Fresh places for a superpower fight needed (battlemap)

[Tech]

I'm something of a dry spell creatively-speaking. I've got an episode (using a battlemap) where a supervillain team just saw someone's powers occur, and want to try recruiting this new super. Fortunately, the hero team will be nearby to stop the villains from trying to recruit. The problem is: where will the fight take place? Already been done in factories, parks, fastfood restaurant. Looking for a fresh place for a battle. Suggestions?

[wcw43921]

If you can get a copy of Champions Battlegrounds (5th Ed.) there's two places that might suit your needs--a shopping mall and an amusement park.  Both have plenty of innocent bystanders to endanger, plenty of items to use as improvised weapons--and in the parlance of video game design, fully destructible environments.

 

Any sort of convention or trade fair would be a good place for a super-battle.  Again, we have innocent people to endanger and items to use as weapons--and if it's a comic or sci-fi con, we have cosplayers who might decide to try their hand at superheroics.  (It doesn't have to be sci-fi or superheroes, either.  Check out the schedule for the Donald Stephens Center for some show ideas.)

 

On a related note to conventions--a gun show has tremendous potential for chaos and catastrophe, especially in states that permit open and/or concealed carry.  In any other situation a criminal suddenly faced with dozens, if not hundreds of armed individuals would be strongly inclined to surrender--but if that criminal was Bulldozer, or Holocaust, or someone like them, not so much.  The potential for collateral casualties would be especially high.

 

Hope that helps.

[BoloOfEarth]

A few ideas:  

• Middle of a college campus (particularly if the new super is young-ish and could be one of the students, though it could also be a faculty member if older)
• A car dealership.  Hey, easy to draw the hexmap, with lots of cars (new or used, up to you) to toss around or go boom.  The new super could be shopping for a new car when the bad guys approach him.
• Museum (you can get plenty of general floorplans, at least of all the public areas, online).  Could be art, natural history, tech, whatever is local for you.  In addition to saving bystanders, the heroes also have to be mindful of priceless items on display.
• Subway station (if the campaign city has subways).  Particularly if express trains are roaring through at the time of the fight.
• Airport.  Don't forget those fuel tanker trucks and fragile jets all around.

I've got to take off for a bit, but will try to post more ideas when I get back.

[Ninja-Bear]

How about:

a dock or pier

church

bus station

sewage plant

sewers

airport- small one

[unclevlad]

Somewhat lower-key...a busy-ish municipal/local airport.  No large jets, but regional and private can use em.  

 

The timing isn't great for this, but...an airshow.  (Dallas air show had a mid-air last weekend, so as I say, maybe not great timing, but it is a nice venue, and the stakes are not TOO high.)

 

USED car delearship.  Or perhaps even better...a car scrapyard, with the big car shredders and metal compactors.  ALL KINDS of fun missile weapons, from engine-sized to several cubic feet of pressed, crushed metal.  Fun for all!

 

If the powers mix is right, a graveyard.  At night.  Perhaps not many bystanders, but the recruit's Special Friend might be there.  (Evil mind...the recruit's 'friend' is, in fact, working with/for the villains.)  

 

With some of the locations suggested:  granted that the villains aren't spoiling for a fight, and might well pick a venue like a college campus...but some of those are just places where the risk is TOO high.  If the recruit's a college kid, and it's his campus?  An open battle on campus is a Very Bad Thing...and honestly, neither side should want it to happen.  A gun show might be even worse.  That comes down to how you're running your campaign, tho.  

[Dr.Device]

A fight in an Ikea could be a lot of fun. It's a huge space, but walled off into almost a maze by tons of partitions (which at some point I assume characters would just start blasting through). There's somewhat open air above the partitions, which is nice for flyers, but those spaces are crisscrossed with ducts and pipes and support wires. Lots of potential for chaos.

 

It also comes with lots of things for bricks to throw: appliances, furniture, shopping carts.

 

There's even a restaurant if you want to lean into comedy and break into a food fight at some point.

[BoloOfEarth]

16 hours ago, unclevlad said:

With some of the locations suggested:  granted that the villains aren't spoiling for a fight, and might well pick a venue like a college campus...but some of those are just places where the risk is TOO high.  If the recruit's a college kid, and it's his campus?  An open battle on campus is a Very Bad Thing...and honestly, neither side should want it to happen.  A gun show might be even worse.  That comes down to how you're running your campaign, tho.  

 

By "bad thing", do you mean bad for the heroes?  Or bad for the villains?  If the former, well, that's not a major concern for the villains (who are effectively determining the location to approach the new super).  It's certainly not in the villains' interest to make things easier for the good guys, is it?  If it makes it challenging for the heroes... well, as GM I see that as a plus, not a minus.  I don't try to make things overly difficult to my players, but it's the GM's job to present challenges for the players to overcome.  Sometimes that's not just the villains themselves, but also the environment.

 

And I would submit that when the heroes/players overcome such challenges, they feel even better about themselves.  "Yeah, not only did we defeat the Days of Destruction, but we did it in a fireworks factory!  Without blowing the place to smithereens!  Did you see how Jack Frost and Flux shut down Fryday's fire powers?"

 

Also, the villains may not be expecting the encounter to turn into an all-out battle.  If there's five of them and one unidentified new super, they may expect to overwhelm him/her and run off, not knowing the heroes are nearby and ready to take them on.

 

Depending on the situation (the OP didn't give a lot of details), the villains may not have a lot of choice in when / where to approach the new super.  For instance, the villains may have just robbed a bank and be escaping (not knowing the heroes are fresh on their heels) when they see the new super using his/her powers on the college campus / at the car dealership / etc.  They'd have no idea how to track him/her down later, so best to deal with it right now.

 

Personally, I'd set it up as an evolving situation.  Using the museum as an example, maybe the villains are doing a very covert theft one night when they discover the night security guard or a museum employee working after hours has powers - and rather than just sneaking away or blasting him unconscious and taking off, decide to reveal one or more of themselves to try to recruit him.  Meanwhile, one of the heroes is patrolling in the area and spots Villain X through the museum window, so he/she calls in the rest of the team.  Fight ensues, which the villains didn't really plan on taking place there, nor did the heroes really, but hey, you play the hand you're dealt.

 

16 hours ago, Dr.Device said:

A fight in an Ikea could be a lot of fun. It's a huge space, but walled off into almost a maze by tons of partitions (which at some point I assume characters would just start blasting through). There's somewhat open air above the partitions, which is nice for flyers, but those spaces are crisscrossed with ducts and pipes and support wires. Lots of potential for chaos.

 

It also comes with lots of things for bricks to throw: appliances, furniture, shopping carts.

 

There's even a restaurant if you want to lean into comedy and break into a food fight at some point.

 

I have to admit, walking through Ikea in the past, I've imagined having a super-fight there.  Great idea, Dr. D.

[unclevlad]

27 minutes ago, BoloOfEarth said:

By "bad thing", do you mean bad for the heroes?  Or bad for the villains?  If the former, well, that's not a major concern for the villains (who are effectively determining the location to approach the new super).  It's certainly not in the villains' interest to make things easier for the good guys, is it?  If it makes it challenging for the heroes... well, as GM I see that as a plus, not a minus.  I don't try to make things overly difficult to my players, but it's the GM's job to present challenges for the players to overcome.  Sometimes that's not just the villains themselves, but also the environment.

 

Bad for the villains AND the heroes in your scenario.  If people die, if there's too much collateral damage?  Both sides will be called out.  Even villains should understand:  doing TOO much damage, or causing people to die, should DARN sure put them squarely in the heroes' focus.  And I don't mean the PCs, I mean that far more broadly.  Go back to, say, the Boston Marathon bombings.  They were horrific, brutal, inhuman...and catching the bastards was the #1 priority for the police and FBI.  The house to house?  From WIkipedia:

 

Quote

A 20-block area of Watertown was cordoned off and residents were told not to leave their homes or answer the door, as officers scoured the area in tactical gear. Helicopters circled the area and SWAT teams in armored vehicles moved through in formation, with officers going door to door and searching houses.[110] These actions generated discussions about the legality of searching large numbers of houses without a search warrant, with The Atlantic stating that this kind of search is legal due to exigent circumstances.[111] On the scene were the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Diplomatic Security Service, HSI-ICE, the National Guard, the Boston, Cambridge, Watertown Police departments, and the Massachusetts State Police. The show of force was the first major field test of the interagency task forces created in the wake of the September 11 attacks.[112]

The entire public transit network and most Boston taxi services[a] were suspended, as was Amtrak service to and from Boston.[72][114] Logan International Airport remained open under heightened security.[114] Universities, schools, many businesses, and other facilities were closed as thousands of law enforcement personnel participated in the door-to-door manhunt in Watertown. Others followed up on other leads, including searching the house that the brothers shared in Cambridge, where seven improvised explosive devices were found.[115]

 

That's what I'm talking about.  That is a level of attention NO halfway intelligent villain group would want.

 

Granted, neither side is apparently spoiling for a fight, and things *may* not escalate.  But if the potential is there?  The villains should realize the risks *to them* in a direct confrontation in a bad locale.  If they can't snatch the kid cleanly?  BUG OUT!  The heroes need to be aware of proper force limits as well.

[steriaca]

A rather large rural supermarket or big box store. It's really large (especially if it is the only branch of the supermarket chain or big box store in 20 miles), and most certainly have a "farm" section (huge bags of fertilizer and seeds and animal feed).

 

And even intresting if they never get past the parking lot.

 

As for the"bad" stuff, some villains are actually all about the slaughter. They want to be feared, and what's better to be feared then a few dead bodies to tell all the weaklings what could happen if they don't obey them. Note: don't do this offen. Just enough to make sure that not every villain is going to be fun loving weirdos all the time. Some villains are deadly serious and quite willing to prove it.

[Mr. R]

Another place:

 

Appliance Store.  Here have a new dishwasher!

[death tribble]

If you can handle something difficult, onboard a ship either docked or at sea. It's narrow on the inside and plenty of places to play hide and seek and use stealth. NCIS has several episodes where they use this and then there is Magnum Force (Dirty Harry 2) where the climax is on a ship. And they are using motorcycles on the ship.

 

A football stadium, a baseball stadium or an ice hockey arena might also be ideas. Sudden Death with Jean Claude Van Damme is a good primer for an ice hockey fight.

[Tech]

Thanks all. These are great ideas. I have my locale picked out.

[BoloOfEarth]

16 hours ago, Tech said:

Thanks all. These are great ideas. I have my locale picked out.

 

Can you give some details (after you run it, if necessary to keep the players from finding out)?  I'm just curious how it's to play out.

[BoloOfEarth]

On 11/16/2022 at 3:21 PM, unclevlad said:

 

Bad for the villains AND the heroes in your scenario.  If people die, if there's too much collateral damage?  Both sides will be called out.  Even villains should understand:  doing TOO much damage, or causing people to die, should DARN sure put them squarely in the heroes' focus.  And I don't mean the PCs, I mean that far more broadly.  Go back to, say, the Boston Marathon bombings.  They were horrific, brutal, inhuman...and catching the bastards was the #1 priority for the police and FBI.  The house to house?  From WIkipedia:

 

 

That's what I'm talking about.  That is a level of attention NO halfway intelligent villain group would want.

 

Granted, neither side is apparently spoiling for a fight, and things *may* not escalate.  But if the potential is there?  The villains should realize the risks *to them* in a direct confrontation in a bad locale.  If they can't snatch the kid cleanly?  BUG OUT!  The heroes need to be aware of proper force limits as well.

 

Thanks for the explanation.  I get what you're saying, though depending on the villains involved, the collateral damage (to people or property) may not be a major concern to the villains.  (It should always be a concern to the heroes.)  And villainous arrogance / overconfidence may mean that they barely (if at all) consider the likelihood of things turning south on them.

 

For any of those locations, the initial confrontation (I'm referring to villains approaching the new super, not heroes confronting the villains) doesn't have to be out in the open for all to see (and risk exposure).  Using the college campus as an example, the villain(s) may be tailing the new super in disguise, and actually approach the new super as he/she is passing between buildings so they're not easily seen.  Subtle but definitive demonstration of power to establish their bona fides, with a warning to keep the new super from making a scene.  Or maybe they're just tailing him/her hoping to make the approach at a completely secure location, but the new super notices the tail and confronts them, so they try to make the best of a non-optimal situation.

 

And really, if you're in a city, there's precious few places to approach somebody without a bunch of people nearby, so you're pretty much always going to have the potential for collateral damage.  They can't exactly make the new super go to a deserted corner of a park at their convenience (well, unless they have a decent mentalist, though even if they do, mind controlling someone may not endear you to the person you're hoping to recruit).

 

Also, since the villains are looking to recruit the new super, maybe an outright snatch (clean or otherwise) isn't their best approach.  As I noted above, a subtle demonstration of power (e.g. Neutron making a pen hover over his hand spinning around, then sending it shooting up into the stratosphere) with a "Relax, kid, we just want to talk.  No need for you to out yourself to the whole world as having powers."  

 

And frankly, if they're supervillains, unless they're brand new villains, they're most likely already in the heroes' focus (whether the PCs or government agencies), though they admittedly may not be currently known to be in that particular area.  

[DShomshak]

On 11/15/2022 at 6:49 PM, unclevlad said:

USED car delearship.  Or perhaps even better...a car scrapyard, with the big car shredders and metal compactors.  ALL KINDS of fun missile weapons, from engine-sized to several cubic feet of pressed, crushed metal.  Fun for all!

 

Long ago, I set a super-battle in a junkyard, modeled on one I'd visited briefly with my father some years before that. (Why were the villains using a junkyard as their base? The leader was a metallokinetic. His plan was to steal rare and valuable antique cars, use his powers to make copies using the metal in the junkyard, and sell the copies to all those unscrupulous millionaires in comic-book worlds that are just waiting to buy stolen treasures and not tell anyone.)

 

Anyway, one thing I remembered from my visit: This junkyard had a huge, rusty iron sphere. An old bathysphere? Okay, it was probably just one of those spherical storage tanks for natutal gas or the like, but I decided it was a bathysphere. It turned out to be just the thing to hold a captured villain who was too strong for any mundane confinement.

 

Dean Shomshak

[bluesguy]

I try to run my Champions campaigns in an a real life location that the players are familiar.  In my two most recent campaigns there have been the following locations:

 

Minnesota campaign:

• Mall of America
• Building site for the new Viking's stadium
• At the annual Governor's fishing opener
• Musuems
• State Fair (giant mutated ants)

New Mexico campaign:

• Very large wind farm on the east side of the state
• Mall parking lot
• University of NM campus (and an iconic eatery near the campus)
• Santa Fe Cross of the Martyrs park
• At a ruin in the Chaco Canyon national park
• Underground VIPER facility
• One of the myriad of Sandia National Laboratory buildings
• In Mexico to evacuate civilians from an erupting volcano near Mexico City
• On a moon base.  None of them have life support or gadget or piloting skills.

[BoloOfEarth]

22 hours ago, bluesguy said:

• Underground VIPER facility

 

This is a perennial favorite of mine.  I've put some extensive work into some of my VIPER bases:

• The Chicago base of a cold-based Nest Leader was noted for being perpetually kept at freezing temperatures, with agents wearing special boots to walk on ice and IR goggles, with hallways and rooms able to be filled with fog at command.  Made for a very interesting fight, with the heroes not prepared for slippery floors and hindered vision.
• The Boston base that was directly connected to the Charles River so submersible robots and vehicles could come and go with impunity.  The above-ground front building for that same base had an internal "courtyard" where flying robots and vehicles (with holograms to mask their movements) could come and go from the underground base.
• The base of a robot-heavy Nest Leader, decorated with statues of various robots from TV and film.  Nearly all were just mock-ups, but a few were able to activate and attack the heroes.  There's nothing like the heroes having to take on an actual ED-209 or Terminator robot in the middle of their fight with VIPER agents.
• Several VIPER Nests have had "Walls of Infamy" with plaques commemorating various VIPER agents (some posthumously) for their actions in the field.  Had a lot of fun with those, with the players taking time to check them out while skulking around.

 

While none of this would work for the OP's situation, it's still a lot of fun.

[Scott Ruggels]

I used what one of the folks on another forum did for Champions, and I adapted it to Cyberpunk Red, but the technique works.  I go to Google Maps in satellite  view,  find a park, or intersection or lot of land, and expand the view as tightly zoomed in as it can go, and at that point screen grab it, and import it into the Virtual Tabletop of Choice.  For Roll 20, it is as is, as the scale is about right at the highest magnification.  For Tabletop Simulator, this becomes the ground texture, and then trees, and buildings are placed upon it as necessary.

[Grailknight]

A major seaport, smugglers are using an oil tanker and doing a transaction while unloading. There are large crowds of people present but the explosive possibilities can be catastrophic.

[death tribble]

On 12/1/2022 at 5:03 PM, bluesguy said:

I try to run my Champions campaigns in an a real life location that the players are familiar.  In my two most recent campaigns there have been the following locations:

 

Minnesota campaign:

• Mall of America
• Building site for the new Viking's stadium
• At the annual Governor's fishing opener
• Musuems
• State Fair (giant mutated ants)

New Mexico campaign:

• Very large wind farm on the east side of the state
• Mall parking lot
• University of NM campus (and an iconic eatery near the campus)
• Santa Fe Cross of the Martyrs park
• At a ruin in the Chaco Canyon national park
• Underground VIPER facility
• One of the myriad of Sandia National Laboratory buildings
• In Mexico to evacuate civilians from an erupting volcano near Mexico City
• On a moon base.  None of them have life support or gadget or piloting skills.

When I saw friends in the Twin Cities they took me to the Mall of America and my souvenir of it is a picture of me on the log run inside the Mall. It would be a great location for a fight.