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Masks: A New Generation

Created by Brendan G. Conway

Masks is a tabletop RPG about a team of young superheroes forging their own identities in Halcyon City, a megapolis packed with heroes.

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Secrets of A.E.G.I.S. in Print!
almost 8 years ago – Tue, Jun 19, 2018 at 07:21:05 PM

Secrets of A.E.G.I.S. has arrived in print! 

Just a quick update to make sure you know what to do to get your copy—and we’ll give you a bigger update in a week!

If you ordered a physical copy of Secrets of A.E.G.I.S., you’ll get a notification through Backerkit, giving you a coupon code so you can put in an order for the books through Magpie Games’s website, with free shipping, at no cost. So here’s what you do:

  • Go to your Backerkit for Masks. You can get that link resent to you here: https://masks-a-new-generation.backerkit.com/. You can find your digital downloads specifically here: https://masks-a-new-generation.backerkit.com/backer/digital_rewards 
  • Check that digital downloads page, and look for one of the following downloads (depending upon whether or not you ordered hardcover or softcover): “SoA - Hardcover - Print Distribution - 06/18”, or “SoA - Softcover - Print Distribution - 06/18”. Get that download—it will give you a coupon code, a string of characters starting with “SOAH” for hardcover books and “SOAS” for softcover books, and ending with “061918”. 
  • That Backerkit page with your digital downloads will have instructions for each download, including the store page for your particular book at the Magpie Games webstore. Since we want to get the books out to you first, those pages aren’t currently public, but you can go to them with the link in the instructions. 
  • At the Magpie Games webstore page, add the book to your cart, and then click View Cart. In your cart page, put in the coupon code in the “Coupon” box and click apply coupon. The page should refresh, and beneath your subtotal, you should see that the price of the book has been deducted. 
  • In shipping, click “Free Shipping”. Click “Proceed to checkout” and put in the appropriate billing/shipping information. Click place your order to complete!

When you get a copy of the book through the Magpie Games website, it will still also give you a DriveThruRPG link so you can get a digital copy there, too.

Remember if you need to access your Backerkit page again, you can find your pledge here: https://masks-a-new-generation.backerkit.com/ 

We’re going to start shipping those pieces ASAP, but it’ll take a bit of time for things to arrive in the mail. If you don’t receive your book in a couple weeks after ordering (2 weeks domestic / 4 weeks international), or if you have any other questions or concern, please contact us at [email protected].

Thanks everyone!

Masks: Playbook Edition Arrives!
almost 8 years ago – Thu, May 24, 2018 at 04:16:47 PM

In honor of Deadpool 2…

Deadpool: Dang! Nice shootin’, Legola—wait. How often do people call you Legolas?

Hawkeye: All the time.

Deadpool: Nice shootin’, Hunger Games!

Hawkeye: Heard it.

Deadpool: Brave! The girl from Brave!

Hawkeye: Sorry, man.

- A+X, #008

One big update and a few little ones—here we go!

Masks: Playbook Edition

We mentioned in our last update that we were doing a reprint of the Masks core book, and we took that opportunity to make one of the changes we’d heard a lot of people ask for—putting the playbooks in the book. Well, now we have the books and digital files ready, and Masks physical softcovers are back on sale, with the Playbook Edition! 

Here’s what you need to know:

What are the differences between Masks: Playbook Edition and the original print run of Masks? 

There aren't many significant differences. Most important is that the Playbook Edition has all the core playbooks inside the book, now increasing the total page count of the book to 240 pages. But to do that, we actually had to remove content in order to make the necessary space for the playbooks and still keep our page count correct for our printer. That means the Playbook Edition actually has slimmed down content in some places—for example, in the setting chapter and in the examples.

Beyond that we took the opportunity to fix up some mistakes and errors in the text, but it was nothing major. You’ll find that the contents of the two books are functionally the same, outside of the added playbooks in the Playbook Edition.

Is this a second edition? 

No! As stated above, we did little more than fix straight-up mistakes and add in the playbooks. That required changing the content for space a bit, but not in any meaningful ways. The game and all its rules are the same.

Do I need a new copy of the book if I already have the old one? 

Nope! The original version of Masks is still the exact same game, and you still have everything you need to play. The core playbooks are, just as before, available for free from our website. You should not feel like you need to get a new copy of the book.

I know I don’t need a new copy, but I want one. 

Thanks for your interest and support! We never would’ve gotten here without amazing backers like you, so we’re going to try to give back a bit.

First of all, the DriveThruRPG files will be updated with the new version, so everyone who has a PDF copy, anywhere, will get the new version of the book. That includes everyone who backed for $10 or more on this Kickstarter. We’ll be adding it to the Backerkit digital downloads, as well (which, as always, you can access at https://masks-a-new-generation.backerkit.com/backer/digital_rewards).

Secondly, for everyone who backed through the Kickstarter, we’re giving out a 30% off coupon if you want to get a new copy of the book through our Magpie Games webstore. To get the coupon, check your Backerkit digital downloads (the link is above)—you’ll find your coupon code there. Then, just head over to our store.

if you want a softcover copy, go to: http://www.magpiegames.com/product/masks-a-new-generation-softcoverpdf/

If you want a hardcover copy, go to: http://www.magpiegames.com/product/masks-a-new-generation-hardcoverpdf/

Add your copy of the book to your cart, add the coupon code into the coupon section, and check out.

We’ll be happy to answer any questions you have, too, so just let us know here, or with emails to [email protected].

Masks: Unbound News!

While we wait for the print copies of Secrets of A.E.G.I.S. to arrive at our office (any day now!), we’re hard at work on Masks: Unbound. Layout on the book has already begun while some of the final pieces are going through copy editing, and we’re also working on getting versions of the new playbooks ready for you to use!

We’re super excited about some of the new mechanics you’re going to see in this book. Here are some previews of the Spiderweb playset, including a change to the “Take a Powerful Blow” move that brings the gritty, street-level drama into focus. Take a look:

When you take a powerful blow, roll + conditions marked. On a 10+, choose one. 

  • you must remove yourself from the situation: flee, pass out, etc. 
  •  you’re seriously injured: take -1 ongoing until you receive medical attention 
  •  two options from the 7-9 list 

It’s a small change with big impact. Adding in the potential for serious injury, and the need for medical attention, drastically changes the feel of a game to match the tone of more street-level comics.

What’s more, we’re doing some great work in setting up new systems for building out your neighborhood so it’s a real, living place you care about, and for dealing with the henchmen of bigger villains. You can inflict conditions on the Spider by taking out his crew—something you’ll want to do, because confronting the Spider head on is bad news!

The new playbooks are all written up and currently undergoing in-house playtesting, and as soon as we finish up, we’ll put together drafts of them to share with you, so you can take them for a spin in your home games!

And as a final tidbit, here’s another piece of fun art from Masks: Unbound (art by Alex Nyerges) to tide you over!

It's the Spider and his Spiderweb beyond: 

And there's plenty more where that came from!

Phase Charlie Omega Continues 

(We will now be referring to the phases of this Kickstarter in terms akin to those of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We will be using code words so that even we will not know what we are talking about. This should keep us all satisfyingly stupefied.)

With physical copies of our second supplement on their way, the reprint in hand, and our third supplement well under way, we’re excited to get tons more great Masks content into your hands! As always, thanks so much for being an amazing and supportive audience, and until next time—go punch Vanquish in the face!

Secrets of A.E.G.I.S. PDF Released to Backers!
almost 8 years ago – Fri, Apr 27, 2018 at 09:53:20 PM

Once more...it's here! The new PDF is here!

Secrets of A.E.G.I.S. is here, officially!

For Backers: How To Get Your Digital Copy

If you backed for the $10 level or higher, then you get a free PDF copy of the book! Check your Backerkits! (Which you can find here: https://masks-a-new-generation.backerkit.com/, and in particular, the digital downloads section here: https://masks-a-new-generation.backerkit.com/backer/digital_rewards)

There, you’ll find three new things in your downloads section. One of them is the final version of the PDF, including a code so you can go and get it on DriveThruRPG at no cost! The other two are the final versions of the playbooks. The DriveThruRPG link has both the book and the playbooks available—this is just our way of making sure you have all the files!

Public Release

We'll be releasing the game to the full public a bit later, so if you didn't back for a copy, stay tuned—we'll have the PDF up on DriveThruRPG soon, and physical copies available in our webstore after that!

Thank you!

Also, as always, THANK YOU all so much! You're an absolutely incredible audience, and I am endlessly grateful to be able to put out new stuff for you. In particular, thank you to the amazing people who gave us feedback on the prior copy of the book—you all caught some good errors! (I especially liked your snarky feedback comments.) :) 

I've said it before and I'll say it again. You're all awesome and amazing. Thank you!

Enjoy your time exploring the depths of A.E.G.I.S.!

Secrets, Playbooks, and More
almost 8 years ago – Fri, Apr 13, 2018 at 10:43:52 PM

"Sure, you and your boss're big on the fancy stuff, ya walkin' tank — not like us grunts who're out there on a thousand front-lines protectin' the world day after day after day! My boys an' girls do the grimy work, while you super guys get all the glory! Well, we don't mind — it's always been like that for the Joes in any war — but if my boys an' girls get a little tight now an' again, you can understand why! I don't go along with it — I'm tryin' ta stop it — but I understand it!" 

             - Nick Fury to Iron Man, West Coast Avengers, Volume 2, Issue #11, 1986

Lot of big things to talk about, so let’s dive into it!

Secrets of A.E.G.I.S. Review Version!

It’s here! Secrets of A.E.G.I.S., the second Masks supplement, is all ready in PDF form for your eyes!

If you backed at the $10 level or higher, you should have access to a digital copy through Backerkit. You can always check your Backerkit here: https://masks-a-new-generation.backerkit.com/

And find your digital downloads here: https://masks-a-new-generation.backerkit.com/backer/digital_rewards

If you don’t see it in your digital rewards, let us know at [email protected] and we’ll help you get it sorted.

The book isn’t quite finalized yet—we’re doing run-throughs to proof it on our end, and we need your help to do the same! If you see any issues with the book please let us know by Friday, April 20th, through this form:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfJGVQRzaOt8CSTEJjP5weYFtdls_fN-FtTe31-BXtH5HMcoQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

Now, one thing you may notice very shortly into your review of this book—there are only two playbooks inside, The Brain and The Soldier.

That’s because as we were putting this book together, both due to space and content, we decided the Harbinger would be a better fit for Masks: Unbound, the next supplement book all about taking Masks into crazy new directions. And to support that decision...

New Playbooks in Masks: Unbound! 

We’re putting The Harbinger into Masks: Unbound, along with the planned four playsets, and two brand new playbooks—the Nomad and the Scion!

The Scion is the child of supervillains, who chooses to be a hero and stand against the very evil that their parents embody. They’re different from the Reformed, because they’ve never been a supervillain, and never will be—they are choosing another path in opposition to their legacy, no matter what everybody might expect of them. The Scion will have special mechanics incentivizing them to gain Influence over particularly important figures, to represent their quest for respect. They’re inspired by characters like Stephanie Brown (Spoiler), Damian Wayne (Robin), and Victor Mancha, among others.

The Nomad hasn’t had a real home in a while—and they kind of like it that way. They’ve been traveling space, time, dimensions, and anything else you can think of, seeing what all of existence has to offer but never staying in one place long enough to really form any bonds. And they’re still just a teenager! But now they’ve come to Halcyon City and agreed to stick around...for a while anyway. The Nomad will have a limited amount of Influence to give out, and a particular vulnerability to having it used against them...but in exchange, they get cool benefits every time they give someone new Influence. They’re inspired by characters like Cammi, Noh-Varr, and America Chavez.

(You’ll note that a few of these characters were inspirations for other playbooks. What’s interesting here is that we get to focus on new aspects of those same characters, like Stephanie Brown’s relationship with her villain father instead of her joy at being a hero, or America Chavez’s interdimensional adventures instead of her tendency to solve problems with face smashing.)

We’re sorting out these playbooks right now, and we’re going to get playable versions of them out to you before the book comes out, so you can try them out at your tables!

And our final big piece of news…

Masks Core Book Reprint: Playbook Edition! 

We’re going to have the softcovers for Masks: A New Generation back in stock soon! The shipment is on its way to us now, and we’re hoping to have them on sale in May.

We sold out a few months ago, thanks to your awesomeness, and we took the opportunity to examine the core book and see if there were any necessary changes we wanted to make (fixing typos or page mistakes, that kind of thing). And in the process, we decided to make one change that we’ve heard a lot of people asking for: we put the playbooks into the book!

We’re calling this version of the book the Playbook Edition, but it is absolutely, 100%, not a 2nd Edition. The text is somewhat different, and for the most part, that’s because we actually had to cut out content to make room for the playbooks. But none of the rules have changed, and the book is fundamentally the same—just with the playbooks inside!

We’re going to update the DriveThruRPG and Backerkit files to include the new version of the book, so everybody who backed at least $10 will get the PDF of the Playbook Edition. But just to keep saying it—the game works the same, and you should by no means feel obligated to get a new hard copy if you like the one you have!

With that said, we’re incredibly grateful to all of you for your support and continued interest in the game. So, to show some of that gratitude, we’re going to give all our Kickstarter backers a coupon code so you can get a copy of the Playbook Edition at a significant discount, once the physical copies are available to purchase. We’ll be sharing that discount code through Backerkit when the new books arrive, so stay tuned for more information!

Balancing the Universe 

(Avengers: Infinity War comes out this month, so obviously we have to make Thanos references.)

Thank you all, so so much, for all of your continued, endless support and interest! We’re excited to keep putting cool stuff into your hands, and we hope you’re just as excited to get it! Let us know if you have any other questions and comments, and until next time—try not to blow up the planet, and stay away from purple men with big golden gloves.

Kings and Heroes
about 8 years ago – Wed, Feb 14, 2018 at 11:54:54 PM

Splubp! Skoit! Ektorp! Brevoooorted!

(No, those are not brands of Ikea furniture. They are in fact onomatopoeias actually used in comics. I promise.)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Project Update 

The Halcyon City Herald Collection should be all but shipped out to you—if you should have received a copy but haven’t, please let us know with a message to [email protected]. Remember that if you want to check for our own coupon code to order a copy through our website, you can find the instructions in our past update, and you can check your Backerkit at https://masks-a-new-generation.backerkit.com/ .

If you haven’t gotten a PDF copy of the HCHC yet, they’re on sale on DriveThruRPG right now, courtesy of the BAMFSies award sale!

The next supplement book, Secrets of AEGIS, is well on its way to completion! We’re rounding out playtesting of the playbooks to make sure they’re straightened out while the book is in layout. Thanks so much for your comments so far, and if you have any feedback, please let us know here in the comments, or drop us a line at [email protected]!

Following that will be Masks: Unbound, and we may have some exciting new developments and additions for that book to announce next month. Stay tuned while we get the specifics sorted out!

We have a script written for Halcyon City Stories, and we’re in the process of getting it edited while we figure out our arrangements with an artist. We’ll keep you updated as that process continues.

And finally, we’ve been out of stock of the softcover version of the book for a while, because you are all amazing fans! We’re finishing up an assessment of a reprint now, and we’ll be able to tell you more in March.

Black Panther! 

Who here is excited for Black Panther? We are!

In honor of this upcoming marvel of a movie (do you see what we did there), we’ve put together a set of playbooks to bring some of the main characters from Black Panther into a game of Masks: A New Generation!

We had to alter some of the details of the characters and setting to make it fit Masks, so it’s not going to be a one-for-one match-up with the details of the original characters. That said, you’ll still get to play teenaged Black Panther, which we think is just a straight-up win.

Each playbook has its moves and Labels already marked out, along with a short backstory included. We’ll have fuller write-ups for each character on our magpiegames.com website in the coming weeks, and we have one up for T'Challa right now

You can also download all the characters here—enjoy!

Here’s what you’re looking at:

T’Challa, the Legacy: T’Challa was recently named the Black Panther, protector of Wakanda, by his father after overcoming the appropriate trials. He has all the technology, skills, and enhancements of any Black Panther, but the truth is that he did not achieve the final trial—he did not actually defeat his father. Instead, his father simply told Wakanda that T’Challa had won, and continues to train, teach, and monitor him secretly. T’Challa also receives help from his mother, the Queen Ramonda, a beloved and active public figure, and his sister, Shuri. He is uncertain about whether he deserves to bear the mantle of Black Panther, but he hides his uncertainty behind a superior facade. 

Shuri, the Beacon: Publicly, and to her parents, Shuri is shy and quiet. In truth, she has an absolutely brilliant mind, and with it she created the gauntlets that let her go into the field and support her brother, the Black Panther. She took it upon herself to keep him safe, and found out that she loved going into the field with him. Now, nothing can stop her from continuing, not the disapproving looks from her brother or the threat that her parents might find out. 

Okoye, the Protégé: Okoye is a skilled and capable trainee of the Dora Milaje, and the personal protege of the Dora Milaje’s leader, Teela. She has wanted to be one of the Dora Milaje all her life, but now has had her devotion rocked by the revelation that Teela leads the Midnight Angels, a special forces team of Dora Milaje who do anything necessary to protect Wakanda. She has been assigned to T’Challa, the new Black Panther, while continuing her training and sorting out how she feels towards her mentor and the Dora Milaje. 

Nakia, the Bull: Nakia has been with the Dora Milaje for years now, but has lost memories of her youth. Supposedly, this is due to the special treatments she received to help hone her body into a living weapon, but she suspects the Dora Milaje may be involved. That said, she is still one of the top trainees. She is devoted to her friends, like Okoye, and she may have some attraction to T’Challa, though she might not admit it openly. And now, assigned as Princess Shuri’s constant companion and protector, she assists with Shuri’s attempts to join T’Challa on his adventures.

Some basic tips for using these characters in a Wakandan setting: 

  • Wakanda has a very strong cultural emphasis on tradition and its power—use that constantly to judge these PCs and wield Influence to shift their Labels. 
  • Wakanda is the most technologically advanced nation on the planet. That means crazy technology can exist there...and it means countless enemies would love to take its technology (and of course vibranium). So go nuts! 
  • Wakanda is fiercely independent while deeply united—that dichotomy drives a lot of its internal conflicts. Any given Wakandan hero will feel a strong urge to solve problems themselves...any given Wakandan hero will answer any other hero’s call when aid is asked for.

Of course, seeing T’Challa and company in Halcyon City would be its own kind of fun…

Let us know if, and how, you use these playbooks, or if you come up with any other write-ups for your own favorite Black Panther characters!

Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel 

As always, thanks for sticking with us! Thanks for being awesome and filling the Masks G+ Community with great discussion! Thanks for sharing your cool game stories and your amazing art!

Until next time, true believers!