (though it can be harder to get away with that in fiction than in reality). Then again, someone may have decided to let it go ahead like that on purpose. It may be a baptism by fire sort of arrangement. ("If this classified report is even half-right, we will need those youngsters to either shape up or drop out fast. Let's take the risk with them now, rather than risk everything later. As for us looking bad, that's honestly pretty low on my list of concerns.")

Whether my conspiracy theory is true or not, it may also mean that the kids get to respond first, see if they can deal with the situation, and if not, call in the adults. Because obviously we're all going to be super responsible and careful like that. :)

Unexpectedly busy tonight, posts tomorrow night instead. :-)

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.

I know there's a list somewhere in the book of what order the questions need to be answered for each team, but for the life of me I haven't been able to find it. Can that get tossed up somewhere, too?

I think that while it may be done otherwise, it would be better if we did it when we do have our teams. After all, this is specific to them, and presumably we have different inciting incidents.

Ricochet, you mean this one? https://www.reddit.com/r/PBtA/...the_team_first_came/ Though that leaves out Meta.

That's the one! I was sure it was in the rulebook, but I totally forgot to check the GM Moves sheet.

Yes, the game assumes you've got between 3-5 players and a single team, so the questions tend to be pretty easy to handle. With us, we definitely need to solidify our teams before we can determine the events that locked us together. Having a bunch of disconnected answers would be awkward to sort out.

And that's true about missing the Meta, but also the Meta is homebrew and the official materials can't account for that in the first place. And if this homebrew order of questions included all the non-official playbooks, it'd be a dozen pages long. :P

If y'all would prefer, you can wait to answer the 'When Our Team First Came Together..."\question(s) after team assignments have been fully determined (but we can easily work with those who have answered already). :-)

The last GM post of IC Thread #1 should happen Sunday night or not long after.  I believe it will be a cliffhanger.  And that will be the last of the freeform flashback for a bit.  The next IC thread shall be in the game present and using the rules as fast as we can get them enabled (actually, there may still be some freeform replies until we can get all aboard).

I will make team assignments around Monday night or so.  I will take preferences already expressed into account.  And afterwards, characters can still swap teams if both are willing.  The only real rule is to avoid duplicate playbooks.

As time is passing and things need to move along, I will say that the game will be centered (although far from limited to) on the Stanley School for a bit.  This doesn't mean that your characters don't necessarily not visit other campuses and places.  It just means you spend some time on the Stanley campus on any given week.  Beyond the one stricture that your characters spend some time at Stanley weekly, anything else probably goes.  Beneath the bright and sunny façade of the campus could be any number of mysteries, loyalties or secrets.  They just won't all be revealed just yet. ;-)

I will continue to copy from the Bullpen to Polls and Debates for a week or two more during this critical setup phase but that will fade soon enough as the 'cement' sets.
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 07:43, Sun 30 May 2021.

The thing is, presumably we came together as our individual teams - so maybe we need separate threads for those? Or at least, mark our answers accordingly, so we know who to reply to.

(I suppose the alternative could be if we say there was a super-team at the start that fell apart when our Beloved Ghost left us, but if everyone answers as part of the same conversation the result seems likely to be very messy.)

Team 1 seems mostly ready to go, barring last-moment additions. If I understand correctly, Max could follow up on the first answer.

Presumably the city Ricochet mentions is New York (which I suspect we'll see a lot of anyway)? Or Everton?
This message was last edited by the player at 11:20, Sun 30 May 2021.

Sorry I've been quiet. There's some stomach thing making its way through my house and just a lot going on at work and school.

No worries, no hurries.  Real Life Takes Precedence.  :)

Can’t get to game PC tonight.  Lots done but I will have to post it tomorrow. :-)

Will we get another reply in our current thread?

Super-busy.  I will catch up with replies tomorrow.  But a lot has been done.

First, IC thread is done and cliffhangered for now.  Go ahead and check it out and get a hint as to who one of your nemesi will be.

Second, a new IC thread is up.  Don't post in in quite yet.  It will be ready for you in a couple of days.  This game is set in the game present and is the actual start of our game proper.  It is the beginning of your second year as a super team.  A new junior team is starting up and I will introduce the campus to new player eyes with these character's eyes.

The first member of the junior team is introduced and is a very minor character in Mainstream Marvel Earth.

I have determined the initial teams and their membership.  There are three teams of five members each with no duplicated playbooks so far.  The mix of boys and girls in each of the teams are roughly even.  If you don't like your assigned team, you may swap with any other willing player as long as, in the end, no playbooks are duplicated per team.  This gets posted tomorrow night.  I just didn't have time to get it in readable order tonight.

Lots to post and reveal tomorrow.  And I will try to catch up on overdue replies then as well... :-)

Busy again tonight.

The provisional team assignments are up in the Character List thread (which itself built off of the Character Grid thread).  If you don't like how you are assigned, you can swap with any other willing player.  The only requirement is that, in the end, there are no duplicated playbooks on a team.  If there are still duplicated playbooks after all player negotiation, I will adjust things.

You may now post in IC Scene #2: New Kids & First Days.  Please read the OOC at the end of the first post.

I didn't get as much done as I would like tonight.  But I should be able to post more tomorrow.  And this game will start to pick up steam soon.  You just can't see it like I can yet. :-)

To be clear, the second scene is a year after we signed up, right?

Honestly, I'd rather we sort out teams, relationships, influence, and what happened before we came together before starting the main story. I don't think we're in any rush, and it would definitely make it much easier for me to write if I knew those particulars.

I have posted an attempt to correct my very bad presentation of the team assignments in the Character List thread.  Please read it, I think you will find the situation much improved... :-)

The biggest problem I have with this is that that we had a situation where players that had something in common asked to team up, and instead now it's on the players to find someone they have no relationship with and ask them if they want to not team up.

In reply to Ghost-Spider (msg # 268):

I agree, but let's just roll with it. I've put a post up in the poll; just need everyone to chime in and say they agree with the proposed moves that will take us back to where we were before.

Busy.  I will try to respond in great detail tomorrow. :-)

OK, folks, let me try and catch up to y'all.  As usual, I am sorry for the delays and misunderstanding.  And I always appreciate your patience... :-)

With a little more time available to me today, I thought I would update y'all  on a few things.

The game is progressing slower and less straight-forward than I, and probably y'all, would like.  That does not mean it is stalled or misdirected.

There are several reasons for this, none of them fatal.  One is that there are simply a awful lot of you.  Another is that real-life is unexpectedly stealing time from me in the short-term (I should get some more free time in the future).  And, to be frank, I have made some honest mistakes in running this game.  Some mistakes won't happen again and others simply couldn't happen again.  I do eventually learn to stop hitting myself with a hammer.  Usually. ;-)

It may seem like I am being very haphazard, starting one half-started thread after another or mentioning some game element I have not mentioned ever again.  It is more like I am spinning plates.  I get something just barely started and then there is something else that requires my more urgent attention.  The cure for this is time.  Eventually, I will get past the heavy lifting part of starting this game and be able to finish what I have started.

For a short time, there will be even more threads added to the game.  Just grin and bear it.  But soon enough, the amount of stray threads will be pruned.  None of the content you have posted will be lost, it will simply be moved to more efficient placement.

The good news is that (at this writing) the most complicated and involved decision, the team assignments, this game could EVER have is nearly done.  The labor pains were painful (an anal-retentive GM didn't help ;-)  ) but it is all slowly downhill from here.  I apologize for the extra (and seemingly unnecessary work).  It shouldn't happen again.  There shouldn't be need for it to.  All that now remains is that Influence, Relationships and When the Team First Came Together entries are filled in for each team by that team's members.

After that, we finally get to just play this darned game. :-)

I'm going to try something different.

The second IC thread, "New Kids and First Days" is leading to some confusion and questions.  Most of this is due to the fact that I haven't really had time to expand upon it.

But no matter, it is not critical that I continue with that thread now.  I will add to it later.  I was not a mistake and anyone who posted in it has not wasted their time.

Instead, I will introduce a new scene that I had always intended to.  This would be IC Scene #3, "the mother of invention".  This thread is completely optional.  You don't even have to read it if you don't want to. If you are a little gun shy after the last confusing thread, I suggest you just hold back and see what happens the other PCs that do post in the thread.

Again, both of these threads are exactly as they are supposed to be.  I simply have changed the order of their development.

Good to hear, boss! Now, a question I've been mulling over for the last few days: What are we actually supposed to be doing with IC Scene #2?

My original understanding is that we had formed the team about a year ago, shortly after IC Thread #1, and now we start our second year at S4, and there is one class a year behind us.

My new understanding is that we had joined up with our individual school choices a year ago, and over time got selected to transfer over to S4, so our teams were formed at some point either in the middle of the previous school year or very soon before the present day, and we're the only class.

My alternate understanding is that we chose our schools a year ago, but they ended up directing us to S4 instead, and we teamed up at the time, and there's a class one year behind us.

I really need to have a grasp on what that's all about before I can do much.

On top of that, the opening post only sets a scene for one character, a mystery NPC who doesn't seem to be interacting with anyone and who appears to be part of that "year behind us" class, since it's present day and it looks like she only just arrived for the first time. What is the expectation for us in that scene? Are we also just arriving for the first time? Have we been there a year already and are supposed to help these new kids get their bearings? What's our situation?

My expectation with Masks is to start in an action scene with a clear goal and obstacle, with a clear setting and direct event to text to, finished by assuming at a player and asking "What do you do?"
This message was last edited by the player at 07:40, Sat 05 June 2021.

Can we please get threads split by team?  It's ok to have a little crossover but there are way too many of us for one thread.  This is the point of having teams/max party size.

You can even run the same thing for each one, it can be a class that each group goes through separately.

I'd also prefer if we could finish character creation before we go much further.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:14, Sat 05 June 2021.

Including team threads for When Out Team First Came Together, Relationships, and Influence, so we can get started on those.

I agree with the idea of separate threads, at least for character creation purposes (the IC threads seem to be for inter-team mingling, which isn't a bad idea though I do think we should get team threads eventually). It might seem a bit cluttered, but it would be much easier to parse. That said, if we don't yet know whether our missing players will return, it'd be hard to make a lot of final decisions on those counts. Still, we can at least start discussing it tentatively (especially in our case since the Counterforce-Max-Leviathan-Ricochet-Jubilee team is probably going to be around anyway, even if it may get other members too).

EDIT: Also, I second Ricochet's question about thread 2 and extend it to 3. As I understand it, they are both set in the beginning of our second year at this school (rather than us being previously at a different school, say)? Meaning that our characters should already be familiar with each other, the campus, the teachers, etc.? I feel the need to ask since the players who posted in the second thread seem to be assuming that they're all new here, meaning that there has probably been a miscommunication.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:57, Sat 05 June 2021.

I strongly suggest that rpol threads should be defined by location & time, representing individual scenes, like this:
Issue 01.Scene 01: Danger Room (Team 1A)
Issue 01.Scene 02: The Soccer Game (Ricochet, Oktopus)
Issue 01.Scene 03: The Dining Room (Open to All)

This approach does mean that you'll get a lot of threads as we go, but it keeps it easier for players to follow.  With this many players, it's going to be real easy for folks to get confused as to where they need to be and where they need to post.

I'm not even trying to keep up with other characters' developments anymore.  I will interact with them in-character or via PMs.  There's al ot of players and a lot of traffic that makes me feel kinda like a bystander here...

I am very confused as to where I should be posting Midnight's first in-character posting...

Should it be
IC Scene #2: New Kids and First Days

or
IC Scene #3: The Mother of Invention

??

No worries.  I've been here the whole time, and I'm confused also... ;)

As I understand it, we have some optional opportunities for roleplaying as we wait for the team formation dust to settle.

However, some folks want to hold off on additional IC posts until team formation is more settled and/or until game mechanics stuff for their characters is more settled and/or until threads have been separated by team.

However, I would need to look back through the relevant posts to verify that, so don't quote me on that... :o
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:13, Sun 06 June 2021.

I (Rico and Octo) plan on holding off my IC posts until I can figure out what the situation is. Just gonna focus on finishing character creation stuff for now, once there are appropriate threads for the teams.

It is time to finally get the team assignments decided.  So, if you haven't expressed a preference regarding swapping your PC's initially assigned team slots you need to by Midnight GMT on Sunday the 13th (not tomorrow but the next Sunday).

This simply means posting in the Character List thread whether you approve of any character swap request(s), refuse any pro-offered character swap requests or wish to offer any swap requests of your own.  You may have already done this.

If you haven't made your feelings known by the deadline, it will be assumed that you don't protest any swap requests made regarding your character.  Thus, after all players have made swap requests, I may swap characters whose players haven't posted an opinion.  This means you must actively state your position to be sure of keeping it.

It may be you simply don't mind what team your character is assigned to.  If so, you can just post that to the Character List thread and let us know.  Or you can simply do nothing and everything will just take care of itself,.

Therefore, the teams will finally be set on the 13th or shortly thereafter and the game can move on to other things.  Until then, no one has to worry about team setups too much.  There are other more entertaining game aspects to focus on for the moment... :-)

Finally catching up on things...

I apologize for all of the confusion.  And my approach to setting up teams may not have been the best.  But as you can read above, that should all be settled on Sunday or not long afterwards.

Many of you are understandably gun shy about the chaotic environment of the game, with so many things starting and seemingly never being followed through.  I get it.  I do.  But things are not as bad or as aimless as they might seem.

In the meantime, just do this; do nothing.  Just read the Bullpen thread every other day or so.  This will give me a chance to start finishing all of the things I start.  Many of your questions will be answered as I complete things.  I will post updates here.  Otherwise, I will have more time to answer individual questions once I get the immediate group priorities done.

So that's it.  Take it easy this week and maybe most of these problems will start solving themselves.

One thing I must be strict about just so this game has a chance of moving forward is the Sunday (the 13th) deadline for approving, rejecting or suggesting swap requests.  If you haven't posted in the Character List thread at all regarding this, please do so.  You can just post to say that you are confused and not sure what is going on.  That will be enough for me to not assume consent for swaps suggested by other people.  And then I can handle your request individually.

One very simple and easy thing players can do to help me out is this:

Go here,

http://wiki.rpol.net/?id=76369/WIKI%20TEST

and just post your username under my own, The Watcher.

That's it, nothing more.  Just that simple action will help me out in ways I don't need to bore you explaining.  You don't have to all do this.  Past a few successful entries, I will have the answer I am looking for.  If it doesn't work, I will still have an answer, just not the one I was hoping for. :-)

Thanks.

I have also started yet another new thread, Wiki Edits.  Ignore it for now.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:58, Sun 06 June 2021.

I have to stop tonight but tomorrow is mostly about catching up on your specific replies and messages.

Good news!  My Discord password is restored.  The laptop I had started this game on died suddenly and so I had to go another laptop.  In the interim, I couldn't get back on Discord.
Tomorrow, I will make the Discord link permanent so it won't expire in 24 hours.

And then I will make myself available to help fix these problems in real time.  This would be during irregular evening hours in the Central Time Zone.

Discord participation in this game is not mandatory.  But any players able to use it will help the game work better for every player. :-)

Sorry I wasn't able to post late night.  And I am still catching up.

But there is some good news.  I have done some good work on the Wiki.  And I think I now have a permanent link to Discord.  I have made a tiny table that holds these links.  The cute graphical text buttons will have to wait for a bit longer.

On weeknights Central Time, I will be intermittently on and off Discord.  With notice, I can probably be more constant.  I am looking after my aging mother so I may have to leave the keyboard often and communicate via text rather than video.  If you post a text message in Discord, I should see a notice (I usually have Discord running in the background).  Lavish me with song and praise or bust my chops for making all of this so very complicated. :-)  Either way, it is good.  And you might make a friend in this game out of another player.


This message was last edited by the GM at 07:30, Tue 08 June 2021.

OK, will try and catch up on old replies and messages tomorrow.


This message was last edited by the GM at 07:17, Wed 09 June 2021.

Okay, I have now made thread for "When Our Team First Came Together..." and "Relationships and Influences" for each of the teams, conveniently in Groups A, B, C. Once the Watcher approves the final team compositions, we'll add folks to the appropriate group and you can start working things out.

For the "When Our Team First Came Together...", I included the recommended order provided here: https://www.reddit.com/r/PBtA/...the_team_first_came/, and added the Meta under the "Immediate consequence" since that's where it seemed to fit best. I'll leave all of the questions up for reference, but strikethrough the ones that don't apply to that team.

In-Betweener, thank you for this! :-)  I was going to get around to it but I really appreciate you beating me to it.


This message was last edited by the GM at 07:41, Wed 09 June 2021.

Catching up a little behind the scenes tonight.  Good news!  The Wiki works for all of us.  Thanks to all who signed it to let me know.  It is for us to use when we wish, as we wish.  What a great tool for any game. :-)


This message was last edited by the GM at 08:03, Wed 09 June 2021.

Sorry I wasn't able to post yesterday.  Looking forward to Sunday when we can really start moving forward with this game.  If you haven't posted in the Character List thread yet expressing a preference for team assignment, go ahead and do so by Sunday if you want your voice to be heard.  Otherwise, it is assumed you are agreeable to any proposed swaps.

I am adding to the Wiki in the meantime, building the universe up around you.  But there is a limit as you will be involved in that in some way.  If you have contributed to the Wiki, just mention that you have done so in the Wiki Edits thread so we know who to praise. :-)

Catching up with belated replies, thread and messages tonight...


This message was last edited by the GM at 07:31, Fri 11 June 2021.

OK, the deadline for expressing any kind of preference for Team Assignment has passed at Midnight GMT.  I don't have the time to respond to this event in any great detail tonight.  But I will have a lot to post tomorrow night.  The game should start being a real game very quickly now. :-)

Looking forward to sorting out the remaining character details like relationships once we have the threads for that.

By the way, are we all alone in the dark in the third IC thread? Or can we see each other there at least?

Okay, I have now added everyone to their respective team group, so you should see 2 new threads. 1 to work out relationships and influence and the other to work out when your team came together.

I see it, thanks!

One more thing I'd like to clarify: the timeline. In my head, it's something like this:
 - The first IC thread, recruitment, ending with the cliffhanger for now;
 - Following the Recruitment Event and perhaps some other occurrences, we all got into the Stanley School;
 - Either during or not long after, three groups had inciting incidents that led to the Teams Coming Together - which our teachers went on to acknowledge formally in our official team (and class?) set-up, perhaps because they know the value of a baptism by fire;
 - Over our first year at the school, the Hellfire Rebellion, the Pact of Doom and the Sinister Plot occurred. The Beloved Ghost, who was perhaps a member of one of the teams but important to us all (maybe a leader type who could coordinate our actions effectively when we all had to act together), has been neutralised in some way during one of those events or in a different occurrence that year;
 - The second and third IC threads.

Does that sound about right?

Counterforce, you are essentially correct.  Thank you for your work.

Folks, I am again delayed.  But I will have much to say tomorrow and more time to say it.  I will also try and be available on Discord.  It is pretty much all good news and it is irritating to me that I will take me another day to let you know...

OK, now I finally have time to give you at least some of the detailed responses y'all deserve.

First, I have placed the Team Roster in the Character List thread.  It essentially starts with the excellent team lineup Max has put together but allows for last minute corrections.

Look at the provisional team roster.  If you want to be on another team, let me know and I will get it done as fast as possible.

There is more to it than that.  But, in the end, it should be that simple.  You are likely where you want to be.  And, if you aren't, you will be practically as soon as you let me know where you want to be.

I will post more later tonight...

Hey everybody, another of Ricochet/Octopus's characters here. We're Mania, or you can call us Andi. Gonna try to keep the character from going too dark, as we're not the Doomed. Just a little vicious is all.

Gonna start small on the symbiote powers and ease up on them as makes sense in the fiction. Also completely ditching the Hell-Mark from Andi's original storyline. Gateway's enough demonic influence for one team.