At Go Play we had an excellent game of the teen superheroes game Masks. As someone who has binged the TV show Invincible after this game, I hope my write up is not coloured by the show :D Every time I run Masks, I am left wanting to run so much more of it, it’s a brilliant game.
As per my usual style, this was 100% improv. This is a really short version of all that happened, and I’ve likely missed a huge amount of detail in the retelling. It was quite fun; the characters took a STACK of conditions and got all emotionally entangled with each other and the plot really well – perfect.
Our characters were:
1. Visionary “V” – a young man who had been kept in government labs for years, with the power to re-shape reality (Nova).
2. Jane – An incredibly fast, strong, and tough young lady with a double identity (Janus).
3. Ray – A girl with incredible strength thanks to her immortal parentage (Bull).
4. Darius – An illegitimate child of fantastic parents who inherited his powers of teleportation and ‘tricks’ from (Trickster).
5. Seraphim – a literal angel, with glowing aura and massive sword, but who does not quite understand the nuance of humanity (Outsider).
We opened with the group of high school friends hanging around at Barry’s Bowlo, a local hangout for both superpowered and ‘normal’ kids alike, and where Craig the 2IC enforced a strict rule – no powers. Visionary was excited as he loved bowling, having never experienced ‘normal’ kid stuff at the government lab he was raised in. They were earing a serve of hot chips (with vinegar) that was one of the earthly delights that Seraphim was embracing with gusto.
The group were celebrating – they had just had their first victory as a superhero team. They had banded together to defeat the Photovore, a creature supposedly from an alternate dimension which fed on the power of light and energy. In defeating the Photovore, they had levelled half the city as they fought a rear-guard near the new nuclear reactor plant, causing a meltdown which was only prevented by Jane’s mother who was a nuclear scientist working there. The western side of the city was now abandoned and under military embargo as the government set about recovering from the meltdown and ensuring there was no residual radiation.
It was a quiet night at Barry’s when three similar looking men in trench coats and broad brimmed hats entered, a gust of chilly autumn air arriving with them. They headed straight to the counter and engaged Craig in conversation, who gestured at the group and then went back to arranging the bowling shoes. The three men walked over to the lane right next to the group, and just as Visionary was returning from a very successful bowl, one of them spun around 360 degrees and smashed him with a closed fist – sending Visionary down the polished alley to scatter the pins at the other end.
All hell broke loose – afraid to use their powers here, at risk of being banned by Craig, the group hesitated a second, allowing Ray to lift one of the bench seats and collect the three men with a swipe, driving them out through the entry door and into the snowy carpark beyond (where powers are allowed). Jane, Darius, and Seraphim quickly followed, while Visionary got up and dusted himself off – walking towards the fight with a furious, measured pace as he charged up his powers (in Masks, there are no ‘hit points’ rather the characters take conditions such as ‘Angry’ or ‘Insecure’ which affect them mechanically. The only way to recover from these conditions is through role playing them out… really cool).
Outside, Ray had quickly determined that her opponents were robots of some kind and was fighting them while Jane and Seraphim came charging out to assist. Darius lounged against the building wall and turned the nearby snowy ground into an ice slick to trip up his opponents – unfortunately his angelic ally charging out got caught on it and with one of the robotic attackers slid out into the middle of the road, as a hatchback rounded the corner headed straight for them with a fourth robot at the wheel. Jane engaged a robot in hand-to-hand combat and Darius decided not to try too many more ‘tricks’ like that, as a fully charged up and angry Visionary emerged from the Bowlo and got stuck in, transforming one of the robots into a pile of choc-chip biscuits with his reality warping powers.
Jane and Ray took dismantled one robot with their bare hands, while the hatchback ran over Seraphim and his robot, trapping them under it – soon rescued by Darius who teleported both several hundred meters into the air. At the same time, Visionary used his reality bending power to turn the hatchback and the robot at the wheel into a tiny cube of metal as if they had been through the car press at the wrecker’s yard. Seraphim and the robot plunged down, tangled up but at the last-minute Seraphim got his wings out and the robot crashed alone to the pavement – soon the group had dismantled all of these robots and heard the sound of police sirens headed their way.
Not wanting to have another encounter with the police so soon after nuking half the city in the reactor meltdown incident with the Photovore, the group looked for options. Jane ducked around a corner and quick-changed into her ‘civilian’ identity, ready to act as an ‘eyewitness’ if her friends needed her to corroborate their story. Ray, Visionary, and Darius noted that the parts of the robots were scurrying off and re-assembling themselves away from the scene of the battle, leaving no trace of their existence. Seraphim stood proudly before the three police cars which disgorged multiple uniformed officers waving their guns about – “we have done nothing wrong” he insisted “we were attacked and merely defended ourselves”. Detective Rosa Rook stepped out of the final police car, surveying the damage from the fight “look, after what you all just pulled at the reactor, I’d warrant that you are on the thinnest of ice – let’s say it’s liquid already” she began. This was not getting off to a good start. Seraphim stood his ground with her, and his unwavering belief in the truth allowed him to turn the tables and reject her influence over him (a core part of Masks is when teenagers stand up to adults! This was really cool). The police backed down, nothing too serious had been damaged and not wanting to tangle with ‘supers’ they got back in their cars and left, but not without a warning from Rosa to keep their heads down.
Wondering what to do next and how to find out what these robots were and where they had come from, the group decided to follow them just as Jane felt a tugging at her pocket. A small piece of a robot had become caught in her clothes, and was tugging with some kind of magnetic force, trying to reconnect with its larger whole. Carefully untangling it and examining it, Jane found the M-shaped logo for ‘Global Massive Dynamic’ – GMD (emphasis on the ‘Massive’) engraved as the manufacturers mark on the robot parts. Holding it in her hand, she found that it was leading the way they needed to go, and with Ray they tied it to a bit of string to use as a ‘dowsing rod’ that would lead them back to the robots and (hopefully) where they had come from.
As the group walked across town following the pull, they realised they were headed towards the GMD tower – the largest building in the city and headquarters of the company. Led by Erik Brusk, the oft-times evil CEO who had inherited a diamond mine from his dad at age 19 and was developing a line of solar powered cars, GMD was widely known (but never proven) to be behind some of the worst crimes perpetrated across the city in recent years. They comforted each other (in Masks, roleplaying out scenes of comfort and support allows you to clear your conditions with a roll) and recovered a little from their anger, insecurity, and fear… but not completely.
Arriving at the outskirts of the compound they found that Eric Brusk had bought all the buildings in the blocks surrounding his tower, connecting those other buildings to the main tower via a series of enclosed aerial bridges. It looked like GMD had armed patrols of suspiciously similar (and familiar) looking men in trench coats and broad brimmed hats roaming the streets with guard dogs. Stopping to discuss, they decided that they could teleport to one of the other nearby buildings which might be less guarded and then use the bridges to cross to the main tower, to which the robot part on a string was guiding them.
A throat was cleared in the darkness nearby, and out stepped Detective Rosa Rook from earlier. “Knew you’d come here, your story about the robots made me think of this place. Don’t even TRY getting into that tower, it’d be suicide. More so, don’t even think about going after Erik Brusk”. Rosa explained that she’d been trying to pin crimes on him for a long time but had no success and she believed there was coverups and corruption across the city protecting him. “Don’t go straight in there and confront Brusk, his lawyers will destroy you. See if there is a scientist or someone who works in the robotics division who you can get leverage on” she suggested. The group agreed and said that they’d give Rosa the credit for any bust they helped with. Parting on good terms, Rosa left them with one final warning – “don’t you go blowing up any more of my city. Do this in a subtle way please”. Rather than commit to what he believed was a lie, Seraphim simply turned away without acknowledging the request.
Seraphim asked Darius to use his illusion magic to hide the angelic wings and glow for a short while, which Darius did, turning Seraphim into a more ‘normal’ looking person without a brightly visible aura. They all teleported with Darius’ ability. And went astray.
They arrived in what felt like the main office, a few floors higher than where the robot piece on a string was pulling Jane, standing near a printer in the accounts department. Panicking a little about what to do, Ray scoped out the nearby fire escape looking for a way down. Darius, Seraphim, Jane, and Visionary stood around figuring out what to do next, when a man wearing a lanyard proclaiming himself ‘Gary’ from ‘Accounts’ walked up to use the printer, only half paying attention as he scrolled on his M-Phone (we decided that people in our world all have phones made by GMD) mindlessly while walking through the office. Gary let out a scream and shouted an alarm but was fast-talked by Jane into believing the group were part of GMD – “Don’t you frequently get the experimental teams running fire drills around here?” she asked. Gary seemed to buy this terrible story, and was about to head back to his desk when Jane spoke again “ummm, Gary, you wouldn’t happen to have that procurement report about the robotics program would you? It was due two days ago, and it’s wanted urgently” she said, gesturing vaguely ‘upstairs’. Panicking, Gary said “Oh, yes, project Meta Man? Sure, it’s not quite finished but I’ll get it now” and ran back to his desk and printed the report, leaving the group alone with a valuable piece of evidence emerging from the printer – most shockingly, the report showed the true scale of the robot production – there were thousands of these things and more on the way.
Ray was down a few flights of stairs by now, expecting the others to follow her. Jane scanned the procurement report, noticing that the order was approved by Dianne Donaldson, EVP (we think that might stand for ‘Evil Vice President’ here at GMD) of the Robotics Division. The group wracked their brains, as that name was familiar. Dianne Donaldson. Dianne Donaldson. Donaldson? It took a few minutes, but soon they realised – that name WAS familiar.
Comprehension dawned on the group as one – David Donaldson was the name of the man infected with the entity which turned him into the Photovore – after defeating him they had found out that he was an experimental engineer who worked at GMD! The group were being targeted by Dianne and her robots for defeating her brother – who was now locked in the ultra-max security section of Megopolis prison. They heard heavy footsteps coming their way. Too heavy… whatever was making these noises was massive or at least very very heavy.
“We’re going to need you Ray, come back” shouted Darius down the fire stair, as an enormous and heavily armoured machine-man rounded the corner headed straight for them, right hand outstretched and crackling with energy. “Halt, you are on GMD property. Resistance will not be tolerated” the robot said as they scattered. It sent a bolt of pure electrical energy at them which hit them all badly, scattering them and tossing them aside. Jane had had enough and ran towards the emergency stair that Ray had gone down. In the stairwell, Ray decided to heed Darius’ words and return, using her super strength to jump up several flights at once and brush past Jane headed the other direction.
Seraphim tried to take on the iron giant by himself, but as his powers were somewhat hampered by the curtailing magic that Darius had used on him earlier, was pummelled badly and zapped with a mighty bolt of electricity, sending him hurtling through the plate glass window of this high tower and out into the evening sky - wingless. Ray emerged from the stairs and crashed into the large robot, tackling it out the window through which Seraphim had just been hurled as they all began to fall (in slow motion of course) towards the ground below. Visionary tried to warp reality and bring Seraphim safely back into the building beside him, but a mishap caused a splintering of reality – for a short moment there were TWO competing Seraphim – one falling outside and one laying on the floor next to Visionary, dazed and confused, both flickering in and out of reality.
Seizing the opportunity, and fighting past the confusion and pain, the Seraphim on the floor got up and went to the window, observing himself falling far below. The two Seraphims each unleashed a mighty bolt of pure angelic energy, both aimed to intersect right at the point where the hulking robot was falling through the night sky, still battling with Ray. The two blasts hit each other with the force of a small-ish nuclear device, turning the night air to blinding light and gouging a large section out of the GMD headquarters building and eliminating several of the other nearby structures.
As the dust settled, Jane emerged from the fire escape and made her way safely to hand the evidence (both report and robot part) to Detective Rosa Rook – not necessarily taking down Erik Brusk, but certainly putting one of his senior Lieutenants behind bars for a very long time. The shockwave had forced Seraphim back to a single entity, and as Darius was battered by the blast wave his magic finally ended, allowing Seraphim to spread his angelic wings and not splatter onto the ground below – flying away to safety. Darius and Visionary made good their escape by the fire exit as well and were soon clear. Ray, caught in the middle of the fury of an angelic fission reaction, was surely dead – or so everyone thought. During her fall while pummelling the robot guardian with her immortal strength, she reached in and ripped out it’s central control system just as the blast hit – triggering the automatic safety protocols of the robot which inflated (airbag style) a protective field around the remnants of the robot’s head which she was holding on to. Scorched and singed, she lived to fight another day. Not only had Ray saved herself, but she realised that in the data banks of the evil automaton would be important information to take to Rosa Rook in addition to what Jane had already given over.
The episode ended with the group watching from a nearby building as Dianne Donaldson was taken away from GMD headquarters in handcuffs by Rosa Rook and her officers. Newspapers the next day told how Erik Brusk had disowned his EVP and avowed that he knew nothing of her use of the robots for her own evil plans. The military came in and rounded up all of the robots for ‘further study’ by ‘top men’…
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