Civil War: X-Men

[Beast]

Hummmh... I'm fairly sure I recall seeing Venus Dee Milo and Deadgirl planned for release in one of the forthcoming supplements... yet the Search seems to be a little temperamental. Can anyone say whether I am being daft (and misremembering), please...?

I don't believe so. Since that team was "dead" long before any of the events.

[Clockpunk]

I must be losing it then! :p Thanks, Beast. A damn shame, though - as I do like the two of them. Ah well...

[fireinthedust]

Just throwing this out there: I appreciate the effort you're going to in writing all these datafiles... but I hate regular comic book continuity. It's so tied up with melodrama and rushed stories, and massive character changes, and I just can't keep up.

I don't know most of the characters who are being made, yet so many major names have been ignored: Magneto, Omega Red, Sabretooth, Mystique... these are characters my non-fanatical players will have heard of, but they're not on your list.

The random, obscure characters may be fascinating for completists, but I feel like some really important characters have been ignored. I will never use the stats for Ape-X. I would use Juggernaut.

Most of the characters on the list are the side-story characters writers and artists design and throw out there in droves to see what sticks. I can't use those to convince luke-warm players to pick up this game.

I appreciate this book, and I truly do respect attention to detail, but I'd prefer a generic X-men book. Maybe a couple: X-men 80s, 90s, and so forth, but not "2011 randoms". My players would kill me if I ran with many of those. "Who do we fight, Magneto? Giant Sentinels?" "Um, the dreaded... Ape-X. I don't know who this is, but I didn't have time to prep the datafile" "You're terrible, I hope you die! Also I'm never coming back to your games." See?

X-factor are still cool, btw, but I have to agree: Havok and Polaris are more important for the survival of this RPG than being a stickler for a brief moment of publication time.

[fireinthedust]

Also: sorry about the red letters, I didn't choose to use them.


FYI: brilliant system, and really easy to make up characters. I'm already scheduling game nights for it.

[Cam]

This is just a supplement for a major Event, i.e. Civil War. We have plans for a mainstream X-Event next year, thought I can't reveal any details yet. And, of course, Age of Apocalypse is this year.

We won't be doing roster books or team sourcebooks. All of our products will be tied into major Marvel Events and the characters as they are during those Events.

Cheers,
Cam

[fireinthedust]

That's fair. And I sort of understand the reason to tie things into events: at what stage of a comic does one say "this is the most iconic moment"? Thor has been somewhat static, but X-men tend to go through lots of changes. The original team was over-hauled for Giant-Size X-men, and while that team is fairly static, the other X-books grew the roster substantially by the time the 90s Jim Lee phase hit, plus the 90s cartoon. I could argue that then, and a bit earlier, are the iconic X-men... but it's been 20 years, and there seems to have been a big shift since then in how the stories and the x-universe have developed.

In the comics medium, does it make sense to pick and choose versions of the characters outside of continuity? Would it be like taking 1980s Shadowcat and Vampire Jubilee (now), and missing the point of the two characters as they stand in their respective historical contexts? That crossover would bug me. (or, more concrete: Silver Age Superman mixed with modern age Punisher. Really patchwork combination).
(counter-point: once the dice hit the table, it's no longer continuity. It's impossible to play through the original stories freely, as key narrative choices leading to later events won't be made. Ergo any event book is really more of an event snapshot.)

Also, and with much appreciation, there is the history of the Dragonlance series of modules going through the books. I still collect whichever of those modules I come across.

As well, I do admit, there will likely be loads of fan-made Gambits and Magnetos on these boards. The rules are more simple than M&M, I can whip up my own easily enough, or use someone else's.

So I do get it. Interesting choice, but I get it.

I would buy a roster book or team sourcebook, though.

[Spatula]

I had to go back through the thread to see who Ape-X was, only to find out that it's a character NOT in the supplement...

If you're primary reference point for the X-Men is 20 years ago, well, a LOT has changed since then. The Juggernaut isn't even the Juggernaut anymore - Colossus is! It doesn't really make sense for Marvel to promote comics from so long ago, they want to sell the comics they're putting out now.

And from looking at the list of player data files, most of them are characters the have been around since the 90s. And it looks like the Marauders are in the bad guy list.

[Sentient Bean]

Just throwing this out there: I appreciate the effort you're going to in writing all these datafiles... but I hate regular comic book continuity. It's so tied up with melodrama and rushed stories, and massive character changes, and I just can't keep up.

I don't know most of the characters who are being made, yet so many major names have been ignored: Magneto, Omega Red, Sabretooth, Mystique... these are characters my non-fanatical players will have heard of, but they're not on your list.

The random, obscure characters may be fascinating for completists, but I feel like some really important characters have been ignored. I will never use the stats for Ape-X. I would use Juggernaut.

Most of the characters on the list are the side-story characters writers and artists design and throw out there in droves to see what sticks. I can't use those to convince luke-warm players to pick up this game.

I appreciate this book, and I truly do respect attention to detail, but I'd prefer a generic X-men book. Maybe a couple: X-men 80s, 90s, and so forth, but not "2011 randoms". My players would kill me if I ran with many of those. "Who do we fight, Magneto? Giant Sentinels?" "Um, the dreaded... Ape-X. I don't know who this is, but I didn't have time to prep the datafile" "You're terrible, I hope you die! Also I'm never coming back to your games." See?

X-factor are still cool, btw, but I have to agree: Havok and Polaris are more important for the survival of this RPG than being a stickler for a brief moment of publication time.

yup.

[Sentient Bean]

Inferno would be awesome. There are digital/modern images of the late 80's depictions of the characters in this and most events from that period onwards. Just because the book wasn't published recently does not mean that digital, high quality pictures of the characters in the costumes of the time can't be found.

[Clockpunk]

Inferno would be awesome. There are digital/modern images of the late 80's depictions of the characters in this and most events from that period onwards. Just because the book wasn't published recently does not mean that digital, high quality pictures of the characters in the costumes of the time can't be found.

Given the extent to which the gaming community have acknowledged how much fun the game is, I'd be surprised in Marvel wouldn't be willing to work closer with the team - even commissioning character drawings in a modern style for such datafiles. The overly cartoon-iness of Gliath did stand out in the core Civil War book, regrettably...