As Jack said I can't give too much away, but I'll try to explain a bit of the premise from what was already set up in the X-Force issue. The "Dark Future" setting is an attempt to set up a sandbox for all the cool future and dystopian alternate timeline clix that wizkids have given us that didn't have a use in the main RPSC setting. So the tone of the stories should be grim and gritty, like Terminator or Total Recall or Robocop.

So Jack and I have built a mosaic that incorporates elements of Marvel's 2099, Age of Apocalypse, Old Man Logan, Days of Future Past, Earth X, Future Imperfect, Age of X, and other less well known stories. Instead of setting up any one bad guy as "the reason why the future sucks", instead we attempted to balance several that all exist alongside each other. So when the Young Avengers (or Runaways? I'm unclear what the team will actually be called) first venture out to try to change the world, it's not a matter of just "beat up Maestro and call it a day". The world is balanced between several big superpowered warlords that control territories, each with it's own flavor. It's difficult (but not impossible) for the heroes to dismantle one of these fiefdoms because it ends up creating a power vacuum that the remaining tyrants rush to fill, strengthening their own power base. The goal for the heroes isn't necessarily to defeat every villain and save the whole world, it's more about keeping hope alive and surviving through these dark times until the world can eventually right itself in an even more distant future.

One thing we are trying to avoid is any further time travel missions. Time travel is a notoriously sticky narrative concept to handle and the decision was made to just wash our hands of it. So the Xorn paradox witnessed at the end of the X-Men annual that Jack linked represents the "clean up" of such storylines, and we won't be trying to send anyone else back to the present to prevent the events of the Dark Future from coming about. So the heroes of the future will have to deal with their own problems instead of counting on the past to fix things for them.

Personally I was pretty disappointed that X-Force fizzled because I was excited to see Cable in a blood-and-chrome setting that would suit the original macho 80's design of the character. So Jack, if we're getting the RPSC moving and the Young Avengers want to get started in the Dark Future, I'd like to take the reigns of X-Force myself. The Sinister Six can remain on the shelf for now and just be used as individual punchclock villains for street level Marvel books for the time being? Would that work for you?

That would be fan####ingtastic.

X-Force is the "cancelled" book I wanted to see continue more than any other.

Hey there jack! So... you wouldn't just so happen to have a copy lying around somewhere of my first issue would you? I just realized I don't seem to have it anymore.

I'm curious: which characters are or would be part of X-Force and which are part of X-Factor?...

Forwarded to you.

X-Force is Cable, Hope Summers, Dazzler and iirc, Longshot. Warpath and some of the other classic X-Force members as well as some of the time lost X-Men like Gambit and Psylocke would be available for future recruitment.

X-Factor is Havok, Polaris, Madrox, Rogue and Copycat posing as Nightcrawler.

So classic X-Force is Cable's original team. (In the comics) Since they are basically the remnants of the New Mutants, who falls under Academy X and who falls under X-Force? Or is it a case by case basis?

Which villains are in power? Is it already determined who is controlling what and what happened to this world? Tried reading some older RPSC books but couldn't see what lead to this world. I assume this world is like AoA or Days of future past, correct me if I'm wrong. Just wanted to get a good sense of what heroes and villains are in this world so I can fit my story in there as seamlessly as possibly.

I think I still have some notes Jack sent me when I was deciding which team to run, with his permission I could send them to you.

As Gargan Said
"So Jack and I have built a mosaic that incorporates elements of Marvel's 2099, Age of Apocalypse, Old Man Logan, Days of Future Past, Earth X, Future Imperfect, Age of X, and other less well known stories. Instead of setting up any one bad guy as "the reason why the future sucks", instead we attempted to balance several that all exist alongside each other."

I know Apocalyse is there and since he mentions maestro we can assume he's also there. Basically if there's a story line where someone is a ruler of a dystopian future they are probably there. So If I had to guess sentinels are probably there. maybe even Roxxon?

There's actually a few fairly unique territories as well.

The causes behind it are themes in West Coast Avengers, X-Factor, Future Foundation, and Academy-X

Feel free to forward background notes to each other.

The major Dark Future players on the west coast are Apocalypse (with his Age of Apocalypseish Gene Nation/Utopia spanning most of California) and Maestro (Gamma Town/New Vegas is somewhere in Arizona New Mexico but with some Las Vegas monuments relocated to his little kingdom). Spider-Man and his clones are responsible for the police state that is Manhatten, now named Spider Island. Scarlet Witch has a neutral haven in Salem, MA. Mikhail Rasputin has his little Hill kingdom, Alchemax is active and does business with just about everyone and the Seninels have a manufacturing plant somewhere. Then there's the Deathlocks, the XSE, the Iron Man and heaven help you if you run into Hulk's children. Lots of moving parts. They could sure use some more heroes.



You know the other book/setting that never got off the ground? The old Secret Society of Superheroes book set in what was basically Earth 3 with Deathstroke, Luthor, Red Hood and Black Adam trying to take down the CSA.

The one "Dark Future" setting we don't use wholesale is Bishop's and the Days of the Future past.

Roughly 10 years out from present day continuity, the Seninels try but fail to take over. (This is partially shown in a flashback in Future Foundation 3.) This changes the state of mutant/human relations and the face of New York City but when the dust settles, America still exists.

About 10 years after that is an event that ends up wiping out a significant chunk of the superhero community. A mutant is at the center of things and mutants as a whole are blamed. Apocalypse and the Seninels more or less cut America down the middle. Here, you see DOTFP style concentration camps and M tattoos on mutant faces. Apocalypse declares war and frees his people. Millions die in the process and the Sentinels (and human government) are wiped out.

However, Apocalypse never managed to locate Master Mold. Ten years after the war (which is where X-Force and parts of Future Foundation and X-Factor take place), there are no more mutant concentration camps (in theory) but more and more Sentinels keep popping up, engaging in search and destroy missions anywhere not under the protection of a warlord. Of course, they could always be amassing for an attack on a bigger target. Nobody knows how many there are or where they're coming from.

So while part of the Dark Future is like Age of Apocalypse and part is like Future Imperfect, there is no Days of the Future Past section of the world because that is in the past...of the future.

I'd be willing to try my hand at the Secret Society unless someone who doesn't already have a book wants it.

I'll snag the relevant info for the dark future and send it off to TGMick

By the way, Jack did you get a chance to look at the draft I sent you?

Let me elaborate a bit more on what others have said and what's been mentioned in the few posted issues, hopefully this will clarify the picture for you and give you a better idea of where you want to tell your team's story.

Gene-Nation / Apocalypse: The single biggest united territory in North America is Apocalypse's empire, which covers California, Oregon, and Washington state. Society here resembles a mutant version of the Hunger Games; at the top you have a fabulously wealthy elite class of nobles, and then below them you have several populations of serfs that live in poverty. The lower class does manual labor and farming, and is also used for genetic experimentation by Apocalypse and his scientists. They accept this rule because Apocalypse's Horsemen (his generals) are so effective at keeping other dangers at bay, and because there is a chance that the peasants or their children might one day rise up to elite status themselves, if they are lucky enough to be born with the right genes. The slim hope that they might win that genetic lottery is why people are willing to let Apocalypse's scientists experiment on them or compete in the "games" where Apocalypse's Hounds (the ruling elites) hunt them for sport. Mostly this is just entertainment for the upper class but every once in a long while a lowly mutant might prove their worth and be lifted up into the ruling nobility.
This setting would have a lot of politics, so if you like stories like Game of Thrones this could be a good fit. Aside from Apocalypse himself as the Emperor, you have the Horsemen, the Hounds, his scientists like Mr. Sinister and Dark Beast, and the dissenting members of the underclass all vying for power and alliances to further their own goals. Apocalypse's court also sees ambassadors from other foreign powers, so there are dignitaries from Latveria, Atlantis, Shi'ar, Wakanda all rubbing elbows and lending their support to the different characters that can strike a deal with them. Where would the Young Avengers fit into all this? Probably trying to foment a rebellion to topple Apocalypse. Cable and X-Force are also attempting to assassinate Apocalypse too so you might get some help there, even if you're working on the problem from different angles.

Gammatown / Maestro: New Mexico has always been the Hulk's home, but as Jack mentioned he's outright stolen buildings from some other cities to build his palace out of. Another name for Gammatown might be "New Vegas". It's smack in the middle of an irradiated desert, the fallout from a gamma bomb being detonated during the Apocalypse/Sentinel war. While the outlying lands are wastelands, food and wildlife still grow there, it's just that it's mutated and unwholesome. So the only people that would want to live in this area are the gamma-irradiated who are somewhat acclimated to this environment.
Maestro's kingdom is one where might makes right, and Maestro is the mightiest of all. Picture something like Orks from a fantasy setting; everyone is a bully and whoever is strongest gets their way until someone stronger comes along. Inside the city itself Maestro's palace is a glowing neon spectacle, all the gaudiest parts of the Las Vegas nightlife condensed into his personal playland. When he's hungry his servants bring him a feast, when he's horny his harem tend to his needs, and when he's in a bad mood then the first person to cross his line of sight will probably come to a messy end. Thanks to all the ambient gamma radiation Maestro is nearly invincible in his palace but only rarely ventures beyond where he might be more vulnerable. Instead he sends his kids out to do errands for him, and since they are bored spoiled bullies themselves they are eager to go find some trouble and beat up anyone they can find an excuse to. While Maestro is the king and his kids are monsters, even the average citizens that live in this city have a touch of green in them, to a greater or lesser extent (I'm thinking that the "Oni Hulk" and "Oni Leader" figures from the What If? set will make great stand-ins for the unnamed followers of Maestro).
There are a couple good reasons why the Young Avengers might need to risk a trip into Gammatown; Maestro has a big collection of trophies in his palace and among them are some pretty important artifacts. Maybe Vision needs the data logs inside Ultron's severed head, or maybe Nico thinks she can use the Eye of Agamotto to learn where Mastermold is. The other reason is that the neighboring warlords know that they should leave Maestro alone, and so the Young Avengers might be able to escape their enemies by fleeing into the gamma irradiated wastelands. It's said that New Vegas is powered by it's own gamma-reactor, which could be weaponized with the right know-how and be a powerful weapon against Apocalypse or another tyrant that the heroes are hoping to take down, if they are desperate enough.

Spider-Island / Spider-man: At some point during the past 20 years as America was being torn apart, Peter Parker lost his mind. It didn't happen all at once, but by the time we catch up to him in the Dark Future, the island of Manhattan is crawling with spider-men, spider-women, spider-boys and spider-girls. Peter has been busy cloning himself and runs a complex network that polices his territory, his "web". This results in a police state where cameras and spider-bots are everywhere, and any hint of criminality brings the spider-clones down on you. The only opposing force is the rebels called the Sinister Six, operating out of Hells' Kitchen, and the monstrous Scorpion that stalks Peter like the croc the took Captain Hook's hand.

Fortress X / Sentinels: If you do want to tell more of a "Days of Future Past" story about the Young Avengers fighting the robot menace, there is certainly room to do that. Aside from the random sentinel patrols that pop up the harass free mutants, there may be more going on than meets the eye. If someone like the Vision was able to tap into the Sentinels' network, they might be able to find out what happened to Mastermold, and what the machines' ultimate plans are. At the same time, this would probably incorporate "Fortress X" as a primary setting. Fortress X is a city (somewhere on the East coast, far away from Apocalypse's empire) where the last of Xavier's allies make their last stand. Think of it as "Zion" from the Matrix movies. Magneto (not Erik Lehnsherr) is the Lord Protector of this city, where humans and mutants live together in relative peace. This is also the headquarters of the XSE, who are an underground railroad sort of operation that venture out into the rest of America looking for those that need their help and shepherd them back to the safety of their Fortress. Sentinels would be one of the biggest dangers that they face, and the Fortress would regularly have to repel invading Sentinel fleets that get a little bit stronger each time they return.
The main difference in a storyline like this would be that the heroes would be more reactionary, fighting to preserve the status quo and keep what they have from being taken away, rather than fighting to change the status quo and topple a warlord like one of the previous scenarios.

Reunite the Avengers: The Young Avengers may decide that the only people who can save the world are their role models, the original Avengers. What happened to Captain America, Thor and Iron Man? They've disappeared from public view but perhaps Vision or some others in the know might have a clue about where to track them down. This might be the best way to get a little exposure to all of the settings described above, as the Young Avengers comb through the country looking for their lost forefathers.

I haven't detailed the non-American events much because they are more relevant to the FF, and not something that the Young Avengers would need to worry about most of the time.

Is Spider Island actually secretly run by Superior Spider Man? Ironical in that his Sinister Six are the rebels?