Welcome to 'The Marvel Method', named after the way Marvel actually did comics in the Sixties.  Essentially, Stan Lee would say, "Artist, draw this!" and the artist would.  It worked.  And it worked for decades.  Most modern comic scripts are written essentially like movie scripts nowadays but some great and iconic comics were written using the Marvel Method.

This is the start of you actually playing in the game.  It is what you have been wanting.  It is a long read but every bit of it should help you.  Let's get to it.

1.  The first part of this game (and only the first part) will be freeform:  This way, we can get started on the characters (and thus the players) interacting with each other and their universe while we get the formal characters stats and rules nailed down.  Don't worry, there will still be enough structure to make the game interesting.

2. The first part of this game is a flashback:  It takes place a year before game start and is likely the first time your characters meet each other.  The Masks RPG assumes your characters have been a team for at least a little while and have established some mutual backstory.  For this game, I have chosen a year lead time given the high number of players and unfinished characters.  Get used to flashbacks as this game continues.  By binding a player to both past and future continuity, I can then otherwise offer that player more freedom to narrate the backstory to their satisfaction.

3. The game is divided into real-life weeks:  Each segment of 'game' takes place from Sunday Midnight to Sunday Midnight, GMT.  During that time, there should be one event or challenge that moves the game and group forward which usually implies a post involving your character.  You may feel like posting more often (the more you post, the more you get out of the game) but there should be just one 'essential' post requested.

If you aren't able to maintain at least one post a week for awhile, no worries. Your character will simply be written off-panel indefinitely.  This is not punitive, it simply help separate the currently active from the currently inactive.  And you can just as easily written back 'on-panel' when you are ready to post regularly again.

4. Every game week should have an optional challenge:  That is, there will be a little puzzle or goal offered to players.  The reward for completing these little quests will vary.  They can be tangible Masks rules benefits (free Potential, Influence, Team, etc.) or intangible (friendship, secret knowledge, favors granted).  You don't have to meet these challenges but they are a great way to advance your character.

5. Your character can't help but succeed and leave the game in time:  In Masks, you either succeed at a task or, if you fail, you get experience which then helps you succeed later.  As you inevitably succeed, you will achieve preset characters goals.  And the last of these goals is that you leave the game as a mature, adult hero.  In short, every character leaves the game like the Doomed do, they just grow up.  One thing I will do if you don't want your characters growing up too fast, you can spend your experience on other characters.  On the other hand, I will use experience (properly called Potential) like candy as rewards for extra credit or other minor graces.

6.  We use the usual posting conventions.  That is, third-person past omniscient, "They said, wishing it was no so."  Now and then, we might switch to the present tense for immediate action scenes.

Each character has their own colored text (and thoughts).  Don't worry for now if you and another character use the same color.  You can simulate odd vocal effects with different fonts.  Some characters have odd colored balloons, like Deadpool and his white text on yellow background word balloons.  That might be simulated by colored parenthesis, ("Did someone say Bea Arthur?")

You can also show your character's thoughts with italicized colored text.  This is particularly apt for comics given the use of thought balloons.
You can also print out sound effects, SNIKT! THWIP!!

7.  The tone for this game starts out positive and optimistic for the most part, the kind that could be shown on US children's TV.  We can more to more dark and/or mature (not always the same thing) as the game progresses.  While I can't see that the game is likely to trigger anyone, it really isn't up to me to say what another person's triggers might be.  I would imagine, playing the odds, that some players teen years may have been hellish (and I personally don't have to imagine that too much) and a sunshiny, nostalgic view of teen years might seem mocking.

In any case, if anyone is uncomfortable about something, we can pause the game at talk about it.

So, the apex of violence should be bruising or unconsciousness.  Death should be distant, quick and possibly ambiguous.
Profanity is (currently) best referred to obliquely or (sweet comic trope) graphical characters in place of profanity, ya @##%'s
The height of physical ecstasy is probably a sweaty-palmed, close-mouthed kiss.

As the game progresses, we can move the gave toward the comfort levels of the players.

8.  You can use adult narration in a flashback:  In the US, there was show called the Wonder Years.  It was the story of young man growing through the iconic moments of the sixties and seventies as remembered  by an unseen adult narrator.  You can use narration for your adult self if you wish to add 'forestory' to your backstory.  Of course, this does imply your characters survives to adulthood.  If you don't want to be so certain, you can add the narration of some future person referring to your character.

More to come, watch this space...

A few formatting thoughts I forgot (doubtless there will be many more)...

In this game, I will often emphasize words with Bold and Italic, just as comics do.  You are free to do what you wish.

OOC Text will be the RPOL (and perhaps standard) convention of orange text.  I will probably put mine in monotype text which has the resemblance of typewritten notes, like the original Marvel scripts and notes.

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...



Of course, your blurb doesn't have to be so descriptive or florid.  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)...

The Righteous Ricochet
Sasha Struck, former martial arts child actor, had her mutant genes forcibly activated in a secret super villainous super soldier program. During her escape, she discovered that her fighting skills had been enhanced by the ability to absorb and redirect force! Now she fights crime to protect those she couldn't before.

The Omniscient Octo
Otto Octavius's genius was only matched by his arrogance. After a science demonstration nearly wiped out a city block, he became fused to a set of metal tentacles he'd designed, and now seeks to further scientific study more safely, and put a stop to those who would use knowledge for evil!

Empath.  Healer.  Seer.  She feels your pain, so you don't have to.  She knows your need, across time and space.  She reaches toward even you, Gentle Reader, even now, through the computer screen...

The result of her father's experiments with super soldier enhancers, Cassandra Addams is the hero known as Skorpio. With her metallic suit of armor and extendable scorpion tail, 17 year old Cassandra battles against the world's villains, all while working as an agent of SHIELD.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:09, Fri 07 May 2021.

Max grew up on the streets to a junky who had no idea who his father was and wasn't particularly interested in being a mother. When his mutant powers first manifest, he went on a mini crime spree, stealing food, money, and "toys". He was eventually caught by a hero while in the process of stealing money from a bank vault he'd teleported into and given an ultimatum; get turned into the authorities and go to jail, or put the money back and attend the Academy.

Abigail Pryce was a normal girl. Before she was born, her parents implanted her with genetic material from an Atlantean object, and when she turned 12 her skin turned to hard scales. No longer able to attend a normal school, she is trying to adapt to her new status, understand her powers, and find her place in the world.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:20, Sun 09 May 2021.

The Stunning Steel Ninja

Crime fighting in a can. One robot. One man. Merged together with a plan. Give the team a helping hand. Or split up, and do the work of two. Now a robot and a power armor dude. Steel Ninja’s got the moves.

GATEWAY

Rendal was born as a 14 year old boy from dark magic to be a vessel of great power. He was rescued form Limbo and put into the school by his rescuer for safety. A child without a past, a blank canvas for the future, hunted by demons and possessing someone elses soul

Counterforce: Svetlana’s intellect and the mistakes of her extended family give the Siberian prodigy polymath an obligation to be useful to humanity. Yet the technology she helped develop – a universal energy manipulator – is now in the hands of those who have no respect for the benevolent intent behind it. To stop them, she would travel to New York – and if necessary, beyond.

Jubilee: Smart-mouthed mallrat and child of the atom. Can create colorful plasmoid explosives from her fingertips. The youngest member of the X-Men Formerly the youngest member of the X-Men. Sort of the daughter of Wolverine. She helps create peace and understanding between humans and mutants, or at least hangs around with people who do while she's trying to have fun.

The Astonishing Stone Cold: Rebellious Iqaluit (Inuit) teen, from far northern Canada, who was forever changed when his recalcitrant ways broke the heart of the daughter of the Angakok (tribal shaman).  Now cursed with the body of a living monolith, and ostracized from his people, he struggles to understand his fate, and to find some way to end his awful affliction.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:04, Mon 10 May 2021.

Callum Ross was content being a mutant with the ability to absorb electricity. He was happy being different enough to shine, but normal enough to fit into the rest of society. That changed when a freak accident at a power plant during a storm stretched his power to its limits and beyond. Draining the city of New Orleans of power and destroying the entire grid in one momentous event, Callum Ross has now become Arc. A being of power and potential still unexplored and someone whose life can never be normal again.

All of this is good!  I don't really need to critique anything.  Don't stop the music! :-)