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

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Comments

A Character Question: Empath and Consent and Stuff (pls read)

[ourcampfire kasey]

Hi Hello.

This question is as a player rather than a mod.

SO. The current character frontrunner in my brain is Manuel de la Rocha (Empath). He's a villain from the New Mutants days whose abilities allowed him to psionically sense the emotions of others (...all the time; it cannot be turned off) and to control the emotions of others. To be blunt: he is a terrible person in the comics and most writers lean into just making him the worst of the worst (especially in recent appearances). That said, there were a few early storylines that hinted at exploring him beyond that which got lost between writers. And that always bummed me out because I find him interesting and his powers hit that 'oh, that's useful, but ACTUALLY TERRIBLE' space I like to play around in when it comes to mutants.

Anywho, the reason I bring all of this up is because I want to give other players the opportunity to veto him before I get too deep into a concept. I have no interest in playing him as the worst version of himself, but his powers fundamentally include a loss of consent for other characters. Passively, he always knows how other people are feeling and there's really no getting around that unless your character is a telepath. Actively, he can manipulate the emotions of others (though, ofc, I would seek permission before doign this IC).

From my end, I'm interested in exploring things like how he deals with his powers (all the feelings all the time~), his struggle to actually connect with others, drawing the wrong conclusions based on other people's emotions (he isn't a telepath, he doesn't know what you're thinking!), the ethical questions now that he has folks around him to...make that...an issue, and the like. He's also just a snooty Spanish idiot that deserves to be dragged. IDK. My attachment to him is inexplicable.

I'm also considering having the sensing emotion part of his powers be grounded in psionics and the emotional manipulation part of his powers be rooted in the physical (manipulation of brain chemistry). There's some suggestion of this in certain comics and it seems like it would be a good way to split the difference with telepathic types being immune to some of his bullshit but not all of it. Not sure. This isn't important, but it's been bouncing around in my brain, so I've opted to include it.

So that's where I'm at with him!

If you've got any concerns about this and would rather I bench him, just let me know (here or privately). There will genuinely be no hard feelings! I just want to know so I don't inadvertently wreck anyone's good time before we even get started.

Thank you~ ♥

Re: A Character Question: Empath and Consent and Stuff (pls read)

[blauerdamon kurt wagner ⚔️ nightcrawler]

We all told you in discord but I'm definitely chill with this concept and trust you!!!

Re: A Character Question: Empath and Consent and Stuff (pls read)

[ourcampfire kasey]

♥ I appreciate that!

Re: A Character Question: Empath and Consent and Stuff (pls read)

[totalities marvel girl]

also said this in the discord but i am not only good w this but very amped about it... i love empaths

Re: A Character Question: Empath and Consent and Stuff (pls read)

[ourcampfire kasey]

Thank you. ♥ And me tooooo. They're all such terrible messes.