For those looking to play by forum, we have the "Episode X" series of bog-standard (except for the occasional houseruled villain) SOTM games, and there's the "Shattered Storyline", which is heavy on special scenario rules. Now, I would like to present a Third Option. I will facilitate these games, which are almost, but not quite, run in the usual fashion. They will start out very much like the SOTM you know, but over time, they will develop their own continuity and become something akin to a simulation of the entire comic 'verse, with all heroes playing out their own adventures more or less simultaneously.
The conceit behind this series of games is that Sentinels is becoming a series of movies, akin to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (hence the title, replacing Marvel comics with Sentinel comics). We will start with the Freedom Five, as Marvel all but started with The Avengers; we're pretending that they each already had their own solo movie (except probably Absolute Zero, he can be the Hawkeye of the franchise, having had a cameo in Tachyon but not really appearing until now), and now this is their chance at the big time. As soon as the box-office results come in, a sequel is greenlit, and then another and another, as long as audiences keep showing up (ie as long as we still have players for these games). Over time, the Cinematic Universe expands to include Ra and the Prime Wardens and Scholar, then the Dark Watch, the three time-travelers, the Vengeance heroes and any concurrent mini-expansions, and whatever comes in the last two expansions. But at every step of the process, the studio is involved in the process, retiring unpopular characters and introducing new elements in order to generate "buzz", seeking to maximize their proceeds from this lucrative franchise.
The following special rules apply to each game in the SCUverse:
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Movies may be many things, but they are NOT random; every aspect of the story, setting, character appearance and so forth is meticulously scripted, minutely scrutinized, focus-tested ad nauseum, and otherwise sculpted to what the studio hopes will be an irresistable masterpiece, which everyone and their cousin will watch in 3D theaters four times before buying the Blu-Ray. As a result, players start the game by drawing SIX cards, then put two of these on the bottom of their deck. Whenever a hero would draw a card, they instead draw two cards and put one on the bottom, repeating this process if they draw more than one card. Players are fully encouraged to record the order of these "archived" cards…the decks are not shuffled between games! (The longer a franchise runs, the more it begins to repeat itself, and eventually it embraces its predictability in the name of fan service.) Any cards that were revealed during the previous game (hand, play and trash) are shuffled together, then placed at the bottom of the remaining cards in the deck, forming the deck for the next game. But beware, heroes! The "scriptwriter" isn't only making sure you get all your coolest toys! Whenever a villain or environment card would be played, the facilitator chooses between the top two cards of the appropriate deck, playing one and putting the other on the bottom. Thusly, both heroes and villain are bringing their "a game".
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The facilitator makes choices for the villain and environment whenever there is more than one valid target. Thusly, if an Automaton Drone blasts the highest-HP hero and there's a tie, I pick who gets shot, not the heroes. Combined with the choose-between-two-plays, this will make all villains significantly tougher…as a result, matches default to being non-Advanced at first.
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Because it is all but unheard-of for a superhero movie to end with the villain triumphant, the last hero left standing in a game cannot be incapacitated. If reduced to 0 HP, that hero is restored to their maximum HP and continues playing. However, this represents the movie ending with what audiences will criticize as a "lame deus ex machina", and the character becomes unpopular as a result; they are therefore written out of the sequel. Any character who has received an "extra life" in this fashion is dropped from the next game in the series. Thusly, the next game will be played with 4 heroes, and then 3. Conversely, if exactly one hero is incapacitated during the game, that hero is also dropped; they suffered a Comic Book Death for Rule of Drama and the studio is pretending that they're actually dead, though it fully intends to bring them back in a future movie.
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Characters dropped from games as described above are placed on "the bench". At the same time, for each game in the series, one not-yet-available hero is placed on the bench. This shall follow the sequence alluded to above, though I may insert promo characters at points yet to be determined. Whenever at least X heroes are on "the bench" at once, where X is 8 minus the number of heroes active in the current game, a new game is slotted for all of the benched heroes. Thusly, if Bunker is dropped after the first game (representing the movie "The Freedom Five"), he joins Ra on the bench. If the second game ("Freedom Five 2") sees no heroes defeated, Tempest appears on the bench as well. When Legacy is defeated in game 3 (completing the trilogy), he also goes onto the bench, along with Haka. Before the FV are played again, we get a new game in which Bunker, Legacy, Ra, and the two Prime Wardens-to-be fight some new threat together. Once multiple hero groups are active, they take turns playing games. Any hero who has been benched and then returned to play shuffles his deck before entering the new game.
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In all cases, it is not necessary for the same player to play a hero from one game to the next. When a new player assumes control of a hero, shuffle that hero's deck. Thusly, if you keep playing the same hero, you draw cards you haven't seen before (and, assuming your deck doesn't do any fetching, you'll eventually be able to predict all your draws based on the cards you previously bottomed). But if you take over a hero from someone else, you start fresh. (This whole don't-shuffle rule is the most experimental and potentially-broken part of this scenario, and I'm open to reconsidering it.)
Our first matchup is the Freedom Five vs. Omnitron (not Advanced) in Megalopolis. It will probably be a cakewalk, I know, but it'll give us the chance to get used to the houserule.
EDIT: I have loosened my rules out of general laziness; players now opt whether or not to leave their decks unshuffled between games, and I'm opening up a second game even though we haven't "benched" any heroes yet. Additionally, a new adjustment is made to the don't-shuffle rule within games: If you play a card which would shuffle your deck, leave any "bottomed" cards in their current position, and shuffle only the cards whose order remains unknown. Cards which are in either the ordered or random parts of your deck are equally accessible during deck-searching, but all determined card positions, other than those of cards removed from the deck, must remain unchanged. (Example: Wraith starts the game by placing Mega Computer and Inventory Barrage on the bottom of her deck. She plays Trust Fund on her turn, drawing a total of five cards on that turn and bottoming five others, which we'll say are four Grappling Hooks and a second Trust Fund. She is then very abruptly incapacitated. At the start of the next game, she shuffles her hand and trash, a total of nine cards including one Trust Fund, and puts them on the bottom of her deck, then draws her new hand of six cards, bottoming Stun Bolt and IREP. When she plays Impromptu Invention on her first turn, she first draws two cards, one of which is another Mega Computer which she bottoms, and then searches her deck for some Throwing Knives. Before searching, her deck consists of the following cards, aside from the four in her hand and the Impromptu Invention in play: 17x random, Mega Computer, Inventory Barrage, Grappling Hook x4, Trust Fund, 9x random, Stun Bolt, IREP. She may search either the top 17 cards or the near-bottom 9 for her Throwing Knives, but must shuffle either pile after searching it, and the other pile if she saw any of it while sifting through the deck, and the end result must still have two piles totaling 26 random cards, either 16 and 9 or 17 and 8, separated by Mega Computer, Inventory Barrage, all the Grappling Hooks and a Trust Fund, and with Stun Bolt and IREP on the bottom.) The facilitator is free to decide, on a case-by-case basis, whether or not this rule applies to the villain and environment decks. I have also edited the above with a new clarification about decks which are left unshuffled between games, in red text. In theory, I should be strictly applying these randomization rules in order to enforce the milieu, but in practice I lack the ambition to do so…if you decide you'd rather just shuffle your entire deck, I probably won't have the energy to call you on it (and even if you do, my ability to punish you for breaking the rules is limited to a mildly disdainful attitude and refusal to include you in future games of the series).