So the guy shot through the door to the gym, and the doors just like…exploded, man. Metal fire doors. He looked like some sort of pro wrestler. Hulk Hogan? But, like, not natural. Bigger. Like, too big. Scary big. He said, “Hey lady!” What? No. That’s all he said.

The woman was more like a cutout. Like she was just drawn on paper. Like when she turned, you could see she was flat. Yeah, I know how it sounds. Why the hell would I make something like that up?

So the guy picks up the bleacher. I mean like, rips it off. A bunch of kids go tumbling. He dumped them off before throwing it—like you’d uh, shake off some peas from a spoon or something? — so that’s good, I guess.

He threw it a good 10 yards. It hit the lady, but it sorta split on her. I could, like, see little bits of sparkly black around her when it hit. Like she was cutting through the wood.

And then these, uh, tentacles came out of her head. First they ripped the bleacher in half, and chucked it aside. That’s when Angelina was hit. Is she OK? I saw her moving afterwards, but then the ambulance came.

What?

That? That’s just a stupid thing I made for art class. A mask. It’s nothing. 

Can I, uh…go now?

It’s 1986. Top Gun is in theaters. “Papa Don’t Preach” is on the radio. Halley’s Comet is in the sky, and Chernobyl, the Challenger, and Iran-Contra are in the news. The Russians are in Afghanistan, and the Doomsday Clock is at 3-minutes until midnight.

Yesterday that was your world, but today none of that matters. This morning, as “Rock Me Amadeus” poured from the clock-radio to drive the sleep from your eyes, everything was different. You could feel it in yourself, and you could see it in everyday things around you. A stop sign, that pen, the clock on the wall of the school gym — these seemingly random objects each had secret meaning, and practically shone with hidden power. At first it seemed like you were the only one experiencing this strange effect, but then at school, at the mall, around town, you could see other teens lit by the same, secret light you awoke with that morning.

Player characters in Unmasked are teenagers who find themselves suddenly — and secretly —affected by strange powers. They feel drawn to collect special items with powers only they can discern, and then to fashion themselves a mask from these items. Without their masks, the PC’s are ordinary teenagers, gifted with no more than the ability to sense this hidden power in items and other people.

But, when they put their masks on… they become someone else, experiencing amazing abilities formerly only seen in the pages of comic books. Nancy is a bookish teen, but when she dons her mask she becomes a bloodthirsty monster that holds terrible grudges. Roberto is an all-state running back, but his mask-form is a slight, naive alien from another world with incredible telekinetic powers. Petra is a geeky, overweight teen. Her mask-form is a perfect looking man who is always everyone’s friend.

The masks do more than just give their wearers unique powers. Each one also seems to have an appearance, personality, drive, and even goals of its own.

But the player characters are not alone in these miraculous abilities. On that strange morning in 1986 others in the world awoke with similar abilities, and some hit the ground running. Those forces are already in motion — their goals and methods, for the most part, are as inscrutable as the source of these newfound powers.

Even in the characters’ small town, quietly and among a select group, sides are already being drawn. And this is just the beginning: What will happen when the local cops find out what you can do? When the military learns about it? When it hits the national, and then the global news? And all this time the Doomsday Clock continues to tick….

Unmasked is a fully realized superhero and psychological horror setting for the Cypher System. It includes new types, new foci, and new descriptors, as well as new NPCs, a guide to building your own high school setting, an instant adventure generator, and guidelines for creating your own origin and outcome to answer the question: where do the masks come from, and why?

Dennis Detwiller is the co-creator of Delta Green and Godlike. Since 1992 his books, card games, and video games have entertained over 40 million people in 11 languages, spanning such global hits as Magic: The Gathering, the PROTOTYPE series for Activision, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for Nickelodeon, as well as tabletop RPGs Delta Green, Godlike, and Wild Talents.