How many staffers does a superhero team need?

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Re: How many staffers does a superhero team need?

 

how about a BRDM full of Troopers with a P-90 each

I thought you typed BDSM...

 

 

[Psybolt]

Re: How many staffers does a superhero team need?

 

My HC campaign has multiple staff members. We have two distinct bases and the team inherited an organization full of people. They are background NPCs including an office to serve as a link between the team and the public. PR men. Connections between the team and the prison, mayor etc. I am unsure how many I have introduced. Some are more important than others.

[Mark Rand]

Re: How many staffers does a superhero team need?

 

I haven't got all of it decided, but the entry area is Japanese with a touch of sci fi. The receptionist, waitresses at the waiting room and conference room coffee areas, and audio-visual expert/conference coordinator are all Japanese women. The receptionis looks like an office lady while the A/V expert wears a kimono.

[Maelstrom]

Re: How many staffers does a superhero team need?

 

I thought you typed BDSM...

 

 

 

A whole BDSM full of troopers, just for the mansion of the Lavendar Lash and the Velvet Rope? Who woulda thought?

[Mark Rand]

Re: How many staffers does a superhero team need?

 

Here's what I have so far. Since the house is a mage's, certain things are handled by magic. The external structure of the never needs repair. The sidewalk, driveway, walkway, and steps are always clean and free of snow and ice. If Ogre tried to bash his way through one of the walls, he'd find himself coming, undamaged and at the same speed, out the opposite wall.

 

An outside contractor cares for the landscaping.

 

The named staff is small. Marie Anderson is the housekeeper. Her mother, Helen, is the cook. Beside them, we'll have the federal liaison, nurse, and technical manager.

 

The background crew consists of the maids, housemen, communications and computer crews, and the receptionists.

[Maelstrom]

Re: How many staffers does a superhero team need?

 

Here's what I have so far. Since the house is a mage's, certain things are handled by magic. The external structure of the never needs repair. The sidewalk, driveway, walkway, and steps are always clean and free of snow and ice. If Ogre tried to bash his way through one of the walls, he'd find himself coming, undamaged and at the same speed, out the opposite wall.

 

An outside contractor cares for the landscaping.

 

The named staff is small. Marie Anderson is the housekeeper. Her mother, Helen, is the cook. Beside them, we'll have the federal liaison, nurse, and technical manager.

 

The background crew consists of the maids, housemen, communications and computer crews, and the receptionists.

 

Magic hides a multitude of sins. You might not need a receptionist, or might have a golem, or mannikin, or homunculus answering phones and doors. A Magic Mouth?

[Nagisawa Takumi]

Re: How many staffers does a superhero team need?

 

One of the aspects of The Dark Knight that I really enjoyed is the portrayal of Batman as an organization more than an individual. He had Alfred' date=' Lucius, the entire R&D division of Wayne Enterprises, even Rachel, not to mention the crew rebuilding Wayne Manor. True, not all of these would be considered staff, but I thought it was an excellent way to show that nobody, not even Batman, can do everything by himself.[/quote']

 

Actually, that goes back to the late 60s early 70s of the Batman series. His cars were designed and built by a Stuntman he saved the life of, for example.

 

Also, he has allies like Batgirl/Batwoman, Robin/Nightwing, the Huntress and all sorts of other heroes. Batman is a leader who knows how to delegate.

 

As for staff, that really depends on how much money the Super Team gets. Take the X-men, most of the money intake for the longest time was hidden behind a school for 'special' (Mutant) children, so most of the funds were spent there. They didn't have much in the way of staff because they operated in secret.

 

The Avengers have/had government dispensation. The Fantastic Four are rich and well known, with public, even famous, identities.

 

What the staff you have is determined by the types of Heroes you've got and what type of setting you have.

[Mark Rand]

Re: How many staffers does a superhero team need?

 

The team's government liaison is a middle-aged bureaucrat who wears glasses. He and his wife, a former Washington, D.C. socialite have a child who is under the care of a live-in nurse.

 

Some nights, the liaison has been seen meeting with a female burglar. Other nights, he's been seen meeting with a redhead dressed like the burglar. (His wife has black hair.)

 

If asked about it, his wife states that her husband knows some interesting people from his time in the intelligence community.

[Drhoz]

Re: How many staffers does a superhero team need?

 

The old Skeleton Crew tenement was keep maintained by a small army of permanent Unseen Servants, all called Colin. Other than that, everybody did their own housework, which for Vitus took as long as it took to cast a Cleanse cantrip.

 

Admittedly all this stray magic and magical experiments had some odd side-effects, such as Felicity's mana batteries escaping thru the walls, and it all got blown up by Dr D anyway.

 

Now most of the team lives up at The Gunney's mansion, with a full staff, and Vitus lives above a deli and does most of his own housework anyway. Mrs Rosenbaum does offer to sew up the laser burns in his robes tho.

 

The Edge rent a warehouse. They can't afford staff. Or any security to speak of.

[Mark Rand]

Re: How many staffers does a superhero team need?

 

Moments after they enter through the front door of the headquarters, and pass between the twin sculptures, they are greeted by Aki, the team's blind receptionist. An elegant Japanese woman, Aki dresses like an office lady, down to the white gloves, and is always accompanied by her guide dog, Princess, a black Lab.

 

Things aren't what they seem.

 

The sculptures house sensor and stun weapon platforms. Aki isn't blind. Her dark glasses hide a telepresence link to the systems. She is skilled at armed and unarmed combat and has a number of weapons hidden on her person.

 

If the problem can't be handled normally , Aki'll slip her gloves off, revealing that her hands are metallic with retractable claws, and Princess will shift to her real form, a one meter long, fire breathing, purple dragon.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

Re: How many staffers does a superhero team need?

 

Actually' date=' that goes back to the late 60s early 70s of the Batman series. His cars were designed and built by a Stuntman he saved the life of, for example...[/quote']

This is true, but in recent years they've really pushed that notion into the background if indeed it was acknowledged at all. He simply has to have some help, and I like that the movie brought that idea back to the forefront.

 

That being said, how did the big penny get moved into the Batcave?

[Mark Rand]

Re: How many staffers does a superhero team need?

 

Thanks to the team's federal sanction, it has two aircraft, a locksmith, a mechanic, two pilots, a nurse, and a small team of communications, computer, and security personal.

 

The computer, communications, and security team will be wearing what the security chief calls "cat burglar black". This includes wearing ski masks. Technical manager Mariko Nakamura, an electronics expert, and locksmith Vicki Gray have decided to dress that way, too.

 

The team's aircraft are the Slingshot and the Liandra. The Slingshot looks like a Lockheed SR-71A Blackbird and has the stats of the Champions V-Jet. The Liandra's an unmodified McDonnell Douglass MD600N.

[hfergus]

Re: How many staffers does a superhero team need?

 

The Misfit League, the group I GM, have a mechanic for the group plane and a Primus contact(and a financial backer). Just about evertyhing else is handled by the individuals, through the Primus contact or the by the financial backer - and Olorin, the mad mage, of course. A "housekeeping" spell does wonders, and does "clean", "organize" and things like unseen servents and golems. Only Olorin lives on the base (he's great added security); for the rest it is a meeting area, staging area, healing area and bolt hole. Yes, it's a strange place and some rooms (not the whole base - yet) are bigger on the inside than on the outside.

[Utech]

Re: How many staffers does a superhero team need?

 

Standard HERO Bases do not need maintenance unless you buy them with the Real Base Limitation.

 

In my game at Hero Central the base has the following staff:

 

• Chikara Kosuke: Security Officer
  
  • Chikara commands a security force numbering 16 at any given time.
    

  [*]Gen Okamoto: Wheelman

  [*]Genji Okamoto: Grease Monkey

  [*]Joji (call me "George") Omura: Master of the Base Staff

  • Joji manages a reception, maintenance and cleaning staff numbering 32 at any given time
    

  [*]Reira Koike: Plucky Interpreter

  [*]Tsuyoshi Baba: Government Liaison Officer

[Shaft]

Re: How many staffers does a superhero team need?

 

My FREELancer game has dozens of NPC staff/office workers, but that is a hero group that has four branch offices and is a "Heroe's for Hire" Consulting agency. As such it has executives, lawyers, research staff, maintenance staff and secuirty personnel. For details, see this thread:

 

http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1490007#post1490007

 

Specifically, posts 3,4,5, 7 and 8.

[assault]

Re: How many staffers does a superhero team need?

 

The real number of staffers a superhero team needs = the number of interesting NPCs the GM can create and run.

 

In theory you could have some faceless cardboard characters in the background as well, to allow the GM to add new "interesting" characters, but this isn't really necessary.

[Kenn]

Re: How many staffers does a superhero team need?

 

The Justice Society has Ma Hunkel taking care of most of the house chores...

The JSA museum's curator was Alex Montez until he got all killed. Jesse Quick also held museum curator duties while depowered. I think Ma Hunkel takes care of the museum now.

 

I believe Narratio was referring to the Justice Society prior to 1996.

 

Granted in the 1940s their headquarters was a little sparse. And in the late 40s it was established they had a cleaning woman (who's son wanted to be a detective.)

 

And at least one Teen Titans headquarters had staff. The Gabriel's Horn disco on Long Island had to have cooks and wait staff. Plus there were the other members of Great Frog besides Roy and Mal.

[Mark Rand]

Re: How many staffers does a superhero team need?

 

I think part of the allure of using a mage's mansion as a superhero team base is that sections of it can be in other realities. Staffers in that area may be from the section's reality.

 

The lobby, with its meeting and conference areas, is from a universe where people in clerical and service jobs always wear white gloves as part of their uniform.

 

The medical office is in a reality where white nurse's uniforms and caps never went out of style.

 

The team's security and communications personal, the pilot, and locksmith are from a world where everyone dresses like a cat burglar.

 

The computer crew is from a reality where Islamic garb is work by everyone.

 

A gate leads to a horse ranch in a pocket reality. Everyone there is in Western garb and is masked and armed.

[jtelson]

Re: How many staffers does a superhero team need?

 

Let's see in the last Supers Campaign I was able to play in my character Nich Archer, Philanthropist Adventurer had a personal staff of 16 (Butler, Chauffeur, Lawyer, Martial Arts instructor, Personal Chef etc.). His team The Mason City Seven, operated out of 2 of the top 3 floors of The Archer Industries Tower, and were staffed by The Archer Institute (A non-profit spin off of Archer Industries) although Archer Industries donated staff time to the Institute. So with security, public relations, legal, human resources, probably 150 people or so. A pretty reasonably sized staff

[Mark Rand]

Re: How many staffers does a superhero team need?

 

Now that I think about it, the house was once a normal three-bedroom house that Dr. Arcane shared with his familiar, Isis, and his housekeeper, Marie Anderson. The only extradimensional spaces were the study/lab area off Dr. Arcane's bedroom and the pantry between the dining room and kitchen. Additionally, the only gates were to a pickup/travel trailer parked at the doctor's favorite car track and a pocket reality that held a horse ranch.

 

Then, after consultation with the team's sponsor, things began to change. A conference area appeared between the front door and the living room. Medical, computer, communications, electronics, training, and security areas, and extra living quarters attached themselves to the house. Fortunately, most were small.

[Mark Rand]

Re: How many staffers does a superhero team need?

 

I actually found a wonderful floor plan for the house on the net. All it needs are a few minor adjustments and it'll be perfect.

 

Here's the URL:

 

Oh, it's Halliwell Manor.