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.

Monolith, can you tell me where I can find information on these two teams?

As I recall, Marvel has been creating "branch offices" for their most powerful team, The Avengers and one old Marvel RPG module had the Avengers franchise program. Would the Champions do something like that?

Hi all, Although I'm working on Pittsburgh 5E, I think a Batman campaign is possible, if one can counter Batman's "I make the rules" style. I'm thinking of an Elseworlds Batman campaign, in the Batman movie universe, after the fourth movie. Batman has started, and is training, a team of novice heroes to protect Gotham if something happens to him. As part of the deal, he provides them with apartments and positions at Wayne Enterprises that don't require much of their time. He is willing to work with liaisons, provided they meet his requirements and prove trustworthy. So far, the only one who has is a female NSA agent that plays by his rules. He knows magic exists but uses it as little as possible. So far, all he permits are two gateways, one allowing the liaison to get to her apartment (it's keyed only to her) and the one leading to a pocket reality where buildings from Earths where people have died out are. He also, knowing that vampires, demons and other undead exist, lets the Slayer deal with them. Aside from Alfred, his support staff consists of a mother-daughter team. The mother'is a nurse who still wears white uniforms and a cap. The daughter's an electronics engineer who is also an expert with vehicles. Their cover is that of Bruce's houseguests. As part of that, they're both involved in amateur motorsports. The daughter races a Ford Probe in the SCCA's GT-3 class and drives the pace car at a track Bruce ownes. Her mother crews for her. Yours, Mark Rand

Hi all, I'm sure some of you have created either cat burglars or spys or private detectives that have cat burglar skills. Let's see them here so that everyone can use them. That goes for the folks that read the thread, but don't post, too. Yours, Mark Rand

Hi all, Time to tell you what changes I have in mind for Pittsburgh. The super-metal factory, suggested by Hermit, is in the RIDC industrial Park Northeast of the city. The Penguins were bought by the owners of the factory, instead of Mario and his group. When they took over, the new CEO announced plans to fund, build and a new arena for the Pens, a new hotel-convention center for the city and, in Washington County, a motorsports complex. Opposition from The Sports and Exibition Authority Board, who were afraid of losing political power, forced him to build the hotel-convention center and ice arena in Washington County. Now, tax dollars are going there. Oops. Staying in Washington County, John Gray Wolf is now security chief at The Meadows, the area's harness race track. His wife, Robin, a blue-eyed blonde cowgirl, is the new parade marshall. Her horses are Leopard Apalossas, white with dark spots all over. The motorsports facility has a dragstrip that serves as the front straight for a 1/2 mile oval and a 2.8 mile road course. Part of the oval's backstretch and turn two are also part of the road course. The facility also has a figure 8 track and a go-cart track. Within the city, new entertainment spots are opening up. The Falcon's Rest, a Middle Eastern nightclub that features belly dancers is on Ninth Street near Fort Duquesne Blvd. The Sucubus Club (a goth nightclub) and the Cabaret of Magic are in the Strip District. Danny's, a jazz club, and Zorba's, a Greek bar featuring belly dancers are in Oakland. The old Buhl Planetarium was bought by the owners of the Penguins, brought up to code, and donated to the Community College of Alleghny County. Since it's open to the public when the college isn't using it, the people running the Carnegie Science Center aren't happy. Also, a new thoroughbred track is under construction in Butler County. Yours, Mark Rand