X-Men Storylines

[SuperBlue]

Okay, I'm in the planning stage of an X-Men campaign (alternate universe idea). I already have long-term adventure arks in mind (Apocolypse, Morlocks, Sentinels, cross-overs with Fantastic Four, Spiderman, etc).

 

Right now I'm trying to find some beginning stage ideas. Basically it is a current day campaign, but the world is unaware of mutants (how long that remains to be seen depends on the actions of the PC's and of the Mutant groups out there).

 

The world has not seen many costumed individuals... Captain America is just a legend, Spidermand and Daredevil are just tabloid rumors. Frank Castle has not yet started his war against crime. The Fantastic Four are still building their space shuttle. Bruce Banner is not the head of the Gamma Reactor research facility. Tony Stark has not yet built his Iron Man suit.

 

Basically Xavier's school has been open for about a decade, but hasn't had many students (because the number of mutants has not been very high up until recent years). Only a handful of his X-Men are college graduates.

 

Magneto is in hiding, but has been sending out feelers through Mystique and a few other mutant servants to find powerful mutants that hold a grudge as big as his. He only has a few Mutants in his "brotherhood" (Right now it's Mystique, Blob, Toad, and Pyro).

 

Xavier's teaching staff consists of his older X-Men as well as some less powerful mutants with various skills (the Phys Ed instructor has Enhanced senses but is not very mobile; The Art instructor has Eidetic Memory and can secrete a sticky resin, but only in small amounts; stuff like that).

 

Some of the popular Characters are not where they are in the traditional universe.... Wolverine and Sabretooth are currently part of Alpha Flight, Storm is in Africa working for the Shadow King, Mastermind is a school teach and will become part of the Mutant Rights Organization (group I've created on my own, won't make an appearance until after mutants have been discovered).

 

Anyway... I figure a few adventures can be attempts to recruit new members of the X-Men (such as traveling to Canada to recruit wolverine and sabretooth, or traveling to Germany to track Nightcrawler, etc). Others can be stopping the Brotherhood from doing "stuff" (such as adding a chemical to water resevoirs that increases the odds of mutation... or forcibly recruiting members... or even blowing the lid on the existance of mutants).

 

Any other ideas? I was thinking that maybe having the PC's search New York for the rumoured Spiderman and Daredevil (maybe Cerebo cannot distinguish the diference between Mutants and Meta-humans?).

 

I wanna hold off on actually having them face Magneto, Juggarnaut, the Morlocks, Apocolypse, or any of the others... could possibly throw them against HYDRA (though I don't know much about Nick Fury, SHEILD, and HYRDA...)

[zornwil]

Re: X-Men Storylines

 

Given you're doing a mutants rights thing, there's a good Palladium book called, I think, the "Mutant Underground" that covers a number of topics. I happened across it and found it useful. I think expositionary stories can be good, and there's one at http://www.realschluss.org/x-champions/x-champions_issues/34_all_in_the_family.htm based on the idea of mutant slavery as I got from the aforementioned book. This "issue" actually has 2 mutant-related stories in it that may or may not be of interest themselves but at least demonstrate the idea of telling people more about mutants in the world as it stands.

[freakboy6117]

Re: X-Men Storylines

 

beast of boston common

something huge and scary is terrifying late night dog walkers on boston common the proffesor sends the x men to investiagrte you to investiagte you fins a mutant unable to control his changes into his feral beast form or a psionic nightmare projector / summoner .

 

there are a string of terrorist explosions a radical terrorist group has aquired a mutant teleporter whos ports produce a powerful explosion at point of origin. the problem is the kid is 13 years old and the terrorist either have it brainwashed or holding its family hostage.

 

field trip to the rockies find the team in a small town but something is a miss some supernatural entity has taken over the inhabitants can teh team stop it before something terribel happens?

[steriaca]

Re: X-Men Storylines

 

Humm...early Marvel...where to start...

 

Rumors about a dragon (or a mutant animal?) send the X-Men to China to investgate (FinFangFoom?).

 

A mystereous mastermind makes himself known. He calls himself "The Mandran", and appears to wield some strange powers. Could he be a mutant?

 

The players learn about some small time thugs trying to put presser buy hiring mutants into there gain. Thay gain this infomation from someone who may or may not be conected to the mysterous "Kingpin Of Crime".

 

The heros search in Gwenish Villiage for the sourse of some mystereous energy which is not mutant, but still regesters on Cerebro. What can it be? Who could be causing it? And what does it have to do with Dr. Stephen Strange?

[Mutant for Hire]

Re: X-Men Storylines

 

I have a ton of ideas for a mutant campaign, or rather the Marvel Universe done properly. Here's a few of the core ideas and a new enemy to chew on.

 

First off, the x-factor ultimately is the source of almost all exotic powers in humanity, with the exception of magic (assuming it does exist). Spiderman is in fact a mutant, however he's what one would call an induced mutant, as opposed to a natal mutant. His x-factor was switched on in a mutagenic accident, as were the Fantastic Four and the Hulk for that matter. Children of induced mutants, such as Franklin Richards, are natal mutants. Knowledge of this isn't fairly common as the existance of the x-factor is still disputed. People are trying to find the genetic markers in the 'junk' DNA of humanity.

 

There is also the idea of multiple Morlock tribes. Obvious mutants who don't get lynched (either disappearing before discovered or managing to elude their persuers) go to ground in the deepest hiding places they can find near them, drifting to cities with good hiding places. The Morlocks of New York are just one such tribe that's formed. Chicago is the focus for obvious mutants in the midwest, and presumably LA is a focus for mutants from southern CA. New York is the collection point for northeastern mutants. And of course overseas you find Morlock tribes in London, Paris, Berlin and other places.

 

The bulk of humanity is unaware of these mutants because they tend to disappear very fast or they are misidentified as monsters or aliens. No doubt the government has recovered the corpses of these creatures and have been quietly confirming the existance of mutants but so far that knowledge has not been made public yet. There are rumors of monsters coming out at night to scavenge, but as the majority of these sightings are by drunks and street people they have not been given credibility by most sources.

 

The bulk of these mutants are low power mutants. Just as Xavier-level mutants are rare compared to the bulk of the X-Men, so are X-Men grade talents rare compared to the bulk of the mutant race. We're talking about telepaths who can only pick up flashes of thought with great concentration and can't modify minds, or telekinetics that can only lift a brick with great effort and concentration, and simple psychometrics.

 

Xavier has, knowingly or unknowingly, set his Cerebro unit to search out mutants of a greater power level than the bulk of mutants. Even if he is aware of this fact, there's no point in him notching up Cerebro's sensitivity. Just as the Special Forces try to recruit physically perfect people, Xavier needs strong mutant talents for the X-Men.

 

That the bulk of the Morlocks are weak mutants is the one thing that's probably has saved the United States. You see the Japanese Morlocks, who tend to refer to themselves as Bakemono, are consumed with hatred for the United States who they (and not without justification) blame the United States for their condition since Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Bakemono are certainly plotting to find a way to detonate nuclear bombs in the United States for revenge (a Bakemono moderate is one who only wants to drop two on the US, in balanced revenge).

 

Even with the power distribution, when you drop two atomic bombs on a country with half the population of the United States and a very high population concentration, you get a lot of X-Men grade mutants, the obvious subset of which all blame the United States for their condition. The only other factor saving the United States is that they hate all gaijin and so they refuse to work with Magneto or Apocalypse, though the latter is looking for ways to help them accomplish their goals.

 

If there's a request for more ideas, including my thoughts on Magneto, Apocalpyse and the Inner Circle, I'll be happy to toss them out...

[SuperBlue]

Re: X-Men Storylines

 

Humm...early Marvel...where to start...

 

Rumors about a dragon (or a mutant animal?) send the X-Men to China to investgate (FinFangFoom?).

 

A mystereous mastermind makes himself known. He calls himself "The Mandran", and appears to wield some strange powers. Could he be a mutant?

 

The players learn about some small time thugs trying to put presser buy hiring mutants into there gain. Thay gain this infomation from someone who may or may not be conected to the mysterous "Kingpin Of Crime".

 

The heros search in Gwenish Villiage for the sourse of some mystereous energy which is not mutant, but still regesters on Cerebro. What can it be? Who could be causing it? And what does it have to do with Dr. Stephen Strange?

 

Problem with FinFangFoom and Mandran is I know very little of Iron Man. I know nothing of Dr. Strange. Most of what I've read was X-Men and Spiderman.

[Sketchpad]

Re: X-Men Storylines

 

Have them confront members of Project:Wideawake ... specifically a soldier in it named Castle Or better yet, have them find the frozen Cap ... what would the X-men do with him?

[SuperBlue]

Re: X-Men Storylines

 

Have them confront members of Project:Wideawake ... specifically a soldier in it named Castle Or better yet' date=' have them find the frozen Cap ... what would the X-men do with him?[/quote']

 

Project Wideawake was the sentinal program wasn't it?

 

Castle? As in Frank Caste? I already have plans for the Punisher.

 

As for Captain America, I have plans for him as well.

 

But that won't come til a lil bit later. I think I have all that I need right now.

[Sketchpad]

Re: X-Men Storylines

 

Yup ... Project Wideawake was the Sentinels & Anti-Mutant directive formed by the US government back in the 80s ... good stuff! Kinda made me sad that Champs doesn't have Genocide anymore ... at least officially

[steriaca]

Re: X-Men Storylines

 

Problem with FinFangFoom and Mandran is I know very little of Iron Man. I know nothing of Dr. Strange. Most of what I've read was X-Men and Spiderman.

 

FinFangFoom is a giant alien who looks like a dragon. Crashed landed in China, went to sleep for a few cennturies, then awakened to cause distruction.

 

The Mandiran is a mad chinies man who wants to control the world. His Rings Of Power (all 10 of them) alowe him to do amazing things. The rings, by the way, came from the ship which brought FinFangFoom to Earth (and China).

 

And, well, Dr. Strange IS Dr. Strange, Master Of The Mystic Arts. The world dosen't real know he exist, and he wants it that way (makes it easy for him to defend the Earth from mystical madmen and exterdimentinal fiends). Thinking he is rather 'new' at this time, he mmight not know about Cerebro's existance, and this, could not (as of yet) hide his presence from it.

[steriaca]

Re: X-Men Storylines

 

In Europ, there is a country named Laviria, ruled by a mad dicator. The heros learn that the dictator is rounding up the countrie's mutants, and forcing them into the arme forces of the country. Called in to smash the dictator, thay meet an intresting allie, Dr. Victor VonDoom, exiled scientist from Lavira. Since this IS before the formation of the Fantastic Four, this story could basicly 'tell' the story of how Doom got into power of that country.

 

This should make up for FinFangFoom and The Mandrin.

[steriaca]

Re: X-Men Storylines

 

The heros go home to Winnchester Countie (and the X-Mansion), when thay notice that eveything has changed to look like something out of the late 19th centery (including themselves). Investgating, thay come across a man who calls himself Turnner D. Century. Could HE be causing this mass retrograde? And if so, why?

 

The world gets an ultimatum from a madman named Lucifer. If the Earth dosen't give him the rule over it in twentyfour hours, he will unleash Dominus upon it. What is Dominus? And what does Profesor X know about Lucifer anyways? (Hint: In the Marvel Universe, Lucifer was the one who cripled Profesor X, not Magneto)