Edited to respond to the just-barely-ahead-of-me Violet post. :P
Also, I read up on Everyman (it's exactly what it says on the package!) and Combat Piloting (It's exactly what it says on the package!) :)
So, GM needs to know what you're doing before going forward. Options :
A) Cheap base on farm, expensive base in town.
B) Cheap base in town, expensive base on farm.
C) Expensive base on farm, no base in town.
D) Expensive base in town, no base on farm.
E) Cheap base on farm or in town, Expensive vehicle as mobile base.
F) Expensive base on farm or in town, Cheap vehicle as mobile base.
G) Moderate base, cheap base, cheap vehicle.
Once that decision is made, I can go forward and we can figure out what you want in each base.
If there's no chance for (H) Moderate Base in both town and farm, then I'm going to have to vote for B or C - we need the space for practicing, training, and letting our non-"normal" members stretch their physical and metaphorical wings.
Also, the farm would give us the chance to really uncork our powers in a safe and controlled environment.
The smaller base in town would give us a deployment point and a place to fall back to, but I think we'll get the most benefit from having the space and solitude the farm will give us.
IMO F is best
We don't really have a reason to set up in town, for a fall back we hide in any building doesn't really have to be our base.
and if Whip and Goo are every going to leave the farm we'll need a car they can hide in
Fair point!
I officially change my vote to concur with the illustrious socialite scientist.
I'm fine with F. And I'm writing a catch up post now. I missed a ton over the weekend!
F works for me.
E, because it's awesome.
F, because I'm not a troublemaker. :P
I won't buck the trend either.
Vehicle options:
Van
Truck
Limousine
1959 Cadillac hearse
Boat
Rail car
Helicopter
VTOL jet/plane (Osprey?)
Anything ground based is going to have to deal with traffic issues.
Base Options
A) Farm
B) Research Facility
C) Office Building
D) Industrial Building
Farm has the advantage of being isolated, for Goo and Whippoorwill. Also has the (dis)advantage of being outside town. Getting anything high tech will be more expensive, and easier to trace (You want a T1 line way the heck out where? Why does your farm need that much electrical power?).
Research Facility and Industrial building can cover any tech expenditures easily, but will need to regularly be inspected (Fire Marshals, Public Safety (chemical laws, etc) for example) so part will need to be hidden to hide people living there and any thing that doesn't fit with the facility naturally.
Office building is sort of a compromise building, as some tech would not be questioned (T1 lines, slightly higher power draw), and only some inspections (Fire Marshal inspections).
Vehicle Options :
A) Van
B) Truck
C) Limo
D) Hearse
E) Boat
F) Rail Car
G) Helicopter
H) VTOL
Van - May be too small to carry everyone, but can blend in well. Delivery van (such as current one) can hold everyone , but that's about it (UPS sized van). Has to deal with traffic.
Truck - A large delivery truck or an 18 wheeler would hold everyone, and have enough room to outfit with some tech and other nice things. Has to deal with traffic. Blends in.
Limo/Hearse - Large, distinctive, hard to drive, doesn't blend in, and only enough room to hold the group, nothing else. Worst of all worlds.
Boat - Very restrictive of movement around the city. Easier to blend in.
Rail Car - Lots of room. Fixed location. No way to get it moved on demand around the city where it can go on tracks due to not having control over rails. Doesn't blend in outside of rail yard, blends in awesomely in rail yard.
Helicopter - Ignores traffic. Requires dedicated pilot. City has an international airport in the middle, so flight paths are restricted. Hard to hide the movements due to airport being nearby with radar. Must be registered, easy to trace. Holding everyone would require a large helicopter (Like a Sikorsky S-92 or a MIL Mi-26) if you wanted anything in it besides the people.
VTOL - Similar to a Limo/Hearse but worse. No space, highly restricted, extremely noticeable and traceable. Does ignore traffic.
I definitely like the idea of a Semi or Rail Car. I hadn't even thought about having our own little train. :P
Having high speed internet is valuable, but I'm not sure necessary. I think Rocket and Hotaru are the only ones who would -really- appreciate it. While I like the idea of having a 'research' building, it'd probably be best to keep that to a 'smaller' base, if we have it at all. The farm should be our focus so Whip and Goo have places they can be actively. A research building would be nice, because we do have a few people with tech and science in their builds, and being able to put that to use would be nice.
Just be aware, even on the farm, Goo and Whip are probably being nocturnal, not out during the day.
Is there anything 'obvious' we can do to let them be diurnal at all?
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Tending an orchard? Corn fields? Sitting on the covered porch sipping mint juleps?
Goo would probably be ok if he was dressed up in full clothing, and some makeup (From a distance). Cap, wig, overalls, long sleeve shirt, gloves, makeup.
Whip would probably be ok if she put on a western duster. Wouldn't work up close, but from a distance, she'd look like someone with a hunch back.
Wasn't the whole idea of the farm is that it's remote enough that Whip and Goo can go outside without worrying about a disguise? If we're homebound either way, we might as well go with a large warehouse/office building in the city. We can get more bang for the buck, er, character point.
After looking at the pros and cons I think the city might be better maybe with a vehicle. Goo really won't go outside much all he wants is a lab.
Sorry, let me clarify, if you're being watched on the farm, you will need to do those minimal things to cover up (the full body cover for Goo and duster for Whip). If you're not being watched, nobody will notice you, obviously. No eyes = no disguise needed.
The advantage of the farm is, you have lots of land people have to trespass on to get close enough to see you, so more warning that you need to take cover/cover up. Drones on the other hand, might still see you, if someone sends one your way. Not saying it's going to happen, just pointing out that even on the farm, you could be seen walking around without disguise. So it's really how paranoid you are.
That, and 'Flying at night on the farm' is a thing.
Flying at night in the city... is totally not.
Unless you're just not worried about being seen. Which is kind of what happens when we opt to save people. :)
Well, if that's the case (and since Goo isn't all that concerned with going outside), why not go with a good base in the city and maybe the vehicle as a mobile base? It sounds like the farm is just for Whip, which wouldn't be a good use of our resources. It would just leave nighttime flying for her, but she's got some training in stealth.
Well, likewise, from the incharacter perspective... Hotaru would be aiming for the Farm for Goo and Whip. If Whip expressly states that the city will be fine, sure! But If she's gonna be constantly mopey about not getting to fly enough, then I need for Hotaru to have not been at fault for losing the argument that they needed the farm for Whip to have a place to fly :p
In short... it wouldn't at all be fair for the character who would argue for the farm to feel bad because we didn't get the farm for you :p
I'm kind of split between Research and Office Building. Research is clearly -better- for a ton of things, but we'd have to be really careful about setting up hidden spaces. We'd likely need help with that, in fact.
Missed Hotaru's post.
I think I can get away with night flying as long as I don't hang around in spotlights. People by nature don't look up all that often, especially at night, and even if they catch something out of the corner of the eye, they'll likely think it a big bird like an owl.
And you're right, once we start saving people, it's going to be hard keeping the secret. I'm not going to follow Pa Kent's advice in Man of Steel, "maybe" letting the kids die to keep the big secret.
Well, likewise, from the incharacter perspective... Hotaru would be aiming for the Farm for Goo and Whip. If Whip expressly states that the city will be fine, sure! But If she's gonna be constantly mopey about not getting to fly enough, then I need for Hotaru to have not been at fault for losing the argument that they needed the farm for Whip to have a place to fly :p
In short... it wouldn't at all be fair for the character who would argue for the farm to feel bad because we didn't get the farm for you :p
Likewise, Violet's looking for the solution that would get as many members of the team out and about and not hiding away like shut-ins as possible. So the Farm sticks out.
That being said, if Ty Gooman is good with a lab until needed, and Briana Von Angelus is going to become Batwoman (after a fashion), I say something more central is fine by me.
A little more direct: My vote goes along with Whip's vote. City if City, Farm if Farm.
If it goes down to City, what will we have to spend to add a secondary portion of the base that's concealed? I understand that you can add partial pricing for that sort of thing. (Not just hidden in plain sight, but legitimately hidden)
You buy a Concealment skill for the base. Anyone searching for hidden places uses the concealment skill in an opposed skill contest.
So we're moving forward with F? I'm kind of lost
I think so. But I believe we're going with the base on the city, though we haven't worked that out in character yet.
Yup! We're at 'F', and then we add in things like 'City v. Country'
At the moment, most people seem to be voting for City.
With 'City' comes 'Lab v. Office'
Then we also have to pick our mode of transport, since we're buying a small mobile base. My vote is for rail car -or- Semi.
We don't specifically have to work it out in character unless you guys want to. That can add a lot of time unless we ping pong it quickly. :)
But having everything ironed out over here might be wise, first. :)
I agree it is better to iron out in the discussion. I can work with anything as far as the base goes. Here is my input; I think city will work better for a base and semi is better for the vehicle, with a rail car I see way too many problems getting around.
I can see a warehouse in the industrial portion of the city with a loading bay to park the semi. We can build down (concealed portion).
But that doesn't cover any extra power we pull from the grid if we do anything big. Pulse doesn't plan to do big things (at the moment!) do you guys? If not, office building or warehouse is good. Warehouse has the benefit of giving some wingspan to Whip. :)
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I can't think of any big power draws that we'll need. If need be, Rocket could generate quite a bit of power with a treadmill-turbine, right?
I'd thought of that as well. And the Semi would be able to bring in tons of food for him. Yay for Biofuel! ;)
4600 is neat because it's a church. And we already know Whip would be comfortable there. :P
5033 is likewise nice, because it looks to have once been a clothing shop. Maybe we could hook up with the spider from the other team for our own clothing line ;)
10837 is pretty darn sizable. Especially if we 'dig in'.
In addition to 'Rail Car' and 'Semi' you also have 'Bus' as a large vehicle. Private busses are more recognizable than Semi, but easier to drive around and less conspicuous.
Also, I like The Masonic Temple for sale next to the University personally. It's got character (and a 9th story roof for people wanting to fly under cover of darkness).
Ooooh, I like!
Centrally located, close to the college...
Of course, the coolest HQ would be Cincinnati's Union Terminal. Hall of Justice FTW!
Oh man. The temple wins, soooo handily.
The bus makes sense as well, but isn't 'modular' like a truck would be. We could have spare trailers hanging around as living space/work space etc, that could easily be swapped out, if we wanted to do that.
Semi is -definitely- a problem to move -around- St Louis, though, I agree. But it also has the convenient loading and unloading while 'docked'. Though, I guess a Bus could also roll into a garage. :)
Rail car just has sooo much flavor to not use. And it can literally be built like a tank without anyone batting an eye...
Also, I like The Masonic Temple for sale next to the University personally. It's got character (and a 9th story roof for people wanting to fly under cover of darkness).
I like it, great location plus character.
The temple costs 6mil which is what Aegis makes in a year but she likely has enough saved to get it
Likewise, naming ourselves the 'Brotherhood of Man' just gets fricking awesome if we ever 'come out' as it were. Since it's been etched on our front door since the place was built. :p
Likewise... you just offered to let Aegis buy a -temple- to herself. If that's not an incharacter buy, I don't know what is. :P
For 'Modular' you'd have to buy multiple semi's anyway. For that, you could buy multiple buses and just park them.
The temple seems to have a large parking lot. And if that's not enough, you could convert one of the ground floor conference rooms into an internal parking garage. Either way, Whip should be able to fly around in it. :)
Also, buying the temple for Aegis would be about like a McDonalds worker who makes 30,000 a year buying a pickup truck. Totally not a major outlay. Plus, she could liquidate her holdings (she's assumed to have holdings commensurate with her wealth, which would be about 3 years of purchases) in her old location to move her startup to St. Louis.
Not to mention the tax breaks the city would give her...
Brochure The unfinished theater is big enough to be a garage, and for Whip to fly around training, and if you're careful and reinforce it, you could train full on power training in it.
The Modular thing is true, too. I was just thinking the 'truck' would cost separate from the several small bases that attach to them, maybe. I don't know.
But that being said, I think the Buses would be considerably more mobile.
Likewise, naming ourselves the 'Brotherhood of Man' just gets fricking awesome if we ever 'come out' as it were. Since it's been etched on our front door since the place was built. :p
Made doubly ironic since 2/3 of our group are female!