Pittsburgh: City of Champions

[Mark Rand]

The school auditorium gets plenty of use.  In addition to assemblies, Pubcom, the student council publicity committee meets on the stage apron to make posters and there are three study halls in it most class periods.  There is also a Stage Crew member backstage each class period to keep an eye on things.

[steriaca]

.Talking about the stage...

The drama club has one big event, the annual melodrama for charity.

 

It should be noted that it is traditional for the villain and hero role to be played by women, while the damsel role is played by a man. Yes, in drag, not gender swapped. The three roles are voted on via secret ballots at the beginning of the school year. Rob was selected as the damsel this year.

 

Of course, the actor has a window of opportunity to bow out of the role. And last year the roles went through many hands before the half year cutoff was reached.

 

The makeup and costume designers try to make sure each drag actor actually looks flattering in costume. It might be a comedy melodrama, but heaven forbid that the actors should be laughed at as opposed to the jokes.

 

(It should be noted that in the actual book, who plays what role should be determined by the GM, not the book.)

[Mark Rand]

Here are three more high school faculty members.

 

Ms. Alicia Ames is an English teacher and the Drama Club faculty advisor/sponsor.  She also directs the plays.

 

Mrs. Jo Anne Forbes is an English teacher and the Drama Club wardrobe mistress.

 

Mr, Kenny Anderson is the Metal Shop teacher and the Stage Crew faculty advisor/sponsor.  He has a set of stage keys reserved for Mercedes Kendall.

 

Here are two more students.

 

Sandra "Sandy" Forbes is Jo Anne's daughter.  She's on the Stage Crew and, being a skilled seamstress, assists her mother in wardrobe while plays are rehearsed or performed.

 

Michelle Karpman is the A Orchestra concertmaster.  Her violin is a Stradivarius that has been in her family since it was made.

[Mark Rand]

Lady Heart often teams up with Sunspell, whose Sun Bolt is the same as Sailor Venus' Venus Crescent Beam Smash, a 12D6 EB.  She's actually Tabitha Jean Clark, a Jewish actress and dancer who knows theatrical makeup. 

[steriaca]

1 hour ago, Mark Rand said:

Lady Heart often teams up with Sunspell, whose Sun Bolt is the same as Sailor Venus' Venus Crescent Beam Smash, a 12D6 EB.  She's actually Tabitha Jean Clark, a Jewish actress and dancer who knows theatrical makeup. 

Rob knows Tab from his acting circles and dancing circles. Rob doesn't know Tabitha is Sunspell, nor does Tabitha know Rob is Lady Heart...yet.

 

Lady Heart and Sunspell's relationship is more like close sisters. Both have the same goals and both magic is of a similar source (not exactly the same, of course). If they could they would go to each other's sleepover parties. 

[Mark Rand]

More All Right Ranch characters.

 

Joyce Adams is a counselor on All Right Ranch.  She rides Marigold, a palomino American Quarter Horse mare.

 

Peggy is a young teen with social anxiety problems on All Right Ranch.  Something of a nerd, she has thick glasses and claims that she can’t see without them.  She rides Strawberry, a bay American Quarter Horse mare. 

 

Annette is a young teen with social anxiety problems on All Right Ranch.  She rides Jumper, a pinto American Quarter Horse mare.

[Mark Rand]

Mercedes Kendall is based on Harmony Kendal from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  The Buffyverse wiki says about Harmony, “Beyond her shallow yet perky personality, Harmony’s defining characteristic, from her high school years up to her employment at Wolfram & Hart, was that she always tried to associate herself with what she perceived to be the most powerful and/or popular (Cordelia, Spike, Angel Investigations, Doug Sanders, Wolfram & Hart) in order to ensure her own social status and, later on, survival.”

[steriaca]

It should be noted that Comic Conventions wouldn't have superhero guest of honor. One, superheroes attract supervillains and when and where they clash are called super battles, and super battles usually cause injury at best, and death at worse. And no convention center wants to be in the center of a law suit. And if you point to the "not responsible for injury or death" clause, that won't mean anything in certain law suits.

 

Second, such guest of honor have to have leave to take care of emergencies during said conversations. They can't be sued for not showing up because the fate of the world stands in the balance after all.

 

That doesn't mean that a retired superhero can't be a guest of honor. In fact, that is more likely than an active hero.

[Steve]

26 minutes ago, steriaca said:

It should be noted that Comic Conventions wouldn't have superhero guest of honor. One, superheroes attract supervillains and when and where they clash are called super battles, and super battles usually cause injury at best, and death at worse. And no convention center wants to be in the center of a law suit. And if you point to the "not responsible for injury or death" clause, that won't mean anything in certain law suits.

 

Second, such guest of honor have to have leave to take care of emergencies during said conversations. They can't be sued for not showing up because the fate of the world stands in the balance after all.

 

That doesn't mean that a retired superhero can't be a guest of honor. In fact, that is more likely than an active hero.

Retired superheroes could still have their Hunteds strike at them, but it might be either a half-hearted one “for old times sake” or a deadly serious attack. If their enmity has cooled over the years, it could turn into a discussion panel reminiscing about their glory days and past superhumans that younger people in the audience wouldn’t know about unless they were really big fans of a certain past era of superhumanity.

[Steve]

5 hours ago, Mark Rand said:

Mercedes Kendall is based on Harmony Kendal from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  The Buffyverse wiki says about Harmony, “Beyond her shallow yet perky personality, Harmony’s defining characteristic, from her high school years up to her employment at Wolfram & Hart, was that she always tried to associate herself with what she perceived to be the most powerful and/or popular (Cordelia, Spike, Angel Investigations, Doug Sanders, Wolfram & Hart) in order to ensure her own social status and, later on, survival.”

 

Ah, I’d don’t know that about the character, but it makes sense.

 

So Mercedes is in the mold of a “shallow yet perky” sort of high school mean girl. If she follows a path like Harmony then she might end up as a replacement for a member of the Court of Hate, but she wouldn’t be very good at it.

 

I’m now curious to know more about the girls behind the costumes in the Court of Hate. Are they all about the same age? Do they go to different schools? Do they have evil pets/advisors like morally inverted versions of Luna? Why did they join up? Do they all hate Lady Heart or are their others who arouse their ire?

[steriaca]

2 hours ago, Steve said:

I’m now curious to know more about the girls behind the costumes in the Court of Hate. Are they all about the same age?

Yes. Roughly about 14 to 16 years old.

2 hours ago, Steve said:

Do they go to different schools?

Yes they do. But Mark has to choose exactly where and how. Originally all four girls were from the same dimension as Queen Nightmara, but I decided that it would work better if they came from here instead. I haven't given them civilian names yet (suggestions welcomed).

 

As for evil Luna figures, not really. Queen Nightmara contacts them through her "Eye Of Darkness" shattered Godgem and threatens them with taking away there powers if they don't do what she wants...but she is by nessisary a hands off conquer. She might give them from time to time a Nightmarian (think "youma"), but they don't usually last long.

 

Why did they join up? Hey...free superpowers and be able to do what you want with them, mostly.

 

They are told to hinder Lady Heart. They don't actually hate her...Queen Nightmara wants Lady Heart's Godgem. They suspect Sunspell has one also. They keep their eyes on other female teenage superheroes for signs of Godgem users.

 

[Mark Rand]

Sunspell doesn't have one.  She inherited her powers from the previous Sunspell, her maternal grandmother, who trained her and continues to do so.

[steriaca]

2 hours ago, Mark Rand said:

Sunspell doesn't have one.  She inherited her powers from the previous Sunspell, her maternal grandmother, who trained her and continues to do so.

But they don't have to know that.  LOL!

[Mark Rand]

12 minutes ago, steriaca said:

But they don't have to know that.  LOL!

True.  They might think that Sunspell’s golden talismanic ring, set with a topaz, has a Godstone.

[steriaca]

A little story.

 

What is a Godstone?

 

Legend says that the Multiverse started with only two things...Order and Chaos. They were young, considering Time didn't exist yet, yet alone Space, and were in love. So they both worked together to create the Cosmic Egg. Now Chaos wanted to break the Cosmic Egg, and Order didn't want the egg broken. So...the egg was broken and everything came out.

 

Now, what does the Godstones have to do with the Cosmic Egg? Well, the Godstones are pieces of the shell of the Cosmic Egg. They float through Time and Space and bind themselves to tweenage and teenage girls (mostly). Why? Who knows.

[dmjalund]

The spirit of Monkey was irrepressible!

[Mark Rand]

Cordelia and Donna have been friends since childhood and are both in the local National League of Junior Cotillions^® chapter.  (In real life, they don't have any chapters in Pennsylvania.)  Her dislike of her comes from two things.  The first is that she's a member of the "wrong" clique.  The second is that she usually doesn't dress to impress.

[Steve]

On 5/13/2022 at 11:56 AM, steriaca said:

Rob knows Tab from his acting circles and dancing circles. Rob doesn't know Tabitha is Sunspell, nor does Tabitha know Rob is Lady Heart...yet.

 

Lady Heart and Sunspell's relationship is more like close sisters. Both have the same goals and both magic is of a similar source (not exactly the same, of course). If they could they would go to each other's sleepover parties. 

How different is Lady Heart’s personality from the male one? Is it a case of multiple-personality disorder somehow? Or one person with two bodies to choose from? If the personality stays “male” then it’s kind of like Ranma 1/2.

 

Revealing the truth to Sunspell might be strange for her, if they are that close. If there were sleepovers before that happened, not sure how she could react.

[Scott Ruggels]

What about Non=Teen Heroes?  What about Hero History since The War ect?   THe focus on Teen heroes is limiting the city's usefulness for a general CHampions GM>

[Mark Rand]

2 hours ago, Scott Ruggels said:

What about Non=Teen Heroes?  What about Hero History since The War ect?   THe focus on Teen heroes is limiting the city's usefulness for a general CHampions GM>

Good points, Scott.  Which war were you referring to?

[steriaca]

2 hours ago, Steve said:

How different is Lady Heart’s personality from the male one? Is it a case of multiple-personality disorder somehow? Or one person with two bodies to choose from? If the personality stays “male” then it’s kind of like Ranma 1/2.

There is no difference between Lady Heart and Rob private personality wise. Rob IS an actor, so he can fake a different personality for Lady Heart, but honestly it doesn't go to far from his own.

2 hours ago, Steve said:

 

Revealing the truth to Sunspell might be strange for her, if they are that close. If there were sleepovers before that happened, not sure how she could react.

 

Well...

 

Hot Shot is a now retired fire based superhero. He was on call when a carload of crooks ran down a crossing guard Rebecca Trueheart. Rebecca was Rob's birth mother, and this happened when he was 8 years old.

[Scott Ruggels]

1 hour ago, Mark Rand said:

Good points, Scott.  Which war were you referring to?

Take your pic. Generally referred to since World War II, but it could also be since The whole Detroit situation, wiping out a large percentage of the more mobile and powerful Heroes. Tying things in with the Champions Universe continuity?

[Mark Rand]

1 minute ago, Scott Ruggels said:

Take your pic. Generally referred to since World War II, but it could also be since The whole Detroit situation, wiping out a large percentage of the more mobile and powerful Heroes. Tying things in with the Champions Universe continuity?

That's the plan.  Right now, Lady Heart and Sunspell are students at Pittsburgh's Point Park University.

[Mark Rand]

On 5/12/2022 at 11:42 PM, steriaca said:

.Talking about the stage...

The drama club has one big event, the annual melodrama for charity.

 

It should be noted that it is traditional for the villain and hero role to be played by women, while the damsel role is played by a man. Yes, in drag, not gender swapped. The three roles are voted on via secret ballots at the beginning of the school year. Rob was selected as the damsel this year.

 

Of course, the actor has a window of opportunity to bow out of the role. And last year the roles went through many hands before the half year cutoff was reached.

 

The makeup and costume designers try to make sure each drag actor actually looks flattering in costume. It might be a comedy melodrama, but heaven forbid that the actors should be laughed at as opposed to the jokes.

 

(It should be noted that in the actual book, who plays what role should be determined by the GM, not the book.)

This could be done at Point Park University's Pittsburgh Playhouse.  The complex features three public performance spaces; the 560 seat PNC Theatre, the 200 seat Highmark Studio Theatre, and the 99 seat Rauh Theatre.

 

Other possible theatres are in the city's Cultural District along Penn and Liberty avenues on the Allegheny River which includes numerous theaters, galleries, and concert halls including Heinz Hall, Byham Theater, O’Reilly Theater, Benedum Center, and Wood Street Galleries as well as restaurants and housing.  

[steriaca]

Lady Lace: A series of Pittsburgh located superheroiens.

 

Lady Lace 1: Operating from just before WW2 to about 1953. She basically has a web gun, and her wits.

 

Lady Lace 2: Operates from 1964 to 1983. Started with the web gun, but modified it over the years, maki g it smaller and more versatile. 

 

Lady Lace 3: Ooerated from 1987 till 1993. Was a martial artist who wore not a lot of clothes but had pockets in what she had. Carried a few noted weapons (like spider shaped shuriken).

 

Lady Lace 4: The current one. Found the plans of LL2's gun and a stash of LL3's weapons and tries to mix it up a bit. Is not a grim avenger type LL3 was. (Hey, it was all the trend in the 90's).