So, because of the pbp format, the standard "first session" Masks describes isn't ideal. Instead I'm going to modify a convention scenario.
From there, I plan to use Hooks and Arcs as described by the corebook.
So basically after this opening arc (it's like 2-3 face to face sessions so could easily take you folks MONTHS [see red scorpion]) I'll be using backstory and things that happen in game, along with my own ideas to make new multi-session arcs.
Why is this a forum topic? because this gives you a chance to let me know what sort of stories you'd enjoy dealing with. Want to bust a crime lord? we can work with that. Want to prove a beloved hero is actually an embezzling asshole? Let's try it. Want to battle the black knight and his army of dragons in camelot? Lancelot will steal your girl....
So let me know what people like, and if you want to feel free to read about hooks and arcs so you have an idea about what is needed.
From there, I plan to use Hooks and Arcs as described by the corebook.
So basically after this opening arc (it's like 2-3 face to face sessions so could easily take you folks MONTHS [see red scorpion]) I'll be using backstory and things that happen in game, along with my own ideas to make new multi-session arcs.
Why is this a forum topic? because this gives you a chance to let me know what sort of stories you'd enjoy dealing with. Want to bust a crime lord? we can work with that. Want to prove a beloved hero is actually an embezzling asshole? Let's try it. Want to battle the black knight and his army of dragons in camelot? Lancelot will steal your girl....
So let me know what people like, and if you want to feel free to read about hooks and arcs so you have an idea about what is needed.
I don't expect anyone to read these in a sitting. This is from the GM section in the core book. I felt it might be good to explain what is involved with Hooks and Arcs here since some people have a hard time reading the book 
and or would normally skip the GM stuff as a player. If this format hurts your soul, you can find it in the PDF from pg 181-193 *edit* He did not even try so by format, he means copy paste 
. Working on restructuring
HOOKS VS ARCS
Hooks are tools for focusing on the PCs and their stories. They remind you
of what characters most strongly pull the PCs in different directions, and they give you guidance on how to use those characters during play. Hooks come in pairs: two characters that put two different Labels in conflict for the PC— Danger vs Savior, Freak vs Mundane, Superior vs Danger, Savior vs Freak, etc. Each character is an individual hook. The two hooks aren’t necessarily directly in conflict with each other; the pairing isn’t about those two characters fighting each other, but instead about discovering which path the PC will follow.
Arcs, on the other hand, are tools for tracking overarching issues in your game of MASKS. Instead of focusing on any individual PC, they give you the chance to build on the escalating problems facing the team. When Vanquish’s alien invasion fleet is getting closer and closer to Earth, that’s an arc. When the Teacher is assembling an army of brainwashed, extradimensionally infected children, that’s an arc. Arcs help structure your overall story, and give you a way to pace the conflict over multiple sessions.
BUILDING HOOKS
Each hook is an actual character that pulls a PC towards a Label. Pairs of hooks are always focused on one PC, in particular on the two Labels by which they might be defined. The simplest way to come up with a pair of hooks for a PC is to ask: “Is (PC) a (Label) or (Label)?” Think of this question as if you’re a reader of your game’s comic book series. Where do you think the main characters are going? How do you think others see them? What do you think is pushing them to take action? Setting up hooks flags these issues and ideas so you can emphasize them during play. Build some hooks after your first session of play, and always look at them between sessions. If you feel that a given pair of hooks has been resolved— especially if the PC has locked any of the Labels involved in the pair—then you should create a new pair of hooks for that PC. In general, hold onto a pair of hooks for about three or four sessions before changing up the conflict and focusing on a new set of Labels. When you build a new pair of hooks:
• Choose the PC that they’re centered on
• Choose the Labels involved
• Assign NPCs to the pairings
CHOOSING THE PC
Ultimately, you need at least one pair of hooks for each PC so you have something to guide you on how to pull each PC’s self-image. When you’re choosing which PC to build a new pair of hooks for, though, only choose PCs who either don’t have hooks yet or who’ve resolved their last pair of hooks. When you pick the PC, take a look at their Labels, who has Influence over them, whom they have Influence over, and anything else of note about their character.
CHOOSE THE LABELS
Each pair of Labels charts a different kind of conflict, a different set of issues. The pairing of Danger vs Savior, for example, is about the tension between destructively defeating enemies and saving lives; the pairing of Danger vs Freak, on the other hand, is about the fine line between appearing strange and powerful, and appearing to be a genuine threat. Each Label in a hook comes with an impulse that tells you a general direction and drive that hook uses to push the PC toward that Label. For example, a Freak hook might feature an impulse of “To isolate and drive away,” and a Mundane hook might feature an impulse of “To make normal.” When you use those hooks, look for ways to have the Freak hook drive the PC into isolation, making them feel different and separate and alone, while the Mundane hook offers normalcy, both by making them feel normal and by telling them to hide their strangeness and act “normal.”
PAIRING: DANGER VS FREAK
This pairing is about power—especially when it gets out of hand. PCs involved in a Danger vs Freak pairing are often the most powerful of their team, capable of rewriting existence or causing massive destruction. Those around them question whether they can be trusted with their power—maybe because they’re kids or because they have more power than anybody should be trusted with.
• Hook Impulse — Danger: To remind them of collateral damage
• Hook Impulse — Freak: To play up their strangeness and capabilities
PAIRING: DANGER VS MUNDANE
This pairing is about fear. PCs involved in a Danger vs Mundane pairing are viewed with understanding by those close to them, and fear by others—until things go wrong, and the fear may spread like wildfire. But can they show those who fear them that they’re just a person at heart? Or will they turn out to be the threat everyone worries can’t be stopped?
• Hook Impulse — Danger: To mistrust and provoke
• Hook Impulse — Mundane: To interrupt dangerous situations
PAIRING: DANGER VS SAVIOR
This pairing is about heroic roles. PCs involved in a Danger vs Savior pairing are torn between defeating enemies and saving lives. When they’re caught in a dangerous fight, they’re not sure if they should take down the villain fast and hard or if they should focus on keeping people safe at the cost of potentially letting the villain escape.
• Hook Impulse — Danger: To push towards a fight
• Hook Impulse — Savior: To push away from a straight fight, towards saving lives
PAIRING: DANGER VS SUPERIOR
This pairing is about control. Superior characters are good at looking around, taking in the environment, understanding it, using it...and provoking other people to do what they want. Surgical strikes and efforts. Dangerous characters are good at punching enemies in the face, at letting loose, at breaking things down. Characters caught in these arcs are stuck between precision and uncontrolled venting.
• Hook Impulse — Danger: To infuriate and provoke
• Hook Impulse — Superior: To point out failures of control and planning
PAIRING: FREAK VS MUNDANE
This pairing is about fitting in, usually focusing on one of two angles: either the PC is especially strange, notably different from the people around them, and unsure if they’ll ever fit in...or they’re especially normal, and they don’t feel different enough. Either way, the people involved in this pairing push them either further in sync with the normal people of Halcyon City, or push them to be alone, separate from the people around them by their own strangeness.
• Hook Impulse — Freak: To isolate and drive away
• Hook Impulse — Mundane: To make normal
PAIRING: FREAK VS SUPERIOR
This pairing is about being special. A character who is caught in this pairing hears voices on one side telling them they’re better, stronger, and more capable than everyone around them, and voices on the other side calling them a worthless monster. Either way, they’re struggling to make sense of what their difference means.
• Hook Impulse — Freak: To call out the flaws of strangeness
• Hook Impulse — Superior: To praise the power and ability of strangeness
PAIRING: FREAK VS SAVIOR
This pairing is about responsibility. What responsibilities does someone with intense power have? Are they beholden only to their own power? Or are they burdened with the need to make use of their powers for the greater good?
• Hook Impulse — Freak: To praise immense power and abilities
• Hook Impulse — Savior: To place responsibility
PAIRING: MUNDANE VS SUPERIOR
This pairing is about human connection. Characters with a high Mundane can connect with other people on a meaningful level...but they can’t get those people to reliably do what they want. Characters with a high Superior, on the other hand, can manipulate other people and their environment much more directly, but they’re more aloof and detached from those people. With this pairing, play up that detachment, the cost of feeling superior and the compromises required of being mundane.
• Hook Impulse — Mundane: To require compromise for connection
• Hook Impulse — Superior: To detach and distance from others
PAIRING: MUNDANE VS SAVIOR
This pairing is about saving others—protecting them from outward and inner threats. Saviors are great at stopping a car flying through the air at someone’s face, but Mundane characters can actually make people feel better, and might even be able to save villains from themselves.
• Hook Impulse — Mundane: To ask for empathy and mercy
• Hook Impulse — Savior: To demand defense and protection for innocents
PAIRING: SAVIOR VS SUPERIOR
This pairing is about whether heroes should be proactive or reactive. Saviors respond to threats...but superior PCs read the situation and manipulate those around them to take action. They solve problems proactively, at the cost of being coldly removed from those around them. Which method is truly heroic? Fighting the good fight or winning the war?
• Hook Impulse — Savior: To highlight impending threats
• Hook Impulse — Superior: To present opportunities for action
ASSIGN NPCs
After selecting the pairing for your hooks, assign the hooks themselves to either side of the pairing. A hook is a fictional element embodying the pull on the PC in the direction of a particular Label. It’s the Janus’s mother, pulling the Janus to be more and more Mundane. It’s the Protégé’s mentor, pulling the Protégé to be more and more Superior. Hooks should almost always be characters. If you feel very strongly that a location or item could pull the PC in a particular direction, then use it as a hook, but try to stick to characters.
They can be villains, or they can be friends, or family members, or anyone, so long as they’d pull the PC in one direction of the pairing. Whenever you can, use the same NPCs across multiple pairings. That way, you instantly generate PC-NPC-PC triangles. When the Protégé’s mentor wants the Protégé to be more of a Savior, but continuously tells the Transformed they’re a Danger, there’s instant tension, even between those two PCs. Reusing the NPCs keeps your game tight and focused on that particular set of characters. If necessary, you can make up a new character to use as a hook for a pairing, but try to use characters that are already in your game, even if they’re only mentioned on someone’s character sheet when you’re filling in your hooks.
HOW TO USE HOOKS
Set up your hooks between sessions. Doing so makes you think about who these characters are, and ask yourself questions about what they might become. During play, use your list of hooks as a reference sheet for your moves. When you’re at a loss for the next scene, bring the characters together with their hooks, and pull them towards the Labels involved. Set scenes using the hooks, and push their Labels hard. If you need to make a hard move, have one of the hooks take Influence on the PC and shift their Labels. Use your list of hooks to remind you of the character’s big, primary issue, as well. NPCs not even directly involved in the pairing can still poke and push and pull at those Labels. When you aren’t sure which Label to shift, think about the pairings and the hooks, and try to angle for those Labels. At the end of every session, ask yourself if it’s still an open question whether the PC is one Label or the other. Does the player think it’s resolved? Do you? If so, then change that pairing to a new one. If not, then keep that pairing steady, and think about other ways to pull on those Labels with those hooks.
SAMPLE HOOK PAIRING
I’m brainstorming a pair of hooks for Rex, the Transformed. Rex so far has been pretty surly; he’s clearly distraught about his transformed body. He has a high Freak and an especially low Mundane...but he also saved Skysong, and he’s been acting more like a Savior, especially with her around. I know I can’t make Skysong a hook—she’s a PC—but I’m thinking about the questions for Rex: maybe “Is he a Freak or a Savior?” or “Is he a Danger or a Freak?” Ultimately, I settle on “Is he a Freak or Mundane?” It fits his Labels as they sit right now, and I can more easily think of hooks for the pairing. For Freak, it’s clearly Samuel Searley, the television pundit who loves to talk about how terrifying Rex looks. I’ll need to tweak what Searley says a bit moving forward to focus more on Freak than Danger, but it’s an easy fix. For Mundane, I’m thinking about Grasshopper’s little sister, Ciara. Rex met Ciara when he saved her from Carlo the Assassin—and I think it’s interesting to have Ciara treat Rex like a normal person. We haven’t seen them together on screen yet, but I like reincorporating the same character, and creating a PC-NPC-PC triangle with Grasshopper.
and or would normally skip the GM stuff as a player. If this format hurts your soul, you can find it in the PDF from pg 181-193 *edit* He did not even try so by format, he means copy paste . Working on restructuringHOOKS VS ARCS
Hooks are tools for focusing on the PCs and their stories. They remind you
of what characters most strongly pull the PCs in different directions, and they give you guidance on how to use those characters during play. Hooks come in pairs: two characters that put two different Labels in conflict for the PC— Danger vs Savior, Freak vs Mundane, Superior vs Danger, Savior vs Freak, etc. Each character is an individual hook. The two hooks aren’t necessarily directly in conflict with each other; the pairing isn’t about those two characters fighting each other, but instead about discovering which path the PC will follow.
Arcs, on the other hand, are tools for tracking overarching issues in your game of MASKS. Instead of focusing on any individual PC, they give you the chance to build on the escalating problems facing the team. When Vanquish’s alien invasion fleet is getting closer and closer to Earth, that’s an arc. When the Teacher is assembling an army of brainwashed, extradimensionally infected children, that’s an arc. Arcs help structure your overall story, and give you a way to pace the conflict over multiple sessions.
BUILDING HOOKS
Each hook is an actual character that pulls a PC towards a Label. Pairs of hooks are always focused on one PC, in particular on the two Labels by which they might be defined. The simplest way to come up with a pair of hooks for a PC is to ask: “Is (PC) a (Label) or (Label)?” Think of this question as if you’re a reader of your game’s comic book series. Where do you think the main characters are going? How do you think others see them? What do you think is pushing them to take action? Setting up hooks flags these issues and ideas so you can emphasize them during play. Build some hooks after your first session of play, and always look at them between sessions. If you feel that a given pair of hooks has been resolved— especially if the PC has locked any of the Labels involved in the pair—then you should create a new pair of hooks for that PC. In general, hold onto a pair of hooks for about three or four sessions before changing up the conflict and focusing on a new set of Labels. When you build a new pair of hooks:
• Choose the PC that they’re centered on
• Choose the Labels involved
• Assign NPCs to the pairings
CHOOSING THE PC
Ultimately, you need at least one pair of hooks for each PC so you have something to guide you on how to pull each PC’s self-image. When you’re choosing which PC to build a new pair of hooks for, though, only choose PCs who either don’t have hooks yet or who’ve resolved their last pair of hooks. When you pick the PC, take a look at their Labels, who has Influence over them, whom they have Influence over, and anything else of note about their character.
CHOOSE THE LABELS
Each pair of Labels charts a different kind of conflict, a different set of issues. The pairing of Danger vs Savior, for example, is about the tension between destructively defeating enemies and saving lives; the pairing of Danger vs Freak, on the other hand, is about the fine line between appearing strange and powerful, and appearing to be a genuine threat. Each Label in a hook comes with an impulse that tells you a general direction and drive that hook uses to push the PC toward that Label. For example, a Freak hook might feature an impulse of “To isolate and drive away,” and a Mundane hook might feature an impulse of “To make normal.” When you use those hooks, look for ways to have the Freak hook drive the PC into isolation, making them feel different and separate and alone, while the Mundane hook offers normalcy, both by making them feel normal and by telling them to hide their strangeness and act “normal.”
PAIRING: DANGER VS FREAK
This pairing is about power—especially when it gets out of hand. PCs involved in a Danger vs Freak pairing are often the most powerful of their team, capable of rewriting existence or causing massive destruction. Those around them question whether they can be trusted with their power—maybe because they’re kids or because they have more power than anybody should be trusted with.
• Hook Impulse — Danger: To remind them of collateral damage
• Hook Impulse — Freak: To play up their strangeness and capabilities
PAIRING: DANGER VS MUNDANE
This pairing is about fear. PCs involved in a Danger vs Mundane pairing are viewed with understanding by those close to them, and fear by others—until things go wrong, and the fear may spread like wildfire. But can they show those who fear them that they’re just a person at heart? Or will they turn out to be the threat everyone worries can’t be stopped?
• Hook Impulse — Danger: To mistrust and provoke
• Hook Impulse — Mundane: To interrupt dangerous situations
PAIRING: DANGER VS SAVIOR
This pairing is about heroic roles. PCs involved in a Danger vs Savior pairing are torn between defeating enemies and saving lives. When they’re caught in a dangerous fight, they’re not sure if they should take down the villain fast and hard or if they should focus on keeping people safe at the cost of potentially letting the villain escape.
• Hook Impulse — Danger: To push towards a fight
• Hook Impulse — Savior: To push away from a straight fight, towards saving lives
PAIRING: DANGER VS SUPERIOR
This pairing is about control. Superior characters are good at looking around, taking in the environment, understanding it, using it...and provoking other people to do what they want. Surgical strikes and efforts. Dangerous characters are good at punching enemies in the face, at letting loose, at breaking things down. Characters caught in these arcs are stuck between precision and uncontrolled venting.
• Hook Impulse — Danger: To infuriate and provoke
• Hook Impulse — Superior: To point out failures of control and planning
PAIRING: FREAK VS MUNDANE
This pairing is about fitting in, usually focusing on one of two angles: either the PC is especially strange, notably different from the people around them, and unsure if they’ll ever fit in...or they’re especially normal, and they don’t feel different enough. Either way, the people involved in this pairing push them either further in sync with the normal people of Halcyon City, or push them to be alone, separate from the people around them by their own strangeness.
• Hook Impulse — Freak: To isolate and drive away
• Hook Impulse — Mundane: To make normal
PAIRING: FREAK VS SUPERIOR
This pairing is about being special. A character who is caught in this pairing hears voices on one side telling them they’re better, stronger, and more capable than everyone around them, and voices on the other side calling them a worthless monster. Either way, they’re struggling to make sense of what their difference means.
• Hook Impulse — Freak: To call out the flaws of strangeness
• Hook Impulse — Superior: To praise the power and ability of strangeness
PAIRING: FREAK VS SAVIOR
This pairing is about responsibility. What responsibilities does someone with intense power have? Are they beholden only to their own power? Or are they burdened with the need to make use of their powers for the greater good?
• Hook Impulse — Freak: To praise immense power and abilities
• Hook Impulse — Savior: To place responsibility
PAIRING: MUNDANE VS SUPERIOR
This pairing is about human connection. Characters with a high Mundane can connect with other people on a meaningful level...but they can’t get those people to reliably do what they want. Characters with a high Superior, on the other hand, can manipulate other people and their environment much more directly, but they’re more aloof and detached from those people. With this pairing, play up that detachment, the cost of feeling superior and the compromises required of being mundane.
• Hook Impulse — Mundane: To require compromise for connection
• Hook Impulse — Superior: To detach and distance from others
PAIRING: MUNDANE VS SAVIOR
This pairing is about saving others—protecting them from outward and inner threats. Saviors are great at stopping a car flying through the air at someone’s face, but Mundane characters can actually make people feel better, and might even be able to save villains from themselves.
• Hook Impulse — Mundane: To ask for empathy and mercy
• Hook Impulse — Savior: To demand defense and protection for innocents
PAIRING: SAVIOR VS SUPERIOR
This pairing is about whether heroes should be proactive or reactive. Saviors respond to threats...but superior PCs read the situation and manipulate those around them to take action. They solve problems proactively, at the cost of being coldly removed from those around them. Which method is truly heroic? Fighting the good fight or winning the war?
• Hook Impulse — Savior: To highlight impending threats
• Hook Impulse — Superior: To present opportunities for action
ASSIGN NPCs
After selecting the pairing for your hooks, assign the hooks themselves to either side of the pairing. A hook is a fictional element embodying the pull on the PC in the direction of a particular Label. It’s the Janus’s mother, pulling the Janus to be more and more Mundane. It’s the Protégé’s mentor, pulling the Protégé to be more and more Superior. Hooks should almost always be characters. If you feel very strongly that a location or item could pull the PC in a particular direction, then use it as a hook, but try to stick to characters.
They can be villains, or they can be friends, or family members, or anyone, so long as they’d pull the PC in one direction of the pairing. Whenever you can, use the same NPCs across multiple pairings. That way, you instantly generate PC-NPC-PC triangles. When the Protégé’s mentor wants the Protégé to be more of a Savior, but continuously tells the Transformed they’re a Danger, there’s instant tension, even between those two PCs. Reusing the NPCs keeps your game tight and focused on that particular set of characters. If necessary, you can make up a new character to use as a hook for a pairing, but try to use characters that are already in your game, even if they’re only mentioned on someone’s character sheet when you’re filling in your hooks.
HOW TO USE HOOKS
Set up your hooks between sessions. Doing so makes you think about who these characters are, and ask yourself questions about what they might become. During play, use your list of hooks as a reference sheet for your moves. When you’re at a loss for the next scene, bring the characters together with their hooks, and pull them towards the Labels involved. Set scenes using the hooks, and push their Labels hard. If you need to make a hard move, have one of the hooks take Influence on the PC and shift their Labels. Use your list of hooks to remind you of the character’s big, primary issue, as well. NPCs not even directly involved in the pairing can still poke and push and pull at those Labels. When you aren’t sure which Label to shift, think about the pairings and the hooks, and try to angle for those Labels. At the end of every session, ask yourself if it’s still an open question whether the PC is one Label or the other. Does the player think it’s resolved? Do you? If so, then change that pairing to a new one. If not, then keep that pairing steady, and think about other ways to pull on those Labels with those hooks.
SAMPLE HOOK PAIRING
I’m brainstorming a pair of hooks for Rex, the Transformed. Rex so far has been pretty surly; he’s clearly distraught about his transformed body. He has a high Freak and an especially low Mundane...but he also saved Skysong, and he’s been acting more like a Savior, especially with her around. I know I can’t make Skysong a hook—she’s a PC—but I’m thinking about the questions for Rex: maybe “Is he a Freak or a Savior?” or “Is he a Danger or a Freak?” Ultimately, I settle on “Is he a Freak or Mundane?” It fits his Labels as they sit right now, and I can more easily think of hooks for the pairing. For Freak, it’s clearly Samuel Searley, the television pundit who loves to talk about how terrifying Rex looks. I’ll need to tweak what Searley says a bit moving forward to focus more on Freak than Danger, but it’s an easy fix. For Mundane, I’m thinking about Grasshopper’s little sister, Ciara. Rex met Ciara when he saved her from Carlo the Assassin—and I think it’s interesting to have Ciara treat Rex like a normal person. We haven’t seen them together on screen yet, but I like reincorporating the same character, and creating a PC-NPC-PC triangle with Grasshopper.
CREATING ARCS
The plans of villains and antagonists in Halcyon City are sometimes as simple as, “Rob a bank!” “Steal a McGuffin!” But the PCs also have to save the city from grander, more dangerous, more dramatic threats, problems that span across multiple issues of your comic and multiple sessions of your game. Those threats and problems are your arcs.
Each arc has a cast of NPCs and other fictional elements (places and objects of importance), an arc type, and three phases. It represents a combined set of threats, dangers, and issues that feed into each other to create a larger set of problems facing the PCs.
Arcs aren’t plots—they’re not lists of things that will definitely happen. They’re compilations of what the antagonists and dangers of Halcyon City might bring to fruition—how they might change the city. They’re a way for you to track what the big, overarching difficulties in the city are, and what you should be drawing on for future sessions.
To build an arc, follow these steps:
• Choose an arc type
• Build out the cast
• Fill in the phases
• Create custom moves (optional)
• Give it a name and description
CHOOSE AN ARC TYPE
There are 5 kinds of arc you could make:
• Corruption — something good, positive, or helpful is made dangerous and threatening
• Invasion — threats and enemies fight their way into control
• Restriction — those with power place constraints on those without
• Destruction — threats and enemies break and destroy what stands in their way
• Restoration — the heroes push to repair what damage has been done
Each arc type comes with several subtypes to further define exactly what the arc is about and to give it an impulse—an overarching tendency for the arc, a way to understand where the arc is heading. Arcs also come with their own moves, which you can make any time you could make any other kind of move, to push an arc further along its particular issues.
CORRUPTION
Corruption arcs are subtle and dangerous. They undermine the good of Halcyon City, turning friends to foes, heroes to villains, hope to fear.
Corruption Subtypes:
• Falling Hero (impulse: to commit to a rigid code of ethics)
• Greedy Power (impulse: to wield power selfishly)
• Stolen Innocence (impulse: to make terrible decisions)
• Twisted Truth (impulse: to spin lies)
• Traitorous Ally (impulse: to betray)
Corruption Moves:
• Pontificate about the true nature of things
• Present enticing gifts with strings
• Offer a temporary alliance
• Twist the narrative publicly
• Make threats, subtle or not
Corruption arcs almost always involve at least some cast members acting as the corruptors and some acting as the corrupted. The transition is never immediate—the PCs get to see the change.
INVASION
Invasion arcs are about dangerous forces seizing useful or desirable resources for themselves. Invaders are hoping to take control of something by force, not aiming to destroy it. You can’t control something that’s destroyed.
Invasion Subtypes:
• Aliens (impulse: to subvert or eliminate those in power)
• Criminals (impulse: to seize territory at any cost)
• Outsiders (impulse: to subvert or eliminate those without power)
• Time travelers (impulse: to control the actions of predecessors)
• Spies (impulse: to take control of valuable resources)
Invasion Moves:
• Pour forth a horde of soldiers
• Directly assault a stronghold
• Secretly infiltrate a stronghold
• Demand submission
• Capture innocents
Invasion arcs can be subtle or direct, depending on the situation and the invaders. Sometimes, aliens pour from a portal over the city...other times, they shapeshift and secretly infiltrate important agencies.
RESTRICTION
Restriction arcs are about powers exerting their might to lock down the heroes and others in the city. Restriction arcs tighten around the PCs, trapping them into rules and situations in which they’re supposed to be unable to take action.
Restriction Subtypes:
• Law (impulse: to outlaw and restrict)
• Military (impulse: to crack down on rampant elements)
• Agents (impulse: to control how others use power)
• Heroes (impulse: to uphold tradition)
• Corporations (impulse: to protect their interests from any threat)
Restriction Moves:
• Deploy surprising strength and force
• Offer a warning
• Interfere in heroic situations
• Create new rules and restrictions
• Reward obedience
The casts of restriction arcs are the faces of forces much larger than the PCs, be they superhero teams, corporations, or law enforcement agencies. Play up the inexperience and youth of the PCs during a restriction arc—this is the quintessential “parents laying down a new curfew” arc, but at a superheroic level.
DESTRUCTION
Destruction arcs are about breaking pieces of the world. They’re always about destroying some specific thing, not everything. Everyone at the table knows that if Halcyon City explodes then the game would be over. An individual villain’s plan may be to destroy the world, sure, but the arc is about destroying something specific. Notice that the subtypes for a destruction arc refer to the target of the destruction—not what is doing the destroying.
Destruction Subtypes:
• Defenders of the City (impulse: to draw out defenders with danger)
• Item of Power (impulse: to smash and grab)
• Prison (impulse: to free the restrained)
• Authorities of the City (impulse: to break tradition)
• Dangers to the City (impulse: to hunt and pursue doggedly)
Destruction Moves:
• Leave a trail of rubble and fires
• Endanger innocents with collateral damage
• Break the bindings on a danger
• Destroy a public landmark
• Explain the necessity for destruction
Always tie destruction arcs strongly to the human motivations of the villains and antagonists involved. The destruction they seek is always strangely justified to them; it’s not a real arc if they’re just doing it for fun.
RESTORATION
Restoration arcs are about fixing damage, healing wounds, and making the world right again. Often they’re about cleaning up the mess of another arc. Note that some of these subtypes are callbacks to other types of arcs. If someone’s trying to undo the damage done by an arc in the past, they’re likely calling on the relevant subtype here.
Restoration Subtypes:
• Redemption (impulse: to draw into the light)
• Reclamation (impulse: to repel through force and battle)
• Rebellion (impulse: to subvert through chaos and mayhem)
• Reconstruction (impulse: to rebuild despite danger)
Restoration Moves:
• Reveal a rebuilt threat
• Uncover an old secret
• Rally the people to a cause
• Destroy the forces in power
• Share a vision of the future
The PCs may want to restore things on their own, but always have NPCs looking to restore pieces of the world. The methods NPCs choose to fulfill their restoration plans will still put them at odds with the PCs.
BUILD OUT THE CAST
Once you’ve chosen what kind of arc you’re assembling, fill out the cast, a list of NPCs involved with that arc. A few of these characters will be obvious. If you’re creating a destruction arc, whoever’s doing the destruction has to be a cast member. If you’re creating an invasion arc, the lead invader and their forces need to be listed under the cast. But flesh out the cast with other characters as well, people who aren’t necessarily on board with the overall plan of the arc, but who have a vested interest in the situation in some way. Focus especially on characters you write up as villains. Remember that in this context, “villains” don’t have to be evil (and in fact, shouldn’t be so obviously evil). They just have to be antagonistic, clear opponents for the PCs to face. Try to have at least three or four of these villain cast members for your arc. For each cast member, think about how their drive in general relates to how they’d interact with this arc in particular. What would they want out of it? Whose side would they be on? What’s their angle? And as always, try to reincorporate. If you can use villains or NPCs who’ve already shown up in your game, your game will be stronger and more coherent, especially if those villains or NPCs are also hooks.
FILL IN THE PHASES
Arcs are split up into multiple phases, to help you track them as they advance
and progress through your story. There are three phases to every arc: Setting the board: In this phase, the arc is just getting into motion. The cast is maneuvering and taking first steps, but nothing has come to a head yet. Making a move: In this phase, the arc is in swing. The cast is making moves, pushing towards their goals, and the issues of the arc are coming to fruition. Endgame: In this phase, the arc is hitting the end. The cast is making their final moves, and the issues of the arc are in do-or-die territory. For each phase of your arc, jot down the plans and intents of the different cast members. Start with any cast members directly supporting the overall nature of the arc, and then move to the cast members either opposing the arc or acting in its periphery. Phrase all their plans as statements of what they’re going to do, each one beginning with a verb: “Steal the Quantum Splicer,” “Collect evidence on superheroic mistakes,” “Find a weakness in the Spike’s defenses.” Escalate the plans across the different phases. Make them raise the stakes and build on prior plans. If an NPC’s plan in the first phase is “Collect the pieces for the Infinite Portal,” then in the second phase, push their plan forward a step: “Open up the Infinite Portal.” And in the third phase, push their plan forward into its final step: “Summon the hordes of Deathdream through the Infinite Portal.” If you can, create plans that can function independently across the different phases. But in general, it’s most important that the plans escalate the sense of danger and potential disaster.
As long as you have three or four plans recorded for your cast, you’re good for each phase. If you have more cast members, you don’t need to come up with a plan for each and every one.
These plans tell you what the characters involved with the arc will do throughout the game. They let you think between panels (page 133), and make moves accordingly. When you’re looking for another way to stir the pot, look to these plans. Have your NPCs pursue their plans, making moves and stirring up trouble. When two of your NPCs have resolved their plans for the current phase, either failing at them entirely or succeeding, move onto the next phase and start making moves from those plans.
You can always come in and adjust your NPCs’ plans if necessary. Don’t feel beholden to them if the situation changes substantially—your NPCs would react and adjust their intents.
CREATE CUSTOM MOVES
If you want to further develop an arc, make some custom moves for it. These moves are still always aimed at the players (not you). You’re giving the PCs more ways to interact with the arc and its issues when you create a custom move. For more on making custom moves, see CUSTOM MOVES (page 197).
GIVE IT A NAME AND DESCRIPTION
Finally, give your arc a name: something evocative and descriptive, that you’d see at the front of the comic book issues to flag they’re all part of the same storyline. Make it fun, something that’ll remind you what the arc is actually about: “The Starborn Invasion” or “The Spider’s Web” or “The Doom from Within.” Then, write a few sentences of description, tying the arc together and making the stakes clear. Since you’re the only one looking at your arcs, you don’t have to worry about making them crystal clear, so long as you have
enough that you can use them at your table and know what they’re about.
HOW TO USE ARCS
Your arcs provide you with a framework to help guide what moves you make and what actions your NPCs take. When you’re at a loss, look down at your arcs for some guidance. You can always make arc moves when appropriate, and you can frame scenes around the PCs encountering and dealing with the
plans of the arc’s cast. Keep track of when the plans of the cast members are resolved during the arc, too. Remember that once two such plans are resolved for any single phase of the arc, you should move to the next phase. Use the current phase of the arc to help determine how hard you should be making your moves. As you advance phases, the tension should increase, and your moves should get harder. When two plans of the third phase of your current arc have been resolved, then the whole arc should resolve. Reassess the current state of the city, and between sessions, build a new arc.
SAMPLE ARC
Name: The Future Perfect
Type: Invasion (time travelers)
Impulse: To control the actions of predecessors
CAST:
• Future versions of Grasshopper, Huma, Toro, and Dusk, known respectively as Antlion, Huma, Crush, and Penumbra
• Ilijah Intrepid, interdimensional traveler trapped in Halcyon City and looking for a means to escape
• Doctor Infinity, time traveling android trying to keep the whole length and breadth of time safe from causal wounds
• Dominus, time traveling apotheosis of metahumanity, seeking to ensure their own creation by controlling the past
DESCRIPTION:
Antlion, Huma, Crush, and Penumbra travel back in time from the future to ensure that this pivotal series of events go exactly as they remember. The adults, collectively calling themselves “The Hammer,” aim to force the young heroes to destroy dangerous villains forthright, ensuring that their younger selves come to understand how important direct, overwhelming action is. Doctor Infinity reacts to the incursion by attempting to destroy the young heroes herself, to ensure their future selves will never time travel, while Dominus sees them as threatening the entire potential of his future, and Ilijah Intrepid sees them as a potential ticket home.
PHASES:
Phase one — Setting the board:
• The Hammer: find and confront their younger selves, testing their abilities to assess the situation
• Doctor Infinity: unleash a weaker, generally insignificant, villain on the team to uncover their current weaknesses in this timestream
• Ilijah Intrepid: make contact with the Hammer and offer them his assistance in exchange for help getting home
• Dominus: offer information to the young heroes to sway them against their older selves
Phase two — Making a move:
• The Hammer: push the young heroes to destroy an enemy—any of Doctor Infinity, Ilijah Intrepid, or Dominus
• Doctor Infinity: directly strike against the young team members
• Ilijah Intrepid: earn passage out of Halcyon City by pushing the young heroes to ridiculous lengths with terrible traps
• Dominus: build a temporal stabilizer and prevent all time travel, thereby
stopping the Hammer and protecting their timeline
Phase three — Endgame:
• The Hammer: put their younger selves’ loved ones in danger to force the young heroes to destroy an enemy
• Doctor Infinity: destroy all of Halcyon City to destroy the young team members
• Ilijah Intrepid: steal the time and dimension traveling technology of the Hammer at any cost
• Dominus: confront the Hammer in a massive battle and destroy them
CUSTOM MOVES:
When you pierce the mask of your older self, roll + the Label they now embody instead of Mundane. When you reject the Influence of your older self, always take +1.
The plans of villains and antagonists in Halcyon City are sometimes as simple as, “Rob a bank!” “Steal a McGuffin!” But the PCs also have to save the city from grander, more dangerous, more dramatic threats, problems that span across multiple issues of your comic and multiple sessions of your game. Those threats and problems are your arcs.
Each arc has a cast of NPCs and other fictional elements (places and objects of importance), an arc type, and three phases. It represents a combined set of threats, dangers, and issues that feed into each other to create a larger set of problems facing the PCs.
Arcs aren’t plots—they’re not lists of things that will definitely happen. They’re compilations of what the antagonists and dangers of Halcyon City might bring to fruition—how they might change the city. They’re a way for you to track what the big, overarching difficulties in the city are, and what you should be drawing on for future sessions.
To build an arc, follow these steps:
• Choose an arc type
• Build out the cast
• Fill in the phases
• Create custom moves (optional)
• Give it a name and description
CHOOSE AN ARC TYPE
There are 5 kinds of arc you could make:
• Corruption — something good, positive, or helpful is made dangerous and threatening
• Invasion — threats and enemies fight their way into control
• Restriction — those with power place constraints on those without
• Destruction — threats and enemies break and destroy what stands in their way
• Restoration — the heroes push to repair what damage has been done
Each arc type comes with several subtypes to further define exactly what the arc is about and to give it an impulse—an overarching tendency for the arc, a way to understand where the arc is heading. Arcs also come with their own moves, which you can make any time you could make any other kind of move, to push an arc further along its particular issues.
CORRUPTION
Corruption arcs are subtle and dangerous. They undermine the good of Halcyon City, turning friends to foes, heroes to villains, hope to fear.
Corruption Subtypes:
• Falling Hero (impulse: to commit to a rigid code of ethics)
• Greedy Power (impulse: to wield power selfishly)
• Stolen Innocence (impulse: to make terrible decisions)
• Twisted Truth (impulse: to spin lies)
• Traitorous Ally (impulse: to betray)
Corruption Moves:
• Pontificate about the true nature of things
• Present enticing gifts with strings
• Offer a temporary alliance
• Twist the narrative publicly
• Make threats, subtle or not
Corruption arcs almost always involve at least some cast members acting as the corruptors and some acting as the corrupted. The transition is never immediate—the PCs get to see the change.
INVASION
Invasion arcs are about dangerous forces seizing useful or desirable resources for themselves. Invaders are hoping to take control of something by force, not aiming to destroy it. You can’t control something that’s destroyed.
Invasion Subtypes:
• Aliens (impulse: to subvert or eliminate those in power)
• Criminals (impulse: to seize territory at any cost)
• Outsiders (impulse: to subvert or eliminate those without power)
• Time travelers (impulse: to control the actions of predecessors)
• Spies (impulse: to take control of valuable resources)
Invasion Moves:
• Pour forth a horde of soldiers
• Directly assault a stronghold
• Secretly infiltrate a stronghold
• Demand submission
• Capture innocents
Invasion arcs can be subtle or direct, depending on the situation and the invaders. Sometimes, aliens pour from a portal over the city...other times, they shapeshift and secretly infiltrate important agencies.
RESTRICTION
Restriction arcs are about powers exerting their might to lock down the heroes and others in the city. Restriction arcs tighten around the PCs, trapping them into rules and situations in which they’re supposed to be unable to take action.
Restriction Subtypes:
• Law (impulse: to outlaw and restrict)
• Military (impulse: to crack down on rampant elements)
• Agents (impulse: to control how others use power)
• Heroes (impulse: to uphold tradition)
• Corporations (impulse: to protect their interests from any threat)
Restriction Moves:
• Deploy surprising strength and force
• Offer a warning
• Interfere in heroic situations
• Create new rules and restrictions
• Reward obedience
The casts of restriction arcs are the faces of forces much larger than the PCs, be they superhero teams, corporations, or law enforcement agencies. Play up the inexperience and youth of the PCs during a restriction arc—this is the quintessential “parents laying down a new curfew” arc, but at a superheroic level.
DESTRUCTION
Destruction arcs are about breaking pieces of the world. They’re always about destroying some specific thing, not everything. Everyone at the table knows that if Halcyon City explodes then the game would be over. An individual villain’s plan may be to destroy the world, sure, but the arc is about destroying something specific. Notice that the subtypes for a destruction arc refer to the target of the destruction—not what is doing the destroying.
Destruction Subtypes:
• Defenders of the City (impulse: to draw out defenders with danger)
• Item of Power (impulse: to smash and grab)
• Prison (impulse: to free the restrained)
• Authorities of the City (impulse: to break tradition)
• Dangers to the City (impulse: to hunt and pursue doggedly)
Destruction Moves:
• Leave a trail of rubble and fires
• Endanger innocents with collateral damage
• Break the bindings on a danger
• Destroy a public landmark
• Explain the necessity for destruction
Always tie destruction arcs strongly to the human motivations of the villains and antagonists involved. The destruction they seek is always strangely justified to them; it’s not a real arc if they’re just doing it for fun.
RESTORATION
Restoration arcs are about fixing damage, healing wounds, and making the world right again. Often they’re about cleaning up the mess of another arc. Note that some of these subtypes are callbacks to other types of arcs. If someone’s trying to undo the damage done by an arc in the past, they’re likely calling on the relevant subtype here.
Restoration Subtypes:
• Redemption (impulse: to draw into the light)
• Reclamation (impulse: to repel through force and battle)
• Rebellion (impulse: to subvert through chaos and mayhem)
• Reconstruction (impulse: to rebuild despite danger)
Restoration Moves:
• Reveal a rebuilt threat
• Uncover an old secret
• Rally the people to a cause
• Destroy the forces in power
• Share a vision of the future
The PCs may want to restore things on their own, but always have NPCs looking to restore pieces of the world. The methods NPCs choose to fulfill their restoration plans will still put them at odds with the PCs.
BUILD OUT THE CAST
Once you’ve chosen what kind of arc you’re assembling, fill out the cast, a list of NPCs involved with that arc. A few of these characters will be obvious. If you’re creating a destruction arc, whoever’s doing the destruction has to be a cast member. If you’re creating an invasion arc, the lead invader and their forces need to be listed under the cast. But flesh out the cast with other characters as well, people who aren’t necessarily on board with the overall plan of the arc, but who have a vested interest in the situation in some way. Focus especially on characters you write up as villains. Remember that in this context, “villains” don’t have to be evil (and in fact, shouldn’t be so obviously evil). They just have to be antagonistic, clear opponents for the PCs to face. Try to have at least three or four of these villain cast members for your arc. For each cast member, think about how their drive in general relates to how they’d interact with this arc in particular. What would they want out of it? Whose side would they be on? What’s their angle? And as always, try to reincorporate. If you can use villains or NPCs who’ve already shown up in your game, your game will be stronger and more coherent, especially if those villains or NPCs are also hooks.
FILL IN THE PHASES
Arcs are split up into multiple phases, to help you track them as they advance
and progress through your story. There are three phases to every arc: Setting the board: In this phase, the arc is just getting into motion. The cast is maneuvering and taking first steps, but nothing has come to a head yet. Making a move: In this phase, the arc is in swing. The cast is making moves, pushing towards their goals, and the issues of the arc are coming to fruition. Endgame: In this phase, the arc is hitting the end. The cast is making their final moves, and the issues of the arc are in do-or-die territory. For each phase of your arc, jot down the plans and intents of the different cast members. Start with any cast members directly supporting the overall nature of the arc, and then move to the cast members either opposing the arc or acting in its periphery. Phrase all their plans as statements of what they’re going to do, each one beginning with a verb: “Steal the Quantum Splicer,” “Collect evidence on superheroic mistakes,” “Find a weakness in the Spike’s defenses.” Escalate the plans across the different phases. Make them raise the stakes and build on prior plans. If an NPC’s plan in the first phase is “Collect the pieces for the Infinite Portal,” then in the second phase, push their plan forward a step: “Open up the Infinite Portal.” And in the third phase, push their plan forward into its final step: “Summon the hordes of Deathdream through the Infinite Portal.” If you can, create plans that can function independently across the different phases. But in general, it’s most important that the plans escalate the sense of danger and potential disaster.
As long as you have three or four plans recorded for your cast, you’re good for each phase. If you have more cast members, you don’t need to come up with a plan for each and every one.
These plans tell you what the characters involved with the arc will do throughout the game. They let you think between panels (page 133), and make moves accordingly. When you’re looking for another way to stir the pot, look to these plans. Have your NPCs pursue their plans, making moves and stirring up trouble. When two of your NPCs have resolved their plans for the current phase, either failing at them entirely or succeeding, move onto the next phase and start making moves from those plans.
You can always come in and adjust your NPCs’ plans if necessary. Don’t feel beholden to them if the situation changes substantially—your NPCs would react and adjust their intents.
CREATE CUSTOM MOVES
If you want to further develop an arc, make some custom moves for it. These moves are still always aimed at the players (not you). You’re giving the PCs more ways to interact with the arc and its issues when you create a custom move. For more on making custom moves, see CUSTOM MOVES (page 197).
GIVE IT A NAME AND DESCRIPTION
Finally, give your arc a name: something evocative and descriptive, that you’d see at the front of the comic book issues to flag they’re all part of the same storyline. Make it fun, something that’ll remind you what the arc is actually about: “The Starborn Invasion” or “The Spider’s Web” or “The Doom from Within.” Then, write a few sentences of description, tying the arc together and making the stakes clear. Since you’re the only one looking at your arcs, you don’t have to worry about making them crystal clear, so long as you have
enough that you can use them at your table and know what they’re about.
HOW TO USE ARCS
Your arcs provide you with a framework to help guide what moves you make and what actions your NPCs take. When you’re at a loss, look down at your arcs for some guidance. You can always make arc moves when appropriate, and you can frame scenes around the PCs encountering and dealing with the
plans of the arc’s cast. Keep track of when the plans of the cast members are resolved during the arc, too. Remember that once two such plans are resolved for any single phase of the arc, you should move to the next phase. Use the current phase of the arc to help determine how hard you should be making your moves. As you advance phases, the tension should increase, and your moves should get harder. When two plans of the third phase of your current arc have been resolved, then the whole arc should resolve. Reassess the current state of the city, and between sessions, build a new arc.
SAMPLE ARC
Name: The Future Perfect
Type: Invasion (time travelers)
Impulse: To control the actions of predecessors
CAST:
• Future versions of Grasshopper, Huma, Toro, and Dusk, known respectively as Antlion, Huma, Crush, and Penumbra
• Ilijah Intrepid, interdimensional traveler trapped in Halcyon City and looking for a means to escape
• Doctor Infinity, time traveling android trying to keep the whole length and breadth of time safe from causal wounds
• Dominus, time traveling apotheosis of metahumanity, seeking to ensure their own creation by controlling the past
DESCRIPTION:
Antlion, Huma, Crush, and Penumbra travel back in time from the future to ensure that this pivotal series of events go exactly as they remember. The adults, collectively calling themselves “The Hammer,” aim to force the young heroes to destroy dangerous villains forthright, ensuring that their younger selves come to understand how important direct, overwhelming action is. Doctor Infinity reacts to the incursion by attempting to destroy the young heroes herself, to ensure their future selves will never time travel, while Dominus sees them as threatening the entire potential of his future, and Ilijah Intrepid sees them as a potential ticket home.
PHASES:
Phase one — Setting the board:
• The Hammer: find and confront their younger selves, testing their abilities to assess the situation
• Doctor Infinity: unleash a weaker, generally insignificant, villain on the team to uncover their current weaknesses in this timestream
• Ilijah Intrepid: make contact with the Hammer and offer them his assistance in exchange for help getting home
• Dominus: offer information to the young heroes to sway them against their older selves
Phase two — Making a move:
• The Hammer: push the young heroes to destroy an enemy—any of Doctor Infinity, Ilijah Intrepid, or Dominus
• Doctor Infinity: directly strike against the young team members
• Ilijah Intrepid: earn passage out of Halcyon City by pushing the young heroes to ridiculous lengths with terrible traps
• Dominus: build a temporal stabilizer and prevent all time travel, thereby
stopping the Hammer and protecting their timeline
Phase three — Endgame:
• The Hammer: put their younger selves’ loved ones in danger to force the young heroes to destroy an enemy
• Doctor Infinity: destroy all of Halcyon City to destroy the young team members
• Ilijah Intrepid: steal the time and dimension traveling technology of the Hammer at any cost
• Dominus: confront the Hammer in a massive battle and destroy them
CUSTOM MOVES:
When you pierce the mask of your older self, roll + the Label they now embody instead of Mundane. When you reject the Influence of your older self, always take +1.
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