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

CONCEPT FEEDBACK/DISCUSSION

[ourcampfire kasey]

SETTING FEEDBACK/DISCUSSION

[ourcampfire kasey]

TEAMS FEEDBACK/DISCUSSION

[ourcampfire kasey]

ROLES FEEDBACK/DISCUSSION

[ourcampfire kasey]

PLAYER FORMS

[ourcampfire kasey]

Fill out your player form here.

Responses should be made under PLAYER FORM RESPONSES so the forms can be edited as needed.

PLAYER FORM RESPONSES

[ourcampfire kasey]

Link to your PLAYER FORM here so others can respond without preventing you from editing.

Kasey

[ourcampfire kasey]

POTENTIAL CHARACTERS: I've always got a list a mile long when it comes to X-Men, but my current frontrunners are Chamber (Jono Starsmore), Empath (Manuel de la Rocha), and Shatterstar. Dumb Trash Boys Only~

REQUESTED CHARACTERS: Everyone. Honestly, I'm just excited to see everyone's take on whoever they decide to pick up. :) This is unhelpful, sorry.

STORYLINES PREFERENCES: If we're going to play around with X-Men canon, I'm feeling a go big or go home approach and would enjoy including some of the weirder storylines alongside the more serious ones, particularly when it comes to what the team has already gone through. This gives us fun things to refer back to and also makes it easier to dive right in if we want to bring them back for a new story. Things like Mojoworld, the Savage Lands, space shenanigans, helping time travelers prevent a dark future, and the like, I am down for. That said, I wouldn't want to focus exclusively on those sorts of stories and if people prefer to stick to a more grounded tone across the board, that's fine by me as well.

While I found the storyline frustrating in the comics, I actually think a version of the "No More Mutants"/M-Day/The 198 arc could be interesting in a roleplay setting either for a past or present storyline. There's a lot of emotional fallout to dig into on all sides, regardless of how characters feel about their powers, and it would certainly give the team new motivation if it's a current storyline. Maybe give the characters a reason to leave the Institute to go out saving the remaining mutants or finding the cause (if we stray from the canon one) or something. I don't know. Just ideas!

Anyway, that's enough rambling out of me.

ANYTHING ELSE: Nope.

LINK: 🍓

Kasey

[ourcampfire kasey]

🍓

EVERYTHING ELSE

[ourcampfire kasey]

Do you have any questions or topics you'd like to discuss? Create a heading for them here.

For example...

Tweaking Powers

[ourcampfire kasey]

Should players be allowed to tweak their character's powers?

I feel like moderate power alterations could be helpful and could potentially add a new dimension for some characters.

In some instances, this might be mean stepping back from a power set that's become too broad over the years and returning it to something more manageable; not every character needs to be an omega level mutant and not every player wants to play one. In others, this might mean expanding a power set that's limited or not thoroughly fleshed out. For changes like these, I feel like playing them out in-game could be a fun way to explore other angles of the character.

But what do you guys think?

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?

SILLY CHATTER

[ourcampfire kasey]

Less productive, more hype!

Where you can post things like this.

You're welcome. 😌

Meggie

[swashbuckler Meggie]

POTENTIAL CHARACTERS: This is so hard. Uhhhh. Nightcrawler (Kurt Wagner), Kid Omega (Quentin Quire) with nerfed powers, Cypher (Douglas Ramsey).

REQUESTED CHARACTERS: I'm just so excited about everyone??? I think like maybe eventually a Mystique would be amazing, or a Wolverine??? But I'm just happy to be here.

STORYLINES PREFERENCES: I'm so behind on everything X-Men. I'm clueless. But I love going big, I love the absurdity.

ANYTHING ELSE: Super powers are so cool.

LINK: 🍄‍🟫

Meggie

[swashbuckler Meggie]

🍄‍🟫

Re: Tweaking Powers

[swashbuckler Meggie]

I like power tweaking, especially since it's an AU and it'd give people the flexibility to fill in roles or go new directions with unexplored aspects.

Also as someone who's considering a stupidly powerful character I'd love the option to just uhhhhhh turn that volume down to be on par with the rest of the team lol

Rin!

[prowler Rin]

POTENTIAL CHARACTERS: Husk (Paige Guthrie) White Queen (Emma Frost), Icarus (Jay Guthrie)??, Mercury (Cessily Kincaid)??? friends I do not know the list is long

REQUESTED CHARACTERS: Nope just whatever makes people happy 🥰

STORYLINES PREFERENCES: I'm pretty easy going - admittedly I've been out of the loop for a while/have forgotten a lot, so my opinions are very loose partially because of that. Like Kasey said I think a little bit of the silly things are fun because we're in the setting, why not!! I general tend to prefer more character arc-y things where there are stakes, but it doesn't have to be mega serious or traumatic. I'm not super interesting in a lot of death, even if it comes with people coming back to life (like whatever is going on in the comics currently, I think).

ANYTHING ELSE: I love... mutants....

Emma is pretty much a go at this point - I need to decide if she's going to be the same age as a baby Scott and Jean or a year or two older??? Idk

LINK: 💖

Rin

[prowler Rin]

💖

Re: Tweaking Powers

[prowler Rin]

I agree 100% with both of you guys - with so many different writers, especially for older characters, power sets can be weird as hell and too much. Also, honestly, if someone wants to play some silly side character that only has poorly defined basic powers but wants to give them a bit more, I love it, do it.

Re: Rin

[baisemain Marin]

Scott and Emma are also on my list... RIN 👀

Re: Rin

[prowler Rin]

👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀

Re: Rin

[ourcampfire kasey]

👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀

Re: Rin

[prowler Rin]

😘

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.

Re: SILLY CHATTER

[swashbuckler Meggie]

If I choose Kurt I'll need to wipe this account and find a new ooc username for me.

Re: SILLY CHATTER

[ourcampfire kasey]

It is pretty perfect...