Halcyon City Hero Program

Halcyon City Hero Program — Summer 2026
HALCYON CITY HCHI · EST. 1962
Halcyon City Hero Program — Summer 2026

You’re powerful.
You’re overwhelmed.
You’re figuring it out.

A therapeutic tabletop roleplaying group for teens who want to tell stories about young heroes — and maybe learn something about themselves along the way.

Ages 13 and up Fridays · 5:00–7:30 PM Orlando / Winter Park, FL Therapeutically facilitated No experience required
Choose your hero → Learn more
About the group

What is this, actually?

This is a small group — six to eight teens — who meet every Friday afternoon to play Masks: A New Generation, a tabletop roleplaying game about young superheroes. It’s facilitated by a licensed counselor who specialises in therapeutic game facilitation.

That means the game is the structure, not the point. The point is the stories you tell inside it — about identity, about pressure, about who gets to decide who you are. Those stories have a way of mattering beyond the table.

You don’t need to know anything about superheroes, tabletop games, or therapy to join. You need to be willing to show up and try something.

It’s a game, not a class
We tell collaborative stories using dice and character sheets. There’s no homework, no performance, no right answers. You play a character and see what happens.
It’s a safe space
The group has safety tools built into every session — including a card you can use at any moment to pause or redirect a scene, no questions asked.
Open enrollment
The group runs all summer. You can come every week or drop in when you can. New players can join anytime — the game is designed to welcome arrivals and work around absences.
Your character, your story
You choose a hero archetype that resonates with you and play them through a summer-long arc in the fictional city of Halcyon. What you do with your character is up to you.
Logistics

The details

When
Fridays
5:00 – 7:30 PM
Summer 2026
Where
Orlando /
Winter Park, FL
Location shared after enrollment
Who
Ages 13 +
6–8 players per group
No experience needed
Attendance
Flexible
Come every week or drop in — the game accommodates both
Format
In-person
Small group, seated at a table, all materials provided
Facilitated by
Adam Baldowski,
PhD, LMHC
Licensed counselor, certified therapeutic game facilitator
About the game

What is Masks: A New Generation?

Masks is a tabletop roleplaying game — collaborative storytelling with dice and rules. No console, no screen, no special equipment. You sit around a table, play a character, and help tell a story together.

What makes Masks different is what it’s actually about. You’re not trying to defeat enemies — you’re trying to figure out who you are while the world has strong opinions about it. Adults have expectations. Teammates need things. Somewhere underneath all of that, your hero is asking: who am I, really?

How it works
You say what your hero does. Then we find out what happens.
The facilitator describes the world. You say what your character does. Sometimes you roll two dice to find out how it goes. A high roll means it works cleanly. A middle roll means it works — but something gets complicated. That’s where the interesting stories live.
Labels
Other people’s opinions about you are a mechanic.
Your hero has five Labels — Freak, Danger, Savior, Superior, Mundane — measuring how the world sees them. When someone tells your hero who they are and it lands, a Label shifts. You decide: accept it, or push back? That decision is the core of the game.
Conditions
Your emotions affect what you can do next.
When something hard happens, your hero might mark a Condition — Afraid, Angry, Guilty, Hopeless, or Insecure. These aren’t failures. They’re emotional states that shape how you play until you work through them. You don’t just take damage and move on.
This summer’s arc
“The Bleed”
Something has been seeping into Halcyon City from the space between worlds — a force that feeds on the worst version of what we think about ourselves. In a parallel Halcyon City it already won. The team that couldn’t stop it has crossed over to warn this one. The question the group will wrestle with all summer: who do you choose to be when the stakes are so high that being yourself feels like a luxury?
Choose your hero

Each hero is a kind of person, not a power set

Find the archetype where the question at the center feels like something real to you — not the most powerful, not the one that sounds coolest. Then claim it before someone else does.

One player per archetype. Greyed-out cards are taken.

The Beacon
No powers. Just heart. Somehow, that’s enough.
Their question
“What makes me special if I have nothing special about me?”
Think of
Clint BartonKate BishopCaptain America (early)
The Bull
Everything you love, you’re afraid you’ll destroy.
Their question
“Can I get what I need without breaking it?”
Think of
The HulkCarrieCyclops (early)
The Delinquent
Rules are a dare. Authority is a suggestion.
Their question
“Who gets to decide who I am — and why should I let them?”
Think of
Miles MoralesAmerica ChavezJubilee
The Doomed
You know how your story ends. You’re playing anyway.
Their question
“Does what I do matter if it ends badly?”
Think of
Jean GreyRogue (early)Doctor Strange
The Janus
Two lives. Neither one completely true.
Their question
“Who am I when no one’s watching — and which version is real?”
Think of
Peter ParkerMs. MarvelSupergirl
The Legacy
The name was great. Now it has to be yours.
Their question
“Am I my own person, or just the family’s expectations in a costume?”
Think of
Wally WestCassandra CainKamala Khan
The Nova
The power inside you is enormous. So is the fear of it.
Their question
“Can I control what’s inside me — and what if I can’t?”
Think of
ElsaJean Grey (early)David Haller
The Outsider
You came from somewhere else. You’re still figuring out here.
Their question
“Can I really belong somewhere I wasn’t made for?”
Think of
ThorSupermanStarfire
The Protégé
Someone believed in you. Now you have to believe in yourself.
Their question
“Can I become my own hero — not just someone’s student?”
Think of
Dick GraysonMiles MoralesSquirrel Girl
The Transformed
You changed. The question is whether the world changed with you.
Their question
“Can people love what I’ve become?”
Think of
NightcrawlerThe ThingTeen Beast
Your first session

What to expect when you arrive

If you’re nervous, that’s normal. Here’s exactly what happens so there are no surprises.

01
You check in
We start with a brief circle — just a word or two about how you’re doing. No pressure, no sharing anything you don’t want to share. The facilitator goes first.
02
You meet the safety tools
Before any game starts, we talk about what keeps the group safe — including the X-card, which anyone can use at any moment to pause or change a scene with no questions asked.
03
You build your hero
You have your playbook ready, but we flesh it out together. Name your hero, describe what they look like, and connect them to the team with a relationship question. About 20 minutes and most people enjoy this part most.
04
You play
The facilitator sets the scene and the story begins. You don’t have to know the rules — they emerge naturally. If you’re not sure what to do, say what your character would do and we’ll figure out the rest.
05
You debrief
After play, we come out of the fiction together. A few questions about the session — what surprised you, what you want more of. Optional but often the best part of the night.
06
You leave with something
Your character sheet goes in a folder that accumulates over the summer. By Session 12, it’s a record of the whole story — yours to keep.
For parents & guardians

What you should know

This is a therapeutically facilitated group — it has clinical intent and oversight, but it’s not therapy in the traditional sense. Here’s what that means in practice.

This is a therapeutically facilitated group, which is different from clinical therapy. It uses a game as the primary medium for social-emotional learning and identity exploration. No referral is required. That said, the facilitator is a licensed mental health counselor who brings clinical judgment to every session. If anything concerning arises, it’s handled with the same care as any clinical setting.
What happens in the group stays in the group, with the same exceptions that apply in any clinical setting: imminent risk of harm to self or others, and mandated reporting obligations. Teens are told this clearly on the first session. The facilitator will communicate with parents/guardians when safety is a concern — not to report on session content, but to ensure teens are supported outside the group as well.
The game deals with themes of identity, peer pressure, family expectations, and moral complexity — the kinds of things teenagers are already navigating. It does not include graphic violence, sexual content, or gratuitous dark themes. Every group establishes its own “lines and veils” in the first session — topics entirely off-limits, and topics that can be acknowledged but not dwelt on. Players have genuine control over the content of the stories they tell.
Yes — and honestly, it’s often an advantage. Players with no prior RPG experience come in without habits that need unlearning. The game is taught through play, not through a rules lecture. The facilitator walks everyone through everything they need in the first session.
Attendance is always voluntary. If your teen wants to stop, they stop — no questions asked, no pressure to explain. The group is designed as open-enrollment, which means their character can leave the story gracefully and they can return if they want to.
Each player receives a physical folder that accumulates their character materials, session documents, and in-game props over the summer. At the final session, they complete a guided reflection and write a letter from their hero — both of which they take home. The summer ends with a physical keepsake of the story they told.
Contact Adam Baldowski directly via the signup form below or by email. Parents and guardians are encouraged to reach out before the first session with any questions. A brief parent/guardian intake is part of the enrollment process.
Your facilitator

Adam Baldowski

Adam is a licensed mental health counselor with a doctorate and specialist certifications in therapeutic game facilitation. He has trained with Geek Therapeutics and Game to Grow — two of the leading organisations in the field of therapeutic tabletop roleplaying — and brings both clinical rigor and genuine love of the medium to every session.

He is fluent in both clinical vocabulary and game design thinking, which means the therapeutic work and the fun are never in conflict. When the game is going well, both things are happening at the same time.

PhD LMHC QS CGT Geek Therapeutics Trained Game to Grow Trained
Halcyon City Hero Program · Summer 2026 · Adam Baldowski PhD LMHC QS CGT · Orlando / Winter Park FL
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