OOC / Casting Call: Xavier Institute For Higher Learning

[IDreamofBunnies]

Guess I didn't make it clear that I wanted Lifeguard to be only in the institute as more of an advisor type possition.

She's far too unbalanced to take out to play on a mission and I recognise that. Just thought she'd be fun in a non-com situation.

If need be, I can find another character. Anyone know any other wing-bearing females?

Well if we don't care about M-Day, there's that latina with insect wings who can spit acid.

 

[GentLi]

Flying femmes, no problem listing a dozen. Winged chicks are an issue. If you delve into the newer comics you'll find a few young mutants, unfortunately lacking in notoriety. Perhaps take an established character like Angel and swap genders? Maybe something more creative?

*shrugs* I guess what I posted to say was that I didn't have anything worth posting.

 

[Shaq]

So far I'm with Gentli.

He mentioned Angel IV and there is that new mutant Pixie http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixie_(comics)


That's all I cant hink of right now.

 

[Shaq]

Well if we don't care about M-Day, there's that latina with insect wings who can spit acid.

M-Day is one of the most poorly executed ideas ever.

The lasting reprucussionsa are "Jubilee is no longer a mutant"


*gasp*

The Marvel Universe will never be the same....

 

[dragonrazor]

does my character have to be a mutant? would it be possible to be, say, a combat android designed to fight extradimensional monsters?

 

[Shaq]

does my character have to be a mutant? would it be possible to be, say, a combat android designed to fight extradimensional monsters?

Doesn't have to be a mutant. Exactly what this team of X-Men will do will become apparent in the thread later.

The thing is though, one of the new elements is everyone will NOT be going on every mission so various aspects of a character including their connection to the other characters and the cause will go into who gets to go on what mission.

 

[dragonrazor]

ok, i think i have a good idea for a character then

 

[dragonrazor]

Name: Tai Renmak
Codename: Xeno
Age: 23
History: Tai was born in New York, and raised by his stepmother and father. He grew up normally, playing in sports and several high school musicals, but his life changed when he got a job for a corporation that did a lot of scientific research. He ended up accidentally being bonded with a prototype combat android. As a result, his body is one hundred percent technorganic, and he can change his arms into weapons. He disappeared from the corporation with the help of the young woman who created the android, and only recently showed up with her at the doorstep of the Xavier Institute.

Weakness: needs to recharge his energy through sleep every 14 hours

 

[Jeremy Davis]

So long as Lifeguard is only going to be at the mansion, I see no problem with having you play her Vix hon.

Hopefully we can get a few more people to join up. PM your friends and see if anyone wants to join up. This Xmen Threads have good Storytellers and most of us will refuse to allow it to dy off like all the rest.

We will be starting at the mansion soon. Shaq and I just have to work a few things out then contact a few people from the original Xmen thread.

 

[Vixandra]

Maybe I'll just create a mutant that's come to the institute to learn to use her wings from the flyers there.
*ponders upon this*

 

[GentLi]

M-Day is one of the most poorly executed ideas ever.

The lasting reprucussionsa are "Jubilee is no longer a mutant"


*gasp*

The Marvel Universe will never be the same....

Hey. I was crushed. Don't make light of my heartbreak.

I think they should've depowered Wolverine. Now that would've caused a few fanboy riots.

 

[Shaq]

Hey. I was crushed. Don't make light of my heartbreak.

I think they should've depowered Wolverine. Now that would've caused a few fanboy riots.

Wolverine IS his claws and healing factor.


I like the depowering of Xavier, I think magneto should have died on Genosha in the sentinel attack but I would have liked to seen the following get depowered:


Gambit-His powers are unique and cool but his thief, charm personas are cooler and get overshadowed.

Polaris-Ms. Magneto 10x lamer

Scarlett Witch

Banshee and Pete Wisdom-Similar to Gambit they could be formiddable and intereesting maybe more so without powers

Rachel Grey-Horrible character, absolutely useless

Mammomax, Thunderbird, Slipstream and Lifeguard.-It seems like the most hated mutants marvel ever created were kept around just to spite fans who would guess they would use this opportunity to get rid of these abominable characters. They should have dammit. Mammommax is a fucking shame.

Julian Keller-One dimensional "jerk" character with contrived power. Guys like Tag, Aero, prodigy, and Spectre had A) Powers that weren't offensive and therefor unique B) Interesting twists to their powers and should have been kept around


But overall, House of M and Decimation shouldn't have happened. I would have preferred no more new mutants to prevent mutants like Pulse and layla Miller who are some of the most contrived plot devices ever.

Just to note, I'm going to offer some articles that I hope will help us in the roleplay, characters like Layla Miller and Pulse are examples of what we should NOT do.


It shows how difficult writing is though when respected pro writers even resort to using writing devices that are absolutely horrible.

 

[Vixandra]

Shaq- this is a still in the concept stage character, let me know what you think. I figure she's come to the institue to learn more about her powers, how to control them and to kick some evil butt.

Brynhild "Bryn" Hilddottir
Name meaning: armored, fighting woman
Height: 5'7"
Build: athletic with curves

Powers:
Flight: she can call a pair of silvery blue wings to her back, mostly at will though sometimes they'll show up at random. She's still learning to fly and not 'fall with style' though.

Rune Calling: by using single runes or combinations of them, she can perform spell like abilities. Has been working for a few years on it but only recently started to practice offensive calling. Often found expermienting with new runes and runic combinations, occastionally with explosive resaults, literally. But she tries.



How's that? Enough power to keep up, enough weakness because she's still learning to be in jeopardy.

 

[Shaq]

Characters

Things to consider

History: Give them a meaningful if small backstory. Who are they and how did they end up at Xavier's? The last part is key. CONNECTION to the mansion is important.

Johnny Storm is a great character, but doesn't really belong on an X-Men team.

It should be mentioned that every character will NOT get to go on every mission this time. Through mechanisms that will be known later you will have to get picked to go on a mission so if your character doesn't really make sense being in the mansion or fit a particular mission then they won't be allowed to go.

Powers-

Canon characters have some leeway (Ie: Fatale has about 4 distinct powers) but generally its good if characters have no more than two powers, one is preferable. But its encouraged to think of multiple ways that one power can be expressed and used (Multiple Man in the comics is rich, a genius and a certified lawyer, accountant, fluent in about 8 languages and some more things because he made some dupes then sent them off into the world and absorbed them back only after years away).

I mention one is preferable some characters with two (Jean Grey, telekinetic and telekinetic) are already too powerful while others (White Queen telepath and diomond morph) the second power made them more powerful.

Does it make sense?

Keep in mind evolutionary mutations. What evolutionary advantage would having ______ power have? How would a human evolve to need that to survive?

Power: Ability to stretch your tongue long distances like a toad.

No real evolutionary advantage and sounds like a "reach", just coming up with a power for the sake of it.

Power: Toad DNA, emit viscuos fluid out of mouth, toad like DNA and flexible spinal cord like the Toad from the brotherhood. That makes sense and seems more thought out.

Impact

The third thing is impact. How does having powers impact the character's personality, psyche and life? Rogue is probably the best example

Balance


Create weaknesses (personality or power faults. Things that are dislikeable by both the character and others), vulnerabilities (what can hurt them), drawbacks (the way the character's good abilities hurt them) and limitations. (what can't they do)

You don't need to list them per se, but keep them in mind. Again, a weak character is better than a strong one because being weak means you actually have something to post about.

Havok

Weaknesses: Quick to anger and loses control of his powers when his emotions are primed. Thirsts for leadership and can be a dangerous risk taker.

vulnerabilities: Everything but Cyclops power

Drawbacks-Power is highly uncontrollable. Causes a lot of destruction against his will at times.

Limitations: Only average in every area except tactical knowledge and energy projection


The biggest thing is make a character that will create interesting stories for a Role Play. Nate Grey, Franklin Richards, and Hyperion are all good marvel characters but they are horrible for a roleplay simply because they are too powerful.


Having mutants with powers that make them vulnerable, inadequate and overmatched is GOOD. They aren't mutants but Captain America, Daredevil, and Spiderman aren't really all that powerful but through creativity and using all the skills they have to the max they are able to be forimiddable.

Again, you don't have to list every detail about your character unless you wnat to but just keep those things in mind when picking or designing one.

Hope that helps.

 

[Jeremy Davis]

Alright Im gonna toss this out to everyone and get the groups ideas about this. Shaq and I are kiunda at a stand still now about how we should do any character vs character combat scene?

My personal feeling is that a fight should be worked out between the two characters in a PM or played out in an IM before being posted that way noone steps on anyone's toes. Unfortunatly Literotica Threads are not very good at dice rolling ala D&D or else this wouldn't be a problem. So any ideas will help us out.

Also just to let everyone know, The Xavier School For Higher Learning will be starting today sometime. Shaq and I ask you to please hold off on posting until the "Meeting" between the team leaders (Gambit, Storm, Havok and Rogue for now) is over so that we can create the feel of the mood coming into the thread. This thread is going to take place after the last Xmen thread where there will be some major carry over that will effect everyone. Once this is over, we can start posting every day life events until the first mission presents itself -which will be very soon-

Thank you.

 

[Shaq]

Thread is up!

I tried to pass by places that will probably be common congregation areas.


War Room, Danger Room, Xavier's Study, the Living Room (from X2 where that kid who could turn channels with his mind sat), the infamous basketball court and pool.


Hey, does anyone know of any online dice? Where you could roll the dice online and it tell you the results or something?

Basically just a web page randomizer. That may help.

 

[dragonrazor]

suggestions?

 

[Jeremy Davis]

Updated Character List.

Jeremy Davis - Gambit & Sinister
Shaq - Havoc & Fantomex
Ithica - Storm
Vixandra - Rogue & Bryn
Dragonrazor - Xeno & Wizard
Ankara - Shadowcat
Bunnies - Babette and Mallory Vassuer
GentLi - Multiple man

If I missed anyone, someone has another character, or isn't playing a character listed, PM me.

 

[dragonrazor]

that sounds about right

 

[Vixandra]

Shaq- I'll go edit Bryn in a couple of days, won't be brining her in for a while anyway. Thanks for the feed back. Maybe I'll pick a single run as a focus or something (I really like the concept, can't help it).

And I figured the team would at least get some sleep before the grilling began, so Rogue's awake and headed downstairs.

 

[dragonrazor]

i'll post Xeno's arrival later....i want to wait till other people have done some posting

 

[GentLi]

(Multiple Man in the comics is rich, a genius and a certified lawyer, accountant, fluent in about 8 languages and some more things because he made some dupes then sent them off into the world and absorbed them back only after years away)

I like this description a lot better than my own. The man's a quintuple threat, at least.
Ah well, that's the beauty of Multiple Man. Always more dupes out there to be reabsorbed.

Anyway, real reason I'm posting is to say I'm waiting until after this meeting to introduce Jamie. Wait til there's a welcoming committee, know what I'm sayin'? No rush on the meeting, of course. Be as thorough as ya like and I'll enjoy the read.

EDIT: Actually, seeing as how there're a few folks waiting to join in, I'm up for some pre-Mansion interactions. Nothing too grand, but a few posts to build a relationship or two. Perhaps Jamie bumps into someone in Mutant Town or elsewhere and decides to bring them to Institute? Or if a couple people are interested, Jamie could take an active role in searching out mutants in need of the X-Men's sanctuary after hearing about Xavier. Whatever. I'm just suggesting the new arrivals put something together. It'd be better than everyone just showing up on the doorstep at once.

If you're interested, (and if this flies with Shaq and J.D.) feel free to start a thread. Just PM me and let me know it's there.

 

[Shaq]

I like this description a lot better than my own. The man's a quintuple threat, at least.
Ah well, that's the beauty of Multiple Man. Always more dupes out there to be reabsorbed.

Anyway, real reason I'm posting is to say I'm waiting until after this meeting to introduce Jamie. Wait til there's a welcoming committee, know what I'm sayin'? No rush on the meeting, of course. Be as thorough as ya like and I'll enjoy the read.

Characters like Multiple Man and Emma Frost were one of the few things I liked about the Decimation. By focusing on characters with untapped potential good stories are possible. Years ago both of them were C list characters at best now Emma is this close to crossing over and being a pop icon and Multiple Man is one of the top 50 characters in all of comicdom.

 

[Shaq]

Debate over Combat

Did anyone have thoughts about J.D's post?




One of the issues (I think its the last feature to be worked out) is surrounding how we will roleplay combat.

All ideas are open for consideration but the dominant suggestions have been



1. Combat is performed in PM or IM/Chat collaboratively

When a combat situation presents itself those involved work on the story collaboratively and come up with the battle situation. When they have agreed upon a scenario they post it and the outcome in the thread.

Strengths: This way we won't have to edit posts when people perform moves that aren't consistent with the situation or character and may be quicker if people can agree on a time to work it out together

Weakness: Doesn't use the skill of "competing" to create posts and stories where one uses their power creatively as other methods

2. Combat is performed in PM, IM or chat in the conventional way

The conventional way is one person makes a post like "I punch you" then wait for the other person to respond. The responder can say "I get punched" or "I duck the punch" or stuff like that. The conclusion occurs when one character acknowledges or accepts the other character "won" or through another form of concession.

Strength: Emphasizes thinking of creative and appropriate uses of power
Weakness: Heavily competitive so it may foster animosity and a reluctance to acknowledge defeat

3. The Conventional way (the way we did last thread)

This is similar to the above except we would do it all on the board and not privately.

Strength: Everyone knows how to do it like this and it allows other people to see the battle happen in real time and make decision accordingly
Weakness: Same as above plus it doesn't prevent "stepping" on toes when a player makes a move deemed unfair.



Of all the strategies the one I like most is #2. There were some issues with the battles last time but I think with some fine tuning we could knock out the kinks in Vol. 2. I think doing combat in PM would also help speed things along some.


What do you guys think?

 

[GentLi]

I'll back either #2 or #3. I think competition is a great part of roleplay. I'm willing to trust the other players to do battle with grace. Multiple Man'll definitely fall if it's good for the story. Or for that matter if he's plain outmatched. I'm far more impressed by a gracious loser than any sort of winner.

With those sentiments in mind, I'm also leaning towards door #3, but understand the difficulties in it. While it's cool to give third parties a chance, I know that too many cooks spoil the broth.

I'd be happy with either one.