FAQ
Connecting to the Game
What is the address of this game?
We are located at https://discord.gg/ETSX7KE
How do I connect to the game?
Follow the invite link here! Once it connects, just come chat in the welcome channel and a guide can answer any questions you might have.
Creating a Character
How do I apply for a character?
Just login (create name password) and follow the instructions! But you might want to click around the wiki first, just to get a feel for the characters. Check out the character page (here) for a place to start. It should be noted that generally character names should be their first names, rather than aliases (eg, Kurt instead of Nightcrawler), unless there's an overlap (even then, the last name will be preferred first).
Can I app as Magneto/Xavier/the Flash?
Certain character concepts are restricted (see here); characters from non-Marvel canons are not allowed. FCs (feature characters) are allowed, so long as they fall within the application guidelines (here) and fit within the continuity of the first X-Men movie. Staff may scrutinize certain FCs more heavily than others (if you want to app Magneto, you're probably going to have to work with staff).
Which FCs have already been taken?
A list of currently active canon (feature) characters is here. Any FC not on that list is available for application!
Can Peter play all the FCs?
No. You are limited to three FCs per player, and the total number of characters one player can have is five. Sorry, Peter!
Does this game use actors to portray characters?
Yes, but it's not necessary. Fan art and official art (if you're playing a featured character) is also fine, or you can forgo posting images of your character entirely. You can find a list of taken PBs here.
Choosing a Character Concept
What kind of character should I play?
There are some wanted character types (see here), but otherwise, you're free to play whatever so long as it fits in the continuity and confirms to the guidelines!
Which faction should I join?
Any of the factions are free to apply directly into! Which one you should join will depend highly on your taste in RP. We do not currently recommend creating a Friends of Humanity or Morlock as your first alt on the game, as their activity volume is lower and their society more secluded, which can make integrating into RP difficult for a beginning alt. Xavier's, the Brotherhood, and regular unaffiliated Citizens all have consistently steady volumes of RP which makes for easier integration.
Are there roles or powersets you are looking for people to fill?
The Character Concepts page lists concepts that are wanted, restricted, banned, and overdone, which can be a helpful place to start looking for people totally unsure what they want to play! But in terms of the actual specific powersets, we can't tell you what would be most fun for you to play. There's a place on grid for all sorts of different powers -- just focus on making a character that you're genuinely excited to play!
Where should my character live?
If your character attends (or works at) Xavier's School, it's likely they'll have lodging at the mansion an hour outside New York City; members of the Brotherhood have access to housing on the Brotherhood's island in Jamaica Bay (off the coast of Brooklyn); the Morlocks have their habitat in the sewer tunnels under the city. Aside from these specialized locations, the majority of the grid is centered around Manhattan -- it certainly is not required that your character live in Manhattan (several characters do not!) but it will be far more conducive to RP if they have reason to be in Manhattan regularly, as that is where the bulk of PCs live and work.
Knowing the Lore
I know absolutely nothing about comics, the X-Men movies, or what mutants even are. Am I screwed?
Not at all! Many of our players have been unfamiliar with the movie / comics we're dealing with. OCs (original characters) are deeply valued, and play a crucial role in pretty much all our plots. You will absolutely not be snubbed, passed over, or otherwise put on a shelf just because you're not playing Wolverine.
Can I have my character be a superhero who fights crime?
Sure! But keep in mind that this game's continuity is not the comic book continuity; people wearing spandex fighting criminals on the streets is highly unusual and will (probably) be responded to with a mixture of bafflement, incredulity, and arrest warrants (vigilantism is against the law!).
Is X2: X-Men United or X-Men 3: The Last Stand part of the continuity?
X2 is not part of this continuity; nothing that happened in that movie should be considered canon for this continuity. Also, there was no third X-Men movie.
Are any other Marvel movies (Iron Man, Spider-Man) part of the continuity?
Nope! But that doesn't mean you can't make them part of the continuity (through apping a character and roleplaying it out!). But no one is under any obligation to follow any sort of 'continuity script'. If you want to app a Tony Stark who never builds an Iron Man suit, that is totally fine.
What about X-Men: Evolution? With your name that one's gotta be canon, right?
Nope! We are not an X-Men Evolution game in any way; our game has a movieverse setting and does not look to Evolution, nor any other X-Men television series, for canon or theme.
I want to portray (Marvel character) as a mutant, even though they aren't in the comic canon. Is that okay?
Yep! In fact, characters with abilities that come from something other than the X-Gene are a restricted concept.
Okay, back up. What do you mean there was no third X-Men movie? I totally saw one.
No, you're just imagining things.
There was a third X-Men movie! Wolverine and Jean Grey were in it. Xavier was young, and there was this bitchin' scene with Magneto where--
Oh, I see where you're confused. X-Men: First Class was, in a sense, the 'third' X-Men movie, although it actually was more of a reset. It's not considered part of game canon (although Magneto is totally bitchin' in it).
Roleplay Culture
Okay, I'm approved and good to go. How do I find some RP?
We have a find-rp channel for requesting RP! People will work with you to try and arrange a scene between your characters and theirs. Don't feel discouraged if you don't get an answer immediately! Trying again a little later might draw the attention of people who just came on.
What if I just wandered the grid and looked for RP that way?
Most scenes are not happening 'organically' on the grid; they are pre-arranged between players. If you stumble across two people doing a scene, you should definitely ask before joining in! But there's nothing wrong with exploring the grid to familiarize yourself with it! You can visit this page to see all non-personal grid rooms, too.
How does time pass in this continuity?
1:1 relation with real-time. In other words, a day passes in the real world? A day passes on this game. If this creates scheduling conflicts ("My character would have totally did X, but I had work"), you can 'backdate' scenes (just do the scene later, pretend it happened earlier).
Do you log scenes?
Yes! We keep track of all scenes that players are comfortable posting publicly here! This way, players can 'keep up' with events that are going on throughout the grid. For the sake of log-formatting, remember a few things: | symbols must be properly tagged so as not to break the wiki. Tabbing your posts (with %t) in-game rather than just double-lining them (with %r%r) makes it harder to format the log (you have to get rid of the tabs!). If you're unfamiliar with how to log a scene / it intimidates you, just ask someone to help - or log it for you!
Contacting Staff
Wait, how do I contact staff?
We strive to manage our game non-hierarchically, and all established players have a say in many topics traditionally restricted to staff. We still have volunteer staff members if you have specific questions or concerns that you would like addressed in a timely fashion.
Guides handle topics related to setting, character creation, gameplay, and conflict mediation. Type @Guide in your message from any channel on our Discord server to notify our volunteer guides. Wizards handle topics related to permissions, bots, roles, and technical issues in general. Type @Wizard in your message from any channel on our discord server to notify our volunteer wizards.
If you do not feel comfortable explaining your question or concern on an open channel, you may ask a staff member to message you directly.
IC Universe
What does the public think about mutants?
Generally? Freaks. In almost every society on earth, mutants are treated with suspicion at best, hostility at worst. They're a new enough phenomenon that people are still working out exactly how to respond, but as yet nobody's been responding pleasantly. In daily life, they are not protected from discrimination under U.S. law, whether this be in employment, housing, education or even buying a coffee.
Some types of mutants tend to incur more virulent reactions than others -- mutants who visibly look other than human are faced with a lot of disgust (often even from other mutants) and mutants with psionic powers like telepathy and empathy tend to receive overwhelming suspicion and fear if their powers are known (often even from other mutants.)
In New York City, public voluntary displays of mutation are banned! Punishment for violations can be fines anywhere between $25-1000 and/or jail time of up to one year. This only SHOULD cover voluntary uses of mutation (i.e., if you're green and you can't stop being green they cannot ticket you for having green skin, but if you are a pyrokinetic and you light your cigarette with your hands, they can ticket that.) -- however, it being at the discretion of the (often overwhelmingly hostile to mutants) NYPD means that oftentimes mutants are ticketed for little to no reason and have to go to court if they want to sort it out; paying the fine tends to be less fuss.
Recently, the Mutant Registration Act was passed nationwide; full information on the effects of Registration can be found here.
Just how common ARE mutations in the world?
Even though the majority of PCs on game are going to be mutants, in the IC world mutants are by far the minority. Under 2% of the living population even carries the X-gene. Of people who carry the gene, the majority of them have mutations so minor that they would never even know they were mutants without genetic testing. Under half of a percent of the population display mutations noticeable enough to impact their lives. New York ICly does have a far higher concentration of mutants than the general world population, but even in New York City mutants with powers they themselves would be aware of are less than 3% of the population.
What mutations are the most common?
While most expressions of mutation are unique enough that it's rare to find two mutants with the exact same mutation, some broad categories of mutations show up with frequency! Mutants with psionic abilities (for example, telepaths and empaths or people who create mental illusions) together with people with augmented physical capabilities (e.g., anyone who can do things humans can actually do, but better -- heightened reflexes, increased strength, faster healing, etc.) are the two most commonly found classes of mutations ICly.
At what age do mutations start to appear?
In the vast majority of cases, carriers of the X-gene will not express noticeable mutations until puberty. This is not a hard-and-fast rule; mutations tend to trigger at periods of heightened stress, either emotional or physical, and for most people this leads to initial manifestation of X-gene abilities at puberty. There have been some people who do not have their first manifestations of powers until later in life (almost always coinciding with some large life stress!)
There are also occasions where children manifest mutations younger than this! By far this is most common with mutants who have very noticeable physical alterations -- i.e. a tail or purple skin that they may be simply born with. It's extremely rare for children to manifest other non-physical powers (e.g. teleportation or pyrokinesis) at young ages. In most cases when non-physical mutations do manifest very young, these mutations are or will become extremely powerful examples of their type -- unfortunately this quite often also comes hand-in-hand with mutations so powerful they are dangerous to their bearer, and the majority of children who manifest mutations young also die of them quite young. (Though it has not been extensively ICly documented yet, the vast majority of fetuses conceived with the X-gene also never make it to term; evolution is not particularly smart and often the X-gene manifests powers without also manifesting ways to keep those powers safe.)
What is Xavier's, and who knows about it?
Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters is a boarding school in Westchester County. It is a small but prestigious boarding school for grades 6-12, with specialized facilities and curriculum designed to help young mutants gain safe control of their powers and have opportunity for a normal education and integration back into regular life.
As of August 2015, the school has gone public with its mission; anyone who follows the news or does a quick Google search could easily find out about the School and what they do.
How big is Xavier's School?
Xavier's is a small boarding school; each grade has an average of 50 students, meaning the entirety of the student body is around 400 students. Given that they all live together, eat meals together, take classes together, this means that if you have a teacher or student who has lived there for more than a couple weeks, it's extremely unlikely that there's pretty much anyone at the school that they don't know by sight and name. Please do not assume that just because you have never had a scene on-camera with another student or teacher that your characters have never met: it's a tiny close-knit school with strict security where everyone lives in the same dorms, and that's just silly.
Can my student go there? My adult never got a proper education, can they go there?
If you have a high-school aged mutant character and you would like them to end up at Xavier's, there are probably many people who would be happy to facilitate this happening! Keep in mind that ICly, while Xavier's does have a decent amount of resources they also have an enormous number of students who aren't paying them any tuition and if your teenage character has a stable family life and a mutation under control enough that they're already enrolled in a regular high school without difficulty, they're unlikely to just be offered a place at Xavier's out of the blue -- given their limited capacity, they tend to only go out of their way to admit students who for whatever reasons are having difficulties with regular life/regular schooling. Please note that since going public, the school is ICly hugely swamped and is no longer going out of their way to seek out students in need the way that they did while they were hidden. This does not mean that you cannot app a new XS student -- you absolutely still can! It just means that it is way easier to write joining up at XS into a new student background, now -- given that the school and its mission are all over the news, any mutant in need can very easily find the school and apply, so there is no need for a difficult "how did my student find out about Xavier's" backstory in your application history.
Unfortunately, Xavier's does not currently have any programming set up for providing education (either normal education or help getting powers under control) to adults -- they're a high school first and foremost and the bulk of their resources go to keeping their high school on track. The X-Men do receive continual training and practice, but adults who have no prior connection to the school and are not the likely type to join the X-Men are highly unlikely to be offered places at Xavier's for anything more than temporary emergency situations while the school helps them find more permanent accommodation.
What about these Morlocks? Can I go hang out with them?
ICly, there's plenty of rumors among the mutant community (not quite so many throughout humans) about groups of subterranean mutants whove taken to dwelling in the sewers. Most certainly, your character is free to try and seek the Morlocks out! But, ICly, as well, the Morlocks do not remotely take kindly to intruders -- not even other mutants who haven't been explicitly given invitation into their territory. So don't expect a warm welcome -- the tunnels are a) many, many miles of convoluted labyrinth; b) booby-trapped at all the entrances once you do start nearing Morlock domain, and c) generally guarded by Morlocks not afraid to get stabby with uninvited guests, mutant or not. It's best for RP purposes not to assume that you can just wander into Morlock territory freely -- though if you want your character to become a Morlock (or want a confrontation with one, either way!) don't hesitate to reach out to a Morlock player!
What if I want to smash some shit up? How do I join the Brotherhood?
Outside of simply writing Brotherhood affiliation directly into your character's backstory (perfectly acceptable!) there are two usual paths to Brotherhood membership. By far and away the most common and the one we vastly prefer is to roleplay your way into Brotherhood recruitment by having your character get to know existing Brotherhood members. Keep in mind that the Brotherhood is both a highly wanted terrorist organization and a small and close-knit group, so it may take a little bit of time -- it's not likely that someone will recruit them after a single meeting with no prior relationship history! There needs to be time to get to know a person well enough to know that they'd be a good fit both in terms of ideology and trustworthiness (both equally important!); then members can recommend them for recruitment.
The second, much less common way to get recruited is to do something notable to come to the Brotherhood's attention. Please note, before going off and bombing anything, that this requires several components: a) the incident needs to be ICly significantly newsworthy (don't forget to actually make the relevant newsposts!); b) it needs to be very explicitly and conscientiously done to make a statement in defense of mutants/mutant rights, not just A Random Crime; and c) people already in the Brotherhood (most especially the Brotherhood leadership) need to know, OOCly, that your intention is to have your character recruited.
Regardless of which of these two paths you take, it is always best to talk to people OOCly about your intentions so that you can figure out an enjoyable and appropriate RP path for you and your character!
