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:
The Most Golden of Geeks
about 9 years ago
– Fri, Feb 24, 2017 at 11:30:11 PM
Hello everybody! We’ve got some news to share, so time for an update on where things stand!
Project Update: March
Here’s where things stand on some of the core pieces of the game.
Some of the core books were held up getting to our international backers, especially due to Australian customs. That said—they should be through customs and on their way to you, now, if they haven’t arrived already!
We’re sorry for the delay in getting books out, and we're sure it will be a smoother process next time around. Thank you so much for your patience, and we love seeing everyone sharing pictures when their books arrive!
For everyone else, if you haven’t gotten a core book, hardcover or softcover, and you should have, please let us know with an email to [email protected]. If you’re in Australia, let us know by March 8th.
As for the cards and dice—those are still incoming. We went with a printer and distributor in China and it’s taken a little longer than we had hoped, but they’ve done great work, and we like everything we’ve seen of the cards so far. Here are some pictures sent to us by KrakenPrint:
According to their estimates, we’re on track for getting these pieces by March, and we’ll be shipping them out to you just as soon as they come in.
As for the Halcyon City Herald Collection, it’s in layout right now with Hal Mangold. Hal’s done some awesome work for myriad projects including Seventh Sea and my own Green Law of Varkith, and I’m loving what he’s doing so far. Here’s an early preview of one of the articles, devoid of a lot of flourishes we’re hoping to add along the way:
We’re planning to get the book and the fully-laid out new playbooks to you in March.
Masks LongCon
At Dreamation, we ran a LongCon of Masks! That means we ran three contiguous sessions of the game with consistent characters. It was an awesome game, and a special thanks go out to all the awesome players, and especially to the GMs—Matt Aaron and Michael McDowell—who co-GM’d alongside me (Brendan)!
The game turned out great, so I wanted to share some of the materials with all of you. Here’s a Dropbox folder containing the pre-generated characters for the game. The game is set up for two tables and 10 characters, all of them the core Masks characters. Matt and I put in a bunch of work on these materials before bringing them to the convention, so we hope you enjoy!
Each character has a background sheet, describing some details about the character and their background for this scenario, along with pre-determined relationships, and an increased amount of Influence to give out to the other PCs. Anywhere that the background sheet conflicts with the actual character sheet, use the background sheet. The GM sheets have a lot of additional advice and rules for how to use this set of materials.
We used an assortment of villains from the Deck of Villainy to populate our game, including Rosa Rook, Scarlet Songbird, Gearmaster, The Centipede, Troll, Snapping Turtle, Solace, Arcknife, Carbine, Source Code, and more. But what’s here should give you plenty to dive into your own two-table 10-player LongCon.
We put out the call, and you answered! In the Halcyonian section of the Masks G+ Community, there are a bunch of neat villains, some with great art, and requests for new villains. But in particular, we wanted to draw attention to Kit La Touche’s awesome resource for collecting and providing access to new villains! You can find the app here.
So go on and use it! Fill it up with some awesome villains, folks! :)
Golden Geeks
Aaaand, Masks is up for two Golden Geek Awards, for both RPG - Game of the Year and RPG - Best Artwork & Presentation!
For my own personal part, I am honored and frickin’ stoked to be nominated! I’m very proud of Masks, and I’m so glad that so many of you are having a great time with it!
Not everyone can vote in the Golden Geek Awards—you have to be either a BGG Site Supporter or spend 20 GeekGold on their website—but if you can vote and you’ve had a good time with Masks, please go on and give it a vote!
Flippin' Pages
Thank you all so much for your continued interest and investment with Masks. We’re all so happy to hear stories about you playing the game and having a good time with it, and we’re thrilled with how active a community this is. We know you all want all the cool bits to be finished—we do too!—and when they’re done, we think you’re really going to love them. As always, thanks for your continued support, and keep saving Halcyon City!
Did we mention the books?
about 9 years ago
– Fri, Jan 06, 2017 at 11:38:35 PM
Hey everybody! Happy New Year! Many great en-maskenings and felicitations!
Project Update: January
First and foremost, the core books are all with our reshippers, so across the world, they should be arriving very soon if they haven’t already. Whether you’re a domestic or international backer, if you haven’t received your book by January 15, please let us know with a message to [email protected]. If you have any other questions or issues with your books, you can shoot a message to the same address and we’ll get you fixed up.
The dice, the decks, and the plaques are still on their way, so as soon as they come in, we’ll update you and ship ‘em out straight away.
Our next steps are to focus on the next books and their awesome contents for the new year, including the first issue of Halcyon City Stories, so stay tuned for more information!
And in the meantime, here’s some more awesome art from the Halcyon City Herald Collection.
First up is Inferna, a reincarnated fire god who has a tendency to cause some havoc in Halcyon City:
Next up, we see the new inheritor of the noble title of Trooper Alpha, contemplating herself in the mirror:
And then we have a few awesome, lesser known heroes of Halcyon City—the Echidna and Krowley:
Finally, the books are fully available to purchase for anyone who’s interested! Here are the links to find them:
Hello, Halcyonians! As a New Years Resolution, we have a new thing we want to try.
We love to see the heroes and the villains you all come up with, and we think other Masks fans will too. And together, we can create a massive roster of Halcyon's myriad possible citizens!
Here’s the deal. Share your favorite character, villain or hero, from your Masks campaign. We have a brand new special place in our Masks Google+ community, specifically for this. If you want to put up your character there, make sure you do it in the Halcyonian section. Use #halcyonian no matter where you share, and feel free to tag us in to your twitter posts—we're @magpieofficial.
Then, grab a character someone else made, and use it in your own game! Tell us all about it in the same part of the community or with the same hashtag, #halcyonian, and then challenge the other members of the community to use another character. If we can get this ball rolling, soon we’ll have a massive source of heroes and villains anybody can pull from at the drop of a hat!
We’ll highlight a few characters as we go along, too, and if we use any in our own games, we’ll let you know!
Super ‘17
(Okay, yeah, that title was bad, really bad, I’m so sorry.)
As always, thank you all so much for your kind words and continued support! We’ve loved seeing everyone get their books, and we’ll gladly take a look at any pictures of you playing or showing off your copy—if you want to share them, you can use #masksrpg or tag us in (again, @magpieofficial on Twitter, +Magpie Games on Google+, and you can find us on Facebook here) to make sure we see them! And we can’t wait to finish off the rest of the awesome books we’re doing and put them into your hands!
Here’s to 2017!
Books! Books! Books!
over 9 years ago
– Wed, Dec 14, 2016 at 07:00:03 PM
They’re here! The books have arrived!
We’re going to keep this update short and simple to make sure it’s focused.
Books have arrived, and we’re getting ready to ship them out! So everyone, please, make sure your shipping address is correct ASAP! We want to get shipping these out ASAP, so please update your shipping address by noon EST tomorrow.
Just go to that address and you should be able to either find your survey, or make modifications to your shipping address.
If you have any questions or issues, please let us know at [email protected].
Thanks for sticking with us! We’re so excited to put these books in your hands!
Landing Zone: December
over 9 years ago
– Tue, Nov 29, 2016 at 11:26:01 PM
Sweet Christmas! (I’m allowed to say it if I’m talking about December, right?)
First of all, hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend! Secondly, we have a touch down date—you’ll be getting your core books in December!
Project Update: November
We shipped off the book to the printer last month, and after running the proof to make final checks for edits and adjustments, we finalized it and gave the go to start making the book. That means we’re scheduled to get our shipment at the beginning of December—specifically, December 9th—and we’ll start shipping out books to you on the 12th!
We couldn’t be more excited to finally get you your core books. Thank you so much for all your support, and your patience.
As for many of the other doodads and items—the Deck of Villainy and the Deck of Influence are both at the printer, as well. They should be winging their way to us soon—we’re looking at a January delivery date for them, due to some additional complications. The dice will be heading out with the Decks, and the other unique backer rewards like the Keys to the City.
Just to remind you all, as well, here are some links to additional digital materials we’ve put on the Magpie Games website:
In other news, we’re polishing off the text for the Halcyon City Herald Collection, we’re getting art rolling on the final books, and we’re putting the final touches on the first batch of new playbooks. So stick with us! Lots more stuff coming our way!
More Previews
With the Halcyon City Herald Collection making progress, I wanted to share the cover, and spend a bit of time talking about what that book will be.
The Halcyon City Herald Collection represents more than just a collection of the Herald’s best articles. It’s a compendium, put together by a major editor of the paper and its affiliates—the Trumpet Blast, the Kingfisher, and the Halcyon Chronicle—to pass on to the next editor. It’s a way of passing wisdom, knowledge, and experience through the generations...and we’re putting it in your hands.
These articles were assembled from across the history of these publications by editor Keandra Hunt, to pass on to her successor. Each one is a story of import, and each one will come with its own annotations and comments from Keandra, highlighting questions left standing, or important knowledge left unclear. The book will include these annotations and ideas alongside the articles themselves, giving you tons of new fodder for your Masks campaign, in addition to custom moves to give each of these articles added mechanical weight.
Here’s a preview of the cover, missing some of the titles and back matter text, but giving you your first image of Keandra herself:
Again, special thanks to Elisa Cella for her awesome art here!
We’re excited to share with you these articles and Keandra’s own voice, ranging on subjects from a battle against a supernatural force of greed from across time; the hot-takes of a rather incensing commentator upon Halcyon’s trends and styles; coverage of strange new dimensions and parallel world crossovers; and, of course, mole people.
Next Steps
We’re moving ahead and making progress—and I could not be more excited to finally get a copy of the book in my hands! As always, thank you all so much for your patience and interest. Soon, my friends!
The Book Is At The Printer!
over 9 years ago
– Tue, Oct 18, 2016 at 09:01:44 PM
***kkkttt***This is Breaker One to Base, Breaker One to Base, the Book is At the Printer, I repeat, the Book is At the Printer, Also the Pudding is In the Tuna, I repeat, the Pudding is In the Tuna***kkkttt***
And that’s it! The book is at the printers!
The hardcover and softcover books are both ready and being put together. The Deck is going to the printers. We’re going to get the dice in soon. It’s all coming together.
Project Update: October
Thank you so much for all your patience and support throughout this process. As always, we couldn’t have done it without you, and without the kind words of such an awesome community.
And so, this means our attention is pretty much entirely upon the next steps in our process. Glad to say, the Halcyon City Herald Collection is coming along pretty well! We’ve got art rolling in, and we’ve got the pieces into editing.
And actually on the note of art….
Introducing Elisa Cella!
We’re working with Elisa Cella on art for the Halcyon City Herald Collection! Elisa’s done awesome work, in particular for the Fate World “Sails Full of Stars,” written by Don Bisdorf. You can find her amazing art at http://elisacellart.com/. We’re very proud to be working with Elisa on the Herald, and she’s done some great pieces already!
Here’s one of those art pieces for the article on the Azure Ace, an aging hero who should retire, written by Magpie’s own Marissa Kelly!
An excerpt of Marissa’s piece:
Azure Ace, the highflying Evel Knievel, celebrated his Birthday yesterday. Many were shocked to learn that, at the ripe old age of 75, he gave a statement stating he would not be retiring this year. Instead, Azure Ace is more committed than ever to hitting the streets of Halcyon City in search of crime.
...but the high-flying hero should retire and find a new way to contribute to Halcyon City's many needs in a new, more practical way. We don’t need him to fly around stopping crime to continue to respect him.
An example move from Marissa’s piece:
When you try to look up a retired superhero or supervillain for advice or aid, name them and roll + Superior. On a hit, you find their information in public or accessible records. On a 10+, they’re in a good place, and happy to help. On a 7-9, they’re facing some problem of their own in their post-retirement life, and they’ll ask for your help in dealing with it. On a miss, you either find no record of them (a very suspicious state), or they are still active in a dangerous way, GM’s choice.
Playbook Art
And, we have the final 4 playbook images to show off—the Star, the Newborn, the Innocent, and the Harbinger!
We’re on track for knocking out the Halcyon City Herald Collection, and then we’re on to Masks: Unbound!
The game, an investigative horror RPG modeled after the fairy tale of Bluebeard, was designed by Whitney Beltrán, Marissa Kelly, and Sarah Richardson. It’s a brilliant game, with innovative and awesome mechanics, gorgeous art, and a beautiful design. The game is mature, dealing with intense themes of horror—definitely think “rated R”, and be aware before you head on over. But it’s well worth your time.
I (Brendan) am only barely involved with Bluebeard’s Bride, helping out when I can—which lets me fully appreciate the awesome work that Whitney, Marissa, and Sarah did as a member of their audience. They’ve been knocking it out of the park this whole time, and you’d be missing out if you didn’t go look for yourself.
So go head on over right now! The base play materials are out and ready for you in the very first update on the Kickstarter!
Looking Forward
As always, I appreciate your patience, and I’m just as excited to get the core Masks book in my hands as any of you are! But in the meantime, I’ve loved reading your discussions of Masks and your reports of actual play—it’s hard to describe how awesome a feeling it is to realize people are having a blast with a thing you made. So please keep doing it! :)
