Re: Combat it was addressed that thanks to a zealously over trimmed reference sheet, and a poorly laid out core book both I and my former MC missed the bit about 7-9 always marking a condition and that create an advantage should always grant a forward. Those were not made clear within the text, which is its own problem but not the problem I thought it was. I'm leaving my incorrect post up for posterity.
Now on to the points you raised that I can address:
Right and my complaint is what does it mean mechanically to take away a villain's magnetic powers that isn't already covered by another option present on that move? Does it mean the villain is just out of the fight? If we're fighting a scrawny psychic nerd and I take away his psychic powers does the MC just go "Well... he's not really any kind of threat without those so you win. Yay?" Do they invent a new way he's dangerous to keep the encounter going? Are all our villains now tech based so I can't just yoink their abilities (or at least not all of them at once)?Guts wrote:Whatever was established in the fiction (by the MC, a player, read a sitch move, etc). If the villain was presented as someone with magnetic powers, you can take it from them. If he is in a safe position behind cover, you can take that from them. If they held a hostage, you can take that from them. All of those gives you better fictional positioning, allowing you to do moves not allowed otherwise or gain advantage forward. So, default Apocalypse World fare?
Removing cover or removing a hostage are tangible things that a villain has and my gripe isn't with that. My gripe is specifically with how a lot of the moves don't interact with a lot of the superhero powers even though they are ostensibly designed to do just that. And when you force them to interact you venture into the realm of the unknown where suddenly it's bears all the way down again.
Fictional positioning doesn't really work as a game mechanic unless the fictional positions you can take are clearly defined by the rules of the game. But outside of power and equipment tags Masks doesn't really have that. There is no "powerless" tag defined by the game that tells you what happens if you steal someone's powers. There is no sense of duration. There is no sense of what that means the villain can or can't do. This is a problem with most PbtA hacks, not exclusive to masks. Any time the game shrugs and goes "I dunno, MC makes a ruling here" that is when bears happen. No narrative game is completely free of this, but good games will at least try and reduce bear frequency.
I want to be clear because it feels like I'm harping on this one example, that this is not the only time masks does this. This is just one of the most obvious and visible times masks does this. And therefore the easiest to dissect.
A thing about the label's system that occurs to me in hindsight is that while I dislike it as a mechanic for measuring your character's emotional landscape, I do like it as a model for all the weird shit that can and does happen to a superhero.
Hit by a shrink ray? Shift danger down and something else up.
Turned into a sentient slime monster? Freak up, mundane down.
Hit by an evil wizard curse so you can only speak in riddles? Superior up, mundane down.
There's potential there I just really hate it trying to fill in as an emotion meter alongside conditions.