Old buildings, as Superhero Bases.

[Scott Ruggels]

A very defensible building with solid construction, and tiny windows.  Perfect for a hero base, and not expensive, either. 
 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/living-in-masonic-temple?utm_medium=atlas-page&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR1fSSRJMcnG50SlYQ0c3yAMEJAq1V-gyIPg2fSxtrUSENgtFVdVEq4mqt8

[Mark Rand]

Cool.  There are 5 Masonic buildings in the Pittsburgh area, plus the one that was sold to Pitt and now is home to a number of university departments.  Theere are also a number of other such buildings in the area that would serve the same purpose.

[Hermit]

"It was pre spelled by a former owner" -Real Estate agent

"I can work with that" - Team mystic

[wcw43921]

I always thought Meigs Field would have made a great place to base a Chicago superteam--before it was demolished, of course.

[Asperion]

This is a great addition to all these articles about abandoned shopping centers that currently are left for ruin. Small centers would be double the size listed in the article above about Mason and will quickly increase many fold. 

[Scott Ruggels]

The problem with disused shopping malls, is that they have severely high maintenance expenses, and the layouts are somewhat semi-random. The central areas, tend to be wide open spaces, that allow a lot of foot traffic. Large glass windows and huge geometric skylights are a lot less secure than the sober brickwork of a masonic temple.

[BoloOfEarth]

On 5/24/2022 at 11:17 PM, Scott Ruggels said:

The problem with disused shopping malls, is that they have severely high maintenance expenses, and the layouts are somewhat semi-random. The central areas, tend to be wide open spaces, that allow a lot of foot traffic. Large glass windows and huge geometric skylights are a lot less secure than the sober brickwork of a masonic temple.

 

True, but we gamers do tend to gloss over the real-world financial / maintenance / other aspects of various supervillain lairs, particularly large underground bases, so why penalize the heroes?  If a former shopping mall is used in secret - the place is boarded up and seemingly deserted - I can't see why one can't be used for a superhero base.  No reason the "boarded-over" windows and skylights can't be reinforced to make the base secure enough.

[Scott Ruggels]

1 hour ago, BoloOfEarth said:

 

True, but we gamers do tend to gloss over the real-world financial / maintenance / other aspects of various supervillain lairs, particularly large underground bases, so why penalize the heroes?  If a former shopping mall is used in secret - the place is boarded up and seemingly deserted - I can't see why one can't be used for a superhero base.  No reason the "boarded-over" windows and skylights can't be reinforced to make the base secure enough.

 True enough. There was an abandoned mall in South Los Angeles I used to drive by on occasion that looked like  fortress.

 

Shore up the wals from the inside and that would probably work.

[unclevlad]

One thing you'd want to avoid with that Temple is a building that's too historic;  one nice thing with the mall notion is that no one will care about the buildings.  But I agree that the layout's not very good, most of the time.

 

EDIT:  last apartment I rented was a bunch of small buildings;  mine had 8 apartments on 2 floors.  I believe there were about a dozen overall...mix of 1, 2, and 3 bedroom.  Give some to the minions, use some as labs, excavate some tunnels between buildings.  

 

 

[Pattern Ghost]

Most malls have anchor stores. Those are going to be the areas you fortify. The rest of the areas connecting them can be repurposed as parking, exercise/training areas, gardens for relaxing, pools for the team fish guy, etc.

[DShomshak]

On 5/23/2022 at 9:38 AM, Scott Ruggels said:

A very defensible building with solid construction, and tiny windows.  Perfect for a hero base, and not expensive, either. 
 

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/living-in-masonic-temple?utm_medium=atlas-page&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR1fSSRJMcnG50SlYQ0c3yAMEJAq1V-gyIPg2fSxtrUSENgtFVdVEq4mqt8

A quick Google search turned up these floor plans for a Masonic temple:

The print is too small and blurry to read what the rooms are, but you're going to change them anyway.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Steve]

Don’t forget the abandoned amusement parks for certain supervillain types.

[Starfighter]

The good thing about using a mall or an amusement park is they tend to be located outside the main urban areas. You don't want to have a headquarters right in the middle of the city if a huge fight breaks out. Yeah, that looks great in a movie, but realistically it would be disastrous for the population.

[Opal]

My last campaign, the heroes were given an old building to use as a base.  

Of course, in my home town, "old building" can mean built in the 60s.

 

[Scott Ruggels]

There is a building a lot like that on Wilshire Blvd in Beverly Hills.  

[DShomshak]

On 5/26/2022 at 8:08 PM, unclevlad said:

EDIT:  last apartment I rented was a bunch of small buildings;  mine had 8 apartments on 2 floors.  I believe there were about a dozen overall...mix of 1, 2, and 3 bedroom.  Give some to the minions, use some as labs, excavate some tunnels between buildings.  

 

For a similar idea, a block of row houses or other conjoined housing. A book I read about historic architecture of New York City inclided plans and a brief description of the Henry Villard houses, 6 variously-sized homes forming a Y around a courtyard, built in uniform style to suggest a single Italianate mansion. I thought it might make a nifty home base for a "people with powers" campaign: A group of super-criminals made their big score and retired, buying such a block of houses to live in. Years later, their kids have grown up all knowing each other -- and then discover their heritage as mutant powers and family curses manifest, power rings and battlesuits long set aside are found, etc., and they find the secret entrances to the underground labs and training areas that were set up "just in case" but were long neglected. I never developed the idea, though (my group has more campaign ideas than we have time to play).

 

EDIT: Oh hey, the Villard Houses still exist. They're a Historic Landmark. Here's the Wikipedia article, with ground floor plans.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villard_Houses

Dean Shomshak

 

[unclevlad]

Villains being villains, they tended to be laid-back, laissez-faire parents.  So some of the kids will <gasp> want to be Heroes!!!!  While others will continue the family traditions.

 

Oh, the angst when the hero has to go after his villain girl friend.............

[DShomshak]

Yes, this could be a CW show with frightening ease... 'Shipping included.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Scott Ruggels]

 The other repurposed building that might be popular as a base would be the "National Guard Armory" Castles build predominantly east of the Mississippi, which were usually fortified buildings that looked just like castles. As the nature of war changed, so did the usefulness of those buildings (MOst notably their lack of parking lots, as motorized Logistics and mechanized warfare came to the fore).  These buildings have many secure rooms, and many classrooms, and large assembly rooms/ gyms, all covered.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connecticut_Street_Armory

 

http://www.upstatecastle.com/architecture.htm

https://www.builtstlouis.net/national-guard-armory.html

 

http://www.cob.org/wp-content/uploads/sehome-survey-national-guard-armory.pdf

 

[DShomshak]

And oh hey, I was looking for armory plans a while back and still have one on my desktops!

 

 

[Scott Ruggels]

On 6/7/2022 at 10:43 AM, DShomshak said:

Yes, this could be a CW show with frightening ease... 'Shipping included.

 

Dean Shomshak

This was already a young adult graphic novel.  

[csyphrett]

On 6/7/2022 at 1:20 PM, DShomshak said:

For a similar idea, a block of row houses or other conjoined housing. A book I read about historic architecture of New York City inclided plans and a brief description of the Henry Villard houses, 6 variously-sized homes forming a Y around a courtyard, built in uniform style to suggest a single Italianate mansion. I thought it might make a nifty home base for a "people with powers" campaign: A group of super-criminals made their big score and retired, buying such a block of houses to live in. Years later, their kids have grown up all knowing each other -- and then discover their heritage as mutant powers and family curses manifest, power rings and battlesuits long set aside are found, etc., and they find the secret entrances to the underground labs and training areas that were set up "just in case" but were long neglected. I never developed the idea, though (my group has more campaign ideas than we have time to play).

 

EDIT: Oh hey, the Villard Houses still exist. They're a Historic Landmark. Here's the Wikipedia article, with ground floor plans.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villard_Houses

Dean Shomshak

 

I have seen and used this idea before. I think The Avenger used it back in the thirties, and then it was stolen by either Uncle, or Zarkon whichever came first then the other, and then I stole it for a story

CES