Mark Rand

Re: What?? Bruce Wayne isn't Batman??? This time, we visit Gotham's nightlife, to be exact, a few bars and clubs. I have The Daily Planet Guide to Gotham City for West End Games's DC Universe RPG beside me. It's a good guide to Gotham. Belly dance fans go to the Falcon's Rest and Zorba's. The Falcon's Rest, in Scheldon Park is a Middle-Eastern nightclub. They have, according to their ads, the finest belly dancers in the country. Zorba's, in Chelsea, is a Greek bar, has, as many claim, the best belly dancers in the city. The ones that dance there regularly include Salome, a 17-year old dancer who wears long gloves with her regular costumes and does The Dance of the Seven Veils when the Gotham Opera Company presents Salome, Nura, her mother and Safura, their teacher. Danny's, in Chelsea, is one of the better jazz bars. The Jazz Angels are there Thursday through Sunday nights. The Succubus Club, in Sheldon Park is a favorite of the Goth scene. Magic fans go to the Cabaret of Magic, a supper club in Chelsea.

Re: GURPS IST in Champions No, I haven't forgotten this thread. I've just been busy with other stuff, and other threads.

Re: What?? Bruce Wayne isn't Batman??? In this and the next few posts, we'll tour the Gotham City area. Today, we go to the tracks. North of the city and Bristol Township are Gotham Downs, Gotham Kennel Club Dog Track and Gotham Motor Speedway. Gotham Downs is a thoroughbred track. It has a 7/8 mile grass track inside a one mile dirt track. The parade marshall wears English-style clothes and her houses, white Arabians, wear English tack. The Gotham Kennel Club Dog Track is typical of greyhound tracks. The lure has been nicknamed "Long Ears". Gotham Motor Speedway is a one mile paved oval with a 1.51-mile internal road course. The owner has no interest in hosting amateur races. West of the city and Sommerset Township are Gotham Park and Gotham Raceway. Gotham Park is a 5/8 mile harness track with an all-weather (limestone) surface. The parade marshall wears western clothes and her horses. leopard appaloosa (white with dark spots all over) mares, wear western tack. Gotham Raceway has four tracks, a 2.99-mile natural terrain road course, a drag strip, a half-mile oval and a go-kart track. The track has three industrial areas. The first, in the road course's external paddock, is home to Conlin Racing and Engineering, a garage for the track's support vehicles and a garage for the track's racing school's cars. The second is a group of fast food and casual dining restaraunts. The third area consists. so far, of the track's administration building, the racing school's building RaceGear, a company that sells racing equipment and supplies and RaceGraphics, which makes custom decals for race cars. Robinson Park is home to a 2.33-mile temporary street circuit that'll be used once a year for the Gotham Vintage Car Grand Prix. The first one will be held shortly after the campaign starts.

Re: What?? Bruce Wayne isn't Batman??? I was thinking of a year one Batman and Batgirl in the CU, with ideas borrowed from The Satan Bug (a movie from the 1960s), Charmed, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (post Season seven and the Bureau 13 stories. Some contribute a lot, some don't. Don't worry. We'll get to them. Alfred has been replaced by Marie. In order to get help gathering a support staff, a group of like-minded heroes, and, possibly, a federal liaison, Batman and Batgirl talk to their friend Lady Arcane. who is well-known to the government. She is willing to talk to her federal liaison and see what can be done. She also agrees to hire the staff members Batman selects and creates a gate in each base that leads to a hall that also leads to other areas, most of which were on a world whose population is now dead. The Powers that Be made sure the world was decontaminated. (The Powers, from Buffy, may also be known as The Higher Powers, from Bureau 13 and the Elders, from Charmed. The release of the Satan Bug, from the movie of the same name, was responsible for the deaths.

Re: What?? Bruce Wayne isn't Batman??? Vex, I like your elseworld Bruce Wayne/Batman. I'm not sure, however, what the GCPD will think of the energy carbine. The orignial Wayne Manor Batcave is the one I'd use for this Batman with all the workshop facilities on the top floor. This would leave a bit more space for the gymnasium. The gate would allow access to what the Batcave doesn't provide, medical facilities, a library and extra living quarters, as well as access to Lady Arcane's house for the support staff and government liaison. (As far as the general public knows, they assist Lady Arcane, not Batman.) April's usual garb is a long-sleeve khaki jumpsuit. On the rare occasions when she joins the team, her black garb (which includes clawed gloves0 looks like that of a cat burglar and she goes by the name Spirit Cat and uses a Japanese accent. (After many years of living with a Japanese family, she can easily mimic the accent.) Christine is a black woman with braided hair. She decided to wear the British Caledonian stewardess uniform (including white gloves) that was found in the living quarters because she liked the look. Mariko, the nurse, who originally wore scrubs, now wears white uniforms and a cap out of respect for her late mother, a nurse, and because, after trying them on, she liked how she looked in them. The only federal liaison is Denise Dumont, a blue-eyed blonde, is a skilled stage actress who worked, for the CIA, as a black-bag jobs expert before joining the DOSPA. She always wears gloves because she loves doing so (a one-point quirk) She started wearing them while preparing to play a fashionable lady in 1906 Boston. (In this universe, gloves are in style for even the most casual clothes.) In the cave, she usually wears a jumpsuit identical to April's, but has been seen wearing a 1961 American Airlines stewardess uniform that once belonged to her maternal grandmother. When she goes out into the field, she, like April, dresses like a cat burglar and backs the engineer/ninja up.

Re: What?? Bruce Wayne isn't Batman??? Batman and Batgirl are skilled in armed and unarmed combat, deduction, forensics and various skills used by nocternal superheroes. However, neither is skilled in in either computer science or engineering. Batman, Bruce Wilson, is a karate expert. Barbara, his half Japanese wife, is skilled in ninjitsu and is April's blood sister. (Barbara's mother was their gymnastics coach and ninjitsu instructor.) The two women often spar together. Although they both know The Nine Ways of Cutting, from The Ultimate Martial Artist, April is still trying to teach Barbara The Path of the Shadow's Companion, from Fu Schticks for Champions on Mike Surbrook's site. The current Batcave and penthouse are fine, if I use Pittsburgh. If I use a version of Gothan where the renaming of areas for DC staffers never occurred, Bruce, Barbara and their housekeeper, Marie, will live in a mansion and a different Batcave, possibly bassed on the old Wayne Manor one, will be used. Suggestions as to which city would be welcome.

Re: What?? Bruce Wayne isn't Batman??? Here's what I have, so far, on the staff and liaisons. April Curtis, M.S. is Batman's engineer. An athletic-looking brunette, she's the daughter of a wealthy family, an electronics engineer, amateur race car driver, a former Olympic and college gymnast, and a skilled kunoichi, (or female ninja) who prefers working on equipment to fighting crime. Batman can occasionally talk her into assisting with a case. Christing Hunter, M.S. is Batman's computer expert. A blue-eyed blonde, she is an expert swimmer. Carol James, R.N., BSN., is the team's nurse. like April, she's a brunette and is a former cheerleader. Nicole Avery is the team's CIA liaison and an expert in black-bag jobs. (Since 9/11 the CIA has been allowed to work in the United States on domestic terrorism cases.) An stage actress before joining the CIA, she's worn gloves all the time since playing a fashionable woman in a play set in Boston in 1902. (In this universe, gloves went out of style in the early 1970s, Dressy ones came back into style in 1979 and by 1985 women were wearing them with casual clothes.) DOSPA liaison John Clark is a middle-aged bureaucrat. The FBI hasn't assigned a liaison, but is planning to. The PRIMUS liaison is Elena Mendez, a tall Hispanic woman with a law degree. The liaisons have access to the Batcave, but work out of either Lady Arcane's house or the Federal Building. The church has been identified. It is the Immanuel United Church of Christ. A blood drive was going on in the Multipurpose Room and a health fair was in progress in the Fellowship Hall. The Islamic garb and various uniforms found in the buildings have been recovered and placed in a group of hotel rooms. (The heroes are given a list of what is in what room.) Christine now always wears British Caledonian(sp) Airlines stewardess uniforms that were found there and Carol wears either white nurse's uniforms and a cap (usually) or blue and white student nurse's uniforms and a cap (occasionally) or a cheerleader's uniform (rarely) instead of scrubs.

Re: What?? Bruce Wayne isn't Batman??? As promised last time, we're going through the gate. Gate A takes us to a hall with two doores on each side and one at the end. The first one on the left, Gate B, leads to a first aid room, complete with cot, treatment chair, sink, cabinets, desk and chair. The first on the right, Gate C, leads to a Japenese garden, complete with lake, bridges and a tea house. The second on the left takes us to a rec center that features a pool, gymnasium with running track, racquetball courts, a weight room and other features, On the board behind the desk is a message from the cheerleader coach reminding her team to pickup their new uniforms, indicating that the woman in the photograph is modeling a uniform and stating that she's the coach's daughter and a new member of the squad. A nearby newspaper states that The United States and Saudi Arabia are at war over the Saudi government's decision to pull all of its funds out of all the banks in the United States. The second door on the right leads to the Black Diamond Hotel and a church. A signboard on the wall announces that the state's Islamic women's group is meeting in the conference rooms. According to the newspapers in the gift shop, it's October 1982 and the United States is about to invade Cuba over the missile crisis and will sink any Soviet ship that tries to run the blockade. Activities in the church and its name are still undecided. The door at the end of the hall leads to Lady Arcane's house. Only staff members and government liaisons can go through it. Next, we meet the staff and liaisons. The information about the church will be posted when compiled.

Re: What?? Bruce Wayne isn't Batman??? As promised, here's the information on the Wayne Foundation Batcave. I'm basing my size estimate on an isometric drawing in the DC Heroes Batman Sourcebook from Mayfair, dated 1989. Along the north side are the main shop, vehicle shop (where the elevator from Bruce's penthouse exits), den, and computer room. Along the south side are the Batmobile's parking spot, trophy room and crime lab. The Batmobile's exit is on the west side. Our version is slightly different. The two shops are now one and the den also serves as the team's library and meeting room. There's also a gate in the east wall. We'll go there next.

Re: What?? Bruce Wayne isn't Batman???

Re: What?? Bruce Wayne isn't Batman??? Good point. We know that there are an infinate number of universes. He could be the Batman in the CU or a close analog. He's a lot like Bruce, but he isn't paranoid and he doesn't mind working with other superheroes, including mages, and the government. Let's see, he owns a building in the city's central business district and lives, along with his wife and their housekeeper, in the penthouse apartment. His wife is his Batgirl and her costume resembles Cassandra Cain's. Their Batcave is 200 feet below the building and resembles the Wayne Foundation Batcave. More on it later.

Re: What?? Bruce Wayne isn't Batman??? Nighthawk's character sheet would do for Batman's characteristics and skills. The gear he always carries can be represented by a multipower with a VPP representing the gear he doesn't always carry. The disadvantages and story will probably need to be changed, too. Plus, I have to build a Batmobile and Batcave. Good thing I'm not going to have a point limit for my characters. For those who don't know, according to an artical I read in a Digital Hero, I forgot which one, the idea of a specific point total came from RPG gaming's wargaming roots, where the characters were equal.

I know we've kicked Batman around on these threads, but here's a strange twist on him. In the campaign universe, DC's Batman is a comic book hero. It does, however, inspire a wealthy young man who is in good physical shape to take up the Dark Knight's mantle. Unlike Bruce, he has no problem working with other heroes, including mages, or the government. Oh, instead of a butler, he has a maid. She knows his secret and, like Alfred, is very practical. I have Gadeget and Gear and know it has some cool stuff in it. Comments? Questions? Ideas?

Re: GURPS IST in Champions The Pittsburgh area has two horse tracks, the Meadows, in Washington County, a 5/8 mile harness track and Beaver County Downs, in Beaver County, a thoroughbred track with a 7/8 mile grass track inside the one mile dirt track. Both have slot machines. There are four major car tracks in the area, BeaveRun, in Beaver County, Washington County Raceway, in Washington County, Pittsburgh Motor Speedway in Moon Township and the Pittsburgh Vintage Car Grand Prix course. Washington County Raceway has a 2.99 mile road course, a dragstrip, a 1/2 mile paved oval and a go-kart track. Pittsburgh Motor Speedway is a one mile oval with an internal 1.51-mile road course. The Pittsburgh Vintage Car Grand Prix course is a 2.33-mile temporary street circuit in Schenley Park. Bars and nightclubs abound. Belly Dance fans gather at The Falcon's Rest, a nightclub, on Ninth Street in Downtown and Zorba's, a Greek bar, on Forbes Avenue in Oakland. People wanting to watch Salome go to Zorba's. That's where she, her mother, Nura, and their teacher, Safura dance. People who like jazz have many options. Danny's, on Bouquet Street in Oakland is a popular place. The Jazz Angels play there Thursday through Sunday. The goth crowd goes to the Sucubus Club in the Strip District. Magic fans go to the Cabaret of Magic, a Strip District supper club. The Pittsburgh Ice Arena, in the Strip District has two rinks, one for ice skating and one for hockey. The Penguins, despite their desire for a new arena, won't play there, but the owners don't care. There are, at least, 20 hockey games there each week. If you like the stars, the new Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science is the place to be. It's on Fifth Avenue in Oakland and has a five story garage that's open to the public under it. The refurbished Zeiss projector, nicknamed Jake, is still there and it's in use every day. IST Pittsburgh in at Fifth Avenue and Wood Streets, where the Lazarus was. Next time, we'll tour the embassy.

Re: GURPS IST in Champions Europeans love their metahumans. Even villains are loved, if they show style. Some, like le Chat Noir, are cult figures for their flamboyance and refusal to cause serious harm to persons or property. In my campaign, le Chat Noir is a polite, soft-spoken female cat burglar whose silencer-equipped pistol is always loaded with knockout darts. Recently, after he insulted her costume in his regular column in Metahuman Monthly, she threatened to send a hairball to The Suave Marauder, the magazine's regular fashion columnist. Three years ago, the IST started using a long-sleeve Khaki jumpsuit as the uniform for its maintance workers. It has since become the regular uniform for IST technical workers of all kinds. Many ISTs have staff photographers. In addition to doing work for the publicity department, they assist the medical and dental people with medical photography and film processing. Next up, well visit the Pittsburgh area.

Re: GURPS IST in Champions The IST recently opened their embassy in the southern part of the Sinai, near the Sinai range. The closest mountain is known as, among other things, Mount Saint Catherine, after the Russian Orthodox monastery, which also has a mosque, at its base. It isn't the only religious structure there. The Chapel of the Holy Trinity is at its peak. The mountain is considered holy ground by many people. Why? Simple. For centuries, people have believed it to be the Biblical Mount Sinai. The monastery's spiritual heart is the Chapel of the Burning Bush, which sits atop the roots of the Biblical bush "that burned with fire, and was not consumed" (Exodus, 3, 2). A few feet away from the chapel is the reputed bush itself, a rare species of the rose family called Rubus Sanctus, which is endemic to Sinai and extremely long-lived. The underground spring that supplies the monastery with water is said to sit on the very spot where Moses met his future wife, Zipporah, after protecting her and her sisters from an aggressive group of local sheperds (Exodus, 2, 16-21). According to the monks, the well never dries up and is the monastery's main source of water. The information about the mountain and monastery has been taken from several web pages about them.

Re: GURPS IST in Champions More game world background to chew on. The Greek legends of Amazons were true. During Roman times, 200 Amazons, possibly from the tribe Xena's friend, Gabrielle, was queen of, held a key pass against 2 Romam legions while their sisters fled into the countryside. The 200 Amazons died, as did half the Romans. Among the legendary Amzon queens are Gabrielle, Rowanne (also spelled Rowenne), Nicole, Vera Adelina Velasquez Hidalgo, Margo Lane and Nancy Sterngood. Gabrielle rode with Xena. Rowanne, a master archer, was one of King Arthur's soldiers before becoming a Knight of the Round Table. Nicole rode with Joan of Arc. Vera, who lived in Santa Helena, in Spanish California, in the early 19th century, was a secret ally of the Queen of Swords, who, depending on your point of view, was either a bandet or a vigilante. Margo, a scientist's daughter and socialite, was part of a group that secretly fought crome in the 1930s and 1940s. Nancy, the current queen, is a ceramicist based in Perfection, Nevada, the home of the great white graboid known as El Blanco. Amazons are women skilled in armed and unarmed combat, Greek language and culture and who worship Artemis and call out her name in battle. Many work in intelligence and law enforcement agencies throughout the free world, including the IST. However the FBI, which Amazone call the 'Federal Bureau of Incompetence', isn't one of them.

Re: GURPS IST in Champions I have more information to give you. Redmenace suggested a Hellmouth in the area and I agreed with it. We are, I assume talking about BtVS Hellmouths, post season seven. Slayer Central is the 20 square mile manor in Westburry, England the Watcher's Council once owned. There's a helipad in front of the house, a small, stream-fed lake with small boats on the property, a wearhouse, two libraries and a gymnasium that they had constructed. They also own other wearhouses and libraries, transport companies, several ships, a fleet of cars, five helicopters, pieces of land all over the world, several shops and a zoo. In the wearhouse itself, when first examined by Buffy and company, were books, various weapons, excavations, religious items and magical weapons and artifacts. The Slayers, the IST and the Knights get along well. Since the Red Lord, a demon, and his thugs, the Banes, are foes of the Pendragons, the groups sometimes gather together and hunt demons and such. Kate, Astra TV's fearless and beloved reporter, bought her leathers before doing a five-part story on England's motorcycle culture. Since she liked how it felt, she decided to wear it regulary. When discussing Kate's armor, I forgot to mention her shield and the coat of arms on her shield and tabard. It is diamond-shaped with a blue field with three gold crowns placed up and down on the upper right and lower left. On the upper left and lower right is a right-facing lion on a black background. Hopefully, someone who knows about coats of arms will look this discription over and make sure I have Queen Guinevere's arms, after she married Arthur, right. Kate once said, "I am Kate McClellan, Knight of the Pendragon and current wielder of the Pendragon power once wielded by Queen Guinevere." Although the campaign's going to be set in Pittsburgh, I think the more background information on the world we have, the more real it seams.

Re: GURPS IST in Champions As promised,I checked my GURPS Supers book and checked my last report. In 1982, the UN forbad all national military superteams, on the grounds that they were a "destabilizing" influence. They still permitted them to employ metahuman bodyguards and law enforcement personal. They then revealed the IST to the world. Most nations capitulated. They also voted to ban strategic nuclear weapons. In response, the United States government eventually formed the DMI, The Division of Metahuman Information. In Europe, the governments aid superheroes as much as the UN regulations will permit. The United Kingdom's only team that operates throughout the country is the Knights of Pendragon, a group of three warriors that were infused with superhumasn powers by the Green Knight. All have heightened abilities, powers and senses. They have high-tech mystical armor that they can summon with just a thought and speeder bikes that can jump through ley space to where they need to be. The team consists of Francesca Laxley Grace, Kate McClellan and Joey Chapman. Joey's lover, Lady Jacqueline Flasworth-Crichton, often is with them. When she's on a mission, Francesca Lexley Grace, who likes to be called Grace, is always in full armor. Kate wears street clothes (she has recently started wearing black leather jumpsuits, motorcycle boots and gloves as street clothes) or golden scale mail with a black tabard and hooded cloak and brown leather boots, gloves and sword belt. Joey wears armor like Grace's or the Union Jack costume he wore before becoming empowered. Jacqueline, who was the World War II superheroine Spitfire and has been rejuvinated(sp), wears her old costume without its mask.

Re: GURPS IST in Champions When the IST was founded, a treaty was prepaired that prohibited military or national police supers and permitted the establishment of IST teams in the country that signed it. After seeing thatCongress might not like it, President Jimmy Carter, if I remember correctly, signed it as an executive order. (I'll check my GURPS Supers book and check on this. If I'm wrong, I'll correct it.) The United States government reacted by creating the Department of Metahuman Information, which sanctions superheroes and superhero teams in the United States.

Re: GURPS IST in Champions Sorry I couldn't join the discussion this past weekend. My home computer is being repaired and I can only get on the web at work. The UN Security Council has always had both covert and overt resources. Until 9/11, they were separate. After 9/11, however, they began assigning an intelligence analyst and a field agent to each IST embassy. Through some quirk of fate, portals to realities where Earth's population has died off have appeared in some embassies. Usually there are two, with one being a garden or garderns and the other having additional living quarters, a pool, and, occasionally, a chapel or church. If there is only one, the garden or gardens are there, too. In our world, nurse's uniforms and caps have gone out of style. Not so in the IST world. Nurses still wear uniforms (not always white) and caps (also not always white). In our world, gloves have, except for cold weather or the most formal occasions, gone out of style. Not so in the IST world. Although they were out of style during most of the 1970s, dressy gloves came back into style in 1979 and by 1985, they were being worn with casual clothes, too. Also in 1979 Wheel of Fortune hostess and stuntwoman Susan Stafford started wearing them after hurting her left arm in a movie stunt. (Due to letters from fans saying that they loved the look, Susan, who is still on the show and still looks young, continues wearing them.) Salome, a 17-year old belly dancer, who performs with the Pittsburgh Opera when they do Salome, wears long gloves as part of her regular belly dance costume.

Re: GURPS IST in Champions Agreed. No doubt, we'd have one heck of a battle.

Re: GURPS IST in Champions I remember the series. The idea was wonderful, but the stories weren't that great. Of course, it still could be under the desert somewhere, either abondoned or still in operation. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea was anotherseries from back then. The Nelson Institute of Marine Research could exist in California and there could be a new Seaview. We might even meet the Battlestar Galactica on day (the original, not the miniseries, of course).

The existance of Stargate Command was revealed to the world by the President during the height of Anubis's attack on Earth (at the end of season seven). The President is Henry Hayes. The Vice President is Gloria Valdez (former Vice President Robert Kinsey is in jail). The Chief Justice of the United States is Evelyn Baker Long. Dr. Elizabeth Weir is now the head of Stargate Command. Former SGC commander Major General George Hammond now commands the Prometheus, an X-303 spaceship, the world's only space battleship and its X-302 starfighters.

Good ideas from Redmenace and Just A Guy Name. Thank you. We can locate Stargate Command in the Laurel Highlands, which are the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains, a part of the Appalachian Mountains. It was secret until an alien invasion caused the President to reveal that it existed. We can even decide that Samantha Carter is still Jolinar's host. Would the UN call Teal'c or Somantha/Jolinar supers? The Hellmouth can be in southern Allegheny County. The Initiative let the IST know about the Hellmouth, Slayer, vampires and related stuff. I don't think Pittsburgh's Slayer(s) would be part of the IST, but they's work with it. I visited the IST World website and got good ideas from it.