[Superheroes] Masks: A New Generation

[Rocinante]

By complete coincidence I recently bought Masks to try out solo, and then found this site, only to notice Thejoshie had beaten me to it!

Not to worry, you can never have too many superhero hijinks, and it will be interesting to see how our two randomised teams and stories diverge from a similar starting point. 

I loved TheJoshi's idea of using the five man band trope, so I'm going to shamelessly steal that idea because it's so perfect. 

That means my party will be made up of:

The Leader 
The Lancer 
The Smart Guy 
The Big Guy
The Heart

Let's see what we end up with.

[Rocinante]

The Leader

I'm going to largely follow Thejoshie's approach here, as that will hopefully make for a more interesting comparison. 

First let's establish sex.

Q: Male?
A: Yes, but...

Interesting. There are a few options here, but I think I'll start with this question: 

Q: Non-human?
A: No, but...

That to me suggests that we have a have a half-alien as our leader. Good start!

Next what archetype is our leader. 

The basic playbooks (which are the only ones I have) are as follows:

Beacon (high Saviour and Mundane)
Bull (high Danger)
Delinquent (high Superior)
Doomed (even spread)
Janus (high Mundane)
Legacy (high Saviour)
Nova (high Freak)
Outsider (high Superior)
Protege (high Superior)
Transformed (high Freak)

I see these potentially mapping to the five man band  as follows:

The Leader 

• The Legacy
  
• The Protege
  

The Lancer 

• The Nova
  
• The Delinquent 
  

The Smart Guy 

• The Outsider
  
• The Beacon
  

The Big Guy

• The Bull
  
• The Transformed
  

The Heart 

• The Janus
  
• The Doomed
  

Q: Legacy?
A: No
Q: Protege?
A: Yes, but...

That's the exact same Leader response that Thejoshie got. Let's see if there's another way of interpreting that result; 

Q: Is my mentor dead?
A: No, and...

That suggests to me that they are immortal, or tremendously long-lived. That feeds in to the alien theme. 

Q: Is my mentor an alien? 
A: Yes, and...

They are not alone. Perhaps they are a member of a larger group, a cosmic police force perhaps. 

Q: Is my mentor a galactic cop?
A: No, and...

The opposite? 

Q: Is my mentor a galactic freedom fighter?
A: Yes

Great! off the bat we have created a much wider backstory. If my Leader's mentor is a galactic freedom fighter, that suggests there is something out there to be fought against... We'll come back to that later.

So my mentor is an alien and I'm half-alien.

Q: Is my mentor my parent?
A: No

That's sort of a relief, we were starting to stray a bit into Legacy territory. That means I have or had an alien parent.

Q: Is my alien parent alive?
A: No

Q: Is my human parent alive?
A: No, but...

My father was an alien, hiding on Earth from a galactic war. He fell in love with a human woman, and I was born. My parents were killed (we'll flesh out why and how later), but not before my mother was able to communicate with an alien freedom fighter, and old friend of my father's. He came to earth and has raised and trained me, in the knowledge that once my training is complete I must leave Earth and join the fight to free the galaxy. That's not a destiny I'm sure I want.

My name (according to Randomlist.com) is Keegan Roth. RPGSolo agrees.  

As he's not an Outsider I'm going to say he's indistinguishable from human. I roll 1d6 for ethnicity; Keegan is black. 

I roll 1d4 for body; compact. Keegan is fairly small.

I roll 1d4 for clothing; fashionable. A snappy dresser.

I roll 1d4 for uniform; protective wear. 

I roll 1d12 for shared ability; elemental control.

Q: Weather control?
A: Yes, and...

Keegan and his mentor have the ability to shape weather: wind, rain, lightning, ice storms etc. They also can manipulate air temperature. 

I roll 1d12 for my ability: hacking

Keegan, unlike his mentor, has an astonishing affinity for computer wizardry. 

I roll 1d12 for my mentor's ability; impossible fighting skills. 

Well, he has spent years fighting an alien empire. I guess Keegan doesn't have those skills, which is why he's still on earth, training.

I roll 1d5 for Mentor embodies; Freak. OK...

I roll 1d5 for Mentor denies; Mundane. 

So Keegan's mentor, unlike Keegan, is visibly alien. He feels out of place on this planet, but is duty bound to remain here. But he doesn't like it, and deep down he doesn't want to; he's always been an outsider and never wanted to fit in, now more than ever. This sounds like a potential source of conflict between Keegan and his mentor. 

Next I add +1 to Mundane for Keegan; he wants to fit in, and we want to ramp up that potential source of conflict. 

There's plenty more to flesh out here, but I think I want the rest of my team sketched out before I do so. For now I just need a hero name: I'm going to go with Cyclone. His mentor is called Tempest.

[Rocinante]

The Lancer 

Sex: Female

Playbook: Delinquent.

Name: Sierra Deane/ Beguile

Ethnicity: Middle Eastern

Eyes: Untrusting

Clothes: Garish

Costume: None

Powers: Teleportation and Illusion

[Rocinante]

The Smart Guy 

Sex: Female

Playbook: Beacon

Name: Aleena Faulkner/ Blitz

Ethnicity: White

Face: Smiling 

Clothes: Comfortable

Costume: Flashy costume

Abilities: Martial arts and acrobatics 

[Rocinante]

The Big Guy 


Sex: Female

Playbook: The Bull

Name: KO/ Kayla Osborne

Ethnicity: Black

Hands: Dirty 

Clothes: casual

Costume: simple

Abilities: Tough, strong, fighting skills

Bull Moves:  

• There when it matters: When you defend someone, on a hit you can hold 1 instead of choosing one from the list. Spend your hold when they are in danger later to arrive on the scene ready to help.
  
• Thick and thin skinned: Whenever you have Angry marked, take +1 ongoing to unleash your powers. 
  

Bull's Heart:

• Love: Blitz
  
• Rival: Cyclone
  
• Role: Listener: When you pierce the mask of your love or rival, you can always let them ask you a question to ask them an additional question in turn, even on a miss. These additional questions do not have to be on the list. 
  

[Rocinante]

The Heart


Sex: Male

Playbook: Janus

Name: Jitterbug/ Alonzo Guerrero

Ethnicity: Hispanic/ Latino

Clothes: Boring clothing

Costume: Distracting 

Mask: Small

Abilities: Strength, agility, toughness, impossible mobility, supernatural senses

[Rocinante]

So there we have it. Cyclone, Beguile, Blitz, KO and Jitterbug.

Next we need to flesh them all out a bit.

[Rocinante]

Name: The Cyclone (Keegan Roth)
Appearance: Black male, compact body, fashionable clothes, protective uniform
Abilities: 

• Shared: Elemental control (wind)
  
• Own: Hacking
  
• Mentor's: Impossible fighting skills
  

Mentor: The Tempest

• Embodies Freak
  
• Denies Mundane
  

Labels:

• Danger -1
  
• Freak 0
  
• Savior +1
  
• Superior +2
  
• Mundane +2
  

Moves

• Been Reading the Files
  
• Captain
  
• Heroic Tradition
  

Mentor Resources

• Hidden Base (downed starship)
  
• Supercomputer
  
• Teleportal
  

Influence

• Knockout
  
• Blitz
  

Backstory: 

• My mother was human but my father alien. When they were killed by the Gatekeeper my father's old comrade, the alien freedom fighter the Tempest, was duty bound to become my mentor and is now trapped on earth. I can see that he resents it, though he tries to hide it.
  
• I've trained with the Tempest since I was 11, after he revealed my true lineage and my parent's fate.
  
• Agent Green of AEGIS knows my true identity, and about my alien heritage.
  
• I met and worked with Blitz before the team came together. 
  
• I stay with the team because they keep me grounded to Earth, not some alien war that the Tempest is preparing me for. 
  
• The Tempest doesn't trust Beguile and has asked me to keep an eye on her. Can't say I blame him, from what I've seen so far that girl is a loose cannon. 
  

[Rocinante]

Name: Knockout (Kayla Osbourne)
Look: Black female, calloused hands, casual clothes, simple uniform
Abilities: 

• Superhumanly tough (bulletproof skin)
  
• Incredibly strong (grows increasingly muscled as strength is used)
  
• Skilled at fighting (crude but effective brawling)
  

Labels:

• Danger +2
  
• Freak +2
  
• Savior -1
  
• Superior +1
  
• Mundane -1
  

Moves

• Thick and thin skinned
  
• In a china shop
  

Bull's Heart

• Love: Blitz
  
• Rival: Cyclone
  
• Role: Listener
  

Influence

• Beguile
  
• Blitz
  

Backstory: 

• I had my heart set on a modelling career before I was kidnapped and experimented on by the secretive Black Lodge. I think those scum may have killed my parents. I've not found any sign of them since.
  
• Were it not for that unexpected lab explosion that turned me into... this, I would never have escaped. 
  
• Now I'm with a foster family, Frank and Julie Hall. They do their best to take care of me.
  
• I try to be a hero because if I ever really cut loose I don't know what would happen. 
  
• My team-mates keep me from losing it.  
  
• That night I opened up to Blitz I told her everything. I've never done that before. She's special to me. 
  
• I get that Cyclone is leader of this team and all, but really, that guy needs to lighten up. He's not the boss of me. He pulls another stunt like that screwup with Uberfrau and the Alloyed Nazoids and we are going to have words.
  

[Rocinante]

Name: Jitterbug (Alonso Guerrero)
Look: Hispanic male, boring clothing, flashy costume, helmet
Abilities: (gained from the bugsuit)

• Strength, agility, toughness 
  
• Impossible mobility (short-range superspeed. It's jerky and a bit unpredictable; I can't seem to get the kinks out of the suit.)
  
• Supernatural senses (bug-dar)
  

Labels:

• Danger 0
  
• Freak -1
  
• Savior 0
  
• Superior +1
  
• Mundane +3
  

Moves

• The Mask: Savior
  
• Game face
  
• Mild-mannered
  

Secret Identity

• Job: tech support
  
• School: chess club
  
• Social: teacher (Dr Rufus Singh)
  

Influence

• Beguile
  

Backstory: 

• After coming across the alien tech left after a battle between Equinox and Black Lodge goons I built the bugsuit. Dr Singh would be proud!
  
• I wear a mask to keep me and my loved ones from being tracked down by the Black lodge. Or aliens. Or random crazies. What, do I look stupid?
  
• I was picked up by AEGIS after my first mission, and Agent Green knows my true identity. I think she's keeping an eye on me.
  
• Mayor Kline seems to have a major beef with me. Maybe it's because I keep my identity hidden, but that guy thinks I'm a menace, and takes every opportunity to mention it. 
  
• Thank goodness for the team. Those guys keep me sane. Well, mostly.
  
• I knew Beguile back from high school. She always was kind of crazy, I hope I can trust her. 
  
• When Blitz asked my secret identity I didn't tell her at first. I guess I thought maybe she wasn't a real member of the team. She knows now, but I'm worried she's still a bit hurt by that.