Mark Rand

Re: A Bat-ty Campaign Idea I've decided to use the Mayfair versions of Wayne Manor and the Batcave as the basis for my campaign's versions of them. The West End Games version of the Batcave has too many problems with it. A decision about DEMON has been made and will be posted once I have a copy of the book.

Re: A Bat-ty Campaign Idea

Re: A Bat-ty Campaign Idea I agree with Michael's comments. As Batgirl's engineer, Mariko might be monitorong the On-Star-like link instead of Marie. With her ninjitsu skills, she'd also be a good sparing partner for Batgirl. The female Joker is, I think, a crazed former circus clown who wears a jester's costume and knows how to juggle and ride a unicycle. Her weapons include razor-sharp throwing cards, juggling equipment that can be thrown hard at someone or contain either explosives or dangerous gasses.

Re: A Bat-ty Campaign Idea Except for Marie, Batgirl's support team is based at the fastness of Lady Arcane, who most people know as Lisa Ward. The house itself is based on the Mobius, from the fourth edition book Mystic Masters, and is located near Gotham University. Here are the people in the house. April Curtis, R.N., B.S.N., worked in a level one trauma center before getting laid off and becoming the team's nurse. An African-American woman whose braided black hair touches her shoulders, she wears scrubs. Catherine Ward, Aunt Cathy to most, is the fastness's resident ghost. A plesant woman, she has dark-blonde hair and wears a short-sleeved, light-green evening gown, long white gloves and white shoes. She prefers to enter a room through the door instead of appearing in it and can remain solid for up to 20-minutes a day. Christine Hunter is the team's liaison with the DOSPA. A fomer CIA operative, specializing in black-bag jobs, she transferred to the DOSPA and was assigned to the liaison pool after an enemy power accused the CIA of stealing top-secret data from his country and a disgruntled former agency executive publically adimtted this to Congress and gave them the agent's name. Fortunately, he only knew the agent's code name, Shadowdancer. Christine is a blue-eyed blonde who prefers wearing dark colors. While in college, she acted in plays. While preparing to portray a fashionably-dressed woman in a play set in 1903 Boston, she learned to to do everyday tasks with gloves on and decided to wear them all the time. Donna West is Lady Arcane's housekeeper. Mariko Yamashiro, M.S. is Batgirl's engineer. A Japanese-American woman from a wealthy Atlantic City family, she drives a Lamborghini Diablo in amateur races sanctioned by the Sports Car Club of America, drives the pace car at some area tracks, is a former Olympic gymnast and a ninja with mystical abilities. Although she'd rather work on equipment than fight crime, Batgirl can talk her into joining in on a mission. Since they have similar skills, Mariko teams up with Christine on those missions. Midnight, Lady Arcane's familiar, is a black cat. Lady Arcane and Batgirl put their heads together and decided who has access to what. While April, Batgirl, Christine, Lady Arcane, Mariko and Midnight have access to the gateway world, only April, Batgirl and Mariko have access to the Batcave. Marie has access to the Batcave, but not the gateway world or Lady Arcane's house.

Re: A Bat-ty Campaign Idea As you no doubt have figured out, we're not in the DC universe. This is an Elseworlds campaign. It's mainly the DCU, with parts of the Champions and Marvel universes, as well as ideas of my own. From the CU, we're taking the DOSPA, PRIMUS, UNTIL, VIPER and, probably DEMON. The DOSPA, as I see it, is mainly an information clearinghouse for various federal agencies. PRIMUS and UNTIL stay the way they are.VIPER is simply an international criminal cartel with some snake cult aspects. I'm still deciding what to do with DEMON. As we all know, Gotham City is the county seat of Gotham County, New Jersey. So, where is it? In my universe, it's the southern part of Ocean County. Gotham Bay is Little Egg Harbor. It's about six miles from Gotham City to Beach Haven Inlet. A lighthouse, Beach Haven Inlet Light, marks the inlet. After the Coast Guard called it unusable, The Wayne Foundation provided the money to repair and renovate the lighthouse. Although the lighthouse is operated by the Gotham County Port Authority, The Wayne Foundation provides 60% of the funding for the light and the adjoining Gotham County Maritime Museum. A mother-daughter team tend the light and live in the old principal keeper's house, which is attached to the tower. The Gotham County Maritime Museum is housed in the house once shared by the first and second assistant keepers. (For those who are interested, the lighthouse has a cluster of 4, 100-watt bulbs, only one of which is lit at one time. They're surrounded by a plastic first-order lens. There's also a diaphonic fog horn, BEEEEooooh, that operates electronically instead of on compressed air, and aircraft and marine radionavagation beacon transmitters.) As far as Gotham City's layout goes, we're using the current one. The place names, however, aren't going to be the ones DC made up in the 1990s to honor the people who worked on the various Batman compcs. Where possible, the old names have been retained. Otherwise, I made up new ones.

The Waynes didn't have a son, they had a daughter. Barbara Wayne grew up and became Batgirl. She's easier to get along with than Batman, but still maintains the "Creature of the Night" image Batman does. Her parents had a maid and butler as servants. Their daughter, Marie, is Barbara's housekeeper and knows her employer's secret identity. Since they grew up together, they're also good friends. (They're like Abbey Spencer and Marie in the Judge Parker comic strip.) She has good relations with the various law enforcement agencies, and they accept the fact that she likes to e thought of as an urban myth. Lady Arcane is one Batgirl's friends.They created a link between Barbara's Batcave and Lady Arcane's house that passes through a pocket reality that's centered around a Japanese garden that Barbara likes to meditate in. Lady Arcane's house also serves as the address for Batgirl's support staff and any liaisons she might have. (Batgirl's support staff doesn't include Marie, who doesn't have access to the pocket reality and the liaison(s) don't have access to the Barcave.) Batgirl's costume looks like Cassandra Cain's. Batgirl has decided to create a team to help her protect Gotham City. What Batcave is better, the old Wayne Manor one or the new one? Since Batgirl likes the stealthy approach, what kind of sports car should her Batmobile be based on?

Re: PRIMUS superhero teams Good points, Chuckg. Let's see. Since Warder's identy is publicly known, they're using her fastness, her family's mansion as its headquarters. Guardian, is his civilian ID, is wealthy. Under his control is a foundation that partially funds the team. Warder funds the rest of it. Donna is one of her closest friends and the team housekeeper. (Think of them as being like Abby and Marie in the Judge Parker comic strip.) Denise's is the team's nurse. Rhonda's either a physician on retainer or a physician at UMPM Presbyterian's emergency department. Mariko and April could be staff members with April being a reserve member of the team. Now, who's the liaison, Beth or Christine? Oh, I have the book you took the quote from. It's great.

Re: PRIMUS superhero teams Terry Kestler is Pittsburgh's silver avenger. Her agent team includes Intelligence Agent Bill Wadner, Assault Agent Martina Rosenblum, Assault Agent Paul Carter and Assault Agent Annie Woods. The base's superhero team is headed by Intelligence Agent Elizabeth "Beth" Davies. Guardian, an armored male superhero and Warder, heiress Lisa Ward, a mage, are two members of the hero team. Warder's accompanied by her familiar, Amber, a female western screech owl, and a group of pixies. Backing up the supers are Intelligence Agents April Curtis, M.S. and Christine Hunter, B.A. and civilian staffers Denise Clark, R.N., Donna West, Mariko Yamashiro, M.S. and Rhonda Nelson, M.D. April, the redheaded daughter of a wealthy family, has her masters in electronics engineering, drives a Lamborghini Diablo in races sanctioned by the Sports Car Club of America, drives the pace car at nearby tracks, is a former Olympic gymnast and is a ninja with mystical abilities. Christine, a former CIA black-bag expert, wears gloves all the time. She started doing so while preparing to portray a fashionable-dressed woman in a play set in 1904 Boston. Denise, a PRIMUS staff nurse is a former USAF trauma nurse with experience in medevac situations and wears a sage-green flightsuit, with PRIMUS patches, over her scrubs. Donna serves as the team's maid. Mariko, is a PRIMUS computer expert. She received her degree from USC, where she was also a cheerleader. Additionally, she rides horses and worked at her father's photo studio during supper vacations. Rhonda, a trauma surgeon, is an Aferican American woman with braided black hair that falls to her shoulders.

Re: Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the CU Along with Buffy we have to have our favorite evil law firm, Wolfram & Hart. Are they just an evil law firm or something more sinister?

Re: Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the CU None taken. Although I haven't seen a nurse or a student nurse in a regular uniform, much less a white cap in Pittsburgh in ten years, there are nurses in the United States that still wear them. In campaigns where a nurse wears them while working for a superhero team, she has access to a parallel universe where buildings from universes where all life has died out. Some nurses wear them instead of scrubs. Others simply try them on and let someone else take photos for posterity. Batman's nurse likes it enough to wear it all the time. The nurse caring for PRIMUS Pittsburgh's superhero team wore them, and other uniforms only while photographs were being taken.

Re: Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the CU Not funny. It's probably black BDUs, combat boots and web gear, along with whatever gear The Initiative troops wear.

Re: PRIMUS superhero teams The base should also be in, or near, the city's Central Business District. For PRIMUS Pittsburgh, I've chosen the Station Square area because both Downtown Pittsburgh is a mess and the North Shore is having its own building boom. The Station Square area runs from Gateway View Plaza, on West Carson Street, to The Terminal Buildings, at Ternimal Way and East Carson Street. I've chosen to locate PRIMUS Pittsburgh on McKean Street, between the Liberty Bridge and the Panhandle / LRT Bridge. There's even a nearby trail, The Station Square River Front Trail, for walking and riding bicycles. Ease of transportation is one prime reason for choosing this area. East Carson Street is the main thoroughfare, The 51A Arlington Helights bus goes along here and the LRT has a station at Station Square, right across from the East Warehouse, where Hooters is, a short walk from the base. There's also plenty of parking in the area. Comment is invited. Come on, folks. Let's hear from you.

Re: PRIMUS superhero teams Let's look at a typical base. This one is the Mid-Avengers base from the Hero System FTP Archives. To find it, go to http://www.dmoz.org. Click on RPGs, then systems, then Hero System. The archive consists of self-extracting zipped text files. This base has nine, bedrooms, including one for a maid and one for a guest, six cells, a danger room with a control booth, a vault and medical, criminology, programming, general information and security systems labs. Where would we put it? Possible above the danger room on the first floor of the PRIMUS base discussed, by Shelley, in Digital Hero issue six. The base's cells could be removed to make room for an electronics lab. Aside from the maid, the staff consists of a physician and nurse, both with trauma experience, an electronics engineer and a computer expert. Aside from the team leader, there are two other inrelligence agents. One is a ninja. The other did black-bag jobs for the CIA. Either could also be the electronics engineer or computer expert.

PRIMUS bases now can have superhero teams. Each team consists of up to eight superheroes, up to ten intelligence and assault agents as backup, and civilian medical/nursing and technical personal. Leading the team is an intelligence agent that has served as a superhero team liaison. The teams can be based at the PRIMUS base, a separate building supplied by PRIMUS or the residence of a superhero. PRIMUS agents that have technical or medical/nursing skills may handle such things for the team. If the team works out of a separate building, it may hire a company to keep the place clean. If the team uses someone's house as a base, the team member must provide any domestic staff the team needs.

Re: The PRIMUS base in Pittsburgh So much for PRIMUS employees. There are superheroes there, too. Here they are. Cat, a woman in a feline-looking suit of powered armor. Each hand has retractable claws and three retractable blasters Warder, heriess and socialite Lisa Ward, is a mage Amber, a western screech owl, is Warder's familiar Next, we'll look closer at the mansion and meet the people that live there.

Re: The PRIMUS base in Pittsburgh Here is a list of some of the people at PRIMUS Pittsburgh. The first four were created by Shelley. The rest are mine. Silver Avenger Terry Kestler Intelligence Agent Bill Wadner, a member of Avenger Kestler's agent team Assault Agent Martina Rosenblum, a member of Avenger Kestler's agent team Intelligence Agent Elizabeth "Beth" Davies, the leader of PRIMUS Pittsburgh's superhero team Intelligence Agent April Curtis, M.S., amateur race car driver, electronics enginer, Olympic gymnast, ninja with mystic abilities, a member of the agent team working with PRIMUS Pittsburgh's superhero team Intelligence Agent Christine Hunter, former college actress and CIA black-bag jobs operative, a member of the agent team working with PRIMUS Pittsburgh's superhero team Assault Agent Paul Carter, former lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps Force Recon, a member of Avenger Kestler's agent team Assault Agent Annie Woods, former member of the Ohio State Police, a member of Avenger Kestler's agent team Denise Clark, R.N., former USAF flight nurse, nurse assigned to PRIMUS Pittsburgh's superhero team Rhonda Nelson, M.D., trauma surgeon, physician assigned to PRIMUS Pittsburgh's superhero team Mariko Yamashiro, M.S. computer expert, assigned to PRIMUS Pittsburgh's superhero team

Re: The PRIMUS base in Pittsburgh The map of the base itself is based on the one in Shelley's article in Digital Hero issue 6. The only differences in the maps are the names of base personal and a gateway. Said gateway leads to the superhero team base and a pocket reality. The team's base is a mansion, belonging to Warder, a team member, that's on Millianaire Row, Fifth Avenue between Devonshire Street and Shady Avenue. The pocket reality has living quarters, but is basically a training town, complete with exersize facilities and a Japoanese garden.

Re: New PRIMUS teams Before I forget, the thread on PRIMUS's Pittsburgh base has been started.

Re: New PRIMUS teams

In my version of the CU, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the campaign city and my home town, has a PRIMUS base. The heroes are part of a superhero team that works for PRIMUS. They also have a support staff composed of PRIMUS agents and civilians employed by the agency. Except for the base itself, all places mentioned below are real and their locations haven't been changed. The base itself is located in Station Square on McKean Street, between the T tracks and the Liberty Bridge, which connects to East Carson Street. (In case you didn't know, the T is Pittsburgh's Light Rail Transit system.) For those who like to hike or bike over lunch, the Station Square River Front Trail is close by. It starts on PRIMUS's side of the East Warehouse parking lot and ends up near the Duquesne Incline. (In case you're interested, the East Wearhouse is home to a Hooters.)

Re: A Look at my Version of the CU The same as in the official CU, plus, due to the existence of the Stargate, the Goa'uld and the Tok'ra. Keep in mind that the general public didn't even know about the existence of the Stargate until The President, needing metahuman help to battle Anubis, revealed the project's existance to the world.

Re: A Look at my Version of the CU No. That is, of course, assuming Immortals exist in this version of the CU.

Re: The Mystic World I got mine yesterday and think it's very well done. I can't wait for TUM and AA.

Re: A Look at my Version of the CU It's possible. Of course, given the age of the actors that played them, they're probably retired by now.

Re: A Look at my Version of the CU I'm 54. Before they went out of style, I often saw nurses wearing white uniforms and caps. The last three times I saw a nurse wearing a cape were in the movie Coffy, the episode of Barney Miller that the officers had to get flu shots in and the episode of T.J. Hooker that had someone dressed as a nurse killing nurses. Of the three of them, only in the last one were white gloves worn with the cape.