Character Concepts

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A few notes on thinking through your character

A lot of people ask us if we have a "wanted" list of characters. We do not keep one, and instead aim for a collaborative application process where we can help you refine your character idea into one that works for our setting! Please feel free to brainstorm with us on the #applications channel, or talk with your app committee who can help you create a character that will work well. More than anything, we want you to play a character that will be fun for YOU and for everyone playing with you!

We do not expect everyone to know all our in-game lore and theme before apping a character. Your app review team will be working with you to make sure all the aspects of your character fit with our game history. This means that many apps will need some amount of revision before approval. Please do not take feedback as criticisms -- we want to make sure that the characters fit in our world AND that you as a player have the ability to compromise and collaborate. We are not looking for perfection on a first draft application, but we are very much looking to see what your attitude is when asked to adjust. Our game runs entirely on collaborative effort, and ability to work well with others counts in our book infinitely more than getting everything "right" on the first try!

A few things we ask people to think about overall when brainstorming their character are --

  • What kind of RP are you looking for? Do you gravitate more towards action, more towards relationship building, more towards silly hijinks?
  • Where do you see this character's social circles? Would you have more fun playing a mutant just coming into their powers and identity with the X-Kids? Striving for peaceful coexistence with the X-Men? Behind-the-scenes-scheming with the Inner Circle? Terrorism For A Cause with the Brotherhood? Saving the planet with the Avengers? Banding together with other society outcasts with the Morlocks? Just doing their own thing -- our characters unaffiliated with any faction get plenty of RP! Think about the kind of RP you are looking for and try to tailor your concept to one that jives with that.
  • If you already have a character or characters and are creating a new one, think about the niche your existing characters occupy. It can help to spread your RP opportunity around by creating characters who run in different circles and fill different roles. If you already have an X-Man, it will probably provide you more opportunity to engage in different plots if your next alts have very different paths in life.
  • How does your character interact with others? It's fine to create a character who is a loner, or shy, or cranky, but think about what that means when you are in scenes. It is not the responsibility of other players to drag your character into interactions, so if your character is disinclined to be social, think through how you will work around that and engage them in RP without relying on other people to force them out of their shell.
  • If you are aiming your character towards a particular faction, please read the relevant faction page (found in the sidebar) prior to crafting their backstory! The recruitment section on the faction page will provide you with information on how characters typically join a faction; character backstories should be in keeping with those notes if you would like to app a character who has been in the faction for a while.
  • On that note, apping a character who has been in a faction for a while is perfectly fine! It can be fun to come in with preexisting community and connections and not have to build all those relationships from scratch. Just keep in mind that if you app a character who has been in their group for years, you'll need to be open to a little bit of extra conversation with existing players so that you can work out before you scene what they know about each other & what their past relationships might have been like. Please do not make assumptions about existing character dynamics without first talking to the relevant player!

On powers

rEvolution is a low- to moderately- powered game, based on the more real-world feel of the X-Men movies rather than the comicverse. We stress story and character development far more than superpowers and action sequences. As such, powers on this game are not nearly at the same power level as powers in the comic books. Many comic-canon characters will have to be powered down from their comic counterparts to fit in our theme.

Also remember that most characters do not necessarily start out as powerful as they will eventually become: younger characters should have time to grow and develop in their abilities. Plan ahead. Create milestones for your character's growth. Keep in mind that we will never have some of the cosmically-destructive, all-powerful abilities seen in comics.

Also remember, having powers often comes with downsides as well. Write limitations and side effects into your character's abilities. Remember that using powers is exertion just like any other, and takes fuel and energy to maintain. Remember to keep those drawbacks in mind in the course of roleplay!

When reviewing applications, we are looking for characters who are well thought out and can mesh with other characters and stories. We like to see that players have thought through limitations of their characters' abilities, regardless of where they come from. Whether your character is a mutant, mutate, alien, magic user, etc., we will be looking for a sense of balance: have you thought through where they get their power from? What its limitations are? What its weaknesses are? What kind of practice or exertion or training does it require for them to use? What does it take for them to recharge? What happens when they are overtaxed?

On history

- Mutants have only been a publicly well-known phenomenon since the late 70s/early 80s. While certainly mutants existed before then, there were far fewer in the past than there are now, and they were not a scientifically known thing before the 80s. Social discrimination against mutants heavily ramped up in recent generations as the phenomenon became widely known. Keep that in mind when writing backstory for older mutants.

- Mutates (humans who gained powers through non-X-Gene sources, such as Captain America or Spiderman) are even rarer than mutants. While a few instances are publicly known, it is likely in-universe that a character who gained powers through Weird Means will be thought to be a mutant until proven otherwise, and may experience some of the discrimination that mutants receive until they are proven Not to be a mutant.

- Aliens have only been publicly revealed to exist as of May 2024. Please keep this in mind when writing your characters' backstory -- we will not allow histories that rely on aliens being a Known Phenomenon on Earth before that time.

- Magic exists, but is not at all widely publicly known to exist. Please keep this in mind when writing your characters' backstory.

- On Parallel Universes: The very first Interdimensional Rift between our game world and a parallel earth opened in fall of 2020. Any character backstory for characters originating in parallel universes, regardless of their species, will need to take this history into account -- we will not approve any history that includes characters from parallel realities who came to this world prior to this time.

On overlapping/common character concepts

Sometimes -- a lot of times! -- characters have things in common, whether this be aspects of their history, their skills, or their abilities. This can be a great hook for connecting with other characters! Some people love for their character to bond with other teleporters or war refugees etc. Some people, also, like to have their characters be more unique within the game setting. Both these perspectives are fine, so our approach to new applications is: If a new application for an original character* has significant overlap with any existing character(s), the application review team will let the applicant know so that, first, the new applicant can decide whether they want to go with that idea or tweak it to something that does not already exist on game. Second, we require that in these situations, the players of the existing character(s) also agree to the new character addition.

*If players are playing canon characters who canonically have heavy thematic overlap, eg Magneto/Polaris, Mastermind/Lady Mastermind, Wolverine/X-23/Akihiro, etc., we do not require this approval -- we assume if you are playing a canon character you are okay with the possibility of their canonical relations showing up!

Restricted

These character types are only allowed if they conform to the restrictions specified below.

  • Mutations that manifest before puberty. The only allowable exemption for this will be overt physical mutations (purple skin, tail, etc.) that are present from birth.
  • Secret Government Labs in the US or Canada doing experimental research on mutants. Allowable exemptions to this will be Weapon X (Canada) and the Prometheus Project (USA)
  • Original Characters whose backstories are heavily dependent on Marvel canon Characters. (e.g. characters who are children, relatives, best friends, mentors/protégés, etc. of canon characters) The allowable exemptions are if the history is written with the permission of the current, active player of that canon character. If the canon character is not currently being played, this will not be allowed.
  • Characters whose concepts overlap heavily with any existing PC. Exemptions: Original Characters with heavy overlap will be allowed with the approval of the existing player(s). Canon characters with heavy overlap will be allowed if the sphere of overlap is canonical. If the sphere of overlap is a personal take that deviates from canon, the approval of existing player(s) will be required the same as OCs.
  • Non-Mutant Superpowered Characters. Non-mutant superpowered characters will only be approved once a player has at least two other characters. Additionally, players are capped at a maximum of 3 active non-mutant superpowered alts. This applies to any character who has superpowers that come from any source other than the X-Gene, including but not limited to: biological engineering, technological augmentation, being of an alien race, or magic.

Banned

These are concepts that do not fit into our theme, and will not be allowed for use in roleplay at any point.

  • Original Characters whose concepts heavily imitate Marvel canon characters.
  • Characters from non-Marvel canons.
  • Celebrities from the real world.

Featured (Canon) Characters

Our game values original characters as much as feature characters. In the IC world, characters are equally important, regardless of whether they are canon or original creations. Because Feature Characters are often in high demand among players, and because FCs can change hands over the course of their on-game history, the OOC policies regarding FCs are stricter than those regarding OCs. Often, these characters will need to be significantly powered down or revamped from their comics/MCU/XMCU/etc incarnations in order to fit our setting, but FC applications should still be recognizable to the game as a version of their canon counterpart.

FC backstories may include (recognizably canonical) connections to unplayed Marvel characters. They may also include (recognizably canonical) connections to other active FCs -- but they cannot define how these FCs feel about them or how these connections have played out until they discuss it with the active FC's player. For instance, you can include a biological relationship or long-term acquaintanceship, but you may not describe how the characters feel about each other, the closeness of their relationship, or specific shared background events without consultation from the other player involved. If you are unsure whether your planned character will violate this guideline, feel free to ping us on ⁠help and we'll be happy to clarify.

Marvel characters 'not' on this list are available for application and sandbox-rp.

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