Masks 7
Jun 14, 2017 17:29:24 GMT -8
Post by HyveMynd on Jun 14, 2017 17:29:24 GMT -8
Wow. I'm surprised no one's started a thread for MASKS Volume 1 Issue 7 yet. But as they say in internet land: FIRST!
I'll start off by saying I'm really enjoying the actual play. Love the characters, love the situations they find themselves in, and love all the awkward teenage romantic drama. That's where I prefer to put the focus when running MASKS; teenage drama over the superpowers.
As I'm listening to the sessions, rather than running or playing them, I'm able to look up rules as situations arise. Turns out multiple people can spend Team from the Team Pool on a single roll. So when Derby Girl threw up that psychic force field to keep the crowd out of the stadium's control booth, Zero and Boom Boom could have both pitched in, each spending a Team to bump Kimi's roll from a 5 to a 7.
Speaking of that missed force field roll, while the beginning and end of the session were great, the fight with Siren got a bit... mechanical. Again, I'm aware that I'm saying this as someone who has the luxury of being an observer and is not juggling a billion things at once as the MC or a player. There were a few times during the fight with Siren where I felt moves should have been triggered but weren't, or were being triggered without a whole lof of fiction surrounding them.
When Boom Boom taunted Siren with her "Bring it." comment, that should have triggered the Provoke move, as gina pointed out later. That might have allowed the team to get the jump on her before she summoned all her mind-controlled minions.
I loved the control room glass blowing outward as a result of the collateral damage from Boom Boom's first attack on Siren. But we didn't get much narration of what Siren did in response. I'm not sure if Siren took a Condition from the attack, but according to the book: "When a villain marks a condition, they make a move from the condition moves list immediately, before the PCs act again."
Then Derby Girl tossed up a psychic force field to keep all the min-controlled fans out. Awesome idea. She blew the Unleash Your Powers roll though, and three people got in before it went up as a result. Great example of "giving them what they want but in a way they might not want it" jazzisblues; that's one of my favorite things to do as MC. But then Derby Girl had to Take a Powerful Blow, which makes sense, but we didn't get any description or narration of what the mind-controlled fans did to her. Did they dogpile her to the ground? Grab her arms and try to restrain her? Just generally get in her way?
They just seemed to disappear, because Derby Girl was immediately able to rush over to the control panel to "help" Zero without having to deal with them at all. You commented that the MC makes a move in response to player actions jazzisblues, which is absolutely correct, but NPCs also get to act when it's appropriate for them to do so. Like the trio of mind-controlled minions getting in Derby Girl's way, or Siren trying to stop Zero from disabling the stadium's PA system. For a while I thought that Siren had gotten caught outside the psychic force field, as she just kind of sat around doing nothing for a good chunk of the fight. You're well within your rights to have her moving around, launching attacks at the heroes, and making life difficult for them jazzisblues. Tossing energy beams (of whatever) at the PCs could have forced them to Defend each other as the jumped in the way of attacks, Assess the Situation to see what tools were on hand to defeat Siren or deal with the crowd, Pierce the Mask to try and deduce her intentions and goals, or Unleash Your Powers to deal with the mayhem she was causing.
So yeah. That ended up being longer than I intended, and maybe a bit harsher too. So I just want to reiterate how awesome and entertaining the series is. I can't wait to see what happens with James and Zoe at the dance, and maybe even with Tess and Zeke. Of course we also need to find out what's up with Zeke's mom and that battle armor pod, as well as what happened to the kid who should have gotten Jame's Mr. Clean super powers.
I'll start off by saying I'm really enjoying the actual play. Love the characters, love the situations they find themselves in, and love all the awkward teenage romantic drama. That's where I prefer to put the focus when running MASKS; teenage drama over the superpowers.
As I'm listening to the sessions, rather than running or playing them, I'm able to look up rules as situations arise. Turns out multiple people can spend Team from the Team Pool on a single roll. So when Derby Girl threw up that psychic force field to keep the crowd out of the stadium's control booth, Zero and Boom Boom could have both pitched in, each spending a Team to bump Kimi's roll from a 5 to a 7.
Speaking of that missed force field roll, while the beginning and end of the session were great, the fight with Siren got a bit... mechanical. Again, I'm aware that I'm saying this as someone who has the luxury of being an observer and is not juggling a billion things at once as the MC or a player. There were a few times during the fight with Siren where I felt moves should have been triggered but weren't, or were being triggered without a whole lof of fiction surrounding them.
When Boom Boom taunted Siren with her "Bring it." comment, that should have triggered the Provoke move, as gina pointed out later. That might have allowed the team to get the jump on her before she summoned all her mind-controlled minions.
I loved the control room glass blowing outward as a result of the collateral damage from Boom Boom's first attack on Siren. But we didn't get much narration of what Siren did in response. I'm not sure if Siren took a Condition from the attack, but according to the book: "When a villain marks a condition, they make a move from the condition moves list immediately, before the PCs act again."
Then Derby Girl tossed up a psychic force field to keep all the min-controlled fans out. Awesome idea. She blew the Unleash Your Powers roll though, and three people got in before it went up as a result. Great example of "giving them what they want but in a way they might not want it" jazzisblues; that's one of my favorite things to do as MC. But then Derby Girl had to Take a Powerful Blow, which makes sense, but we didn't get any description or narration of what the mind-controlled fans did to her. Did they dogpile her to the ground? Grab her arms and try to restrain her? Just generally get in her way?
They just seemed to disappear, because Derby Girl was immediately able to rush over to the control panel to "help" Zero without having to deal with them at all. You commented that the MC makes a move in response to player actions jazzisblues, which is absolutely correct, but NPCs also get to act when it's appropriate for them to do so. Like the trio of mind-controlled minions getting in Derby Girl's way, or Siren trying to stop Zero from disabling the stadium's PA system. For a while I thought that Siren had gotten caught outside the psychic force field, as she just kind of sat around doing nothing for a good chunk of the fight. You're well within your rights to have her moving around, launching attacks at the heroes, and making life difficult for them jazzisblues. Tossing energy beams (of whatever) at the PCs could have forced them to Defend each other as the jumped in the way of attacks, Assess the Situation to see what tools were on hand to defeat Siren or deal with the crowd, Pierce the Mask to try and deduce her intentions and goals, or Unleash Your Powers to deal with the mayhem she was causing.
So yeah. That ended up being longer than I intended, and maybe a bit harsher too. So I just want to reiterate how awesome and entertaining the series is. I can't wait to see what happens with James and Zoe at the dance, and maybe even with Tess and Zeke. Of course we also need to find out what's up with Zeke's mom and that battle armor pod, as well as what happened to the kid who should have gotten Jame's Mr. Clean super powers.