The Bat Team

[BlackSword]

Originally posted by Mark Rand

How does he react to PRIMUS creating a team in Gotham?

Since I only watched the Batman&Robin movie once I can't respond with how that character would act, but the comic book Batman would not accept another Hero team in Gotham. He recently severely smacked down Checkmate when they tried to move into Gotham (granted they attack him first). Considerig how poorly he reacts to other superheroes in his city, I think Batman would chafe at the idea of having an official team in Gotham.

Is he willing to lead it?

Doubtful. Batman would not put himself in the situation where he had to answer to PRIMUS.

 

Add to JmOz's list the Huntress, another of the Bat-family who is making a reappearnce.

[Mark Rand]

Good points, BlackSword.

Batman would've known, possibly from a news release, that PRIMUS was building an office in Gotham City before they contacted him. He would also have known that, besides Gotham City, PRIMUS Gotham's area would include the areas of Delaware and New Jersey that other PRIMUS offices don't cover.

Also, Mariko strongly believes in working with local heroes, not fighting them. When she meets anyone she's not fighting, Mariko's always, possibly as a result of her upbringing, polite.

One last question I forgot to add: How does Batman react to the news about vampires, Gotham's hellmouth, and the team that deals with such things?

[BlackSword]

I am not positive, but I believe that Batman has faced vampires. At the very least this is a person who has Jason Blood and Dr. Fate in his rolodex. His first reaction would be to contact the mystics he knows and get their read on the situation. After gathering information he would take a while to consider it from every angle. At this point it would also depend on how the vampires are built. If they are like the Buffyverse vamps, slightly above human, then he might tell them to deal with it and not try any stupid heroic stuff if they see a big baddie (either one of his rogues gallery). He would probably keep an eye on them. If any of them died then he would probably disband the team (no more kids dying on his watch) then call one of his mystic friends (magic is the one place Batman will let himself rely on another) and go ruin a major vamps day.

[Mark Rand]

Actually, Batman has no control over the Slayers or their teams. The Slayers in the United States are sanctioned by PRIMUS and may be wearing the same armor PRIMUS intelligence agents do.

Since there are, I'm guessing, around 1,000 Slayers in the United States, they can call on other Slayers, or even PRIMUS itself, for help in dealing with a major vamp.

The campaign I want to run has Batman forming a team of novice heroes, that he will train, to protect Gotham if something happens to him.

The team has its own Batcave, which is based on the old Wayne Foundation Batcave, and its own support staff (possibly a nurse and an engineer) but relies on Batman for some of its gear. I'd like their cave to have an extention into an alternate reality. Would this be reasonable? Would it also be possible for PRIMUS to talk Batman into assigning a liaison to the new team? Said liaison could, among other things, help train them.

[RealmForge]

Re: Vampires

 

Check out Red Rain, an alternate Earth story where Batman "dealt" with vampires.

[Mark Rand]

I will, once I find it.

[Mark Rand]

I just came up with this idea.

Batman's in the Batmobile, probably on patrol, when a portal opens up in front of him and he's sucked through it to a city, in an alternate reality, that has its own hero team.

What does he do?

[Mark Rand]

Batman, Robin, and Nightwing have vanished!

Alfred and Oracle (Barbara Gordon) have put together a new team to protect Gotham and, hopefully, find Batman, Robin, and Nightwing.

One team member is the new Batgirl, a Japanese-American woman, skilled in ninjitsu, that Batbara has been training in detective work and computers and Batman has been training in science.

She has her own Batmobile, which looks like a black 2001 Pontiac Ram-Air TransAm, but is armored and has special gear inside, and her own Batcave, whose computers are connected, via dedicated lines to Bruce's and Oracle's systems.

Assuming the team's using her cave, how many people would be on the support staff?

Would government liaisons be accepted?

Would parts of the cave exist in a pocket dimension that's connected to Batgirl's cave?

Comment is invited.

[Mark Rand]

As far as the support staff goes, the less people the better. It consists of two women, an engineer and a nurse.

DOSPA's is based in the Federal Building and works more with Dr. Arcane and his student, Lady Arcane, than anyone else.

PRIMUS's liaison is an intelligence agent and former CIA black-bag job expert. She also helps train the heroes in stealth and other skills she knows.

Why is Batgirl putting up with her? Simple. She doesn't have Batman's problem with government officials.

Next post, we'll look at Batgirl's cave and go through the portal.

[Mark Rand]

Sorry about the delay. I had to find my files.

Batgirl's cave is based on the Wayne Foundation Batcave. One one side are the workshop, syudy/meeting room and the computer & communications gear. On the other side are the parking space for Batgirl's Batmobile, the trophy room and the crime lab. Going through the portal, we have a hall with one door on the left, four on the right and one ahead.

The one on the left goes to a four-floor gymnasium complex with several gyms, a weight room, a multi-purpose room, a pool and a mat room.

The ones on the right go to, in order, a medical clinic, men's locker room, women's locker room and equipment storage area.

If you go straight ahead, you're in what we call the otherworld, a flat surface with a group of buildings around the Washington Monument. These buildings include a church, a hotel and a Japanese Garden complex.

[Chromatic]

Originally posted by zornwil

I think the idea of the new heroes being alienated by Batman's paranoid controlling nature is great. This could be played as a macroplot, very slowly unfolding across time and sessions, with Batman seeming like a fine guy if a little brooding at first, and then mind games and backup plans starting to become apparent. He could even cut the heroes off from solving something on their own (that should be done after the players have had plenty of successes on their own) and disregard them when they complain or question him. It would make for an interesting dynamic.

 

Hey, that's been my plan in your game since the beginning.

 

Lemming: keep quiet you!

[Chromatic]

Frankly, Batman would never have his new fledgeling team meet up in the Batcave at 9 am.

 

First it's the freaking batcave! only he and Alfred are supposed to be there. He would have a duplicate cave somewhere else that was similar in everyway to the real thing, but only he would know its not the real one (and Alfred of course).

 

Second, 9 am? what is this, Breakfast at Tiffany's? The team assembles at 1:43 AM buster! Be on time or you're off the team with a suit for breach of contract pending from some unnamed conglomerate. 9 am is for pansies.

 

Third, I fail to see the possibility that the paranoid planner of puerile pawn pounding would be able to convince himself of either the probabilities that a) he might not be around to protect Gotham, some snot nosed kids are going to be able to do anything beyond getting Skittles jammed into the Batcomputer.

 

Remember, Bats has 20 points of paranoid, and 400 points of serious and grim as his only disads.

[Mark Rand]

The idea is from 20-years ago, when Mayfair made a licensed DC Heroes RPG.

Our version is a bit different. Gotham County is the southern part of Ocean County, New Jersey in a version of the CU. In this version, VIPER is realistic (see the VIPER Sourcebook for details), Gotham City replaces Hudson City, ETs are not known to exist, and the Sunnydale earthquake has happened.

Oracle, with Batman's permission, is training a new Batgirl. She has her own Batcave, based on the old Wayne Manor one, her own Batmobile, a black 2001 ram-air TransAm look-alike and a two-woman support staff. (One's a laid-off trauma nurse, the other's a techie/ninja with mechanical skills and a masters in electronics engineering who prefers to work on bat equipment instead of fighting crime.)

Suddenly, something happens! Batman, Robin and Nightwing are gone! Who will protect Gotham City now?

The team Alfred and Oracle form around the new Batgirl, with her Batcave as their home base, of course.

[zornwil]

Originally posted by Chromatic

Hey, that's been my plan in your game since the beginning.

 

Lemming: keep quiet you!

 

[Chromatic]

So MarkRand do you like not read any replys to this thread and just keep posting the original message reworded from time to time to keep the discussion going?

 

Yes I understood where you got the idea from originally. That doesn't discount what has happened with Batman over the last 22 years in the comics. (not to mention the three animated series, four movies, etc, etc, etc).

 

But hey, it's your game, do what you want.

[Mark Rand]

Chromatic, I do read every post and print out the thread. I just wanted to make sure everyone was up to date.

The idea of Batman being gone came from Blue. Thank you.

Barbara training the new Batgirl is taken from DC Comics.

The new Batgirl having her own cave is from DC Comics and the people on these boards. Thank you.

Since we're not in the DC universe, there are a few more changes not mentioned in my pervious post. Here they are.

Bludhaven doesn't exist. Atlantic City takes its place.

The DEO doesn't exist, but PRIMUS, the DOSPA, and UNTIL do.

UNTIL doesn't have a space station.

Parts of Gotham City haven't be renaimed for people who worked on Batman.

Neither earthquake nor plagues (sp) nor the No Man's Land incident occurred.

Terry Kestler, who transferred from Portland, is Gotham's Silver Avenger. She met Batman once and was very impressed with him. Batman seemed willing to accept PRIMUS Gotham and its Silver Avenger.

[Mark Rand]

I know I'm probably beating a dead horse here, but I still think the Bat Team's possible.

Assume for a moment that Robin's dead and Batman's either dead or so badly injured that he can never get out of bed, much less fight crime again. Either way, his identity has been revealed to the public.

Besides Batgirl and, possibly, Nightwing, can protect Gotham City from criminals?