Datafile - Fuse

Oh, no, I don't play that game anymore. You wouldn't like the rules I was taught.

Affiliations:
Team: d6
Buddy:d10
Solo: d8

Distinctions:
Control Freak
On The Run
Troubled Young Mutant










Power Set: Mutant Psychic Thief
d10 Mimic Power Expert
SFX: Spend 1 PP to create a "Stolen Power" Complication after a successful use of Mimic Power Expert. Power is shutdown until Complication is removed.

d6 Mind reading

Limit: Mutant. Earn 1 PP when affected by mutant-specific Milestones and tech.
 

Power Set 2: Phoenix Force Vessel
d8 Enhanced Strength  

d8 Enhanced Flight

SFX: Unleashed:Step up or double any Phoenix Force Vessel power for
one action. If that action fails, add a die to the doom pool equal to the power die
you unleashed.

Limit: Whispers of the False Phoenix When suffering Emotional Stress, gain 1 PP and step up the stress die type.


Specialties:
Crime Expert: d8
Combat Expert: d8
Menace Expert: d8


Milestone: Brimstone Academy Fugitive

1 XP: when you use Menace or Crime expert to defeat a foe in an underhanded way.
3 XP: when you choose a hero as a reason to stay with your new team.
10 XP: when you choose to rejoin Brimstone Academy to protect your new friends or absorb Emma Frost's abilities into the Phoenix Force.

Milestone: The Fires of the Phoenix

1 XP: when you first use your Unleashed SFX.

3 XP: when you trigger your Whispers of the False Phoenix Limit and stress yourself out of a scene.
10 XP: when you sacrifice yourself to rid yourself of the Phoenix Force or by letting the Phoenix Force inhabit you and unlock your powers.

Mutants and Patriots

The response to Legacy of Marvels has been pretty impressive. Enough people have expressed interest that I'm going to try my hand at two series using Marvel Heroic Roleplaying.

The series:

America's Avengers: Steve Rogers has served his country as solider and superhero. He turns his attention to attaining the highest office in the country. He knows that, should he become President of the United States of America, he will no longer be able to respond to threats as Captain America. He puts the call out to heroes across America to form a new team of Avengers. One that can fight for freedom while Cap makes the ultimate attempt to change the world.

X-Country: Jean Grey's death at the end of the Dark Phoenix Saga shook the X-Men to the core, ultimately breaking them. The members struck out on their own, but none have become the bearer of Xavier's dream. When Jean appears to every mutant in the world, they converge upon the ruins of the Xavier School of the Gifted, a united mutant front seems possibly. But one group knows the truth. A group that is willing to go to extreme measures to prove to the rest of mutantkind that Jean Grey is still dead, and the False Phoenix has dire plans in motion.

Coming soon, I'll start putting up the character datafiles. The X-Country group is closer to being ready, so those will likely be the first files to go up.

The Robin Problem

Continuity in comics is a very strange thing. Characters, especially successful ones, tend to stay static for years, even decades. New costumes, new secret identities, new powers and more come and go but the character stays the same. Except the popular bits stick around sometimes even when they don't make sense.

Robin, for example. Batman and Robin are probably the iconic "hero and kid sidekick" duo. Captain America and Bucky are a distant second. Most duos have grown up past that since most comic fans aren't 10-year-old boys anymore. It's a smart move from a storytellying perspective. It brings a familial element to the super hero dynamic.

But Batman wants to have his cake and eat it too. Batman is still Bruce Wayne, more or less, but there have been multiple people that have worn the Robin costume. Five as of this writing. Batman is still in the vague mid-30's that main characters inhabit. But Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown have all gotten older. Damien Wayne probably will too, someday.

How long was each of those people Robin? Even if Bruce Wayne is 15 years into his career as Batman, that's one Robin every three years. Adjusting those times makes a bit of sense, but it still seems like being Batman's right hand man isn't a career so much as an internship.

Legacies need the old guard to give up to be truly effective. It also lets people remix elements of character in ways they find intriguing. Which version of death stuck? Is a new costume actually someone else taking over the identity?

There are examples like this all around comicdom, but this is what struck me as my players were discussing characters yesterday. Many of them had some neat ideas that connected to Marvel characters, like Nightcrawler's daughter and Wolverine's son. These characters exists in Marvel continuity, but the players are excited to get their hands on their own spins on these ideas.

Welcome True Believers

This blog is the home to my upcoming superhero game using the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Game from Margaret Weis Productions.

Here is my initial pitch to my players:

Legacy of Marvels: What if...comic characters aged normally? Marvel burst on the scene in the mid-1960's. That was 50 years ago. Many of them died in the line of duty, or from old age, or retired. Spider-Man still exists, but Peter Parker gave it up when he got married. The Charles Xavier School of Mutants is run by the Summers family, led by the first leader of the X-Men...and only surviving member, Scott Summers. Stark Enterprises sponsors a new season of America's Next Top Iron Man. Let's have fun remixing and mashing up the Marvel Universe.

My main inspirations were Marvels, Kingdom Come, Watchmen and Astro City.

Marvels:  Superheroes are a reflection of the times. The home of superheroes in the Marvel Universe is New York City.

Watchmen: The Golden Age of Superheroes is past and life goes on after the big crossover events.

Kingdom Come: But people are still super heroes, even if the last generation and current generation have issues sometimes.

Astro City: Superheroes have been a net positive for the world but sometimes cause as much trouble as they stop.

The upcoming blogs will talk about their characters, how history panned out for the big names of the MU, and more info about the setting as the game comes together.