Musings on the Bat Team

[Mark Rand]

Although the idea comes from the late 1980s DC RPG, the idea still has potential. The only problems to overcome are Batman's cold and demanding persona. To me, the only way to deal with this is to remove Batman from the equation, either by killing him, or by maiming him so completely that he can't move at all. Either way, Bruce's secret is revealed to the public.

 

My version would be set in the universe created by the first four Warner Brothers movies, minus, of course, the silly parts. It starts one year after Batman and Robin. Since Dick (Robin) has gone to New York City, and is fighting crime there as Nightwing, Barbara (Batgirl) is Bruce's sidekick. She's also a lot more serious than Dick ever was.

 

Tending the Batcave are three people, Alfred Pennyworth, Harold Allnut, and Maggie Parker, and one dog, Ace. Alfred we know. Harold is based on Batman's engineer from the comic book series. Our Harold was cured by Hush just before Batman put him down. Maggie is based on Bruce's secretary from Batman Forever. Since Bruce often works at home, she moved in at his request. She's also a shadetree mechanic and lives in the Batcave with Harold, her lover of three months. Ace is their basset hound.

[Mark Rand]

Re: Musings on the Bat Team

 

Here are the Bat vehicles.

 

The latest Batmobile is a tricked out Lamborghini Murcielago.

 

Batgirl's motorcycle is a slightly modified Kawasaki Ninja 650R.

 

The Batcopter is a 1/10 scale RC model of the Bell 222 that has been filled with surveilance gear.

 

The Batvan is an unmarked Chevy van that Alfred usually drives. The Batcopter and it's equipment will fit in the van.

[Mark Rand]

Re: Musings on the Bat Team

 

Various ideas crossed what passes for my mind today. Here they are.

 

Maggie doesn't live in.

 

Someone other than Harold is Batman's engineer. He, or she, wears a black cloth jumpsuit and work boots.

 

Instead of living in Wayne Manor, Bruce lives in the penthouse apartment atop the Wayne Foundation Building. A secret elevator connects to the Batcave and the vehicles exit onto a little-used side street.

[Mark Rand]

Re: Musings on the Bat Team

 

No matter where Bruce, Barbara, Alfred, and company called home, the Batcave will be the same. It's based on the Batcave map in the DC Universe RPG Batman sourcebook.

 

Main level: computers & communications, the Batmobile, storage spaces in the tunnel to the outside.

 

Sub-level one, lab facilities, library, guest quarters.

 

Sub level two, training facilities, storage, trophy room, repair shop.

 

Sub-level three, room for expansion.

 

Sub-level four, quarters for engineer, an identical living quarters, access to subway tunnel.

 

Sub-level five, power generator.

 

Sub-level six, exit to harbor.

[McCoy]

Re: Musings on the Bat Team

 

Ace is their basset hound.

No.

 

Bloodhound, maybe. German Shepard, more likely.

 

Basset?

 

Just -- no.

[Rage]

Re: Musings on the Bat Team

 

I hink it could be amusing to use a Neapolitan Mastiff they're just adorbaly ugly and batman like.

[Mark Rand]

Re: Musings on the Bat Team

 

I hink it could be amusing to use a Neapolitan Mastiff they're just adorbaly ugly and batman like.

 

Ace is the engineer's pet dog. Batman and Batgirl occasionally have borrowed him for scent tracking.

[McCoy]

Re: Musings on the Bat Team

 

Ace is the engineer's pet dog. Batman and Batgirl occasionally have borrowed him for scent tracking.

Bassets, much as I love the breed, are comic relief. They're lovable, but slow and clumsy. They can, and sometimes do, trip over their own ears, especally while tracking.

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: Musings on the Bat Team

 

The original Ace the Bat-Hound was a German Shepherd.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ace_the_Bathound

 

The 1991 one was indeed much more a Bloodhound (or a mutt perhaps) than a Basset Hound.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloodhound

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basset_hound

[Mark Rand]

Re: Musings on the Bat Team

 

Since the dog's the engineer's pet, I may make it some other breed. A Cocker Spaniel comes to mind.

[Mark Rand]

Re: Musings on the Bat Team

 

I just may stick with my first idea.

 

Bruce lived in Wayne Manor, Barbara still lives there, as do Alfred and the team she's a member of. (In her opinion, she's too inexperienced to lead the team.)

 

Harold's the engineer. Maggie, the team's secretary/receptionist, is his lover. She also owns Lady, a spayed cocker spaniel that she got at an animal shelter.

 

After Bruce's death, Lucius Fox became the team's administrator. He decided that it should be federally sanctioned. Although the liaison from the DOSPA (or its equivlent) is the federal government's official liaison, other agencies have sent representatives to keep the lines of communication open between the team and their agency.

 

Most of these are low-level bureaucrats. However, agents that don't follow agency proceedures may be assigned, too.

[Mark Rand]

Re: Musings on the Bat Team

 

There are bad guys, too. In the movies, Joker, Penguin, and Two-Face are dead, Poison Ivy, Bane, Mister Freeze, and Riddler are behind bars at Arkham Asylum, and Catwoman's gone. Here are their replacements.

 

Joker's an athletic woman who dresses like a harlequin clown. Sometimes, she's lethal. Other times, she's not. It depends on her mood.

 

Penguin's a mobster whose cover is the owner of an arctic-themed nightclub.

 

Two-Face is also a mobster that owns a nightclub. His has somewhat of a twin theme.

 

Catwoman's a cat burglar with feline attributes. Victims claim that she sometimes makes feline noises.

[Mark Rand]

Re: Musings on the Bat Team

 

More of Batman's foes.

 

Bane's just a, now depowered, thug.

 

Mr. Freeze is seeking redemption. Bruce Wayne is funding his research for his wife's cure.

 

Riddler's a robber with two henchwomen, Echo and Query, and a taste for puzzles.

 

Poison Ivy's a cat burglar. A client tried to kill her after she stole some rare biological samples for him. Her, until then, latent powers were activated and she killed him.

 

Scarecrow's a fear monger and "hired gun".

 

Mad Hatter is a thief with a hat obsession that often uses trick hats.

[Shaft]

Re: Musings on the Bat Team

 

No working in on Terry McGuiness? I think he'd be a great addition, though you'd have to play with the timeline.

 

I kinda like the idea of Bruce Wayne being still alive, but just too old to be Batman. He's a good NPC that can provie answers. It's nice to still have his sharp mind as a resource. Perhaps age has meelowed him a tad, though I do like how crotchety he is in Batman Begins.

 

This is just my opinion, of course.

[Mark Rand]

Re: Musings on the Bat Team

 

No working in on Terry McGuiness? I think he'd be a great addition, though you'd have to play with the timeline.

 

I kinda like the idea of Bruce Wayne being still alive, but just too old to be Batman. He's a good NPC that can provie answers. It's nice to still have his sharp mind as a resource. Perhaps age has meelowed him a tad, though I do like how crotchety he is in Batman Begins.

 

This is just my opinion, of course.

 

Okay. The incident didn't kill Bruce, it just maimed him so completely that he can no longer be Batman.

 

Since he's still alive, he's surrounded by ladies, and possibly men, in colorful scrubs (nurses, therapists, and such). Maggie's there, too. Only, she's still Bruce's personal secretary, not the team's.

 

There's also a new Batman, like Batgirl, he's just starting out.

[Shaft]

Re: Musings on the Bat Team

 

Okay. The incident didn't kill Bruce, it just maimed him so completely that he can no longer be Batman.

 

Since he's still alive, he's surrounded by ladies, and possibly men, in colorful scrubs (nurses, therapists, and such). Maggie's there, too. Only, she's still Bruce's personal secretary, not the team's.

 

There's also a new Batman, like Batgirl, he's just starting out.

 

This "feels" more like something Ultimate Tony Stark would do if he was injured and disabled. My opinion is that Bruce Wayne would isolate himself and use robots to do his bidding.

 

Add a little insanity to the mix, and he might make a good villain, with the players having the dilemma of wondering what to do with him.

[Mark Rand]

Re: Musings on the Bat Team

 

This "feels" more like something Ultimate Tony Stark would do if he was injured and disabled. My opinion is that Bruce Wayne would isolate himself and use robots to do his bidding.

 

Add a little insanity to the mix, and he might make a good villain, with the players having the dilemma of wondering what to do with him.

 

Yeah, you're right. Bruce would have to be dead for the team to function the way I envision it.

[Shaft]

Re: Musings on the Bat Team

 

Well, we tried to keep him alive.

[Mark Rand]

Re: Musings on the Bat Team

 

Well' date=' we tried to keep him alive. [/quote']

 

Now that I think on it, we can.

 

He was released from the hospital and brought home, still in a coma. A nurse, a home health aid, and a physical therapist came with him. Al three women live in the manor and care for Bruce.

 

The Bat Team became active two months after his accident. Bruce didn't come out of his coma until eight months after that. When he did, he discovered that he was paralyzed from the shoulders down.

[Shaft]

Re: Musings on the Bat Team

 

Now that I think on it, we can.

 

He was released from the hospital and brought home, still in a coma. A nurse, a home health aid, and a physical therapist came with him. Al three women live in the manor and care for Bruce.

 

The Bat Team became active two months after his accident. Bruce didn't come out of his coma until eight months after that. When he did, he discovered that he was paralyzed from the shoulders down.

 

Taking this one step further, I had this strange vision of Bruce Wayne's brain in a jar, directly connected to the Bat-Computer, which is now the ultimate AI.

[Mark Rand]

Re: Musings on the Bat Team

 

Taking this one step further' date=' I had this strange vision of Bruce Wayne's brain in a jar, directly connected to the Bat-Computer, which is now the ultimate AI.[/quote']

 

Cool, but impractical.

 

It would take a lot of time and money to build and many specialists.

 

Since Bruce is now publicly-known to have been Batman, the press would do their best to find out about it.

[Mark Rand]

Re: Musings on the Bat Team

 

The campaign version of Gotham City is the current one, without all the homages to the people who worked on Batman.

 

John Masters is the government's official liaison to the Bat Team. He's a middle-aged African-American man and former Justice Department lawyer.

 

His wife, Ann, came with him. She's a trauma surgeon and offerred her services, without pay, to the team.

[Mark Rand]

Re: Musings on the Bat Team

 

Special Agent David Masterson represents the FBI. He's a direct decendant of William Barclay "Bat" Masterson and his less famous brothers James and Ed. He's also a klutz. His wife, Sarah, a nurse, came with him. Like Ann Masters, M.D., she offered her services, without pay, to the team.

 

Kate Harrison represents the Department of Homeland Security. A former CIA agent, skilled in black bag operations, her usual cover was a cat burglar that claimed to be a belly dancer. She was good at both.

 

Unknown to most people, even Batman, she was a cat burglar who got caught by the CIA. They used her skills for a number of years before transferring her to DHS.

 

Sir John Royal is the British Concul in Gotham City. He and his wife, Lady Elizabeth, live near Bruce in Bristol township. The consulate itself is close to Gotham City Hall.

[Mark Rand]

Re: Musings on the Bat Team

 

I'm still tweaking this and the Tumbler, from Batman Begins, may replace the Lamborghini as the Batmobile.

 

I may decide that Harold was killed and have Keiko Nakamura replace him as Batman's engineer. As far as the public knows, she's one of Bruce's houseguests (the other is Barbara Wilson/Batgirl), and an avid amateur race car driver.

 

Neither Lucus Fox nor Maggie know Bruce's secret. Also, Maggie, who is into physical fitness, belly dances.

 

Given that the corrupt Senator Roark has a lot of power, he's do his best to make sure that Batman only got one liaison, an inept man. Fortunately for the team, the inept liaison's assistant is a former cat burglar who now works for the agency.

[Mark Rand]

Re: Musings on the Bat Team

 

Bruce's condition determines how many people are caring for him. It could be anything from a nurse and a home health aide, with therapists coming in as needed, to a team of 10 nurses and aides, plus therapists. This doesn't include the Bat Team's medical staff.