Are the X-Men the Perfect FRPG Party?

OK, I was going to try and hide what I’m doing here, but I gave it away in the title, so let’s look at the X-Men.  For those X-Men fans, we’re talking about Giant X-Men #1 here, the “birth” of the new X-Men.  Let’s look at them like they were FRPG archetypes and not superheroes.  FYI - I assume that most of the X-Men are so well known that I don’t really have to introduce them.

There are three front rank fighters.  The easiest if Colossus.  Piotr is a heavily armored knight.  A great mix of offense (his strength) and defense (his steel hide), the knight is your stereo-typical “tank”.  Wolverine is a bit tougher.  In the old days of super-hero RPGs (Champions), they were called “bricks” instead of tanks.  I think this nickname works better for Logan because he is dense and tough to hurt, but “tank” always makes you think of armor.  OK, his bones are incased in indestructible metal, but I’ve never seen that as armor.  Still, Wolvie is a stereo-typical dwarven axeman - he can dish out a huge amount of damage and he can survive a huge amount of damage.

Thunderbird is the third fighter.  He’s less known because (spoiler alert) he dies in the next mission after his debut.  I have always seen Thunderbird as more of a berserker.  I think he was intended to be a beast master - taking on the aspect of different animals for his powers, but I still think of him as a berserker.  Still, a “front rank fighter”, but I think with two others, killing him off seemed a better way to narrow the party.

OK, so what else?  Cyclops is the archer.  He’s not supposed to get into melee range.  He can handle himself if he does, but he’s supposed to be standing back using his “magical missiles” to support the others.

Storm is the weather witch.  Whether she’s a sorcerer or druid in your game rules, she’s the crowd control.  She has the most powerful big spells.  Sunfire can manipulate fire, but to me he was underpowered.  OK, so he can throw fire spells around, but he was far more often depicted as hitting only one guy, or using his fire as a protective barrier.  Still - a spell caster, either a fire mage or an elementalist depending on your game rules.

Who else?  Banshee was there.  OK, another spell caster, similar to Sunfire.  While he can also pour on the damage, it is most often a more restrictive area of effect when compared to Storm’s blizzards.  Still all three of these can fly, and that’s a really sweet advantage.  Too often, if only one party member can fly, they get themselves into bad situations by overextending.

Last but certainly not least is Nightcrawler.  Let’s not forget that later on in the series, Logan starts referring to his best friend as the “furry, blue elf”.  So we even have the “dwarf” and “elf” companions!  Nightcrawler is the rogue.  His teleportation powers allow him to defeat traps and locked doors.  He has some fencing abilities but is not the warrior the first four are.  He is that style of specialist that is often useful, but not always easy to nail typecast.

So three melee, an archer, three mages and a thief / rogue.  OK, there isn’t a healer, but these are comic book heroes and not a true fantasy party.  Besides, Wolverine carries his own internal healer, and Colossus sort of does too.  I think this is the perfect FRPG party!

First off, if you disagree, tell me.  What other team (movie, comics, literature, etc.) would be a better FRPG party?  What are these guys missing that I’m overlooking?  Really, I dare you to come up with a better team.  I’ll admit it in the comments if you do!

But secondly, why do you care?  Well, assuming you’re the GM, we strongly suggest genre jumping!  Pressed for a rival party of adventurers?  Take a team of comic book heroes and transform them like this.  Your players are not going to recognize the dwarven axeman as Logan, unless you have him start calling everyone “bub”.  The archer shooting flaming arrows is not going to be seen as Cyclops, nor is the knight automatically Colossus.

As we always say, don’t just steal the characters!  Make them your own!  But what do you get?  You get character personalities.  You get character interactions and relationships; some good, some bad.  And when they are well balanced parties like this, you get dynamics that can be incredibly powerful when used against the player characters!

Not every character you create will be completely original.  Not every mission you send them on will be one of a kind.  Taking a short cut like this can:  1) be a short cut and leave your creativity for something else, 2) be fun and reinvigorate your own sense of attachment to the campaign, and 3) add some spice that you won’t be able to get from 16 bandits, 2 officers, and the bandit leader.

This post was written as part of the recently released The Garrison of Greassnggraus aka All About Adventuring in the Wilderness, the latest in our Small Bites editions.  Each Small Bites book looks deeply at one subject, a character archetype, a race/monster, a style of questing, or some other role-playing/world building subject.  This one details everything having to do with wilderness adventures, but with a slant of bringing back some of the sense of exploration that FRPGs had when they were new.
We hope we’re getting you interested.  If you want to see the World Walker edition for FREE!! click the link here.  If we’ve hooked you and you want to get the full 60 pages of content in the Game Masters’ edition, click here.