Mark Rand

Hi all,

Good points from two of our learned panel.

Yeah, I can see Batman and Buffy teaming up against the latest plot. He's the greatest detective in comics and she's the vampire expert. However, assuming Gotham's on the (or a) Hellmouth, would the Darknight Detective accept another hero on HIS turf? After all, he feels that Gotham is HIS to protect.

As far as the stats go, I don't have links to them. Mike Surbrook has his own writeup of Buffy on his page and Mathew R. Ignash has writeups for all the characters on his pages. However, Matt's service provider has a limit on how much can be downloaded from each heroes page each month and the Buffy/Angel ones are at the limit. They should be available on 11/1. Matt also has a general Slayer writeup on his page.

Yours,

Mark Rand

Compared to a normal human, a Slayer is special.

A Buffyverse vamp wouldn't give a four-color superhero any trouble, but they might give a street-level one some problems. A city like Sunnydale might attract only that kind of hero.

Imagine Batman's surprise if he encountered one or more vampires, or a Slayer in action. Who would win a fight between Batman and either a Slayer or a vampire? I don't think it would be Batman.

I planned to use either Buffy characters or just the concepts in my campaign. Having Vampire, Vampire Slayer and Vengence Demon writeups on Matt's page makes such things easy. I'm just wondering if its possible to use Sunnydale itself as a superhero campaign setting.

I know. I wrote the posts mentioning them myself.

Hi all,

Has anyone ever used Sunnydale, California (where Buffy the Vampire Slayer: the series is set) as a setting for superhero games?

If so, would the heroes join Buffy and her friends in their fight?

I know that Matt's pages have the stats of Buffy & her friends (and foes) for Champions 5E. Unfortunately, due to the server company's policies, I can't get at them until November 1.

Yours,

Mark Rand

Hi all,

A few more thoughts on the city's look and an airline that flys out of the airport.

Since the city is being rebuilt from the ground up, a new transit system, including a subway system like New Youk's or Boston's, was added.

The new airport is based on one in another city. One airline has decided to add a little 60s glamor to its uniforms. All ticket agents, ramp agents and flight anntendants now wear white (or colored) gloves. Since the recent health scare, the flight attendants wear dress gloves only in the terminal. Once on the jetways, they replace them with disposable gloves and put on gauze masks. These are also provided for passangers, who are encouraged to wear them.

Yours,

Mark Rand

Ramdom thoughts on the base.

The techie could be a ninja who prefers to work on equipment instead of going with the team on missions.

The secretary/receptionist dresses elegantly and always wears gloves.

The federal liaison (or one federal liaison if there are more than one) is a former intelligence agent that specialized in black bag (cat burglar) jobs and prefers black clothing. S/he could team up with the techie/ninja to provide added security to the base or give the heroes interesting training sessions.

If the base doesn't have enough rooms, a gate could lead to either a grand hotel where all life died out in the 60s or a pocket universe where buildings from such a world exist. The hotel could be haunted by maids from that era, who keep the hotel clean and/or a properly-uniformed stewardess from that era. The hotel's ballroom could be haunted by waltzing couples in formal wear

If there is a church there, a robed choir member could haunt it.

A nearby medical office there could be haunted by a white-uniformed, capped and, possibly, caped nurse who could tend the team's injuries.

Of course, the maids, stewardess, dancers, nurse. choir member and/or waltzing couples could also haunt the mansion and, possibly work there.

Maybe. Unfortunately, I've never seen the movie.

We could, of course, add Jack Ryan from Tom Clancy's books and Gloria Valdez Chain of Command.

Thomas J. Whitmore from ID4 is good, too. I'll add him to the list.

To me, the President must do his,or her, best to be alltruistic. Senators, on the other hand, don't. Two who aren't come to mind, Senator Kinsey of Stargate SG-1 and Senator Roark of Frank Miller's Sin City series. It would be our luck that Pennsylvania ends up with them.

Why am I interested? Simple. The President likes to come to Pittsburgh, which, by vote of the Pennsylvania State House and Senate, now covers the who Allegheny County. Now, all I need is a mayor. Of course, I could just use the current one.

Hi all,

A quick question. Since, in this campaign, Bush Jr. isn't President, who is? Here are the choices.

James Collingsworth (who I created for I story I'm writing)

Josiah 'Jed' Bartlet (Martin Sheen from The West Wing .

Jonathan Hayes (Gregory Harrison) from First Daughter, First Target & First Shot all shown on TBS

James Marshall (Harrison Ford) from Air Force One

Yours,

Mark Rand

Hi all,

Thought I'd let you know where the edges of the area that had to be rebuilt are.

North: in Butler County, near Seven Fields

Northeast: between Russellton and Tarentum

East: Monroeville area, near where state route 286 joins I 376 (U.S. 22 East)

Southeast: Youghiogheny River between Boston and Shaner

South: in Washington County, between Venetia and Ginger Hill

Southwest: in Washington County, between Hickory and Westland

West: on the Washington County line between U.S. 22 West and Murdocksville

Northwest: in Bever County, near Aliquippa

Yours,

Mark Rand

I agree with Dr. Anormaly about the Mystic Masters book for Champions 4E. The Mobius is one cool house. Of course, I'm adding more gates and, maybe, a few ghosts.

If the base is, or was, a mage's house it could be bigger on the outside and have gateways to other realities or rooms that aren't on the house's original floorplan. Imagine, walking through a gate in the living room to a hotel ballroom or from the basement rec room to a four floor gymnasium. Of course, it could be haunted, too.

Hi all,

Since I wanted the crater to take up as much room on my 1-inch = 4-miles scale map. I gave it a 4-inch radius. That's 16-miles in each direction from ground zero, or 803.84 square miles. The rivers would also flood the area, and there would be broken utility lines everywhere.

Yours,

Mark Rand

Hi all,

In the Champions Universe, Dr. Destroyer destroyed Detroit.

What if his base was under Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, by the southern end of the West End Bridge and he fired his orbital bombardment cannon from there, and, by the time the heroes stopped it, most, if not all, of Alleghny County was destroyed?

Would it be rebuilt? If so, would the layout look much like it once was? Would the city's name be changed? Where would The Champions, the hero team that formed after the city's rebirth, be based? Assuming PRIMUS would put a base here, where would it go?

For my fellow Pittsburghers, I add this question: What is lower, the subway tracks under downtown or the surface of the rivers under normal conditions?

Yours,

Mark Rand

Hi all,

I've finally done it. I've got the perfect solution, I hope, to the Bat Team problem.

Due to criminal action, Batman has broken most of his bones, had his identity exposed, and has sufferred a stroke. Robin (Tim) is dead. Nightwing (Dick) lives in Denver. Batgirl (Barbara) was on another case when the trouble occurred. Who will help her defend Gotham City?

Timeline wise, were in the animated Batman universe after the second series.

Also, we're in an alternate Champions Universe where John Collingsworth is the President, most superhero teams have more than one federal liaison, and the existance of the Stargate Project was recently exposed by the NID and Senator Kinsey. By the way, the SGC isn't in Colorado. It's near Gotham.

Yours,

Mark Rand

Hi all,

Here's my current idea. Batman (Bruce Wayne) and Robin (Tim Drake) were trying to climb a building that a killer was in when the building explodes. Batman's suffered a stroke and had most of his bones shattered, Robin's dead and a someone removed their masks.

Now it's up to Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) and Nightwing (Dick Grayson), who were on another case, to keep Gotham City safe. How would they proceed?

Yours,

Mark Rand

Thank you for the good points to ponder.

I prefer mansions or estates for headquarters because they're easy to find locations for. According to the Buffy fanfic I'm getting inspiration from, their base is a former Enron compound just outside the city. There could be others like it nearby. One other option, if you're using GURPS IST as a base and have decided thay're part of UNTIL, is to build an office building in town or, if the IST has been in existance for a while, let them have a compound, like IST Kingston, Jamaica. It would serve as an R&R spot for heroes as well as a team base.

As far as aircraft go, I find the ones superhero teams use fall into two catigories. Either they're prototype aircraft loaned to the team for testing or, especially with a branch office team, well-known aircraft. Either way, the air force will know about them and may even provide flight crews.

With the IST, the heroes would probably follow the lead of Buffy's associates and use military aircraft.

My original concept was to have Las Vegas's team be a branch team of an established, federally-sanctioned team.

Guardian, the team leader, wears powered armor that was built by his, now deceased father.

Warder, the team's mage, was discussed in a previous post.

The team's headquarters mansion once belonged to Warder's teacher. Since it's a mage's house, its bigger on the inside than the outside.

Taking a concept from some post seventh-season Buffy fan fiction, the Las Vegas area is also home to the nerve center for 4,000 Slayers worldwide. Some stay in Vegas, while others are scattered throughout the world. (Buffy and Giles are in Cleveland, keeping an eye on the Hellmouth there.) The price they paid for staying in Vegas was to do things by the book, learn criminology and teach vampire-fighting techniques to various police forces. At least one Slayer helps federal, state and local agencies keep a watch at the main airport and one's usually with the CSI teams.

Yours,

Mark Rand

Hi all,

Thanks for your comments.

I've read the Tremors: the Series thread, but it doesn't have much game date in it. I do have the graboid writeup, the scifi.com Tremors information and the movies and series on tape.

The team will be federally sanctioned.

Would a hotel/casino sponsor a team for publicity/good will and to backup its in house team?

Luxor's could have an Egyptian theme while Excalibur's would have an Arthurian one.

Warder, the team's mage, who has a screech owl for a familiar, is a UNLV graduate and was part of their student hero team. She could act as a mentor to them and consultant to the university, and federal agencies on mystical matters.

Hi all,

Before Pittsburgh, even before Gotham City, the campaign city was going to be Las Vegas. We would have crossovers with CSI: Crime Scene Investigations and Tremors: the Series once I figure out where Prefection and Bixby are and how the sheriff (a county official) could give orders to the city police.

Ideas and comments are welcome.

Yours,

Mark Rand

Hi all,

My idea, mentioned on another thread, for the Champions setting up branch office or franchise teams was based on the assumption that they were THE premier team in the CU, and in its versions in other universes.

Here's what I would do with 100-points for Defender and Witchcraft. I don't have ideas about the others, yet.

Defender: martial arts skills and flash defense.

Witchcraft: replace the multipower with a VPP limited to known spells, buy off the underconfidence and shyness and get a better costume.

The team's aircraft should be capable of going into space and two more members of the support staff, an electronics technician or engineer and either a nurse or a doctor.

Yours,

Mark Rand

I'm getting good ideas for my Pittsburgh campaign from this thread.

Hi all,

How many of you read Frank Miller's Sin City books? I do and I'm thinking of adding a neighborhood like Old Town to Pittsburgh. Instead of the treaty, I'd like to take a page out of Mike Surbrook's Kazei 5 PBEM RPG and use a zero zone (or zero law enforcement zone).

People with large checking accounts (possibly including VIPER or the mob) forced Congress to approve legislation that would permit cities to create these zones.

They then pressured Pittsburgh City Council to create one, hoping to run it. Some local prostitutes had other ideas. Calling a town meating, that not everyone attended, they passed tough new laws for their nine square block area and made sure the area media outlets and governments know about it. One good point is that everyone is armed and not afraid to use their weapons on lawbreakers.

More to come.

Yours,

Mark Rand

Thanks for the information. I'm creating a campaign set in my home town, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (see the Pittsburgh 5E thread for more info) and I thought a "branch office" team might work. Of course, since we're not in the CU, I can decide that the Champions were formed here by Guardian and Lady Arcane.