Saturday, October 1, 2011

Hey, Whaddaya Know? A New Idea

Hi folks.  My brain is finally beginning to unclench from work pressures and there's the prospect of actual time off in quantity in the near future (as opposed to the onesy-twosy stuff I've had to take here and there since the end of February).  Hopefully, this will mean getting my own D&D game back on track as well as considering something else to run in the not-too-distant future.

Oddly enough, I got the first real inspiration I've had in a while this afternoon.  Back in the spring, I saw "X-Men: First Class" and enjoyed the heck out of it, even though it's got basically nothing to do with either the comics or filmic X-Men continuity.  When it came out on DVD, I grabbed it up and finally got around to rewatching it today.

As it turns out, it's the lack of continuity that got me thinking: What if one were to launch an X-Men Universe wherein "First Class" (the movie, not the comic) was the only piece of canon?  So, Erik Lensherr: Suave International Nazi Hunter is canon.  As is swinging 60s Charles Xavier, a furry blue Beast as a founding X-Man, Mystique as Charles' adopted sister, and so on.

Also, there are no other types of superhumans.  The FF, the Avengers, whatever...not in this setting.  It's a bottle universe.  If you have superpowers, you must be a mutant.  Maybe an extraterrestrial, once they show up, but mutants are the default assumption for PCs.

The tone would be distinctly "Spy-Fi," something the movie did a great job of conveying. Players could even create their own versions of existing Marvel mutants, with altered backstories to account for the new continuity, which will borrow elements from all eras and incarnations of X-Men.

Of course, what I've typed above is the entirety of my thoughts on the matter so far, but at least it's got the juices flowing.

4 comments:

  1. John Steed and Emma Peel. Thank you, that is all.

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  2. Oh, absolutely. I see them as being involved in MI-13's efforts to deal with mutants in the UK. In Champions terms, I'd consider them highly competent super-agents.

    In fact, I could see mundane super-spy as one of the few non-mutant origins I'd allow. As long as their gear was sufficiently "Spy-Fi" and groovy.

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  3. Don't forget Our Man Flint.

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  4. I like the core of this idea... tasking the players with rewriting the back story for iconic characters to logically flow with a non-standard continuity of the GM's devising~

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