#for reference the game idea is basically Turn-Based Strategy where you play as Magneto

[myopinionisimportant]

Talked to someone at work about That Game Idea I Want To Make Someday and now I REALLY REALLY want to make it

but I still have no skills and it's not a good time to try and gain them

:(

[thisiswhatwereupagainst]

X-Men First Class Hellfire Club Re-Design

I was going through some old stuff of mine and found ideas for a version of the Hellfire Club in First Class that would be more comics-accurate and enjoyable for me. I think I might have posted it before, but in case I didn’t, here it is! In this version, the Hellfire Club has the same history and origins as its comicverse counterpart: Founded in the 18th century as a society for the most wealthy and elite, and is so to this today. However, while most of its members see it simply as a social club for them to enjoy mingling with fellow people of their status, it has a secret Inner Circle made up of some of the most powerful and influential people on the planet, who seek to dominate the world economically, politically, and socially through wealth. And now, that Inner Circle is made up of mutants. Their goal is the one that Sebastian Shaw originally espoused in their early appearance in the comics, but never quite seemed to get around to: Owning the mutant genome. Mutants are emerging, and the Hellfire Club sees in them the potential for profit if they can get there first. They want to get their hands on every mutant they can and use them for the development of bio-weapons, medicines, anything and everything that could be done using the literally endless potential abilities of mutantkind. They don't care about mutant rights or human acceptance or any of that---they care about profit, and they will happily put other mutants on the dissection table for it. They're also equally happy to profit from human bigotry, which they are already preparing for, developing and testing anti-mutant weapons so that when humankind becomes aware of mutants and panics, they'll already be ready to sell them the goods before anyone else. As with the original move Club, they're also doing the whole "trying to start the next world war" thing, justthey're instigating it for profit rather than propagating the mutant species. Unlike their comic book counterparts, their image should not evoke the 1700s/1800s or BDSM themes. Instead, they should be dressed in chic corporate business-wear most of the time; in combat, however, they switch to one-piece battle uniforms like the X-Men have. However, their uniforms should have a sleeker, more regal look, and admittedly a little on the sexier side too. They should just look 'cooler' than the X-Men, somehow; it fits with their 'better than you' attitude. Also unlike the comics, the Inner Circle are not named after chess pieces, but their comic book codenames are alluded to by being given these names (Black King, White Queen, etc.) in something like a government file, or over a secret radio transmission, something like that, either by themselves or by the government or by the X-men (ex: “White Queen incoming, over” or the like)

Hellfire Club Members:

Sebastian Shaw - Definitely not Kevin Bacon, definitely never a Nazi. Sebastian Shaw has the same background as his comicverse counterpart---born a poor steel worker, became a billionaire industrialist--and has the whole "tall muscular guy with sideburns and a ponytail" thing going on, as he should. He also is going to rip his shirt off at least once. Shaw should basically epitomize the "all business, nothing personal" approach. Profit and power are his first/only concerns, and he openly sneers at Erik's beliefs as much as he does at Charles'. Like Bacon!Shaw, he initially offers the X-Men the option to join him, but unlike Bacon!Shaw he makes no pretenses about being unwilling to "harm another mutant" if they don't. He should be a brilliant strategist, and incredible in physical combat (and not just because of his mutant abilities either) as well as classy as fuck (although there should a scene where he loses it and his poor Pennsylvania miner accent slips out and he looks mortified because he worked so hard to lose it) His big weakness, and the weakness of the Hellfire Club on the whole, is an inability to understand or trust people; he has recruited others based only on their powers and use to him, but he doesn't trust them or vice versa. Any of them would sell any of the others out in a second, in contrast to the solidarity between both the X-Men and, eventually, the Brotherhood. As with Bacon!Shaw, he has the prototype anti-telepathy helmet, invented by his labs and Dr. Essex, which both he and Dr. Essex wear (and which Magneto will take from Dr. Essex like he did with Bacon!Shaw, see Essex's section below) Emma Frost - Unlike Shaw, Emma doesn't come from a working class background, but was instead born into upper-crust society. However, she didn't coast by on her family's cash, but instead chose to build a fortune of her own as a businesswoman. While her mutant abilities are what made Shaw recruit her, it's this work ethic that gained his respect. Like Shaw, she's incredibly classy and intelligent, but she understands people much better he does because of her telepathy, and this makes her far better at manipulation. He makes battle strategies, she makes people strategies. While she lacks the physical combat skills of Shaw, her diamond form helps her make up for it, making her pack a hell of a punch and be immune to almost all physical assaults. She speaks with either a British accent or a posh WASP-type one, and she is very clearly equal to Shaw, not subordinate to him (in other words, no, she does not get him fucking ice for his drink, and if he dared ask, the movie would end a lot sooner BECAUSE SHE’D KILL HIM) Tessa/Sage - Their living version of Cerebro, the movie-verse Sage's abilities are limited to being able to detect other mutants. However, she also displays incredible combat abilities, which could either be the result of a super-human physique or simply of very dedicated training. Like the comicverse Tessa, she's the usually-silent assistant/secretary of Sebastian Shaw in both business and super-villainy (which, for him, are the same thing), rarely speaking or displaying personality, virtually a flesh and blood robot. She's practical to the point of ruthless, but also lacks any cruelty or sadism. Cold, detached, polite, but never mean, and even attempts to warn the X-Men away from messing with the Hellfire Club for their own sake. Selene Gallio - An eccentric heiress from Rome, she possesses telekinesis and pyrokinesis. She's secretly scheming to eliminate Shaw and Emma so as to put herself in the most powerful Inner Circle position, and uses the conflict with the X-Men to do so. Shaw and Emma, meanwhile, are also secretly trying to bump her off too! Again, this ends up being a big part of the reason that they're defeated by the X-Men, who use the backstabbing and manipulative nature of the Hellfire Club to play them off each other. Shaw also personally dislikes her for having only inherited her money, never worked for it, while she looks down on him for the reverse reason. While Shaw and Emma seem to see things as a business venture, she views it more as a game, and is less concerned with profit, more concerned with fun. Her opinion of mutantkind is that they have evolved to be predator upon humans, since humans have not had any natural predators for too long a time and nature abhors a vacuum; she is quick to note, however, that she herself is equal-opportunity in her selection of prey and thus happy to kill mutants as well, just like the rest of the Club.

Additional Hellfire characters:

Dr. Nathaniel Essex - Obviously, Magneto's story was the most powerful one in the First Class movie, so I of course want to keep it. But how, since this Sebastian Shaw won't have had anything to do with his past or Nazis? Well, Dr. Essex will take his place! Many fans have noted that movie!Shaw is much more like Mr. Sinister (Dr. Essex)--fascinated with mutants from a scientific POV, amoral, heartless, all about experiments and outcome, and worked as a Nazi scientist in the concentration camps (young Magneto even met him!) And since he also was affiliated with the Hellfire Club in the comics too, yeah, it fits perfectly. Just take the plot with movie!Shaw and Erik and stick in Essex in movie!Shaw's place. Movie-version Dr. Essex is originally from England but joined the Nazis in order to enjoy more "scientific freedom" regarding the experiments he was allowed to perform. He agreed with the idea of a master race, just one other than Aryans: Mutants, who he had become aware of through his work in England. At an unknown point after this, he is hired by the Hellfire Club to work in their labs. He himself is human when he works in the camps and puts young Erik through the torments that awaken his powers, but by the time Erik encounters him as an adult, he has used science to alter himself with mutant DNA, equipping himself with a regenerative healing factor, metahuman strength, endurance, reflexes, and resistance to injury. He lacks the strange appearance of Mr. Sinister, and is never referred to by that name, just as Dr. Essex. Donald Pierce - A human who was deposed from his spot in the Inner Circle by Shaw due to not being a mutant...and lost all his limbs in the process to Sebastian Shaw, nearly dying (he now relies on prosthetics) He is a prominent industrialist as well as very good with machinery/robotics, and he lends both his company and his own hands to the government in addressing the problem of the Hellfire Club. He's supposed to work together with the X-Men, but the moment the Hellfire Club is defeated, he turns on them, claiming that what the Hellfire Club did to him is what all mutants are going to do the moment they get the chance and "I won't give you that chance." Magneto kills him with his own machinery/weapons/prosthetics, but in the end credits, his severed head is seen in the labs of his company, attached to wires and cords, and the eyes open. Jetstream - A young mutant taken in by the Hellfire Club, he fights Banshee and Angel in aerial combat. Like his comic-book counterpart, his powers destroyed his lower body, and so he uses prosthetics built for him by Pierce prior to Pierce being ejected from (and nearly killed by) the Hellfire Club Catseye - Another young mutant basically adopted by with the Hellfire Club, she's a felid shapeshifter. Her comic book counterpart took the form of an enormous purple cat, but since that's a little goofy for the big screen, this version instead becomes a sort of human/black panther hybrid, and functions as a counterpart to Mystique and Beast, both of whom she fights Roulette- A young mutant with luck powers who works for the Hellfire Club. She is shown briefly during a montage that shows how the Club is using various mutants for their own profitable purposes; in Roulette's case, she uses her luck powers to manipulate the stock marker in favor of the Inner Circle. Benazir Kaur- A mutant who works for the Hellfire Club, shown in the same montage as Roulette. She can causes sickness and disease in people, and is used in the medical labs. A few other mutants will be shown in the montage too, I just haven't picked which. I'd ideally like for them to have been associated with the comicverse Hellfire Club instead of just random people like Riptide, though. I'd especially like to get in a cameo of Harry Leland. I don't see him as needed for the plot, but since the other members of the original comics Inner Circle---Shaw, Frost, Pierce, Tessa---are included, it seems unfair to leave him out entirely. We could also keep Riptide and Azazel too, if you want. I'm neutral on them. A teleporter is useful, but the comics canon Hellfire Club has two we could pick from (Lourdes Chantal and Trevor Fitzroy) and while I'd prefer Lourdes, I guess Azazel keeps the whole nod to Nightcrawler's parentage. Of course, I don't really care about that either, so whatever.

Story differences:

So, FC ends with Erik embracing the ideals of Shaw and the Hellfire Club, and taking over the latter to make it his Brotherhood of Mutants. Obviously, in this version, that won't happen because the ideals of Shaw and the Hellfire Club aren't what Magneto believes in at all. Instead, what happens is that the Hellfire Club and their exploitation of mutants shows Magneto the danger that mutants are in, and he agrees with the Hellfire Club that when humans realize mutants exist, they are indeed going to react with panic and want to wipe them out (which he points to Donald Pierce as evidence of). And like the Hellfire Club being prepared to sell anti-mutant weapons to the masses, Magneto wants to be prepared too. The Hellfire Club also shows him the danger of what will happen if mutantkind isn't united, if they don't come together---it will become mutant on mutant, selling each other out to the humans just to save their own skins. That's why it's so imperative to him that Xavier and every other mutant agree with him, because there can be no room for division in their ranks or else this will happen again. So he still walks off and takes Angel and Mystique with him, as well as possibly some Hellfire-affiliated mutants that like his ideals better than being exploited for profit by the Inner Circle (which could include Riptide and Azazel, and/or some of the ones from the brief montage). He kills Essex just like he did originally with Shaw, complete with helmet and Charles screaming and mind-linking and all...obviously Essex doesn't have Shaw's abilities so he wouldn't have the "absorbed nuclear bomb level power" situation but I'm sure there could be something else set up. As for the Hellfire Club themselves...they're a worldwide organization, they can't be eliminated. It's more like they just get defeated in whatever they were trying to do, but they still succeed to some degree too through cleverness and backup plans, and it's very clear they're still around and going to come back again. This still has a lot of the flaws of the original (namely, that Magneto hating humans doesn't make as much sense when the first danger to mutants he runs into is OTHER MUTANTS, but at least it fixes the fact a mutant killed his mother in FC, which is really stupid story-wise/for his character, imo) but it has a Hellfire Club that I would have much preferred to see onscreen. If the canon FC version of the Hellfire Club worked for you, hey, great, I'm glad, this is just for me and what I would have liked.