M&M 3E X-Men AU Children of the Atom (Recruiting closed)

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EpicEclipse
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M&M 3E X-Men AU Children of the Atom (Recruiting closed)

Post by EpicEclipse »

Xavier's institute for Gifted Youngsters, a place youths who have been gifted (or cursed) with mutant abilities can go to not only be safe and among those who understand their situation, but also to have access to extensive and high quality learning through the professors employed by the school, and Charles Xavier himself, a telepath of some renown.

In this AU, there is no X-Men team, but there is still the blind prejudice towards mutant-kind, those who fight against it and turn their powers against humans, and a fledgling organization whose mission is to combat these violent mutants, but there is an unease in the air about this Mutant Control Corp (MCC) and what it may be a precursor to.

Your characters are playing the roles of students of the Xavier school, whether new or having attended a few years in this world where society is against you and Xavier's school is one of the few bastions against that prejudice and injustice. An oasis of safety, at least, for now.

Note: This AU does not include other superhero teams or metahuman types or aliens (Yet at least). Like the X-Men movies, we'll be excluding the rest of the Marvel universe, though people like Captain Steve Rogers and things like Stark Enterprises are around with their purposes slightly tweaked and without their superhero powers and/or inclinations.

We'll be going third edition, power level 8 with 120pp. The only specifics for what is banned is stuff that is typically seen as potentially abusive or game breaking. If you're not sure if something is, then ask. Plenty of very experienced and phenomenal M&M players here that can help with those kinds of questions.

I will be filling in some more details about the professors at the school, where some of the more noteworthy X-men of the standard universe are, as they are around, just not part of any X-men team.
Submissions wrote: Shadowbourne / Anton Jakova - Shadowjak "Lord of the edges"
Camus / Rafael Schults - Briophyte "And you thought acne was bad"
Flynnnarrel Wallace Iverson - Skew "Thinking with portals"
Doctor Malsyn / Ana Sofia Moya - Sharq "Dentist's worst nightmare"
Zero Prime / Ulyana - Evo ""Has seen some shit"
Hero4hire / Robbie - Redline "Redline, green light"
Hawk / James Crow Horse / Helix "Thick skinned"
CaptainChaos / Brittney Reese - Thermic "Hottest girl around"
Bladewind / Robert Drake / Ice "Coolest guy around"
Rokoran / John Baye / Rapid "Gotta go fast"
Original Interest Post wrote:I am thinking about putting together an alternate universe XMEN games where the players would actually be the first X-team of mutants, so the XMEN as we know them are not around, even as teachers, though the team may run into them as circumstances have them cross paths.

I have two ideas for this depending on interest;
1) the PCs are students of the prestigious Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters. Sought out and recruited as many young Mutants tend to be, to help them with their powers and give them a high caliber of education for integrating with a society that hates Mutants. Through events and circumstances, the group of teenagers would form the first X-team.

2) the PCs are adult mutants just trying to get by in a society that distrust and hates them as Mutants. They find themselves approached with an offer; a mysterious benefactor wishes to put together a team of Mutants, but let them determine their own path, to either strike back at humanity that had held the down, or defend them against a recent wave of Mutants-related attacks.

Thoughts?
Last edited by EpicEclipse on Fri Aug 25, 2017 1:41 pm, edited 9 times in total.
Zero Prime
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Re: Interest: XMEN AU

Post by Zero Prime »

Interesting ... as a lover of X-Men, I can honestly say I am interested. However, I do have a few questions in how you would envision a campaign of this nature. As you indicated one potential starting point would be as students at Xavier's School, would we be beginning in the classic era of the X-Men, the early 60's and seventies, or are we thinking of advancing the Mutant phenomenon to our current era?

Secondly, while you indicated that the original X-Men would likely not be involved in our education at all, short of Xavier himself, would we still exist in the greater Marvel Universe? Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, the Avengers and the like?

Sorry for my questions, I love the idea of X-Men, and have long felt that the issues of race and prejudice that are so central to their theme should almost exist in a separate Universe from mainstream Marvel, as I can't really see Captain America ignoring the issue of Mutant Rights, especially when coupled with hate crimes from pro-Human activists. Nor can I see the population at large making a distinction between a Mutant and someone like Spider Man.

Just random thoughts, but still, very interested.
EpicEclipse
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Re: Interest: XMEN AU

Post by EpicEclipse »

Both are solid questions that I didn't address in my premise pitch.

The plan was for more modern like the first XMEN trilogy. And like the XMEN movies in general, I was planning for the game to be self contained from other Marvel franchises.

I feel exactly the same that mutants in the larger marvel universe seem out of place given all those who would step in and do something about it and the double standard of mutants vs meta humans and which are seen as heroes and threats. XMEN has always felt like a stronger setting when on its own where the focus on prejudice has always been one of the XMEN strong points for story drama and is for the most part the central idea of the second idea, to let players explore it more freely.

The first idea would be a bit more structured story wise, the second would still have structure, but more based on the team's choices.

That all having been said, I like easter eggs too. Just because the heroes of the greater Marvel universe aren't present, doesn't mean the names aren't people you can run into, just not in the way they are known mainstream.
RainOnTheSun
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Re: Interest: XMEN AU

Post by RainOnTheSun »

This sounds interesting. Would PCs be running into the canon X-Men villains, or would there be original threats for original characters?
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Camus
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Re: Interest: XMEN AU

Post by Camus »

I dig this, especially if option 2 is chosen
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Doctor Malsyn
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Re: Interest: XMEN AU

Post by Doctor Malsyn »

I'd be all for a game like this. Seeing the story potential for both options, I'd be down to submit for either. Zero Prime has already asked my most pressing questions, but I also want to know what edition you plan to use?
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EpicEclipse
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Re: Interest: XMEN AU

Post by EpicEclipse »

To address the posts in order;

You would run into them, but not as prominently and not necessarily as villains. I prefer to give the team their own villain gallery (or hero gallery in the event of option 2's team going renegade)

It would be 3e as I am much more comfortable with it. I can be flexible with house rules though to help with making concepts work if needed.
CaptainChaos
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Re: Interest: XMEN AU

Post by CaptainChaos »

Original characters would be challenging due to the number of mutants published over the years. Correct me if I'm wrong but don't mutants usually have only one power ( frost, fire, eyebeams, physic, etc)? I'm basing this only on the movies and comics I read over 20 years ago.
Hawk
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Re: Interest: XMEN AU

Post by Hawk »

What PL would you be using? It sounds interesting.
EpicEclipse
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Re: Interest: XMEN AU

Post by EpicEclipse »

Captain Chaos: Mutants do indeed usually have a single power. There are some exceptions (Emma Frost(Diamond form and telepathy), Wolverine(claws and healing factor AND heightened senses), and Rogue (Her innate power stealing and her gained added powers from Ms Marvel)), but there is nothing nowhere saying only one mutant may ever have a specific mutant power. Multiple mutants may have the same or very similar power (Healing factors are friggin' rampant, telepathy is fairly common (Xavier, Emma Frost, Jean Gray, Psylock to name a few). It's just not shown as commonly, for two reasons in my opinion. 1) It would be very boring to keep reading a comic where different characters with the same power kept popping up and 2) there are looooooads of powers out there. Mutants have a distinct advantage here as being mutate-originated, they have some of the absolute greatest diversity in powers because they can get some pretty quirky gifts.

I would encourage creativity. If there is a power you want and you know it exists on another canon X-Man, go for it, maybe try and put a unique spin or angle on it. Maybe instead of creating ice by manipulating temperature, you actually control the molecules themselves and pack them in so they become a solid ice-like material without the cold. With something like that you could also disperse the water molecules into mist and vapor as well and possibly extend into straight up water manipulation. Or maybe teleportation, since Nightcrawler is pretty popular. Maybe instead of mimicking the way Nightcrawler shifts through that limbo with a sulfur-y "BAMF", you transmit yourself another way, maybe a time-based teleportation? And interesting thing about mutants if they often have a limited ability to interact with something that may otherwise seem overpowered, like time. Like rather than free manipulation of time, you can "hold" time in place for a second, or rearrange where you are in that moment (Limited reality control based on your own position within reality?)

Mutants have some truly interesting and crazy mechanics behind their powers sometimes by way of explaining how or why their powers work. Cyclops is a pretty great example of this. His power is pretty boring on the surface. Eye beams. Neat. But How do they beam? Extradimensional portals in his eyeballs. Of course I am simplifying that a bit, but that is the jist of it.

Long post to respond to a simple thought, but I wanted to give my full thoughts on that specific matter as the other thing I really enjoy about X-Men besides the general tones of their setting, is how creative some of the powers are in terms of execution and/or explanation. You would also have the option of equipment that can support or enhance your innate mutant abilities (Wolvie's adamantine skeleton or Cerebro for examples)

And hey, if you want a specific power like say, Gambit's kinetic energy charging, and can't think of another way to come at it, then don't worry about it. Yes, I'll give points for originality and creativity in powers, but that is but a single aspect of a character. Less creativity in powers can more than be made up for in creativity and depth of the other aspects of the character.


Hawk: Haven't decided yet as it will be tied to which option I ultimately go with. Teens would be lower though obviously.
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Doctor Malsyn
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Re: Interest: XMEN AU

Post by Doctor Malsyn »

I've been running through a couple ideas that I'd like to get on paper for when you open up recruitment, such an open playing field. I'm leaning towards either a girl with a shark theme, or maybe just a girl with sharp teeth in general perhaps? We'll see.
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Spectrum
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Re: Interest: XMEN AU

Post by Spectrum »

If you go with the younger group, I'd be interested in playing. Not sure which of several ideas.
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CaptainChaos
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Re: Interest: XMEN AU

Post by CaptainChaos »

I've been browsing the random superpower listing and there are quite a few I would never have though of. I've got a few ideas from my reading.
Hawk
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Re: Interest: XMEN AU

Post by Hawk »

I have a couple of ideas I am thinking about.
EpicEclipse
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Re: Interest: XMEN AU

Post by EpicEclipse »

CaptainChaos wrote: Sun Aug 13, 2017 8:54 pm I've been browsing the random superpower listing and there are quite a few I would never have though of. I've got a few ideas from my reading.
Spectrum wrote: Sun Aug 13, 2017 8:50 pm If you go with the younger group, I'd be interested in playing. Not sure which of several ideas.
Hawk wrote: Sun Aug 13, 2017 9:04 pm I have a couple of ideas I am thinking about.
All this talk of ideas but no details. D:
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