Nothing sends my imagination into overdrive more than the wild stories surrounding Superheroes; The over the top environments, the wild doomsday threats, the oozing (sometimes literally!) plot twists, and of course the heroes and their unique powers! Naturally such imagination can’t be contained, and all of us at some point are struck with the desire to imagine our own heroes. While there are a myriad of superhero based TTRPGs out there, I would argue none can compare to MASKS: A New Generation in style and execution. So if you’re following along and curious about how to start playing MASKS yourself, here are some basics of getting a character together for your next game.
Approach
There are two broad approaches to building out a character in Masks, depending on where your inspiration starts. On the highest level, these approaches work for nearly every game out there but are particularly suitable for Masks, being a Powered by the Apocalypse based system (PbtA shorthand). On one hand, you might have a brilliant idea of who your character is, their image, their personality, maybe even their super powers, and need to match them to the game’s mechanics.
This is known as the top-down, or fiction first, approach and is great for everyone with plenty of inspiration looking to jump into the game, but maybe not as familiar with the rules. The second option is starting from the basic mechanics of the game, and building out your character’s flavor and concept from a basis of explaining the chosen mechanics. This is known as the bottom-up approach, which is great if you are familiar with the rules and playbooks of the game already and looking to explore something new.
It’s worth noting at this point that both approaches will end up converging, and at certain points you’ll end up closer to one side and required to work backwards towards where you started. This is totally fine, and is part of the heart of all PbtA games: playing to find out. Character creation is a part of the game, after all, and just as much subject to the communal play of creating the basis of your story at the table and finding out. Hold onto your ideas lightly and be ready to shift focus to help build an interesting story with the group!
Top-Down
If you’ve got a solid concept of your desired character or an inspiration you’re drawing from, the best place to start is going over the Playbook’s Abilities lists. Abilities are the powers your character has access to and are often unique to the specific playbooks, for instance: illusion control & psychic weapons for the Delinquent; plant affinity and impenetrable armor for the Transformed; or the Legacy with power suites that resemble classic heroes like Superman, Wonderwoman, The Flash and more.
Abilities, or power sets, are intentionally vague and up to you to set precedence with your table as you play and are not all equal between playbooks. Rest assured though just like in the comics there are moments where Superman’s might isn’t what wins the day, and MASKS games often embrace the moments of triumph and vulnerability between young heroes pushing their powers to new limits. Each playbook also notes the character inspirations that they are designed to emulate, so looking at those notes can help, or speaking to your GM to help translate your ideas into a playbook that fits most easily. You can also filter MASKS games on SPG by experience level if you want to make sure a game is beginner friendly!
Bottom-Up
If you have experience with MASKS and are looking for something different, starting from the Moves of the playbooks might be the quickest way to find a new style for your next character. Each playbook has a unique set of Moves, mechanical tools to interact with the game, which sets them apart. Moves range from offering special narrative bonuses like the Outsider’s Kirby-Craft, a personal alien ship you design, to unique moves like the Janus’s Mild Mannered which allows a hero with a secret identity to pretend to be a simple civilian. Other playbooks such as the Doomed have such unique Moves they have entire sets of mechanics dedicated to telling their stories.
Impending death comes with the benefit of new Moves, but requires such characters to balance their progress towards combating the looming threat that follows them vs the goals of their team. Playbooks and their moves are designed to tell specific tropes or stories, and looking at how those moves convey the idea of the character can help you stretch into new territory of telling stories. Once you’re comfortable with the game and mechanics, looking at Moves across the different playbooks can also help you design your unique hero, as characters can borrow moves from other playbooks as they advance to create a set of Moves truly all your own.
Final Touches
Once you’ve gotten your playbook selected and chosen Moves and or Abilities, you can round out your character by following the sections on each playbook. Labels, while essentially the core “stats” of your character, are not the most important aspect of creating your character. During play NPCs and PCs who you character trusts will have many opportunities to shift your labels, making your starting choices less impactful in MASKS than most PbtA games. Your identity is constantly in flux as your character grapples with how others view them and how they view themselves. Choosing a look, style, and name, is as difficult (or easy!) as you’d find it in any other game of course. Lastly each playbook includes a section for determining “When the team came together” and “Influences”.
Ideally these steps are done as a group with your table as session 0. Once you all have an idea of who your teammates are, “When the team came together” offers everyone in the group a personalized mad-lib style question to connect to a story of how your heroes joined up. Each playbook offers a unique question that the group can use to build upon to make a cohesive backstory for the inciting incident that formed the group. “Influence” on the other hand represents your characters’ willingness or reluctance to trust in each other.
There are a handful of other considerations to bring to the table, whichever way you choose to approach building your next MASKS hero. In the varied worlds of super heroes, you’ll need to keep in mind the tone of the game you’re joining and some stories are best suited omitting certain playbooks. A story of street-level heroes protecting their community will often have vastly different heroes than a group who can travel through time or is venturing off planet. Make sure you check any Recruit Notes if joining a table on SPG, or discuss the concepts you want your table to focus on if getting a game together with friends.
Above all though, be ready to ride the twists and turns that come with young heroes challenged by the adults around them as well as super powered villains and simply growing up!
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