X-Men Game
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So I've been hearing whispers of an X-Men game that may or may not be getting off the ground. It's been ages since I've been on a good X-Game so now I'm curious about it. It seems that it's mostly in the planning stage and someone suggested creating a thread to discuss it so...here it is.
I'd be more than willing to jump on and help with an X-Game (hosting, coding, etc) if it seems like one is going to get off the ground. So what would you want to see in an X-Game or what was the X-Game I kept hearing about supposed to be about?
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I know tree has a San Francisco grid
I will do w/e anybody wants except uh bear ultimate responsibility cus I can be a ridiculous flake and, like, "in charge of everything" is a super bad position to give somebody who sometimes just vanishes for a month
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SOMEBODY take this guy up on his offer.
I'm personally not a huge fan of the 'Utopia' idea some people seemed to want, because I think you lose the X-Men vs Brotherhood dynamic (both the actual fighting and just the inter-social conflict/trying to sway each other, etc, and them occasionally being forced to work together, etc), which is a huge chunk of what'd make it interesting, IMO.
I'd still totally play in the Utopia setting anyways, tho.
I'm not Comic-savvy enough to jump in and offer to write all the theme shit or anything like that, but admin shit I could do if somebody wanted. I've written policy, rules, etc before and I'd like to think of myself as one of the more rational 'job monkeys'. IDC about doing 10 apps a day and handling all the idiots on the guest channel, etc. (Yes, you're all idiots. Deal with it. Cough. I promise I'm nicer on game.) And I will push you other lazy staffers to get bigger shit done. To the point that you will hate me.
I think the first initial step is.
Utopia, or usual Westchester/NY setting, and after that, fuck it, it's a boulder rolling downhill as long as the simple code shit gets done.
My vote is usual Xavier's vs Brotherhood thing, because I think it provides a lot more self-sustaining RP if the Brotherhood actually gets some active members. But, again, I can live with either.
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The problem with the Brotherhood is that tbh I've never really seen it work or remember it being really even a force on a game, especially a canon place
So I dunno what to say for a driving villain thing but honestly I'm not sure you really need one? PC-wise at least, I don't think there really HAS to be a villain FACTION
With Utopia/SanFran you've also got some weirdness and some non-X stuff if you want, like, the Eternals live there cus there's a Celestial there, I'm p sure the main Agents of Atlas base is there, stuff like that, you can fudge stuff a little and say that The Order (California's super team from the initiative) is there instead of LA or say there's like a new West Coast Avengers or whatever
If you wanna diversify since I guess everybody's terrified of just one theme then, idk, there ARE some non-Marvel things that wouldn't be super onerous or totally distracting
Manhunter, most of the Gen13 cast, stuff like that, fairly low-priority chars who are at least somewhere in California
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OH
A little post Schism Mister Sinister builds a private London full of clones of himself under San Francisco
And there's some Sublime Corporation stuff too
And if you really really wanted to I guess you could actually play out Avengers V X-Men but that was kind of a terrible story so maybe don't
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I'm all for X-theme characters only, tbh. I think it'd be the best way to do it.
Once you start allowing non-Mutants, almost all the air goes out of the "life as a mutant is hard" bag, which I think would be pretty vital to the atmosphere of an X-Men game.
Once you crack the door to whatever, it's just a matter of time before the game is just another sandbox of every theme ever, with no real cohesive story.
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Personally, I'd want to see a more narrowly focused setting/theme. I think there needs to be specific "this is how life is" and "these are the current threats we face" and stuff like that. Less "okay you got Emma Frost, go do some slice of life shit until somebody runs a random plot".
ETA : Staff would also probably need to pick specific iterations of certain characters.
No, you don't have to play the character the EXACT SAME as in the comics, but no "this is alt verse cyclops and he's 19".
"Cyclops is in his 30s and the experienced leader of the X-men and blahblah. You have some leeway with his personality and can make your own decisions moving forward, but that's the general idea of Scott we expect to see."
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I guess if staff were pretty clear about it being first and format an X-Game and being thorough in deciding what does and doesn't fit and what can and can't be adjusted and all that then, idk, I don't think it'd necessarily turn into a complete shitshow but I'm admittedly a little skittish over just how prevailing the anti-canon anti-focus tide seems to be with what's left of the comic mu community
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So the things I'm seeing seem to be the following...
1: Base it on the comics instead of the movies/tv shows (which is fine by me).
2: There is some debate on whether it should be X-only or more inclusive.
3: Should it just be the X-Men or also include other factions (The Brotherhood, the Hellfire Club, Etc.)
4: Continuity. Start fresh (Year 1/Ultimate) or pick a cutoff point or x-reality(Utopia, 90's X-Men, Age of Apocalypse)?For me I'd want it based on the comics for sure. I'd be fine keeping it X-only but if we could find a way to fit other types in I would not be opposed to it. I'd also like to at least keep the door open for other groups like The Brotherhood or the HFC. As for continuity...I don't know. I'm not all that up on X-stuff post 90's/early 2000's but I'm not sure most people would enjoy a Year 1 style game so...
Anyway, these are the threads I'm picking up on. Anything else?
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@tempest said in X-Men Game:
ETA : Staff would also probably need to pick specific iterations of certain characters.
No, you don't have to play the character the EXACT SAME as in the comics, but no "this is alt verse cyclops and he's 19".
"Cyclops is in his 30s and the experienced leader of the X-men and blahblah. You have some leeway with his personality and can make your own decisions moving forward, but that's the general idea of Scott we expect to see."
Well yeah, it'd be a canon game, right? With a cutoff. So there's plenty of room for interpretation and player agency and etc but, like... yeah, a char should still fundamentally be that char
But letting people know a general age range is definitely helpful and as an added bonus wards away some of the people who refuse to do any char if they're not like 19 even when they should be 27 or w/e
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There's also the ability to use an RPG system (FASERIP?) and have sheets done by staff so players don't even have to deal with it. I'm all for making character claiming as easy and painless as possible. Let a player choose a character, write a desc, maybe something about their RP plans, and let them go is my take on it.
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@zombiegenesis We had a rather thorough discussion about this in the first portion of the 'Super hero poll Gut Check' thread or wtfever it's titled. A few people seemed to really like the Utopia idea, some liked the general 'Xavier's in Westchester' type thing.
I have no idea what FASERIP is. I remember not really minding the Marvel Superhero RPG sheets or whatever that Marvel Reborn had once upon a time. But, that's a lot more code/data entry work for staff. And I'm pretty sure there's tons of X-characters who won't have stats already done, so staff would have to wing most of it, I'd think.
My concern with even opening the door a crack to non-X themes is that once you start, it's almost inevitable that you'll eventually open the door all the way. And people will push for it non-stop.
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I'm maybe the only person in the world but I kind of like the written entry sheet stuff? I think doing it really helps you get into the character
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I'm personally a fan of Year One games. Allow people to build the background they want for their characters; use the comics, don't, mix-match, etc.
But then, my favorite X-Men games over the years went that route, so I am def. biased.
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My only real "problem" with year 1 games, is almost literally everybody winds up being 18-25. (With an emphasis on the 18-21.)
I like the idea of a like...."handwaved" year one? Like Cyclops and Jean are 30 and Xavier's and the X-men have been around, but idk, they were just doing "vague x-men shit" in the background and none of it was very serious until OMG NOW ALL THIS STUFF IS HAPPENING.
That way you get the 'teenage' mutants/etc and...Jean/Scott/Storm/etc aren't like 21.
IDK, maybe that only bugs me.
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No, everybody being super young bugs the crap out of me too
My vote'd def be for Utopia with maybe Second Coming as the cutoff which is like
September of 2010 I think?
If Necrosha happened then you can say basically any mutant ever came back to life, and if you do that "Phoenix says no more no more Mutants" thing you can say basically any mutant EVER is playable (within, you know, limits - like I don't think Apocalypse or Selene or or Empath or etc should be valid for PCs)
So you've got a ridiculous slate of options for chars, in a place and time nobody's ever done a game, with a possibly way different feel than the X-Men usually have - like, if Fear Itsed never happens then SanFran kind of adores the X-Men
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Also Second Coming was when just a giant amount of X-Men stuff wrapped up so doing cutoff files would be pretty easy
Edit - totally forgot about them but with non-X stuff there's also I think Avengers Academy in the area
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In my GUT CHECK thread I said a lot of things, but the one I feel most strongly about is to keep the roster to X-TYPES ONLY
A more inclusive roster will just repeat what fails on these other games: too broad a scope.
If everyone is x-sphere and the game gives a reason for no more than 2 factions to exist, then they're all kept together, role playing together.
If you add in Avengers...more splintering
Add in space: more splintering
Add in Asgard: MORE splintering
Add in a magic faction: MOAAAR SPLINTERINGNext thing you know, you have a game with 32 characters role playing as part of 20 factions, and no one role plays with anyone outside of their preferred clique.
Dont be afraid to say: This is an X-Sphere game. You love the mutant civil rights drama, the characters, the setting, the history. Come here and play mutants
Then allow NPC cameos of the big bads and outside influences:
- The Avengers come to enforce registration. Time to fight the Avengers
- Sinister, Apocalypse, etc are all great for plots
- Doom visit Utopia
Long and short of the idea is to keep the PLAYERBASE focused on one aspect of the super hero world to keep them together and make their characters important. While you may have mutants that use magic (Magick, for example), doing this will keep Magick's character functionally important to the other PCs, rather than creating some Strange/Constantine/Zatanna hit squad that pulls the character further away from the core of rp for exclusive time.
No, instead make Magick important to the mutant community, one of their few magical experts, which will come in handy when Mephisto sucks them all into Limbo to fight demons. (Kyle/Yost/Young New X men run)
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It'd be good to keep it focused to mutants only, or at least make them the primary point of the game.
I also think it'd be good to break away from everything being centered around Xavier's School. Utopia itself may or may not be it, but it'd be a change from the usual at least.
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