Okay, I've been going back to this video a lot during my prep so I'm going to write down my notes here both as a future reference and to help anyone else who needs it. To prepare for any session besides the first, you need two things: 1. HOOKS. For each Player Character, prepare two NPC’s that want to pull them in the direction of two different Labels. Though not strictly required, try your best to reuse NPC’s over various Hooks (ie: NPC pulls PC 1 towards Freak, but PC 2 towards Savior). 2. ARCS. Prepare an Arc, choosing a Type and Subtype presented in the book. This lets you know the direction the Arc will play towards (through the Impulse) and allow you to create the antagonists (ideally 3-4) that push the Arc to its end. Not all of them need to be directly in line with the Impulse, and it’s likely these NPC’s would respond differently to the Impulse based on their Drive. As an example, in a “Destruction (Prison)“ Arc, you might have a villain working to destroy a superhuman prison, another destroying a magical prison, and the third villain instead DEFENDING the superhuman prison. These NPC’s can be the same NPC’s in the Hooks, and doing so would give things a tighter narrative feel. Then, write down what each NPC’s plan is for each Phase - essentially, you can think of it as what they would do if the PC’s never intervened. This is all you need to prepare between sessions. It’s an idea of where the PC’s tensions are going and where the greater narrative tensions are going. Therefore, during play, if your players don’t have a scene they’d like to frame, you have an easy reference for what to move on to. Frame a scene sparring with their Hook NPC, who confronts them directly with the issues they’re pulling the PC's towards. Frame a scene encountering the plans of one of the Arc’s antagonists and push the PC’s to respond. Optionally, you’re welcome to prepare 3-4 of such scenes prior to the game, so that you don’t even have to think about how to turn the Hooks and Arcs into scenes during a session.
It's so nice to see someone who's so knowledgeable about PbTA setup. Extremely well done and put together. Will be recommending this to my friends! Thank you!
Thanks Brian! I’m still learning something new with every session I run and definitely make a ton of mistakes along the way. But I hope I can use my experience to help others just getting their foot in the door!
I really apprieacte the masks content, I have wanted to run a game for the longest time, however I do think, things like making a custome villain and setting up fights and action is a intimidating part of the game, I would love to know more about masks !
Dude! DUDE! I almost died laughing with the “Steal the plot…” that was great. There are so many youtube videos that really could be summed up like that but the maker decides that it really needs a 55 min video. I am looking forward to your other videos on this game. I would like to see you walk us through this game with you. Like I am looking forward seeing the fall out from what you did on this video and then how you prep with what the players did. Keep up the nice work man!
I'm glad you enjoyed that bit! Definitely planned on doing more regarding Masks in the near future. I've always been a huge fan of Matt Colville's campaign diaries so given that at least one person (you) would be interested in that style of video, I'll make one! (or two or three or four).
@@tabletopbro Very cool. Sorry about the late response. I have been lax on my video watching. My group picked up 7 Days to Die and well that has consumed my life =). I really appreciate your engagement with your watchers. That is super cool.
Hey man just found your channel. Awesome work you are doing. Love the engaging method of presentation and those sweet doggos. Keep it going also would love to see you do some live play of anything also old school essentIals and dungeon crawl classics
Thanks Ben! Really means a lot. I’ve got a couple ambitious projects in the pipeline currently that’ll be coming out soon. I never even considered doing a live play but that could be a lot of fun to do in the future!
This is so great! Please do more MASKS content soon, this video makes me wanna play real bad but the villain creation (especially the conditions aspect) is not making sense to me.
@@tabletopbro Seriously love ths way you're making this masks content! I haven't seen any other channels doing it this way so any more videos you want to throw out I'm here for it!!!!!
This wasn't only nice and entertaining but also very helpful. When I GM Masks next time, I will include a special artifact: The Potelbat Orb. ^^ (If the punchline eludes you, read it backwards) I have no idea what it's capable of doing... yet. Let's see what my party comes up with. xD
So, do haaaaaaaaaave to roleplay an angsty teen in Masks, or would you say the system allows for a bit more flexibility from a role playing perspective? Like, what if a player wants to play an elderly man, for example lol.
That’s a tough one. The core engine of the game is built around the influence/labels system and the game is ultimately about how these characters discover who they really are. A fun homebrew ruleset might be a bunch of middle age guys having mid life crises. BUT I’ve heard a lot about Worlds in Peril which is a superhero game more about adult superheroes that MIGHT be more up your alley. When I get the chance I definitely wanna do a few videos on it
Most PbtA games are heavily about genre emulation, Masks genre is Teen Super Hero Shows like teen titans. So not *reeeaaally.* That's kind of the thing with most PbtA games, if you aren't interested in playing the genre its about there is very little else there.
Okay, I've been going back to this video a lot during my prep so I'm going to write down my notes here both as a future reference and to help anyone else who needs it. To prepare for any session besides the first, you need two things:
1. HOOKS. For each Player Character, prepare two NPC’s that want to pull them in the direction of two different Labels. Though not strictly required, try your best to reuse NPC’s over various Hooks (ie: NPC pulls PC 1 towards Freak, but PC 2 towards Savior).
2. ARCS. Prepare an Arc, choosing a Type and Subtype presented in the book. This lets you know the direction the Arc will play towards (through the Impulse) and allow you to create the antagonists (ideally 3-4) that push the Arc to its end. Not all of them need to be directly in line with the Impulse, and it’s likely these NPC’s would respond differently to the Impulse based on their Drive. As an example, in a “Destruction (Prison)“ Arc, you might have a villain working to destroy a superhuman prison, another destroying a magical prison, and the third villain instead DEFENDING the superhuman prison. These NPC’s can be the same NPC’s in the Hooks, and doing so would give things a tighter narrative feel. Then, write down what each NPC’s plan is for each Phase - essentially, you can think of it as what they would do if the PC’s never intervened.
This is all you need to prepare between sessions. It’s an idea of where the PC’s tensions are going and where the greater narrative tensions are going. Therefore, during play, if your players don’t have a scene they’d like to frame, you have an easy reference for what to move on to. Frame a scene sparring with their Hook NPC, who confronts them directly with the issues they’re pulling the PC's towards. Frame a scene encountering the plans of one of the Arc’s antagonists and push the PC’s to respond.
Optionally, you’re welcome to prepare 3-4 of such scenes prior to the game, so that you don’t even have to think about how to turn the Hooks and Arcs into scenes during a session.
It's so nice to see someone who's so knowledgeable about PbTA setup. Extremely well done and put together. Will be recommending this to my friends! Thank you!
Thanks Brian! I’m still learning something new with every session I run and definitely make a ton of mistakes along the way. But I hope I can use my experience to help others just getting their foot in the door!
Thanks for watching! I tried up some new things with the format on this one, so let me know what y'all think!
I really apprieacte the masks content, I have wanted to run a game for the longest time, however I do think, things like making a custome villain and setting up fights and action is a intimidating part of the game, I would love to know more about masks !
Dude! DUDE! I almost died laughing with the “Steal the plot…” that was great. There are so many youtube videos that really could be summed up like that but the maker decides that it really needs a 55 min video.
I am looking forward to your other videos on this game. I would like to see you walk us through this game with you. Like I am looking forward seeing the fall out from what you did on this video and then how you prep with what the players did.
Keep up the nice work man!
I'm glad you enjoyed that bit!
Definitely planned on doing more regarding Masks in the near future. I've always been a huge fan of Matt Colville's campaign diaries so given that at least one person (you) would be interested in that style of video, I'll make one! (or two or three or four).
@@tabletopbro Very cool. Sorry about the late response. I have been lax on my video watching. My group picked up 7 Days to Die and well that has consumed my life =). I really appreciate your engagement with your watchers. That is super cool.
Lml it's funny how you edit this video, I mean I like it. I definitely want to try Masks though, thank you for this!!!!
Of course! It’s a great game! Glad you like my editing lmao
Great video. Thanks for the Masks content!
Thanks for watching the Masks content!More to come!
Hey man just found your channel. Awesome work you are doing. Love the engaging method of presentation and those sweet doggos. Keep it going also would love to see you do some live play of anything also old school essentIals and dungeon crawl classics
Thanks Ben! Really means a lot. I’ve got a couple ambitious projects in the pipeline currently that’ll be coming out soon.
I never even considered doing a live play but that could be a lot of fun to do in the future!
This video is awesome to watch, even after a few sessions have happened!
Thanks! Glad it's still helpful😎
This is so great! Please do more MASKS content soon, this video makes me wanna play real bad but the villain creation (especially the conditions aspect) is not making sense to me.
May have to throw together a video on that right quick 🧐
Sorry for the wait😂
@@tabletopbro Seriously love ths way you're making this masks content! I haven't seen any other channels doing it this way so any more videos you want to throw out I'm here for it!!!!!
Just curious, have you tried Sentinel Comics? Its less reliant on playing teen than Masks. However, lots of comic book feel mechanics. Cheers!
This wasn't only nice and entertaining but also very helpful. When I GM Masks next time, I will include a special artifact: The Potelbat Orb. ^^
(If the punchline eludes you, read it backwards)
I have no idea what it's capable of doing... yet. Let's see what my party comes up with. xD
Also stealing that!
@@tabletopbro Feel free to do that. Life is for sharing. ^^
So, will we be hearing of the powerful Potelbat Orb in part 3 of your campaign diary?
@@rosu3870 Campaign fell apart🤷♂
Nice!
so wouldn't this apply to any PBTA game? if so this could be handy for that avatar game that's gonna be printing soon
So, do haaaaaaaaaave to roleplay an angsty teen in Masks, or would you say the system allows for a bit more flexibility from a role playing perspective? Like, what if a player wants to play an elderly man, for example lol.
That’s a tough one. The core engine of the game is built around the influence/labels system and the game is ultimately about how these characters discover who they really are.
A fun homebrew ruleset might be a bunch of middle age guys having mid life crises.
BUT I’ve heard a lot about Worlds in Peril which is a superhero game more about adult superheroes that MIGHT be more up your alley.
When I get the chance I definitely wanna do a few videos on it
Most PbtA games are heavily about genre emulation, Masks genre is Teen Super Hero Shows like teen titans. So not *reeeaaally.* That's kind of the thing with most PbtA games, if you aren't interested in playing the genre its about there is very little else there.