X-Project

X-Project is a Live Journal-based collaborative roleplaying community set in the X-Men Movieverse. Players apply for characters and come up with plots to write out together, not unlike a collaborative Fanfic.

X-Project began in May 2003, which makes it possibly one of the oldest continuous LJ RGPs out there; because it started after X2, X-Men: The Last Stand doesn't actually exist, and due to established game canon conflicts, neither do X-Men Origins: Wolverine or X-Men: First Class (although it doesn't stop us borrowing elements we like).

Examples of tropes the XP-verse does differently from both X-men comics and movie Canon:

Overall Game Tropes
 * All Is Well That Ends Well: Subverted; XP is big on consequences, either at a personal level, or at a game-wide level. For example, the destruction of San Diego in The Rictor Effect has resulted in massive reconstruction and any number of political ramifications, as well as the ‘creation’ of the mutant serial killer in Aftershocks.
 * Alternative Character Interpretation: Take a comics character. Apply a certain level of “reality” to them. You have a movieverse character. Also, X-23 in XP was a cheerleader.
 * Alternate Continuity: We diverted from the movieverse at the end of X2. Jean has never been the Phoenix; Charles and Scott are alive; Magneto never lost his powers and is still running around with the Brotherhood.
 * The Big Board: The X-Men have their nifty table-top hologrammatic display. X-Factor has a whiteboard. X-Force has Wanda and Amanda’s Wall of Paper With Scribbles.
 * Bonus Material: The wealth of recordings, art, non-canon writing pieces and other creative works produced by players and fans. We put them all in one place so they're easily found.
 * But It Really Happened!: Avoided like the plague in XP; we’ll use small events as inspiration, but we steer away from using RL tragedies for game fodder. Partly because injecting mutants into the world makes everything different, but mostly because it's just tacky.
 * Character Blog: for day-to-day interactions, plot fleshing out, IC communications and group discussions.
 * C List Fodder: Inverted – 'minor' Marvel characters are played, while Cyclops, Wolverine etc are not.
 * Cultural Cross-Reference: While X-Project takes from the comics and movies, there has been use of some minor characters from other formats, such as the television show Mutant X and the movie Generation X; …
 * Emotional Torque: You can find pretty much an example for every sub-trope listed on this page.
 * Functional Magic: Magic works. And makes for good character and plot fodder, too!
 * Genre Busting: We're superheros! We're spies! We're detectives! We're teen romance and drama! We're a soap opera! The plots run from quite serious political machinations to wacky adventures in gender or powers swapping.
 * Geographic Flexibility: From the mansion, which has had various rooms added to it over the years, to Salem Center and District X and international locations like Madripoor, Symkaria and Attilan, it’s not there until we need it.
 * Goal in Life: Kind of helpful when you’re applying, even if things don’t wind up working out the way you’d planned.
 * Harmful to Touch: Nico’s Staff of One doesn’t appreciate being manhandled; neither does Illyana’s Soulsword.
 * Lampshade Hanging: Jokes about “living in a comic” are kind of frequent, as are jokes about time travel not being an option for fixing things (XP bans time-travel as a plot device/character trait to avoid the Marvel madness).
 * Retcon: A mod power only used sparingly and with full game approval. It’s been used only a handful of times: the Logan/Bobby hookup; Anole Mark 1; Nuke; the Jean-Paul and Jeanne-Marie shower scene.
 * Shout Out: Take a shot for every Whedonverse reference you can find. Proceed to die of alcohol poisoning. Ditto World of Warcraft references.
 * Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: XP’s continuity is like watching a pendulum swing between the two. We’re currently more on the “world that hates and fears us” side these days.
 * Spin-Off: X-Force was first proposed as a spin off game from XP, before being folded into the main game; in terms of the ‘fictional television series’ trope players use sometimes, X-Force is a spin off show, as is X-Factor and The New Mutants.
 * Superhero: D’uh
 * Sympathy for The Devil: Even though it bites him time and again, Charles Xavier always gives people a chance. Sometime two or three.
 * Take That: One of XP’s claims to fame is “doing it better than the comics”. Thus we have a Scarlet Witch who isn’t godly powerful _or_ insane, Hellions who are still alive, Amanda Sefton _isn’t_ dating her brother (ew!), Penance isn’t any of the St. Croix family, an X-23 who was an ordinary high school cheerleader before she manifested...
 * That Satisfying Crunch: Usually pertaining to noses and kneecaps.
 * Time Marches On: Applicable to XP in that we operate in real time, which means everyone’s getting older, day by day. Students graduate, older team members find themselves thinking of retirement, and there are no retcons.
 * We Are Everywhere: Like ninjas. Or evil cultists. Or the Hellfire Club.
 * The Wiki Rule: Our Wiki is awesome. And kind of indispensible. And definitely helps avoid Continuity Lock Out.
 * Word of Dante: What is canon for the comics is not automatically canon for XP. Ditto for all the movies. Research is good and the mods are the Word of God.

Character Related Tropes
 * Affectionate Nickname: Angelo's insistence on calling John 'Firebug'.
 * Amicable Exes : Angelo Espinosa and Amanda Sefton; Angelica Jones and Julian Keller; Garrison Kane and Marie-Ange Colbert; Kyle Gibney and Clarice Ferguson; Kyle Gibney and Janet Van Dyne; Kyle Gibney and Jay Guthrie; Vanessa Carlysle and Sam Guthrie; Vanessa Carlysle and Alexander Lexington; Vanessa Carlysle and Warren Worthington; Kevin Ford and Jean-Paul Beaubier...
 * Ascended Fanboy: Molly Hayes; Doreen Green; Doug Ramsey; Jamie Madrox
 * Babies Ever After: Rachel Dayspring; The Pack.
 * Baby Talk: Catseye; Miles Blaire; early Meggan Szardos
 * Badass Normal: Black Widow; Luke Cage; Misty Knight, Jessica Drew, Christian Kane
 * Beware the Nice Ones: Yvette Petrovic, Laurie Collins, Laura Kinney...
 * Bi the Way: Amanda Sefton, Angelo Espinosa, Vanessa Carlysle, Adrienne Frost, Monet St. Croix, John Allerdyce, Wade Wilson, Warren Worthington, Sarah Morlocke, Bobby Drake, Jacob Gavin, Emma Frost, Remy LeBeau, Tabitha Smith, Kyle Gibney (but only Gay For Jay).
 * Calling the Old Man Out: Nathan Dayspring, Kurt Sefton, David Haller, Doreen Green, Garrison Kane, Julian Keller, Laurie Collins, Nico Minoru, Wanda Maximoff, Warren Worthington
 * Cape Busters: M-Squad, SHIELD
 * Cute Bruiser: Molly. D’uh.
 * Dead Guy Junior: The Pack’s babies
 * Granola Girl: Karolina Dean – vegan, environmentalist and gay activist
 * Happily Married: Nathan Dayspring and Moira MacTaggart; Remy Lebeau and Ororo Munroe
 * Battle Couple: Jean and Scott; Ororo and Remy
 * Heroic Spirit: Anyone who has survived trauma by being plucky. ;)
 * In the Hood: To avoid being identified, Warren Worthington wears a hood and sunglasses when in the field as Angel of the X-Men.
 * I Just Want to Be Normal: Yvette Petrovic; Laurie Collins; Kevin Ford; Amanda Sefton; Kurt Wagner...
 * Jumped At the Call: Paige Guthrie; Molly Hayes
 * Mad Oracle: Marie-Ange Colbert; Irene Adler.
 * Mind Control Immunity: Wanda Maximoff; Remy LeBeau; Doug Ramsey; Marius Laverne; Matt Murdock.
 * The Mind Is a Plaything of The Body: Doreen Green’s feral fits; Kyle Gibney’s beserker rage;
 * Naked First Impression: Catseye Janet Van Dyne
 * Poisonous Person: Cammie Black has a poison death hand and a toxic punch, but is immune to toxins and poisons herself.
 * Refuge in Audacity: Pretty much everything Wade Wilson does?...
 * Ring Ring CRUNCH: A regular fate for alarm clocks belonging to the super strong and those with energy projection powers, like Jubilation Lee or Jean-Phillipe Colbert.
 * Snark Knight: Carmilla Black, Illyana Rasputin, Sofia Mantega-Barret, Callisto, Sarah Morlocke, Amahl Farouk, Jean-Phillipe Colbert
 * Teacher-Student Romance: Lorna Dane /Alex Summers
 * Team Chef: Lorna Dane; Laurie Collins; Jean-Paul Beaubier (before his brain broke) and Janet Van Dyne
 * Team Mom: X-Men: Jean Grey; X-Force: Wanda Maximoff; X-Factor: Vanessa Carlysle
 * Touch of Death: Kevin Ford's powers cause instant decay to any organic matter he touches; Marie D’Ancato's powers cause her to leech life-energy and memories/abilities from anyone she touches; Yvette Petrovic’s powers cut anyone she touches into itty bits; Nico Minoru’s powers drain living energy from anyone or anything in a certain radius.
 * You Can't Go Home Again: Mutant hating parents are the usual reason, but sometimes it’s worse.

Plot-Related Tropes:
 * Applied Phlebotinum: There’s always a McGuffin, be it mutant powers, a magical woobie or some technological wonder.
 * Back From the Dead: Plot Themes - I ATE'NT DEAD
 * Baleful Polymorph: The Aureus Canis plot...
 * Big Creepy Crawlies: The Mongolian Death Worms X-Force came across in Operation: Broken Ground; Doug and Angie vs. giant bugs in This Savage Land
 * Eldritch Abomination: X-Force’s bread and butter. From Chthon to the Warwolves to the thing that tried to eat Farouk in Paris. Let’s not forget more game-wide creatures from Beyond: Cyttorak and his big red rock and Belasco, N’astirh and the demons of Limbo.
 * Exposition Party: Especially useful for the complicated plots. Yes, Doqz, we’re looking at you.
 * Face Palm: It’s tough being a team leader when half your team is under 25. Cue the facepalm.
 * Forceful Kiss: Asgard – Amanda and Manuel
 * Freaky Friday Flip: The Winding Way plot.
 * Gender Flip: The Remix plot
 * Lethal Diagnosis: Jay in Sulaco...
 * Literary Allusion Title: Too many plot names to list.
 * Love Is in The Air: When Laurie’s air scrubber broke; Love Potion Number Nine
 * Never Accepted in His Hometown: Subverted by X-Force (who, by necessity, must remain incognito), in New Orleans Is Sinking, when a party was thrown by the grateful residents for them; played straight in The Rictor Effect when the President stopped to thank Cyclops for the work the X-Men had done.
 * Ripped from the Headlines: Not a few XP plots have come from weird stories on the internet.
 * Rule of Empathy: Possibly the most memorable example was the By Now, Pay Later plot and the death of Charlie Plunder.
 * Take Our Word for It: The best torture scenes are the ones you didn’t see.
 * Trail of Bread Crumbs: Be it following the trail of evidence in X-Factor Investigation: Cathouse or a trail of dead informants in Operation: Red Letter Day.
 * The World Ends Tomorrow: And it’s time for a montage!