Another mansion idea

[Mark Rand]

I'm still trying to come up with a good hero base idea. Here's the latest. The design is based on the Avengers Mansion plan I found on the web I'll post the map later.

 

Although it's mage's mansion, this wasn't discovered when the Firebird Foundation, the team's sponsor, purchased it from the Lindmer estate.

 

David Anderson is the butler. His wife, Marie, is the housekeeper. Helen Anderson Clark, David's sister, is the cook. Together, the manage the estate's staff of maids, housemen, kitchen helpers, and others.

 

Elaine Davies, the administrator, and her staff handle the business end.

 

Mariko Yamashiro, an electronics engineer, is the technical manager. Lindsay Monroe runs the crime lab. Don Clark, Helen's husband, is in charge of the computers. Although Mariko and Lindsay are metahumans, Black Scorpion and Tigra respectively, it's practically impossible to get them to join the PCs in the field.

[Mark Rand]

Re: Another mansion ideas

 

When I get all the plans the way I want them, I'll post them as an MS Word document.

 

On the top floor, the Liandra replaces the Quinjet. It looks like a Blackbird and has the stats of the V-Jet. On the second floor, Helen and Don's quarters and the IT office replace Tony Stark's area. On the first floor, Jarvis's quarters are now David and Marie's. In the basement, the laundry, HVAC, and hot water heater replaces Dr. Pym's area.

 

Since it is a mage's mansion, it has gates. All lead to pocket realities. The first, in the back wall of the mansion's 4-car garage, is a 200-car garage. The second, on the second floor, is a hotel floor. The third, in the foyer, is the office area. The fourth, in the pantry, is an expansion of it. The fifth, in the basement, is the medical area. The sixth, in the sub-basement, is the lab Mariko and Lindsay work out of.

[Mark Rand]

Re: Another mansion ideas

 

We, of course, have federal liaisons. One, from the DOSPA, has official federal authority. The others, from the Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Homeland Security, Drug Enforcement Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, PRIMUS, and the Secret Service, don't. Some are bureaucrats while others are agents. A number of agents have some B&E skills.

 

John Masters, Esq., represents the DOSPA. A middle-aged African American man, he was a top Justice Department attorney until he transferred to the DOSPA. He played hockey in high school and college and still watches it. His wife is a trauma surgeon and their daughter is a medical student at Johns Hopkins.

 

Zahra Maxwell, code name Black Widow, represents the CIA. A young African-American woman, she's either an agency-recruited cat burglar or an agent trained to be one. She leaves business cards with a black widow spider printed on it at all of her burglaries.

 

The DHS sent a klutzy accountant who wears glasses. The lady with him, either his lover or wife, is a blue-eyed blonde, calm and collected, former cat burglar. They have a five year old daughter named Molly who is on a medical ventilator, and under a nurse's care, because her lungs won't properly inflate.

 

The DEA liaison, a brunette, is based on Carina, from the Chuck episode Chuck vs. the Wookiee.

 

The FBI liaison, William Masterson, a decendent of Bat Masterson, is a lot like Bill Maxwell from The Greatest American Hero.

 

PRIMUS and Secret Service liaisons next.

[Mark Rand]

Re: Another mansion ideas

 

The man representing PRIMUS is a former navy submariner.

 

The Secret Service representative, there because the Vice President's daughter lives in the city, is a former army infantryman.

 

The mansion itself occupies one block of the city's Millionaire's Row. Mariko's parents live two blocks away. Three young ladies, one of which is married, live, with their Siamese cat, across from the heroes. A church is also nearby. A pair of peregrine falcons live on the roof.

 

Edit: Near the church are a synagogue and a mosque that share the synagogue's parking lot. Officials from the two houses of worship often meet to discuss issues of importance and the people that care for the buildings work together on large projects.

 

I'll probably move the falcons to the synagogue roof.

[Mark Rand]

Re: Another mansion ideas

 

I'm giving quite a bit of thought to reducing the number of liaisons that live in the mansion. It might end up being only the DOSPA liaison and his family.

 

There are things I forgot to put into the mystical mansion. The walls, floors, and ceilings are self-cleaning. The refrigerator and freezer keep food from spoiling. The oven heats up in moments. The dishwasher neatly puts the dishes and silver away when they're clean. The dryer neatly presses and folds the clothes.

[The Monster]

Re: Another mansion ideas

 

I'm giving quite a bit of thought to reducing the number of liaisons that live in the mansion. It might end up being only the DOSPA liaison and his family.

 

There are things I forgot to put into the mystical mansion. The walls, floors, and ceilings are self-cleaning. The refrigerator and freezer keep food from spoiling. The oven heats up in moments. The dishwasher neatly puts the dishes and silver away when they're clean. The dryer neatly presses and folds the clothes.

 

Being mystical, the clothes might actually materialize in the closet, and are supposed to be placed in the hamper in the closet for cleaning. The actual process of laundering can then be anything - gnomes, spirits, a trnasdimensional sweatshop - and there's a possible fun bit with the wrong clothes, or the wrong kind of clothes - being the only thing in the closet one morning. ("Hey, Hardcase, I didn't know you liked puce velvet!" "Grrr - it's the only thing I could find this morning - nothing but puce leisure suits!")

Such a setup can of course include mending and prehaps retailoring by request.

[Mark Rand]

Re: Another mansion ideas

 

Being mystical, the clothes might actually materialize in the closet, and are supposed to be placed in the hamper in the closet for cleaning. The actual process of laundering can then be anything - gnomes, spirits, a trnasdimensional sweatshop - and there's a possible fun bit with the wrong clothes, or the wrong kind of clothes - being the only thing in the closet one morning. ("Hey, Hardcase, I didn't know you liked puce velvet!" "Grrr - it's the only thing I could find this morning - nothing but puce leisure suits!")

Such a setup can of course include mending and prehaps retailoring by request.

 

Interesting idea.

[Mark Rand]

Re: Another mansion ideas

 

As mentioned before, I've decided that only the team's official federal liaison, from the DOSPA, his daughter, her nurse and his associate, will live in the mansion.

 

He's Daniel Crawford, a bureaucrat and a widower. His daughter, Molly, is five years old and connected to a medical ventilator because her lungs won't fully inflate on their own. Molly's nurse, Marian, a slender redhead, is devoted to her charge.

 

Daniel's associate, Zahra Maxwell, aka Black Widow, a athletic-looking African-American woman, trained as a stage actress before joining the CIA. Trained as both a seductress and a cat burglar, she's loyal to Daniel and a good friend of Mariko's.

 

Edit: While no longer in the CIA, Zahra still has contacts there.

[Mark Rand]

Re: Another mansion ideas

 

I'm downsizing the number of gates in the house.

 

The pantry extension and office, which connects to the foyer, are no longer gates. Instead, they're part of the "bigger inside than out" that's associated with mystical mansions.

 

The hotel floor, medical office and lab gates are deleted and replaced with one gate, in the sub-basement, that leads to a hall with five doors, all of which were marked, in it. Three lead to a hotel, a medical office, and the labs. The other two connect to an incinerator large enough to cremate a body and a large wardrobe room.

 

Mariko and Zahra, playing masked cat burglars, explored the hotel, medical office, and labs. According to the information they brought back, the three sections are from a world where all life died out in the late 1960s. After some discussion, it was decided that the wardrobe could make useful disguises and should be removed from the bodies before cremating them.

 

Mariko, Lindsay, and Zahra have taken some clothing from the collection and occasionally wear them. The first time they did, they had Don take digital photographs, some of which have been posted on the lab bulletin board.

[Mark Rand]

Re: Another mansion ideas

 

In truth, the falcons are on the neighborhood synagogue's roof only because the sexton can mentally communicate with them. This also lets him (or her) walk right up to the nest box without any problems. The State Game Commission knows that the birds accept the sexton's friendship, but not why. The heroes are also unaware of this ability.

[Mark Rand]

Re: Another mansion ideas

 

As mentioned in post nine, the stuff brought back was from the late 1960s. To be exact, the year was 1968. Aside from the regular clothes, there were hotel maid and waitress uniforms, United Airlines flight attendant uniforms, and nurse's uniforms.

 

The flight attendant uniforms were short-sleeve dresses in four color combinations, white with red trim, red with white trim (both with a red cap), blue with white trim, and white with blue trim (both with a white cap). Black shoes (or knee-high black boots), a black shoulder bag, a coat that matched the uniform, and white gloves completed the outfit.

 

The nurse's uniforms were more traditional, a white lab coat worn over a white uniform (complete with school pin and name tag) and white shoes and stockings. While the secretaries and bookkeeper didn't wear caps, the nurses and aides did.

 

Both Marian, Molly's nurse, and Cathy, the team's nurse, said that the uniforms looked different, and that they were going to stay with their scrubs.

[Mark Rand]

Re: Another mansion ideas

 

I chose to downsize the number of federal liaisons because I thought it would keep things simple, but I've realized that, in doing so, I lost some of the options for roleplay that I wanted. Here is the revised list.

 

John Masters represents the DOSPA. A widower, he looks like James Earl Jones. A former Department of Justice criminal lawyer, and hockey fan, he transferred to the DOSPA after his wife died of lung cancer. His daughter, now married, is a physician with her own practice.

 

Harry Crawford represents the Department of Justice's Special Operations Bureau. A career bureaucrat who always wanted to be an agent, he was given his first assignment seven years ago. For it, he first had to get Samantha White, a cat burglar, paroled. At first, the cool, blue-eyed blonde, had no interest in the stocky, klutzy, boring accountant, but, somehow, he won her over. Now, they're married and have a five-year old daughter. Due to the fact that her lungs haven't fully developed, she's hooked up to a medical ventilator and under the constant care of Marian Marshal, R.N., her devoted nurse.

 

Zahra Maxwell represents the Department of Homeland Security. An African-American woman, she trained as a stage actress before joining the CIA. There, she proved skilled at both seduction and burglary. As Black Widow, she operated mostly in Europe and the Middle East. She transferred to the Department of Homeland Security after ruining the plans of a terrorist organization and their ally, a politically ambitious senator.

 

John Masterson, a direct descendant of William Barkley "Bat" Masterson, represents the United States Secret Service. He's there because the Vice-President's teen-aged daughter lives there with relatives. Agent Masterson served in the United States Navy in nuclear submarines.

[AnotherSkip]

Re: Another mansion ideas

 

If you wanted something completely different add a roman gladatorial style arena complete with sand floor and monster cages and traps....

 

 

sorry if this throws it off track,

[Mark Rand]

Re: Another mansion ideas

 

If you wanted something completely different add a roman gladatorial style arena complete with sand floor and monster cages and traps....

 

 

sorry if this throws it off track,

 

Not a problem. I'll give it some thought.

[Mark Rand]

Re: Another mansion ideas

 

I'm still working on the design, and I just realized where I went wrong. The basement shouldn't be like the one in Avengers Mansion.

 

Instead, it should be a normal one, with a gate going to a linking room. Most of the various places it links to are from a world where all life died out, due to something, in 1968. Whatever it was, also turned the bodies to dust, leaving only what they were wearing behind.

 

The gates lead to living quarters, science labs, training facilities, a medical area, the main meeting room, and other facilities.

 

Seeing the way the 1968 nurses dressed, Cathy, the team's nurse, commented, "Although a lot of us don't like it, there is a trend for nurses to return to all-white uniforms, not out of fashion, but to let the patients identify us."

 

Marian asked Molly, "Do you think I should start wearing a white uniform instead of scrubs?"

 

"Up to you, Aunt Marian," Molly replied solemnly.

 

"I'm not your aunt, Molly."

 

"I know," Molly said. "I can call you either 'Aunt Marian' or 'Miss Marshal'. Which do you prefer?"

 

"I prefer 'Aunt Marian'," she replied.

[Mark Rand]

Re: Another mansion ideas

 

When I started this, I forgot to mention something important. Here it is.

 

After World War II, Macarthur ran for President on a platform that included annexing Japan. He won, and each Japanese prefecture became one of the United States and the two cultures merged.

 

Due to this, scrubs never became popular as a nurse's uniform. Real uniforms are still worn, but they're not always white.Caps are still sometimes worn, too. Neither Cathy nor Marian wear all white uniforms.

 

In Japan, secretaries are known as office ladies. They wear a uniform that consists of a navy blue suit with a white blouse.

[Mark Rand]

Re: Another mansion ideas

 

Still trying to get the mansion together in my head, With luck, I'll have it, soon.

[Mark Rand]

Re: Another mansion ideas

 

I will be using my version of the Marvel Avengers Mansion as the basis for the house.

 

Tony Stark's stuff on the second floor is going to make room for more living quarters and a small office area.

 

In the basement, only the combat simulation chamber will stay. The rest will be removed for the laundry and HVAC equipment, the hot water heater, a darkroom, a repair shop, and seasonal storage. (Stuff that gets left out of most superhero bases.)

 

The gate will be on the bottom floor. That's what I'm working on now.

[Mark Rand]

Re: Another mansion ideas

 

After much consideration, the campaign will be set in a version of the CU in which various agencies assign their own liaisons to superhero teams.

 

Parts of the other universes I've proposed (fashionwise, it's still the 1960s, Islam replaces Christianity, the United States is a constitutional monarchy, Japan won World War II), and possibly others, too, will be accessible through a linking room, the most famous of which is the "long, low hall at the bottom of the rabbit hole" in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

[Mark Rand]

Re: Another mansion ideas

 

In truth, I'm still not satisfied with the mansion. Perhaps, the one from the Champions 4E article The House That Jack Built would be better.

 

Mr. Lindmer could also be alive. He lets the heroes reside in his house while he travels the multiverse with his familiar, Isis, a black cat.

[Mark Rand]

Re: Another mansion ideas

 

My version of the mansion from The House that Jack Built has three linking rooms.

 

The first is the staircase in the tower, which goes five places.

 

The second is the first floor sitting room, which goes to various places that are required in a superhero base.

 

The third is the second floor "Hall of Infinity", which helps Mr. Lindmer travel the multiverse.

 

The two sets of French doors are just going to gardens.

 

I'm not sure where the stairs to the third floor and above are going to lead to, yet.

[Mark Rand]

Re: Another mansion ideas

 

The region's Mustang pace car has been replaced by a black 2003 T-top, Ram-Air Pontiac Firebird Trans Am.

 

The spiral staircase has five gates. The third leads to a place near the campaign city (probably Pittsburgh). Two of the other four lead to pocket realities taken from a world where all life died out in the 1960s. The other two lead to places in a world where all life died out in the 1990s.

 

Gate one leads to a three bedroom hotel suite now occupied by the Crawford family.

 

Gate two leads to a hotel floor with about 60 rooms.

 

Gate three leads to a panel van (towing a travel trailer) parked in the motorhome area of a local car track.

 

Gate four leads to a 100 square foot island in the middle of the ocean.

 

Gate five leads to a lighthouse perched on a rocky cliff.

 

More gates to come.

[Mark Rand]

Re: Another mansion idea

 

Now, the sitting room gates. All six are pocket realities.

 

Gate one leads to the lab Mariko and Lindsay share.

 

Gate two leads to the computer and communications facility and the main meeting room.

 

Gate three leads to the trophy room.

 

Gate four leads to a medical office.

 

Gate five leads to a two story gymnasium complete with a pool, running track, and other facilities.

 

Gate six leads to the danger room and its related systems.

[Mark Rand]

Re: Another mansion idea

 

I wonder why I switched from Avengers Mansion to "The House that Jack Built".

 

I think I'll end this thread and start fresh with Avengers Mansion, subtle magic, and a few other changes.