*Masks* has a lot of moves. If your players are old hands, it’s fine, just play and let the moves happen where they happen. But if anyone at your table is new to *Masks*, it’s good to have a plan for teaching the moves. Breaking them into sections helps: basic, playbook, influence, team. In session one, you want to: * ensure everyone gets to use a move or two, * each basic move gets used (all eight; that’s two per player in a prototypical four player game), * a few playbook moves are used, * and there’s at least one moment of someone *telling someone who they are and how the world works*. “Take a powerful blow” is on you as the MC to call for; no one is gonna leap to do it themselves. And “defend” is an interesting one; people often miss opportunities to do it, but if you ask that delicious MC question “What do you do?” of someone not directly toe-to-toe with the villain, and make it clear there are people in need of protection around, you’ll get characters leaping to Defend. It’s good. Team moves… well, the only one you need in session one is “when you go into a fight”. The vulnerability and celebration and stuff team moves can be in later sessions. Tell people “There are a lot of moves. Let’s start by checking out the basic moves, and I’ll help you bring in more as we play.” A great way to make this happen is to open with a fight, with a throwaway villain, followed by downbeats about the team and the people affected by the fight. (Throwaway villains often can come back, or be part of some larger conspiracy, but don’t worry about that yet.) Influence moves: “who you are and how the world works” and “take +1 on moves targeting someone over whom you have influence” will be in session one. Nothing else will, probably. That’s OK. Moments of Truth! Don’t even worry about those in session one! I think that they’re usually unearned if they happen that early. But someone’ll ask about them and you can say “those are part of long-term play; I hope we’ll get to see some used!” There’s a rhythm to moves and beats in really good play, I find, and everyone—GM and players—tends to play into it. Action beats will arise right before feelings can be resolved, and you get this pulse of action–feels–action–feels, with the feelings providing a through-line, and developing and changing through the action, but never quite settling.