Do you have a preferred method for outcome resolution? Do you like rolling a single D20 like D&D, 3 six sided dice and roll under, like GURPS, or one of the many die poll systems like WEG, Shadowrun, or World of Darkness, diceless mechanics, or something else entirely?
What about that system do you like and is there anything you don't like about it?
Masks is PbtA and uses a d6+mods system where 1-6 is a fail, 7-9 is partial success, and 10-12+ is full success.
Easy for the table to follow along with since there's no ambiguity about what a success needs
I also like PF2e's 1d20 system where you roll against a DC, but rolling +10 or -10 over or under the DC also bumps your degree of success one level up or down, instead of needing a nat 1 or 20.
The ambiguity of a DC is both an issue and a blessing
@NaClKnight I'm VERY familiar with Masks in particular and PbtA in general and I think it's a wonderful system. Although, my group is wishing there were more questions available for some of the moves. We've had to heavily work around that particular limitation.
I haven't gotten to try PF2e yet, but since it's taken a lot from D&D4e and D20 in general, it's pretty familiar. It's great that it's quick and simple to grok but I wish it was a little less swingy. Just a personal preference though.
@cynical13 We have straight up modified the questions/followups for some of the moves/actions.
My players are meta enough to recognize that some of the options offer tangible benefits while others only offer ambiguous "opportunities"
I've homebrewed a lot of them to all offer numerical bonuses or other clear tangible effects
@cynical13 Gotcha! My players are def roleplay first, which is funny cause I'm more of a meta/numbers/combat guy than any of my actual players are.
I'd happily walk them through a treadmill of combat and high intensity discussions/scenes but they wanna stop and get pizza and and discuss their hideouts and talk to their parents so i have to remember to dial all that back and offer them more sessions between combats (and more conversation hooks) than i would personally ask for.
We've added a 4th player and i think we finally have a good handle on the flow of the game and their expectations and instincts compared to the actual system.
I'm here to have fun facilitating their fun so i am the one to compromise, and that's intentional and preferable.
@NaClKnight I have a group of 5 heroes with various levels of social anxiety, substance abuse issues, parental issues, and pressure from societal and mentor expectations. There was a session where they just had an impromptu sleepover and dove into personal issues. Makes it really easy to fill time with a session like that and they loved it.
I've also caught them by surprise a few times with plot twists. The first trade/campaign was a doozy and I thought it was obvious because I was leaving clues the entire time.
My team still hasn't forgiven me for throwing them into a hostage situation vs the Rizzard on their first sessions.
Inspired by those Old Spice commercials of throngs of women running towards one man. What if one guy got magic powers and used them to that specific purpose? To have infinite Rizz. To be literally irresistible and also kinda scummy?
His abilities included commanding the whorde, human cyclone known as the his hotation, and his cuddle puddle,
He was real easy to hate.
When overwhelmed, his magical scepter exploded and turned him from the Rizzard into the Rizzly Bear.
closest I've ever come to a player mutiny. I was quite pleased with myself.
I'm trying to generate that kind of engagement and fun without a combat session. We'll get there soon.
@NaClKnight My first trade started with the heroes stopping a bank robbery. One of my players was running The Doomed playbook and his deal was his character was tied to an extradimensional multimedia conglomerate who filmed disasters in other dimensions. Theirs was slated to be destroyed at the end of the season.
By accident, they befriended a taxi driver who had his cab destroyed during the opening scene.
We were watching Moon Knight. Jake Lockley was the evil personality.
I made plans.
Every issue/session, I mentioned cabs or they interacted with "Jake McClockley", mild mannered cab driver. Who was the producer of the apocalypse.
Their faces when I dropped that during the last session still warms my blackened, tar soaked GM's heart to this day. Utter shock and betrayal.
Jeff
NaClKnight 🧂⚔️🥊