X-MEN MUTANT INSURRECTION
The X-Men return to fight for good, and with each other, once again
Let us travel back in time, to when things were a little bit simpler. Before superheroes were on every conceivable media surface in your life, and before they got ‘gritty’, ‘dark’, and ‘real’. Let’s instead look at the bright and colourful world of the X-Men of the 90s cartoons, or the earlier comics where the tone was set around lighter subjects, like racism and civil rights movement. Okay, so maybe comic books have always dealt with the heavier side of culture, even if only in metaphor and yellow spandex. But in the most recent outing for the X-Men, from Fantasy Flight Games, we walk the line of international peacekeepers in a time of struggle, and silly costumes. We’re joined by Brandon Perdue, one of the designers of the just released X-Men: Mutant Insurrection to talk about this game of dice battling, bonding and teamwork.
Brandon Perdue has a storied past, having previously worked on the epic and expansively supported The Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-earth and Heroes of Terrinoth, a dice and card game that might begin to sound familiar over the next few paragraphs.
Yet Perdue’s throughline for this game comes from somewhere a little further out, “my big influences for games like Mutant Insurrection – and I guess really for most games – are tabletop RPGs and Cosmic Encounter,” says Perdue, “RPGs with rulesets that varied a lot depending on your character type, like Shadowrun, really cemented for me how powerful mechanics can be in helping to make a theme or setting engaging, and I love the freeform storytelling.”
“Meanwhile, Cosmic Encounter has always engaged my designer brain with its vast array of special abilities and how different the experience can be depending on the aliens at the table.”
This influence can be seen throughout the whole of X-Men: Mutant Insurrection, with each game’s flavour coming from the heroes you play as and the villain scenario you’re up against.
PROTECTING THOSE WHO FEAR THEM
X-Men: Mutant Insurrection is a dice and card game that relies on tactical use of your dice pools, your friends, and a little bit of luck, to overcome a couple of decks of cards. It sounds simple, but the mechanics hit all the right notes when it comes to thinking about what the X-men are.
Players will pick their hero of the 16 available and use their specific dice pools to attempt to match