Character Creation Guidelines

Overview and Background

X-Men: Alternate Class takes place after the First Class of X-Men (Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Iceman, Beast, Angel, Polaris, and Havok) are no longer a unified team thanks to a series of world changing events. As a result, player characters will make up an alternative team who become the new X-Men. Many canon character mutants are not X-Men and may appear in the story with and alternative stories, those can be as allies or adversaries.

The sim's setting originally featured Professor X as the Headmaster and Cyclops as Team Leader. The rest of the original team was declared M-I-A after June 21, 1990. Professor Xavier then recruited new mutants to form the Alternate Class of X-Men who then worked together to discover the missing First Class. For a brief period of time, most of the First Class was recovered and the villain Mr. Sinister was revealed to be the mastermind behind their disappearance.

In October of 1991, the Legacy Virus took hold of the mutant population. Most of the First Class, and even Professor Xavier himself, fell ill with the virus. Those who were at risk of succumbing to the virus were placed in stasis until a cure could be found. The only member of the First Class who survived was Jean Grey, leaving her to continue running Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters while managing the Alternate Class of X-Men.

Setting:

The Alternate Class was formed in 1990 and has been serving as the main X-Men team for two years. X-Men: Alternate Class takes place in 1992 where the majority of historical and pop culture events have occurred with a splash of mutant involvement. Technology, music, politics, and the general living standards of the early 90's should be used as references for character inspiration and activities.

For more details on dates and events influenced by mutants, see Timeline Events.

For more details on the school itself, see Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.

Character Creation

Please review the following for explanations on how to fill out the application

Character Tab

Character

Provide the Name and Suffix of the character

Select the Position of X-Men: Alternate Class (X-Men) - Teammate

Character Information Tab

Codename

Provide the Codename your character will use and an X-Men

Gender

Select the gender your character wishes to be identified as

Species

Provide the Species of Mutant

Age

Provide the Age of your character using the standard age range of 13-18 for any character that is to be a 'student' at Xavier's. Residents of Xavier's may be older. Please review the Positions, Ranks, and Roles

Affiliations

Provide any affiliations your character may have prior to joining the X-Men. If there are no previous affiliations, simply enter in none

Physical Appearance

Provide the basic details of height, weight, hair, and eye color

Provide a brief summary of the character's physical description. Focuses on details that help the reader visualize a character without overwhelming them with details. Examples include, face shape, skin tone, and defining features. General manner of dress and anything that reflects personality, culture, or profession. Optional details could be the character's general movement or posture, voice quality or speech affectations, and the overall impression others might get from their appearance.

Family

Provide details on the character's immediate family members or any individuals who may have been heavily involved in their past or upbringing

Include the age of individuals listed

If the family members are deceased, missing, or no contact with the character please provide that status information along with their name and age, otherwise it is assumed the family member has some form of contact or presence in the character's life

Personality & Traits

General Overview

The goal of this section is to give readers a clear sense of how the character thinks, reacts, and relates to others—without listing traits like a resume. Details about the following traits can be provided; temperament, dominate personality traits, motivations and values, social behaviors, emotional patterns and reactions, internal conflicts and contradictions.

Mutant Powers

Character's mutant abilities need to be listed in this section. The goal of this section is to provide clarity and the usability of their mutant abilities. Anyone reading the character's bio sheet should be able to understand what the character can do, how they do it, and what it costs at a glance.

Each power or ability needs to be named and a clear description of the power does needs to be provided. Details about if the power is always active or requires activation should be provided.

Limitations and weaknesses of the abilities need to be clearly defined with realistic expectations on what an inexperienced mutant can do.

Details on how the power affects daily life outside of combat, any visual or sensory descriptions of how the power is observed and if the character has any ethical or moral limits surrounding the power's use should be provided.

The scope and scale of the ability needs to be defined. Please keep in mind that your character should still be learning their abilities if they are a "student" level character. This means they are still mastering the ability and it may not be fully in their control or executed at its full potential. The use of the mutant mastery scale and a proficiency rating is useful in giving a quantitative scale to a character's mutant abilities.

It is recommended that characters have 2-3 abilities with a proficiency rating of 1-3 when starting the sim. The emphasis on this sim is collaborative story-telling and long-term character development over a powerhouse of a character that can dominate in a combat scene. Ability mastery and proficiency rating will be discussed with the GM when reviewing your character application.

Any character that is considered to be overpowered and distracts from the cooperative goals of the sim will be rejected.

A list of mutant abilities is provided if a player would like ideas or inspiration for what their character can do. Please see the Standard Mutant Abilities and Powers page for examples.

Profession(s)

List any occupations your character may have held before arriving at Xavier's. The profession of student is acceptable for any younger or inexperienced characters.

Strengths & Weaknesses

The strengths and weaknesses of your character should be written so they are mechanically useful, easy for a GM to reference, and rich enough to drive role play and story. The best entries tell everyone in the sim what the character is good at, what gets them into trouble, and how both affect play.

Some of these strengths and weaknesses can be related to the existence or use of mutant abilities but general attributes related to your character as a whole should also be included.

Ambitions

Describe the character’s ambitions in a way that clearly conveys what the character wants, why they want it, and what they are willing to risk to achieve it. Strong ambitions give a character direction, create tension, and naturally generate plot.

Hobbies & Interest

Go beyond listing activities and instead show how those pursuits reflect the character’s personality, background, and inner life. Well-chosen hobbies add realism, provide texture between major plot events, and can become tools for character development or conflict.

Origin Story

When writing a character’s origin story, the player's goal should not just be to explain where the character came from, but to show how formative experiences shaped who they are now and why they act the way they do. A strong origin story provides context, motivation, and emotional grounding without overwhelming the reader with unnecessary history.

Provide the following about your character in their origin:

Background & starting point: Include their family structure, upbringing, culture, or environment,socioeconomic or societal position. What “normal” looked like before their mutant abilities appeared.

Inciting event: The character's discovery and first use of their mutant abilities should be explained. The defining moment when their mutant ability disrupted their life which could include an accident, betrayal, discovery, loss, awakening, opportunity.

Immediate impact: How the character reacted emotionally and practically after their mutant abilities appeared. Decisions could be made under pressure or fear that changed them or their lives dramatically.

Long-term consequences: Any skills gained, beliefs formed, fears entrenched, relationships broken or forged thanks to the arrival of their mutant abilities.

Internal takeaway: What the character believes they learned from the experience. This belief may be true, flawed, or incomplete.

Moral or psychological wounds: A lasting fear, guilt, obsession, or a need that often becomes the core of future character arcs,

Connection to present-day identity: How the origin explains current behavior, values, and ambitions with a clear line from “then” to “now”

Unresolved threads: Any issues, characters, or plot points that remain unresolved following the impact event surrounding their mutation appearing.

Past Exploits

Provide any notable actions or achievements from the character’s history that demonstrate capability, reputation, and consequence. Past exploits are less about glory and more about showing what the character has already done—and what it cost them.

A starting character may not come in with any past exploits but this area may be edited and filled in as the character participates in the sim and continues to grow and develop.