Aircraft Carrier...*Rant on*

[Ghost Archer]

Anyone else here Ex-Navy? Well, I'm a bit of Naval history buff as well as working for a Navy shipyard so I can point out a couple of things. At only $6.5 million you can bet that ship's been stripped to the bone. Electronics go first, then all your other equipment including most of the engine control systems. You can also figure all of the generators will be gone, and at the price for a ton of copper, all the wiring. I think the thing would only be good for scrap.
That being said, let's step into the world of Champions. It wouldn't be hard to find a place to berth it. Any International port could handle it and since its a conventionally fueled vessel, nuclear power is not an issue. Most of the ports listed by others are Naval bases, Bremerton, Charleston, Newport, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Long Beach, Alameda, San Diego, Pearl Harbor but this is a small carrier, only a bit under 700 feet. You could set up a base at Hunter's Point, Brooklyn Naval yard, Mare Island or any other naval base closed by BRAC. I am sure the government would lease a superhero team the space particularly if they are on good terms with Top Men.
A note on Brit carriers from tha WWII era, they ARE pretty well armored, for a carrier. They sacrificed aircraft capacity for survivability. The Americans took the other tack, preferring the extra aircraft and resulting in such things as the damage taken by the USS Franklyn when a kamikaze hit her. A Brit carrier like this one probably would have called away sweepers and kept going.

[devlin1]

Originally posted by Whitewings
Vancouver, BC could berth it, but I'm not sure if nuclear carriers are allowed into the port.

Nope. Vancouver is a Nuclear-Free Zone. Then again, it's not a nuclear vessel (or "wessel," if you prefer), so the only reason I bring this up is to show off my knowledge of Vancouver, BC.

[freakboy6117]

hmm how about a super science refit anti gravity genrators and quantum flux reactor. go for the full SHIELD heli carrier vibe.

[Solomon]

No need to frustrate them. If your group really wants a ship, give them a ship. At least for a while. This doesn't need to be a permanent alteration of the campaign's premises, unless you want it to be so. It can just be a temporary change of pace. Your campaign might benefit from that.

It is understandable you don't want to do all the research involved in a mobile naval campaign, but there are ways around that too. How realistic is your campaign?

If it is four-color, you might try this. Have a villain use an extradimensional device to maroon your heroes and their ship to another dimension. Have them look for a way home. Run a few "naval" games in said dimension. Say, it might be a fantasy world with magically-empowered pirates*. Play a battle - one carrier versus a whole fleet of lesser ships. Make them enjoy having a carrier. Then, as they finally locate a way back to Earth, let the carrier reappear, say, smack in the middle of Arizona rather than in the sea the started from.

Just an example, of course. Depending on your campaign, there might be other ways.

* Just because I love pirates.

[Metaphysician]

Assuming the characters are Avengers-class, globally-active heroes, I see no reason why they couldn't retrofit an old aircraft carrier as their base. Doubly so if the team has a scientific supergenius available.

OTOH, this isn't the kind of thing I'd let any old group of 350ers get a hold of.

[Starwolf]

K, I spent 20 years in the Navy...on carriers and in squadrons. A ship of this size would carry about 1000 ships crew, the airwing would be in addition to this. She probably carries about 750,000 gallons of diesel fuel for her quad boilers, as she has four engine rooms (one for each screw). This ship most likely has a top speed of 30 knots. She also carries another 750,000 gallons of aircraft fuel (most likely JP5). The oldest carrier that I was stationed on was the USS Saratoga, which is about twice the size of this ship. It cosgt us about $150,000 per day to sit at berth and around $300,000 per day when underway. And those prices where back in the 70s. This fuel and the food supplies lasted us about 2-3 weeks when underway.

There are in fact about 50 ports around the world that can berth this ship. Most of the time when carriers stay anchored about 10 miles outside of a port it is because we can neither confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons, so most foreign powers prefer we keep our distance (like 10 miles would matter). In these places we used motor whale boats to shuttle sailors back and forth between the ship and the port. The average ride was about 45 minutes. There are a couple of carriers that have been turned into tourist attractions, outside of that they cost so much to maitain and operate that most governments can't even afford them let alone private groups or entities. There is a very real reason that only the US Navy operates carriers on the Supercarrier class....no one else can afford them. An we only have 16 of them in operation. And of those only about 10 are operational, the rest are in various stages of maintenance/refit.

I hope this helps and provides some perspective.

[JmOz]

I like the idea of putting it in the lake as a distinctive looking base instead of as a vehicle

[austenandrews]

The words "haunted ship" keep floating to the top of my thoughts ...

-AA

[Patriot]

they are 350 pointers , and they are upset that when i told then they were gonna fight bank robbers for a little while used the Fox of crime


they wanna have an aircraft carrier , but fight thugs.....I can only bend so far

[Korvar]

Basically, if they want to keep it, they need to buy it with points. So find out how much they can afford, points-wise.

Perhaps they initially can't afford the movement capabilities (so it's just a stationary base).

If they can't actually afford all the hexes, then you could state that not all of the ship is in a habitable state, until an extensive cleanup is performed (i.e. more points are spent).

Basically, in Hero, you get what you pay for

[Supreme Serpent]

Originally posted by Patriot
they are 350 pointers , and they are upset that when i told then they were gonna fight bank robbers for a little while used the Fox of crime


they wanna have an aircraft carrier , but fight thugs.....I can only bend so far

It's starting to sound like the game you want to run and the game your players want to play in are two different campaigns. You may want to have a talk with them about it and possibly adjust some things, or risk everyone, you included, not having fun with it.

[BlackSword]

Originally posted by Supreme Serpent
It's starting to sound like the game you want to run and the game your players want to play in are two different campaigns. You may want to have a talk with them about it and possibly adjust some things, or risk everyone, you included, not having fun with it.

Yeah sounds like two different games. On thinking about it I don't see an issue with them getting the carrier if a) There is a viable way of getting, either a rich sponser or one of the hero has wealth and b) they are willing to spend points on it. Under b) As Ghost Archer said, the ship is stripped, so combining that with Korvar's suggestion you have a way for them to refit it as they have points to spend on it.

It would provide a unique base for the heroes which would give the campaign a unique flavor. Also there are plenty of plot hooks. Imagine an entire game where the team wakes up to the proximity alarms going off. They are scattered through out the ship and have to search for the intruder. The halls and rooms of ships are extremely small. It would limit the movement of the heroes and villains and provide for a fun bit of cat and mouse. It might make the evening more like a board game, but it could be a fun in-game break. As the progress and if they decide to buy movement powers for the ship then the more powerful heroes might decide to become a global road, er ship show.

Ultimately it is your decision, but remember, the number one rule is that everyone has fun.

[death tribble]

Put them on the carrier and stage a fight between them and villains which wrecks the thing.
If they want it so do the villains and some villains will go all out to spoil it by destroying the base.

[Storn]

Hey, I think it is a great idea. A very unique base.

If they want to do city wide adventures... stop bank robbers and such, make it immobile for awhiile... I think that is a wonderful idea. Just park it out in the bay with the city's blessings. Like someone else said, it means that their fair city ain't getting hammered every other week with supervillians.

And this is a superhero world right? Over time, if they spend attention and xp on it, let them upgrade to all kinds of neato keen comic book tech. Better engines, solar panels, decent electronics, resulting in a much, much smaller crew needed to maintain.

I think that this could really be like an extra NPC for you guys...takes on a character of its own. Someone mentioned a ghost story... that is a cool idea.

As for not wanting to do research... I don't think you have to do much. I'm sure one of these Navy guys can point you to a nice map of the damn thing... or something very equivalent. It ain't coming with weapon systems (and they would be antiquated to boot).

Dammit! I want it for my team!

[SuperPheemy]

Do your players want to actually GO places in this boat? The Aircraft Carrier itself isn't the most efficient means of superheroic travel. "Dr. Destroyer just took over Fiji! Never fear, the Freedom Squadron will be there in a week!"

However, if it were just a floating base, with the ability to occasionally move (say, if the characters were to go on an exteded adventure away from Chicago, and would like their base to be nearby for the duration). I see no problem with that.

I'd build it as a base, see what the points come out to, ask the players how many points they're willing to donate to the cause, then round out the rest with Disad points. (Such as: Hunted - WWII Historical Preservation Society, 14-, or Distinctive Features: WWII era Aircraft Carrier).

As a base it wouldn't even need that much crew. Just enough staff to ensure the lights stay on.