I pulled out some old What If comics and thought with some work you could setup a Marvel Universe background to play in using those stories. You'd have to pick and choose what circumstances to use as canon in the game world since so many of the characters were used in multiple stories. Things like Daredevil as an agent of SHIELD, Spiderman in the Fantastic Four, etc.

Good idea

To a degree that's what you see with the Gates of What-If module, only it's a divergence from the actual What-if #22. They're nice worlds (some at least) to consider adventuring in, short or long term. Having crossovers even more fun as heroes (and villains) try to deal with the divergences and learn where things have changed and where they haven't.

on topic
Everyone game is a "What if?" theme. The moment you pulled out that cash and paid for that basic yellow box Marvel Super heroes basic set! Do you remember when you wanted it how you saved borrowed or ask for the money to get it? How you torn away that plastic covering?


off topic
What if Mary Jane was bitten by the spider?

MajorSteel Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> on topic
> Everyone game is a "What if?" theme. The moment
> you pulled out that cash and paid for that basic
> yellow box Marvel Super heroes basic set! Do you
> remember when you wanted it how you saved borrowed
> or ask for the money to get it? How you torn away
> that plastic covering?

Most games though are set close to or fairly identical to the comics save for what changes the PC make, although my yellow set was bought used and my main box is long gone along with many of the inserts sadly.

> off topic
> What if Mary Jane was bitten by the spider?

They did do Betty Brant being bitten, since MJ hadn't even been introduced anywhere close to that early, she was the only person of the three shown getting the powers instead of Peter who managed to survive (Flash Thomson was killed by Vulture and John Jameson was killed saving the space capsule he would have been in if he hadn't become the Incredible Spider-Jameson).

MajorSteel Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> on topic
> Everyone game is a "What if?" theme. The moment
> you pulled out that cash and paid for that basic
> yellow box Marvel Super heroes basic set! Do you
> remember when you wanted it how you saved borrowed
> or ask for the money to get it? How you torn away
> that plastic covering?

Mine's all digital .pdf files now. But I can recall the days of holding that shopworn, well-opened, corners failing yeller box together with duct tape.

>
> off topic
> What if Mary Jane was bitten by the spider?

She would have developed super-strength, danger-sense, and wallcrawling, but never designed a set of webshooters. Instead, she would have become a public advocate of the dangers of radiation experiments and comic book radiation in general, a beautiful red-head spokesperson / victim advocate demogoguing mutants and especially the Hulk.

With her popularity and persuasiveness, the government would have cracked down harder on both the causes and effects of comic book radiations as it responded to a heightened and whipped up public demand for more giant killer robot funding.

Mutants would eventually be revealed to the public as the product of ancient tampering in human genetics by a unscrupulous alien race (the Celestials) that humanity should seek to contain, then roll back, then eventually wipe out as a threat to universal security.

Don't eat that! It causes mutie-ness!




Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/09/2012 01:25AM by Dead Sidekick.

Dead Sidekick Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> MajorSteel Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > on topic
> > Everyone game is a "What if?" theme. The
> moment
> > you pulled out that cash and paid for that
> basic
> > yellow box Marvel Super heroes basic set! Do
> you
> > remember when you wanted it how you saved
> borrowed
> > or ask for the money to get it? How you torn
> away
> > that plastic covering?
>
> Mine's all digital .pdf files now. But I can
> recall the days of holding that shopworn,
> well-opened, corners failing yeller box together
> with duct tape.

Don't have the box no more, but ot everyting else. Ah the nostalgia of excitment!!



> >
> > off topic
> > What if Mary Jane was bitten by the spider?
>
> She would have developed super-strength,
> danger-sense, and wallcrawling, but never designed
> a set of webshooters. Instead, she would have
> become a public advocate of the dangers of
> radiation experiments and comic book radiation in
> general, a beautiful red-head spokesperson /
> victim advocate demogoguing mutants and especially
> the Hulk.
>
> With her popularity and persuasiveness, the
> government would have cracked down harder on both
> the causes and effects of comic book radiations as
> it responded to a heightened and whipped up public
> demand for more giant killer robot funding.
>
> Mutants would eventually be revealed to the public
> as the product of ancient tampering in human
> genetics by a unscrupulous alien race (the
> Celestials) that humanity should seek to contain,
> then roll back, then eventually wipe out as a
> threat to universal security.
>
> Don't eat that! It causes mutie-ness!

Think she would have become AntiMutant?


You know, some of those robot can be recyled.

What If Daredevil became an Agent of SHIELD?
What if Daredevil became Sorceror Supreme?
What if The Punisher Killed Spiderman?
What if Wolverine Killed The Hulk?
What if Professor X became The Juggernaut?

As interesting as the What Ifs were... what I think would be interesting would be the Amalgram comics. The stories where a DC and a Marvel character was blended into some newthing. I thought those were interesting... and... kind of What Ifish. (If someone were to do one of those online I would love to join. Actually either idea.) Plus, the What Ifs were always short term... like statisticly like almost half of them end up with the destruction of the known Marvel univers... well, maybe not that many. With Amalgrams, they can just keep going with almost limitless material and the wonderful Marvel system to express it with.

Just a thought.

I liked the DC/Marvel Crossover Battles and The Age of Apocalypse as well

My online campaign is basically premised on "what if the Marvel Universe survived DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths" where Marvel, DC, and player created characters now share the same universe as if they always did. It isn't Amalgam, although at some future point in my game there may be a "my campaign universe vs. Amalgam universe" storyline in homage to the Marvel vs. DC storyline. By my game timeline, that's years from now, and might never be covered unless there's some happy time-travelling going on. (We've been playing for 2 and a half years, but only around 4 game days have passed)

Right now, in-game my campaign is around 5 to 6 game-months away from the Beyonder's Secret Wars / the Coming Darkness / Crisis on Infinite Earths, which in my game timeline are all the same event.

I've written up a merged dc/marvel universe with Jerry Jenkins from the Marvel RPG email list ages ago, I think that it was on Ty States site for a while but I'm not sure if it still is...I try not to keep up with the comics for the purposes of my games unless I am running a game based on established characters (such as the X-Men or Avengers games that I have run in the past...) and even then depending on what they do I may or may not even use that stuff.

My universe tends to reflect the marvel universe as it stood circa 1985-1989: There is a West Coast Avengers, X-Men and New Mutants. I left X-Factor and Force out of it. Excalibur is based off Muir island and has Havok and polaris as members as well...

Hi bob. My site has been lost to internet limbo but I have everything saved. I remember Jerry's name so odds are I still have whatever it was you two wrote up.

Thanks to the miracle of the internet archive, here is the DC/Marvel stuff that Ty had on his site...Somewhere I have stats for a lot of this stuff, but no idea where any of it is now.

Enjoy
Keith

Superman (Clark Kent) in the forties.........Marries Lois and has Superboy and Supergirl....On a trip to a top secret military base the twins (Cal and Linda (Cal...get it?) are believed vaporized in the Captain Atom experiments...Dr. Bruce Banner hurt in same gamma test on the Alien metal alloy becomes the Incredible Hulk. Lois and Clark have one more child (Kara: born in 1973) and she becomes Powergirl.

Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor...Marry and have two daughters......Donna and Lyta who are both stolen by Titania after she murders Trevor. Donna is sold on the open Orphan market...Becomes Wondergirl after growing up and her powers surfacing...emulates the only a great woman's hero not knowing that its her mom. Fury becomes a villain alongside Titania.

Batman and Batwoman....Thomas Wayne and his wife Martha Wayne (instead of a Robin sidekick)... both are crimefighters and continue their efforts into the late fifties and retire when Martha becomes pregnant... Joe chill is sent in by the crime bosses to wipe them out after someone close uncovers their secrets a few years later and Bruce is traumatized by the whole event.....Vows to avenge their deaths buy becoming Batman....He trains with many different teachers... Wildcat (Ted Grant) is one and it is here that Bruce meets Ted's daughters... Silent (whom he falls in love with) and Felicia (Blackcat) They carry on an adult relationship together but she mysteriously breaks it off and leaves for parts unknown....Unknown to him she is Pregnant and has (Helena Kyle-Huntress)....six years later he becomes Batman and six years later he adopts a twelve year old Dick Grayson who becomes Robin and serves alongside Batman for seven years before becoming Nightwing. Tim Drake takes over his place and is trained for almost a year before becoming Robin. Barbara Gordon is Batgirl...an unknown novice who Robin and Nightwing have gotten to know and like...Batman is adamant that she go to College or something similar (By '98 Bruce is 40 and is slowing down and knows he needs all the help he can get but doesn't want to admit that or to factor in an unknown equation at this point.)

IMPORTANT: there is no Jason Todd Robin.

Commander steel forms the invaders.........Human Torch 1, Toro, Namor, the Jester (Another DC character) Union Jack(The Original W.W.I), Spitfire and Dollman (DC character) become the invaders American and English operatives hell-bent on invading and destroying Hitler.........They are moderately successful but are killed by Baron Blitzkrieg and Axis America.....

Captain America and Bucky form the All star Squadron......Cap, Bucky, Patriot, Blue Diamond, Jack Frost, Red Raven, Miss America, Spirit of '76, Flaming skull (all Marvel Characters) and Amazing Man, Guardian, Crimson Avenger, Mister terrific, Midnight, Star spangled kid, Stripsey, Sargon the sorcerer, Phantomlady, Shining Knight, Neptune Perkins, Plasticman and Scarlet scarab.

Liberty Legion: Liberty belle and Johnny Quick form the Legion along with Black Condor, Captain Triumph Tarantula, Thinman and the Silver Scorpion (Both of the last two are Marvel)

Seven Soldiers of Victory (Revised): Doctor Occult, Manhunter, Judo master and his sidekick Tiger, Max Mercury, Tsunami and Merry: Girl of a thousand gimmicks.

Freedom Fighters....Uncle Sam, Firebrand(The female), the second Union Jack(Brian Falsworth), the Destroyer(marvel), the Human bomb, Whizzer, Ray, Red bee and Tigress (DC villainess turned good girl)

JSA: Supes, Batman, Wonder woman, Specter, Starman, Sandman, Hawkman and and girl, Johnny Thunder, Hourman, Atom, Flash, Doctor Fate, doctor midnight, Green Lantern, Wildcat.

These characters will be around but probably wont be seen...Sgt. Rock and Easy company, Nick Fury and his Howling Commandos, the Losers, Blackhawk and his men, the Balloonbuster.

Sixties:

Challengers of the Unknown...the same.
Fantastic Four the same. (Why mess with either Kirby Classic?)
Both of the following founded by Charles Xavier (Xmen to train mutants, Doom Patrol to Fight evil mutants)
X-men and Doom Patrol:
X-Men: Cyclops, Marvelgirl, Angel, Beast, Iceman, Polaris, Morph, Mimic.
Doom Patrol: Wolverine, Storm, Havok, Negativeman, Elasticwoman, Mento(Changeling's Adopted dad and Mom) and Namorita.
Xavier is with them on their final mission and the group is killed, all except for Wolverine.
Nick Fury and Shield (who has the following characters as agents, most from DC.)
Tim Trench, Jason Bard, Johnny Double, Johnny Peril, Roy Rammond, Dr. Thirteen, King Faraday, Sarge Steel, Rip Hunter and Black Widow.

Other heroes:
Aquaman:Maybe misbegotten brother to Namor?
The Hulk: created at the site of the Captain Atom tests.
The Sea Devils: Sea faring land based heroes.
Cave Carson: Legendary spelunker and explorer
The Defenders:The Question, Blue Beetle 1, Nightshade, Green Arrow (Has a kid with Black widow Circa 1976 never marries her because he's a hedonist and the Son grows up to be Speedy and then Arsenal), Peter Cannon:Thunderbolt, Peacemaker (all DC characters) and Black Widow.

Modern:

New Titans: Nightwing, Nova, Gambit (A younger version of him), Speedball, Cyborg, changeling, Wondergirl, Psylocke and Shadowcat.

All New X-Men: Wolverine, Raven (Rachel Summers?), Marvel boy (Vance Summers?), Robot Man (Peter Rusputian), Starfire, Cannonball, Terra and jubilee and Nightcrawler.

Titans west....Darkhawk, firestar, Arsenal(Speedy) Tempest(AQualad), Turbo, Jade, Obsidian, Tigra, and Windfall.

West coast Avengers....Usagent, Mockingbird, Mister Miracle, Big Barda, the Red Tornado (A recreated version of the Golden age Human Torch (Instead of the same for the vision...how is that for a twist?) Antman and Wasp (Hank Pym and Ray (Atom) Palmer went to college and were roommates?)

East Coast Avengers: Hawkeye, Rogue, Ironman, Thor, Captain America (Jack Monroe), Elongated Man...Others

JLA: Martian Manhunter, Blue Beetle, Boostergold, Black canary, Guy Gardner, Dr. Fate, Hercules and another Marvelite (female)

Nightwing Investigations: (an organization from Marvel Comics) : Misty Knight, Coleen Wing, Blade, Hannibal King, Frank Drake, Jessica Drew (Ex-Spiderwoman) and Jonni Thunder (All characters are Marvel except for Jonni Thunder)....Big PI Organization that has an international clientele.

The eternals and the New gods are one giant group