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.

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.

What city should the team be based in? How tied to PRIMUS are they? What kind of structure is their base? Is its location public knowledge? What do you think of the crossovers? Assuming you like them, are there any you'de like to add? There are probably more questions to answer, but I haven't thought of them, yet.

Hi all, The Iowa superhero thread got me thinking. Why not a superhero team in Colorado? As I see it, either Denver or Colorado Springs would be the two best cities for a team. Denver is the Western capitol of the United States. It already has military bases and a PRIMUS bases. Colorado Springs also has military bases, the United States Air Force Academy, several military complexes inside mountains and the main Olympic training complex. If, like me, you're into crossovers, I have three for you, post season seven "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "Stargate SG-1", and "Unicorn Mountain", a fantastic novel that I misplaced. Buffy has been talked about on the Sunnydale and Las Vegas threads. Read them. There's too much there to write about here. "Stargate SG-1" is a wonderful series on the Sci-fi channel. In our version, Senator Kinsey and his friends at the NID (National Intelligence Department) in an attempt to gain control of the Stargate Project and help Kinsey in his bid to become President of the United States, blow the whistle on it. All they end up with is a lifetime stay at the federal pen in Levenworth, Kansas. It might be a short stay if they get the death penelty for treason and violation of the Patriot Act. If you haven't read "Unicorm Mountain", read it. You'll understand why I'd like to include it. Comment is invited. Mark Rand

The original idea was to use the Paulson Mansion, whose floor plans I found on the net, as the basis For the sorceress's house. Since it was an elevator and the one from The House That Jack Built doesn't, that might work better. The underground base could be based on the original Wayne Manor Batcave. A female ghost, Rose, from Titanic, wearing a black evening gown and long white gloves, haunts the mansion. She's kind and easy to get along with. The second floor has two gates. One leads to the USC gymnasium. Cheerleader uniforms from 1978 were found in a storage room. The second leads to a medical clinic, also from 1978. There, everyone wore white lab coats. The nursing staff wore them over their uniforms. The nurses also wore white caps. The team's nurse, who, until then, only wore scrubs, tried a white uniform and cap on for fun, found she liked the look, and now dresses that way. The attic leads to the otherworld. Its major feature is a large public park with hiking trails. The other structures, including the Japanese garden complex, fit around it.

Digital Hero issues 2 and 6 have PRIMUS updates in them. The one in issue 6 has a map of PRIMUS's Portland base in it.

Tried it again and guess what the answer was? http://www.liquidgeneration.com/quiz/images/blackwidow.jpg The Black Widow.

At Hermit's suggestion, I tried the heroine quiz and got Psylocke.

I wanted Black Widow, but got Spiderman.

A couple of minor changes to report. The female ghost has the run of the house, but prefers to stay in the living room and parlor. The rec center has been replaced by a collegate (sp) gymnasuim building that stands in for USC's gymnasium.

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.

A bit more on Silver Avenger Nakamura. I used three silver avengers to create her: Maria Chow (San Francisco), Terry Kestler (Portland), and Mayte Sanchez (Millennium City). She looks like Maria Chow and is Terry Kestler with ninjutsu and Mayte Sanchez's adrenaline junkie style. She also owns, and uses, her own martial arts weapons. Her favorites include a katana, made by a master swordsmith, that's been her family since the 16th century, throwing stars and a weighted chain.

How about a miniature translater droid that can easily be carried?

Thanks, Nightfly. Las Vegas's Slayer was trained, by her mother, who owns a gymnastics school, in the ways of the ninja before she became a Slayer. Her mother often joins her on patrol. Besides stakes and a crossbow, she likes to use a katana (or samurai sword), as did many ninja. Said katana, and its companion wakizashi (or short sword), according to legend, was given to a Slayer in Japan, by the Shogun after dealing with a master vampire there. The legend also states that the swords are blessed. One of the Slayers friends from the gymnastics school, and another of her mother's ninjitsu students, is the local superhero team's engineer. Said techie/ninja only rarely joins her friend on patrol. She's also a fifth cousin of fellow ninja Mariko Nakamura who, in my campaign, is Las Vegas's Silver Avenger.

Mayday, thanks for the inspiration. Never heard of it, Fenixcrest. Can you tell me where to find it?

The stairs to the third floor come out in a small shed-like building in the otherworld. It's one of the buildings surrounding the Washington Monument. There's a Japanese garden complex, an English hedge maze garden, the Black Diamond Hotel which was near Chicago Midway Airport. Newspapers in the gift shop put the date there as October 1969. A notice board in the hotel that lists current conferences indicates that a regional Islamic women's organization is meeting there. A church from Michigan is there, too. Signboards in the lobbies indicate that a blood drive is in progress in the fellowship hall and the food back and County Health Department screenings are being held in the basement classrooms. The robes used by the church choir are still in the robing room and the custodian's apartment has a Western feel. The Castle Theater, a live-performance theater, is there, too as is a county fair a parking lot with vehicles from USC and a maid service, a mansion that had a formal party in progress, and a block of commercial buildings. One side of the block had a fast-food place, a beauty shop and a convenience store. The other side had a diner, pizza place, a Western bar and a Greek bar. I'd like to put a funeral parlor with cremation facilities there, but I can't find the plans anywhere. Anyone know where I can find them? All clothing was removed from the bodies prior to cremation. They were then cleaned and placed in the hotel's ground-floor rooms so that anyone can claim them. The team's nurse has claimed some of the white uniforms and two nurse's caps. Our two lady explorers have claimed some flight attendent uniforms. Comment is invited.

Roth, the stories are, in order, Should Have Gone To Vegas, Manhunters, Slayer Las Vegas, and Potential Problems, in the first series. The second series, post season seven, is Welcome Wagon, The Sitter, Cataclysm, Lady Heather's Dominion and Unfinished Business. Since PRIMUS and other agencies know about Slayers, Vampires and such, what would they do? In my opinion, They'd say, "Since we have enough to do, we'll let the Slayers deal with the problem. All we can do is share information with them." A superhero, or superhero team could also provide help, especially with magic, computer hacking, medical care and help in figuring out any high-tech gear the Slayer might find. Although there are only two Hellmouths mentioned in the series, Sunnydale and Cleveland, there could be others. Also, vampires have been found in New York City and other places. Vamps could be drawn to Vegas by the tourists. Added 5/26/06, the story Cold Cases.

First off, since it's December 25, I'd like to wish everyone Happy Holidays. Onto the tower. Instead of an Amazon warrior in full battle dress, with spears and a boar, we have a female D&D paladin in armor. The switch is by the toe of her right boot. The tower stairs don't grant entry to the Netherworld and the tower isn't haunted. Instead, the stairs allow entry to a lighthouse on a steep-sided, windsewpt rock the size of a city block. Surrounding the island, as far as the eye can see, is water and a few jagged rocks that are sometimes occupied by mermaids. The two second floor gates don't open onto the graveyards and the Dream Zone. Instead, they open onto city blocks. One block is occupied by a medical clinic, the other by a rec center, complete with an indoor pool, locker rooms, a gymnasium, a multi-purpose room and a weight training room. There are no statues in the hall under the dome and The Hallway of One Hundred Horrors has been replaced by the more pleasent Hallway of Infinity that only the lady mage herself can open. We visit the third floor and the otherworld next.

Mayday. thank you for your comments. They're a great help to me. Would the Initative, in a superhero universe, tell other federal and international law enforcement and intelligence agencies about Hellmouths, Slayers, Vampires, Demons and such?

Good ideas from Mayday and Caped Crusader. Thank you. I've decided to make the mansion a benign (sp) version of The House that Jack Built. Thanks to Lightray for mentioning it. The spells that changed the house keep whatever comes through the doorways inside the mansion. The living room and parlor are haunted by a beautiful female ghost wearing an evening gown and long gloves. She's kind, easy to talk to and a good chess player. The ghosts in the ballroom are still there, but they dance every Sunday, instead of each full moon. Anyone who comes in while the ghosts are dancing will find themselves approched by a ghost of the opposite sex who will ask them to join the dance. If they agree, the ghost will feel solid and be a good dancer. The gate in the sitting room leads to the team's underground base, which is based on the Wayne Foundation Batcave. The tower steps will lead to five portals. Some of Mayday's suggestions will be used for them, if I can find floor plans. I also have to find the statue to hide the switch to the door in. The other floors will be revealed later.

I like the idea of having an armored hero somehow discover the suit. This lets new abilities of the suit be discovered over time and gives a good reason for a tech to stay around a superteam's headquarters.

The lady mage has a familiar, a screech owl named Amber that has adapted to her bondmate's sleep paterns. Two families of black cats also call the mansion home and many birds and small animals show up in the back yard. Of course, the various feeders in the yard may have something to do with this, too. Time passes at the same rate inside and outside the house. A mage's house is, by tradition, larger inside than outside. Since it didn't start out as a mage's house, we have to add rooms where we can. There are two such rooms on the second floor, each larger than the house. One is an English hedge maze. The other is a Japanese garden complex around a large lake that might contain something beside fish. The otherworld, so far, has a hotel, a church, a medical clinic, a rec center with a pool and a school bus from USC positioned around the Washington Monument. More stuff will be added as I decide what it will be. Any suggestions?

How would you do it, Nightfly?

Keep in mind, I'm not saying it's going to be this way. Slayer Centeral (or Watcher HQ) could easily be at Angel's hotel or an estate in England. However, in a universe with superheroes, I suspect that the top brass of the DOD would tell the PRIMUS, the DOSPA and, maybe, UNTIL bigshots about their Initiative group, Slayers, Vampires, Demons, Hellmouths and other such things. Somebody in Washington probably would decide that these people either get federal help or supervision, whether they want it or not Of course, Riley and Samantha Finn would, if asked, tell the feds that it wasn't necessary, but the bigshots probably wouldn't listen until it was too late.

Fanfiction, Nightfly. You can find the main site at http://www.fanfiction.net.