Mark Rand

Yeah, it is cool.

Hi all,

The Extra-Dimensional stuff is gone. The federal liaisons are not watching Batman, trying to discover something about him for their agencies. If he knows they're there, he hasn't let on.

In the second Batman Animated series, the one with Superman, Batman meets occult expert Jason Blood, the host of the demon Etrigan. Batman considers him an expert on occult and magic and has no reason not to trust him. Jason told Batman about the Slayer (as in Buffy). Batman met her once, while investigating a mass murder. "Vampires," the Slayer, an athletic-looking black woman with braided, black hair that hugged her skull. "With this many bodies in one place, it looks like we have a nest somewhere."

"You're the expert here," Batman said, noting that she wore black motorcycle leathers combat boots and leather gloves and had a black backpack on. "Jason Blood told me how to check them. I'll make sure the morgue people make sure none turn into vampires."

"Good." With that, she slipped into the shadows.

The Bat Team concept comes from the Batman RPG book, a supliment for the second edition of Mayfairs DC Heroes RPG. In it, Batman, wondering who would protect Gotham if something happens to him, Robin, Nightwing and Batgirl creates the Bat Team. They're a group of novice heroes that he selects and trains. He knows their identities and they know those of his senior associates. He provides them with a well-paying job, in their field, with Wayne Enterprises, that doesn't take up too much time, and makes arrangements for their quarters in a middle-class neighborhood. They have to report to the Batcave at 9am each day for training and each night for patrol. Chrissy and the nurse live in Wayne Manor as Bruce's guests and change clothes in their Batcave quarters, which is about the size of a hotel room with two twin beds. Since Chrissy drives a race car for fun (in SCCA-sanctioned amateur events), she keeps her car, trailer and motorhome in Bruce's garage.

Remember, voting deadline is 6PM Eastern time this coming Monday. Thank you for your attention.

Yours,

Mark Rand

Good points, GenreFiend. Somehow, I keep forgetting them. With your permission, I'll randomly assign your vote to one of the five other cities.

Hi all,

In my opinion, one of the more interesting NPC types is the cat burglar. A cat can be anyone from a punk breaking into a house to a master burglar that steals only for hire. A cat can also be a reformed burglar who now helps heroes.

A cat can also be an intelligence agent that either burglarizes on occasion or one that does only that. Some private detectives and heroes in Dark Champions campaigns arso commit burglaries either to gather evidence or plant bugs or recover something that was stolen.

You're challenged to create a burglar or post one that you have created.

Meow.

Yours,

Mark Rand

GenreFiend, thanks for your post. If Batman had, due to suffering a stroke, retired, would you feel the same way?

Hi all,

I should've given you 6PM EDST on Monday, September 22, 2003 as the cutoff time for your comments and votes. Sorry.

Just bought it today at Phantom of the Attic in Pittsburgh. Very well done.

Hi all,

More Bat stuff for your consideration.

Wolf Girl was originally created, using HeroMachine, an on-line hero design program, for another thread. Her costume's a dark-grey and black long-sleeve and full-footed unitard that covers most of her body and has her symbol, a wolf head, in dark-grey, on her chest, black elbow-length gloves and knee-high boots, and a black, full-face mask that leaves her red hair visible. When she shifts to wolf, or wolfoid form, her fur is black and dark-grey with red highlights.

Black Scorpion's car looks like a matt-black 2001 Pontiac Ram-Air TransAm. However, it has equipment that would make James Bond or Michael Knight drool.

The NSA liaison always wears gloves, choosing the right ones for her clothes. She claims that she likes the way she looks, but Chrissy thinks she's trying to keep her fingerprints from being taken.

I'm beginning to wonder if I made the right choice in going with Gotham City. Will you help me decide? The cities up for consideration are: Colorado City, Colorado (where Colorado Springs is); Gotham City, New Jersey; Las Vegas, Nevada; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (my home town); San Angelo, California and Washington, D.C. In order to decide, I'll ned your input. I'll cast my vote, then roll dice for another. Post your opinions here by Monday, September 22, 2003 at 6PM EST. Her's my vote, Pittsburgh. What can I say? It's a 'Burg thing. The dice say Gotham. In case of a tie, I'll make a random selection. If nobody else votes, it'll be Pittsburgh.

Comments and votes are requested.

Yours,

Mark Rand

I like this thread. It's giving ideas for the utility belts my Dark Champions characters can have in their utility belts.

Hi all,

This book is on my list of books to buy, as is VIPER. I'd like to see bladed weapons, from a simple knife to a lightsaber, or, if you prefer, an energy sword.

Yours,

Mark Rand

I remember seeing Storn's wonderful art in "Justice, Not Law", which was a Dark Champions sourcebook. There was a group there whose insignia had an IT on it. What did that stand for and are there any images of them?

Anyone know where I can find floor plans for a funeral home, preferably one with cremation facilities?

Hi all,

More minor stuff for you to look over and comment on. I hope some people who have read these postings, but haven't comment will do so.

The map of Gotham City we're using is the one in the books. I have, however, renamed the places that DC Comics named after people that have worked on the Batman books.

The city liaison is Commissioner Gordon. The county, DOSPA and PRIMUS liaisons work through him. The FBI liaison should, too. This will help Batman seem to be an "Urban Myth" instead of a real person.

The NSA liaison started out the same way, but Batman eventually trusted her enough to let her know Chrissy's identity. She's under orders from the NSA director not to report anything that Batman tells her is secret.

The gateway transporter creates a rift into a pocket reality where buildings from Earths where all life has died out have been placed. The hotel, where the gateway sends from was near a Denver airport in 1967. In that reality, like in ours then, airline stewardesses wore gloves as part of their uniforms. There was also, according to signs on the lobby, an Islamic women's group was holding a conference in the hotel. The church next to it was from Lansing, Michigan. Signs in the lobby indicated that a health fair, sponsored by the county health department and the church, was in progress in the basement. The next block consisted of stores, restaraunts and bars from Chicago.

The team's nurse is a childhood friend of Chrissy's. Although she originally wore scrubs, she now wears white uniforms and a cap from the other reality.

More later.

Yours,

Mark Rand

Ben, I love the characters and concept. Keep up the good work.

According to the 2001 Rand McNalley Road Atlas, there are mountain ranges in the extreme northwestern part of New Jersey, where in borders Pennsylvania and New York.

Hi all,

More random thoughts for you to comment on.

Since Batman likes to be in control of his teammates, would he let them use a separate cave?

The three transporter sets were discovered by Batman when he was exploring an area in the Barcave that a minor quake uncovered. Although, on the surface, it only rattled windows, it was strong enough to unblock the entrance. After examining them, Batman discovered that they were from an ancient race that died out before dinosaurs existed and figured out how to work them.

Batman's engineer, Chrissy, comes from a wealthy Gotham family. The safehouse the support staff and liaisons use is the guesthouse on her family's estate. Only she, the nurse, and Batman can use the transporter going there.

The second transporter links the Batwing (Batplane) hanger to the Batcave.

The last transporter goes to a pocket reality found by the ancient race. Their race died out before they could explore it.

Only two liaisons live in the safehouse, the FBI liaison, a female agent with an amulet that lets her become a couger and the NSA liaison, a black-bag operations specialist who accepted the assignment after acting as locksmith for a DEA team that raided a well-connected drug distributer in Washington, D.C.

Two novice heroines have been chosen. One is Black Scorpion, a kunoichi, or female ninja. Her costume is, with two exceptions, the regular ninja garb. The exceptions are: gloves with retractable claws and a ski mask with mesh over the mouth instead of the regular ninja mask. The other is Wolf Girl, who can change into either a wolfoid, wolf-human hybred, or a timber wolf.

Comments, please.

Yours,

Mark Rand

Wolf Girl.JPG is under 40K.

Good points, Darth Sarcastic. Thank you.

My idea was to have a President that, due to some bureaucratic mixup, was never informed of the project come by, with news crews, to find out why someone was spending over one billion annually on a "deep space stellar telemetry station". After General Hammond explains everything to him, he thinks it's a joke until SG-1 returns from a mission.

To the dismay of his Secret Service agents, and General Hammond, the President said, "I want to go through the Stargate, General. I was a United States Marine for 20 years. I'm not afraid."

Hammond shook his head, then said, "Fine. I'll choose the planet and have SG-1 brief you on what you can expect."

"Agreed." Since they would be going on the trip, the Secret Service agents, pres and the President's senior staff attended, too.

Hammond chose Cimmeria. The President got a chance to meet Gairwyn.

THe upshot of this, SGC staffers get papers published and find themselves in demand as consultants to museums and various federal agencies. (Spellings and terms taken from the Stargate SG-1 RPG book.)

Note, in this version, Jolinar is still in Samantha (she killed the ashrak) and Sha're (having had Amaunet crushed by Thor's Hammer) are both in SG-1. (Thor's Hammer now makes the same exception for Samantha/Jolinar that it does for Teal'c.

As far as military superheroes goes, there's, according to the Champions Universe book, Victory formerly astronomer, USAF fighter pilot and shuttle astronaut Kristine Griswold. The Joint Chief's could easily have briefed her on the SGC and, since she can travel in hyperspace, and loves to explore outer space, she could've even met the Tok'ra, Asgard or Goa'uld there.

Yours,

Mark Rand

Hi all,

Tried to attatch Wolf Girl.JPG, but no luck. Anyone that wants to see it can email me at jakelene@yahoo.com and put Wolf Girl in the subject line. I'll email it to you as an attachment.

Yours,

Mark Rand

Yeah. Now all I have to do is figure out how to get it to attach, then you'll get to see it. Since you folks are the experts, can you tell me how to do it?

Hi all,

Thanks for the advice. I found Wolf Girl and, since I don't have the money for Photoshop, edited the image in Paint.

Hopefully, the file is attached. If it is, I'd like an honest assessment of my work from the you folks.

Wolf Girl is for a Dark Champions campaign set in Gotham City. She's a martial artist with enhanced senses and dexterity that are equal to those of a wolf. I may also give her the ability to change into one.

Yours,

Mark Rand

Hi all,

I'm considering dropping Statgate Command into my Champions game, which is set in Gotham City in an alternate Champions Universe, where alians aren't known to exist and Statgate Command is 30-miles northwest of Gotham, near Eagle Air Force Base.

Would the existance of the Stargate be made public? What extra security would the SGC have? Would they have arrangements with PRIMUS or Batman? Would they have their own superhero team?

Comment is requested.

Yours,

Mark Rand

Watch Stargate SG-1 on the Sci-Fi channel Monday nights from 7-11 pm eastern time. The Goa'uld are very open in the way they attack, too.

Thanks for the suggestion, Blue. For some reason, it didn't work. On my machine, print screen (prt scr) shares a key with sysrq, and print screen's the one above the line.

Any suggestions?

Hi all,

The Stargate SG-1 RPG arrived at my local game store yesterday and I was the first one to pick it up. The book, a 488 page hardback, is well worth its $50.00 cost.

Yours,

Mark Rand