To me, my X-Men!

[ourcampfire]

This is a collaborative GPSL and the information below is just a quick outline based on my initial ideas. A starting point! If you have ideas, questions, concerns, or anything else to contribute, please feel free to do that. At this stage, anything and everything is open to discussion.

Once people have had a chance to contribute and discuss, I'll get together something more formal (including a timeline so everyone can be on the same page) and we can go from there.

To be transparent, I don't have a set plot to kick things off just yet. There's so much up in the air and so much that could change based on player discussion, I don't want to get ahead of myself. That said, I think it's safe to assume we'll be jumping in at a time of change that will provide motivation for the team to come back together and seek solutions, safety and the like together. I'll update as this takes shape!

CONCEPT

The concept of this GPSL is to create a new team of X-Men featuring characters from the comics and have that team be the original/first X-Men of this alternate timeline. With a different roster of characters, we can reimagine some of our favorite storylines, explore new dynamics, and (hopefully) create something that's fresh but familiar.

My initial thought is that all the characters were students at the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters, arriving there at various ages and under various circumstances, and went on to spend some amount of time as the first team of X-Men. So, they've all known each other for a long time and they've all been through some wild shit together (that we'll establish as a group).

Now, they're all still X-Men, still associated with the Xavier Institute in some other way, or just trying to live their lives but perpetually getting pulled back in because of friendships, obligations, necessity, or whatever else motivates them. Just can't stay away! Especially with whatever recent dilemma makes up the starting plot...

SETTING

My inclination is to have the main setting be the classic X-Men backdrop: the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters in Westchester, New York.

The characters could live and operate from there but readily access other places (whether through mundane transit or more flashy options like the Blackbird or potentially teleportation) as needed. This would mean that, while the island of Genosha may exist, places like Utopia and Krakoa (as anything but a hungry sentient island, anyway) aren't on the table yet for plot references, but could come up as the game rolls along, if those are things folks are interested in.

Since mutants have been a known entity in the Marvel universe for a long time and lots of comic plots/dynamics revolve around that, I think that should probably be the case here as well. Maybe mutants weren't widely known when the characters first came to Xavier's, but they have been for a while. Things like the Xavier Institute being publicly known as a mutant school or required mutant registration or the like are more flexible and may depend on the storylines we opt to incorporate.

TEAMS

With the current number of folks showing interest, I think we're fine to keep everyone as part of the one original team of X-Men. That said, if we get more people and it feels like that team is getting too large, we can consider other options.

For example, half could be the original team and half could've been assembled to rescue them after shit went sideways in the early days, à la Giant-Size X-Men #1 and/or the Deadly Genesis limited series. This would allow us to bring in more players without losing that small, tight-knit team dynamic and still let all the characters to have a lot of shared backstory.

Regardless, at the modern end of the timeline, we can determine if we need multiple teams based on how many active X-Men there are, what their skillsets are, etc.

ROLES

While the most obvious role that will need to be filled is having at least one leader for each team (both historically and in the modern setting), I think there are others we might want to consider as well.

For example, having a character fill the scientist role that Beast often fills would give us more flexibility with handwaving technological/medical shenanigans. While this doesn't have to be a player character, it could be!

Additionally, having a character with a connection to the Phoenix Force is helpful for kicking off plots that deal with space and the Shi'ar Empire and other classic bits. If we don't end up with a Jean Grey, having a character (or characters) fill that role could be helpful and a traumatic fun thing to explore. The Phoenix Force can canonically be split apart and connected to multiple folks at once, so we have some flexibility with that if multiple people fancy channeling a destructive cosmic entity.

Player Form

Now for the more personal stuff! Fill out the form below to identify characters you might be interested in playing, characters you'd like to see in the game, storylines you'd like to incorporate into the team's shared history, storylines you might want to actively play out, etc. The forms can be posted here.

This doesn't count as a character hold or anything like that, but is just meant to show where people have interest and to help start conversations.

<b>POTENTIAL CHARACTERS:</b> Any character(s) that you're especially interested in. This isn't a claim; this is just to get the conversation going. <b>REQUESTED CHARACTERS:</b> Any character(s) that you'd love to see in-game but aren't necessarily interested in playing yourself. <b>STORYLINES PREFERENCES:</b> Are there any storylines you'd like to see be part of the established canon from the start or that you'd like to reserve to play out in the future? Are there any storylines you don't want to be part of the established canon? <b>ANYTHING ELSE:</b> Anything else! Also, thank you for taking the time to fill this out~ <b>LINK:</b>

Links

Concept ⮾ Setting ⮾ Teams ⮾ Roles
Player Form ⮾ Responses ⮾ Everything Else ⮾ Silly Chatter
The Inevitable Spreadsheet

code

Comments

Banned Characters/Powers

[ourcampfire kasey]

Should any characters or powers be banned?

In my opinion, there are some powers that are so over-the-top that giving any player access to them has the potential to disrupt the flow of the game for everyone. The biggest culprits for me here are reality warpers (your Wanda Maximoffs and Kevin MacTaggerts), but really anyone that removes the option for other characters to have meaningful obstacles and challenges just by existing is a drag. I feel like these characters either need to have clear limitations or hang out in non-playable character status to be plot devices.

If we do plan on playing with the Pheonix Force, for example, I think this would also necessitate that anyone who takes part in that would have to give up some character control when the Phoenix is manifest and doing its thing. Playing host to a cosmic entity is rough.

I also wonder if some villains should be on the no-play list to maintain their roles for certain plots and organizations, like Magneto, Apocalypse, Sebastian Shaw, and the like.

But what do you guys think?

Re: Banned Characters/Powers

[swashbuckler Meggie]

I think I agree that iconic villains and extremely overpowered characters who are deeply tied to their powers like Wanda should be off-limits and instead be used as potential plot devices. BUT if someone had a really clever idea about reworking one of them as a "what if", that might be neat. They could maybe be replaced by someone unexpected, or who was their foil in canon. Like if Magneto was the leader of the X-Men and Xavier was the extremist revolutionary, etc.