X-Project is a Journal Roleplay set in the X-Men Movieverse. Players apply for characters and come up with plots to write out together, not unlike a collaborative fanfic. In 2017, the game moved to Dreamwidth
following Russia's crackdown on LGBTQIA content.
X-Project began in May 2003, which makes it possibly one of the oldest continuous LJ RGPs out there; because it started after X2, subsequent MCU and X-media is not game canon, though it doesn't stop the roleplayers from borrowing any elements they 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.
- Alternate Continuity: The setting diverts 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.
- Character Blog: Used 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.
- Goalin Life: Kind of helpful when you’re applying, even if things don’t wind up working out the way you’d planned.
- Harmfulto 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).
- Like Reality, Unless Noted: XP uses small events as inspiration, but
steers 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. - 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 Scaleof 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.
- 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...
- 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.
- When Dimensions Collide: In 2015, XP "relaunched" through the Dark Phoenix Saga, which merged dimensions and allowed for new versions of previously-played characters.
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...
- Granola Girl: Karolina Dean – vegan, environmentalist and gay activist
- Happily Married: Nathan Dayspring and Moira MacTaggart; Remy Lebeau and Ororo Munroe
- Inthe Hood: To avoid being identified, Warren Worthington wears a hood and sunglasses when in the field as Angel of the X-Men.
- Poisonous Person: Cammie Black has a poison death hand and a toxic punch, but is immune to toxins and poisons herself.
- 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.
- 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.
Plot-Related Tropes:
- Applied Phlebotinum: There’s always a McGuffin, be it mutant powers, a magical woobie or some technological wonder.
- 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.
