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How many months apart would likely depend on how many stories people wanted to tell in each era.
OCs... good question. I don't think they'd be forbidden; I like OCs and think they can add a lot to a game.
Eventually, we'd get to the era when the YA and New X-Men and Runaways could be introduced, but it wouldn't be for a while.
Time wouldn't pass normally. To give a good example why: those next-generation-heroes you just mentioned. I'd like to see someone play Stature eventually without having to wait for 5 years (since she was about 8-9 when the character was first introduced). It'd likely be something where, every time we did a new "wave," we'd state, "X number of years since game-launch" or something like that.
Not being familiar isn't a huge penalty, since their canon is starting from scratch. But I can understand the reluctance. Still, if you want to challenge yourself, it's certainly open to try a new character and learn about them as you go.
And yay for playing!