Sure! Go for it.

A reminder that I'd like to get character sheets in by tonight. I'm still waiting on a couple, and there's a few players I've asked some questions of that I haven't heard back from. Please let me know what your status is soon as you can, and let me know if there's anything I can do to help.

Sorry to hear that, Shameless, but thanks for letting us know!

Due to the number of people who're interested, I have opted to increase the number of playbooks available. The OP has been updated, but for the sake of clarity, I'll make mention of them here: The Star: the superhero as fame. Special features include having a fanbase (most superheroes have them, but they define you.) Examples include Booster Gold. The Newborn: An android or other form of created being, learning things for the first time. Examples include the Vision. The Innocent: a time traveler from the past, here in the present where Adult Them has fallen on hard times. Meant to evoke that period where the O5 X-Men as teens wound up in the modern Marvel Universe. The Joined: Your powers are linked, intimately, to another player character. Examples include Cloak & Dagger. The Harbinger: A time traveler from the other direction, here to change the past. Examples include Bishop. The Scion: the child of a famous supervillain who is out to prove that they are not like their parent. Examples include the Runaways. (The Reformed requires a little too much experience with superheroics for this premise, so it's on hold.) Anyone who wants to switch playbooks is welcome to; this is mostly to give some breathing room to those who've yet to pick one. These playbooks are available upon request, or they can be found in MASKS Unbound, or the Halcyon City Herald Collection. Now, a couple of additional notes: I'm capping players at seven to start with; that's the upper limit on most good superhero teams, to be quite honest. I'm imposing a deadline on one week from today, to get playbooks done to the point we can start group worldbuilding with them. That's April 9th. You should have your playbook basically done, except for the group relationships and "When We Came Together" section; we'll go over those in our session zero (of a sort.) If your playbook is basically complete, I'll be PMing you shortly. Finally, something I've been meaning to do for a game is try out the "Consent in Gaming" checklist from Monte Cook Games, to ensure that everyone is on the same page when it comes to potentially difficult content. Not that I anticipate much in a game like this, but a lot of things in the genre that includes just about everything can have an inadvertent squick factor, such as memory manipulation or various "fates worse than death." So, if any of these are yellow or red, please let me know and I'll do my utmost to make sure no one's uncomfortable. Likewise, if you have any issues that aren't on this list. If you wish to DM this rather than talk about it openly, that's fine and I understand.

I have updated the OP with the playbooks everyone's laid claim to. Thanks!

So, I've decided to get back into GMing, and the system I want to run is MASKS. What is MASKS? MASKS is an RPG using the Powered by the Apocalypse ruleset (Dungeon World, Apocalypse World) which frames its mechanics around having a conversation. MASKS specifically casts you in the role of a young adult superhero as you attempt to figure yourself out and deal with the drama, emotions, and growth of a young superhero. What's the premise of the game? It's the first week of September and those of you who are enrolled in college are about to start your first semester – or, if you're not in college, you're working or living close by! And over the summer you kind of sort of wound up a superhero in a superhero team, and you'll have to deal with all that too. Beyond that, I'm keeping things extremely loose, beyond using the base premise of MASKS: Halcyon City, the superhero capital of the world, and the fact that there have been three generations of superheroes before yours, so you are emerging into an established heroic tradition and need to decide for yourself how you fit into it. This is meant to simulate young superheroic action, like Teen Titans, Young Justice, Young Avengers or the New Mutants. They key difference is that you're all college age – 18 to 20 – and therefore can both get into a little more trouble and have a few extra responsibilities. Where can I buy this? Magpie Game's listing for the base book is on DriveThruRPG. Can I get the basics of the game before committing? Sure! Broadly speaking, this is a less crunchy game; powers and abilities are kept fairly loose, so you don't have to worry about character optimization. The base mechanic is "roll 2d6, and you miss on a 6 or lower, get a partial hit on a 7-9, and a full hit on 10+. Some stats add to these rolls and some conditions detract on specific moves." Going in deeper, here are some important concepts: - Playbooks: Essentially the equivalent of character classes. But in MASKS, the classes are less about team role in terms of what you do, and more about how you fit into the world and what your general story's shape is going to be. By default, we will start play with only one character of any given playbook. For example, if you are playing a Nova, you are playing the Nova; the team's one example of this character archetype. The character playbooks are: The Beacon: Little to no superpower; the superhero who's closest to human. At their best when they're in over their head or acting as a grounding influence. Examples include Hawkeye, Kate Pryde, and Green Arrow. The Bull: A super-soldier with great passions, defined by someone they care about and a rival they have a dramatic relationship with. Examples include Wolverine, Superboy and the Winter Soldier. The Delinquent: A tricky, shifty pain in the ass who bucks authority and is the team rebel, their deep secret being that they genuinely care about the rest of these dorks. Examples include Kid Loki, Quentin Quire and Arsenal. Claimed by SalmonMax, for Kitsune The Doomed: Great power, at great cost. The Doomed's powers are killing them, but they'll grow stronger until the day they face their doom and either accept it or change it. Examples include Raven, Phoenix and Spawn. Claimed by MalachiteDrake, for Persephone The Janus: A superhero defined by their mask, and the divide it gives between their mundane life and responsibilities, and their superheroic escapades. Examples include Spider-Man, Kamala Khan, and Jamie Reyes as Blue Beetle. The Legacy: You come from a big family, or a vast organization, of superheroes. You're the next in line. Everyone has expectations of you, but what do you want? Examples include Kid Flash, Green Lantern and Supergirl. The Nova: The most powerful member of the team… but those powers aren't fully under control and can be a danger to yourself and to others. How well can you control them? Examples include the Scarlet Witch, Wiccan, and Jane from the Doom Patrol. Claimed by Asarasa, for Incantrix The Outsider: You're from space, or under the sea, or a parallel universe… wherever you're from, you've decided to stick around. But home still calls, and you have to decide how – or if – to answer. Examples include Starfire, Aquaman/Aqualad, and Miss Martian. Claimed by Krul, for Xhrin The Protégé: You've been training under an experienced superhero for years. Their goal, explicit or implicit, was to make you the kind of superhero they are. And you have to decide if you want that. Examples include Robin, Miles Morales, and Ironheart. Claimed by Aarkaine, for Argo The Transformed: You used to look human, and now you're something else. You have to decide how much you want to yearn for the way things used to be, and how much to accept things as they are. Examples include the Hulk, Cyborg, and Beast. Claimed by ING, for Leshy Full details on the playbooks can be found here. I've been persuaded to make some additional playbooks available, if folks are interested: The Star: You're in it for fame, fortune, and the spotlight. You have a following that demands as much of you as it loves you. And you need to balance yourself between the popular thing and the right thing. Examples include Booster Gold. The Newborn: An android or other form of created being, learning things for the first time. You're a blank slate, and have a lot to learn. Examples include the Vision. The Innocent: a time traveler from the past, here in the present where Adult Them has fallen on hard times. Are they destined to go the same way, or can they make their future their own? Examples include the original five X-Men transported to the present. The Harbinger: a time traveler from the other direction, here to change the past. But your memories don't work right, and and you have a lot to learn about this era, how it leads to the disasters in your era, and the ethics of time travel. Examples include a good 20% of the X-Men. The Joined: You are linked to another player character and share much of their powers, their origin, and their life. And you have to wonder how much you want that, and how much you want to be your own person. Examples include Cloak & Dagger. The Scion: you're the child of a supervillain. They've taught you a lot. But they also taught you a warped version of what's right and what's wrong, and you have a lot to learn, and unlearn. Examples include the Runaways. Claimed by Jekca, for Leverage - Labels: Like attributes. You have five, with the descriptors taken direct from the core book: o Danger: seeing yourself as threatening, strong, bloody-knuckled, and risky. Other people see you as a danger when they think they should steer clear of you because you might bring them harm. You see yourself as a danger when you believe you can take down other dangerous threats, and when you think you yourself are a threat to other people. o Freak: seeing yourself as strange, unusual, unique, and powerful. Other people see you as a freak when they think you’re odd, unlike them, something unnatural or outside of their understanding. You see yourself as a freak when you accept and own the things you can do that no one else can, and when you think you don’t belong with the people and the world around you. o Savior: seeing yourself as defending, guarding, protecting, and stalwart. Other people see you as a savior when they think of you as noble or self-sacrificing, or a bit overbearing and moralizing. You see yourself as a savior when you think of yourself as a martyr, someone who gladly sacrifices to protect and defend others. o Superior: seeing yourself as smart, capable, crafty, and quick. Other people see you as superior when they think you’re the smartest person in the room, an arrogant and egotistical jerk. You see yourself as superior when you think you’re cleverer than everyone else, and when you know exactly what to say to make the people around you do what you want. o Mundane: seeing yourself as normal, human, empathetic, and understanding. Other people see you as mundane when they think of you as all too normal and uninteresting, but also comprehending and sympathetic. You see yourself as mundane when you think you’re regular, just a person, not special, and focused on normal human things like feelings and emotions. - Influence: Above, each stat is defined both as how you see yourself, and how others see you, and the reason for that is the influence mechanic. If you have Influence over someone else, they care what you think; if they have Influence over you, you care what they think. Conversations with people who have Influence over you can cause your labels to shift; as in, they can tell you that you embody one label and deny another, and since you care what they think, you can either accept the shift… or attempt to reject it, possibly with consequences. Yes, this means that your labels could shift around quite a bit: this is part of the game, as you are pulled this was and that by people you care about. - Basic Moves: Every character gets these: o Directly Engage a Threat: Keyed typically to Danger. You fight a target, either physically or emotionally, and attempt to bring them low. o Unleash Your Powers: Keyed typically to Freak. You use your powers or abilities in ways not covered by other moves. o Defend Someone: Typically keyed to Savior. You act to stop or diminish an attack against someone else. o Assess the Situation: Typically keyed to Superior. On a hit, you can ask some questions that the GM must answer honestly. o Provoke Someone: Typically keyed to Superior. You push someone's emotional buttons to try and get them to do something. o Comfort or Support Someone: typically keyed to Mundane. You can help someone who's feeling blue and let them clear conditions, mark potential, or shift their Labels. Sort of the healing skill in many ways. o Pierce the Mask: Keyed to Mundane. You can ask questions about a person's motivations and the GM must answer truthfully. o Take a Powerful Blow: keyed to the number of conditions you have marked – on this roll, lower is better, and this move comes into play when you take a physical or emotional blow that stands a chance to hurt you. o Reject Influence: a flat 2d6. If you want to ignore what someone with Influence over you thinks, you roll dem bones. Success means you keep your Labels secure; failure means that your Labels shift and you mark a condition as you get upset. So pick your battles. o Other Moves: Each playbook has unique moves that can either modify these moves or open up new avenues to interact with the world and its characters. - Conditions: when you are dealt a blow or screw up or otherwise don't get it right, you mark a condition: Afraid, Angry, Guilty, Hopeless or Insecure. Essentially this replaces hit points and allows for more interesting roleplaying opportunities, as spending time with friends can help you get yourself together – or alternately, you can give in to the emotions behind the condition to clear it. For example, to clear Angry, you'd give in to your anger and hurt someone (either physically or emotionally) or break something important. Essentially, MASKS's mechanics are all keyed towards young adult superhero drama. You don't lose your hit points when you take a blast from a supervillain, you get emotional – maybe angry because it hurt despite your super-tough skin, maybe afraid because this is your nemesis and you're not sure if you can take them, maybe insecure because you feel like you're out of your league. And in most cases you don't have a hit point recovery mechanic; you either give in to these feelings or talk them out with a sympathetic friend. - Team: a shared group resource that lets teammates help each other out in a sticky situation, turning a miss into a hit, or a partial hit into a full hit. It can be used selfishly or selflessly – i.e. you can use it to bolster yourself, or, more effectively, to help another player character (which is not always an option.) - Potential: the XP of this game. Marking potential five times means you gain a 'level' and can pick up some new options. Crucially, you mark potential on a miss – which means that your failures can often be your best teacher. So don't be afraid to use a move that's risky if it's what the character would really want; you fail forward in this game, and a miss can often mean "a success, with unforeseen consequences." - Moment of Truth: an advance you can take, used very sparingly. This is a moment where you can dictate the outcomes of the fiction; do incredible things without needing to roll. It's a moment where you grow up a little – after this, you'll be taken a little more seriously and others will look at you a little differently. Examples in superheroic fiction include when Wally West matched and exceeded Barry Allen's speed; it's when Miles Morales mastered his unique spider-powers and defeated the Kingpin on his own; it's when Dick Grayson stopped being Robin and started being Nightwing. After using a Moment of Truth, you lock a Label – from that point on, it won't ever shift up or down, because you know a little more about who you are and who you want to be. Various playbooks such as the Doomed have additional mechanics that come into play when using a Moment of Truth. There are other concepts, but you probably want to read the main book if you really want to dig into this system. What's the general tone of the game? Essentially, fairly light, with dramatic potential. Going further into it: - An Established Superheroic World: I'm keeping details loose because the world building will be largely collaborative – I'm not going to invent the world's greatest superhero because you might want that to be your mentor or parent. But superheroes have been around for a while, in fairly four-color terms; people are used to aliens, magic, and the like. It hasn't affected the world in radically transformative ways – this isn't a transhuman world – but people aren't going to be baffled if you display incredible powers. Halcyon City is the consensus superheroic city; they're used to this stuff. - The Team Chose to Be Together: you can have good reasons or bad reasons for joining up, and you can have them out in the open or keep them close to your chest, but you all want to be superheroes on this team. You can dramatically storm out when you get upset or feel you can't come to the team with your problems, but those are obstacles to overcome, not the status quo. - You Aren't Killers: there may have been accidents and property damage, but by default, attacks are non-lethal and you need a very good reason to change that, because in this game, sentient life is considered something of great value. If someone dies, it needs to have weight. This doesn't mean you can never kill – it means that you need to think long and hard about that, because there will be consequences. The mirror of this, of course, is that by default, your enemies aren't going to kill you either – why do that when it's so much more fun to see the heroes squirm? - You Aren't Illegal, yet: you aren't an officially sanctioned superhero team or a black ops squad so much as a group of young superheroes who like to team up with each other. The legality of superheroics mostly comes down to political pressure and public opinion; no one wants to press charges too much if you saved the city from a giant octopus. You might wind up with official status down the line, or you might wind up on the run from the law, but at the moment, the legal system and the adult superhero teams are content to leave you alone. For now. - You Aren't Beloved, yet: you haven't made a name for yourselves yet. You've had one big adventure and a few solo adventures and that's it. Individuals have opinions, but the general consensus to the public at large is "who're you again?" - By Default, All Adults Have Influence Over You: Yes, this means they get to push you around a little, and while I won't use this recklessly, I will use it. You can, of course, always choose to reject their influence… or at least, try. Down the line, you can choose advances that let you permanently lock a label you don't want to shift, or to permanently reject someone's Influence over you if you no longer care what they think. But part of the fun of MASKS is dealing with the feelings and emotions and influences pulling you this way and that, so don't think you have to rush towards making sure that who you are stays locked in place. How do I build X as a character? What do I need to worry about with regards to attack and damage and health? How do I optimize a build? Try to think outside that paradigm; in MASKS, the playbook structure and the loose rules mean that power levels are less important here than in most other superhero games. You can have a minor superpower or no superpowers at all, or Spider-Man levels of "tough, not godly," and still keep pace with demigods and mages. The tradeoff is that your exact favorite power combo is probably not available to start (though the rules are flexible enough to give options, and there's always experience points.) For example, if you want to have a character with a debilitating ranged attack that pierces armor: there isn't really armor in this game and ranges are kept fairly loose. What you can do is get a character with a high Danger stat or a playbook with moves that let them use other stats to Directly Engage a Threat, and have that be one of your go-to superhuman moves – with all the dramatic mechanics that your playbook has for when you're not shooting your super-fireball. Of course, if an adult supervillain recently scoffed at you and told them you were small potatoes – shifting your Danger down and another stat up – that fireball might be launched with less than stellar confidence… That said, the playbooks are very flexible. Your Protégé can have anything from power mimicry to stealth training to power armor; your Transformed can talk to machines or control plants depending on what they've become; your Outsider can be a shapeshifting telepathic alien or a Kirbycraft-wielding member of an undersea kingdom. The first question you should ask when selecting a playbook should be, above all else, what type of character you are and what you want your role in the story to be. All Protégé characters have a mentor, all Transformed look noticeably inhuman, and all Outsiders are figurative (or literal) fish out of water. So selecting those playbooks tell me that you want dramatic arcs centered around those things. I still have questions! Ask below! I'm curious what people think. List of applications: Krul: The Outsider, for Xhrin, a genderfluid alien SalmonMax: The Delinquent, for Kitsune, a dirtbag electro/photokinetic Asarasa: The Nova, for the Incantrix, a spellcaster Malachite: The Doomed, for Persephone, a victim of magic Ing: The Transformed, for Leshy, a former human swamp monster Jecka: The Scion, for Leverage, the child of a super-thief Aarkaine: The Protege, for Argo, the trainee of the superhero Athena