Cool Things to Put in a Base

[Agent X]

I'm hoping to borrow (steal) the great ideas you have had for a base.

So what kinds of things have you put in base? I'm asking for unique features or little things that any base might have but, for some reason, most people forget to include. The base I am building is supposed to be this technological wonder, a tesseract, with vast interior space parceled out on multiple levels. It's meant to be a source of adventure for the heroes in my new campaign in and of itself.

[Blue]

My favorite base feature is actually a disadvantage. I *ahem*... borrowed... from a book (Angel Station, by Walther Jon Williams). The base is haunted, but not in the traditional sense.

The previous owner used to use the base sensors to record everything he did so that his ideas were always on record and he could call them up should he forget them. There is, however, a flaw in the sytem which causes the holographic projectors in the base to replay his image at random intervals and with random footage.

So one day you're walking down the hall and the (now deceased) owner of the base walks past you mumbling to himself about quantum physics. You're sitting in the security area reviewing tape of the villains and suddenly he appears, eating an apple and making bodily noises. You're trying to work (silently) in the lab and suddenly he's there, rambling about his latest experiment.

Makes a good jumping off point for adventures, when he shows up and says something that interests the heroes.

I actually stole four or five things for this campaign from Williams, but since my players don't read him, they'll never know.

[Agent X]

Originally posted by Blue
My favorite base feature is actually a disadvantage. I *ahem*... borrowed... from a book (Angel Station, by Walther Jon Williams). The base is haunted, but not in the traditional sense.

The previous owner used to use the base sensors to record everything he did so that his ideas were always on record and he could call them up should he forget them. There is, however, a flaw in the sytem which causes the holographic projectors in the base to replay his image at random intervals and with random footage.

So one day you're walking down the hall and the (now deceased) owner of the base walks past you mumbling to himself about quantum physics. You're sitting in the security area reviewing tape of the villains and suddenly he appears, eating an apple and making bodily noises. You're trying to work (silently) in the lab and suddenly he's there, rambling about his latest experiment.

Makes a good jumping off point for adventures, when he shows up and says something that interests the heroes.

I actually stole four or five things for this campaign from Williams, but since my players don't read him, they'll never know.

That is the kind of stuff I'm looking for! Thanks.

[phydaux]

Originally posted by Agent X
The base I am building is supposed to be this technological wonder, a tesseract, with vast interior space parceled out on multiple levels. It's meant to be a source of adventure for the heroes in my new campaign in and of itself.

Hmm... Most of my bases come in at the "Super Flop House" level, but I'll try to list some ideas.

1) A Toilet (I challange you to look at any VIPER or UNTIL base, or any old D&D mod, and tell me just where anyone went to take a dump?)

2) A Kitchen

3) Pantry/Storage Room (you have to keep the vaccuum cleaner somewhere)

4) Laundry Room (Those costumes get a little rank after a while)

5) A Rec Room (NOT a Danger Room, but a place for the PCs to play Nintendo and stuff)

6) A Med Facility (Some villains have really big Killing Attacks)

7) Bedrooms

8) Comm Room (Got to LOVE Monitor Duty!)

9) Meeting Room (Preferably with high DEF walls. Some of those conversations get a little heated...)

[Blue]

Glad you like it

The other thing that's useful in my base is a security measure that I don't have the statistics for just now.

It's an area effect teleport with two memorized locations. One is the holding cell downstairs and the other is outside the base. It's generally set up so that anyone breaking into the lobby area can be teleported directly to holding (where they will have to waste precious phases trying to break out) or to the outside, whereupon the base can be sealed up immediately--leaving the villains back out in the cold.

You could always megascale it and teleport them someplace far away, or even to the police station.

[lemming]

Originally posted by Agent X
I'm hoping to borrow (steal) the great ideas you have had for a base.

So what kinds of things have you put in base?

A Giant Penny

[loraxxx]

base-boards

no really--how about an intruder pacification system?--very useful, especially if the characters don't take appropriate steps to protect themselves....

(mr spock, flood all decks with neuro-zine!!--i mean every deck except this one--oh, crap!!)

[KnightShade]

A library might be nice. Especially for those times when there's a puzzle the PC's just can't solve, they can go look for answers there.

[Hermit]

I like phydaux's list.

Another suggestion I have is a Greenhouse/indoor garden. A little plant life can liven the place up, provides better air, and is good for meditation.

You've already thought of the "Danger Room" I'm sure

[Ghost who Walks]

Most of our bases have been pretty ordinary. Here is some of the more unusual stuff:

1) The secret subpen for the minisub, that only the Russian member of the team knew about.
2) An old fire truck in the vehicle bay (the team hada fire projector on it). The team leader could order it out, and it was manned by the base staff. Wendy Brooks drove.
3) The firepole, allowing nonflyingh heroes to quickly drop down levels.
4) The danger lot (from the first base). This was an Ex-Man joke, taken to ridculous levels. Instead of a Danger Room, it was an empty lot, where heroes took cover behind the busted Ford, crawled down the cement pipe, and ran through the old tires. Great fun.
5) Don't forget a parking lot, otherwise the heroes park on the street. One of the characters had his car stolden because of that...

Don't forget base staff!
Besides Wendy, we have had:
1) The test robot for a corporation, that was supposed to vacuum. It wandered around, and no one could understand how to reprogram it.
2) The Groundskeeper. We had Hideous the Groundskeeper (seems to have vanished in 5th edition). He was a brick, with a scarred face. Later he got his face healed, and became a superhero.
3) Base Manager: Daughter of the team leader, she kept on trying to go on missions (had no powers). Owns her own arsenal of weapons, including a rocket launcher. Also had a pet elephant, to ride into battle on. (she later got powers, and became more respectible)
4) Mutant from other world. Like it sounds. He was the handyman, and kept of putting chairs in his room in the hope that the players would come in there, and talk with him. They had an intervention instead.
5) Police Liason: Gruff and chain smoking, she was assigned to the team because she was up for administrative review for shooting a suspect. Her job was to access the police database, and send any evidence collected to the police lab for analysis.

Note #1: I am still working on a way to get the characters to have a giant penny! (they already have the deactivated Dalek)

Note #2: Find the old module called ""Stormhaven", produced by Blade/Flying buffalo. Originally done foor the Espionage system, contains the greatest plans for a superhero base. Ever.

[Supreme Serpent]

Costume-making machine.

Large, walk-in closets.

More than one way in/out. More than one way up/down levels.

Sensory Deprivation tank.

Craft room. Pottery wheel, easel/paints, etc.

"The Vault of 8- Activation Foci" - lots of "failed" inventions - useful stuff in the right situations, just very unreliable and not stuff you'd want to take with you every mission. But sometimes...you may want to go in and look for that SubHarmonic Flameproof Force-Bubble.

Premade costume closet. For easy infiltration. Set of VIPER uniforms for the team, gorilla costume, ninja suits, etc.

Large aquarium with fish no one recognizes, that maintains itself & feeds the fish on its own.

Video monitors that are not labeled and show rooms no one recognizes, that apparently aren't in the base...

[Mark Rand]

If the base is, or was, a mage's house it could be bigger on the outside and have gateways to other realities or rooms that aren't on the house's original floorplan. Imagine, walking through a gate in the living room to a hotel ballroom or from the basement rec room to a four floor gymnasium. Of course, it could be haunted, too.

[Blue]

Originally posted by Hermit
You've already thought of the "Danger Room" I'm sure

The twist on this for "our" base is that the DR is completly virtual. Reasoning that the massive amount of destruction that takes place in a danger room would be very costly, instaed a simple room was designed with virtual hookups and characters are linked up by electrodes to the environmental computer. So fights are closer to "holodeck adventures" in the sense that the environment changes and seems boundless. Characters on there are "programmed" in an approximation of their real world selves.

In mechanics: Essentially, it's like "extradimensional travel", with a "leaves vulnerable physical body behind" limitation. And I implemented the "Split attention" rule, where if you want to be able to make perception rolls in the 'real world' while plugged in to the virtual one, you react in the virtual world at a -1 SPD. (That was for the benefit of paranoid players/characters who fear I'm going to have villains beat them to a pulp in their own base while they are logged in).

[Old Man]

Originally posted by Ghost who Walks

3) The firepole, allowing nonflyingh heroes to quickly drop down levels.

This one suggestion has inspired me to design a superhero base concealed in a strip club. I guess I need to get my mind out of the gutter.

[lemming]

Originally posted by Old Man
This one suggestion has inspired me to design a superhero base concealed in a strip club. I guess I need to get my mind out of the gutter.

Hey, you got to make money in some fashion and it's convienent.