Character 5 - Masks: A New Generation

 Looooong day at work today means a quick and easy character creation tonight. As such I'll be skipping my usual alphabetical order thing and pulling a game off the shelf that I know has fast and easy character creation rules. Masks: A New Generation is a role-playing game of teen superheroes from Magpie Games. First published in 2016, Masks is a Powered by the Apocalypse (PBTA) game set in a world of super heroes and villains in which you take on the role of a team of new(ish), young heroes. Unlike most other supers RPGs, the focus isn't on powers so much but on interpersonal relationships. I really enjoy the game and can't wait to get into it with y'all.

Getting Into It With Y'all

Step One - Choose A Playbook

So unlike traditional RPGs that have character classes or even more freeform skill based systems, most PBTA games begin with choosing a playbook. Depending on the nature of the game this could be something as simple as "fighter" or "wasteland warrior" and in Masks it's really a reflection of how your character sees himself and interacts with the world around them. Let's go over the options in the corebook.

• The Beacon is a low powered, low angst character who has become a hero because they just really WANT to help people out. 
• The Bull is a big tough bruiser who has become a hero because they were created to be a weapon and want to do better.
• The Delinquent is a trickster and a troublemaker who became a hero probably for the thrills.
• The Doomed is cursed to lose themself to a cruel fate and comes packaged with a dark nemesis.
• The Janus is a hero with a secret identity that's the focus of who they are. Think Spider-Man here.
• The Legacy is the latest in a long line of Heroes.
• The Nova is full of more power than they can really control.
• The Outsider is an alien or other recent arrival to our setting.
• The Protege is extremely well-trained and defined by their relationship with their Mentor.
• The Transformed used to be a regular person until they were transformed into their present monstrous form.

There's no bad option and, you'll note, they're more than just "the flying brick" or "the fire guy" as you often get in supers RPGs. Sure, you can look at the Janus and see Spider-Man, but he could just as easily be a Beacon. Robin likewise could be a Legacy or a Protege. So with all those fun choices to pick from I think I'll go simple and pick The Transformed.

Step Two - Pick your Name and Look

The playbooks have suggestions for look and you can pick your own superhero and/or secret identity name. For our Transformed I'm going to go with the hero name of The Cayman and the real name of Joaquin Martinez. As for his look he's large, male presenting and covered in large green scales that become smaller at his face and hands. He used to dress like a normal teen in hoodies and jeans, but he's a bit rough on clothes since he changed and now he tends to pick more durable outfits that wind up tattered and torn eventually anyway. So yeah, your basic big hulking lizard man.

Step Three - Set your Abilities

So this is where you put down your superpowers. Each Playbook has a few suggestions but if you don't like them then feel free to put down what you'd rather have. The Cayman, being a big tough lizard dude, has impenetrable armor and inhuman might. He's super strong and incredibly tough but he can't fly or shoot lasers from his fists or anything like that. 

Step Four - The Labels

Rather than traditional attributes like Strength and Dexterity and Willpower, Masks characters have five labels that are rolled for a variety of moves.

• Danger: seeing yourself as threatening, strong and a threat to other people. Rolled to directly engage a threat. You know like punching or blasting with eye beams.
• Freak: seeing yourself as strange, unusual, able to do things noone else can and unable to fit in. Rolled to unleash your powers. If you want to use your magic ring to create a safety net to stop a car, this is what you roll.
• Savior: seeing yourself as protecting, guarding, a martyr and maybe a bit overbearing. Rolled to defend. If you want to jump in between the evil Dr. Destructo and a teammate or bystander, roll Savior.
• Superior: seeing yourself as smart, capable, clever and possibly egotistical. Rolled to assess the situation or provoke someone. If you want the lay of the land or to influence anybody socially, be it through charm or intimidation or some other method, you roll Superior.
• Mundane: seeing yourself as normal, human, regular and maybe even boring. Rolled to pierce the mask or comfort and support. If you want to see what somebody is REALLY up to or if you want to be a shoulder for your teammates to cry on, you want to be Mundane.

The labels are rated from -2 to +3 and each Playbook comes with them preset though gives you a +1 to apply wherever to customize your character. The Transformed starts with Danger +1, Freak +3, Savior 0, Superior -1 and Mundane -1 but I'm going to drop my +1 into Savior. Joaquin may be a hideous lizard man, but he's here to help however he can. 

Now, in Masks, labels shift all the time. Anyone who has influence on you can attempt to shift them in a one up/one down manner and EVERY ADULT has influence over you. Even the villains. Also your teammates and others in your peer group can gain influence. It's a very fluid system and being a teen is all about discovering who you are, deep down.

Step Five - Backstory Questions

Every Playbook has specifically tailored backstory questions. The Legacy will ask about who you are and who came before you. The Protege will ask about who your mentor is. The Transformed asks the following:

Who were you before? Joaquin was the third child of four, a decent student at Halcyon City High with a promising athletics career ahead of him.

When did you change? What caused it? It was a rainy Friday night and the Halcyon High Huskies were down three points. Joaquin caught the ball and was barreling through the defensive line when he started to feel strange. He kept his head down and put one foot in front of the other, but his vision was doubling and he could feel his opponents beginning to pile onto him. But... he didn't feel like they were slowing him down. He just powered through, dragging four people behind him. At some point he felt his helmet break off and his pads and uniform tearing but he didn't care. In the rush of adrenaline he just kept moving forward, towards the end zone and victory. Finally he made it over the zero yard line and spiked the ball...about three feet straight into the sod. Some strange combination of adrenaline and an underlying mutant genome combined to transform Joaquin into a hulking lizardman.

Who, outside the team, is helping you understand your new body? Joaquin's family is very accepting and supportive of him, but they don't understand what it's like to be a teenager one day and a huge hulking monster the next. Nobody really understands what that's like. But he does have a friend, Callie Winters, who he turns to for support. It's possible he has a tiny crush on Callie, but he knows she could never like someone as hideous as him. Right?

Why don't you just try to hide yourself away? Well, after such a public initial transformation that would be pretty pointless, wouldn't it? Besides there's a lot Cayman can do with his abilities and it would be selfish not to help those in need.

Why do you care about the team? They're my best friends and they're all going through something similar themselves. They might not be huge monsters, but they're all going through SOMETHING big.

Step Six - Picking Moves

So everyone can do the basic moves I mentioned before under Labels: directly engage a threat, unleash your powers, defend someone, assess the situation, provoke someone, comfort and support someone, and pierce someone's mask. In addition to those seven moves though, every character gets playbook moves that are specific to that playbook. These may be completely new or they may build on the basic moves. The Transformed has six available and can pick three. Looking them over, I'm going to pick the following three:

Unstoppable: When you smash your way through scenery to get to or away from something, roll + Danger. On a hit, the world breaks before you, and you get what you want. On a 7-9, choose one: mark a condition, leave something behind, or take something with you. On a miss, you smash through, but leave devastation in your wake or wind up somewhere worse, GM's choice.

Coming for you: When you mark a condition, take +1 forward against the person you most blame for causing it.

Not human enough: When you Directly Engage a Threat in a terrifying fashion, mark a condition to choose an additional option, even on a miss.

So what that all means is that Cayman is a big unstoppable dude who can punch through walls, declare vengeance on someone who hurts him and absolutely devastate any opponent he faces when he gives into his bestial nature.

Step Seven - Team Moves, Relationships and Influence

This is the point when, in a normal game, I would discuss the relationships Cayman has with the other members of his team and who has Influence over whom and how the team initially came together. After that, I'm ready to grab my 2d6 and get to playing! Since there's nobody else here making a character though, we'll call it a night there. See you all back here tomorrow with more character generating fun!