TEXT: FRONT BACKGROUND AREA
  ~ 6.75” x 5”
  HALCYON CITY
           
      HERALD COLLECTION
  A SETTING SUPPLEMENT FOR MASKS: A NEW GENERATION 
  
  Writing and Design Elizabeth Chaipraditkul, Brendan Conway, 
  Mark Diaz Truman, Tim Franzke, Seth Harris,  
  André La Roche, Marissa Kelly, Jenn Martin,  
  Michael S. Miller, Alberto Muti, Ariana Ramos,  
  Justin Rogers, Brie Sheldon, June Shores,  
  Kyle Simons, Tara Zuber 
  Development Brendan Conway
  Developmental Editing Mark Diaz Truman
  Copy Editing Amanda Valentine 
     PROOFREADING Carrie Harris    Illustration Elisa Cella
  Sr. Art Director Marissa Kelly    Art Director Matt Bonhoff 
  Additional art Michael Lee Lunsford 
      Layout Hal Mangold
  HALCYON CITY
           
    HERALD COLLECTION
  
  RIGHTS AND CREDITS
  The Apocalypse Engine is used courtesy of Vincent Baker and Lumpley Games 
  (lumpley.com). 
  Doctor Foresight and the Avaricean articles © 2016 by Michael S. Miller. All rights 
  reserved. Used with permission.
  “Hidden in Plain Sight: An Interview with the Chameleon”, by Elizabeth 
  Chaipraditkul 
  “The Paranormal Heart of the City”, “Inferna: When Mythology Meets Modernity”, 
  “Broken Atlas: The Fall of the Titan Academy”, “The Shadow of Halcyon”, “The 
  New Trooper Alpha”, “Midnight in Halcyon City”, “The Mole Men: Why Do They 
  Hate Us?”, by Brendan Conway
  “Power to the People”, by Mark Diaz Truman
  “Who’s Saving Whom? An Op Ed. On Azure Ace”, by Marissa Kelly
  “Those You May Not Know: Mr. Krowley and Echidna”, by André La Roche
  “The Doctor Is In!”, “Monument Circle Crisis Averted”, “Foresight: Crusader or 
  Criminal?”, “Avarice Across Ages”, by Michael S. Miller
  “Dupes & Reboots: The Halcyon Chronicle Post-Catastrophe Survival Guide”, by 
  Ariana Ramos and Seth Harris
  “Hiro’s Hot Takes: Idiot Icons”, “Hiro’s Hot Takes: Costumed Tryhards”, “Hiro’s 
  Hot Takes: Saving Lives Not Numbers”, “Hiro’s Hot Takes: Singing the Unsung”, 
  by Justin Rogers
  “Healing the Sick – Billing the Rich?”, “Intake’s Motives in Cancer Case”, “Doctor 
  Kim Revealed: His Unbelievable Story”, “Goodbye to HMO’s? What is the 
  Superhero Medical Plan?”, by Brie Sheldon
  “Inside the Chrysalis: An Interview with a Monster”, by Kyle Simons
  “Change of Heart: The Case Against Roshambo”, by Tara Zuber
  The Innocent playbook, by Brendan Conway
  The Star playbook, by Brendan Conway
  The Newborn playbook, by Tim Franzke and Alberto Muti
  The Joined playbook, by Jenn Martin
  The Reformed playbook, by June Shores
  The text of all other entries, playbooks, and moves (c) 2017 their respective authors, 
  and released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license 
  (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en_US). When attributing, 
  include the following text in your copyright information: “This work uses 
  material from [playbook/entry title], published by Magpie Games in the Halcyon 
  City Herald Collection and written by [author’s name] and is licensed under the 
  Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (http://creativecommons.
  org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en_US).”
  2
  
  CONTENTS
  THE HALCYON CITY HERALD 
  COLLECTION 
  4
  Letter from the Editor ......................................4
  What is the Halcyon City Herald Collection? ....6
  The Paranormal Heart of the City ....................8
  Hiro’s Hot Takes: Idiot Icons ...........................13
  Power to the People .......................................14
  The Doctor Is In! ............................................20
  Monument Circle Crisis Averted ....................22
  Foresight: Crusader or Criminal?...................24
  Avarice Across Ages ......................................26 
  Inferna: When Mythology Meets Modernity .....30
  Change of Heart: The Case  
  Against Roshambo....................................31
  Hope Fractured: 
   The Fall of the Titan Academy ..................37
  Hiro’s Hot Takes: Costumed Tryhards .............43
  Healing the Sick, Billing the Rich? ................44
  Intake’s Motives in Cancer Case ....................45
  Doctor Kim Revealed:  
  His Unbelievable Story ..............................47
  Goodbye to HMO’s?  
  What is the Superhero Medical Plan?........48
  Hidden in Plain Sight:  
  An Interview with the Chameleon..............52
  Hiro’s Hot Takes: Saving Lives Not Numbers ..58
  The Shadow of Halcyon..................................59
  Dupes & Reboots: The Halcyon Chronicle  
  Post-Catastrophe Survival Guide ..............60
  The New Trooper Alpha ..................................65
  Who’s Saving Whom? An Op Ed. On Azure Ace......67
  Those You May Not Know:  
  Mr. Krowley and Echidna ...........................72
  Midnight in Halcyon City ...............................78
  Inside the Chrysalis:  
  An Interview with a Monster......................80
  Hiro’s Hot Takes: Singing the Unsung ............86
  The Mole Men: Why Do They Hate Us? ............87
  NEW PLAYBOOKS 
  94
  The Innocent..................................................96
  The Joined ...................................................102 
  The Newborn................................................110
  The Reformed ..............................................116
  The Star.......................................................122
  3
  
  My name is Keandra Hunt, and I was the editor in 
  chief of the Halcyon City Herald. 
  I was good at my job. I loved it. I did it well. And now 
  it’s time for me to move on.
  Halcyon is full of marvels and heroes galore. They 
  rocket through the skies in flashes of color, and at first 
  you feel honored just to live below them. 
  But if you’re like me—and if you’re reading this, you 
  better hope you’re like me—then that goes away fast, 
  buried beneath mysteries and questions. Everyone 
  who wears a mask is hiding a secret. Everyone with 
  otherworldly powers is a story waiting to be told. That 
  journalist’s hunger, it drives you after those mysteries 
  like a junkie, and in no time, that’s all you are—a 
  mobile ache for the truth. 
  You’ll never discover better stories than you will here. 
  Grand epics, little personal dramas. Heroes and villains. 
  Hopes and fears. 
  And you’ll never feel the pain worse than when you 
  come this close to finding out the truth, but some last 
  elusive splinter slips away from you. What’s more, here, 
  in this city, those splinters can be otherworldly. Weird. 
  Secretive. Deadly. 
  If you’re reading this, then you’re going to take on 
  this job—my job—and you better be able to tell when 
  there’s more to find, and when it’s not worth the risk 
  of the search. You need to know when a story is going 
  to lead you straight into the arms of some costumed 
  maniac, and when it’s worth the risk, anyway. 
  To my successor:
  4
  
  This is a city of heroes, and you get to be a hero, too,  
  if you can find answers to the right questions. But you 
  don’t get to be a hero if the guy you’re asking turns you 
  into a mutant out of spite.  
  These are some important stories from throughout the 
  run of the Herald and its subsidiaries—the Chronicle, 
  the Kingfisher, and yes, even that rag, the Trumpet 
  Blast. They’re not all modern; they’re not all our most 
  popular stories; and to the people of the city, a lot of 
  them would’ve passed unnoticed. But you’re not like 
  them. You can’t afford to be. You have to see the shards 
  of truth and danger sticking out of them. Questions left 
  unasked and unanswered, for one reason or another.
  I got a portfolio like this when I took the job. Those 
  stories dogged me all the while I was here. Some 
  of them, I uncovered more secrets, answered more 
  questions. Some of them remained mysterious and 
  tantalizing. Some of them I learned to stay away from 
  for my own sake. 
  So now it’s your turn. I’m passing on my own portfolio, 
  sort of my unsolved cases file, if you will. Never quite 
  within reach enough to figure out, never quite worth 
  the risk of pursuing. 
  Maybe you’ll solve them. Maybe you’ll figure out the 
  risks worth taking. But one way or another, I hope they 
  prod you onward. Constantly seeking answers. Seeking 
  the new stories, the new mysteries. The treasures this 
  city has to offer up to the people like us.
  May Halcyon treat you as well as it did me. 
   
  Keandra Hunt
  5
  
  WHAT IS THE HALCYON CITY HERALD COLLECTION? 
  In any city, there are too many stories to tell. In Halcyon City, even more so. 
  Every single costumed hero and villain has their own story, enough to fill at 
  least a few issues of their own solo comic book series. Every place has seen at 
  least one fight between superhuman forces. Every street, every building, every 
  statue and monument. 
  At some point or another, the incredible and marvelous elements of 
  Halcyon have carved a story upon every piece of the city. And it’s up to the 
  proud, brave, inquisitive, and prodding journalists of that city to share those 
  stories with the rest of its people.
  That’s what you hold in your hands—a collection of many of Halcyon 
  City’s stories, assembled by Keandra Hunt, the (former) editor-in-chief of The 
  Halcyon City Herald and its associated publications, including The Kingfisher, 
  The Halcyon Chronicle, and The Trumpet Blast.
  The Halcyon City Herald Collection is the first supplement for Masks: 
  A New Generation, a tabletop roleplaying game all about playing young 
  superheroes in Halcyon City. The stories in these pages are designed to flesh 
  out the goings-on of Halcyon City, and to show off the depth of stories that 
  you can find here, across multiple generations and throughout the city’s 
  breadth. Each story comes with its own special, custom moves to bring it 
  to life in your game.
  HOW SHOULD I USE THIS BOOK?
  The Halcyon City Herald Collection is here to help you expand your own 
  game of Masks. If you need an idea for a new hero or villain, open up to an 
  article and steal one of those names. If you’re interested in a new plot thread, 
  snag one from unanswered questions, or straight up bring the events of that 
  article to life in your game. This book is here to provide inspiration and detail 
  for you to enliven your own game, along with those custom moves for some 
  additional mechanical support. The notes from Keandra Hunt will often point 
  at unsolved mysteries and plot threads to play off of for your own game, and 
  the names of the myriad heroes and villains throughout this book give you 
  plenty of fodder during play.
  Use this book to fill your Halcyon City with stories, told and untold, from 
  top to bottom! 
   
  6
  
  NEW PLAYBOOKS
  In addition, this book contains five limited edition playbooks to help expand 
  your game of Masks. These include:
  • The Innocent – A time traveling young hero from the past, come 
  forward to a present in which their adult self is a monster. 
  • The Joined – A young superhero heavily connected to a teammate, 
  trying to determine if they are stronger together or apart. 
  • The Newborn – A brand new creation trying to find out who they 
  should be and what they should believe.
  • The Reformed – A former criminal trying to redeem themselves for 
  their past crimes.
  • The Star – A celebrity obsessed young superhero juggling the demands 
  of their audience with their own desires.
  Each one of these new playbooks comes with its own section of advice for 
  players and GMs. These playbooks aren’t core to the game, so each of them is 
  going to skew its direction—adding the Star, for instance, will put a far greater 
  emphasis on celebrity and media attention than you might have in a normal 
  game of Masks.
  That said, each new playbook adds awesome new options to your game of 
  Masks, so if you’re looking for new ways to play, look no further! 
  It’s no wonder that truth    
    is stranger than fiction.  
     Fiction has to make sense. 
  - Mark Twain
  Welcome to Halcyon City.  
     Wave ‘sense’ goodbye.
  7
  
  The Paranormal  
  Heart of the City
  By Jane 
  Warren
  Halcyon City - Recent investigations into 
  unexplained phenomena in Halcyon City 
  suggest that, despite the protestations 
  of 
  the 
  scientific 
  community, 
  the 
  supernatural is alive, well, and powerful. 
  The investigations, conducted by the 
  Mystic Research and Investigation Team 
  (MeRIT), were privately funded with the 
  purpose of identifying and categorizing 
  supernatural anomalies citywide. 
  “We wanted to provide a service to 
  the city,” said Dr. Demetra Vittoria, the 
  leader of the MeRIT expeditions. “For so 
  long, we’ve all heard stories about sorcerer 
  superheroes, 
  wizard 
  villains, 
  ghost 
  monsters, and vampires and werewolves 
  and everything, all scattered throughout 
  the city. And it’s easy to pretend that 
  they’re explicable as crazy science or 
  aliens...but we at MeRIT don’t think those 
  explanations work across the board. There 
  are elements in our city that are completely 
  beyond science, and we want to shine a 
  light on them.”
  Demetra Vittoria earned her PhD 
  from Halcyon City University, but was 
  largely discredited as an academic after the 
  publication of a study she had conducted 
  using university resources, claiming that 
  she had discovered localized subjective 
  anomalies that influenced the very laws of 
  physics based on individual belief. She was 
  able to find funding for further research 
  from private sources, forming MeRIT in 
  order to continue her studies.
  According to Dr. Vittoria’s released 
  findings, MeRIT encountered approximately 
  132 different supernatural phenomena 
  during the course of its investigations, falling 
  into 16 different general categories. 
  “We’ve seen everything,” Dr. Vittoria 
  continued. 
  “We’ve 
  seen 
  haunted 
  buildings—there was that one on 23rd 
  and Trellis, an abandoned library, where 
  the building itself seemed to be one 
  gigantic entity. We’ve seen fae—creatures 
  that only exist when viewed from certain 
  specific perspectives. We’ve seen dark 
  cults convening in sewers and summoning 
  eldritch monsters. We’ve seen magical 
  tomes that drove readers insane. We’ve 
  seen magic. Not just super science. Magic.” 
  The Quintet
  “The worst thing I remember seeing 
  was the Quintet,” said Isaac Bolus, Dr. 
  Vittoria’s research assistant and right hand 
  in MeRIT. “These five kids. Or at least 
  they looked like kids. Their eyes glowed, 
  though. They could fade in and out of 
  shadows, appear from out of nowhere, 
  from any direction. And they all shared 
  one mind, talked together.”
  The Quintet had been previously 
  identified by A.E.G.I.S. and labeled as 
  a dangerous entity, of extradimensional 
  origin. A.E.G.I.S. put the Quintet on 
  the appropriate registries for all law 
  enforcement agencies throughout Halcyon 
  City, though the files remain largely 
  No mention of  
  Clarke’s law? 
  8
  
  classified from public consumption. They 
  were known to exert telepathic force 
  upon citizens around them, including the 
  creation of intense emotions—specifically 
  dread—and the inducement of intense 
  illusions, both auditory and visual.
  “But all that stuff, that was just what 
  was easy,” Bolus continued. “That all 
  made sense, fit the paradigms they had 
  to work with, and made it easy to share. 
  ‘Stay away, they’re dangerous,’ that’s really 
  all A.E.G.I.S. was trying to communicate 
  about the Quintet through those files. The 
  truth is, I wouldn’t be surprised if the full 
  unclassified A.E.G.I.S. file had a lot more 
  unexplained stuff in it.” 
  MeRIT encountered the Quintet in 
  an abandoned amusement park off the 
  Gillen River on the west side of the city. 
  The carnival, identified as Mr. Amazing’s 
  Wonder Walk, was abandoned 42 years 
  ago. The incident surrounding the 
  amusement park’s closure is not well 
  documented. Reports indicate something 
  involving inanimate objects coming to life, 
  a strange green light flooding the entire 
  carnival, an indeterminate shape rising 
  from the waters near the carnival, and 
  mass panic descending upon the crowds. 
  By the time superheroes arrived on the 
  scene, the incident had already ended 
  and the park was abandoned. Further 
  investigations later linked the incident to 
  a cross-dimensional rift, ultimately closed 
  by Magus Justinian and the rest of the 
  Arcanites in a city-threatening conflict 
  later that year. 
  Some reports placed the Quintet at the 
  Wonder Walk shortly after the incident, 
  but in the chaos and confusion, those 
  reports were deemed generally unreliable.
  The remnants of Mr. Amazing’s Wonder Walk, reportedly imbued with supernatural essence.
  9
  
  “Yeah, well, whether or not they came 
  through in some rift, they hung around 
  the place all the time,” said Bolus. “We 
  were investigating it because it’s been a 
  paranormal hotspot ever since the whole 
  rift incident, and we were looking for any 
  residual rift activity—we think the rift was 
  eldritch in origin.”
  “The Quintet started shadowing us 
  as we moved through the abandoned 
  park,” said Dr. Vittoria. “They eventually 
  emerged, as one, from five different 
  abandoned buildings. Their eyes were 
  glowing as they surrounded us. Each 
  and every one of us then reported 
  experiencing telepathic communication 
  from the Quintet, demanding we leave 
  immediately, followed by intense feelings 
  of panic and dread.”
  “They were nightmares,” Bolus said. 
  “Little kids shouldn’t look like that.”
  One of MeRIT’s researchers, Niall 
  Connelly, was left debilitated by the 
  incident. MeRIT brought him to the 
  Diadem 
  Facility, 
  a 
  well-accredited 
  rehabilitation facility for those who 
  have directly suffered at the hands of 
  metahuman phenomena. They continue 
  to pay for Niall’s treatment to this day.
  “What happened to Niall was tragic,” 
  said Dr. Vittoria. “But we all knew the 
  risks of dealing directly with the truly 
  paranormal. Niall was as committed to the 
  cause as any of us, and we all wish him a 
  swift recovery.” 
  Mystical Miscellany
  MeRIT 
  labeled 
  the 
  Quintet 
  as 
  a 
  “Paranormal Corporeal,” a being whose 
  existence was bound in physical form 
  that showed paranormal abilities. Other 
  categories of anomaly include “Paranormal 
  Incorporeal—Post-Death,” “Paranormal 
  Incorporeal—Non-Human,” “Paranormal 
  Locus—Ideation,” 
  and 
  “Paranormal 
  Locus—Artifact.”
  “The artifacts are some of the craziest 
  things we ever saw,” said Rebecca Corgan, 
  a handler and containment expert for 
  MeRIT. “Those’re the devices, the magical 
  books, the weird scepters, the blood-stained 
  swords. All the things out of stories.”
  MeRIT collected several of these 
  artifacts for containment  at its facility in 
  Silverside. According to Dr. Vittoria, the 
  group was conducting research on the 
  objects, as well as keeping them safe with 
  patented anti-paranormal technologies. 
  “This one thing we picked up, it’s 
  a cape, right? Looks like it’s made of 
  feathers,” continued Corgan. “But if you 
  put it on, it turns into a pair of wings 
  on your back, and these feathers spread 
  all over your body, and you grow a beak. 
  Turns out some ancient avian deity is 
  living in the cape, looking for hosts to bond 
  with. Probably a superhero origin story 
  waiting to happen, but to be honest, not 
  many people really want to be connected 
  to a bird god, if you give them the choice. 
   
  When you tap into eldritch powers (whether through an artifact, a power source, or a spell or ritual), 
  roll + Freak. On a hit, you can craft the eldritch energy into the effect you sought. On a 7-9, the eldritch 
  power you tap into takes Influence over you. Expect it to ask you for something. On a miss, the eldritch 
  energy takes on whatever shape its true source desires. 
  10
  
   The cloak was better off with us, where we 
  could keep it safe.” 
  Most of those objects were recently 
  confiscated 
  by 
  A.E.G.I.S., 
  however, 
  upon MeRIT publicly publishing some 
  of their findings. A.E.G.I.S. seized the 
  items under the Metahuman Hazard Act, 
  claiming the items themselves fell into 
  the same category of metahuman hazard 
  as alien technology. 
  “It’s a major legal sinkhole,” said 
  Dr. 
  Vittoria. 
  “The 
  objects 
  aren’t 
  actually metahuman at all, aside from 
  the incredibly broad and ineffectual 
  application of that term for everything 
  in any way outside of standard human 
  experience. They’re magical, paranormal. 
  They don’t fall under the same rules as 
  technological items at all.
  “A.E.G.I.S. can lock an alien gun 
  in a vault and ensure it won’t be used,” 
  she continued. “But something like the 
  Bloodsword of Queen Raghazul? It wants 
  to be used, and it has the paranormal 
  capacity to call out to the souls of those 
  nearby. Putting it in the same vault as your 
  alien gun is a recipe for disaster. Not to 
  mention, seizing it under the Hazard Act 
  is therefore illegal.” 
  When asked for comment, A.E.G.I.S. 
  spokesperson Daniel Sayo expressed calm 
  surety in A.E.G.I.S.’s capabilities.
  “We 
  have 
  countless 
  facilities, 
  technologies, and techniques, accrued 
  through years and years of comprehensive 
  study,” Sayo said. “We are more than 
  capable of both understanding these items 
  and placing them into protective custody, 
  where we can be assured they will not be 
  able to escape or harm anyone.
  “We appreciate the interest of MeRIT, 
  but we must reiterate that they are a 
  private research organization, and are not 
  equipped or legally authorized to hold any 
  such dangerous items,” Sayo concluded.
  Understanding  
  the Impossible
  The 
  conflict 
  between 
  MeRIT 
  and 
  A.E.G.I.S. speaks to a fundamental 
  dispute in understanding, according to 
  Dr. Vittoria.
  “The truth is, the paranormal is 
  dangerous, insidious, and tempting,” she 
  said. “It seeps around the edges of things, 
  the corners, the places where you don’t 
  look. It reaches out to your mind where 
  it’s weak, and it beckons you into dark 
  places. It’s always there, wherever you go, 
  the whole city over, just...slightly beyond 
  your sight. Treating it the same way you 
  treat more scientific phenomena is a recipe 
  for disaster.” 
  Some superheroes have expressed 
  sentiments similar to those of Dr. Vittoria. 
  Magus Justinian, popularly acknowledged 
  as the leading sorcerer in Halcyon City, 
  remains a proponent of supernatural 
  understanding, even as A.E.G.I.S. classifies 
  him as a metahuman with the same 
  fundamental capabilities as quantum-
  manipulators such as Forceshaper. 
  “This 
  city 
  is 
  a 
  nexus 
  of 
  the 
  supernatural,” Magus Justinian said when 
  contacted for this article. “Ley lines meet 
  and join. Astral vortices swirl through 
  city thoroughfares. Ethereal confluxes 
  form and dissipate all over the city’s 
  limits. Halcyon is connected to forces far 
  beyond simple scientific explanation, and 
  attempting to force such a rigid framework 
  over the world is dangerous. It leads to 
  ignorance and poor decisions.” 
  Magus Justinian, who touts himself 
  as the primary line of defense between 
  11
  
  humanity and the supernatural threats 
  beyond human perception, has had a 
  contentious relationship with MeRIT, 
  despite working in similar capacities.
  “We were investigating a magical force, 
  a reported pool of energies in the sewers 
  beneath the city,” said Rebecca Corgan. “And 
  he shows up in the middle of us trudging 
  through the muck, tells us to turn back, that 
  our mortal minds can’t handle it. Like heck 
  we do that, so we keep going, and we wind 
  up seeing him drinking up etheric energy 
  from a pool of glowing blue sewer water.”
  “MeRIT is an organization of amateurs 
  and novices,” said Magus Justinian. “They 
  lack any true understanding of what 
  they would so eagerly handle. They are 
  perhaps even more dangerous than forces 
  like A.E.G.I.S., for they have just enough 
  knowledge to be dangerous to themselves 
  and to others.” 
  MeRIT’s funding has recently seen 
  a significant increase, thanks to their 
  discovery of a glowing crystalline idol 
  in the shape of a bear creature hidden 
  beneath the Halcyon Zoo. The incident 
  was covered widely in the media, and 
  since then MeRIT has received significant 
  donations from figures of importance 
  throughout the city.
  “Nobody’s quite sure that they should 
  bet on us,” said Bolus. “But they don’t want 
  to miss out in case we do wind up sitting 
  on something valuable, so everybody’s 
  trying to buy just a bit into the paranormal 
  game, through us.”
  With the increase in funding, MeRIT 
  is planning new investigations throughout 
  the city, both to revisit already catalogued 
  locations and look for changes, and to 
  investigate new locations for additional 
  phenomena. But in all such cases, their 
  donors are guaranteed access to their 
  findings and reports, and for particularly 
  large donors, MeRIT’s charter obligates 
  them to provide access to collected 
  samples and artifacts for observation.
  “Yeah, it seems a bit dodgy,” said Corgan. 
  “Giving access to magical artifacts to 
  corporations was never part of our plan. But 
  we can handle it, ensure that no donor does 
  anything untoward with our collection.” 
  For believers like Dr. Vittoria, the 
  reasons and effects of the funding increase 
  are largely irrelevant.
  “This city has a rich, beating paranormal 
  heart,” she said. “The city’s veins pump 
  magic, whether we like it or not. And we 
  ignore that truth at our own risk.”
  When you research paranormal phenomena in an appropriate information source, roll + Superior. On 
  a hit, you may ask one question from below. On a 10+, you may ask a second or ask a follow-up question. 
  • What causes this phenomenon? 
  • What are the effects, powers, or abilities of this phenomenon?
  • How could I contain this phenomenon?
  • How could I destroy this phenomenon?
  • How could I profit from this phenomenon? 
  On a miss, your research unnerves you and you are unwilling to continue; mark Afraid.
  12
  
  When I was a boy, the men 
  and 
  women 
  protecting 
  Halcyon City stood out as 
  heroes. Instantly recognizable, 
  wonderfully stylized, iconic. 
  Just think about heroes like 
  The Copper Crusader, Lady 
  December, or Mariposa. Each 
  had a distinct style about 
  them, everything effortlessly 
  in its right place. 
  Take Mariposa for example: as 
  soon as I mentioned her name, 
  you had a complete image in 
  your mind. The simple but 
  eye-catching color scheme 
  of black, yellow, and orange, 
  the mask with antennae, the 
  perfectly shaped eye spots on 
  her wings, themselves large 
  enough to be functional but 
  not oversized and cartoonish.
  Now let’s have a look at 
  one of our city’s newer 
  entomological avengers, this 
  so-called “Sawfly.” You’ve 
  seen him on the news, 
  right? I’d forgive you if you 
  don’t remember. Anyway, 
  this kid apparently goes and 
  gets himself caught up in a 
  radioactive accident, grows 
  some ugly antennae and 
  wings, and basically calls it 
  a day. There’s no costume 
  here! He just wears whatever 
  slovenly outfit he picks up 
  off his bedroom floor that 
  morning and expects us to 
  recognize that he is Sawfly. 
  That “10 percent inspiration” 
  we’ve all heard about? It still 
  counts, folks.
  You used to be able to 
  tell 
  from 
  eyewitness 
  descriptions—“Oh, a copper 
  winged helmet and matching 
  cape with CC on it? That’s 
  the Copper Crusader!”—but 
  nowadays it’s more like “Well, 
  there was a girl who flew, and 
  was wearing mostly black, 
  but nothing really distinctive 
  about her otherwise.”
  You want to be iconic like the 
  legends of years past? Well, 
  let’s talk a bit about icons.
  Nearly every hero of my age 
  had a distinctive symbol 
  that anyone would recognize 
  instantly. 
  Often 
  just 
  a 
  bordered letter in one or two 
  bold colors.
  You see that silver T on a sky 
  blue background anywhere 
  and you just know it’s the 
  Titanium Avenger.
  How do you even conceptualize 
  a lunchbox design for someone 
  like 
  Interphase? 
  His/her 
  entire shtick is not having a 
  fixed form, color, gender, or 
  anything. 
  The bottom line is this: when 
  the residents of this fair city 
  get rescued, it sure is nice to 
  feel like that hero cares. That 
  they’re not just in it for a 
  paycheck or self-satisfaction, 
  but they have some actual 
  ambition to be remembered 
  longer 
  than 
  the 
  current 
  15-minute news cycle. If these 
  new heroes want to find their 
  place among the pantheon of 
  past heroes, a little branding 
  and promotion aren’t the 
  worst things in the world.
  By Hiro Reckard
  IDIOT ICONS 
  When you read Hiro’s column to see what he thinks of you, roll + Freak. On a 10+, you’re 
  too much—Hiro thinks you’re trying too hard, and his opinion is spreading. Shift Freak up and 
  Savior down. On a 7-9, he thinks you’re bland. Not interesting enough. Shift Mundane up and 
  Freak down. On a miss, Hiro writes about how you clearly just don’t care. Mark a condition, 
  and shift Mundane up twice, and Freak and Savior each down once.
  Note sure I had 
  heard about the 
  Titanium Avenger 
  before this article.
  13
  
  Power to the 
  People
  La Cabecilla’s Revolution 
  By Jose Martinez
  It was 11:27 when La CabeCILLa brought the tower down. I remember because the 
  clock across the street was stuck right at that moment for days, the hands locked in time and 
  covered in soot. I kept expecting the city to fix it, but it just sat there. Stuck.
  Anyone close enough to her battle against Captain Halcyon—the foolish and the brave 
  alike—talks about two things: her absolute unwavering certainty in the righteousness of her cause 
  that led one bystander to claim that he saw “murder in her eyes and ice water in her veins,” and 
  her final words. They remember what she said before she tried to kill Captain Halcyon in broad 
  daylight on an ordinary city street.
  “It is better to die on your feet, el jefe, than live on your knees.”
  * * *
  Revolution has always been suspect in Halcyon City. There are those in our political halls 
  who would petulantly call themselves “revolutionaries,” but the act is hard to keep up when you’re 
  glad-handing rich donors and suffering through committee meetings. The rhetoric of revolution 
  is useful for the campaign trail (and social media writ large), but the realities of governing trend 
  toward the status quo.
  And nothing supports the status quo quite like our city’s most prominent actors: superheroes.
  Heroes are all too happy to oppose the revolutions, large and small, on behalf of the ordinary 
  citizen. The bank robbery that aims to liberate money from the clutches of the rich; the citywide 
  conspiracy that tries to defraud the public and erect a dictatorship; the alien invasion that 
  attempts to upend the food chain of our world and make us all lunch meat for far-off empires. 
  For every plan to disrupt the ordinary, there is a hero ready to restore normalcy.
  Much has been written elsewhere about the fundamentally fascist nature of superheroes. 
  After all, what could be more totalitarian than us looking up into the sky for our salvation? 
  What could be more disempowering than knowing that some teenage kid with access to 
  advanced alien tech will do a better job policing the streets than, say, the police themselves? 
  What could be more fascist than an army of heroes, accountable to no one but themselves? 
  Nothing, really.
  But the citizens of Halcyon City soldier on. We write laws and rules and establish committees 
  and make the heroes pay for insurance in anticipation of the next time they knock down a 
  14
  
  building. We bury our dead after monsters from another dimension rush through the city like 
  locusts, and we establish monuments when the gods who stride among us finally have the grace 
  to die. We are the Greek chorus to their struggles: omniscient, prescient, and powerless.
  I say all this not to defend La Cabecilla or validate her viewpoint. She was a villain, through 
  and through. But I feel, in the wake of this week’s coverage of the strike (and her battle with 
  Captain Halcyon), that some context is needed. We would be remiss if we judged her without 
  some sense of the world in which she lived, without reference to the world she wanted to build 
  for us, no matter how flawed her methods. 
  After all, she is the one who left us to live on our knees.
  * * *
  The morning of Tuesday, June 11th began like any other day in Halcyon City. There were 
  reports of some disruptions in the space-time continuum throughout the city, but no more so 
  than a typical day. A few time travelers isn’t exactly a crisis for a city that sees an average of more 
  than 1,000 unique anachronal events on a yearly basis. The city was—by all accounts—peaceful.
  The transit strike caught everyone off guard. There were no demands, no negotiations, no 
  opportunity for the powers-that-be to make things right. At exactly 10:30 AM, all the trains, 
  the subways, the trams, the dirigibles...they all just stopped. Their drivers and their crews stowed 
  their gear, turned off the engines, and simply walked away from their jobs. 
  Later, the transit workers interviewed by the 
  authorities claimed they weren’t coerced or threatened. 
  They all noted meeting with someone earlier in the week 
  about the strike, but the people they met with weren’t 
  ominous or threatening. A union member, perhaps, or a 
  family friend. All innocuous requests for a civil service 
  workforce to stand up for itself, to assert that it too had power in the face of upcoming contract 
  negotiations. Innocent. Routine. Ordinary.
  But by 10:45 AM, chaos reigned in Halcyon City. With no advance warning of the strike, no 
  one—not the city, not the Exemplars, not even the August or the Silver Savior—was prepared for the 
  calamity. Absolute total gridlock. The city, and everything in it, ground to a halt.
  Reporters on the scene heard mention of a “ringleader,” a woman who had organized 
  the strike, but no one had any idea where or who she was. Just rumors of La Cabecilla (The 
  Ringleader), whispered whenever someone wanted to talk to the person in charge. But it was 
  just a strike, a boring day of municipal politics in a city that was once teleported—however 
  briefly!—to the surface of the moon. 
  Who cared about a woman so allergic to attention she wouldn’t even make herself available 
  for an interview?
  * * *
  As near as anyone can tell, La Cabecilla’s powers didn’t make use of mind control or even 
  suggestive hypnosis. Instead, she removed the inhibitions of existing communities, allowing 
  Who cared about a 
  woman so allergic 
  to attention she 
  wouldn’t even make 
  herself available 
  for an interview?
  15
  
  groups to act as they already wished to act even before they realized their own desires. Interestingly, 
  she wasn’t required to be present for her powers to have an effect; each person moving through the 
  community acted like an independent vector, carrying forward the idea of a strike, for example, 
  throughout the transit workers’ world like a slow-moving bullet.
  When the heroes showed up to act as crowd control for the strike, La Cabecilla sprung the 
  trap. In a dispersed community, her powers worked slowly, building over time. But in person, her 
  influence spread like wildfire, leaping from person to person before anyone had time to react. 
  She unleashed the full and direct impulse of a group of transit workers who had gathered in the 
  center of the city: tear down these obnoxious “heroes.”
  The heroes were completely caught off guard. Who expected a middle-aged transit worker to 
  suddenly attack Swingline? Who would have imagined that a group of taxi drivers would try to hold 
  Avian down long enough to clip his wings? It was madness—pure madness—and there seemed to be 
  no end to it. To their credit, the heroes restrained from using lethal force against the strikers…but their 
  very restraint was turned against them, causing them to miss key opportunities to fight back or escape.
  In a flash, the mob had accomplished something that few villains ever would: they took 
  control of the city and overwhelmed the heroes who had tried to stop them.
  * * *
  And that’s when La Cabecilla took the microphone for the first time. She spoke calmly 
  and eloquently, her blue eyes shining out from beneath her long black hair and her face framed 
  by the mask she wore over the bottom half of her face. Her voice carried a trace of an accent, 
  but it wasn’t clear where she was raised. She demanded access to the airwaves and the media 
  La Cabecilla calls for action, and the public follows
  16
  
  acquiesced, whether from pure submission or from infection by her powers. She drifted in and 
  out of speaking Spanish whenever it suited her.
  “¡Atención!” she called out, her voice rising above the crash and roar of the crowd. “We are 
  los ciudadanos de Halcyon. We wait on your tables, and we cut your hair. We drive you to your 
  meetings, and we mow your lawns. We are las raices de la ciudad, dirty and broken, frágil y 
  esencial. Today, we have your atención for the first time. 
  “When you look upon us, you do not see us; you do not 
  know us. You look past and through us and over us. Somos 
  invisibles para ustedes. Consider today a day in which the 
  invisible becomes visible. Sólo tenemos una demanda. Only 
  one request that must be met before we turn the city back 
  over to its usual masters: we are done with heroes.”
  Her speech may have been more propaganda than 
  truth, but everyone was clear about what she meant. No more heroes. No more gods. No more 
  monsters. Just people. She imagined a world far different than the one in which we live, a 
  world in which we would manage our own problems, address our own issues, without need for 
  the latest disinterested teen to be bitten by whatever radioactive animal escaped from Rook 
  Industries labs this week. 
  It was a foolish dream. Fleeting and doomed.
  * * *
  At any given moment, suprologists estimate that there are only five or so godlike heroes 
  within the city limits. They don’t outright coordinate with each other, but they do try to take 
  care of business in an orderly fashion, traveling to lands and realms in which they are needed at 
  the appropriate time. Never more than two or three are gone, one hopes, in the event that they 
  are needed.
  On this day, there was only one such hero in Halcyon City: Captain Halcyon.
  Enough ink has been spilled about Captain Halcyon—across the pages of this newspaper 
  alone—to fill a library. His powers are known. His enemies are icons in their own rights. He is a 
  living monument, even as he ages toward retirement.
  When he landed in the square, his cape flowing behind him, his boots gently touching down 
  on the grass in the middle of the main mass of protestors, it was clear that he planned to address 
  La Cabecilla directly. And so the crowd brought her forward, soaked in sweat and blood and fear, 
  and a very nearly ordinary woman stood face-to-face with a god. 
  According to all reports, she smiled.
  * * *
  “When you look 
  upon us, you do not 
  see us, you do not 
  know us. You look 
  past and through us 
  and over us. Somos 
  invisibles para 
  ustedes.”
  When you plead with the regular citizenry of Halcyon City for help by making yourself seem 
  ordinary, you can provoke them with Mundane instead of Superior. If you do, mark a condition.
  17
  
  No one knows who threw the first punch. Captain Halcyon says her people grabbed him 
  first; folks close to the scene will tell you that Captain Halcyon rushed for La Cabecilla, hoping 
  to take her hostage to get a better negotiating position. Either way, hope for a peaceful resolution 
  to the conflict died within those first two minutes.
  But the fight wasn’t over as quickly as one might expect: La Cabecilla grabbed Captain 
  Halcyon and tossed him across the park, leaping after him to land in the shadow of the Halcyon 
  Tower, a monument to the great deeds of heroes like Captain Halcyon himself. She fought 
  him—punch for punch, blow for blow—in that shadow, her strategy a blend of stolen Rook tech 
  and hard luck, drawing Captain Halcyon closer to the tower, closer to her next trap.
  And that’s when she activated the Keynome.
  No one knows for sure that it was a Keynome—A.E.G.I.S. isn’t about to tell the public that 
  a weapon of mass destruction was activated in the center of the city, and the fight was dangerous 
  enough that most individuals steered clear, so there aren’t any eye-witnesses—but there’s no doubt 
  in my mind. What else could have stolen Captain Halcyon’s powers? What else could have given 
  her the power for what came next? Only a Keynome, rewired in some way, makes sense. And after 
  the burning light died down and the cameras refocused in, everything changed. 
  Her stolen technology exhausted, her body bruised and bleeding, La Cabecilla looked to the 
  heavens at the building that had been evacuated when the strike began. She turned to Captain 
  Halcyon—who was clearly weakened (presumably by the Keynome) and stunned by the sudden 
  turn of events—and uttered the words of a revolutionary, perhaps the first of her kind to stand 
  in Halcyon City:
  “It is better to die on your feet, el jefe, than live on your knees.”
  And then, with a clap of her hands, she brought the tower down on him in front of the 
  whole world.
  * * *
  When you attempt to rewire a Keynome, choose its intended purpose:
  • Energy siphoning: stealing power from one source and pouring it into another
  • Gating: ripping open a portal between any two places in existence
  • Devastation: producing an explosion with the force of several neutron bombs in a limited 1 
  mile radius
  • Cosmic coding: creating access to the source code of existence, allowing information gathering 
  for those capable of comprehending the code
  • Empowerment: providing enough pure cosmic force to power any one effect
  Then, roll + Superior. On a hit, you rewire the Keynome. On a 7-9, you also render it unstable—you 
  only have a limited amount of time to use it before it returns to normal. On a miss, the Keynome 
  resists your tampering and absorbs your own energy in retribution.
  18
  
  I have received death threats for offering a eulogy at her funeral. I was sent messages so foul 
  that I cannot imagine printing them on these pages. And yet…I am struck by her cause, no 
  matter how terrible her strategies or tactics. She has pointed us toward a great sickness in our 
  democracy, a great illness upon our polity, for which there are no easy answers and even fewer 
  thoughtful voices. Such a service demands some acknowledgement of her contribution.
  At her funeral, I read a portion of her journal aloud to those who had gathered to pay their 
  respects. I had received the journal from a group calling itself El Anillo (The Ring)—they vouched 
  for its authenticity as a document she had left behind for 
  those who would follow in her footsteps. I’ve taken the 
  liberty of translating it for our readers:
  “We are not enslaved by chain or leash, nor broken by 
  whip or harness. No man rules over us as a king, nor are 
  we ground into the dirt by some totalitarian boot. The truth is far worse: we are captive to our 
  own belief in our betters. We have signed away that which makes us human—our belief that any 
  of us can do great things, no matter our talents or skills or gifts—for a lie, an idea that quietly 
  worms its way into our lives and convinces us that our petty attempts to build a better future are 
  footnotes to the acts of gods and heroes.”
  They are not. We are not. We are more than victims to be rescued or collateral damage to be 
  mourned. We are people, and our lives have the meaning we give them on our own.
  * * *
  Captain Halcyon—teleported off-world by Pulsestar just minutes after the fall—has yet to 
  return to Earth. There is a part of me that wishes he would stay away, but I fear that I am too 
  weak to ask for such a thing. It is terrifying to me to imagine a world in which Halcyon City 
  faces the future...alone. 
  But such is the hold the heroes have on us. And until we find some way to break it, we will 
  always live in their shadow.
  “The truth is far 
  worse: we are 
  captive to our 
  own belief in our 
  betters.”
  Jose Martinez was a good reporter, but now—
  connections to  El Anillo?  Trustworthy?  Where 
  do his sympathies lie? 
  Captain Halcyon – Living in secret in city?   
    Still  powerless?  Not like a major 
  superhero to not seek new powers. 
  19
  
  THE DOCTOR IS IN!
  Doctor Foresight Foils Jake 
  Avarice’s Museum Misdeeds
  by Felicity Finger   
  Halcyon City, June 6, 1943 - The city awoke to a rosy sunrise and the glad 
  tidings that public enemy number one, convicted crime lord Jake Avarice, was 
  once more safely behind bars, thanks to the tireless efforts of Doctor Foresight!
  Avarice and his toadies surrounded the Halcyon City Museum last night during 
  its gala reopening. Holding dozens of our most prominent citizens at gunpoint—
  including the mayor, chief of police, and siren of the airwaves Mitzi Nightingale—
  Avarice’s men bagged the shocked civilians’ wallets and jewels while Avarice 
  himself stripped the museum of its priceless artifacts.
  The callous crook had just ushered his hostages into the museum’s replica of 
  Pharaoh Vah-Rees-Aten’s tomb when Doctor Foresight burst onto the scene, 
  giving the greedy gunmen what for! The bespectacled hero’s well-timed blows, 
  brass knuckles, and cutting wit made quick work of the crooks and cornered 
  Avarice himself inside the tomb. Never the type to shrink from hitting a guy 
  with glasses, Avarice gave his all, but fell to the fists of the Man Who Sees 
  Tomorrow. Freeing the hostages, the dapper hero made quite an impression 
  on the well-to-do crowd, particularly on a certain stunning songstress, who left 
  the scene on his arm.
  This reporter was covering the gala festivities for the Chronicle and found 
  herself an eyewitness to these amazing heroics. Afterward, the generally 
  laconic do-gooder consented to a few questions that may be of interest to 
  the curious reader.
  Felicity Finger: So, Dr. Foresight, this was a stunning piece of crimefighting 
  tonight. How’d you manage to single-handedly take down Jake Avarice and 
  a baker’s dozen of his burliest thugs?
  Dr. Foresight: Well, Felicity, while it’s no easy thing to face down an evil man with 
  a gun, it’s no less than our boys overseas are doing every day. I may not have my 
  brothers-in-arms at my side, but my Spectacles of Tomorrow give me the edge 
  I need to keep Halcyon City safe from slime like Avarice and his associates. 
  Everyone can be somebody’s rescuer, even in small ways. If we all do our part 
  to watch each other’s back, we can get through this thing to a better tomorrow. 
  I’ve seen it.
  FF: Right. The Spectacles of Tomorrow. You manage to make wearing glasses 
  look not half-bad. But my readers would love to hear more about those 
  enchanted—and enchanting—eyepieces. Where’d you get them? How do 
  they work? Can I save my rationing coupons for my own set?
  20
  
  DF: The Spectacles were crafted by an ancient magic, centuries ago. They 
  were worn by Merlin when he helped King Arthur. They were part of Ali-Baba’s 
  treasure. Christopher Columbus wore them when he traveled to America. With 
  the glasses on, I can see what the world in front of me will look like at any 
  point in the next twenty-four hours. It is certainly a weird sensation, but with a 
  bit of practice I can focus on seeing how some hoodlum is going to punch me 
  two seconds from now, and dodge the blow. Or I can appreciate some finer 
  things. Make sure you tip your hairdresser tomorrow, Felicity. She’s going to 
  do a fine job!
  FF: That’s kind of you to say. But my readers want to know more about your 
  heroics, not my beauty secrets. If you can see the future, why don’t you play 
  the market, or go to the racetrack, or run for office? You’d never get caught 
  flatfooted by a nosy reporter!
  DF: Sure, I could do any of those things, but that would be using my gift for 
  selfish ends. I’d be a bigger danger to the city than goons like Jake Avarice or 
  those German spies I caught last week. Just because you have the power to do 
  something doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do. I may see things that others 
  cannot, but that doesn’t mean I’m superior to anyone. We’re all in this together. 
  Our boys overseas who are putting everything on the line to stop a madman, 
  they’re the real heroes. Next to them, I’m just an ordinary Joe with flat feet!
  FF: I’m sure my readers would love to know more about the ordinary Joe 
  behind those Spectacles.
  DF: Well, I’m not going to divulge my secret identity, if that’s what you’re asking! 
  Really, there’s not much to tell. My life is rather mundane. I go to work. I pay my 
  taxes. I fight crime. I eat dinner alone most nights. There’s nothing glamorous 
  beneath this fedora.
  FF: I find that hard to believe. And from the smoldering look you’re getting, 
  I’d say Miss Nightingale agrees, Doc. Just what are you a doctor of, anyway?
  DF: Optometry, of course. Remind your readers to get their eyes checked! Until 
  then, I’ll see you tomorrow!
  Story about Spectacles’ origin never confirmed. 
  Not even by later Foresights.
  Felicity claims she never found Doctor 
  Foresight’s secret identity. Not sure I believe 
  it—she was a good journalist.
  21
  
  Monument Circle 
  Crisis Averted
  Doctor Foresight Vaccinates City 
  Against Alien Invasion
  By: Felix Finger
  Halcyon City, November 12, 1974 - The city is never silent. But this day, unlike 
  any other, finds Monument Circle as quiet as the span between heartbeats. Rank 
  upon rank of scintillating forms hang perfectly motionless along the Circle’s 
  southern edge, suspended between one footstep and the next. Upon closer 
  inspection, the bizarreness of the scene becomes more acute. Within each 
  corona of light stands a hulking shock trooper, nine feet tall, with sleek ray guns 
  leveled at the historic heart of Halcyon City.
  Among these imposing, impossible statues, a lone figure labors. Doctor 
  Foresight walks confidently beside me, an imposing figure clad in a tight 
  azure jumpsuit emblazoned with an hourglass across the chest. Around his 
  head orbits the perfect sphere of the Tempus Auspex. The source of Doctor 
  Foresight’s amazing abilities is all but transparent, occasionally catching the 
  light like a halo.
  Doctor Foresight attends to each figure in its turn. With his touch, the trooper’s 
  corona brightens, and then turns a deeper hue. The massive figure within seems 
  to grow smaller, as if receding in the distance. Within a few moments, it has 
  vanished from view, and the thwarted invading army is another man down.
  “It’s not precisely accurate to call them ‘men,’” Doctor Foresight is quick to point 
  out. “Lord Avarice’s shock troopers come from a separate timeline, where Earth 
  never gave rise to mankind. They have already bled their own Earth dry, and 
  wanted to seize our resources for their own ends. They are a serious threat. I’ve 
  seen these ray guns cut through armor plating like butter.”
  When pressed on how this disastrous invasion was literally stopped in its tracks: 
  “Each trooper wears a cross-dimensional harness altering their vibrational 
  frequency and allowing them to come here. Using the power of the Tempus 
  Auspex, I was able to set up a counter-frequency so each harness generated its 
  What is the nature of the bond between the 
  Fingers and the Foresights?  Did Felix edit his 
  own piece to protect Foresight? 
  22
  
  own temporal nullification field. It wasn’t easy, but if you don’t have a superior 
  understanding of the forces at work, you shouldn’t be in this business in the 
  first place.”
  A car swerves, barely missing a shock trooper holding what looks like a bazooka 
  made of glass rings. Doctor Foresight consults with Halcyon City’s finest, 
  delegating the mundane concerns of traffic control to the boys in blue while he 
  grapples with problems of time and space.
  “You can never be too careful when dealing with cross-temporal incursions. If 
  it’s not the threat of one of Lord Avarice’s schemes, then it could be the danger 
  of the Seven Sadistic Sorcerers, or the threat of the Hourglass Bandit, or the 
  inscrutable Immortal Monolith. Most of them know better than to hassle Halcyon 
  City, but that’s only because I’ve shown them that I’m not to be trifled with.”
  As the Tempus Auspex whirs to life and one more shock trooper is cast 
  back across the cosmos unfathomable, Doctor Foresight takes a moment to 
  reminisce. “It wasn’t so long ago that all these things—time travel, alternate 
  Earths, magic—were just theories in a textbook for me. It may have been just by 
  a freak occurrence that I gained the Tempus Auspex, but what truly matters is 
  what I do with it going forward.
  “By exploring the timestream, I have seen the way forward for Halcyon City. I 
  know the greatness the future holds for these people. I can see how to save it 
  from its worse tendencies and force this place and these people into the best 
  future in all the cosmos!”
  When you gaze through the Spectacles of Tomorrow, you can see the fluidity of time, but you aren’t 
  shielded from it like Doctor Foresight; mark a condition and roll + Savior. On a 10+, hold 3. On a 
  7-9, hold 2. Spend your hold 1 for 1 to declare that you’ve foreseen something terrible, and take +1 
  ongoing to prevent it. On a miss, the GM will tell you what terrible future you’ve foreseen; take -1 
  ongoing to avert it.
  Doctor Foresight explores the timestream, has 
  warning of future action. Must have seen other 
  Foresights. Must have seen Avaricean. Must have 
  seen his own death. 
  Why no warnings?  Why no additional  action? 
  23
  
  Foresight: Crusader  
  or Criminal?
  The Halcyon City Chronicle Profile
  By Phoebe Finger
  Halcyon City, March 19, 1986  - I have never been so grateful to be late to a 
  story. My appointment to tour Avarix Industries’ south Halcyon research park was 
  at 9:00 AM sharp. I arrive at 9:02 to find nothing but smoking, shattered rubble.
  To my left lies the lifeless, visage-free head of one of the company’s cloned 
  SyntheGuards, artificial body slowly melting in the summer sun. To my right are 
  strewn a dozen broken Avarix test tubes, each containing a dose of KEEN, the 
  latest designer drug to sink its fangs into Halcyon City’s underclass. Despite my 
  years as a war correspondent, I have never seen destruction like this.
  Ahead of me is a massive hole in the ground, light gray smoke still rising 
  from the site where the three-story research facility once stood. The hole 
  is impossibly deep, attesting to numberless undocumented sub-basements. 
  On the lip of the chasm stands the architect of this destruction: A tall woman 
  wearing a black leather duster, a yellow hourglass filling the back of the coat. 
  As the vigilante called Foresight turns toward me, her helmet’s protective 
  metal grille conceals the details of her face, but not the emotion burning 
  behind her expression.
  “This place was evil. They’ll tell you that they were seeking the cure for cancer 
  or something. They’ll say that I’m a radical, a terrorist. They’ll claim I murdered 
  innocent people.” She looks down at a half-melted nametag on a bloody lab 
  coat. With the toe of her black combat boot, she nudges it into the abyss. “No 
  one here was innocent.”
  I venture closer, my heart racing. “Who made you judge and jury?” I can’t bring 
  myself to add “executioner.”
  “This made me!” she cries, leaning close enough for me to see the shimmering, 
  silvered orb where her left eye should be. “I was dying and the only thing that 
  would save me was this thing from the future. It’s made me a freak who sees 
  how everything turns out. Every consequence of every action is blistered on my 
  brain! And let me tell you, the whole world’s going straight to hell.”
  “Some would say you brought your own hell with you,” I retort.
  “I do what I do to save this city from its worst appetites. If I had ignored this, 
  half of Halcyon would be KEEN addicts in a year’s time. They’d do anything 
  Avarix asked of them just to get their next fix. You think problems like drugs and 
  domestic violence and gangs are mundane concerns, garden-variety vices. They 
  may not be plans to blot out the sun or invasions from space, but they build up. 
  They lay the groundwork for the Age of Avarix, when all hope dies.”
  24
  
  “Some would say that a gift like yours should be used to build a brighter future. 
  Someone like Doctor Foresight—”
  “Don’t mention that smug bastard! If he were so much better than the rest of us, 
  he wouldn’t have let Avarix take root in his city. He wouldn’t have shown them 
  what discoveries lay in the future.”
  The sound of distant sirens echoes oddly through the rubble. Foresight turns 
  to face the chasm. “Wait!” I call after her. “If you’re doing what’s right, why run 
  from the police?”
  “To protect them from the danger. If I saw what their future held, I don’t know 
  what I’d have to do to them.” As she turns away, a slivery ripple crosses 
  her body and just for a moment, I see it, too. I see every possible way that 
  Foresight could leave this place, all at the same time—the warped girders that 
  will give way beneath her boots. The shortcuts that will become dead-ends. 
  The clear paths that will lead to fights with the police. And a hundred more. It 
  is too much!
  When my vision clears, Foresight is gone. But the wreckage left by her crusade 
  remains all around me.
  Foresight, sitting atop a crater of her own creation.
  25
  
  Avarice Across Ages
  The Final Words of Faux Finger
  By Faux Finger
  NOTE: It is with great sadness that the staff of the Halcyon Chronicle lays to 
  rest one of its own. Faux Finger was an exceptional journalist, a loving husband 
  and father, and a good friend. His untimely passing is a shock to us all, and we 
  offer our deepest condolences to his family. Several weeks ago, Faux handed 
  me a thumb drive and extracted a promise to publish what was on it if anything 
  should happen to him. Sadly, that day has come. Below is Faux Finger’s final 
  article for the Halcyon Chronicle. My promise to my friend is fulfilled. The opinions 
  expressed below do not reflect those of myself, the editorial staff of the Halcyon 
  Chronicle, nor any of its affiliates. 
  -Editor Keandra Hunt
  I’ve uncovered a conspiracy. You have to believe me.
  My editor doesn’t believe me. He thinks that I’ve been working too hard, that I should 
  take some time off. (As if I could afford to take time off!) The police nearly arrested me six 
  times while researching this. And don’t get me started about the mayor’s office!
  You’d think that a city that bears the scars of multiple alien invasions would be more 
  open-minded. You’d think that once I connect the dots for them, they would see the big 
  picture of the threat surrounding us all. I guess they are happier to smile in ignorance 
  than scream at the knowledge of what’s really going on.
  If it can be said to start anywhere, it started in ancient Egypt. Some 3,100 years ago, when 
  Egypt was at its height, its wealth and splendor attracted the attention of something—
  something far more ancient, and far darker, than this world has ever known. This demigod 
  or alien or extradimensional being revealed itself to the conquering pharaoh Vah-Rees-
  Aten, who, at the height of his reign, built twin pyramids: One of solid gold in celebration 
  of his superiority, one of the decaying bones of those who built the first. No name was 
  more feared in the ancient world.
  Vah-Rees-Aten was a butcher and a madman, but he was just a puppet. Something beyond 
  comprehension pulled his strings. It has no name, at least none it has ever shared—sharing 
  is something anathema to its existence. I’ve taken to calling it “The Avaricean.” I know it has 
  lived for millennia. I know it hungers for wealth above all things. I know it works through 
  pawns. And I know it wants nothing less than to own all that is ownable.
  Through the centuries, whenever a civilization reached its peak of wealth and influence, 
  The Avaricean was there. I’m certain it revealed itself to Nero, to Machiavelli, to Napoleon. 
  Further exposés on these historical cases will follow when my tight-fisted editor sees that 
  this is a story that needs to be told!
  The advent of superpowered individuals in Halcyon City marked its arrival on the world 
  stage—and drew the interest of The Avaricean. Its first puppet in the city was crimelord 
  26
  
  Jake Avarice. The Avaricean’s advice enabled a guy with a fourth-grade education to unify 
  a dozen ethnic gangs that had been feuding for decades, repeatedly outwit the HCPD, 
  and bring the city to its knees during the Twelve Days of Danger. If Doctor Foresight (and 
  his ability to see Avarice’s schemes before they happened) had not appeared, this paper 
  would be the Avarice Chronicle, without a doubt.
  Its first assault repelled, The Avaricean redoubled its efforts. The alien Lord Avarice and 
  his cross-dimensional army of freaks were his next lackeys. Their relentless incursions 
  were intended to leave the city’s defenders helpless so that Halcyon’s treasures could 
  be plundered. It was only with years of struggle and sacrifice that the second Doctor 
  Foresight was able to pursue the Lord of Greed to his homeworld and end his threat to 
  the cosmos. In his final years, Doctor Foresight began to suspect that there was a power 
  behind his long-time foe and was investigating it when he vanished. The Avaricean may 
  have been stymied, but it was not denied revenge.
  Here’s where I lost my editor. The third Foresight was not a crazy anti-capitalist 
  terrorist. She could actually see the future, and she saw The Avaricean’s next plot to 
  own Halcyon City. Facing the failure of both criminal corruption and outright invasion, 
  The Avaricean attempted to cultivate a homegrown, mundane force of greed: Avarix 
  Industries. While Foresight’s wild-sounding accusations of patent theft, organ harvesting, 
  cloning, brainwashing, and pan-dimensional energy experiments were never proven, 
  they were never disproven, either. All investigation simply stopped when the corporate 
  headquarters, and Foresight herself, were consumed in a nano-black hole manifestation 
  that was never fully explained.
  Are you so naïve to think that a force as long-lived, relentless, and evil as The Avaricean 
  could be ended permanently by a simple event horizon? Don’t you know it always 
  saves a reserve force to fight another day? I have leads that it is still at work in Halcyon 
  City presently. It has been defeated by superheroes, and now seeks to draw them into 
  its millennia-old web. How many millions of dollars do A-list heroes pull down from 
  endorsements? How much money flows through contracts to rebuild areas leveled 
  by super-powered fisticuffs? The Avaricean has turned its attention to our supposed 
  protectors, using tantalizing promises of undreamt riches to turn heroes into its pawns. 
  In a forthcoming series of articles, I will expose the depth of this corruption among the 
  city’s superhero class. Until then, stay honest, and stay safe.
  When you listen to the whispers of the Avaricean, roll + Superior. On a 10+, choose two, on a 
  7-9, choose one:
  • Gain significant wealth and take +1 forward when using it 
  • Increase Superior; the MC chooses what to decrease.
  • Your next mention of wealth is not considered provoking someone
  • The Avaricean does not gain Influence over you 
  On a miss, the Avaricean is in your mind. It takes Influence over you and shifts your Labels 
  immediately, and you can hear its whispers continuing.
  27
  
  There’s this notion that heroes are on the side of truth. 
  They should always want to know the full depths of the 
  story, no holds barred. Truth is the friend of the good. 
  So we of the journalistic persuasion should be their 
  natural allies, right?
  What I’ve found is that there are heroes—and villains, 
  and aliens, and whatever else, for that matter—that 
  want nothing more than for their stories to be told. 
  They want the world to witness their victories and hear 
  their cries of anguish.
  And then there are the superhumans who want their 
  stories to stay quiet. Maybe they just want to hide 
  their shame, make sure we don’t find out that they 
  received their powers during an accident they caused. 
  Maybe they don’t want the attention, because they’re 
  trying to keep living their normal lives, no matter 
  the fact that they can lift cars. Or maybe they want 
  to remain free, working in the shadows without any 
  oversight or commentary. 
  The two kinds—those who want their stories told true 
  and full, and those who want their stories hidden—
  aren’t as easy to tell apart as you might expect. 
  Every one of the Foresights—from the first two 
  Doctors, to the Foresight of Phoebe Finger’s article, to 
  the modern-day Kid Foresight—they all had the ability 
  to see the future, to some extent, right? They all must 
  have seen things coming all the time. They must have 
  known about future threats and dangers. And if Faux’s 
  article can be believed, then they’ve all been fighting 
  this extradimensional Avaricean force…thing…and 
  never really come clean. At least, in public.
  28
  
  That’s why I let Faux’s words go to print, crazy as they 
  sounded. It’s our job to find the truth and share it, 
  whether or not a hero thinks we should. They don’t 
  get to make that decision. Chances are, the Foresights 
  would’ve kept it secret for the best of reasons—safety of 
  innocents and all—but it’s still not their choice.
  The whole point of Jane Warren’s piece on MeRIT 
  was to shine a light on an organization doing the 
  same—an organization not beholden to heroes, or to 
  the still-more-clandestine strictures of A.E.G.I.S., or 
  to whoever else would try to hide the truth. MeRIT is 
  doing our work.
  But then I think about freaking Hiro Reckard, “shining 
  the truth” on whatever pays his bills. And I think about 
  Jose Martinez and La Cabecilla. I know Jose. I know what 
  kind of reporter he is. And I do not buy for an instant that 
  he didn’t figure out who La Cabecilla really was.
  So why did he not include it in the article? Did he buy in 
  that it was another truth that needed hiding? Was he just 
  doing what any of these heroes do, making the decision 
  for the city about how best to serve it and save it?
  The truth in this city is way more complicated than 
  it has any right to be. And you’re going to need to 
  remind yourself of that, over and over and over again. 
  Because sometimes…maybe…you should keep the 
  story under wraps.
  But that never means you shouldn’t add it to your secret 
  journal. Cough cough.
  Keandra Hunt
  29
  
  By Pierce Bannon
  Halcyon City’s seen its fair 
  share of gods and monsters, 
  but it’s always striking to see 
  an old myth return in a new 
  form—just as we’re seeing 
  right now, before our eyes, 
  with Inferna, the teen punk-
  rock anarchist hero who’s 
  been leaving trails of fire over 
  city rooftops for a few months 
  now. Question is, are these 
  figures of modern myth more 
  trouble than they’re worth?
  Inferna is a young teen in 
  knee-high 
  combat 
  boots, 
  high-waisted denim shorts, a 
  blouse that shows off the scar 
  over her heart, punky hair, 
  and a gas mask. And she has 
  been pretty terse when talking 
  with 
  interviewers—many 
  expletives deleted to protect 
  your innocent sensibilities, 
  readers—but we’ve pieced 
  together her origins. 
  She was living on the 
  streets, 
  homeless, 
  when 
  she was captured by cultists 
  worshipping some old fire 
  god, name of Valarakkratu. 
  She was intended to be a 
  sacrifice to reinvigorate that 
  god, stoke its fires, maybe 
  even eventually bring it back 
  into the world. When they 
  cut out her heart and threw 
  it into the fires, though, 
  something else happened, 
  and she was reinvigorated 
  by the flames. She called on 
  the fire, blasted the cultists, 
  escaped, 
  and 
  became 
  a 
  burning crusader for justice 
  on the streets of Halcyon. 
  More or less.
  But here’s the thing, readers. 
  She’s now an empowered 
  teenager driven by hormones 
  and a flame god’s whims. 
  Since getting her powers, 
  we’ve watched her stop 
  Cold Snap, blast Mole Men 
  back into the tunnels, and 
  fight 
  burning 
  sky 
  duels 
  with Aeonicus. And in turn, 
  we’ve seen her set fire to 
  an abandoned warehouse, 
  melt the asphalt over an 
  entire street, and send bits of 
  psychokinetic flame raining 
  down on the business district.
  The Trumpet Blast would 
  never argue that Inferna 
  hasn’t done good. But her 
  behavior is just as much 
  wanton flame goddess as it 
  is superhero. We spoke with 
  mythology expert Dr. Vikram 
   
  When Mythology 
  Meets Modernity
  Inferna, spotted at the scene of a fire.
  30
  
  Inanda on the subject of 
  recurring symbols.
  “It is always a question 
  surrounding the more magic 
  or legend-based metahuman 
  figures in our fair city,” 
  Dr. Inanda said. “Are they 
  brand new entities? Are they 
  reincarnations of beings that 
  must have existed at some 
  point? Are they just people 
  with spectacular abilities? 
  How 
  worried 
  should 
  we actually be that they 
  repeat the patterns of their 
  predecessors?”
  Is she a modern superhero? 
  Is she a teen punk with 
  the powers of a goddess? 
  Or is she a mythic figure 
  reincarnated and trying to 
  play out the same stories—
  stories 
  of 
  violence 
  and 
  submission and danger?
  We can only hope that it’s 
  one more than the other. 
   
   
  By Lydia Cantrip
  Change of Heart:  
  The Case Against Roshambo
  On October 13th, Roshambo baffled 
  Halcyon City by joining his long-time rivals, 
  the heroic team known only as the TKs, to 
  defeat his former ally and apparent mentor, 
  Flytrap. In the press conference following 
  the battle, TK leader Thorn Maiden further 
  shocked the city by announcing that the 
  team-up was permanent. The longtime trio 
  of Thorn Maiden, Aerial, and Hickory was 
  now a quartet.
  “Roshambo has pledged to uphold the 
  same values that keep our team fighting 
  day after day: justice for the oppressed, 
  mercy for the misguided, and safety for the 
  endangered,” Thorn Maiden explained. 
  “While we cannot divulge our reasons for 
  trusting Roshambo, we hope that you will 
  trust us when we say he is and will be an 
  important member of our team.”
  Over the past few weeks we have 
  learned more about Roshambo’s surprise 
  defection. As fitting his nature, his 
  decision was not based on, as the TKs have 
  described it, a “change of heart” or even, 
  Where did Pierce get information on 
  her background? Smells like BS.
  When you discover your own mythic background, choose 
  the one that fits:
  • The redeemer (instinct: make someone repent)
  • The vengeful (instinct: righteously make someone 
  suffer)
  • The destroyer (instinct: wreak devastation)
  • The mighty (instinct: tear down the powerful)
  • The supreme (instinct: demand submission)
  Your mythic background has Influence over you. You 
  can fulfill your mythic background’s story by giving in to 
  its instinct and following through on its desires.
  When you fulfill the story of your mythic background, 
  mark potential; the GM will shift your Labels accordingly. 
  When you resist the story of your mythic background, 
  you are rejecting its Influence over you. If your mythic 
  background loses its Influence over you, you can no longer 
  mark potential or shift Labels upon fulfilling its story.
  31
  
  as Roshambo himself has said, “finally 
  seeing the idiocy and consequences of 
  [his] actions.” No, Roshambo defected 
  because he lost a game. Eleven rounds of 
  rock-paper-scissors and one of the city’s 
  great terrors joined the good side.
  While some have argued that pushing 
  the game to eleven rounds rather than 
  accepting an earlier victory demonstrates 
  Roshambo’s true feelings and desire to 
  turn away from his villainy, we argue 
  that losing a game is neither a strong 
  foundation for trust nor sufficient cause 
  for avoiding justice.
  Thorn Maiden and the rest of the 
  TKs claim to value justice. Where, then, 
  is the justice for Roshambo’s victims? By 
  accepting Roshambo without forcing him 
  to face his crimes, the TKs are implying 
  that those he has hurt matter less than 
  the power he can provide to their team. 
  His victims deserve the opportunity to 
  face Roshambo and have their complaints 
  heard, weighed, and responded to in a 
  court of law.
  We are devoting our weekly long-form 
  editorial to Roshambo and why we at the 
  Halcyon City Herald believe that he should 
  face trial just like any other criminal.
  The Rise of 
  Roshambo, Villain
  Roshambo began terrorizing Halcyon 
  City with his elite computer skills and 
  superhuman strength and agility three 
  years ago, only two years after the young 
  TKs first appeared. His first actions 
  followed a typical villain arc—a bank job 
  for initial funding, a public proclamation 
  or manifesto, and a battle to decide 
  primary rivals.
  Three TKs, from left to right: Thorn Maiden, Roshambo, and Aerial.
  32
  
  Roshambo opened his villainous career 
  with a late night hit on the east branch of 
  the Singer Credit Union. Before it cut out, 
  the surveillance video caught the image of 
  a wiry man in a Pierrot mask. When police 
  responded to the silent alarm, they found 
  the night guards bound and gagged behind 
  the front counter. All but one of the guards 
  were undressed. They explained that the 
  man had disarmed them suddenly with 
  great force and then offered a choice: play 
  his game or lose their secrets. They had 
  each lost a round of rock-paper-scissors 
  with their clothes as forfeit. The guard who 
  hadn’t followed the rules of the game lost 
  his job in the days following as Roshambo 
  leaked incriminating secrets about the 
  guard’s past. 
  Roshambo spoke publicly for the 
  first time later that week by hacking the 
  Halcyon City Herald website and replacing 
  the front page with a photo of himself and 
  a signed manifesto.
  “Halcyon City runs on a series of 
  arbitrary rules that divide society up into 
  strict categories. We treat these boxes as 
  sacred, but they only have as much power 
  as we give them. We must overturn the 
  boxes. We must break the rules. I cannot 
  change the world on my own, but I can 
  show you how silly the rules are. If you 
  insist on following the rules of the city, 
  then you’ll also follow mine. Would you 
  like to play a game?”
  Roshambo then infiltrated the science 
  center at the Halcyon Community College. 
  The TKs—whose area of operation centers 
  around the college, leading many to 
  believe they are students or faculty there—
  interrupted his heist.
  Since that battle, the TKs have always 
  been the first superhero team to respond 
  to Roshambo’s crimes.
  Since robbing the Singer Credit 
  Union three years ago, Roshambo 
  has proven himself a whimsical and 
  cruel villain who lets games of chance 
  between himself and his prospective 
  victim guide his actions. Roshambo 
  coerced many victims into personal and 
  cruel humiliations with the threat of 
  what secrets his hacking could reveal or 
  manufacture, all leading up to the day 
  that one of his victims, unable to handle 
  the humiliation, took his own life. 
  Looking to the Past
  This is not the first time Halcyon City 
  has faced remorseful villains. Within both 
  the Silver and Bronze Generations, a few 
  villains turned their coats and joined up 
  with the side of good. 
  Lady Nym laid aside her mask during 
  the Great Battle of Church Street, signaling 
  her changed allegiances by immobilizing 
  three of her former allies with her mental 
  powers. She later joined the Terrific 
  Tribune and eventually became one of 
  their strongest and fairest lieutenants. 
  Lady Nym demonstrates the potential 
  former villains have for turning their coats 
  and becoming good.
  The difference between Lady Nym and 
  Roshambo, however, is that between her 
  change of heart and rise in power within 
  the Tribune, Lady Nym turned herself 
  in and submitted herself to the justice 
  system. She served three years in prison 
  before catastrophe demanded her release. 
  Even then, she agreed to have her powers 
  bound for the rest of her sentence, with 
  temporary removal of the limits allowed 
  when her abilities were needed to help 
  the city. Lady Nym also, voluntarily, made 
  reparations to the city by founding the 
  33
  
  successful and popular charter school 
  franchise, Elevating Genius.
  Where Lady Nym may provide hope 
  for Roshambo’s future with the TKs, Dark 
  Vengeance provides a more cautionary tale.
  Dark Vengeance claimed to renounce 
  his former villainy in a large press 
  conference and blamed his longtime 
  estrangement with his parents—Silver 
  Shark and Albatross, prominent members 
  of the Tribune—for his misguided ways. 
  While he also turned himself over to the 
  court system, his familial connections to 
  the Tribune saved him from significant 
  repercussions. Dark Vengeance paid a 
  large fine and agreed to participate in a 
  volunteer program to help troubled youths.
  Given all the press and assurances 
  around his supposed change of heart, no 
  one suspected that he had been using his 
  time in the volunteer program to recruit 
  a corps of teen villains to carry out his 
  dark plots. The depth of his betrayal was 
  not fully felt until the destruction of the 
  Tribune’s headquarters years later. In the 
  subsequent investigations, the city learned 
  how Dark Vengeance had enacted a long 
  and twisted scheme to corrupt the Tribune, 
  strengthen his pack of destructive teens, 
  and exact revenge for childhood slights. 
  The Tribune has never recovered.
  Changes of heart may be as genuine 
  as Lady Nym’s or merely part of a larger 
  game, as with Dark Vengeance—and 
  which do you think is really more likely in 
  Roshambo’s case?
  Looking to  
  the Future
  Maybe Roshambo will prove to be 
  another Lady Nym. His physical prowess 
  and technical skills would be a great boon 
  to the TKs. The TKs have been shifting 
  from being problem solvers who stop 
  common criminals and tangle with one 
  super rival to being a team that regularly 
  matches up against other supers. As their 
  recent bouts with Flytrap have shown, 
  the TKs need more than Thorn Maiden’s 
  plants, Aerial’s winds, and Hickory’s 
  limited temporal shifting. They need a 
  true heavy hitter and Roshambo could fill 
  that role. 
  But what if Roshambo is another Dark 
  Vengeance? Allowing Roshambo to infiltrate 
  the TKs could destroy the heroic group 
  just as Dark Vengeance once shattered the 
  Tribune. Or, worse, his influence could 
  corrupt the TKs and draft three more 
  powerful villains against the city.
  Maybe he is genuine, but Roshambo 
  has shown, since his first public acts in the 
  city, that games govern his behavior. This 
  time, his games saw him turn his coat. 
  The next game may require him to turn it 
  back. If and when he returns to villainy, he 
  would do so with deeper knowledge of the 
  TKs’ strengths and weaknesses. 
  In his manifesto, Roshambo expressed 
  deep contempt for society’s rules. Why 
  should we expect him to follow those rules 
  now? Just because of his word?
  Lady Nym = Retired her cape, still active in community. 
  Alias: Aliyah Dodge. 
  ASK HER FOR TRUTH ABOUT DARK  
  VENGEANCE AND TRIBUNE.
  34
  
  Trust Is Not Enough
  However, even if Roshambo’s change 
  of heart is genuine, even if he is now 
  trustworthy and will act to uphold the 
  values of the TKs, that is not enough.
  Remorse without action is not enough. 
  Being good now does not cancel out 
  every selfish, cruel, and ruthless action 
  Roshambo has taken. Saving someone 
  today does not help those hurt yesterday 
  and all the days before that.
  The actual matter of Roshambo’s 
  trustworthiness is secondary to the 
  question of the justice.
  In May of last year, Roshambo attacked 
  a branch of the Department of Motor 
  Vehicles (DMV) and challenged Lucas 
  Bell, a high school junior taking his driver’s 
  license test, to a game of rock-paper-
  scissors. If Lucas won, Roshambo would 
  leave the DMV and pay for his damages. 
  If Roshambo won, Lucas would complete 
  a dare. When the teen lost, eyewitnesses 
  reported that Roshambo threatened to 
  reveal Lucas’s secrets if he did not get on all 
  fours and act like a dog while Roshambo 
  streamed the video online. Lucas, unable 
  to cope with the subsequent bullying his 
  compliance generated, hung himself in his 
  bedroom closet a month later.
  Lucas Bell was the captain of his 
  school’s basketball team and a favorite for 
  junior prom king before his humiliating 
  experience. His parents, Murphy and Jesse 
  Bell, still keep his room pristine, as if he is 
  only missing and not lost to them forever. 
  Roshambo may not have intended 
  to ruin Lucas’s life or known the teen 
  was already joking about suicide and 
  engaging in risky behaviors, but that does 
  not absolve him of the crime committed. 
  Lucas’s parents have a right to know why 
  Roshambo attacked their son. They have 
  a right to demand he face trial for the 
  consequences of his thoughtless actions.
  At the Mercy  
  of Power
  Our city is plagued with power. Those 
  with power decide when to interrupt 
  and endanger our lives. We live in fear 
  of their schemes. Those with power also 
  decide when and how to step in and save 
  us. We survive on the strength of their 
  responsibility.
  Roshambo has power, but his potential 
  contributions are not a sufficient answer 
  for the suffering he has caused. The people 
  he has hurt are valuable, too, even if they 
  cannot save the city. 
  If Roshambo were not as powerful as 
  he is, this would not even be a question. 
  Everyday remorseful criminals watch 
  the world through iron bars. Some, such 
  as our colleagues at the Kingfisher, have 
  argued that the reformation of criminals 
  When you play in Roshambo’s games, roll + Superior. On a 10+, you win—and Roshambo will 
  submit. On a 7-9, you win, but you look foolish or suspect for giving in to his demands in the 
  process. The GM will adjust your Labels accordingly. On a miss, you lose, and must either let 
  Roshambo reveal a dark secret of yours, or make a fool of yourself according to his wishes. If 
  you follow his wishes, mark three conditions and give Roshambo Influence over you.
  35
  
  should outweigh the need for punishment 
  and that jailing Roshambo accomplishes 
  nothing. That argument ignores, however, 
  that the prison system is full of people who 
  regret their former crimes and who could 
  be contributing members of society given 
  the chance. They are not receiving the 
  same opportunities as Roshambo. By only 
  offering this freedom to Roshambo, we are 
  setting the precedent that the lives of the 
  powerful are more important than those of 
  normal people.
  That is not why heroes like the TKs 
  fight. That is not why the Gold Generation 
  first took up arms. That is neither the city I 
  want to live in nor the legacy I want passed 
  on to future generations.
  If Roshambo truly believes in “justice 
  for the oppressed,” let him prove it by 
  submitting himself to the judgment of his 
  peers. If his change of heart is genuine, let 
  him follow Lady Nym’s example and make 
  reparations for his crimes. If he means 
  what he says, he should and must act.
  Words without action are meaningless.
  Justice for the 
  Oppressed
  We at the Halcyon City Herald do not 
  advocate for punishment or revenge. We 
  ask only that the TKs follow through on 
  the promise of their values and demand 
  that Roshambo confess his crimes, submit 
  himself to justice, and serve his time. 
  The judicial process would also give the 
  citizens of Halcyon City the opportunity to 
  learn more about Roshambo and decide 
  for themselves whether this would-be hero 
  is worthy of their trust. Thorn Maiden, 
  Aerial, and Hickory are poised to be the 
  next great team in Halcyon City. While 
  they have proven themselves to be strong, 
  moral heroes with a tight focus on the 
  day-to-day lives of normal people so far, 
  Roshambo poses the first true test of their 
  professed values. They are at a crossroads 
  and must demonstrate that the people of 
  Halcyon City are right to trust and support 
  them. They must act on the values they 
  claim to uphold. 
  At the very least, they should reveal 
  their reasons for trusting in Roshambo. 
  Their promises are not enough. Not only 
  do the people of Halcyon City need and 
  deserve more if they are going to support 
  Roshambo’s apparent change of heart, our 
  justice system requires more. No matter 
  how good and noble our heroes may be, 
  true justice demands more than their 
  heroic words and unchecked judgment.
  Surprise us again, Roshambo; prove 
  your change of heart is more than a game 
  and do the right thing. Turn yourself in.
  When you publicly apologize for a mistake, roll + Mundane. On a hit, the public accepts your 
  apology and you can clear a condition. On a 10+, you come out looking better for it. Say how the 
  public sees you now, and adjust your Labels accordingly. On a miss, the public only becomes 
  more incensed by your apology, and someone digs up and makes public secrets or information 
  you’d prefer to stay secret.
  36
  
  Hope Fractured
  The Fall of the Titan Academy
  By Phoebe Waller
  Once upon a time, Genevieve Winters had a good idea: to train new generations 
  of metahuman heroes. She could teach young superhumans how to use their 
  abilities, and instill in them the values and morals that would make them exactly 
  what Halcyon City needed and wanted. She could serve them, help them 
  through the hardest times, and guide them to better themselves.
  Fast forward 10 years. The Titan Academy is founded. Housed in a beautiful old 
  mansion, built in the Revolutionary War period, the building’s been renovated 
  with new equipment, facilities, and plenty of structural reinforcement. The 
  gleaming sign on the front lawn promises a bright future.
  Fast forward another 10 years. The Titan Academy is thriving. Students abound, 
  filling up its halls, walking its lawns. From nearby, you can hear the sounds of 
  superpowered discharge all over campus, accompanied by laughter from the 
  students. It’s living up to the dream.
  Fast forward still another 10 years. It’s all gone. The building is dilapidated and 
  empty. Falling apart. Disintegrating where it stands. The sign has fallen down. 
  The Titan Academy is no more.
  So what exactly happened? Why did the Titan Academy fall apart, when it 
  seemed like such a good idea? Is Genevieve Winters, its founder and original 
  headmistress, to blame? 
  Let’s delve into the history of the Titan Academy and talk about what worked, 
  what didn’t, and whether there’s any hope here.
  The Woman Behind the Academy
  The first thing you need to understand about the Titan Academy is Genevieve 
  Winters. Genevieve was one of the Elements—a relatively early member, but 
  after the original team of four had already expanded. She was only 16 herself 
  when she joined that team, taking up the role of Ice Maiden before eventually 
  becoming Lady Ice, the superhero moniker for which she is most well-known. 
  Genevieve was embroiled in the superhero life from an early age, when 
  she was caught up in a quantum-morphic element storm that swept through 
  her neighborhood. It entangled her particles with the ability to manipulate 
  thermodynamics. She could shift heat away, and thereby create cold and ice. It 
  also bleached her hair white and her skin faint blue. 
  At first, she hid her ability from the world as best she could. Make-up and hair 
  dye were her constant companions. According to those close to the Winters, her 
  parents were fairly closed-minded; discovering the true extent of the changes 
  that had affected their daughter would have led them to disown their child. 
  37
  
  Which, of course, it did, when Genevieve was inevitably unable to continue to 
  hide her mutations from those in close proximity to her on a daily basis. 
  Cast out, on her own, Genevieve was adopted into the homes of the other 
  Elements. Flame, Aqua, Geo, Gust, Acid, Iron—they all became her family. They 
  took care of her, fed her, and taught her. That was when she learned what it 
  meant to be a hero, according to her autobiography, A Life of Winters (source 
  of much of our information about Genevieve). And that was when the seeds for 
  the Titan Academy were planted in her mind.
  What if there was no place for her when her parents cast her out, she wondered. 
  What might she have turned into? Who might she have become? 
  And how could she save other young metahumans from such a fate?
  Building the Academy
  She was too young, too inexperienced when the first notion of the Titan 
  Academy came to her mind, but it was there, and it wouldn’t go away. She 
  drove her efforts towards making the Academy a reality, earning the necessary 
  degrees, procuring the funding, and leaving the superheroic life to become an 
  administrator for the first privately owned and controlled but publicly accessible 
  young superhero academy.
  Before Titan, there were other schools. Most of them were limited, closed-off 
  in some way—a school specifically and only for those whose genes had been 
  The remnants of the Titan Academy.
  38
  
  rewritten in 1972’s geni-bomb, or a school for the so-called “mystic arts”. Many of 
  them were owned and operated directly by the government, and acted more as 
  training facilities for new A.E.G.I.S. operatives or soldiers than they were actual 
  education facilities.
  Titan was something else. Genevieve Winters brought in real teachers from 
  around the world, experts in their courses, acclaimed individuals. She made 
  sure the Academy had dorms, science facilities, gymnasiums that catered to 
  metahuman abilities—every possible affordance and facility that the students 
  could need. She set a price for tuition, to keep the Academy funded, but offered 
  extreme tuition assistance for students who couldn’t pay, including free-rides 
  more often than not.
  Where her funding came from remains a question open to speculation, but 
  most historians assume that she was being funded by contacts she made in the 
  superheroic world—for instance, the Texpert, often hypothesized to have been 
  billionaire Cynthia Quinn, was known as a good friend of Lady Ice, and might 
  have provided funding through charities and other backdoor routes.
  Regardless, the Titan Academy that Genevieve Winters built was an impressive 
  sight. Photographer Yong Yi describes it as “…a monument to hope. Yes, it was 
  a school, and had all those hallmarks, but the modern architecture, the glass, 
  the statues, the open spaces, the constant reminders about Halcyon’s heroic 
  history—it was designed from the ground up to give students a clear glimpse of 
  their futures. It was beautiful, long before any students were even on campus.”
  When students filtered into its halls for the first time in approximately 1983, the 
  Titan Academy came to life. News organizations from the time covered it with 
  headlines like, “Titan Academy Promises Better Future For New Generation of 
  Halcyon” and “Titan Academy: The Hope of Halcyon City.” In the midst of darker 
  stories of that era, the Titan Academy was a place of hope for the future, and 
  every story that came out of it was a forward-looking ode to progress. 
  It stood as a bastion in exactly that way for a little over a decade. Halcyon saw 
  many impressive young heroes come out of the Academy’s halls—Ibis, and La 
  It’s too easy. Winters, too altruistic. The whole  
    school, just to save people from what she went through?  
  No other purpose?  Doesn’t make sense. 
   What was Titan really for? 
  Funding—Phoebe didn’t go into it enough. Where did it come from?  
  Texpert doesn’t account for it, charities don’t account for it. 
  A.E.G.I.S.?  Somewhere else? 
  FOLLOW THE MONEY.
  39
  
  Mejor, and Rims, and Gravhack, and more. They weren’t exactly what Halcyon had 
  expected or hoped for, with some important political figures in the city criticizing 
  these young heroes for their new ways of doing things, or their ridiculous 
  costumes, but they saved lives, often and undeniably. They were true heroes. 
  The Firebrand Cometh
  But then came Dante Root. A young man from a middle class background, his 
  parents were victims of a superhuman conflict when he was just 8 years old—
  they were in a building that collapsed. He went to live with his aunt, and in the 
  meantime, according to her, became truly obsessed with the superhuman world. 
  “He would collect every comic book, history book, biology book—whatever,” his 
  aunt, Ida Root, later conveyed. “It was like an obsession, but I figured that it was 
  taking his mind off his parents, so it was only a good thing.”
  When Root began to evidence superhuman abilities at the age of 12, his aunt 
  said, “It was almost like he just expected them to come in.” Most suprologists 
  theorize that his powers were mutational in origin, but the truth remains unclear 
  to this day.
  At the age of 15, Dante decided to apply to Titan Academy. He was accepted 
  almost immediately.
  Dante was a promising student, like so many others. His abilities included 
  vast metahuman cognitive abilities, along with pheromonal influencing of 
  those around him, and a hyperactive healing factor. One of his teachers, Mrs. 
  Samantha Tate, spoke about Dante to the press some ten years after the fall of 
  the Academy: “He was charming, and handsome, and so, so smart. You heard 
  him talk, and you liked him. You wanted him to succeed. And we all thought he 
  would. He thought he could become the President, really. Make real change in 
  the world. We never saw it coming.” 
  Dante Root’s attack on the school began on March 13, 1995. It ended three 
  years later. 
  Genevieve Winters had shifted away from the school. The stress and incredible 
  work involved in administrating the Academy had taken its toll on her, and she 
  left Titan in the hands of a qualified successor, Mr. Carl Eggers. But Mr. Eggers, 
  Dante Root’s limits unclear. Some implication of subtle  
    manipulation in addition to outright control. Victims 
  might not even be aware what he’s doing. Did Winters move  
   away from the Academy because of him?  If so — if he can 
  manipulate so subtly— he is still  a threat, wherever  
  he is being held.
  40
  
  while a successful school administrator, was completely unprepared to deal with 
  a student like Dante. 
  Most historians chart the beginning of the end to a one-on-one meeting between 
  Dante and Eggers. The appointment ledger cited that Dante wanted to talk to 
  Mr. Eggers about the older man’s recommendations for Dante’s future. 
  What came out of the meeting was a fully subservient Mr. Eggers, one hundred 
  percent controlled by Dante. It is unclear if Dante had created a device or 
  technique to advance his pheromonal abilities, or to extend his will into the 
  minds of others, or to exert control through some other means. To this day, 
  suprologists remain unsure of the specifics of Dante’s growing power over the 
  minds of those around him, and exactly where it came from. But Mr. Eggers, 
  speaking about the incident after the fact, emphasized that it didn’t matter. 
  “He had me under his control, one way or the other,” Eggers said. “He could 
  say anything, and I’d do it. Sometimes he could just look at me, and I’d do it. It 
  was...it was terrifying.” 
  Over the course of those three years, Dante Root took control of the school’s 
  faculty, one by one. He reshaped the curriculum of the school in an attempt to 
  change who his peers were becoming, and he built for himself an army using 
  the school’s resources. 
  And then, in 1998, he unleashed his army—the Legion of Inferno, he called 
  them, taking his cues from Dante Alighieri—and officially declared that the Titan 
  Academy was under his total control. And that Halcyon itself would be his soon.
  The Infernos attacked the city, and though they were all just his fellow students, 
  the training and expertise they’d received from Titan made them far more 
  dangerous than the heroes of the city would have expected. The battle to hold 
  back the Infernos took almost every hero of the era, in a raging battle across the 
  width and breadth of the city. All with Dante at its heart.
  The battle has been extensively covered in other articles and pieces. For our 
  purposes, suffice it to say that Dante was ultimately defeated by Artificer, the 
  robotic hero immune to Dante’s powers. Then he was placed into A.E.G.I.S. 
  custody, and has been there ever since.
  But far more importantly, the city had seen the dark reflection of the Titan 
  Academy. They had seen what could happen if those tools of education and 
  training were turned to creating threats to the city, instead of defenders. 
  When you resist Dante’s mind control, treat it as rejecting his Influence. On a hit, you cannot 
  cancel his Influence. On a miss, instead of shifting your Labels and marking a condition, you 
  must either follow Dante’s commands or mark a condition (your choice) and take a powerful blow.
  41
  
  A Slow Descent
  City Councilman Katherine Coor was the first to enunciate what many in the city 
  were already feeling—that the Titan Academy was too dangerous to be allowed 
  to exist without direct government supervision. The campaign she called for was 
  simple: either the Academy would have to close, or it would have to cede all 
  control to Halcyon City itself. 
  Genevieve Winters, who still held a controlling interest in the Academy even 
  if she did not directly run it, gave voice to the sentiment that would ultimately 
  dictate the future of the Academy: “The Titan Academy was a place that gave 
  form to countless heroes, and one true villain. It works. If the city of Halcyon 
  disagrees, then the city of Halcyon is free to revoke its appropriate licenses. But 
  otherwise, the Titan Academy will continue to transform the young metahumans 
  of this city into its future heroes.” 
  So Katherine Coor led the campaign to close the Academy, ultimately gathering a 
  massive movement of anti-metahuman-education protesters, and pressuring the 
  city government to revoke the Titan Academy’s license. Her campaign garnered 
  her enough support among the fearful, the doubtful, and the concerned to earn 
  her the office of Mayor some years later, as well.
  And now, the Titan Academy stands as a ruined wreck. The deed for the land 
  still belongs to Winters, and she refuses to sell or rebuild. Almost as an act of 
  stubbornness or despair, she will only allow the facility to fall apart slowly but 
  surely over time, in the middle of the city it once served. A reminder of this city’s 
  hopes for a better future, and fear of what that future might actually bring.
  When you explore the ruins of the Titan Academy for useful equipment, say what you’re looking for 
  and roll + Superior. On a hit, you find it. On a 10+, choose one. On a 7-9, choose two.
  • The equipment is broken; you need someone’s help to fix it.
  • The equipment is outdated; it will be less effective than you hoped.
  • The equipment is protected; you have to get past a security measure to take it.
  • The equipment is dangerous; using it will cause some kind of backfire.
  On a miss, something else living in the ruins of the Academy finds you first; prepare for battle!
  Mayor Coor later abducted by time traveling Dr. Infinity. 
  Blueprints in her office indicated plans to rebuild a new 
  academy under city control. Covered up by A.E.G.I.S. What 
  would Coor have done?  Why did Infinity take her?  What’s  
  the connection to Titan? 
  42
  
  Costumed Tryhards 
  By Hiro Reckard
  A couple of weeks ago, I wrote 
  about the epidemic of under-
  dressed young superheroes 
  in this city, saying it was the 
  worst thing I could imagine.
  Boy, oh boy, was I wrong. 
  There is in fact a sin greater 
  than caring too little about 
  your appearance. 
  Caring too much.
  Look at this new guy Captain 
  Cherry, who was on hand 
  last Sunday at the Electric 
  District Expo to apprehend 
  the Sand Wren Clan ruffians 
  who attempted to kidnap 
  city councilwoman Clarissa 
  Banknotes—and of course, 
  to take credit in front of 
  the media afterwards. The 
  red and navy suit with a 
  luminous, almost neon C 
  on his chest, the polished 
  boots and ironed cape, and of 
  course, the perfectly-coiffed 
  crimson 
  pompadour. 
  But 
  when the television cameras 
  zoomed in on his face and I 
  detected what looked to be 
  blush and red eyeshadow, 
  that was just a little too 
  much. Suddenly the shine 
  of the boots and embedded 
  rubies revealed an unnatural 
  perfection that shouldn’t be 
  there after a tough day of 
  villain fighting. 
  Note to all other overstyled 
  heroes: you’re supposed to 
  be in this business for the 
  populace, not the paparazzi.
  “Now Mr. Reckard,” you’re 
  thinking, “first you complain 
  about heroes not focusing 
  enough on their image, and 
  now you complain about them 
  focusing too much? You can’t 
  have it both ways!”
  First of all, dear reader, 
  call me Hiro. Secondly, I 
  am making an eminently 
  reasonable request to just the 
  worst offenders on either end 
  of the spectrum. There is a 
  huge middle ground, with not 
  nearly enough heroes in that 
  middle space.
  But there’s a paragon of 
  fashionable practicality right 
  in front of our eyes: Amanda 
  Lynn Strummer. Consider her 
  cowgirl outfit in pastel colors 
  and tasteful frills, from her 
  braided blonde pigtails to 
  her knee-high leather boots. 
  It says, “I am aware that 
  people want their heroes to 
  be likable, but I’m also ready 
  to rumble, tumble, and get 
  dirty in the line of duty.” Now, 
  I know that some have their 
  concerns about whether she’s 
  truly disavowed the worldview 
  of her uncle, Scarlet Songbird, 
  but you know what? This 
  young lady’s got so much of 
  the All-American Girl, “Aw, 
  shucks” charm, that I’m not 
  sure we could stop adoring 
  her even if she turned back to 
  his side.
  So that’s my humble plea to 
  all the wanna-be heroes out 
  there refining your identity: 
  if you want to be taken 
  seriously, don’t be a Sawfly, 
  but don’t be a Captain Cherry 
  either. Be like Amanda Lynn. 
  Maybe it’s hard to please 
  everyone. But just like with 
  every other aspect of hero-
  ing, no one said it was going 
  to be easy.
  Amanda Lynn Strummer—friend of Hiro Reckard?  
  Earned several new endorsements after article 
  published, including Rook Industries. Coincidence? 
  43
  
  Healing the Sick -  
  Billing the Rich?
  By Quinn 
  Canton
  Last night the central city meeting 
  at the Halcyon City Town Hall was 
  abuzz with controversy. The upper class 
  neighborhoods are in an uproar over what 
  they say is financial discrimination, and 
  their target is one Sehkmet, the healing 
  superhero who returned to Halcyon City 
  six months ago after a mysterious absence. 
  Since her arrival, Sehkmet—a tall, 
  severe figure robed in green and tan 
  linen—has been visiting local homeless 
  shelters and community clinics, healing 
  those with devastating terminal illnesses. 
  When she was sought out by some of 
  the founding families of Halcyon City 
  who were looking for healing for one 
  of their members, she told them that 
  she would heal them—if they donated a 
  generous portion of their wealth to the 
  organizations supporting the poor and 
  sick in Halcyon City. 
  Many of these scions of Halcyon City, 
  including Richard Wellson, son of Errant 
  Wellson and heir to the Wellson fortune, 
  were enraged. They, too, had family 
  members who suffered, and they felt it was 
  discriminatory against them for Sehkmet 
  to demand that they pay, while others 
  received Sehkmet’s healing for free. 
  Sehkmet spoke at the meeting, saying: 
  “My powers are limited, and there are 
  some in greater need than others. These 
  people I treat cannot find their way into 
  a top-tier hospital with well-recognized 
  doctors. I think that it is reasonable for 
  the rich to rely on modern medicine, or 
  to enable others access to the same in 
  exchange for my gifts.”
  After the meeting, the Herald received 
  an email concerning Sehkmet’s words. 
  Intake, officially labeled a criminal 
  and vigilante by city law enforcement, 
  confessed in the email that he actually 
  supports what Sehkmet is doing. 
  “People might not like the things I do, 
  but I know who the real enemy is. Wellson 
  and his buddies are the kind of people 
  who are either generous or monsters, and 
  too many of them lean towards monster. 
  When I take a life, I do it for a good reason. 
  Sehkmet is giving life for the same reason, 
  and maybe people should just shut up and 
  let her save people.”
  Intake is well known for his history 
  of executing corrupt members of high 
  society and is on the run for the murder 
  of Errant Wellson during a home invasion 
  seven years ago. It was a gruesome 
  murder, supposedly detailed in Intake’s 
  commentary on the murder released to 
  the police shortly after the event. This 
  commentary may also have revealed more 
  details of Mr. Wellson’s potentially devious 
  activity, but this information has not been 
  released by the police. 
  Intake’s support for Sehkmet’s activity 
  is indicative of a larger problem. There are 
  murmurings about the imbalance of wealth 
  in the city, and while Wellson and his family 
  have the market cornered on real estate in 
  many parts of the city, fewer people being 
  out of work due to illness could make their 
  44
  
  rent payments a little easier. Economist 
  Trisha Wallace speculated, “Should the 
  wealthy families of Halcyon City donate to 
  this cause, would Wellson see good returns 
  on his rental properties? If so, it may be 
  worth the investment.”
  When villains and heroes alike are 
  in agreement that the poor should be 
  supported freely, and the rich should have 
  to sacrifice to be saved, where should the 
  public turn for answers? Who is in the 
  right? It may not matter at all. Sehkmet 
  is still a human, and cannot be forced to 
  perform services she doesn’t want to do. 
  Many lives are in her healing hands, and the 
  city can only hope that fire does not go out.
  Intake’s Motives  
  in Cancer Case
  Red-shrouded and masked vigilante 
  Intake has been spotted in photographs 
  scaling the facades of hospitals around 
  the city. While the original suspicion was 
  that he was looking for potential victims 
  or targeting family members of prominent 
  city figures, new information suggests that 
  he was in fact visiting cancer wards. 
  In recent months Halcyon City hospitals 
  have encountered multiple instances of 
  cancer patients coming in for regular 
  appointments only to be found cancer free. 
  Those hospitals undertook copious testing 
  and evaluation of medical technology 
  resources to see if there was a miraculous 
  root cause. The new evidence concerning 
  Intake 
  suggests, 
  however, 
  that 
  this 
  masked man has been selectively healing 
  hospitalized cancer patients by literally 
  absorbing the cancers from their body. 
  Many 
  experts 
  in 
  superhuman 
  biogenetics and development have been 
  speculating on the nature of Intake’s 
  powers, which have always been a mystery. 
  The typically-villainous vigilante has been 
  elusive to the piercing eyes and ears of 
  the press, mostly staying to the shadows 
  and avoiding public displays. But Doctor 
  Eliza Hudson—famous for her work with 
  the hero, Chip, to determine the chemical 
  properties of the hero’s flexible marble 
  skin—has her own theories. 
  “Intake is known for taking only blood 
  from his victims, and leaving behind a 
  messy husk of other fluids and viscera,” 
  she said. Doctor Hudson theorizes that 
  he “...absorbs the blood into his own body, 
  though whether he is able to neutralize the 
  physical matter of the absorbed products is 
  still in question.” 
  A colleague of Dr. Hudson’s, who 
  preferred to remain anonymous, expressed 
  concern about the larger implications 
  of Intake’s powers. “If Intake’s ability 
  allows him to take in cancerous tumors 
  and neutralize or destroy them, the 
  medical community at large may soon 
  experience upheaval. Medical research and 
  pharmaceutical companies have poured 
  millions into cancer research. The idea that 
  By Quinn 
  Canton
  Strangest vigilante I’ve ever heard of.
  45
  
  one person could eliminate it completely is 
  disruption on an incredible scale.” 
  Those in oncological careers in the 
  Halcyon City area have expressed varying 
  hope and personal concern since the news 
  has begun to spread. Dr. Loughlin in St. 
  Agatha’s Clinic said, “Don’t get me wrong, I 
  would gladly go out of work if it meant all 
  my patients were cured…but it’s a strange 
  thought that one guy could do what I’ve 
  spent my whole career and life of study trying 
  to do. It’s another case of a metahuman 
  making regular humans irrelevant.”
  There is no clear indication that Intake 
  would have any inclination to share his 
  powers or knowledge of how they work 
  with anyone. His reclusive nature is issue 
  enough, but he also appears to be healing 
  people with a particular goal in mind. 
  All of the people that Intake has healed 
  have been at least loosely tied to the 
  organization of the Five Stars. 
  The Five Stars is an organization that 
  has existed for an undeterminable period, 
  but members and investigators alike have 
  claimed that it was started by five-star 
  army general Nicholas Hart, now deceased. 
  Hart’s intention was to use government 
  resources and soldiers to impose a certain 
  ideological framework—the goals of which 
  were unclear, save for the condemnation 
  of metahuman action where it interfered 
  with mundane lives. 
  The Five Stars have been tied to a 
  number of events, including the break-in 
  at the South Central Bank where nothing 
  was stolen except one safety deposit box, 
  contents unknown. Additionally, the Five 
  Stars were linked to the rigged election of 
  multiple police department heads in the 
  suburbs of Halcyon City. It’s believed that 
  the organization intends to realign the 
  political and security structures in the 
  city, and there has been consistent—but 
  Intake, prior to flinging himself through a window.
  46
  
  quiet—investigation from this office as 
  well as the HCPD into this matter. 
  Peter Twile, a deputy in South Central, 
  spoke to us with his concerns. “Is Intake 
  only using his powers to further an 
  unknown, potentially dangerous ideology? 
  Or would he provide the people of Halcyon 
  City with hope that, at least here, one of the 
  deadliest diseases known to humankind 
  could be eradicated?”
  Doctor Kim Revealed: 
  His Unbelievable Story
  Doctor Hyun Kim, a starkly handsome 
  man rarely seen without his lab coat 
  and glasses, has been acknowledged as 
  the stuff of legends since his arrival on 
  the health care scene. His success with 
  curing previously incurable illnesses such 
  as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder is 
  unprecedented. Every media member has 
  been dying for a story, and right here is 
  where you’ll find one—and it’s not what 
  you would expect.
  A Halcyon City Herald reporter 
  recorded a brief interview face-to-face 
  with Dr. Kim, but much of the recording 
  was lost due to technical difficulties. 
  During the lost time, the interviewer 
  Rudy Bells claims they discussed details of 
  Dr. Kim’s background, and that is where 
  discrepancies appeared. The interviewer 
  claims that Dr. Kim’s account of his 
  educational background and career don’t 
  match up with times, dates, and records on 
  file. The interviewer requested to view the 
  next procedure Dr. Kim performed.
  Dr. Kim denied the interviewer access 
  to watch the surgery, as all of his work was 
  kept very private. Bells, suspicions aroused, 
  pulled some favors to view the surgery from 
  the observation room next to the operating 
  room. What she saw was unbelievable—but 
  her photo record shows us concrete evidence.
  Dr. Hyun Kim is not a human. His 
  work is no typical surgery, but includes 
  unusual procedures like making small 
  cuts into the brain and—with photo 
  record, we can confirm—he then breathes 
  a blue mist into the incisions. When 
  confronted with evidence of his acts, the 
  investigative reporter claims that the 
  doctor shattered into pieces, which then 
  spun into a tornado and swept through the 
  hospital, presumably out of the building. 
  The patient survived the treatment and it 
  appears their illness was in fact cured. 
  Dr. Kim is still under investigation, 
  but his only crimes appear to be false 
  representation and operating without a 
  license. Since none of his patients seem 
  to have any issues or recurrences, it 
  remains to be seen what will happen to 
  him beyond fines and potentially a short 
  prison sentence. 
  Patients of Dr. Kim have spoken out 
  on his behalf, including one of the people 
  By Quinn 
  Canton
  47
  
  treated for bipolar disorder: a retired 
  hero by the name of Polaris. Polaris used 
  her climate-based abilities to support 
  crime-fighting measures in Halcyon 
  City when she was younger and part of 
  a team including the well-known healer 
  Sehkmet, but as she aged, she found that 
  her illness—which gave her access to her 
  powers—made her more of a risk than an 
  asset. She sought treatment from Dr. Kim 
  after her powers caused an unplanned 
  thunderstorm centralized over an outdoor 
  concert, where three people were killed 
  by lightning-related injuries. Her words 
  about Dr. Kim were glowing.
  “When most people were not aware 
  of Dr. Kim’s abilities, I looked for him 
  specifically to execute this procedure. He 
  is one of the most generous people on the 
  planet, and his treatment has prevented 
  my powers from causing destruction 
  throughout Halcyon City. We have to ask 
  whether saving people is more valuable 
  than pieces of paper.”
  When you plead with Dr. Kim for help with an extreme medical or health problem, roll + Savior. 
  On a hit Dr. Kim agrees, and will use his abilities to cure someone who needs help. On a 7-9, Dr. 
  Kim asks for your help in hiding or protecting him before he can help you. On a miss, Dr. Kim is 
  unwilling to help; he fears that his true nature will be exposed to dangerous enemies if he performs 
  the procedure.
  Goodbye to HMO’s?  
  What exactly is the 
  Superhero Medical Plan? 
  By Quinn 
  Canton
  The health insurance head honchos 
  are doubling down on their recent claims 
  that they will not cover follow-up care and 
  prevention measures for conditions healed 
  by superheroes in Halcyon City. While few 
  citizens have been lucky enough to receive 
  treatment for major health conditions 
  such as cancer, asthma, and lupus, health 
  insurance companies are strictly opposed 
  to allowing applicants in their programs to 
  access this preventative care. A spokesman 
  for HealthLife, Kellan McDearmot, claims, 
  “heroes have eliminated the illness, so 
  continued care is unnecessary. As well, 
  any side effects of the heroes’ work is 
  undetermined, and considered a pre-
  existing condition.” 
  “This leaves citizens helpless,” says 
  Bernadette Wilson, who was previously 
  insured by HealthLife before they changed 
  their policy, “since we know so little about 
  the side effects of the heroes’ abilities. 
  48
  
  Even the companies that would be willing 
  to accept citizens using metahuman 
  preventative care in their programs are 
  demanding incredibly high copays, that 
  people like me can’t afford.” 
  While these kinds of issues may 
  not impact those in the higher income 
  brackets, those relying on self-funded 
  health insurance are cringing. Says 
  one local woman, who recently had her 
  glaucoma healed, “We thought that getting 
  healed would make life easier, because 
  while I was sick, no one would take us into 
  a program without paying more than we 
  have. And now, we can’t even get a health 
  insurance company to cover referrals for 
  my eye exams! Without that, what can we 
  do if we have an emergency?”
  Many of those healed are having 
  buyer’s remorse. Finding their bodies free 
  from sickness does not ease the financial 
  woes facing many people with families to 
  support. There has been a push from many, 
  including the healing heroes themselves, 
  for government legislation supporting the 
  newly-healed citizens. One of the heroes, 
  Soul, is well known for his work in the 
  streets of Halcyon City both before and 
  after he was revealed to be a superhero. 
  He is at the forefront of the march towards 
  better treatment of citizens both ill and 
  healthy, and is particularly concerned with 
  these financial issues.
  “I have fought in Halcyon City for 
  people to be treated well, with respect 
  and dignity. Telling someone they’re not 
  able to guarantee support for their family 
  because they were given their life back? 
  It isn’t right. I want to see action from 
  the people who control the purse-strings 
  in this city to prevent people from being 
  punished because they were among the 
  lucky few to survive the odds.”
  Ellen Whitmore, a local official, has 
  spoken out against these movements. 
  “It is not the responsibility of Halcyon 
  City and health insurance companies 
  to take risks for people who involve 
  themselves in superheroic relations. I don’t 
  believe that these so-called heroes are the 
  key to being healthy, but if someone takes 
  advantage of super healing, they should 
  know what they’re in for. If their ‘magical’ 
  solutions could fail at any time, making up 
  for that failure is not something to rest on 
  other people’s heads. ”
  Leadership of the city and local 
  healthcare companies have kept mum, 
  but community organizers were unafraid 
  to voice their thoughts. Terry Polk said, 
  “When money is in question, everyone 
  comes out of the woodwork to state their 
  case, and most of the time, that case is 
  that money belongs where it is, and some 
  people feel that’s not always where it 
  should be.”
  When you receive any kind of service from HealthLife, you are in debt to the company; HealthLife and its 
  officers gain Influence over you. If you are indebted to HealthLife, they come to you demanding payment 
  at least once per session. When HealthLife comes to you demanding payment for a service they have 
  performed on you, take a powerful blow and give the company Influence over you. If you have access to 
  excessive wealth, mark a condition to pay the bill outright instead of submitting to their Influence.
   We accept heroes who can punch monsters; 
  we fear heroes who can change the world.
  49
  
  Halcyon is full of heroes, villains, time travelers, 
  aliens, mutants, whatever. They’re in every nook and 
  cranny. You get teen rebels like Inferna just as much 
  as you get villainous Internet bullies like Roshambo. 
  You get superpowered schools like Titan Academy 
  just as much as you get vigilante healthcare workers 
  like Sekhmet. This one time, I found a robot named 
  Clarion who had shape-shifting powers and could 
  withstand the vacuum of space, and they were 
  working at a grocer’s while taking night classes and 
  trying to earn citizenship.
  You can never turn the crazy off here. You can’t 
  go down the street to pick up some fruit from the 
  market without running into a chase between a 
  guy dressed like a turtle and another guy wearing 
  lighting like a scarf. 
  When I was younger, I wished that I could just find 
  a normal story here. No supers, no metas, no heroes 
  or villains. Just mundane facts. The regular world. 
  But any time I’d come close, there they’d be again. 
  The strangeness, the anomalies.
  And now? Honestly?
  That younger version of me would punch me for 
  saying so, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
  We’re supposed to be able to make facts shine 
  like diamonds and find the extraordinary in 
  the mundane. But here, in this city?  You have 
  the privilege of finding the mundane in the 
  extraordinary. You find the woman who uses her 
  50
  
  powers to fix cars and the alien who spends his time 
  working as an accountant, and then you just sit 
  there in wonder at the path that led them here. 
  You look at a figure like Intake, and you wonder 
  not “What crazy accident gave them their powers?” 
  but “Why do they do the things that they do? Who 
  were they? Who are they?” And you go and get 
  answers, because that’s where the real truth is.
  You find a cloud of nanites going around healing 
  people, pretending to be just a regular doctor, and 
  you wonder whether it’s doing something sinister or 
  if it just wanted to be treated like a person. And you 
  think about how next time, maybe, it deserves more 
  sympathy than suspicion.
  You explore the history of a hero who decided the 
  best way to help was to teach, and how all that good 
  will was brought down not by an extradimensional 
  monstrosity or some grandiose mastermind, but by 
  the hubris of youth. 
  You find villains with fickle, simple, all-too-human 
  motivations, and you see how all it might take is trust 
  and forgiveness to turn them away from their sins.
  You never stop looking at the extraordinary. You 
  never stop exploring those secrets, those crazy 
  phenomena. 
  But you see the mundane beneath it, too, and that 
  makes all the difference.
  Keandra Hunt
  51
  
  Hidden in  
  Plain Sight
  An Interview with the Chameleon
  By Mis Jaiyana
  Walking into the crumbling foyer of the Chameleon’s lair, my heart is racing a mile a minute. 
  It’s the moment in my career where journalistic and human integrity blur. I’ve chronicled this 
  villain’s life from its murderous beginnings. All journalists have the one case that spoke to them, 
  that told them, “You need to write about this.” My case is tinged in tragedy and hung from the 
  rafters of a destroyed building that I promised myself I would never enter. Yet here I am, ready 
  to have a meeting with the arch nemesis I’d believed I was invisible to. 
  Through the years she’s been called many things. The villain that cannot be caught. The face 
  changer. The Chameleon. 
  As everyone knows, her lair is on the outskirts of Halcyon City in the 5th Street slums. The 
  Chameleon leaves messages to her followers in this hollowed out high-rise building. Her first 
  message was found sprawled on the face of the building with two black eyes spray-painted above 
  it, “I am home.” Under the message hung the body of Manic Botanic, a Silver Generation super 
  beloved by many, this reporter included. He was strung up by the very vines he used to save the 
  city on a daily basis. Over the days that followed Manic Botanic’s death, rain blanketed the city 
  of Halcyon. The skies, and the people, crying for the loss of one of the greats.
  Playing with Fire
  What type of maniac taunts the police by revealing their lair? The kind that believes she will 
  never be caught. The kind with no past. In the days that followed, letters were sent to the police, “I 
  am the Chameleon. No super is safe.” I, like many of our citizenry, believed that the Chameleon 
  would be caught—that her reign of terror would soon be over—but to this day she has eluded 
  all attempts to catch her.
  Armed with this knowledge, my stomach sinks deeper into my feet as I call out to the empty 
  room. A pigeon stirs, beating its wings and flying out of the broken window it was resting on, 
  rudely awoken by my call into the darkness. There is much to see in the Chameleon’s lair.
  The walls are covered in messages and names. 
  Beth. I am home. Runner Ultra. Get them! 
  Words that are seemingly meaningless, but hold malice within them. Go to the Chameleon’s 
  lair, write a name on the wall, and if you are lucky she will hunt down the person who has 
  52
  
  wronged you. If the Chameleon doesn’t, one of her “Hatchlings” might. The Hatchlings—a 
  personality cult dedicated to a woman who has never graced them with her presence, a mob 
  garbed in black with green expressionless balaclavas.
  The Hatchlings believe that the Chameleon is some sort of savior. Every super’s death, they 
  attribute to her. And they say she will bring about “the great equaling”—the death of all supers. 
  Dismissed by many as madmen, the Hatchlings were paid little mind until their mob attack on 
  Paper Girl. 
  The Hatchlings, though beaten back in the end, left Paper Girl scarred. Many people still 
  expect to see a flurry of black and white tickertape as she zooms by, and are instead met by 
  crimson petals. 
  The Chameleon Revealed
  Thinking of the Hatchlings and wondering if any are lurking within the abandoned building 
  sends a deep shiver through my bones. Before I can truly acknowledge this fear, delve into 
  thoughts of the unknown, a tapping sound comes from a broken-down escalator to my left. I see 
  a dark silhouette outlined by what daylight manages to creep through the boarded-up windows.
  “Hello.”
  The word hangs in the air, floating through the dust particles from years of neglect and 
  illuminated by light peeping through the windows. The woman who stands before me is 
  everything I imagined. She’s dressed in an impeccable black pinstripe suit, her tailored trousers 
  just barely skirting the floor. The points of red patent leather boots peak from underneath her pant 
  legs. She has dark mocha skin and a shaved head. Her green eyes pierce through the darkness and 
  I can feel them follow my every move.
  Her voice sounds like dark brewed coffee and jazz. Coming to my senses, I focus on it, 
  stumbling out of my fear and concentrating on the task at hand. I introduce myself as she 
  walks down the escalator. She assumes I know who she is. The air of arrogance surrounding her 
  intensifies as she draws near. Smiling, she hisses out the words we eventually hear from all villains, 
  “I’ve been expecting you.”
  I take out my tape recorder and begin my interview. 
  The Interview
  Mis Jaiyana (MJ): My name is Mis Jaiyana and I am reporting for the Kingfisher and the Halcyon 
  City Herald. Today I have an unexpected guest, the Chameleon. Let’s start with an easy question. 
  Chameleon, you have remained hidden for so many years. Why reveal yourself now?
  Chameleon (C): Am I revealing myself?
  MJ: Since your debut ten years ago, aside from the messages you leave after your murders, 
  you’ve had no contact with the press and the police. One-sided letters are hardly a dialogue. An 
  interview requires that you give something of yourself, at least to a small extent. So my question 
  is still unanswered.
    Thought Mis was crazy 
  to take this interview. 
  Still kind of do.
  53
  
  C: You have me there, a brave retort. Very well. I have a message I’d like to deliver to the people 
  of Halcyon. 
  MJ: Which is?
  C: All in good time. I’d like to be interviewed first.
  MJ: All right, can you tell us a bit about yourself? Who is the woman behind the many faces, 
  the masks? Where did you grow up?
  C: I grew up here, in the slums. I lived a good life and my mother raised me well. There is no 
  tragic childhood that led me to where I am today. That is what you were angling at, isn’t it?
  MJ: I’m asking questions I would pose to any person in an interview. But since you bring it up, 
  what caused you to take up the life of villainy? Not everyone decides to become a murderer. I’ve 
  spoken to Lt. Jane Sharpton of Halcyon PD, the lead detective assigned to your case, and she told 
  me she believes Manic Botanic was not your first kill. What do you have to say to this?
  C: My first kill. No, she is right. Manic Botanic was not the first victim.
  MJ: Would you care to share who was?
  Friend or Foe?
  C: Have you ever heard of Builder Cosmos? I don’t suppose you have. She was the first victim. 
  If you can call her that. Like every super she had her vices.
  MJ: Vices? The heroes of this city save people and the world on a daily basis. I think they’re 
  allowed flaws.
  C: You know how I hunt, Mis Jaiyana, it’s how I got my name after all. I spend years with my 
  victims. I insert myself into their lives, become their friend, their confidant, and only when I know 
  someone is truly guilty do I strike. 
  MJ: I doubt you can ever truly know someone if they do not know you. You’re telling me you’ve 
  never been caught by a super, not even once?
  C: No, because I don’t come to them as the Chameleon. I am Suzy serving them their morning 
  coffee, I am Bob the friendly neighbor down the hall. I am the janitor in their building. Each 
  time I change my face, I am the person they least expect. Unless they are paranoid, but we can’t 
  all be Counter Cool—can we?
  MJ: No, we can’t. But for this amount of “perfection,” you’d need more powers than just shape 
  changing. Could you tell us about the other powers you possess?
  C: I’m no more special than anyone else.
  MJ: You mean you have no powers at all—that this is what you really look like?
  C: Is that upsetting for some reason?
  54
  
  MJ: The Chameleon persona is based around the idea that you can shape change. That you 
  possess powers similar to the supers you murder. If you’re telling me this isn’t true, this is you, 
  and there is nothing more, it just doesn’t make sense.
  C: You don’t believe that a normal human has the ability to defeat a super?
  MJ: No, in fact, I don’t. Unless you have plenty of money, but you told me you grew up poor. 
  Let’s say I do believe you and you have no special powers. There is only one feasible explanation 
  for the access you have. I’m the one who should be asking the questions, so my next one is, how 
  did you come into your money? 
  C: Fair enough, I got my money from Builder Cosmos. 
  MJ: This super, who no one has ever heard of, was also insanely wealthy?
  C: I would not describe my position as insanely wealthy, but I was and am well off. She gave me 
  the money I have today and I have spent it wisely.
  MJ: By gave, you mean you took it after you killed her?
  C: No, I mean she gave it to me. I was Cosmos’s best friend and she mine. We spent years 
  together travelling the world, seeing the beauty it has to offer. Cosmos was terrified of impacting 
  the world, corrupting it with her money, so everywhere we travelled we also worked. We harvested 
  fruits in Israel, were waitresses on a beach in Thailand, and even beggars in Hong Kong. I never 
  saw a cent of her money until the accident.
  The Chameleon herself.
  55
  
  MJ: And this accident gave her powers?
  C: No, the accident killed her.
  MJ: I’m confused. Are you calling yourself an accident? You said Cosmos was your first victim.
  C: I said Cosmos was the first victim, yes, and you should sharpen your interview skills, my dear. 
  Builder Cosmos died in an accident, when the building we were sleeping in crumbled around us 
  while Manic Botanic fought Timestop. 
  MJ: So you blamed Manic Botanic for your friend’s death? That’s why you killed him? He must 
  not have known anyone was in the building.
  C: Why do you think that? Isn’t a super’s job first and foremost to protect the people of this city, 
  of the world?
  MJ: No one is perfect and it isn’t your right to play judge, jury, and executioner.
  C: Now, I’d like to tell you why I asked you here today.
  MJ: You should… Fine, go ahead.
  C: Listening is a funny thing. It is something that so few of us do well. Through our talk, 
  despite you being a renowned interviewer, you’ve done a poor job of it. But you can’t be blamed. 
  You listened well enough to hear that I have plenty of money at my disposal, but I did not 
  say I didn’t have powers. My powers are not what most assume them to be, however. In fact, 
  I only have two powers, simple and morbid ones at that. The first is the ability to manipulate 
  the appearance, the very fiber, of bodies, once they are dead. The second, I’ll keep to myself. 
  What’s a world without mysteries?
  Being a super is a privilege, not a right. I spend years with my “victims” watching them and 
  getting to know them. I wait and, please believe me, I hope they will not mess up. But eventually 
  every super is corrupted; they kill. Whether it is directly, or indirectly as their actions send a 
  villain on a rampage, human lives are lost. And for what? The ego of small petty heroes.
  MJ: That isn’t true!
  C: When Cosmos died I promised myself I would never become what they were. I would never 
  be a killer. And to this day I have kept that promise to myself. All the supers I have supposedly 
  murdered are alive. They are here in Halcyon, my own personal prison. The supers who hurt 
  someone wanted a way out and I offered it to them, as long as they stayed where I could keep an 
  eye on them. My message was simple—live a good, mundane life, and you shall be free. 
  When you try to publicly atone for your mistakes, roll + Savior. On a hit, you get a chance 
  for redemption; the GM will tell you what the public demands from you to forgive you. On a 
  10+, take +1 ongoing to pursue redemption. On a miss, admitting your mistakes damns you 
  further in their eyes...and the eyes of Halcyon’s vigilantes. Prepare yourself. 
  56
  
  MJ: You’re saying there are hidden supers in the city, people who’ve killed others…and they’re 
  just living under assumed identities?
  C: Indeed. Under my protection, as long as they don’t use their powers. Yet the agreement has 
  been broken. Powers were used and an innocent life was snuffed out.
  MJ: No—
  C: You remember those files you received anonymously, Mis Jaiyana? The ones on Josef Fairchild?
  MJ: He—
  C: Josef Fairchild is dead. He was a journalism student himself, and he was following leads on 
  one of those supers I had hidden, and now he is dead. 
  MJ: But—
  C: It was not a suicide, it was a super. The ME reports say otherwise, but even a cursory glance 
  at actual information contained therein, at the wounds poor Josef suffered, will tell you they 
  were not self inflicted. That Josef did not kill himself. That it was, instead, the act of metahuman 
  abilities—cuts too perfect, too precise, to fit any other description. 
  MJ: So maybe it was a villain, someone who—
  C: No. I know exactly who it was, and they were once a so-called hero.  
  MJ: No hero would do this. 
  C: Are you sure? Can you say that without a shred of reasonable doubt? Here is my message to 
  the people of Halcyon. There are murderers among you. The reporter Mis Jaiyana has the proof. 
  I emailed Josef Fairchild’s autopsy reports to her. In her own words, I am not judge, jury, or 
  executioner. This city is. Redemption is not bequeathed from up above; it must be earned. And 
  so for the supers I hid with my powers—those who wished to escape, torn and broken from a 
  life of false heroism—the day of reckoning has arrived. 
  Find them, stop them, and—my dear, sweet city—bring them to justice.
  A Note from the Editor
  To secure this interview with the Chameleon, the Kingfisher and the Halcyon City Herald 
  agreed to print her interview unedited, in its entirety. The Herald and all its affiliates side with 
  the opinion of the HCPD and distance themselves from the claims made by the Chameleon. 
  Upon completion of this piece, Mis Jaiyana regrettably left the Kingfisher for personal reasons 
  not related to the article above.
  When you directly engage a group of the Hatchlings, roll + Mundane instead of + Danger—
  they’re regular people, but they often have means to neutralize your powers.
  Wrote this at the behest of greater powers. BS.
  57
  
   
  Saving Lives Not 
  Numbers
  By Hiro Reckard
  On Monday afternoon, I was 
  riding the monorail back to 
  the office from a delicious 
  lunch at Diamond Delilah’s 
  Deli when I casually picked up 
  a copy of the Herald that was 
  left behind by my seatmate. 
  I found my way to the Hero 
  Reports section just to get 
  a sense of how things are 
  looking this year.
  What I found was almost 
  indecipherable. 
  Page after page of numbers, 
  in columns with arcane 
  acronyms like wDSAA and 
  CIA-. Even the capsules of 
  featured heroes of the week 
  are filled with more than 
  the familiar three or four 
  numbers you and I grew up 
  looking at.
  A look into the glossary 
  explains what each one means, 
  but you’d need at minimum a 
  master’s degree in statistics to 
  make any sense of it: 
  wDSAA – Damage Saved Above 
  Average – measures how much 
  collateral damage was suffered 
  in a hero’s actions compared to a 
  theoretical baseline or “replacement 
  level hero”.
  CIA- (pronounced “C.I.A. minus”) 
  represents the average number of 
  citizens imperiled per incident, with 
  environmental adjustments, scaled 
  to the citywide average such that 
  100 is average and lower numbers 
  are better.
  What in the name of Polygon 
  Pete is this nonsense?
  Thinking maybe this is all 
  just a little too much for my 
  old brain to understand, I 
  called up my friend Janelle 
  Goodman over at the hero 
  reports bureau to ask for 
  some explanation. “Look at 
  The Golden Shield,” I said. 
  “He has zero civilian deaths 
  in his district this year, yet 
  still has a worse CIA- than 
  Wyldflame, who has lost a 
  number of victims on her 
  watch every month.”
  “Well,” 
  she 
  explained, 
  “it’s all about adjusting for 
  context. CIA- measures how 
  she has done versus what is 
  expected. Wyldflame works 
  in a much more dangerous 
  neighborhood. 
  Meanwhile, 
  The Golden Shield has allowed 
  a number of citizens to be put 
  in very dangerous situations.”
  She then started talking about 
  three-year weighted averages, 
  regression to the mean, and 
  other nonsense, but five or 
  six minutes into that I admit I 
  began to zone out.
  Look, 
  I 
  understand 
  that 
  looking at raw numbers won’t 
  tell the whole story. But what 
  we need is a return to good 
  old-fashioned reporting, not 
  more complicated numbers.
  At the end of the day, when 
  a hero gets home, brushes 
  the rubble off their boots, 
  and hangs up their uniform, 
  there’s only one stat that 
  matters: SALT, or “Saved a 
  Life Today.” See, I can make 
  up acronyms too, except mine 
  is something you can actually 
  pronounce and remember.
  If they fought off villains, 
  saved the day, and made the 
  world a better place, then they 
  did their job. We don’t need 
  any fancy calculus to see that.
   I have never known if Hiro is a fool, a genius,  
  or a secret supervillain playing a deeper game.  
     Any answer would scare me.
  58
  
  The Shadow  
  of Halcyon
  By Eric Chau
  The superhero Luminary, a younger 
  superhero and former sidekick of the 
  famous superhero Dee Lux of the 
  Exemplars, ended a recent spate of 
  disappearances throughout the city with a 
  battle against a heretofore unknown mirror 
  universe of Halcyon known as Tempest.
  For the past five months, several 
  citizens from throughout the city had gone 
  missing without any warning or reason. 
  Investigations into these disappearances 
  were consistently stymied by the absence 
  of any kind of evidence, and most cases 
  were left unsolved. 
  This all changed after Molly Crown 
  observed her mother’s disappearance. 
  Molly, 15, described what she saw in the 
  initial police report: “She was at her desk, 
  working, and I saw a shape crawl across 
  the wall behind her. The shape was dark, 
  and it took me a second to realize it was 
  her shadow. It crawled up onto the ceiling, 
  and I screamed to her to try to get her to 
  move, but it dropped on her from above. 
  For a second, the whole room was filled 
  with shadow, and then it was all gone...
  Mom too.” 
  HCPD referred the case to A.E.G.I.S. 
  after the signs pointed to paranormal 
  umbral incursion—not an unknown in 
  Halcyon City, but certainly a relative rarity. 
  The A.E.G.I.S. investigation and records 
  are sealed.
  The public break in the case came when 
  Luminary, clad in her brilliantly glowing 
  white costume emblazoned with an orange 
  flame, investigated the disappearances and 
  the shadows and successfully dove into one 
  of those shadows when it was consuming 
  another citizen, one Mr. Alan Everett. 
  “I rode the shadow into another world,” 
  Luminary told the Herald. “It was crazy! A 
  dark inversion of Halcyon, with barely any 
  light at all. The people there were all made 
  of darkness, and I watched them drag Mr. 
  Everett off. I blasted them, and they just 
  First appearance of Tempest—why only now?
  To attempt to crossover into the shadow dimension of Tempest, you will need:
  • Enough power to punch through
  • A means of piercing dimensions (interdimensional drill, portal powers, etc.)
  • A piece of living shadow to follow
  When you assemble the pieces you need and try to cross over, roll + Freak. On a 
  10+, you cross over without issue. On a 7-9, you cross over, but the portal allows light into 
  Tempest—you ravage their city and immediately attract attention. On a miss, you cross 
  over, but the portal remains open and unstable. Light and shadow pour through both sides.
  59
  
  melted away beneath my scorch-light, but 
  there were way too many of them!” 
  Luminary 
  described 
  a 
  massive 
  confrontation against the people of the 
  shadow-Halcyon, before being captured 
  and taken to some sort of holding facility, 
  roughly correlating to Halcyon City’s own 
  Spike prison facility. There, Luminary 
  discovered that all the stolen citizens of 
  Halcyon were being held for crimes against 
  Tempest, the name that the shadow-people 
  gave to their particular mirror of Halcyon. 
  Luminary broke free from holding 
  and took control of the shadow-people’s 
  crossover technology, leading the other 
  prisoners in an escape from Tempest. 
  Afterward, the victims provided testimony 
  confirming Luminary’s story. HCPD 
  forces, combined with the efforts of Rook 
  Laboratories and A.E.G.I.S. agents, also 
  corroborated the existence of the shadow 
  world Tempest and officially declared it 
  off-limits to all Halcyon City citizens.
  The abductions have ceased, and 
  A.E.G.I.S. reports publicly that they have 
  enacted measures to prevent further 
  crossovers, but many in Halcyon remain 
  wary. “They’re still out there,” says 
  Luminary, “and we still don’t understand 
  why they stole our people in the first place. 
  It’s only a matter of time before they think 
  we’ve committed another crime.” 
  Dupes & Reboots
  The Halcyon Chronicle  
  Post-Catastrophe Survival Guide
  by Barb Jurgens [Draft submitted to Debra Moulton, Lifestyle Editor]
  Editor’s Note: I comprehend that this article might upset some readers 
  after that cosmic reality shift. It’s tough remembering everything that 
  has happened and how deeply upsetting it was for everyone losing 
  Barbara Jurgens the way we did. But we in the Halcyon Chronicle 
  believe in giving the truth to our readers. The truth is the following: 
  citizens’ lives do not get easier each time things change, even 
  disregarding the change in scenery or history. When the universe shifts, 
  the past is rewritten or changed, new universes impress upon our own. 
  It can affect our world, and we need to be prepared for that.
  So another multiversal crisis has come to an end. The skies are no longer a 
  shade of purple and filled with bat-winged wraiths. We mourn our heroes who 
  made the biggest sacrifice in the fight above our city. The rebuilding process 
  has begun and our lives are seemingly getting back to normal. However, there 
  are some tips you should keep in mind to make the transition a little bit easier. 
  Take it from a Halycon City lifer—these could make your day-to-day life in the 
  coming months just that much easier. 
  60
  
  • 
  Make sure you give yourself some extra time at the airport and the DMV. 
  You may think everything has been wrapped up with the defeat of Golgotha 
  from the Dark Star Universe. However, there is always the chance one of 
  your “dupes,” or doubles from another Earth, transferred over to ours. It’s 
  always a good idea to keep an extra eye on your credit card statements and 
  local police blotters. Cross your fingers and hope if your dupe is wandering 
  around the city it’s one of those funny cartoon fellows from Earth Pi and not 
  one of the hyper violent wackos from Earth Xi. Cross-universe identity theft 
  is a serious matter, folks.
  • 
  Fretting because your kids brought home history assignments from Gardner 
  Fox High that reference the battle of Mecha Lincoln and the Confederate 
  Kaiju? Don’t worry, you didn’t sleep through a class back in high school. Dr. 
  Conway Claremont of the Department of Temporal Affairs assures us this is 
  a common occurrence after a rift. “Many times innocuous objects pass over 
  the multiversal membrane without much notice until months after the battle. 
  We always notice the dupes first, but it’s good to keep an eye out for the 
  little things.” So don’t start a letter writing campaign, just contact the school 
  board and they’ll help you sort things out. 
  • 
  Don’t trust that weather report in the morning. One thing you learn from living 
  in Halcyon City is that drastic and unseasonal changes to the weather are 
  commonplace in the weeks following catastrophes. Meteorologists explain 
  that even elements of weather can bleed through from other realities. It’s 
  hard for anyone around at the time to forget the “Mini Ice Age of 1981” when 
  the city was briefly blanketed in a thick covering of snow. Wooly mammoths 
  caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage, and it took the help of 
  Amazona, Huntress of the Lost Valley, to corral those suckers. So my advice 
  is to bring an umbrella, heavy winter coat, some sunscreen, and a sturdy 
  harpoon to work until we get the all clear.
  • 
  If a lost friend or family that passed away years ago calls, don’t worry. 
  They are most likely dupes. Often, these end up as ways for the dupes 
  to scam money or aid from parallel reality loved ones by exploiting their 
  emotions. Don’t fall for it! Authorities have advised people to contact the 
  Department of Temporal Affairs’ Identity Theft department if you directly 
  encounter the dupe of a deceased loved one. Protocols are in place so that 
  dupes of the deceased can be processed and they have been advised to 
  NOT make contact with parallel family on our Earth. We all remember the 
  incident involving Arthur Thomas being coerced by a dupe of his late wife 
  into setting off a bomb in Exemplar Tower. Mr. Thomas’ life was ruined by a 
  dupe who sought to exploit his emotions. Although, many people don’t take 
  When you meet with a dupe of yourself for the first time, take a powerful blow. When 
  piercing the mask of your dupe, take +1 ongoing. On a miss, they reveal a terrible secret 
  about their own past and what made them who they are.
  61
  
  into account that dupes are often confused and struggling to comprehend 
  the new worlds they have ended up in… Look at me getting all serious. Keep 
  focus, Barb. Ha!
  • 
  For those of you on the flipside, dealing with loved ones who vanished during 
  the catastrophe you need to go to one of the centers for the Department of 
  Temporal Affairs for help. The Department of Temporal Affairs tells us that 
  statistics show your chances of finding your friend or family member are 
  cosmically impossible, so it’s important for you to go through the process 
  of reporting the transfer. Dr. Claremont explains, “Do not let your emotions 
  for that loved one keep you from your duty of reporting the displacement. 
  Authorities need to ensure that if their dupe has crossed over they can’t 
  steal identities and avoid registration. The government has set aside funds 
  to provide financial compensation to families who have lost their loved ones. 
  I know it won’t replace them, but we do want to help with any difficulties that 
  can come up as a result of catastrophes.”
  • 
  Parking everywhere is becoming a hassle. Please know it’s getting a little 
  crowded at the Swan Heights Mall with all those young people in black 
  robes inviting shoppers to their church services. Reports have come in from 
  all neighborhoods that small cells of the Gospel of Golgotha have emerged. 
  But don’t start stocking up ammo for a repeat of what went down last month. 
  Authorities say the covens have gone out of their way to emphasize their 
  pacifistic nature by running food drives and offering a free bus services 
  to locals. Silas Simonson, a representative of the Gospel, told us, “Lord 
  Golgotha, may the eternal ice fires of Chthon preserve him, was not a violent 
  god despite the misinterpretations of his word. He simply believed that the 
  true nature of all reality was a black lifeless void absent of light and life. He 
  didn’t want to kill anyone.” Breathe a little easier and know that if Junior 
  joins up it’s probably just a phase. Just try to be understanding! We were all 
  once young and obsessed with our own little missions.
  To Keandra Hunt, Herald Editor in Chief:
  I don’t know if Barb went off her meds or what, but I am really worried about her 
  after reading the draft for this week’s piece. I think we should at least contact HR. 
  I am even thinking of calling in a favor from Professor Caras over at Voyagers, Inc. 
  Remember that piece we did on ‘Dupe Dementia’ from March. Whatever we decide, 
  we need to do it fast. I always sort of knew there was something off about her.
   
  Debra Moulton, Lifestyle Editor of the Chronicle.
  More and more timelines, more and more duplicates, more and 
  more alternate worlds. Paranoia grows as surety in  
  the timeline’s events diminishes. What is doing this? 
  62
  
  • 
  Remember to keep a journal or a planner on you! It can be a headache 
  of superheroic proportions to keep up with who of our many heroes and 
  villains are still dead, who died during the catastrophe, and who has been 
  resurrected. It’s important to try to keep aware of them for safety’s sake, 
  because some have come back with villainous plans. Don’t let Grandma 
  cross the street with just any person in a cape! In the coming weeks, the 
  Chronicle will have a more comprehensive guide to who’s who, but in the 
  meantime I can help those migraines subside. If you find yourself reading 
  about a costumed crusader or masked menace you thought hadn’t been 
  around since you were a child, just embrace the nostalgia. In the last few 
  days, I’ve been delighted to find that Grandaddy Longlegs, the Beatnik Black 
  Widower from my youth, popped back up. Yes, he’s just a dupe from Earth 
  Beta, but he has that same groovy style I remember from my childhood. 
  While he doesn’t have Swaggy Sunburst and the Plutonian Locust to tussle 
  with any longer, his battles with our chic modern day villains make for some 
  great water cooler conversation. Heck, dust off that old Longlegs lunchbox 
  and bring it in as a great conversation piece.
  Editor’s Note: I know that Grandaddy Longlegs wasn’t well regarded 
  in our timeline but our investigations indicate that he was a hero in her 
  Earth. This should be noted for us to show tolerance for others who 
  come from other dimensions. 
  • 
  Has your home or work place disappeared? Replaced by some alternate 
  building or alien structure? In the Platinum District, a towering business 
  complex bearing the name Crandall Technologies has popped up. The 
  A citizen of Halcyon City meets her own duplicate.
  63
  
  monolith takes up the space where a few blocks of small boutiques once 
  stood. To deal with these problems, the Department of Temporal Affairs has 
  teamed up with the Departments of Commerce and Housing to relocate 
  citizens to temporary homes or set up their businesses in temporary 
  storefronts. The process isn’t speedy though, so please be patient and 
  bring a book! When you add the chance of cross-universe identity theft, 
  sorting out who actually does own/rent a home or business can be real 
  headache for those hardworking desk jockeys in the Department. Keep in 
  mind that “Please” and “Thank you” can be as a good as gold in getting your 
  paperwork processed a tad faster.
  • 
  Speaking of Crandall Technologies, Halcyon City PD has let us know some 
  unidentified pieces of technology were stolen from the mysterious building 
  over the last couple weeks! Scandalous and interesting! As you have 
  probably seen on the news, local gangs are touting frighteningly powerful 
  weaponry and making that morning drive time more excruciating than usual. 
  The police ask that if you find any tech or see anyone using tech that looks 
  a bit out of the ordinary to contact them. Now, if you’re like me and can’t 
  seem to figure out how to even use your qPhone, all technology might 
  look strange to you. The police advise that if the technology has metallic 
  tentacles and seeks to bond to the user’s mind, then it probably shouldn’t 
  be out there amongst the general populace. Don’t let little Timmy play with 
  anything that starts droning the national anthem of another realm entirely, 
  please.
  • 
  But no one ever talks about the dupes. We talk about how the natives to 
  Earth should deal with the “intrusion” of dupes. I’ve never seen an article 
  dealing with the years, the decades, of mental health treatment dupes need 
  to deal with the trauma of crossing over. We never see photos of the camps 
  where dupes…no, people, their fingers threaded through the chainlink, 
  some not even speaking this world’s version of English. Orders barked at 
  them, pushed through concrete channels like cattle. Even little kids, little 
  girls. Their parents incinerated in front of their eyes by invaders from Saturn, 
  being cared for over the next few years by the human survivors of their 
  world, only to be snatched away by the cruel hand of the multiverse to a 
  world that is not their own. Little girls who are terrified into being “good” 
  and listening. Little girls who grow up to be women who after they have 
  worked alongside this Earth’s natives for 15 years, still getting strange looks 
  when news of a dupe-led terrorist attack comes across the wire. Women 
  When you push yourself to remember a reality that no longer exists, mark a condition and 
  roll + Freak. On a hit, you remember someone or something crucially important that no longer 
  exists; the GM will tell you exactly who or what you remember. On a 10+, you can ask two 
  follow-up questions; on a 7-9, you can ask one. On a miss, you become aware that your own 
  existence is in jeopardy; it’s only a matter of time before reality realigns and you are erased.
  64
  
  By Carol Dworkin
  We’ve got a new hero suiting 
  up in the blue and gold, ladies 
  and gentlemen! Will she be up 
  to the task of upholding the 
  Trooper Alpha legacy? Let’s 
  talk about it!
  We all know the story of the 
  first Trooper Alpha. Tony 
  Blanchard volunteered for the 
  Armed Services, got sent over 
  to the Special Research and 
  Strategy program, and one 
  experiment with “advanced 
  biology augmentation” later, 
  voila! Our own home grown 
  turbo trooper, the only one 
  those experiments worked on 
  (of course).
  Even for all the augs they put 
  into Tony, he couldn’t beat 
  time itself, and eventually he 
  was too old to keep soldiering 
  on. So the SRS, now folded 
  into the young A.E.G.I.S., 
  repeated 
  its 
  experiments 
  with new technologies and 
  techniques. This time, they 
  had success improving a 
  young man named Anton 
  Benjamin, and created a new 
  Trooper Alpha for a new era. 
  who, when they finally meet someone they have a connection with, find 
  themselves alone again when that special someone catches a glimpse of 
  that “DP” stamp on their driver’s license. Maybe they learn assimilation isn’t 
  something that will ever happen. For all the praise someone like Exemplar 
  or Ms. Astounding gets on this Earth, you remember them on your Earth 
  colluding with the alien invaders that killed your parents. And you start to 
  think that maybe you ended up on this Earth for a reason and that the 
  people around you don’t deserve all the beauty they take for granted.
  Editor’s Note: Our hearts and thoughts go to Barbara’s family who did 
  not have the heroic version of Ms. Astounding we did. 
  Alima Greer prepares to meet the public as Trooper Alpha.
  65
  
  Anton, 
  too, 
  grew 
  older 
  and eventually wanted to 
  retire, but by this point, the 
  procedure was well-honed and 
  well-publicized. 
  A.E.G.I.S. 
  picked the top soldiers from 
  the Armed Forces, ran them 
  through rigorous testing, and 
  ultimately settled on Luis 
  Fernando, creating the most 
  powerful Trooper Alpha yet. 
  Sadly, we lost Luis during a 
  major battle against the alien 
  Sevitri invaders just a year 
  ago, and while we mourn 
  his loss, we’re excited to 
  welcome a new Trooper Alpha 
  to Halcyon City—the first 
  woman Trooper Alpha ever! 
  Alima Greer is her name—
  Major Alima Greer, of the 
  Marines, to be exact. Well-
  decorated, she’s served her 
  country nobly for 7 years. 
  She’s gone on countless 
  missions, 
  all 
  of 
  them 
  successes, and saved many 
  lives with her heroic actions. 
  She’s a shining beacon of 
  everything Trooper Alpha is 
  supposed to be. 
  Or at least, so she looks on 
  paper. But our investigators 
  have dug up some reports 
  that complicate Alima Greer’s 
  story. Seems that she was 
  quite the juvenile delinquent 
  as a young woman—a couple 
  of assaults, a couple of thefts, 
  some vandalism. All from 
  before she was old enough to 
  be tried as an adult. 
  No question, you ask anyone 
  surrounding Alima today, and 
  she’s beyond qualified. You 
  can find hundreds of quotes 
  about how great she is on any 
  news website. But that’s the 
  marketing machine at work. 
  We’ve got to really wonder—
  is she going to be a Trooper 
  Alpha who lives up to the 
  legacy of Tony, Anton, and 
  Luis? Is she going to wear 
  that uniform with the same 
  nobility, honor, and strength 
  of spirit? 
  Guess we’ll have to keep our 
  eyes on her to find out!
  When you dig into an existing hero’s past through documents and records, roll + Superior. 
  On a hit, you find revealing information. Choose and ask one. On a 10+, you may ask a 
  follow-up question.
  • What crime did they commit?
  • What embarrassing secret did they hide? 
  • How did they blunder early in their career?
  On a miss, your investigations tip off someone who’d rather you stopped looking...and they 
  make sure you know that in no uncertain terms.
  Privately, Carol claims Councilman   
    Bernard Pruitt put pressure on her to 
  write this. Pruitt’s son was up for  
    consideration as Trooper Alpha, too.  
    Obvious grudge. Not sure Greer is suited to 
  Pruitt’s style of fighting—words, legal  
    actions, blackmail. 
  66
  
   
  An Op-Ed on Azure Ace 
  By Raina Torres
  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 revealing 
  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. 
  Five years ago, my grandmother 
  retired from Tough Tile, the 
  business she nurtured and 
  built from the ground up. Her 
  retirement party was a royal 
  send off honoring her 40 years 
  of dedication and service. There 
  was pie, music, and friends, and 
  although she loved what she 
  had built, she knew she was 
  doing the right thing, passing 
  on her business to the next 
  generation. Everyone shared in 
  something special, a passing of 
  the torch if you will, to keep the 
  business going. She had built 
  something exceptional—it took 
  a lot of blood, sweat, and tears 
  to make it happen—but now, as 
  reluctant as she was to officially 
  move on to the new things in 
  her life, everyone was thrilled 
  to see her finally taking some 
  much deserved time for herself.
  Yesterday, I covered Azure 
  Ace’s press conference in 
  another article titled “Azure’s 
  Birthday Surprise.” My nana 
  reads every article I write, so I 
  called to see what she thought. 
  I had expected she would be 
  thrilled to hear about a hero 
  of hers, but instead, we had a 
  long conversation about the 
  doubts she had herself about 
  retiring. Azure Ace, 5 years 
  my nana’s senior, had more 
  than declined retiring; he 
  called it “giving up,” revealing 
  something she had struggled 
  with for years. When she 
  read my article, she doubted 
  her own decision to retire. 
  We spent a long time talking 
  her retirement, happy as she 
  was to spend more time with 
  family and friends, and about 
  how she felt like she had 
  “quit” rather than retired. 
  After all, Azure Ace was still 
  out there on the streets; why 
  wasn’t she still working? 
  And yet, if there is anything 
  my amazing nana has taught 
  me through her actions, it’s 
  that retiring is not giving 
  up. She volunteers at the 
  Botanic Gardens, organizes 
  book 
  clubs, 
  and 
  spends 
  Azure Ace, then and now.
  67
  
  every Sunday teaching my 
  cousins new recipes. She is 
  my hero now more than ever, 
  and she’s not alone. Red 
  Bombshell (65), retired and 
  capeless, has been serving 
  this city by investing in new 
  soup kitchens and homeless 
  shelters. Tony Titanic (56) 
  retired and entered politics, 
  trying to get more funding for 
  environmental friendly energy. 
  But not Azure Ace. Despite 
  being in the same position, 
  Azure Ace remains an active 
  mask in the city. 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. 
  We all remember the days 
  when Azure Ace’s picture 
  was on our walls and we 
  all felt safer just knowing 
  there was someone special 
  out there, looking after our 
  city—and with such style to 
  boot! I remember jumping 
  off the playground swing set, 
  arms crossed, mimicking the 
  infamous Azure Ace Rocket 
  Jump. Back then, kids were 
  allowed to scrape up their 
  knees a bit on the playground. 
  But that was 35 years ago, 
  and times have changed. Just 
  as I have outgrown jumping 
  off of playground swing sets, 
  Azure Ace has outgrown his 
  infamous Rocket Jump. It 
  is time for him to put away 
  his spandex pants, scarf, and 
  iconic blue boots. Azure Ace 
  needs to retire, and leave the 
  heavy lifting to someone who 
  is more capable. 
  Madam 
  Evil, 
  the 
  most 
  memorable of Azure Ace’s 
  nemeses and a paroled ex-
  prisoner of the Spike, gave 
  an interview on the subject, 
  during which she informed 
  me that she now goes by 
  “Madam E.” She also said that 
  her time haunting the streets 
  of Halcyon City was over. 
  “I don’t know who Azure 
  Ace thinks will be waiting for 
  him out on the streets, but it 
  certainly won’t be me,” she 
  said. Being a bit wary of how 
  reformed the Madam could 
  really be, I declined her offer 
  of tea, but she took a long sip 
  and stared at me with those 
  deep dark eyes. 
  “I am too old to go running 
  around in the sewers plotting 
  my revenge. Sure,”—Madam 
  E added, setting down the 
  cup with a steady hand—“the 
  time I served at the Spike 
  shaped how I see my place 
  in this city, but even if I was 
  full of just as much venom as 
  I was in my younger days, I 
  couldn’t imagine physically 
  taking on these young super-
  kids. The city’s streets have 
  changed in 35 years, and so 
  should her antagonists…” 
  Since 
  the 
  interview, 
  I 
  received word that Madam E 
  has applied for a legitimate 
  business license in the city, 
  for a consulting firm.
  Last week, Azure Ace was 
  caught on camera making 
  a crash landing into Mr. 
  LaBeau’s Bakery shop. He 
  caused $15,000 worth of 
  damages to the mom & pop 
  storefront and his insurance 
  won’t cover the damages. 
  Thankfully, members of that 
  neighborhood have banded 
  together to help keep the 
  family of bakers in business 
  with a fundraiser to help 
  pay for damages and the fine 
  people at Wilsons’ Windows 
  have donated the labor and 
  materials to put up a new 
  window. The fundraiser at 
  the Halcyon Farmers’ Market 
  this Saturday will help the 
  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 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.
  “I’m passionate about helping this city and I 
  still fight for it every day.” - Red Bombshell  
  (on Azure Ace retiring)
  “I won’t be waiting on the streets for Azure 
  Ace. Stop playing with children and learn to 
  adapt.” - Madam E
  68
  
  LaBeaus to cover the costs 
  of being closed for almost a 
  week. 
  While these kind folks have 
  helped out their own, Halcyon 
  City does not operate on 
  charity and damages like this 
  go unanswered every day. It’s 
  bad enough when villains or 
  criminals cause damages—
  it is unacceptable when a 
  “hero” does the same. We 
  need a hero who is quick and 
  responsive to the needs of our 
  citizens, not someone causing 
  more distress for them. 
  And just last night, Azure 
  Ace visited the hospital with 
  a fractured hip, according 
  to anonymous sources in 
  Saint Dominic’s Hospital. He 
  refuses to comment on how 
  he sustained the injury, but 
  this would be his second hip 
  replacement in as many years. 
  How long can we expect him 
  to keep this up? How can we 
  ask a 75 year old hero with 
  health problems to stop Top 
  Quark’s Atomic Punch—the 
  same one that leveled the 
  Steel District courthouse—or 
  Vex’s Quantum Disruptor—
  the same one that put the 
  Halcyon 
  Natural 
  History 
  Museum into a state of 
  temporal flux last year? We 
  can’t expect Azure Ace to 
  stand against the city’s street 
  criminals, let alone its super 
  villains. He’s just too fragile. 
  But isn’t Azure Ace a part 
  of Halcyon City’s great and 
  proud history? Shouldn’t we 
  honor him for that? 
  Yes! In his youth, Azure Ace 
  single handedly disarmed a 
  nuclear missile in midair. His 
  very distinguished military 
  service record was turned 
  into a popular television 
  series Azure’s Angels, and 
  every June 12th the South 
  Halcyon City Community 
  Association (SHCCA) has 
  a block party to celebrate 
  the day he saved their 
  neighborhood from being 
  flooded by toxic sludge. 
  We should never forget Azure 
  Ace and his amazing deeds or 
  feats of heroism that awarded 
  him a key to the city and a 
  key to our hearts. But that 
  should not blind us to the 
  damages he causes today or 
  dangers he poses to himself 
  and others. Azure Ace needs 
  to take responsibility for his 
  limitations and who he is 
  now. 
  We pinned up posters and 
  went to the movies to honor 
  the heroic exploits of Azure 
  Ace, but that was 35 years 
  ago. Our childhood posters 
  are taken down; our movies 
  are now on demand; and like 
  the rest of us, Azure Ace has 
  gotten older. 
  Our hard earned taxpayer 
  dollars shouldn’t be spent 
  repairing the damages done 
  by and to this man. Even his 
  nemesis, Madam Evil, has 
  changed her name and left the 
  streets. All Azure Ace is doing 
  now is hurting his legacy by 
  getting in the way of other 
  heroes who are trying to keep 
  us safe. 
  How ought we honor our 
  childhood hero on his 75th 
  birthday? Would you ask your 
  own father or grandfather 
  to go out on the streets at 
  night to fight crime? No. My 
  grandmother should be proud 
  of what she did and excited 
  about what she can do now 
  that she is retired. We have 
  a responsibility to our elders 
  here in Halcyon City, and that 
  means getting Azure Ace off 
  the streets for his safety and 
  the safety of everyone. 
  Sign the petition demanding 
  Azure 
  Ace’s 
  retirement. 
  Honor his legacy by saving 
  him from himself. 
  “Mark my words, I’ll be back with enough 
  power to ionize all of downtown!” - Top Quark 
  (at the courthouse incident)
  When you receive the public support of a legendary figure (like Azure Ace), take Influence 
  over the public of the city. If you already have Influence over the public of the city, mark 
  potential.
  69
  
  Any city’s got history, like catacombs or old buildings. 
  Our city, though, is built on layer upon layer of 
  paranormal cruft. We’ve got super-science gadgets 
  and lost relics and old villains with grudges.
  You learn to live with it. You cope. There’s another 
  version of Halcyon City in some kind of parallel 
  shadow dimension? Yes, yes there is. Could creatures 
  from there come over any time? Sure can. What’re 
  you going to do, not go to work tomorrow?
  There was another massive realignment of the fabric 
  of reality? Yes, yes there was. Do you want to know 
  if your entire life has been changed? Probably not. 
  Because what’s the point? You cope. You live. 
  The city helps itself as best it can, especially by 
  reiterating the patterns and structures that’ve helped 
  it in the past. Refurbished versions of old heroes, 
  right alongside brand new supers coming to the fore 
  to handle new problems.  
  But to live—to survive—in Halcyon City, you learn 
  to accept the kind of beast it is. You accept that you’re 
  not going to change it. Not really. Even if you work 
  your way up to the top, even if you become one of 
  the greatest heroes in the city, you can’t change it. It’s 
  too big. Best you can do is shift it a bit, make things 
  better for those you can help.
  You’ll never undo the existence of a mirror-shadow 
  dimension just below our own. You’ll never reset 
  things perfectly to the way they were before time 
  itself got shattered and rebuilt. Heck, you’ll never 
  “fix” the world so you don’t live in a place with 
  70
  
  doppelgangers and living shadows.  Instead, you just 
  roll with those punches, reset your idea of the world 
  and your place in it.
  This city’s an endlessly growing, changing, and 
  mutating beast. Get too hung up on what it was, you 
  miss what it is right now. Get too hung up on what it 
  is right now, you miss what it could be. 
  We’re nearing time for a whole mess of heroes to 
  retire. Between the Golds and the Silvers coming up, 
  the vast majority of those original heroes are done, 
  and with them our old understanding of our world. 
  Where once we asked, “How do we handle a world 
  where mole men could strike from beneath us at any 
  moment?”, now we ask, “How do we handle a world 
  with a huge population of retired superheroes, let 
  alone retired super villains?” 
  But we’ll manage. Trooper Alpha dies or retires, and 
  we get a new one. We develop metrics to improve 
  superheroing, until they become outdated and useless 
  and we find a new way to adapt. The city spits out 
  heroes who go too far, and they get taken down by a 
  subtle and quiet force like the Chameleon, and the 
  world balances itself out. For a while, at least.
  The city’s got history, but it’s also always changing, 
  becoming something new, and taking us along with 
  it. In this gig you can’t afford to get hung up on what 
  was lost with the most recent change. You’ve got to 
  roll with the punches, change with the world, and keep 
  pushing forward. Lest the world rolls you into its dust. 
  Keandra Hunt
  71
  
  Exclusive Interviews
  Those You May 
  Not Know
  By Archer A. Delano
   Halcyon City Wonder: Mr. Krowley
  Sitting across from me is Halcyon City’s newest occult wonder, Mr. Adison Krowley. He’s 
  covered head to toe in black clothes, including a long leather jacket. At his side is a guitar, its body 
  sculpted to resemble a grinning imp’s face. So this is the instrument that he uses to channel arcane 
  and mystical forces, I think to myself.
  I adjust my bow tie and apologize to Mr. Krowley for my lateness to our interview. “No 
  worries, mate. And please, call me Adison.” His British accent is fake and affected. If it weren’t 
  for the imps he publicly summoned with his guitar to save Halcyon City from a tsunami, I’d 
  wonder about his claims of wielding otherworldly powers.
   “So, ah, I suppose the best place to start is at the beginning, right?” He wastes no time diving 
  right into the interview—a promising sign.
  “Right,” I say with a nod.
  Adison launches into his story. He tells me that he was always picked on in school. As a child, 
  when other youngsters chose imaginary friends such as giant cartoon rabbits, Adison instead 
  imagined he communed with ancient gods and beings from mythology. The teasing caused him 
  to delve further and further into books on mythology and the occult. He became a complete 
  recluse, devouring stories of gods, heroes, angels, demons, and magic.
  All that changed, though when he entered high school and Adison discovered love, music, 
  and loss. “Her name was Carly,” he says, with a troubled look. “She was starting a punk rock band. 
  Lead singer. Fantastic voice. Needed a guitar player to help complete the ensemble. I was in love 
  at first sight, but I didn’t know how to play.”
  “So what did you do?”
  Adison laughs and slaps the guitar at his side. “I learned, of course! I couldn’t say no to Rudy.”
  But as Adison learned the guitar, he discovered a strange thing. “I always knew I could tune 
  into myths, and legends—they spoke to me in a way that I could never understand. But once I 
  started understanding music, harmony, vibrations—I dunno. The two interests clicked.”
  Krowley leans in close to me over his coffee and looks from side to side, making sure no one 
  can hear us. “I saw the shape of the universe, mate. I saw the strings that attach all of us together. 
  I saw the ley lines that give and take power from each of us. I learned how to pluck those strings 
  72
  
  the same way I pluck the strings on my guitar. Learned to play chords with the universe. It was 
  awesome, mate.” Still, with the fake accent. But I don’t call him out on it. Who knows? He could 
  curse me with twenty-six years of bad luck if he felt like it.
  The next two years were amazing for Adison, practicing both guitar and the arcane arts in 
  his parents’ garage. He quickly learned how to summon helper imps to do his bidding, control 
  elemental forces, and commune with spirits. Mostly he just created illusions at his band’s shows 
  to delight and impress the audience. Krowley looks out the window, a wistful smile plays across 
  his face, and his eyeliner-rimmed eyes glimmer for a second. Then he grows serious.
  “All that changed though. Rudy and the band were over one day. We’d just finished a long 
  jam session in the garage and came inside to grab some leftover pizza. As we were sitting around 
  the dining room, suddenly the lights flashed. Black and 
  red energies snaked through the air and burrowed into the 
  refrigerator. I knew then that my studies had gained some 
  unwanted attention.
  “The refrigerator just came to life. It grew red eyes, and its door flapped open and shut like a 
  mouth. Inside, instead of milk, eggs, and veggies, we could see the fire-blasted ruins of an Infernal 
  landscape—a portal on the other side. The refrigerator spoke.
  “It said, ‘Mr. Krowley! It is I, Zoltan, but that name means nothing to you—yet! I have 
  traveled through time to destroy you when you are at your weakest! After today, you will never 
  live long enough to prevent my conquest of this dimension. Farewell, my old enemy!’”
  What Adison described next is horrible: the refrigerator leapt from the wall, possessed by 
  this Zoltan. Rudy and the rest of Krowley’s bandmates jumped in fright and scrambled. But they 
  were too slow—the Zoltan-possessed refrigerator tromped about the room, flinging wide open 
  its door-mouth and sucking them into the Infernal Dimension on the other side.
  “Zoltan almost got me, too,” Krowley says softly, his eyes dropping. “At the last minute I 
  grabbed my guitar and plucked a banishing chord. The refrigerator imploded upon itself and was 
  sucked into the Infernal Dimension on the other side. That was the last I ever saw of my band, 
  and of Rudy.”
  Mr. Krowley continues. “At that moment I realized Dark Things lurk at the edges of the 
  world. Things that would drive most of you lot mad if you had the merest glimpse into their 
  existence. I might have learned magic, but it wasn’t all fun and games. It was up to me to defend 
  “I knew then that my 
  studies had gained 
  some unwanted 
  attention.”
  When you open a portal to non-terrestrial dimensions through magic or technology, roll 
  + Freak. On a hit, the portal opens safely, and you can pass through without difficulty. On 
  a 10+, you can name the particulars of where you’ve traveled. On a 7-9, you can name the 
  place to which you’ve traveled; the GM will tell you the rest. On a miss, the portal isn’t yours 
  to control; Zoltan hijacks it and begins to disgorge Infernites upon you.
  73
  
  this world from the Terrors of the Night. To this day, I still venture forth to non-Terrestrial 
  dimensions to see if I can find Rudy and my friends.”
  A strange silence hangs between us. Mr. Krowley sips his coffee again and looks at the 
  window. What is a reporter to do? What am I to say upon hearing his tale? Out of respect for 
  his loss and his emotions, I decide to conclude our interview.
  I nod seriously and thank Mr. Krowley for his time and candor, fumbling through my pocket 
  for a few dollars to cover his coffee and mine. I stand and leave, wishing the best for Krowley on 
  his search for his missing friends. 
  Halcyon City Wonder: Echidna
  Doctor Evelyn Kidd walks next to me through Liberty Park. We quietly pass monuments to 
  the original generation of Halcyon City’s heroes, pausing for a moment of silence by the statues 
  of those who fell to save the world from suffering doomsday at the hands of one of its many 
  scoundrels and villains.
   I try to be polite and not mention the squirrels and birds that seem to scatter and hide in the 
  trees as we approach. Doctor Kidd seems unphased—almost used to it by this point. She’s much 
  stronger than I would be if I found myself so transfigured. I have no clue on Earth how I would 
  deal with being a giant porcupine-like creature.
  Mr. Krowley and Echidna, two wonders of Halcyon City you may not know. 
  74
  
  Doctor Kidd—better known to Halcyon City as the superhero Echidna—wears a smile. She 
  stands a full eight feet tall, strong as an ox, a mane of deadly quills falling down her back.
  After losing her father to the mysterious illness pathositis, Doctor Evelyn Kidd was motivated 
  at an early age to help cure disease and illnesses in the world. Evelyn quickly distinguished herself 
  as a childhood prodigy, earning her PhD in genetics and molecular biology from Halcyon City 
  University at the tender age of 14. Her breakthrough papers earned her a tenured research and 
  teaching position at HCU by the time she was 16. As part of her tenured position, Dr. Kidd was 
  granted directorship over her own full lab and a group of research assistants.
  Evelyn found herself on the verge of a breakthrough—a potential gene therapy that could 
  treat, or possibly even cure, pathositis. Evelyn found that the genome of the echidna, an animal 
  native to Australia, was resistant to the ravages of pathositis. She was in the very early stages of 
  engineering a gene therapy when tragedy struck.
  “I’ll never forget it,” she says with a wistful smile. “The Metahuman Liberation Front heard 
  a false rumor that my lab was experimenting on metas. They decided to attack and free prisoners 
  that weren’t even there!”
  I lean in. “What happened?”
  “There were five of them—Class C metas, none with any code names or anything—but 
  they burst in through the walls demanding that we free their brethren. I told them we had no 
  prisoners, but they wouldn’t believe me.” Echidna shakes her head and sighs at this.
  She continues. “The metas began to destroy the lab. Ripping equipment and machinery out of 
  the walls and hurling it about. One of my assistants—he had his back turned as the meta threw 
  a one-ton piece of lab equipment at him.”
  I gasp and begin to shake, clutching my paper and 
  pencil. “Did he…” I gulp, and try to figure out how to 
  phrase my next question, “Did he make it?”
  Echidna smiles. “Yes. I dove at him and pushed him out 
  of the way. But that’s what led to this.” She holds up her 
  clawed hands and shrugs her shoulders; the quills running 
  down her back bob up and down with her shrug. “The 
  equipment that the meta threw shattered a containment tube. That tube contained gallons of the 
  experimental gene treatment for pathositis. I was drenched in mutagen that I had created. We 
  were nowhere near being able to test it on any animals—let alone humans.”
  “Oh,” I say, unsure of how to keep talking about this delicate topic. “What happened next?”
  “Well, the gene therapy immediately set to work rewriting my genetic code. The shock caused 
  me to pass out. When I woke up three days later, I looked up to see my family and closest friends 
  gathered around my bedside, looking down at me.”
  At this point, Echidna describes events that you, dear reader, are undoubtedly familiar with. 
  A period when the general populace had no clue whether Echidna was friend or foe, monster or 
  marvel. Echidna takes her smartphone from her utility lab belt, and begins to swipe across the 
  phone’s screen; turns out she saved images of all the papers published during her early adventures. 
  “That tube 
  contained gallons 
  of the experimental 
  gene treatment 
  for pathositis. I 
  was drenched in 
  mutagen that I had 
  created.”
  75
  
  She hands the phone to me, and I look at the headlines: “Lo! A Beast is Born!”; “The Monster 
  from Planet X!”; “The Strangest Woman of All Time!”
  Echidna grins widely. “The media really didn’t know what to make of me once I arrived 
  on the supers scene. But they knew one thing: sensation 
  would sell.”
  I awkwardly adjust my bow tie. “Weren’t you offended 
  and angered by that?”
  Echidna shrugs. “Of course I was. But before he died, 
  my father taught me that there will always be fearful people who mistrust what they don’t 
  understand—people who want to paint you as a bad person.” 
  “Oh,” I say. “Your father sounds like a very insightful man.”
  Echidna nods as we walk along the park trail and pass by a lake. “He was. He always told me 
  that in those situations, the worst thing you can do is react explosively with anger and outrage. 
  If you do that, you provide them with the justification and ammunition to keep characterizing 
  you as a villain.”
  At that moment a pair of dog walkers come our way along the park path. Their canine 
  companions sniff the air and turn towards Echidna and myself. I expect them to begin growling 
  and barking. To my surprise, they whimper and bolt away from their owners. The walkers run 
  after their dogs, trying to catch up with them.
  Echidna grins, “You know, Archer, I wouldn’t have agreed to this interview without having 
  read your other columns, first. You seem like you have a good head for this stuff—superheroing.”
  At this point, I straighten my posture and throw back my shoulders, “Ah! That was very astute 
  of you to notice, Doctor Kidd! I have always thought of myself as a superhero-in-training.” I 
  laugh nervously. “Just waiting for the day when I gain powers of my own.”
  “I’m glad to hear you say that.”
  I arch my eyebrow. “Oh? What do you mean?”
  “Well…things are a bit busy at the lab these days. I’m on the verge of reaching a breakthrough 
  for a proper treatment for pathositis. But that means my patrols around Halcyon City are 
  dropping off. Short story is that I’m in the market for a sidekick.”
  I puff out my chest. “A sidekick?! I’d be honored, Doctor Kidd!”
  How did Delano never get captured, 
  ransomed, or killed?  He always inserts 
  himself into stories as close and connected 
  to superheroes. Seems an easy target for 
  villains. How did he protect himself? ? 
  “The media really 
  didn’t know what 
  to make of me once 
  I arrived on the 
  supers scene.”
  76
  
  Echidna’s smile grows. “Oh, good. I still have some of the original gene treatment serum left. 
  It’s degraded over time, so it’s half as powerful as my dosage. Still…” She reaches out and gently 
  pokes my ribs with one clawed hand. “It should help you bulk up. But the quills would wreak 
  havoc on your coats and jackets.”
  I stop. “Oh, you mean…”
  She nods enthusiastically. “You could become Echid Boy—the Marsupial Wonder! Just think: 
  suddenly your credibility in the super community would skyrocket. You’d be granted unfettered 
  access for your interviews. Heck—you could interview yourself!”
  I stutter and stammer. “Oh, my. Oh, I, um…that’s very kind of you, Doctor Kidd. But, I, um…
  how do I say this…oh dear…”
  Echidna looks at me. Her smile is positively angelic. “What is it?”
  “I fear that I…well, now that you mention it…I suppose I am more comfortable writing from 
  the sidelines than jumping into the fray.”
  Echidna’s smile continues unabated. “Nonsense. I think you’d make an excellent addition to 
  the community.”
  I nervously reach up, my eyes darting around from side to side. Oh, dear. Is anyone else seeing 
  me make a fool of myself? “Ah, I, may I have some time to think on it?”
  Echidna laughs. “Of course, Mr. Delano. Just please, don’t take too long. Justice needs all the 
  recruits it can get…unless, that is, you’re too afraid to walk a mile in my claws.” Echidna laughs 
  again, and leaves me with a wink to let me in on her teasing prank.
  Really?  ‘Teasing prank’?  Does Echidna really 
  have gene serum left?  Was she really making 
  that offer to Archer?  There are plenty of dark-
  tech firms that would kill for Echidna’s gene 
  serum—was she just baiting a trap? 
  When you imbibe some of Echidna’s gene serum, you gain the abilities of super strength, 
  super toughness, and quill-throwing. Your Freak immediately shifts to +3; adjust your other 
  Labels as you wish to compensate. At the end of every session, roll + Mundane to find out 
  if the serum wears off. On a hit, the serum leaves your system and you return to normal. On 
  a 7-9, it does so with some difficulty; mark a condition. On a miss, the serum stays in your 
  system and causes further mutation; shift Freak up and Mundane down.
  77
  
  Midnight in  
  Halcyon City
  By Patricia Colon
  A controversial new superhero known 
  as Midnight has established himself in the 
  Redbrick district of Halcyon City. This 
  individual was identified only as a Middle 
  Eastern man with a thin face and hands 
  whose form remained largely obscured by 
  a swirling, cloak-like mass of shadow. 
  His actions largely fall within the lines 
  of Halcyon City’s standard superhero 
  population, slotting nicely into the 
  category of night-time vigilante. But he 
  has become a controversial figure due 
  to speculation on his origins: that he is 
  actually a native of Halcyon City’s mirror-
  shadow, a dimension known as Tempest.
  Tempest, first encountered when 
  Halcyon citizens were being stolen from 
  its streets by the shadow dimension for 
  alleged “crimes,” has been registered on 
  the public A.E.G.I.S. documentation of 
  alternate dimensions and parallel worlds 
  for some time. But due to those previously 
  hostile interactions, A.E.G.I.S. publicly 
  reported that it set up barriers to any cross-
  dimensional travel to or from Tempest. 
  However, Midnight’s powers stand 
  in line with the abilities that a native of 
  Tempest would evidence, suggests Doctor 
  Caroline Xi, an expert in transdimensional 
  physics and interactions. “The reports of the 
  shadow dimension were far from scientific, 
  and A.E.G.I.S. locked down any transference 
  before we could study it further,” she says. 
  “But based on the hero Luminary’s report 
  and the reports of the victims 
  of those previous abductions, 
  Midnight’s 
  abilities 
  to 
  manipulate and pass through 
  shadow do seem to reflect those 
  of the citizens of Tempest.
  “There are discrepancies,” 
  she continues. “The reported 
  citizens of Tempest were 
  indeterminate 
  shadows, 
  according to those witnesses, 
  while Midnight appears to 
  have actual features. But 
  that could be the result of 
  Midnight’s acclimation to our 
  dimension.” 
  Midnight’s 
  actions 
  in 
  Halcyon up to the present 
  include rounding up the 
  Midnight in action.
  78
  
  members of the Viracuzo criminal 
  organization; 
  defeating 
  the 
  spectral 
  metahuman entity known as Night Terror; 
  preventing the theft of important scientific 
  equipment 
  from 
  the 
  experimental 
  Continuum 
  Research 
  Facility; 
  and 
  numerous additional reported incidents 
  of vigilante activity, including preventing 
  petty thefts, muggings, and other street 
  crimes. In all such cases, only reports 
  of eyewitnesses account for Midnight’s 
  involvement, and even then corroboration 
  is difficult. Midnight never leaves evidence, 
  and appears to try to travel in shadow as 
  much as possible, without ever speaking to 
  citizens or reporters.
  Due to Midnight’s theorized origins 
  and mysterious manner, many are still 
  skeptical of the shadowy and mysterious 
  hero. “He’s a shadow man from another 
  dimension!” says shop owner Aslan Jiveh, 
  who lives in the Redbrick district where 
  Midnight operates. “Of course he would 
  hide his actions and be so secretive. He’s 
  clearly planning something, and it’s just a 
  matter of time before he acts!” 
  The HCPD and A.E.G.I.S. have no 
  official statement on Midnight at this time.
  When you refuse to speak to the media about a recent caught-on-camera incident, roll 
  + Mundane. On a 10+, they paint you as a regular person, favorably; clear a condition or 
  mark potential when you read those reports, and expect a request for an interview. On a 7-9, 
  you’re largely ignored; shift Mundane up and Danger down. On a miss, the media paints you 
  as a dangerous mystery; shift Danger up and Mundane down, and mark a condition of the 
  GM’s choice.
  Midnight seems harmless, but if they’re from 
  Tempest, then their very presence here could be 
  dangerous. Cross-dimensional denizens = weakened 
  boundaries between worlds. Maybe Midnight is 
  keeping the wall between Halcyon and Tempest weak.
  Why no official statement from A.E.G.I.S.? 
  Why no opinion, one way or the other?  
  I don’t buy disinterest. 
  79
  
  Inside the 
  Chrysalis
  An Interview with the Monarch
  By Bartholomew Hendricks
  The Kingfisher reprinted these excerpts of a journal recovered by one of its reporters, 
  Bartholomew Hendricks, in his investigations of the Chrysalis. As per the contract he signed with 
  the Kingfisher, upon his disappearance his findings were sent to the HCPD, and after review, were 
  released for publication.
  A man is lead through the corridors of Mulberry Institution. Any other person would rather 
  be in just about any other place. Any other person would be scared out of their senses to be so 
  close to the darkest heart of the city, the place where Halcyon keeps its most embarrassing secrets 
  and most dangerous criminals. This man though, while scared, is filled more with anticipation 
  than fear. 
  He finally reaches the cell at the end of the corridor and turns sharply to look inside. The 
  clear window made to look like glass shimmers, temporarily revealing its true nature. The monster 
  inside turns to look at him, the latest in a string of reporters come to wrest the creature’s secrets 
  from them. Their eyes darken. The man has been assured that the glass will protect him from 
  anything the monster could possibly do to him. His thoughts dwell on a future Pulitzer and, 
  incomprehensibly, on a summer he spent at a cabin with his family; they spent the summer 
  careening through fields with cheap, flimsy nets, trying to catch butterflies. 
  A small chamber affords the ability to pass documents and small items (all carefully screened 
  beforehand, of course) from one side of the cell to the other. The small sliding chamber yawns 
  open towards him and the man finds himself moving toward it despite second thoughts trickling 
  down his quivering cheeks.
  The glass shimmers across the man’s visible spectrum and he is transfixed as the documents 
  slide into the cell. The monster rises. The glass shatters. The man’s identity is torn apart, the 
  pieces of it on the floor in front of him. He scrambles to piece together the shards that lie strewn 
  across the uncaring cobblestone. He is found writhing in front of the monster’s cell, mumbling 
  incoherently and clawing at the ground, by guards who saw the man inexplicably drop to the 
  floor in front of the cell.
  * * *
  80
  
  It all happened the night of June 27th of this year. The man was Victor Wright, one of the 
  greatest reporters the Halcyon City Herald has ever seen. The monster was once Steven Monarch, 
  one of the most beloved minds of our fair city. 
  On my own way down, retracing Victor’s footsteps, I had to pass the wing where my mentor 
  and teacher is now housed. I was on my way to meet what we’ve all taken to calling the Chrysalis, 
  the man who took away my most cherished friend just by looking at him. I know these things 
  because of the notes Victor took the whole way down, and I’ve been piecing the scribbled notes 
  together ever since.
  My name is Bartholomew Hendricks and I, unlike many others, survived my first encounter 
  with the Chrysalis to begin writing in this journal. If you’re reading this, though, it means that 
  something has happened to me and the Herald or the Kingfisher or another affiliate has published 
  what little I had finished on my exposé and, hopefully, choice snippets of my interview transcripts 
  with Steven Monarch as per my final wishes. I am confident that what I have learned will help 
  bring the Chrysalis to justice, bring closure to all those who need it, and provide insight into the 
  molting process. A process I now believe I am in the first stages of.
  * * *
  Bartholomew Hendricks: Tell me about Lifeline. 
  Steven Monarch: You don’t want to talk about your dear mentor? I heard him screaming all 
  through the night, you know. Aren’t you worried it might be you they’re dragging off down this 
  hallway next? 
  BH: It’s part of the job. It’s what we do. I can’t be out there with the Crimson Crusader, but I 
  can do my part.
  SM: I doubt we’ll be seeing much of the Crimson Crusader around anymore. If you take my 
  meaning. 
  [Silence]
  SM: Fine, fine. Let’s go through the motions and get this over with, shall we? Lifeline was the 
  fountain-of-youth drug my son created. Want those wrinkles gone? Your libido back? Those sacks 
  under your lifeless sheep eyes scrubbed away like they never were? Lifeline did all that and so much 
  more. Not only did it put you back in the prime of your life, but triggered the next step in evolution; 
  it turned those sheep into wolves. It also made my son one of the richest men in the world.
  BH: Your son. That would be Christian Monarch. He’s the reason you’re here now, isn’t it? Rumor 
  has it he even designed the cell you’re in. 
  SM: He is. And I wouldn’t be surprised. He never did have the willpower to go against the crowd. 
  To do what had to be done. Now look at him. He’s nothing. He has nothing. 
  BH: Once he learned what Lifeline was doing to people, he put a stop to it and donated all the 
  money he made from it to figuring out a way to fight the infection. If that didn’t make him a hero 
  and earn him a spot with New Exemplars, I don’t know what would.
  81
  
  SM: Yes well, two sides of the same coin, I suppose, my son and I. Neither of us saw the use in 
  secret codenames. But make no mistake, we both have our secrets. You talk about Lifeline like it’s 
  a disease and yet we’d never call something that made us smarter, stronger, and faster a disease. 
  We’d call it a miracle, and we did. Wasn’t it you who wrote that column? In any case, you call 
  it a disease because it’s hard to watch. Because it makes you uncomfortable and squeamish. All 
  you see is a hardened carapace and the fluids left behind. The so-called Molt Men with thick, 
  hardened skin and eyes that glow with the promise of your species’ extinction. You don’t feel the 
  sense of purpose it gives you and the connection we all crave; don’t understand the feeling of a 
  promise fulfilled when you regain control over your body and realize what it’s capable of. You 
  write stories vilifying them because they don’t have language when what you don’t understand is 
  that language is no longer necessary. It becomes trite. Small.
  BH: You don’t feel anything about what Lifeline did to people?
  SM: Yes, well, Lifeline did…does, work miracles. It changes you, yes, but it changes you into 
  something that is better. Something no longer merely human, yes, but superior. And for that Zeus 
  has burdened me, and his people punish me.
  BH: So you see yourself as Prometheus now, and your son, noble hero of the New Exemplars, 
  as your unjust punisher?
  SM: Have you found anyone who has gone through their molt that regretted it?
  BH: You turned them into animals!
  SM: We are all animals, Mr. Hendricks, make no mistake. If you think your species is not, then 
  you are sorely in need of a proper education. I merely strip away the illusion of the stage and 
  remind the actors they need not carry on with their part in the play.
  BH: And yet your Molt Men do your bidding. Hardly seems like you’ve freed them from anything.
  SM: You assume too much. To those that require it, I provide purpose. And who among us 
  does not need to belong to something? To be given goals, a family, a common interest. An 
  identity. Imagine never feeling like you don’t belong. Imagine not needing to bumble through 
  primitive speech patterns to communicate what you truly want to say. Have you ever wondered 
  why Lifeline doesn’t always work? It’s a choice, Mr. Hendricks, not an accident. Otherwise 
  When you take a dose of Lifeline, immediately take two advancements and cross off the 
  advancement “Change to another playbook.” You now have a Molt track with five boxes. 
  Whenever you mark potential, fill in one space on your Molt track. Whenever you mark a 
  condition, fill in one space on your Molt track. When your Molt track fills completely, cross off 
  one advancement. If all your advancements are ever taken or crossed off, you become a Molt 
  Man. If you are cured of your affliction, you can take your crossed off advancements again.
  82
  
  Halcyon City and the world would be overrun with the Hive. Who didn’t take a little Lifeline 
  while it was on the market?
  BH: Maybe. But few would say your Molt Men are human anymore.
  SM: You would do well to remember that the man who coined that term, Molt Men, is in this 
  very building, desperately clinging to the shreds of what was once called Victor Wright. Even 
  those pieces are there because I graciously left them behind for him to piece together. 
  And it is true that the Molt Men are not human—but what law prevents one from transcending 
  the limits of petty things like the words and labels we use to organize the world around us and 
  the groups we belong to? Calling them the Molt Men is only more proof of the limitations of 
  these petty categories. We should always be trying to push the limits of what makes us human 
  and Lifeline does that. 
  The Hive is stronger, faster, smarter, healthier in every aspect than any normal person. They can 
  recover from all but the most serious of wounds and always have a family they are connected to 
  that supports them. Yet because their skin is a different color, is structurally sounder, or they give 
  off a strange smell and have yellow eyes they are so clearly different that they must be monsters.
  BH: Yet your son has told us that the very chemical structure of Lifeline itself is not of this world. 
  Lifeline was on the open market for only four months and it’s been barely another ten since it 
  was pulled. Who knows what adverse effects it might have on anyone years down the road. Even 
  those that haven’t experienced any yet could develop still other conditions. Or the Molt Men 
  could begin to deteriorate even fur—
  Steven Monarch, aka the Chrysalis. 
  83
  
  SM: Simply using that term means you haven’t been listening. This is a metamorphosis, and it is 
  people who let those questions keep them from pushing limits that hold meaningful science back. 
  That hold mankind back. The Hive flourishes, I assure you. Even in my absence. If alien technology is 
  inherently evil, I suggest you scrutinize some of your very own heroes in Halcyon City—how about 
  Ion, or Atom? If we aren’t counting meteorites, then what about Jetstream? They’ve made their DNA 
  public and, I assure you, they’re far from human. The suit that powers my son and that makes him a 
  hero in the eyes of the city derives its power from the very same source as Lifeline and my own powers. 
  BH: So even in here, locked away, you can feel them? You can connect with them and 
  communicate? You mentioned a power source.
  SM: Now that’s interesting, isn’t it? That my son won’t tell anyone what it is, yet I will. The 
  Exocore is an alien artifact Monarch Industries recovered some time ago on a dig in the arctic. 
  I’d even tell you where it is if you asked.
  BH: And you’d tell me this why? 
  SM: Because I helped my son develop Lifeline. Because I was the first to take it. Because 
  its power reverberates inside of me. And I’d tell you because everyone needs a purpose, Mr. 
  Hendricks, and because you’ll need to know where it is when I ask you to bring it to me. 
  BH: I…why would I...
  SM: Let’s move on, shall we? I’m anxious to do some reading.
  BH: All right. This power…your power over other people, it stems from Lifeline? 
  SM: I am not so limited, as I’m sure you saw with your mentor. I need a connection of some kind 
  in order to exert influence. Lifeline can provide that, but there are other ways. 
  BH: Such as?
  SM: No. No, I don’t think I’ll be revealing those cards quite yet. That should do it. You can take 
  back the documents your mentor was kind enough to pass on to me now.
  [Sound of the metal drawer being opened as the documents are passed through]
  BH: One thing I still don’t understand. These documents aren’t secret, at least the ones that I 
  could get are a matter of public record. You didn’t need to strike any sort of deal to get them, so 
  why ask for the plans to Hexagon Tower?
  SM: It stands to reason that it wasn’t the documents themselves that I was interested in then, 
  doesn’t it?
  BH: What then?
  SM: Goodbye, Mr. Hendricks.
  * * *
  84
  
  After careful review of the of my conversation with the Chrysalis and after going over the 
  tapes of Victor Wright’s visit to his cell, I think I have some ideas that could hopefully come in 
  use in the future for anyone else fool enough to get near the monster.
  While I know that the Chrysalis feeds on lies and paranoia, and that much of what he said 
  could have been directed untruth, the feeling gnawing at my insides tells me that the New 
  Exemplars, particularly Christian Monarch, may have secrets that could spell ruin for our fair 
  city. It’s true that alien life has given us both heroes, some even on the New Exemplars, and 
  villains like the Chrysalis. It therefore stands to reason then that whatever entity or technology 
  has found itself on Earth may be used for both good and evil—but we must seek understanding 
  and certainty concerning this power source at the heart of Monarch Industries’ Hexagon Tower. 
  During our conversation, the Chrysalis said that he needed a connection to exert his influence 
  on others but I still don’t know how. According to the findings of Dr. Yerst of Halcyon National 
  University, the Molt Men exhibit insect-like characteristics; when their skin hardens and they 
  enter their cocooning phase, they begin taking in everything from their surroundings—light, 
  sound, particles in the air. Dr. Yerst also has found that Molt Men excrete certain pheromones and 
  posits it may be a method of communication and Chrysalis said the Molt Men communicated 
  without the need for spoken language. Unfortunately, I still do not know how Chrysalis can 
  infect people that haven’t taken Lifeline. Information that would prove especially useful given 
  my current predicament.
  I began noticing Lifeline-like symptoms by the time I got home from my interview with the 
  monster. I do, however, know one thing—I live less than three blocks away from the Hexagon 
  Tower and I feel a strong compulsion to go there that grows stronger every waking minute. I 
  don’t know how he has done this to both myself and Victor. The only connection I could find 
  is that he also requested documents from Victor the day that he was infected. All the scientists 
  I’ve spoken to are sure that someone cannot be infected through hypnosis or an act of will, but 
  science does not always mesh with the world we live in anymore.
  The dreadful thing is that I feel better than ever. Young, strong, happy, energetic. To know that 
  something that could make me feel so right is turning me into something so wrong is difficult to 
  contemplate, but I take solace in some of the things the monster told me. Even though it doesn’t 
  feel like it right now, he told me there is always a choice. He told me he feeds on our insecurities 
  and anxieties, our lack of purpose and clarity. It is the product of the way we live in these troubled 
  times, but I will continue to fan the flame of hope inside me that, whatever I change into, I will 
  still be able to choose to come back and find myself. I choose to believe that any other of the 
  so-called Molt Men have that choice within themselves as well. I hope that you, too, will not 
  give up on me or on them.
  When you speak to the Chrysalis, roll + Superior. On a 7-9, you keep yourself in control. On a 
  10+, take +1 ongoing to all interactions with him. On a miss, you’ve been dosed with Lifeline 
  by proximity to him.
  85
  
  Singing the Unsung
  By Hiro Reckard
  Ah, May 15. Heroes’ Day. 
  The 
  time-honored 
  annual 
  celebration of all of the 
  masked, mutated, enhanced, 
  courageous, or just plain gutsy 
  individuals who have acted in 
  defense of Halcyon City over 
  the past century. Protecting 
  us from alien invasions and 
  villainous 
  megalomaniacs, 
  punching thugs and whisking 
  citizens away to safety.
  We’re 
  all 
  familiar 
  with 
  the yearly ritual by now. 
  Kindergartners know the two 
  Golden Age heroes whose 
  birthdays mark this occasion—
  Flying Ace and Champion. 
  There’s the Halcyon City 
  Marathon in the morning, 
  the Heroes’ Day Parade, and 
  then we head to the ballpark 
  to watch the Halcyon Hornets 
  take on one of their divisional 
  rivals. Fun for the whole family.
  But I’ve been thinking.
  Do we really need a special day 
  set aside to celebrate heroes? 
  I don’t mean to belittle what 
  they do in the least, but let’s 
  admit the obvious: we are all 
  aware of the constant presence of 
  heroes. Not just on Heroes’ 
  Day, but every day. The news 
  cycle is dominated by their 
  exploits. Just walking around 
  downtown, there’s seemingly 
  a plaque on every building: 
  “On this site in 1991, Hero X 
  saved the day from Threat Y. 
  We will never forget this act 
  of courage.” Let’s not pretend 
  they don’t get the recognition 
  they deserve.
  Maybe we need a new holiday 
  to celebrate some different 
  people—some other everyday 
  heroes—who don’t ever get 
  the recognition they deserve. 
  Like 
  Marty 
  Dominguez, 
  the teacher who spends a 
  substantial part of his meager 
  salary making sure his first-
  graders 
  have 
  classroom 
  supplies. Or Loretta Thomas, 
  in her 23rd year walking the 
  same beat as a police officer.
  There should be a day for 
  these and all the other 
  unsung heroes: firefighters, 
  paramedics, nurses, and, even 
  more than anyone else, the 
  mothers and fathers who do 
  some of the most heroic work 
  of all, by tirelessly toiling to 
  raise the next generation of 
  Halcyon citizens.
  So let’s try to get that started. 
  Let’s declare tomorrow, May 
  16, the day after Heroes’ Day, 
  to be a new holiday. Unsung 
  Heroes’ Day, where we sing 
  the praises of all those people 
  in our city, our lives, whose 
  everyday efforts don’t get nearly 
  the attention they deserve. 
  When you participate in the Heroes’ Day parade, roll + Savior. On a hit, you look like you 
  belong, and it feels good. On a 10+, choose two. On a 7-9, choose one.
  • Mark two potential
  • Clear all conditions
  • Add two Team to the pool
  On a miss, you look like a fake or a wannabe, and Hiro excoriates you in the next day’s 
  paper—mark a condition and the GM will shift your Labels.
  86
  
  The Mole Men
  Why Do They Hate Us?
  By Anderson Charles
  This article appeared on the online version of the Halcyon Chronicle, 
  part of our special recurring feature “The Secrets of the City,” where 
  our reporters are given the opportunity to write more personalized 
  accounts of their investigations into the stranger parts of Halcyon City.
  It’s a problematic world in which your neighbors might attack you at any moment. It’s 
  even worse when those neighbors live beneath you. Literally. And it’s the absolute 
  pits when they might all be kinds of insane.
  Homo Fossorialis is the term that scientists have applied to them, and the PC term is 
  Subterranean Humans, or Subterrans, but we all know them by their common name: 
  the Mole Men. And they’ve never been anything but enemies of the surface dwelling 
  humans, enemies to be fought by Halcyon City’s brightest heroes.
  The first known instance of a Mole Men uprising was in 1956, when they broke through 
  the surface in massive driller-tanks, spilling out of it in droves, their squat bodies 
  waddling down Halcyon City’s streets. We didn’t know what to make of them—they 
  bore crystalline spear guns and weren’t afraid to use them, but even in those days of 
  flamboyant costumes and bizarre schticks, they looked so ridiculous. 
  Jerome LaFitte, who witnessed their first attack, said: “They were short, and slow, 
  and they talked like they all had to blow their noses, and when they threatened 
  us they could barely point higher than our waists. Of course we didn’t take them 
  seriously. Who could?” 
  Even as they marched on our city hall, demanding sovereignty over the whole city, 
  the people of Halcyon City were snickering behind their backs. Photos of the incident 
  depict some citizens with a bit of apprehension or shock, but many more who are 
  laughing or smiling. Which only makes sense, after all—this city had seen so much, 
  even by that point, that the Mole Men weren’t all that upsetting. 
  And of course, the people knew that their heroes were incoming. It was only a 
  matter of time before the Exemplars came together to beat the Mole Men to a pulp. 
  Headlines the next day featured scenes of Mole Men bodies bouncing through the 
  air, batted around by the likes of Champion and Racer Rocket and Lady Dynamo. 
  They were no more of a threat than anything else that Halcyon City had ever 
  endured before. 
  Those who didn’t escape back into their tunnels were imprisoned, according to 
  the available records from that era, studied and interrogated by the Extraordinary 
  Occurrences Bureau, an early form of A.E.G.I.S. But ultimately, little came of it—loud-
  mouthed as these creatures were when they were taking over, they were tight-
  lipped after they’d lost. And that was that. Halcyon City moved on.
  Until they attacked again. And again. And again.
  1963, 1971, 1979, 1984, 1989, 1996, 2004, 2008, 2014. Over and over and over. 
  87
  
  They tried everything from crystalline towers piercing the streets beneath us, ripping 
  up into the sky, to enormous tyrannosauric monstrosities stomping down the streets 
  with Overlords ranting from atop their backs. None of it ever worked, but they tried 
  again, and again, and again.
  Why? Why did they care so much that they were willing to pour so many resources 
  into trying to conquer the surface over and over, to be foiled each time? Why haven’t 
  they tried peace talks, or subversive invasion, or anything else? It’s mind-boggling. 
  Finding the Buried Truth
  The transcripts from the interrogations were declassified in the 80s, and have 
  been ever since—mostly, it seems, because A.E.G.I.S. decided there was so little 
  of value in their pages, there was no reason to keep them secret. In each and 
  every transcription, the captured leader—bearing a grandiose title like General, 
  Overlord, Sovereign, Warchief, or Imperator—ranted about how the superiority of the 
  Subterranean mind would once and for all be proved by their triumph, or how this 
  world belonged to those who had mastered its every strata, not those pink rats who 
  lived only upon its surface, or some other completely weird justification for battle. 
  But they never actually explained themselves. They never said why they were so 
  angry at us, beyond the fact that we were just inferior. They never explained their 
  own culture or history, never pointed at some historic, secret transgression, some 
  instance in which we had wronged them deeply and truly. Never even implied 
  the existence of some event that would explain their actions, and why this was so 
  Mole Man leader, the Hierarch, riding a subterranean beast.
  88
  
  important to them. When pressed, they just clammed up, or spewed more insults 
  and exaggerated threats.
  The best the transcripts indicate, they were just angry, for seemingly no reason.
  It’s bad journalism for a reporter to insert himself into his own story, but I’m writing 
  about Mole Men—it feels like I’m well outside the scope of standard journalistic 
  practice, even for Halcyon City. My fascination with them started during the 2004 
  invasion. This was the one with the robotic centipedes, snaking up from the sewers, 
  crawling across skyscrapers on metallic legs. They had a new kind of weapon that 
  time, a crystalline ray cannon I heard their ranting leader (this time, a Magistrate) call, 
  “The Aurora Beam!” It gave the New Exemplars a bit of trouble when they swooped 
  in, but by this point, response to the Mole Men had gotten pretty well-honed. The 
  New Exemplars dealt with the centipedes in a couple of hours, collecting a few new 
  trophies for their renovated headquarters.
  For my part, I was busy clacking away in the Halcyon Chronicle offices, preparing 
  a new piece critiquing the public statements of Devil Dog, when the centipede 
  smashed its way in through the wall. Nothing too outside of the ordinary for the 
  Chronicle, honestly—we seem to attract more than our fair share of attention from 
  wall-smashing forces—but it gave me a firsthand perspective as Ferronaut tore into 
  the thing, ripping apart its metal and tossing Mole Men to and fro. One of them fell 
  near me, and I got a good look. 
  They really aren’t actually moles. Their faces are kind of rodent-like, with elongated 
  noses and strange hair kind of like whiskers, but they still look mostly human, 
  beneath their strange atmosphere suits and tubes and plates. And that’s what 
  made me want to investigate more—the thought that these were, ultimately, 
  still some form of human. We’ve seen alien intelligences who follow rules we 
  can’t comprehend, and we’ve seen insane creatures with minds like broken 
  kaleidoscopes, and thinking of these people as Mole Men made it all too easy 
  to emphasize the Mole part, the strange, inhuman part. But they’re human, in a 
  way that those alien intelligences and insane creatures aren’t—and that means 
  we should be able to comprehend them. There should be a reason behind what 
  they’re doing, even if it’s a bad one.
  But after months of poring over those transcripts, reading all the eye-witness accounts, 
  listening to testimony and recordings...I was left exactly where I started. With no 
  clear path to understanding whatever depths they might have, and with countless 
  colleagues around me telling me that their appearances didn’t hide depths—that they 
  really were just another of our world’s oddities, exactly as strange and simple as they 
  appeared. Megalomaniacal, minute, and troglodytic. 
  The Mole Woman
  I was all but ready to cease investigating when I was contacted by Doctor Elouise 
  Tegan, a renowned exotic anthropologist, with credits including a trip to the peoples of 
  the Infiniverse, a year-long residency in the Machine City, and the discovery of the slow-
  intelligences in the Birnam Wood. And she wanted to talk to me about the Mole Men.
  She’d heard about my investigation through some colleagues, and she was interested 
  in comparing notes, and perhaps even spearheading further study together. 
  89
  
  “The Subterranids are fascinating,” she told me. “A subtle enigma, one that’s so easy 
  to overlook. How did they come to be? How do they live? What do they eat? How 
  do they keep making these machines? Where do these resources come from? Why 
  haven’t we found their dwellings on any subsurface delves?
  “It’s easy to dismiss them because they fall into a simple category—they’re a threat to 
  this city, just like Mechanoloid, and Duke Destruction, and the more hostile aliens races 
  like the Sevitri. They’re just enemies, and people don’t care about them past the need 
  to defeat them. There’s too much wonder in the world to be awed by the Mole Men.” 
  But she had the same questions I did. She saw the same strangenesses, and she 
  wanted the same answers. So when she suggested that the two of us request an 
  interview with the leader of the most recent Mole Men invasion, I agreed.
  Interview with a Mole Man
  It took months for A.E.G.I.S. to approve our request, but that seems standard. My 
  impression in speaking to some contacts there was that they had no particular desire 
  to protect or hide any Mole Men-related information, because there was none. So 
  once everything was processed through the correct bureaucratic channels, Dr. 
  Tegan and myself were put in an A.E.G.I.S. hover-car and taken to a facility just 
  outside the city. Officially, it’s designated as Enhanced Holding Facility Sigma 5-8. 
  Unofficially, it’s called the Burrow. 
  We were led into a small room with an elevator that took us deep into the 
  underground network of the Burrow. The cells don’t start until the rock and pressure 
  are enough to basically make escape impossible, even for those prisoners that might 
  be powerful enough to break through the cell walls. 
  When I asked about the wisdom of holding a Subterranid in a subterranean cell, I 
  only received a quizzical look from our escort, one Agent Pedro Correia. 
  Ultimately, Agent Correia took us to an interrogation room, walls made of a strange 
  geodesic white plastic-steel, no windows, not even a two-way mirror. We sat in 
  strange plastic chairs, and then one wall opened up to reveal the imprisoned Mole 
  Man leader—this time, identified only as the Supreme Commander.
  “Humans,” they wheezed at us. (On the way down, I had asked what gender the 
  Supreme Commander identified with. Agent Correia shrugged, and Doctor Tegan 
  relayed only that the Subterranids had never been forthright on any element of their 
  culture at all, had sneered at such questions, and scoffed no matter what they were 
  called. Biological studies of the Subterranids had been consistently inconclusive, 
  believe it or not—and the result is an official recommendation to treat them as 
  gender neutral. We should probably revise the Mole Man name.)
  “Simple, puny-minded humans,” they sneered again. “You come before me with 
  questions, I see them, brimming in your wet, watery eyes. Your simple brains 
  When you  pierce the mask of a Mole Man, roll + Freak instead of + Mundane. On a 7-9, mark 
  Angry as their sniveling superiority grates on you. On a miss, they say or do something to truly 
  annoy the hell out of you; take a powerful blow in addition to any other hard move the GM makes.
  90
  
  straining for answers in a universe that doesn’t care about your insignificant lives.” 
  Agent Correia coughed. I tilted my head. Doctor Tegan nodded, a look of rapt 
  attention on her face. “Go on,” she said.
  “You could barely comprehend the simplest truths of the real universe,” the 
  Supreme Commander hissed. “So ask your questions, but expect only continued 
  bafflement, fools.” 
  I dove on the opportunity. “Supreme Commander. Why? Why all the anger and the 
  attacks and the fighting? Why do you hate us so much? Wouldn’t your people be so 
  much better off if they just reallocated those resources to, I don’t know, developing 
  their own society?”
  There was a pause.
  Then a sound, like a malfunctioning air pump. The Supreme Commander laughing.
  “Foolish, foolish human. You ask, but you do not even understand why you ask. 
  The question you ask is, in itself, a sign of your own utter ignorance. You surface 
  dwellers...you are blinded by the very light you live in.”
  “Okay, then enlighten me,” I said, leaning forward, past Agent Correia and Doctor 
  Tegan. “Help me to understand. I admit your superiority, we’re all blind and dumb, I 
  just want to understand.”
  There was another silent pause, and I thought for a minute...maybe...they would 
  answer. Then:
  “I...uh...well…”
  The Supreme Commander shuffled their little feet.
  “It’s...in the dark, you know, beneath the earth, with just us amazing superior Mole 
  Men...it’s...well, it can get...you know...a little...lonely.” 
  I blinked.
  “Lonely? You invade because...you’re lonely?”
  The Supreme Commander paused, then sneered again. “Of course not! Puny pus-
  brained ape creature. There is no hope for you, falling for such simple ruse. Of 
  course we do not get lonely. We are superior in every way!”
  I leaned back to let Doctor Tegan take over the questioning. 
  Ultimately, after all the research, the interrogation, the questions—it came down 
  to this: were the Mole Men the equivalent of an entire species of subterranean, 
  immature, lonely children? 
  I don’t know. I honestly don’t know.
  You cannot comfort or support a Mole Man until you have admitted that they are better than you in every 
  way. When you admit that a Mole Man is better than you in every way, take Influence over the Mole Man, 
  and shift Superior down and Mundane up.
  91
  
  Okay, so by this point, you should be on the same page as 
  me. I’ve pretty much said it a dozen different ways before. 
  But just in case you’re not, I’m going to be very, very clear.
  This city is strange.
  Heroes who trickle through from alternate dimensions. 
  Immortality drugs that turn you into hive-minded bug 
  monsters. Mole men.
  Freaking mole men.
  If I give him credit and think of him as an actual 
  journalist, that’s what Hiro was really writing about. 
  How the strange can get to be too much, and how we 
  all long for a break sometimes. When he says we need 
  a Hero’s Day to celebrate all the “regular” heroes in our 
  city…he’s just trying to reclaim some bit of normalcy. 
  And for all that I’ve said in these notes, that I love this 
  city, that you’ve got to embrace the strangeness, that 
  you’ve got to seek the mundanity in it…
  Look, this city can be a bit much. Especially for those 
  like us, the ones who’re geared up and interested in 
  plunging into that muck. 
  The strangeness hides endless depths. You’ll never 
  learn enough to know all the answers, but you’ll keep 
  plumbing deeper and deeper. And then when you do 
  find some tangible, comprehensible chunk of answers 
  in the muck, you realize those answers are contradictory 
  and confusing. So you dissect the answers to find new 
  questions and you’re back in the muck all over again. 
  And one day you step back and realize you’re writing 
  about mole men. Seriously, mole men.
  92
  
  The longer you can keep that wonder and amazement, 
  the longer you can hold onto your pure curiosity 
  for the incredible strangeness of this city, the longer 
  you can hold onto this job. But eventually, the time 
  will come when you either need to come up for air 
  through all this madness…or you go too deep, and 
  clutch onto something you probably shouldn’t have.
  So pick your battles. Pick your investigations. Pick 
  when you stop probing, and when you’re willing to 
  go all the way. You can’t fight every fight, you can’t 
  find every truth. If you try, you’ll go mad or wake up 
  something dangerous. It’s not on you to be a hero and 
  right every wrong—it’s on you to find the truth. And 
  in this city, it’s not enough to just find the truth—
  you’ve got to find the right truth. The truth that 
  people need to hear. 
  Sometimes, that’s mole men. Sometimes it’s health 
  insurance and how it interacts with superhumans. 
  Sometimes it’s an interview with a known criminal, 
  and sometimes it’s reports on generations of heroes 
  with the same name. 
  Yeah, with all of them, you’re going to have your 
  own questions left over. So you’re going to paste the 
  articles into your notebook, and you’re going to leave 
  notes scribbled in the margins. And you’re going 
  to try to help the next sucker to come along to find 
  the answers on their own. And you’re going to tell 
  yourself that it’s enough. It has to be enough.
  Keandra Hunt
  93
  
  94
  
  NEW PLAYBOOKS
  In this section of the book, you’ll find 5 new limited-edition playbooks for 
  your game of Masks: A New Generation. Each one adds new and different 
  mechanics, while also pointing the game’s focus at different issues.
  These limited-edition playbooks are:
  • The Innocent – a younger version of a modern-day villain, come 
  forward in time.
  • The Joined – a “second-half” connected to and bonded with another hero. 
  • The Newborn – a brand new entity, just come into existence.
  • The Reformed – a former villain, attempting to redeem themselves. 
  • The Star – a celebrity with a demanding audience.
  Here are some key notes for using these limited-edition playbooks:
  • Take care when using more than one limited-edition playbooks. Each 
  one skews the game significantly, and having too many limited-edition 
  playbooks and not enough core playbooks can unbalance your game. It’s 
  not impossible to play that way, but it certainly will require more work 
  from all players at the table. GMs in particular have to put out extra 
  effort to attend to all the particulars of the limited-edition playbooks at 
  the same time.
  • The new moves are available for any playbook to take with their “take 
  a move from another playbook” advancements. But the new extras 
  such as the Star’s audience are just that—extras. They still remain largely 
  inaccessible through advancement, but if a PC ever earns those extras in 
  the fiction, then they should take those mechanics.
  • The limited-edition playbooks answer their “When our team first 
  came together” questions after every core playbook. If you’re using 
  more than one limited-edition playbook, they answer their questions in 
  clockwise order around your table.
  95
  
  96
  THE INNOCENT
  HERO NAME
  REAL NAME 
  Look
  • ambiguous, man, shifting, transgressing, woman
  • Asian or South Asian, Black, Hispanic/Latino, Indigenous, Middle Eastern, White
  • smooth-skinned face, chipper face, hopeful face, bright face, handsome face
  • old-fashioned clothing, haphazard clothing, well-tailored clothing, safe clothing
  • outdated costume, reflective costume, simplistic costume, gaudy costume, unique costume
  Time Period
  You traveled from the past to the 
  present. Choose the era you’re from:
   
  ❑  the ‘40’s–’50’s: the Gold Generation
   
  ❑  the ‘60’s–’70’s: the Silver Generation
   
  ❑  the ‘80’s–’90’s: the Bronze Generation
  Abilities
  You and your future self have the same core ability, 
  though your future self is better with it. Choose one:
   
  ❑   energy projection 
   
  ❑   shapeshifting 
   
  ❑   telepathy
   
  ❑   elemental control 
   
  ❑   super-speed 
   
  ❑   sound control
  
  97
  Labels
  (at character creation, add +1 wherever you choose)
  DANGER 
   -2  
   -1  
    0   
   +1  
   +2  
   +3
  FREAK 
   -2  
   -1  
    0   
   +1  
   +2  
   +3 
  SAVIOR 
   -2  
   -1  
    0   
   +1  
   +2  
   +3 
  SUPERIOR 
   -2  
   -1  
    0   
   +1  
   +2  
   +3 
  MUNDANE 
   -2  
   -1  
    0   
   +1  
   +2  
   +3 
  Conditions
   
  ❑ Afraid 
  (-2 to directly engage a threat)
   
  ❑ Angry 
  (-2 to comfort or support or pierce the mask) 
   
  ❑ Guilty 
  (-2 to provoke someone or assess the situation)
   
  ❑ Hopeless (-2 to unleash your powers)
   
  ❑ Insecure (-2 to defend someone or reject others’ influence) 
  Backstory
  • Who or what brought you to the present?
  • When did you first meet your future self?
  • How is your future self the embodiment of a future you never wanted?
  • What is your favorite part of life in the future? Your least favorite part?
  • Why are you determined to stay in the present with this team?
  Once you’ve finished your backstory, introduce your character to the other players, and then 
  determine what happened when your team first came together, the relationships between you and 
  your teammates, and who has Influence over you.
  When our team first came together...
  My future self was involved, and I tried to stop them. It took the rest of the team to help me 
  succeed. How did we stymie my future self’s plans?
  Relationships
  __________________ is helping me understand this weirdo future. I follow their lead.
  I saved someone important to __________________; they’re now my biggest defender.
  Influence
  These people are your guides, your friends, and the ones helping you find a better way. But you 
  are careful about whose guidance you follow. Give Influence over you to two teammates.
  
  98
  Innocent Moves
  (Choose two)
   
  ❑   Making amends: When you make yourself 
  vulnerable while comforting or supporting 
  someone you (or your future self) has fought or hurt, 
  take +2 to the roll. If you miss or they refuse to open 
  up, mark a condition and take a powerful blow.
   
  ❑  Growing into power: When you unleash your 
  powers to do something your future self can do, 
  mark a condition to roll + Savior instead of + Freak.
   
  ❑  See it their way: When you reject someone’s 
  Influence when they equate you with your future 
  self, roll + Savior instead of + nothing. When you 
  accept someone’s Influence when they equate you 
  with your future self, mark potential.
   
  ❑  What’s this thing?: When you ask for someone else’s 
  guidance on the modern world, they must tell you 
  what they think you should do or how you should 
  act. If you act that way, clear a condition and shift 
  Mundane up and any other Label down. If you act 
  that way and it goes poorly, mark potential.
   
  ❑  White knight: When you give a speech on morality 
  and heroism, you can provoke someone with 
  Savior instead of Superior.
   
  ❑  Martyr: When you take a powerful blow while 
  defending someone or something, you may shift 
  Savior up and any other Label down.
  Your Future Self
  Your future self is out there, an important figure in Halcyon City and the world beyond—and 
  everything you’d hoped you’d never be. But finding out how they became who they are may be all 
  it takes to push you along a similar path. Pick one step of your future self’s path that you already 
  know about, and circle it.
  • They lost someone they cared about deeply
  • They failed horrifically in a noble pursuit or cause
  • They committed a major crime
  • They betrayed a close friend or ally
  • They won a victory at enormous cost 
  to the world around them
  • They killed someone
  • They publicly battled another hero
  • They injured an innocent
  When you learn of another step of your 
  future self’s path, circle it. You can have at 
  most 5 steps circled.  When you undergo an 
  experience that echoes one of the above (your 
  call), strike it out.
  When you strike out a circled step, or circle a 
  struck out step, choose one of the following:
   
  ❑  Replace comfort or support with the following: 
  When you coldly dismiss someone, roll + 
  Mundane. On a hit, they mark a condition or 
  leave you alone, their choice. On a 7-9, they can 
  also choose to inflict a condition on you.
   
  ❑  Replace defend someone with the following: 
  When you aggressively defend a large group 
  or area, roll + Savior. On a hit, you create an 
  opportunity for yourself to press the attack, and 
  take +1 forward to pursue it. On a 10+, the 
  collateral damage is minimal.
   
  ❑  Replace provoke someone with the following: 
  When you threaten someone, say what you want 
  them to do and roll + Superior. On a hit, they either 
  do it or they are put at a significant disadvantage 
  against you, their choice. On a 10+, either way 
  they mark a condition, your choice.
   
  ❑  Replace reject someone’s Influence with the 
  following: When you spit in the face of guidance 
  or Influence, roll + 2. On a hit, take away their 
  Influence over you or clear a condition, your 
  choice. On a 7-9, you both take a powerful blow 
  from the intensity of your words.
   
  ❑  Become an NPC antagonist—your path is 
  irreconcilably set along the same course that 
  your future self followed.
  
  99
  Moment of Truth
  You’ve fought, struggled, and worked so hard to figure out who you are, whether you’re just the 
  same as your future self or whether you’re different...but right now, that’s all out the window. The 
  distinction between your future self and your present self vanishes in the face of the trial before 
  you, and you become exactly the powerful, adamant figure that everyone fears or hopes you will 
  one day become. You can do exactly what your future self could do, and everyone around you sees 
  them in you more clearly than ever. Of course, after this it’s going to be hard to treat you as two 
  different people...
  Team Moves
  When you share a triumphant celebration with someone, ask whether they think your future 
  self could’ve won this victory. If they do, mark potential and the GM shifts your Labels. If they do 
  not, clear a condition and they shift your Labels. 
  When you share a vulnerability or weakness with someone, ask them if they think you could 
  turn into your future self. If they do, mark potential and the GM shifts your Labels. If they do not, 
  clear a condition and they shift your Labels.
  POTENTIAL  >>>>❑    >>>>❑    >>>>❑    >>>>❑    >>>>❑   
  Every time you roll a miss on a move, mark potential. 
  Advancement 
  When you fill your potential track, you advance. Choose from the list below. 
   
  ❑  Take another move from your playbook
   
  ❑  Take another move from your playbook
   
  ❑  Take a move from another playbook
   
  ❑  Take a move from another playbook
   
  ❑  Someone permanently loses Influence over you; 
  add +1 to a Label
   
  ❑  Rearrange your Labels as you choose, and add 
  +1 to a Label
   
  ❑  Unlock your Moment of Truth
   
  ❑  Choose a mentor for yourself (from the Protégé’s 
  playbook)
  When you’ve taken five advances from the top list, you can take advances from the list below.
   
  ❑  Unlock your Moment of Truth after it’s been used 
  once
   
  ❑  Change playbooks
   
  ❑  Take an adult move
   
  ❑  Take an adult move
   
  ❑  Lock a Label, and add +1 to a Label of your 
  choice
   
  ❑  Go back to your own time or become a paragon of 
  the city
  Other Moves 
  
  100
  PLAYING THE INNOCENT
  Hopeful, troubled, out of place, noble. The Innocent is the kid version of a dangerous 
  person, in whom anyone else can see the potential for great nobility...and the potential for 
  great horror. Their story is all about simultaneously being an unformed font of possibility 
  while having clear evidence for a particular life path in front of them. 
  Your future self will be a major character in the story from character creation, but 
  early on, they’re liable to be a bit of a flat stereotype. Discovering your future self’s path 
  is the means by which you make them more and more sympathetic. Always pursue 
  opportunities to learn about that path. After all, who wouldn’t be curious about the events 
  that made their future self into a particular kind of person? If you have the chance to talk 
  to a villain who knew your future self in their early days, do it. If you have the chance to 
  talk directly to your future self, take it. And if ever you feel like something fits one of the 
  steps as listed in Your Future Self, don’t hesitate to circle it.
  Similarly, don’t hesitate to strike out a step that your Innocent seems to have 
  encountered, and don’t hesitate to push into those situations. Your Innocent is walking a 
  dangerous path; actively avoiding that path can be interesting and save them from villainy, 
  but won’t tap the dramatic core of the playbook. Nor will it give you some of those neat 
  additional unique abilities of the playbook. So play into the path. Take actions that seem 
  nasty. A good rate is to circle one step every two sessions, and strike out one step every 
  two or three sessions.
  If you need a break from the drama of the Innocent, play into the time-lost Innocent. 
  There’s a lot of fun and humor to be had in the Innocent being in a strange world, and 
  it’s great for providing an excuse to hang out with your teammates and for getting the 
  Innocent’s Labels shifted, as well.
  NOTES ON YOUR MOVES AND EXTRAS
  • 
  You are the ultimate judge of whether you should strike out or circle one of the 
  steps to your future self, but use the GM to help you make your decisions.
  • 
  For Growing into power, you explicitly know three things that your future self 
  can do that you can’t from your abilities section, but the move also applies to 
  anything else you’ve seen your future self do over the course of play.
  • 
  For What’s this thing?, the GM is the final arbiter of whether or not it goes poorly 
  when you follow the other person’s advice.
  • 
  For Martyr, you can easily ensure you take a powerful blow while defending 
  someone any time you roll a 7-9 and choose to expose yourself to danger. You 
  should also remind the GM of this move when you roll a miss on defending 
  someone.
  
  101
  • 
  When you replace one of your basic moves with one from Your Future Self, it 
  means you no longer have access to that basic move. You cannot trigger it. In any 
  situation when you would, either resort to another move if possible, or the GM 
  says what happens.
  INSPIRATION FOR THE INNOCENT
  Cyclops, All-New X-Men
  Iron Lad,Young Avengers
  Genesis, Wolverine and the X-Men
  The Hulk/Maestro, The Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect
  Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes), Young Justice
  INNOCENT GM ADVICE
  • 
  Confront them with their future self
  • 
  Mirror the steps on their future self’s path
  • 
  Show them an absurdity of the present (their future)
  • 
  Show them an artifact of the past (their present)
  • 
  Judge them by their future self’s standard
  The Innocent is a simultaneously hopeful and dark hero. They are, themselves, hopeful 
  and light, but they are on a path to becoming something much more dangerous, and the 
  drama of the playbook comes from toying with that path. Give the Innocent plenty of 
  reasons and opportunities to venture down that path. Don’t let their life be easy, and don’t 
  ever let them forget the other person that people see when they look at the Innocent.
  Introducing the Innocent into your game immediately creates an important figure in 
  your Halcyon City setting—the Innocent’s future self. They need to be someone all of the 
  other characters would recognize and fear. Make sure to integrate the future self into the 
  setting through your questions. Don’t let their future self ever appear definitively to be a 
  villain. It’s your job to play on their choices and make sure their future self really seems 
  sympathetic, like a future version of them who’s been through hell.
  
  102
  THE JOINED
  YOUR OTHER HALF  
  (CHOOSE ANOTHER PC TO BE YOUR OTHER HALF; CREATE YOUR CHARACTER WITH THEM)
  HERO NAME  
  (CHOOSE YOUR HERO NAME AFTER YOU KNOW THE HERO NAME OF YOUR OTHER HALF)
  REAL NAME 
  Look
  You look similar to your other half, and your costume choice is always the same as theirs. Choose 
  two other options they have selected that you share; then, choose two options from the lists below.
  • ambiguous, man, shifting, transgressing, woman
  • Asian or South Asian, Black, Hispanic/Latino, Indigenous, Middle Eastern, White
  • brooding face, curious face, judging face, unreadable face
  • casual clothing, eccentric clothing, dark clothing, light clothing
  Abilities
  Your powers complement your other half’s. You have the same abilities they have. At least for now. 
  
  103
  Labels
  Your Labels start off the same as  
  your other half’s, but you may  
  shift up any one Label, and shift  
  down any one Label.
   
   
  Conditions
   
  ❑ Afraid 
  (-2 to directly engage a threat)
   
  ❑ Angry 
  (-2 to comfort or support or pierce the mask) 
   
  ❑ Guilty 
  (-2 to provoke someone or assess the situation)
   
  ❑ Hopeless (-2 to unleash your powers)
   
  ❑ Insecure (-2 to defend someone or reject others’ influence) 
  Backstory
  • How did you and your other half become connected?
  • Who or what did you have to give up because of your connection?
  • Apart from your powers, what keeps you together?
  • Someone outside the team thinks you’d be better off on your own. Who are they and why do they think that?
  • Why do you care about the team?
  Once you’ve finished your backstory, introduce your character to the other players, and then 
  determine what happened when your team first came together, the relationships between you and 
  your teammates, and who has Influence over you.
  When our team first came together...
  The connection between our two halves was threatened by the crisis. How? By what?
  Relationships
  When you have problems with your other half, you talk to _________________. 
  You are jealous of the relationship between your other half and _________________, and you 
  keep trying to interject yourself.
  Influence
  Are you more or less trusting than your other half? If more trusting, give out one more Influence 
  than they did. If less, then give out one less Influence than they did. 
  If you didn’t get Influence over your other half, then take it now. If you didn’t give Influence to your 
  other half, then give it now.
  DANGER 
   -2  
   -1  
    0    +1  
   +2   +3
  FREAK 
   -2  
   -1  
    0    +1  
   +2   +3 
  SAVIOR 
   -2  
   -1  
    0    +1  
   +2   +3 
  SUPERIOR 
   -2  
   -1  
    0    +1  
   +2   +3 
  MUNDANE 
   -2  
   -1  
    0    +1  
   +2   +3 
  
  104
  Your Other Half
  You share a deep bond with your other half. You are stronger together than you are apart, for 
  now. If your other half is a Delinquent, Outsider, or Transformed, take two moves from their  
  playbook: one they have and one they don’t. Remember that you share much beyond your moves; 
  i.e., if your other half is an Outsider, you both hail from the same dimension/planet/etc. For all 
  other playbooks, you share in the core extras of your other half. 
  • 
  Beacon: Take drives and mark four of your 
  choice. When your other half strikes out a drive, 
  strike it out as well.
  • 
  Bull: Take The Bull’s Heart with the same love 
  and rival as your other half. Choose a different 
  role that you commonly fulfill. 
  • 
  Janus: Take The Mask and a secret identity. 
  Choose a different Label for your Mask. Take two 
  obligations: one shared, one unique to you. 
  • 
  Legacy: Take a legacy. Your other half fills in as 
  many names in the initial list as they choose; 
  you fill in the rest. You can never answer the 
  questions for your other half’s Legacy move.
  • 
  Protégé: You share a mentor with your other 
  half. When they finish defining your mentor and 
  resources, choose an additional resource.
  • 
  Doomed: Take a sanctuary, a doom, and a 
  doom track: You and your other half share the 
  conditions that bring your doom closer and a 
  doom track; when it fills, you both choose a 
  new doomsign. You start with the doomsign 
  your other half chose. Your other half picks the 
  initial features and downsides of your shared 
  sanctuary. You choose one more of each.
  • 
  Nova: Take burn and four flares, two shared and 
  two unique to you.
  Bonds and Distinctions
  At character creation you start with Two of a kind, and choose one other bond. When either you or 
  your other half locks a Label, cross off one of your chosen bonds and choose a distinction.
  BONDS:
   
  ❑  Two of a kind: When time passes, you and your 
  other half gain Influence over each other. When 
  you or your other half pierces the other’s mask, 
  mark a condition to take a 10+.
   
  ❑  Fastball special: When you perform a coordinated 
  fighting maneuver with your other half, say who 
  takes the lead and who assists. The leader rolls 
  the adult move overwhelm a vulnerable foe. The 
  assistant marks a condition.
   
  ❑  Powers, activate!: When you and your other half 
  pool your powers, say who takes the lead and who 
  assists. The leader unleashes their powers with 
  your combined Freak (max+4). The assistant shifts 
  Savior down, Mundane up.
   
  ❑  Four eyes are better: When you and your other half 
  assess the situation from two different vantage points, 
  one of you makes the move, and the other may either 
  clear a condition or ask an additional question. You 
  both get +1 when following the answers.
  DISTINCTIONS:
   
  ❑  Mirror, mirror: When you pierce someone’s mask, 
  you can ask them “What are you really feeling right 
  now?”, even on a miss. If you do, they can ask you 
  the same question.
   
  ❑  Shouldering the burden: When you push yourself 
  to do something your other half failed at or can’t 
  do, mark a condition to use the adult move wield 
  your powers.
   
  ❑  Going solo: When you directly engage a threat 
  entirely on your own, you can roll + Superior 
  instead of + Danger.
   
  ❑  Internal strife: When you snipe about your other 
  half behind their back, remove one Team from the 
  pool and clear a condition.
  ✔
  
  105
  Moment of Truth
  When you trigger your Moment of Truth, choose—are you working with your other half, or are 
  you on your own?
  If you’re working with your other half, use the text of their Moment of Truth and treat it as if it 
  applies to both of you. Remember to lock your Label and switch a bond to a distinction because 
  you’ll probably never reach these heights of perfect connection, of being one, ever again…
  If you’re on your own, use the following text:
  You’re on your own. It’s like missing an arm. Like fighting naked. Like holding your breath. You’re 
  missing something vital...but you’re moving faster than ever, thinking faster than ever, doing 
  things you couldn’t even do while relying on both of your strength combined. And it’s hitting you, 
  hard—you can do this. Without them. And you can win. It’s going to be hard to come down off 
  this high and rejoin with them afterwards, isn’t it?
  Remember to lock a Label and switch a bond to a distinction, afterward.
  Team Moves
  When one of you shares moment of vulnerability or shares a triumphant celebration without 
  the other one present, mark a condition to mark a potential.
  POTENTIAL  >>>>❑    >>>>❑    >>>>❑    >>>>❑    >>>>❑   
  Every time you roll a miss on a move, mark potential. 
  Advancement 
  When you fill your potential track, you advance. Choose from the list below. 
   
  ❑ Take one new bond
   
  ❑ Take one new distinction
   
  ❑ Take a move from another playbook
   
  ❑ Gain two new abilities from any playbook
   
  ❑ Take an advancement from your other half’s playbook
   
  ❑ Someone permanently loses Influence over you; 
  add +1 to a Label
   
  ❑ Rearrange your Labels as you choose, and add +1 
  to a Label 
   
  ❑ Unlock your Moment of Truth
  When you’ve taken five advances from the top list, you can take advances from the list below.
   
  ❑  Unlock your Moment of Truth after it’s been  
  used once
   
  ❑  Change playbooks
   
  ❑  Take an adult move
   
  ❑  Take an adult move
   
  ❑  Lock a Label, and add +1 to a Label of your 
  choice
   
  ❑  Retire from the life or become a paragon of  
  the city
  Other Moves 
  
  106
  PLAYING THE JOINED
  Unsure, supportive, jealous, defiant. The Joined is a mix of emotions and ideas, defined 
  more by the hero to whom they are connected than by anything else. The Joined is 
  different from any other playbook in Masks, and making it work requires substantial 
  buy-in from all the players involved. Don’t play the Joined unless both you and the other 
  player are on-board. 
  Both the Joined’s player and their partner player need to be okay with shared 
  uniqueness. You will share in a lot of the same powers and abilities, and in some ways 
  that diminishes the other character’s uniqueness. No one should agree to play your other 
  half if they really want to have sole access to their playbook’s cool stuff.
  Because of the connection between the two characters, creating the Joined is a much 
  more collaborative process. You can’t start the Joined without knowing to whom you are 
  connected, and you should let them finish a lot of the initial steps of their character before 
  you get into the Joined. As such, creating a Joined can’t be a “heads-down” kind of thing. 
  Talk to the other player and bounce ideas off each other throughout the process.
  During play, you will obviously spend a lot of time with the character to whom you are 
  joined. But make sure your Joined develops relationships with the other PCs, outside of 
  that primary connection. The story of the Joined moves toward separation and distinction, 
  and you can’t have that story without the opportunity for each half to define themself 
  independently.
  Use locking a Label to mark the moments when your Joined defines themself separately 
  from their other half. Most of the time, locking a Label comes after using a Moment 
  of Truth, so watch out for when you or your other half wants to do that. Remember 
  that when either of you locks a Label, a bond switches to a distinction. If you have no 
  more bonds to switch to distinctions, then you’re already pretty divided—nothing extra 
  happens.
  NOTES ON YOUR MOVES AND EXTRAS
  • 
  For Your other half, you’re probably going to need to borrow your other half’s 
  playbook for a bit, to jot down all the relevant information. It may help for you to 
  have a spare copy of their playbook yourself. 
  • 
  For Fastball Special and Powers, Activate!, you’ll need to say who’s in the lead. 
  Go with your gut about which one of you is leading the maneuver. If you and 
  your other half wind up talking too long about it, then that’s the equivalent of 
  giving the GM a golden opportunity—instead of doing your cool maneuver, 
  you’re bickering.
  • 
  For Going solo, you really have to engage the threat on your own. If any teammate 
  could potentially spend Team from the pool to help you, then you’re not really 
  on your own.
  
  107
  • 
  For Internal strife, sniping about your other half behind their back requires you 
  to have an audience—you can’t just grumble to yourself, under your breath. 
  INSPIRATION FOR THE JOINED
  The Stepford Cuckoos, New X-Men
  The Wonder Twins, Super Friends
  Scylla and Charybdis, Irredeemable
  Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, Avengers
  Cloak and Dagger, Cloak and Dagger
  JOINED GM ADVICE
  • 
  Offer them, and them alone, opportunities for success or fun
  • 
  Flaunt the abilities and successes of their other half in front of them
  • 
  Mistake them and their other half for being each other, or a single entity
  • 
  Express interest in them, and them alone
  • 
  Separate them
  The Joined is an advanced playbook, and as soon as two players agree to play with it, 
  they’re taking on a higher burden than a normal Masks playbook. They’re agreeing to have 
  their stories deeply entwined, to share a lot of the cool bits of their playbooks, and to bounce 
  off each other for the rest of the story. That can be absolutely amazing, but they will need 
  your help to make it come together.
  In general, use the Joined only when you have 4 or more PCs. That way, you’ll have 
  at least two other PCs outside of the Joined’s core connection. Any fewer, and the game 
  becomes less about the team and more about the Joined.
  Keep an eye out for the Joined and their other half becoming too wrapped up in their 
  own world. If the Joined and their other half are barely interacting with any other PCs at 
  all, then there’s a problem. Put them in situations where they’re forced to act as individuals, 
  with the other PCs around.
  Use your NPCs to simultaneously divide them and force them together. Push in the 
  opposite of whichever direction they’re already tending. If they’re coming together, separate 
  them by having an NPC offer an opportunity to only the Joined and not their other half. 
  If they’re separate from each other, smoosh them together by having a major hero think of 
  them only as a single unit, or mistake them for each other.
  Your job when dealing with the Joined is to make the rest of the world intrudes on their 
  relationship. Chances are, the two players involved will already be interested in the drama 
  and stakes of the relationship. You need to make sure neither one forgets that the rest of the 
  world has thoughts about their relationship, as well.
  
  108
  ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FOR THE JOINED
  In general, we recommend using the Joined with one of the core Masks playbooks. The 
  Joined emphasizes the elements of whatever playbook they attach to, so attaching them to 
  a Limited Edition playbook can put an overbearing emphasis on that LE playbook’s issues 
  instead of the core themes of Masks.
  That said, for any of a number of reasons, you may still decide to do just that at your table. 
  So here are rules you can use to play the Joined with any of the other playbooks in this book, 
  along with some additional rules for adjusting the Joined to fit any other playbook you might 
  want to bring in. These rules are all modifications of the Joined’s extra, Your other half. 
  • 
  The Star: You share an audience with your other half. When they finish defining 
  your audience, choose at least one option different from your other half for why your 
  audience loves you; choose one additional advantage; and choose one additional 
  demand your audience makes on you. 
  • 
  The Reformed: Take Friends in Low Places. You share two of the same contacts 
  as your other half, and one different. You track obligations together; any time one 
  of you marks obligation on a contact you share, the other does as well. Any time 
  one of you erases obligation on a contact you share, the other does as well. 
  • 
  The Newborn: Take A Blank Slate. At the start of play, you share the same two 
  lessons with your other half. Any time either of you fills in a lesson, the other can 
  mark potential to write the same lesson. Any time either of you rejects a lesson and 
  erases it, the other can mark a condition to do the same. 
  • 
  The Innocent: Take Your Future Self. At the start of play, circle the same step of 
  your future self’s path as your other half. When either of you strikes out a circled 
  step or circles a struck out step, the other does the same and chooses an option 
  from the list. 
  RULES FOR ADJUSTING “YOUR OTHER 
  HALF” FOR OTHER PLAYBOOKS
  When you want to play a new playbook with the Joined, first identify whether that 
  playbook has any core extras, such as the Nova’s burns and flares, or the Beacon’s drives. 
  If not, you can use the same rules as for the Delinquent, Outsider, or Transformed:  the 
  Joined takes two moves from their other half’s playbook, one the other half already has 
  and one they don’t.
  If the other playbook has its own core extra, the Joined shares in the core rules for that 
  extra, having the same fundamental abilities, advantages, and costs. The two playbooks do 
  not, then, share in any playbook moves—just elements of the core extra.
  
  109
  If there is a core extra to share, determine if the extra grants special abilities and 
  mechanical advantages, or if it grants elements in the fiction. 
  An extra grants special abilities and mechanical advantages when it primarily equips 
  a PC with new mechanical abilities and internal motivations, without giving them new 
  resources outside of themselves. For example, The Bull’s Heart grants special abilities and 
  mechanical advantages because it deals with the Bull’s internal feelings and gives them 
  mechanical abilities when acting with regard to those feelings. 
  If an extra grants special abilities and mechanical advantages, then the Joined gets the 
  same number of mechanical advantages, and the two characters share in some element of 
  how those resources operate. For example, the Beacon gets to mark four of their drives as 
  they choose, and so too does a Joined attached to a Beacon. They can choose four totally 
  different drives, but they still share in the same set of drives, because when either of them 
  strikes out a drive, the other must cross off the same drive. Similarly, the Nova gets to 
  choose four flares, and a Joined attached to a Nova also gets four flares. However, they 
  must choose two to share with their other half and two unique, to ensure they share some 
  element of the extra, while also being different in their exact capabilities. 
  An extra grants elements in the fiction when it grants the character new allies or 
  resources that then exist in the world independent of that character. For example, the 
  Protégé’s mentor and resources grant elements in the fiction, things that exist outside of 
  the Protégé and their mechanics.
  If the extra grants elements in the fiction, the Joined’s other half can still make the core 
  choices for that playbook’s extra. The Joined can then add to or embellish upon those 
  initial choices. For example, if a Joined’s other half was a Legacy, then the Legacy still 
  makes all the initial name choices for their Legacy extra. The Joined then gets to fill in any 
  other names from their Legacy extra. 
  If an extra grants elements in the fiction along with lists of choices for those elements, 
  then the Joined chooses one additional option from each list to add to those chosen by 
  their other half.  For example, the Protégé gets to choose the resources they receive from 
  their mentor, and then the Joined gets to choose one additional resource.
  There will always be some element of judgment and modification necessary in syncing up 
  the Joined with another playbook (just like in creating or tweaking any playbook!), but 
  with these general guidelines, you should have a good place to start!
  
  110
  THE NEWBORN
  HERO NAME
  REAL NAME 
  Look
  • ambiguous, man, shifting, transgressing, woman
  • Asian or South Asian, Black, Hispanic/Latino, Indigenous, Middle Eastern, White
  • crystal skin, metal skin, green skin, human skin
  • mismatched clothing, concealing clothing, immaculate clothing, plain clothing
  • prototype uniform, over the top costume, your own skin, unnerving costume, no costume
  Abilities
  Your powers are based on your unique physical configuration. Choose two and describe how they 
  are part of your body.
   
  ❑  elemental form 
   
  ❑  solid light projection 
   
  ❑  sonic bursts
   
  ❑  fantastic elasticity
   
  ❑  super durability and strength 
   
  ❑  thermal control
   
  
  111
  Labels
  (at character creation, add +1 wherever you choose)
  DANGER 
   -2  
   -1  
    0   
   +1  
   +2  
   +3
  FREAK 
   -2  
   -1  
    0   
   +1  
   +2  
   +3 
  SAVIOR 
   -2  
   -1  
    0   
   +1  
   +2  
   +3 
  SUPERIOR 
   -2  
   -1  
    0   
   +1  
   +2  
   +3 
  MUNDANE 
   -2  
   -1  
    0   
   +1  
   +2  
   +3 
  Conditions
   
  ❑ Afraid 
  (-2 to directly engage a threat)
   
  ❑ Angry 
  (-2 to comfort or support or pierce the mask) 
   
  ❑ Guilty 
  (-2 to provoke someone or assess the situation)
   
  ❑ Hopeless (-2 to unleash your powers)
   
  ❑ Insecure (-2 to defend someone or reject others’ influence) 
  Backstory
  •  Who created you, and why? 
  •  How are you different from humans?
  •  Who, outside of the team, is your caretaker?
  •  What about humanity fascinates you the most?
  •  Why do you care about the team?
  Once you’ve finished your backstory, introduce your character to the other players, and then 
  determine what happened when your team first came together, the relationships between you and 
  your teammates, and who has Influence over you.
  When our team first came together...
  The team discovered you during the incident; thanks to them, you reached the outside world and 
  helped in the fight. Where and how did they find you? Who gave you your first nickname?
  Relationships
  ________________ is an exemplary human; they show you around and tell you how things work.
  The behavior of ________________ confuses you again and again; you’re determined to 
  understand humanity better by studying them.
  Influence
  You’re receptive to how people think and behave around you. Give Influence to all of your teammates.
  
  112
  Newborn Moves
  (Choose two)
   
  ❑ □ Not from around here: When you act clueless, goofy, 
  or confused to get out of a sticky mundane situation, 
  roll + Freak. On a hit, you create an opportunity, 
  a distraction, or a plausible excuse. On a 7-9, you 
  also feel all the weight of playing the clown and of 
  the people staring at you. The GM shifts one of your 
  Labels up and one down. On a miss, no one is fooled, 
  and you’ve put yourself in their crosshairs.
   
  ❑ □ Thermodynamic miracle: When you comfort or 
  support someone by telling them what makes them 
  unique, roll + Freak instead of Mundane. If they 
  open up to you, shift Freak up and Mundane down. 
  If they don’t, mark a condition.
   
  ❑ □ A mind of their own: Your powers evolve and 
  mutate. When you are facing an obstacle or threat 
  that your powers would not be able to deal with, you 
  can mark a condition to gain brand new abilities 
  adapted to the situation. You lose these new powers 
  once the danger is gone.
   
  ❑ □ Damage: You get an additional condition called 
  Damaged. While marked, take +1 to take a 
  powerful blow. 
  To clear the Damaged condition, you need time, 
  external help, or special equipment or abilities.
   
  ❑  Regeneration: When you’re taken out, you can 
  trigger an emergency regeneration process. If 
  you do, your body undergoes an unpredictable 
  transformation, and in mere moments, you’re 
  back on your feet and ready to fight. Clear three 
  conditions and choose three from the list below:
  - Change your gender identity or presentation
  - Change your physical appearance
  - Forget all your lessons
  - Lose an important memory of a teammate; 
  they lose Influence over you
  - Swap an ability with another one from the 
  Newborn playbook
  A Blank Slate
  You were created with a basic understanding of the world. When you learn something that helps 
  you make sense of the world, write it down as a lesson. Fill in two lessons when you create your 
  character; fill in the other two when you’ve learned those lessons during play.
   
  ❑  I am _____________________________________________________________________ 
   
  ❑  A superhero should ___________________________________________________________ 
   
  ❑  Always ___________________________________________________________________  
   
  ❑  Never ____________________________________________________________________
  When you embody one of your lessons, shift one Label up and one Label down, your choice. If 
  you cause a misunderstanding, collateral damage, or unintended consequences in the process, 
  mark potential. When you reject one of your lessons, reject its Influence as if it were an NPC. If 
  you choose to have it lose Influence over you, erase that lesson and write a new one in its stead.
  When you approach your creator or caretakers with a problem, tell them what obstacle you face 
  or what you need to achieve, and they will offer you something you need. The GM chooses one:
  • secret information
  • a way to temporarily boost or expand your powers
  • access to instruments, weapons, or resources
  • official and explicit backing
  If you accept their help, they rewrite one of your lessons for you.
  
  113
  Moment of Truth
  Something snaps into focus, and suddenly you’re a full thing, true and complete. You’d never 
  have known how fragmented you were before, if not for here, this moment. You’re not a series of 
  individual lessons. You’re not a series of subroutines and programs. You’re...a person. This must be 
  what it’s like to be...human. And this fullness? It gives you a control over yourself, a unity of purpose 
  you’ve never experienced before. Of course, now that you’re showing off all your potential, it’s only a 
  matter of time before someone comes forward to reduce you to a machine again...
  Team Moves
  When you share a triumphant celebration with someone, ask them what makes them proud or 
  happy about the actions they took and write a lesson based on it, either filling an empty slot or 
  replacing an existing lesson.
  When you share a vulnerability or weakness with someone, if their response helps you 
  understand human feelings and problems, mark potential. If their response confuses or offends 
  you, shift your Freak up and your Mundane down.
  POTENTIAL  >>>>❑    >>>>❑    >>>>❑    >>>>❑    >>>>❑   
  Every time you roll a miss on a move, mark potential. 
  Advancement 
  When you fill your potential track, you advance. Choose from the list below. 
   
  ❑  Take another move from your playbook
   
  ❑  Take another move from your playbook
   
  ❑  Take a move from another playbook
   
  ❑  Take a move from another playbook
   
  ❑  Someone permanently loses Influence over you; 
  add +1 to a Label
   
  ❑  Rearrange your Labels as you choose, and add 
  +1 to a Label
   
  ❑   Unlock your Moment of Truth
   
  ❑  Get burn and three flares (from the Nova’s 
  playbook)
  When you’ve taken five advances from the top list, you can take advances from the list below.
   
  ❑  Unlock your Moment of Truth after it’s been  
  used once
   
  ❑  Lock down your lessons and change playbooks
   
  ❑  Take an adult move
   
  ❑  Take an adult move
   
  ❑  Lock a Label, and add +1 to a Label of your 
  choice
   
  ❑  Retire from the life or become a paragon  
  of the city
  Other Moves 
  
  114
  PLAYING THE NEWBORN
  Curious, strange, quixotic, dogmatic. The Newborn is a kid trying to figure out how the world 
  works, and clinging to principles in an attempt to impose order on their understanding of it. 
  They don’t quite know for sure what their ideals are or should be, but they’re testing them 
  out with every action and idea. The rest of the world has a vested interested in reshaping 
  the Newborn, thanks to all of their potential power. Unlike other Masks PCs, the Newborn 
  can be reshaped not just in terms of Labels, but in terms of hard-coded pieces of morality. 
  If you’re playing the Newborn, you are in charge of tracking your lessons. They are 
  critical to your character, but they’re very internally focused. You need to pay attention to 
  them more than any other player in the game. You are in charge of making them matter at 
  every turn. Remind the other players, GM included, about them and how they’re influencing 
  your decisions. Since you’re the final arbiter of how you act with regard to the lessons, you 
  are in charge of calling it out and making the other players notice.
  That said, be prepared for the flip side situation—when other characters take direct interest 
  in what you believe, the lessons you’ve internalized. That leads to brilliant drama, which is exactly 
  what you want, but it’s a natural tendency to resist such influence and manipulation. Don’t—at 
  least not outright. Part of the fun of the Newborn is changing those beliefs in light of others’ 
  attentions, and it only benefits you to go through the process of rejecting an existing belief, 
  experimenting with the new one, causing some damage, and then starting all over.
  That’s an important piece of the Newborn to keep in mind—push your new beliefs to 
  the point where they create fallout and consequences. The Newborn is like a dogmatic 
  philosophy freshman, playing with new forms of morality, pushing them to their 
  extremes...except the Newborn has superpowers, and when they push it to extremes, 
  things get broken. Don’t hesitate to go there.
  NOTES ON YOUR MOVES AND EXTRAS
  • 
  For A mind of their own, you gain new abilities, meaning superpowers like 
  telekinesis, elemental control, or whatever else you can come up with.
  • 
  For Damage, the new condition Damaged functions like any other condition, 
  adding to the take a powerful blow move, giving you another possible condition 
  to check off before being taken out, and so on. The only way to clear Damaged, 
  however, is through repair. A teammate cannot, for example, comfort or support 
  you and help you clear the Damaged condition...unless that comfort or support is 
  explicitly helping you to repair yourself.
  • 
  For Blank slate, the GM is the final arbiter of whether or not you embody one 
  of your lessons. Never shift Labels for embodying a lesson without calling it out 
  and making sure the GM agrees. The GM is also the final arbiter of whether or 
  not you cause misunderstanding, collateral damage, or unintended consequences 
  
  115
  when embodying your lesson. You can always choose to reject one of your lessons 
  at any time, but you must do something to actually trigger the move, the same as 
  the regular reject Influence move.
  • 
  For Regeneration, being taken out explicitly means needing to mark a condition 
  and being unable to do so because they are all already marked. If you take this 
  move, you should try to rack up those conditions—don’t always get rid of them. 
  Otherwise you will never get to play with the move!
  INSPIRATION FOR THE NEWBORN
  The Vision, Young Avengers
  Superboy, Young Justice
  X-23, X-Men
  Idie Okonkwo, X-Men
  Victor Mancha, Runaways
  NEWBORN GM ADVICE
  • 
  Teach them a new lesson
  • 
  Correct an existing lesson
  • 
  Push one of their lessons to the brink
  • 
  Remind them of their fundamental inhumanity
  • 
  Exert ownership or control over them as a piece of property
  The Newborn is a strangely fluid playbook that makes explicit what is implicit in 
  many of the others. For the Newborn, moral lessons are hard-coded, written down on the 
  character sheet, and thereby granted all the more meaning and importance. The player 
  is the most involved with those lessons—monitoring them, watching them, and calling 
  out when they come into play—but that doesn’t mean you can ignore them. Pay attention 
  to those lessons as best you can, especially any time the Newborn writes a new one or 
  changes an existing lesson. Those are important moments that tell you a lot about where 
  the character is going...and where to press them dramatically.
  Also, you are the final arbiter of whether or not the Newborn embodies lessons, but 
  that doesn’t mean you should be stingy. Give them credit where it is due. 
  A great way to use NPCs around the Newborn is to teach them lessons, whether by 
  outright trying to communicate a new principle or arguing with an existing principle. 
  You can be very explicit with NPCs trying to teach the Newborn lessons, especially if they 
  know the Newborn’s true nature—the creator of an android is absolutely going to try to 
  teach the android in a straightforward fashion.
  Finally, the Newborn is a surprisingly durable playbook, where conditions matter a great 
  deal. Push them a lot. Make them mark conditions, especially if they’ve taken Damage or 
  Regeneration. Those moves signs that the Newborn wants to be punched. So don’t back off.
  
  116
  THE REFORMED
  HERO NAME
  REAL NAME 
  Look
  • ambiguous, man, shifting, transgressing, woman
  • Asian or South Asian, Black, Hispanic/Latino, Indigenous, Middle Eastern, White
  • sad eyes, technicolor eyes, shadowy eyes, gorgeous eyes
  • conservative clothes, school uniform, concealing fashion, expensive fashion
  • tattered costume, normal clothes, sleek costume, regal costume
  Abilities
  You’re young, but you’ve been around for a few years before switching teams. You know how to 
  fight, but you’re known for one ability more than any other. Choose one.
   
  ❑  poison, venom, or acid control  
   
  ❑  weapons and martial expertise  
   
  ❑  ferrokinesis
   
  ❑  vitality absorption 
   
  ❑  fear manipulation 
   
  ❑  geokinesis
   
  
  117
  Labels
  (at character creation, add +1 wherever you choose)
  DANGER 
   -2  
   -1  
    0   
   +1  
   +2  
   +3
  FREAK 
   -2  
   -1  
    0   
   +1  
   +2  
   +3 
  SAVIOR 
   -2  
   -1  
    0   
   +1  
   +2  
   +3 
  SUPERIOR 
   -2  
   -1  
    0   
   +1  
   +2  
   +3 
  MUNDANE 
   -2  
   -1  
    0   
   +1  
   +2  
   +3 
  Conditions
   
  ❑ Afraid 
  (-2 to directly engage a threat)
   
  ❑ Angry 
  (-2 to comfort or support or pierce the mask) 
   
  ❑ Guilty 
  (-2 to provoke someone or assess the situation)
   
  ❑ Hopeless (-2 to unleash your powers)
   
  ❑ Insecure (-2 to defend someone or reject others’ influence) 
  Backstory
  • Who mentored you in supervillainy?
  • Who first showed you that you could do good?
  • What was your goal as a villain?
  • What caused you to switch sides?
  • Why do you care about the team?
  Once you’ve finished your backstory, introduce your character to the other players, and then 
  determine what happened when your team first came together, the relationships between you and 
  your teammates, and who has Influence over you.
  When our team first came together...
  We fought a terrible enemy from my old life. Who was it and what did they take from me?
  Relationships
  I’ve earned the trust of _________________, and I follow their example of what a hero should be.
  I did something terrible to __________________ once. I hope they can forgive me one day.
  Influence
  Do you talk openly about your days as a villain? If so, give each team member Influence over you. 
  If not, just give Influence to the one teammate whose example you most closely follow.
  
  118
  Reformed Moves
  (Choose two)
   
  ❑  What the hell, hero: When you call out an 
  injustice that a hero has perpetrated, roll + 
  Danger. On a hit, take Influence over them. On a 
  7-9, choose one. On a 10+, choose two.
  - You get them to admit their wrongdoing
  -  You win over an onlooker; take Influence 
  over them
  - You don’t turn their attention and anger 
  onto yourself
  On a miss, they dismiss you; mark a condition 
  (their choice), shift Danger up, Savior down.
   
  ❑  Wrong side of the tracks: You always get to 
  ask an additional question when you pierce 
  the mask of a villain, even on a miss. When you 
  pierce the mask of a hero (your call), add this 
  question to the list:
  - what was your darkest moment?
   
  ❑  Not so different: When you provoke someone to 
  criminal or villainous action, you can use Danger 
  instead of Superior.
   
  ❑  Dark past: When you confess to a serious crime 
  you committed as a villain while in the presence of 
  someone involved, shift Danger up and any other 
  Label down, say what you did, and choose one.
  - No one was hurt badly by the crime
  - You aren’t in legal danger from the crime
  - You aren’t being actively pursued for 
  extralegal retribution
   
  ❑  Blowing off steam: When you commit a 
  misdemeanor or small “victimless” crime, you 
  may clear a condition of your choice.
   
  ❑  Do me a favor: When you go to an ordinary civilian 
  you know for a favor, roll + Mundane. On a 10+, 
  they’ll lend you a hand. On a 7-9, they need a 
  promise up front. On a miss, you catch them up in 
  your superpowered nonsense, and they suffer for it.
  Friends in Low Places
  You have ties to villains from your previous career. Choose three names to fill in:
  Finch, Ellen “Devil” Drummond, Mr. Cane, The Mad Magpie, Dr. Cutler, Armorer, Tegan Queen, Lovelace 
  For each of them, choose a specialty.
  _______________ Specialty: weapons, materials, cosmic artifacts, alien tech, insider info 
   
  Obligation: ❏ ❏ ❏ ❏
  _______________ Specialty: weapons, materials, cosmic artifacts, alien tech, insider info
   
  Obligation: ❏ ❏ ❏ ❏
  _______________ Specialty: weapons, materials, cosmic artifacts, alien tech, insider info
   
  Obligation: ❏ ❏ ❏ ❏
  When you create your character, mark two obligations on one villain, and mark one obligation on 
  another.
  When you come to them for help with your problems, mark obligation on them and they’ll help 
  out within their specialty. If all their boxes are full, then they won’t help you until you help them.
  When time passes, roll + your highest obligation. On a 10+, they come crashing into your life 
  with a crisis. On a 7-9, they call for a favor. On a miss, they don’t come knocking yet, but mark 
  obligation with them—the debts are getting heavier. 
  When you help one of these villains with their problems, erase two obligations on them.
  
  119
  Moment of Truth
  You’ve seen your greatest mistakes, and the rest of the world has, too. They’re all watching you 
  now, judging every move you make. When everything is on the line and your back is against the 
  wall, though, you’ll show them what you’re made of—that being a hero is a choice. An act of will. 
  And you’ve got what it takes to save the day. Of course, afterward, you can expect both sides, hero 
  and villain, to deeply question where your loyalties truly lie...
  Team Moves
  When you share a moment of triumph with someone, ask them what gives them hope for a 
  brighter day and give them Influence.
  When you share a vulnerability or weakness with someone, ask them what they would do 
  something dark for and gain Influence over them.
  POTENTIAL  >>>>❑    >>>>❑    >>>>❑    >>>>❑    >>>>❑   
  Every time you roll a miss on a move, mark potential. 
  Advancement 
  When you fill your potential track, you advance. Choose from the list below. 
   
  ❑  Take another move from your playbook
   
  ❑  Take another move from your playbook
   
  ❑  Take a move from another playbook
   
  ❑  Take a move from another playbook
   
  ❑  Someone permanently loses Influence over you; 
  add +1 to a Label
   
  ❑  Rearrange your Labels as you choose, and add 
  +1 to a Label
   
  ❑  Unlock your Moment of Truth
   
  ❑  Take drives and mark four (from the Beacon’s 
  playbook)
  When you’ve taken five advances from the top list, you can take advances from the list below.
   
  ❑  Unlock your Moment of Truth after it’s been  
  used once
   
  ❑  Change playbooks
   
  ❑  Take an adult move
   
  ❑  Take an adult move
   
  ❑  Lock a Label, and add +1 to a Label of your 
  choice
   
  ❑  Retire from the life or become a paragon of  
  the city
  Other Moves 
  
  120
  PLAYING THE REFORMED
  Haunted, redemptive, dangerous, tarnished. The Reformed is still young, but even in their 
  short time they’ve done things—if not quite unforgivable, then pushing the limits. They 
  filled the role of the villain, and they did it willingly and knowingly. And now they’re 
  trying to do better, to be better, but redemption doesn’t come that easily. 
  The key to playing the Reformed is to keep in mind that you’ve already been there. 
  You’ve already walked on the dark side. You’ve already done bad things. Not just silly 
  little pranks or tricks, the way the Delinquent might have. You were a villain. And you 
  specifically chose to abandon that life to be better. So while you may be drawn to take 
  criminal action, you’re also trying not to. You’re fighting your base impulses. Your bad 
  habits. Maybe even your addictions.
  That said, your old life wasn’t all bad. Yeah, you aren’t going to rob banks or hurt 
  people anymore, but you made friends. You developed relationships. And you got to 
  know those people the other heroes are all too likely to just dismiss as “villains.” It’s not 
  so easy to just cut all those people and relationships out of your life, especially when 
  they’re trying to pull you back in. Don’t hesitate to go to those characters outlined in 
  your Friends in Low Places for help, even if you are trying to be as noble as possible. 
  Those people have some hold on you, but also you have relationships with them.
  Finally, embrace the conflict likely to come from your teammates mistrusting you, or 
  the world mistrusting you. Don’t play the Reformed if you want to be assured that others 
  are going to see you as heroic. Your teammates and the world at large are all likely to come 
  at you harder than they might for any other character, but that’s what you signed up for. 
  NOTES ON YOUR MOVES AND EXTRAS
  • 
  For What the hell, hero, you get to determine the nature of the injustice you call 
  out. It shouldn’t be just a small perceived slight—the point of the move is to let 
  you accuse more heroic types of wrongdoing, forcing them to perk up and listen 
  because it’s a former villain doing it. They don’t have to agree with you that they 
  committed an injustice, nor does anyone else, when you trigger the move. For 
  ”You win over an onlooker,” at the GM’s discretion this can be interpreted as a 
  crowd of individuals.
  • 
  For Dark past, triggering the move allows you to fill in pieces of your past. Don’t 
  confess to crimes that it would make absolutely no sense for you to have done—
  your confession has to be real and true to trigger the move. It also has to be a 
  serious crime. No misdemeanors or small transgressions. Whatever you confess 
  has to have hurt someone in some way.
  • 
  For Blowing off steam, the GM is the final arbiter of whether or not the crime 
  actually qualifies for the trigger. As long as you’re doing something illegal, 
  
  121
  something that you shouldn’t be doing, but that doesn’t directly, obviously, or 
  significantly harm anyone, the move should trigger.
  • 
  Do me a favor gives you the ability to go to civilian contacts for help. The 
  Reformed is plugged into criminals and villains, and this move may help you 
  ask for favors from those networks. It also allows you to ask for help from people 
  you’ve met in the civilian world.
  INSPIRATION FOR THE REFORMED
  Loki, Young Avengers
  Terra, Teen Titans
  Quentin Quire, Wolverine and the X-Men
  Ravager, Teen Titans
  Hawkeye (Clint Barton), Avengers
  REFORMED GM ADVICE
  • 
  Remind them of what they’ve done
  • 
  Ask them for a criminal or villainous favor
  • 
  Doubt them from a position of moral superiority
  • 
  Offer them solace with a criminal or villainous source
  • 
  Confront them with a nightmare from their past
  Introducing the Reformed provides a through-line into the villainous side of Halcyon 
  City. The Reformed was once important in that scene and still has plenty of contacts in 
  that world. That means it’s more important than ever for you to portray the villains as full 
  humans, with sympathetic drives and believable personas. The empathy that the Reformed 
  demands makes it tough to also have ridiculous, grandstanding, unsympathetic villains 
  at the same time. 
  In addition to the increased focus on villains and sympathetic criminals, the Reformed 
  also adds another element to Masks that no other playbook focuses on as clearly—the 
  past. Even though the Reformed is young, they’ve been in the superhero scene for a 
  while, and they’ve taken many actions in that time. The past of the Reformed is very 
  important for their present, and as a result the Reformed requires you to spend more 
  time asking questions and talking about the past than any other playbook. Don’t hesitate 
  to ask questions about what’s happened if it ever becomes important to what’s going on 
  in the present.
  
  122
  THE STAR
  HERO NAME
  REAL NAME 
  Look
  • ambiguous, man, shifting, transgressing, woman
  • Asian or South Asian, Black, Hispanic/Latino, Indigenous, Middle Eastern, White
  • charming smile, coy smile, broad smile, warm smile, teasing smile
  • designer clothing, formal wear, beautiful outfits, preppy clothing, casual clothing
  • branded costume, flashy costume, focus-tested costume, stylish costume, ridiculous costume
  Abilities
  Your powers are flashy and impressive. Choose one.
   
  ❑ □ sonic control 
   
  ❑ □ electrodynamic control 
   
  ❑ □ light control
   
  ❑ □ strange wings 
   
  ❑ □ body plasticity and stretching 
   
  ❑ □ flame control
   
  
  123
  Labels
  (at character creation, add +1 wherever you choose)
  DANGER 
   -2  
   -1  
    0   
   +1  
   +2  
   +3
  FREAK 
   -2  
   -1  
    0   
   +1  
   +2  
   +3 
  SAVIOR 
   -2  
   -1  
    0   
   +1  
   +2  
   +3 
  SUPERIOR 
   -2  
   -1  
    0   
   +1  
   +2  
   +3 
  MUNDANE 
   -2  
   -1  
    0   
   +1  
   +2  
   +3 
  Conditions
   
  ❑ Afraid 
  (-2 to directly engage a threat)
   
  ❑ Angry 
  (-2 to comfort or support or pierce the mask) 
   
  ❑ Guilty 
  (-2 to provoke someone or assess the situation)
   
  ❑ Hopeless (-2 to unleash your powers)
   
  ❑ Insecure (-2 to defend someone or reject others’ influence) 
  Backstory
  • When did you first appear onscreen?
  • What do you tell people about how you got your powers?
  • Who, outside of the team, supports your burgeoning star in every way possible?
  • Who, outside of the team, loathes what you represent?
  • Why do you care about the team?
  Once you’ve finished your backstory, introduce your character to the other players, and then 
  determine what happened when your team first came together, the relationships between you and 
  your teammates, and who has Influence over you.
  When our team first came together...
  We, as a team, attracted the attention of a major media outlet within the city, thanks to our efforts. 
  Who are they? Why do they support us?
  Relationships
  __________________ might wind up being more of a star than me some day.
  __________________ would be a great sidekick; I try to keep them around.
  Influence
  Choose how you see the team: as a means to an end, or as something worthwhile on its own.
  If you see the team as a means to an end, give no one Influence. If you see the team as something 
  worthwhile, give three teammates Influence.
  
  124
  Star Moves
  (Choose two)
   
  ❑  The gossip mags: When you tap into the gossip and 
  rumor of the celebrity industry for information on an 
  important city figure, roll + Superior. On a hit, you 
  can ask the GM questions. On a 10+, ask three. On 
  a 7-9, ask one: 
  - What are they up to? 
  - What or who do they most care about? 
  - What allies do they have? Enemies? 
  - Where and when can I find them? 
  - How could I make them vulnerable to me? 
  On a miss, ask one anyway, but they hear about 
  your interest in them. 
   
  ❑  Stage-fighting: When you directly engage a threat 
  with an audience watching, mark a condition to roll 
  + Superior instead of Danger. lah lah lah lah lah 
  lah lah lah lah lah
   
  ❑  Time for the show: When you put on a flamboyant 
  display of your powers, roll + Superior. On a 7-9, 
  name one NPC present. On a 10+, name two NPCs 
  present. The named NPCs must either volunteer 
  help or information, express admiration, or ask 
  for your help, GM’s choice. On a miss, your display 
  catches someone watching in the wrong way.
   
  ❑  Take it from me: When you comfort or support 
  someone who openly admires your celebrity persona, 
  roll + Superior instead of Mundane.
   
  ❑  Cold and Cruel: When you shut someone down, roll 
  + Superior. On a 10+, you either inflict a condition 
  on them, make them lose Influence over you, or 
  take Influence over them, your choice. On a 7-9, you 
  either each inflict a condition on the other, or both 
  lose Influence over each other, your choice. On a 
  miss, they gain Influence over you.
  Audience
  You are a celebrity in the city. By default, your audience is a limited group of interested fans, and 
  you speak to them through after-action interviews and infrequent press conferences. Why does 
  your audience love you? Mark all that apply.
   
  ❑  You’re just like them 
   
  ❑  You’re a dangerous person, a bad seed
   
  ❑  You’re noble warrior for justice 
   
  ❑  You’re stunning, unique, and beautiful
   
  ❑  You’re charming, well-spoken, and smart 
   
  ❑  You’re a firebrand, a rabble rouser
  Choose two advantages:
   
  ❑  Your audience is utterly devoted to you
   
  ❑  You can easily speak to them at any time
   
  ❑  You have a PR agent to handle your audience
   
  ❑  You earn a lot of money from their interest
   
  ❑  You have a major hero’s endorsement
   
  ❑  You have a much wider audience
  Choose two demands your audience makes on you:
   
  ❑  They require constant stimulation
   
  ❑  They require perfection—no mistakes
   
  ❑  They require frequent bouts of drama
   
  ❑  They require major acts of heroism
   
  ❑  They require novelty and brand new action
   
  ❑  They require chemistry with your allies
  When you accept what your audience tells you about yourself, clear a condition. When you reject 
  what your audience tells you about yourself, on a hit mark potential and expect retribution.
  When you seek help from your audience, roll + Superior. On a hit, someone in your audience 
  can hook you up. On a 10+, they only make a small demand. On a 7-9, their demands are a 
  lot higher. On a miss, you’ve made a mistake, and your audience won’t help you until you’ve 
  redeemed yourself in their eyes.
  
  125
  Moment of Truth
  Sometimes it can be hard to tell where the show stops and where you begin—but not today. Not 
  now. Because right now, there is no show. Right now, you are the thing you pretend to be—bold and 
  bright and beautiful and amazing and powerful and confident. Right now, you draw strength from 
  your audience, comfort from their belief in you, and you can do anything they think you can. Of 
  course, after such an impassioned performance, your audience will just have even more demands...
  Team Moves
  When you share a triumphant celebration with someone, say whether it’s part of the show or 
  not. If it is, then you can shift your Labels as you choose. If it is not, then they shift your Labels, 
  and you can clear a condition or mark potential. 
  When you share a vulnerability or weakness with someone, ask them if they will tell anyone the 
  truth about you. If they agree to keep it a secret, clear a condition or mark potential. If they don’t 
  agree, the GM shifts your Labels.
  POTENTIAL  >>>>❑    >>>>❑    >>>>❑    >>>>❑    >>>>❑   
  Every time you roll a miss on a move, mark potential. 
  Advancement 
  When you fill your potential track, you advance. Choose from the list below. 
   
  ❑  Take another move from your playbook
   
  ❑  Take another move from your playbook
   
  ❑  Take a move from another playbook
   
  ❑  Take a move from another playbook
   
  ❑  Someone permanently loses influence over you; 
  add +1 to a Label
   
  ❑  Rearrange your Labels as you choose, and add 
  +1 to a Label
   
  ❑  Unlock your Moment of Truth
   
  ❑  Become part of a larger superhero tradition and 
  take a legacy (from the Legacy playbook)
  When you’ve taken five advances from the top list, you can take advances from the list 
  below. 
   
  ❑  Unlock your Moment of Truth after it’s been  
  used once
   
  ❑  Change playbooks
   
  ❑  Take an adult move
   
  ❑  Take an adult move
   
  ❑  Lock a Label, and add +1 to a Label of your choice
   
  ❑  Retire from the life or become a paragon of the city
  Other Moves 
  
  126
  PLAYING THE STAR
  Arrogant, ambitious, flamboyant, delightful. The Star is a young celebrity, aware of their 
  status and interested in obtaining more of it. They’re a showboat, but they’re also still a 
  superhero, and those two poles pull them in drastically different directions. Should they 
  make sure they land the last strike on the villain, so they can take the credit? Or should 
  they avoid interfering with their teammate’s fight and possibly messing things up? 
  The questions are complicated by your audience. When you play as the Star, your 
  audience is a constant presence intruding upon your life. They will tell you who you are 
  and, more than anything, they’ll try to reshape you into what they want. But they also 
  provide you with help when you need it, when you speak to them or organize them for a 
  particular end. Don’t play the Star unless you’re already interested in interacting with the 
  audience regularly and juggling their impression of you along with actual heroics.
  Remember that your audience is your audience and that, while people may be paying 
  attention to you as part of a team, they’re also paying attention to you individually. That’s 
  another source of fruitful tension for the Star, whether they belong to a team or are an 
  individual celebrity. Play into it, and don’t hesitate to be a bit of a heel sometimes, trying 
  to nab all the attention for yourself.
  Most importantly, always keep in mind that the Star, while a celebrity, is also still a 
  hero. They may be interested in their own popularity quite a bit. They may desperately 
  be trying to stay in the news. But they’re also still ultimately interested in helping people, 
  in making things better. If someone is in pain in front of them, they won’t just let it keep 
  going. If you veer too much into making decisions purely for the audience, then your 
  character will become unsympathetic fast.
  NOTES ON YOUR MOVES AND EXTRAS
  • 
  For Time for the show, a flamboyant display of your powers needs to primarily 
  be just that—a flamboyant display. It doesn’t trigger if you are using another 
  move, but flamboyantly. If you’re trying to stop a building from falling down, 
  but you’re doing it flamboyantly, the move won’t trigger. But if you’re standing 
  on a stage juggling fireballs, then you are doing a flamboyant display, and the 
  move will trigger.
  • 
  Stage-fighting requires you to fight with an audience watching. “An audience” 
  is more than just a couple people. If you’re fighting in an abandoned warehouse 
  with five hostages watching, then the move won’t trigger. But if you’re fighting in 
  the city streets with news choppers following you, it will. 
  • 
  Cold and cruel requires you to shut someone down. That could involve outright 
  telling them to shut up or it could involve a cold look, but it has to be clear to both 
  parties that you are demeaning, insulting, or reducing them. 
  
  127
  • 
  Seeking help from your audience is when you are either putting out a general call 
  for aid from your audience, or searching through people you know to be fans to 
  find someone who can help you out. You aren’t necessarily speaking to the group, 
  so much as combing through them to see if anyone can give you a hand. It takes 
  some time, so it’s unlikely that you can trigger the move in the middle of a fight, 
  unless your audience is right there.
  INSPIRATION FOR THE STAR
  Striker, Avengers Academy
  Booster Gold, Justice League
  Enchantress (Sylvie Lushton), Young Avengers
  The X-Statix, X-Statix
  Captain Amazing, Mystery Men
  STAR GM ADVICE
  • 
  Reinterpret their actions in the media
  • 
  Make a demand from their audience
  • 
  Offer an opportunity for public attention
  • 
  Offer an opportunity for quiet heroism
  • 
  Demean their superficiality
  The Star introduces the need for media attention and public responses into Masks. 
  Their audience and celebrity affords the Star some excellent advantages and opportunities, 
  but also puts on them enormous pressure, and provides a clearer source of constant 
  judgment than any other character might have. Don’t let up. If the Star wants to call for a 
  public appearance, or if the Star wants to get any kind of attention, they should be able to 
  without any difficulty...but if they ever try to escape the limelight, it should only ever be 
  a temporary reprieve. The demands of the audience always give you an excuse to make 
  them intrude and let the Star know what they think.
  On the same note, the offers, opportunities, temptations, and difficult decisions offered 
  to the Star need to almost always be oriented toward popularity and celebrity. The Star’s 
  drama isn’t served by offers of terrible power or by incredibly difficult moral decisions, 
  but by seemingly innocuous choices between popularity and justice. Taking credit for a 
  friend’s good deeds; showing a hard line response to a villain you might actually want to 
  give mercy; focusing on the more publicly disliked threat than the actual threat—these 
  are the decisions the Star’s story is made of. Throw them at the Star so they have to deal 
  with the costs of their own celebrity.
  
  So there you are. The portfolio of unsolved mysteries 
  left over for you by the old editor of the Halcyon City 
  Herald and its affiliates. By now, if you did your job, 
  your brain is well and truly baked with the city’s heroes 
  and villains and weirdnesses. 
  And me, I’m gone on my own way. I’ve been deep into 
  this city’s mysteries and craziness for too long, and it 
  hasn’t left me untarnished. I have my own mysteries to 
  go look into…and maybe I need some time to catch my 
  breath while I’m at it.
  I’m not going to give you some final piece of advice 
  or nugget of wisdom that would throw all of this into 
  context and weave it together into a single story.
  That’s not how this works, and you know it. Because it’s 
  your job to make that happen.
  So go into the city. Answer your own questions. Weave 
  together a bigger story out of the fragments. Find the 
  truths that need finding, and share them where they 
  need to be heard.
  And start prepping your own portfolio early. Never 
  know when you might need it.
   Keandra Hunt
  128
  
  BACK
  BACKGROUND 
  AREA
  ~ 3.3” x 5”
  Halcyon City has been the epicenter of the 
  earth’s superhuman madness for close to 
  a century. The city is built on a history of 
  heroes, villains, and the battles they bring 
  with them. And the Halcyon City Herald has 
  been there since the beginning, your eyes 
  and ears on the ground.
   
  Now Keandra Hunt, editor-in-chief of the 
  Herald, is revealing her personal collection 
  of articles pointing to Halcyon’s greatest 
  truths and notorious secrets...
  The Halcyon City Herald Collection is a 
  sourcebook for the roleplaying 
  game Masks: A New Generation 
  that fleshes  out Halcyon City 
  with new places, new faces, and 
  new mysteries. Here, you’ll find 
  everything you need to spice up 
  your version of Halcyon City at a 
  moment’s notice.
  In this book, you get:
  • A collection of articles detailing 
  many of Halcyon’s greatest 
  catastrophes and characters
  • A slew of new moves fleshing 
  out those people and places with 
  mechanical weight
  • Five new limited edition playbooks 
  to add to your game of Masks, along 
  with advice for using them in your 
  game 
  Does your team of heroes have what 
  it takes to investigate Halcyon’s 
  greatest stories? Time to find out.
  Players 
  3-5
  Time 
  2-4 hrs
  Rating 
  Teen
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Masks (PbtA)/Supplements/Halcyon City Herald Collection/Masks - A New Generation - Halcyon City Herald Collection (Updated).pdf