[Masks] Rules question about attacks | Tabletop Roleplaying Open (2025)

I've been circling whether to buy Masks for about as long as it's been out. I'm not a huge fan of the PbtA system, but it seems like Masks has some cool ideas independent of that. The other night I downloaded the playbooks and list of moves from the website to take a look at them and ... is there something missing from this move sheet? Because it doesn't seem like there's any way to just punch someone.

In the basic moves there's "Directly engage a threat," but the only things that allows you to do are (1) resist or avoid the threat's blows, (2) take something from them, (3) create an opportunity for your allies, and/or (4) impress, surprise, or frighten the opposition. Similarly, "Unleash your powers" only allows you to "overcome an obstacle, reshape your environment, or extend your senses."

In the adult moves, which need to be acquired with experience, "Wield your powers" allows you to (1) take hold of something vulnerable to you, (2) create something useful from the environment, or (3) neutralize an opponent or threat. And "Overwhelm a vulnerable foe" just ends a fight with one roll.

So what am I missing here? I've got to be missing something, right? Otherwise it seems like the only way via the rules to fight someone is to level up to the point that you can take an "adult move" and defeat them with a single action.

It's not a granular combat game. It's about relationships (you and your teammates) and discovering who you are as a teen hero. If you watch Young Justice, everyone's powers are mostly irrelevant in granular detail. You could be, for example, wholly invulnerable, but still get taken out of the fight by losing emotional control.

You do have Conditions to mark, and you can certainly Take a Powerful Blow, which is interesting because you roll with a bonus of the number of Conditions active as your bonus rather than one of your Labels.

As to directly taking out a bad guy, there's Overwhelm a Vulnerable Foe, and on a hit they're out. Simple as that. The key is that they're "vulnerable." You have to roleplay how you make them that way, which could be emotional as well as physical, and it's not about how many Conditions they have marked (they might have none, yet still get taken out).

Think about the villains as obstacles to overcome. Their powers are not the focus of the game, nor is objective damage (to either side of the fight). It's all about what happens and how the kids process the outcome.

Directly engage a threat is the move to punch some one.

When you directly engage a threat, roll + Danger.
On a hit, trade blows. On a 10+, pick two. On a 7-9,
pick one.
• resist or avoid their blows
• take something from them
• create an opportunity for your allies
• impress, surprise, or frighten the opposition

Click to expand...

So, on a hit, you hit them...but they hit you. Usually you inflict a condition and they inflict one on you, so you can choose one of the options to avoid taking a condition.

10fold said:

It's not a granular combat game. It's about relationships (you and your teammates) and discovering who you are as a teen hero. If you watch Young Justice, everyone's powers are mostly irrelevant in granular detail. You could be, for example, wholly invulnerable, but still get taken out of the fight by losing emotional control.

Click to expand...

You do have Conditions to mark, and you can certainly Take a Powerful Blow, which is interesting because you roll with a bonus of the number of Conditions active as your bonus rather than one of your Labels.

Taking A Powerful Blow is how you react to getting hit, not how you hit.

As to directly taking out a bad guy, there's Overwhelm a Vulnerable Foe, and on a hit they're out. Simple as that. The key is that they're "vulnerable." You have to roleplay how you make them that way, which could be emotional as well as physical, and it's not about how many Conditions they have marked (they might have none, yet still get taken out).

Click to expand...

I mentioned that in my first post. It's an adult move, which means you need to get five points of potential (by missing a roll) to get an advancement, and once you've done that five times, you can take Overwhelm a Vulnerable Foe as a move available to you. Which means that it'll be a while before you can actually defeat an opponent. And once you do, combat is just rolling once and if you succeed it's over.

At least as I'm able to piece together the rules from the playbooks and moves list.

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@robowieland said:

Directly engage a threat is the move to punch some one.

So, on a hit, you hit them...but they hit you. Usually you inflict a condition and they inflict one on you, so you can choose one of the options to avoid taking a condition.

Click to expand...

Okay, that's the information I was looking for. It's not expressed very strongly in the move itself that combat involves trading conditions. It reads more like you can avoid blows, take something, create an opportunity, or frighten them, but with no option to actually do anything to them directly.

Overwhelm a Vulnerable Foe is how you one shot somebody.

Take A Powerful Blow is when you get a bus chucked at you, someone that's an expert with their attacks comes at you or as a result of a miss on a roll when you might be caught looking.

Villains get to make a villain move when they take a condition. These are hard moves that create complications so the heroes don't just dogpile the main bad guy.

So The Terrible Bulk might have "Prove Bulk strongest one there is!" And that might play out as:

"Paragon Jr., you knock the Bulk into a city bus and he marks the Angry condition! Your dad never did anything like that! But now Bulk's angry...picks up the crumpled bus...and throws it at Lady Darkblade! Looks like you might have to Take A Powerful Blow, here, Lady Darkblade, unless you think of something else. What do you do?"