Current Role Playing

My oldest friends and I always had a string of role playing geekery in us, but have never played seriously. Last year, we pulled out some of their Marvel Superheroes characters (last played over 10 years ago), which we had played a few sessions in something resembling the 616 universe. Then I plunked them into the Days of Futures Past timeline.

In story terms, the young characters my friends had played in the late '80s, early '90s continued adventuring, as their world went into decline.

My vision for this game is to play it somewhat convention style. We don't play often enough for a normal campaign, but even if we play once or twice a year, we can string some stories with continuity together and have a good time of it.

Here is the history these characters live in:

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In January of 2003, a mutant terrorist group attacked the Super Bowl, murdering dozens. A larger disaster was averted largely because of timely intervention by the Avengers. However, the press was terrible and wave of mutant hysteria began to boil.

Later that year, 1500 innocent civilians died during a battle between the Marauders and a group of young crimefighters. The majority of those crimefighters were mutants.

The anti-mutant hysteria continued, and began to spread to include all super humans.

In the fall of 2003 the U.S. military became involved in a Waco style incident surrounding Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. Like Waco, it ended in fire and death. Unlike Waco, the besieged gave as good as they got. There were many deaths on both sides.

In the spring of 2004 a member of the Senate, Joseph McGrafton was revealed to be a mutant with emotion-control based powers. He hanged himself two days later. In his journals, a mutant conspiracy was revealed that spread throughout North America, whose goal was to create a pro-mutant apartheid state, with non-mutants serving as second class citizens.

That election led to a wave of anti-mutant extremists being elected to federal office. Most moderates were forced to resign; some grew silent, a few died under mysterious circumstances.

In January of 2005, the Sentinel Program was begun anew. By the end of the year, mutants were forced to live in special areas (ghettos) of cities. Camps were established for those who resisted, planned to resist or those deemed otherwise too dangerous to be free.

Resistance groups have sprung up across the country, most notably, a large group is based in Canada, not far from Vancouver. There have been cross border incidents, and the relationship between the U.S. and its neighbor to the north has seen better days.