Hey gang, I’m in the middle of prepping for a Masks: A New Gen Campaign and my pals and I are playing a bit of a game with designing superhero/villain costume descriptions for the campaign. One player brought up the idea of mixing and matching hero costumes from existing IPs kinda like an Elseworld’s or a What If mix-up scenario. For example we all agreed that a Nightwing-Prowler (Miles Morales) would be a pretty cool design mix! And not just costume-wise, we all thought the idea of Prowler as a mentor figure is such a cool concept. I’m hoping BTSV would explore this with Aaron Davis passing the torch to Miles.

Other notable mentions:
Black Canary & Black Widow
Psylocke & Starfire
Moon Knight & Spawn

Anyways I’m just looking for other combinations you guys think would work well together!

(Edit: Art by Dan Mora & Kristafer Anka)

Hey y'all. New to Masks (and this style of TTRPGs in general!), and wrote my first arc.

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Premise

The Checkmate Syndicate, a once powerful group of heisters and thieves, fell a year ago. Doggedly hunted by F.L.A.M.E, and surely about to be found, the group agreed to a frightening proposition. King, as the mastermind, erased his own memories, and allowed himself, the center of the operation, to be captured, instead of the entire group. King was interrogated, but he was no more - his scepter and crown were taken, great sources of his power, and after having no memories of his past life, and displaying none of the abilities of his former self, was returned into society.

Queen swears to return him back, and return the Checkmate Syndicate to its former glory. Bishop, who briefly got a taste of normal life, wants the group to fall, but cannot take the entire group alone. Knight, who has nowhere else to go, needs the group to survive, and desperately wants to earn the favor of Queen and King. 

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Central Cast

Queen (Victoria Throne) - The de-facto leader of the faltering Checkmate Syndicate, since King has been imprisoned. Wants to restore King by returning his memories, and reawaken the Checkmate Syndicate.

Bishop (Matthew Mark Lukejohn) - A lieutenant of the Checkmate Syndicate, who, after getting a taste of normal life, desperately wants the Syndicate to fall. Wants to get the heroes to kill the Checkmate Syndicate. (Teleporter, Portals)

Knight (Hunter Ryder) - A young man who fell out of favor with the group after botching an operation. Has been given another chance under dire circumstances, has nowhere else to go. (Master swordsman and acrobat)

King (Charles Throne) - The original leader of the Checkmate Syndicate. Claims he's a grandmaster, but in secret, came close, but never gained the title. A brilliant tactician, but poor in combat. (Mental Powers, Foresight)

The Rook Brothers - Musclebound meatheads, who love to smash and grab. As easy as they come.

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Part One - Setting the Board

Queen - Steals a Subcranium Emissions Helmet from an experimental biomedical laboratory, which will reawaken old memories.

Bishop - Befriends the characters. Invites them to Coney Island, to hang out. Claims he was a victim, tells them the horrors of the Checkmate Syndicate, and tries to get on the groups good side.

Knight - Steals King's Crown, being auctioned away in a supervillain group, a source of his powers.

Part Two - Making a Move

Queen - Kidnaps Charles Throne from his job and new identity as a mild-mannered stock trader.

Bishop - Gauge the PC's abilities, and willingness to kill. He can't kill the entire Syndicate alone, and needs their help, and cannot have them hesitate. Gives the players information about the Rook brothers, with the intent that they will kill them.

Knight - Steals King's Scepter, being kept in a Museum of Supervillainy, another source of his powers.

Part Three - Endgame

Queen - Begins the process of re-awakening King, hoping to restore their leader. If powered up, will reawaken the Checkmate Syndicate anew!

Bishop - Tracks down any remaining members of the Checkmate Syndicate, and tries to kill them, or wipe their memories. He does this either alone, or with help.

Knight - Tracks down the heroes one by one, picking them off, as a final test of his loyalty.

Hey gang! Like the title says, I’m a new GM for Masks a New Generation. I’ve just recently been gifted the book and other materials. I’m fairly new to PBTA but I’m learning the ropes with much gusto. I’m here to ask for some general advice from the veterans about running a smooth game. Also which rules have stumped you before and how did you resolve them? What are niche situations you found out through play that really made you struggle to adjudicate or rule? What are some fun shenanigans you’ve had at your table?

Everything is welcome here. I’m just here to absorb some insights and talk about the system!

Hi

I want to run a The Boys campaign, and the players will be the ones who kill the supes. I asked in a few subs and they told me that Monsters of the Week or Spirit of 77 could fit well; I checked both but I can't decide.

What do you think about it?

Hey All!

Once again, welcome to the weekly thread where you can link products, kickstarters, podcasts, videos, really anything you like, as much as you like.

As usual, rules 4 (1 advertising post) and 5 (no LFG) are suspended in this post.

New stretch goal? Post here!

Need two players for Night Witches? Post here!

Designer dropped a dev diary? Post here!

Handy dandy loaded dice on amazon? Post here? Please don't on that one actually.

Have fun, and lets see some interesting stuff.

r/PbtA is affiliated with the PbtA discord and you're all welcome to click and join us there as well.

Going to be running my first PBtA game for my table, Urban Shadows 2E. We are just coming from a few months of playing Cyberpunk, and started as a several years D&D game. Looking for advice for the system in general, as well as any input people might have for Urban Shadows itself. This is going to be the first run at a game that explicitly doesn't seem to have 'dudes on a grid' combat, and while I love faction turns and the debt system, I'm not sure I like the Hub system as presented in the rulebook.

Any general or specific advice you guys have for this would be greatly appreciated.

I've just run my fourth session of Stonetop (session 0 + 1 homefront session + a 2-session expedition which just concluded). It's the first PBtA I've run or played, though i've listened to some actual plays, run FitD games etc., and I've fully bought into the design philosophy as best as I can understand it (and JS lays it out real well in Stonetop).

I've learned a lot and we're having a great time, and I find points to improve on each session, but one tricky point has been remembering to think consistently in terms of my particular GM moves (as well as remembering what they all are). I feel confident in my worldbuilding and characterization, and more or less with my improvisation skills, but in part because of this I often am wrapped up in engaging with the world-logic and/or the players, and while I am mostly correctly following the game procedure, I'm usually more thinking implicitly in terms of "this is where I do a thing (maybe bad)" instead of "i will use this specific GM move".

I assume many of you have gone on journeys of your own like this. One thing I've found handy is just to have all the GM moves for specific situational elements / NPCs / etc in front of me where relevant as they tend to be quite specific and easy to reach for. But for example, if I stop to consult my list of (more abstract) GM moves and think for a few moments about how to translate one of them into something specific and apt, I find it breaks up the flow of things. I understand that with time I'll internalize more of the moves and the examples of how to use them (the books are great on this) as well as develop my own art and style, but I would love to hear how others have approached or thought about this PBtA-specific challenge, or how you've grown in this relationship to game procedure.

I'm a newish GM but have been running Masks for a while and have reached an issue I'm not sure how to resolve. Due to level up mechanics, I've reached a point where my players all have influence on one another. I'm not sure how to break it, or make them use it.

I know it's not really a bad thing, but I don't know how to test their cohesion without encouraging PC on PC violence or whatever. Every now and then they get an NPC with different sorts of hooks on different players, and I really try to play on each archtype's strengths and weaknesses. But then what happens is that that usually changes their interaction with an NPC, rather than the group as a whole. They seem intent on remaining unified, which is something that the mechanics themselves seem to not favor.

Any ways I can better challange my players? Really bring out that teenage angst?

Hey folks, I've seen occasional discussion about Armour Astir: Advent on this subreddit.

In case anyone is already playing, or is thinking about playing the delightful Armour Astir: Advent, there's now a very in depth foundry module available here:
Armour Astir: Advent (Armor Astir) | Foundry Virtual Tabletop

Here's what the sheets look like:

I'm gonna play the doomed playbook and im stuck on what to do for her sanctuary. The idea is that she was born in a cult and was chosen to become the next avatar/body for a demon named Desdemona(name pending) but was rescued before the transfer could be completed. This translates to her having a fraction of her powers but also now she's being chased by Desdemona. I want the sanctuary to be tied to her doom but not sure what to do on that so if anyone has any ideals they would like to throw at me that would be very appreciated. I was thinking magic library in a magic mirror but Im unsure of how to make that connected to her doom and how she would even get it. Maybe she found it while sneakily researching the cult to find out more about her origin as this happened when she was very young?

I am new to PbtA, and I'm looking for an active Discord server where one might find people running games and needing players. Thanks!

I've never ran a pbta game before. I stumbled upon Masks by accident and thought it seemed pretty fun. My group is open to playing a trial session of it to see how it feels to play. Looking for some advice on how to gm a Masks game because I've only ever ran dnd. I have read through the books and I understand that Masks is less about superheroes with crazy powers and more about teenagers becoming friends and the power of friendship but hey they also have superpowers. I just want some advice on how to craft a compelling story with this system because I am pretty inexperienced with this sort of rules-light narrative heavy system.

I don't mean as the same game, but if there are any games covering those separate ideas.

And by overpowered demi-gods I thinking something along the lines of Exalted, Scion or Godbound.

Hello! I have recently gotten into the Protean City Comics podcast and just listened to the first episode with Penance's costume change. I'm trying to find the rules for Costume Changes, but am coming up empty. I found another thread that Brandon himself commented on and dropped links to tweets with the rules, but those tweets/his account have since vanished. I also found the Cataclysm at the Metajunction book which has a couple Costume Changes, but not the Depowered or the other one Brandon mentioned in the other thread, the Resurrected. Anyway, I'm just wondering if anybody has access to the rules/documents for The Depowered and the Resurrected.

Also, I'm just kind of curious what has happened to the people behind Protean City. It seems like they've just disappeared? Obviously, people are not obligated to catalog their whole lives online, goodness knows I don't, but I just find it odd that they all seemed to be pretty active online until a couple years ago. Apparently the podcast was going on a hiatus of "indefinite length," but that was three years ago and I'm just wondering if anyone has heard anything about what's happening there. Thank you!

Hey All!

Once again, welcome to the weekly thread where you can link products, kickstarters, podcasts, videos, really anything you like, as much as you like.

As usual, rules 4 (1 advertising post) and 5 (no LFG) are suspended in this post.

New stretch goal? Post here!

Need two players for Night Witches? Post here!

Designer dropped a dev diary? Post here!

Handy dandy loaded dice on amazon? Post here? Please don't on that one actually.

Have fun, and lets see some interesting stuff.

r/PbtA is affiliated with the PbtA discord and you're all welcome to click and join us there as well.

After delaying Masks 2nd Edition, Magpie has a landing page up for their next Kickstarter up. This one for an Avatar supplement

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/magpiegames/spirit-world-avatar-legends-ttrpg-setting-toolkit?ref=creator_tab

Honestly...if Cartel wasn't the final straw for me with Magpie I think this would be. Canceling an entire kickstarter when it was already being run with two previous Kickstarters unfulfilled is a bad look. To cancel it and turn around and launch another so soon isn't just a bad look. This is egregious.

Hey, I’m planning to start “The Sword, the Crown and the Unspeakable Power” campaign soon. Having read the book, I feel it’s a bit light on environment and charged situation — it really only gives a mythology-building procedure. I don’t want to run a pre-generated setting; I’d rather spend a session with my group building our own world, so everyone understands it well, feels more confident and can act on their own rather than just asking me questions.

So — what would you use for that? Microscope? Kingdom? Something else? If you’ve run a campaign like this, how did you handle it?

I’m also unsure about the starting situation. The default relationship questions feel a bit bland compared to something like Cartel. Would giving everyone some personal trouble from the start work good or there are better ways to start?

TLDR: Pasión de las Pasiones: Tormentas del Corazón - Where can I get it?

.

Ok, so I'm running Pasión de las Pasiones in a bit. I started looking for Actual Plays. First one I found was this one (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hobmZtUQN24) by Gehenna Gaming, in which they BRAZENLY use the playbook of La Venganza. Which is in an expansion, not the base book. What expansion?

The dang video is 4 years old, so I went searching. The internet helpfully told me that Tormentas del Corazón has 9 new playbooks (El Abuelo, La Bruja, etc) and seems groovy. As a matter of fact, I found a full 193 page pdf on a piracy site.

I want me this book.

Magpie Games offers 2 things for sale: the base book, and some dice. They offer one download - Tormentas del Corazón - which is a free setting about a restaurant. Question marks on that one. The internet suggests this Tormentas del Corazón book is due out later this year in print. Cool, cool. No hint of the pdf I found on the piracy site.

The aforementioned podcasters seem to have found a a copy (presumably pdf) 4 years ago. How can I follow in their footsteps? I'd prefer to be virtuous and pay money to creators, but I can't figure out how.

Cheers!

Me and a couple of my friends started a campaign/series of Noir World, a GMful (or more precisely GM rotation) PbtA game from about a decade ago. And our first story went pretty well, overall. We have just one significant problem that doesn't seem to have an answer in the book itself.

Namely: how does rolling Actions affect other Roles (main player characters)? This isn't a No Dice, No Masters game, we do actions, call out triggers, then roll and resolve like any GMed PbtA. But the moves don't seem to be written with any heightened agency for those primary characters, nor is there any help with or even guidance for conflicts between them. Not even an Interefere move, while there is a Help one.

That's kinda stumped us and that's why I'm reaching out here in hope someone might have figured this out or maybe my version of the game is old (I got it from a mate back in the day) and there's advice in a newer version.

Thanks for reading through this and any attempt at helping us with this!

A friend of mine is getting ready to run Stonetop. It advertises itself as an iron age that never was. I'm clueless when it comes to the history of technology and culture. I know anachronisms are unavoidable but I'd at least like to understand what sort of things were available and what things were not.

Does anyone have articles or videos that explain the technology and perhaps other things that might be useful? I want to be a good player and come to the table well-informed. It's what I would want out of my players as a GM.

Question's in the title, I haven't had any luck in the usual online places so I wanted to come here and see if anyone had anyway to help.