Playing Masks Solo

Why Masks Works Alone

Masks is a team game at heart, but plenty of comics follow one young hero: the kid who just got powers, the sidekick who's gone out alone, the newcomer nobody trusts yet. Played solo, you are that hero, and the dice take the GM's job of telling you what the city does next, and what the adults think of you.

Masks has no official solo rules from Magpie Games, so everything on this page apart from the core rules is a house rule: the oracle, the scene check, the villain's-plan clock, the miss table, the adult's verdict and the sparks are tools for playing alone, not part of the rulebook. (Fans have written their own solo supplements too; these tools don't depend on any of them.) They all use the roll you already know: 2d6, with 10+, 7–9 and 6− as the three bands.

What you need

• A hero made with a playbook (see Playbooks), with their Labels, Conditions and potential track.
• A few non-player characters who have Influence over your hero: a mentor, a parent, a rival. Write their names down.
• Two six-sided dice, or the Solo Tool below.
• A villain with a drive ("To ___") and something they're about to do.

The Oracle

When you want to know something a GM would tell you ("Is the robbery still going on?"), phrase it as a yes-or-no question and decide how likely a "yes" is. Roll 2d6, add the modifier, and read the total the way Masks reads any move.

• 10 or more: Yes. If the dice show a double, Yes, and…: better than you hoped.
• 7 to 9: Mixed. Like a 7–9 on a move, the answer comes with a twist: read it as "Yes, but…" or "No, but…", whichever makes the better comic panel.
• 6 or less: No. If the dice show a double, No, and…: worse than you feared, and the villain's plan moves on (see below).

A toss-up is +1, not +0, because that's where the dice balance: at +1 a clean yes (10+) and a clean no (6−) are equally likely, 27.8% each, and the other 44.4% are mixed.

The oracle is the city, not your hero. Don't add Labels, Team or Influence to it; those belong to real moves.

Exact odds

Worked out from all 36 ways two dice can land.

The table is symmetrical: Likely and Unlikely mirror each other, and so do Almost certain and Nearly impossible. At −2 only double 6s reach 10, so every top-band answer there is a "Yes, and". At +4 the lowest total is 6, and only double 1s get there, so the only "no" is a "No, and".

Scenes, Villains and Misses

Scene check and the villain's plan

Track your villain's plan as a clock from 0 to 6. Add 1 whenever the oracle says "No, and…", and by hand whenever your hero wastes time, gets distracted by their personal life, or lets the villain get away. When the clock reaches 6, the plan succeeds: something big and public goes wrong, and the rest of the story is about facing the fallout.

At the start of each scene, say in one line what you expect, then roll one die. If it is equal to or under the plan clock, the scene is interrupted: the villain, their minions or the plan's consequences arrive. Otherwise a 6 means the scene is altered: one important detail is different. Anything else and the scene goes as you expected.

When you miss

On a miss the GM makes a move, and you mark potential. Alone, you make the move yourself: choose the one the fiction suggests, or roll a die. These are among the GM moves on Masks' own GM reference sheet.

The adult's verdict

In Masks, adults have Influence over young heroes, and they love to tell them who they are. When a mentor, parent, reporter or older hero weighs in, roll two dice: the first is the Label they push up, the second the Label they push down (1 Danger, 2 Freak, 3 Savior, 4 Superior, 5 Mundane, 6 your choice). If both dice pick the same Label, the second one is your choice. Then decide, as your hero would: accept it and shift your Labels, or make the Reject Influence move.

Sparks

When the oracle gives a mixed answer or an "and", or a scene is interrupted, and nothing comes to mind, roll two dice and read them together: an action and a subject.

Playing the GM's Part

Real moves

Anything your hero does that triggers a move is a real roll: 2d6 plus the move's Label, minus 2 if a Condition you've marked affects that move. Read it as the move says. On a miss, mark potential and make a move from the table above. The Dice Roller handles Labels, Conditions, Influence and potential for you.

Conditions and clearing them

With nobody else at the table, Conditions are where the drama comes from. Clear them the way the rules say: run from something difficult to clear Afraid, hurt someone or break something important to clear Angry, and so on. Doing those things on purpose, at the worst moment, is half the fun of playing solo.

The team you don't have

Solo heroes miss out on the Team pool and on comforting each other. Give your hero one or two other young heroes as non-player characters who drift in and out, and let them have Influence too. A friend who says "you're better than this" is as powerful as any adult.

Solo Tool

Your First Solo Issue

1. Make a hero and their people. One playbook, plus two or three characters who have Influence over them.
2. Make a villain. A name, a drive, and what they're about to do.
3. Frame each scene. One line of what you expect, then a scene check.
4. Ask and explore. Use the oracle for what a GM would tell you.
5. Roll moves for real. On a miss, mark potential and make a GM move.
6. Let the adults talk. Roll their verdicts, and decide whether your hero believes them.
7. End the issue. Choose an end-of-session move, and check whether your potential has filled.

An Example of Play