HEADQUARTERS

Whether it’s an underground cave, the top floors of a skyscraper, a satellite in orbit, or a base on the Moon, many heroes and villains maintain their own secret (or not so secret) headquarters. Teams may even pool their power points to have a headquarters they share, with the Gamemaster’s approval.

A character can even have multiple bases of operation. This is more common for villains, who have back-up plans and secret bases they can retreat to when their plans are defeated. If a character’s headquarters is destroyed, the character can choose to rebuild it or build a new headquarters with different features. Super-villains often go through a succession of different lairs.

Headquarters have two main traits—Size and Toughness—and a number of possible Features. Each of these costs power points.

SIZE

A structure’s size gives a general idea of the overall space it occupies and how much space is available inside it. See the Structure Size Categories table for guidelines and cost x10. A headquarters starts out at Small size for 0 points. Each increase in size category costs 10 power, whereas each decrease in size category gives you an additional 10 power to spend elsewhere and exclusively on your headquarters, although you’re not going to have a lot of room for extras!

TOUGHNESS

A headquarters’ Toughness indicates the strength of its structural materials, particularly its outer structure (walls, ceiling, etc.). A structure starts out with Toughness 6 for 0 points. +2 Toughness costs 10 power points.

POWER LEVEL

Some features refer to a headquarters’ power level. For player characters, this is the power level of the series overall. For non-player characters, particularly villains, this is the base-owner’s effective power level, or whatever power level the GM wishes to set, using the series power level as a guideline.

TIMES ALL POWER COSTS IN THIS TABLE BY 10

FEATURES

A headquarters may have a number of features, chosen from the list below. A headquarters automatically has the

basic structural amenities like doors and windows, power outlets, utilities, and so forth at no cost. Each feature has a cost and will take 1Ap each to install. You may only install one feature per turn. You can invent additional features, basing them off the ones given here, with the permission of the Gamemaster. The GM will rule on whether a feature is not allowed according to size. A room HQ isnt going to acccomodate a dedicated hangar for example.

Combat Simulator: (20 Power)

A combat simulator is a special room equipped with various devices intended to test characters’ powers and skills and allow them to train in realistic com- bat situations. Generally, a combat simulator has a suite of equipment that can simulate any appropriate attack effect at a rank up to the HQ power level.

As an additional feature, the combat simulator can project realistic illusions, allowing it to recreate or simulate almost any environment. Combat simulators are useful for train- ing and short “war games” (pitting the characters against each other or simulated opponents). Clever players also can try to lure intruders into the combat simulator or an intruder might override the simulator’s control systems and trap the heroes in it, turning it into a deathtrap.

Communications: (10 Power)

The communications feature allows the headquarters to receive and transmit on a wide range of radio and TV bands, monitor police and emergency channels, coordinate communications between members of a team, and so forth. It includes communications equipment, consoles, and monitors. The system’s access to restricted communication bands depends on the clearance and skills of the user. You may have access to special government channels, while a successful basic Technology skill check (DC 25) can grant a user illegal access to restricted systems.

Computer: (5 Power)

A state-of-the-art computer system serves the entire headquarters. This allows characters to make full use of the Technology skill and the computer can be programmed to handle routine base functions (including monitoring com- munications channels and controlling defensive systems).

An artificially intelligent computer system can be designed as an advanced henchman. (+35 power).

Concealed: Ranked 1-5: (20 power each rank) The headquarters is hidden from the outside world in some way. It may be camouflaged behind a false façade, buried underground, or something similar. Note this is in addition to the Isolated feature, if any. An isolated headquarters is difficult to reach, while a concealed headquarters is difficult to find in the first place. Skill checks to locate the headquarters have their DC increased by +10. Each additional feature applied to this increases the DC +5, to a maximum of +30.

Defense System: Rank 1-10: (10 power each) A defense system consists of various weapon emplacements defending the exterior and interior of the headquarters. A defense system adds +1 to DC to stave off attacks on your HQ from intruders if henchmen are present to operate or you have AI computer to operate it.

Deathtraps: (10 power)

A villainous version of the Defense System feature is deathtraps: the villain’s lair has one or more fiendish traps suitable for disposing of those pesky heroes. Some deathtraps are designed as security systems to keep heroes out: concealed auto-guns, walls of flames, sealing rooms that fill with water or sand, and so forth. Others are intended for the slow elimination of captured heroes.

Note that not having this feature does not mean a villain cannot jury-rig a deathtrap within the lair—say, by chaining heroes beneath a rocket counting down to launch, or slowly lowering them into a volcano’s caldera. It just means there’s no part of the base specifically designed as a deathtrap.

Also note that, in spite of the name, not all “deathtraps” are necessarily lethal. Some may be intended to merely incapacitate and capture intruders (more along the lines of a Defense System), allowing the villain to interrogate them and then put them into a real deathtrap!

Dock: (50 power)

A dock houses water vehicles and includes access to a nearby waterway, an airlock, or lock system for moving vehicles in and out of the dock, and dry-dock facilities for repairing and maintaining water vehicles. The headquarters should be located within reasonable distance of a body of water to have this feature.

Fire Prevention System: (5 power)

The headquarters is equipped with an automatic system for detecting and extinguishing fires. Any large open flame sets the system off. A computer-controlled fire prevention system can be programmed to ignore certain sources of fire or the system can be placed on manual control (requiring someone to throw a switch in order to activate it).

Garage: (10 power)

A garage houses ground vehicles and includes a ramp, elevator, or other access to move vehicles in and out, facilities for repairing and maintaining vehicles, and a sliding access door.

Grounds: (10 power)

In addition to the actual building(s) of the headquarters, it has a considerable area of land surround- ing it. An HQ can have surrounding land of one size category larger than the structure at no cost, without having this feature. Having it allows for grounds up to three size categories larger than the structure, so a large mansion headquarters could have a colossal area of land.

If the headquarters has features like Defense System and Security System, they also extend over the grounds (with fences, sensors, weapon emplacements, and so forth).

Gym: (10 power)

A gym consists of weight-training and other exercise machines, space for working out, stretching, and similar exercises, and all the necessary amenities (lockers, show- ers, etc.). Some HQs may incorporate the gym feature into the combat simulator, for a multi-purpose training room. A gym may also include a pool (heated or unheated), possibly even connected to an outside body of water, to the base’s dock, or both at no additional cost.

Habitat: (20 power)

A portion of the installation is given over to an artificial environment suitable for certain plants or animals. It may be a greenhouse, arboretum, zoo, or even “living laboratory” with a self-contained ecosystem. The habitat may serve primarily as a place of rest and quiet contemplation, a home for pets or rare creatures, or have more practical uses, including the generation of oxygen (from plants) or the growth of food for the inhabitants of the installation.

Hangar: (50 power)

A hangar houses air and maybe... space vehicles. It includes a hatch and/or runway for the vehicles to launch and facilities for repairing and maintaining flying vehicles. For some HQs the launch facilities of the hangar may require a long tunnel or other access to the outside.

Holding Cells: (10 power)

These are cells for holding prisoners, usually temporarily, although some headquarters might have more permanent holding facilities. The cells basic Toughness is increased by 50%.

- This Feature may have different enhancements or upgrades, particularly in an installation designed to contain

prisoners long-term. For additional 10 power each, the cells can have the following upgrades:

- “Punishment” cells

- Impervious on the Toughness of the cells. (You would need very advanced super powers to break in or out)

- Sleeper” cells (that keeps prisoners incapacitated).

Infirmary: (10 power)

An infirmary consists of hospital beds and equipment for the full use of the Treatment skill.

Isolated: (80 power) Headquarters with this feature are situated somewhere out of the way, the antartic, the bottom of the ocean, on top of a lonely mountain peak.. The base’s owner doesn’t have to worry about things like door-to-door salesmen or other unwanted visitors but the headquarters is also far from civilization. The headquarters is assumed to provide all the necessary life support for its location, but doesn’t provide characters with the means to get to the base or travel back. They need the appropriate powers, a vehicle, or similar. It takes travel time of 1 full turn to travel to your HQ and back. For each full turn spent there your Footprint will drop by D20.

Laboratory: (20 power)

A laboratory is a facility for performing scientific tests or experiments. It contains all the necessary scientific equipment, including dedicated computers, if the headquarters doesn’t have its own computer system. Characters can use the laboratory to perform research, study unusual phenomena, and so forth. A laboratory may be required for certain Expertise, Investigation, or Technology skill checks, or provide a circumstance bonus to those checks.

Library: (10 power)

A library allows for use of various Knowledge skills when doing research. A library may consist of printed matter (books and periodicals), microfilm, digital files, or a combination of all three. A library may facilitate certain Expertise skill checks and provide a circumstance bonus for them.

Living Space: (5 power) The headquarters includes all the necessary amenities for people to live there fulltime. This is usually a number of residents equal to the HQ’s size level cost. It includes bedrooms or private suites, kitchen facilities, dining area, and common living areas. Characters can live in a headquarters lacking this feature short-term, but they’re not likely to be very comfortable.

Personnel: (10 power) The HQ has a staff of personnel commensurate with its size and facilities. The staff is made up of characters created and controlled by the GM and tasked with servicing the headquarters. As such, they shouldn’t be considered henchmen of the occupant(s). A base’s personnel may help defend it in case of attack, but they’re not going to go out on missions or otherwise assist outside of their duties. This feature simply ensures there’s someone taking care of the place while the owner isn’t at home.

Note that an HQ’s personnel do not have to be ordinary humans they could be animals or other...

Power System: (20 power)

A power system makes the headquarters completely independent of outside power. It has its own generators (which may be solar, geothermal, nuclear, cosmic, or anything else the designer reasonably can explain). They provide the base’s entire power needs. The headquarters also has emergency back-up power should the generators fail. This generally lasts for a number of hours equal to the HQ’s size level +1.

Remote Feature: (10 power)

One of the installation’s Features is separate from the main structure, such as a laboratory in an isolated area (for safety and security) or a hangar high in the mountains overlooking an installation in a valley far below.

Secret: 1-5 (10 power each)

This is similar to the Concealed feature except the headquarters is not so much concealed as it is “hiding in plain sight,” its existence as a headquarters unknown. So, for example, people assume the abandoned house on the hill or the old, closed-down factory are just that. This feature increases the DCs of checks to discover the lair— typically starting at DC +10, with each additional application increasing them by +5 to a maximum of +30 (for truly “top-secret” locations).

Security System: 1-5 (10 power each) Various locks and alarms protect the headquarters from unauthorized access. A Technology check (DC 20) overcomes these systems. Each additional feature increases the DC by +5, to a maximum of DC 40. The security system may be tied into a defense system (if the headquarters is equipped with that feature), so trig- gering an alarm activates the defense system to disable or restrain the intruder(s).

Trophy Room: (10 power)

The installation has an area specifically dedicated to storing and displaying various trophies, souvenirs, and keepsakes acquired by its owner(s). A trophy room may function primarily as an archive and museum, a storehouse, a monument to its owner’s ego, or some combination thereof. In game terms, the trophy room serves three primary purposes: as a source of adventure hooks involving the items and information stored there, as a source of complications for the same reasons, and as a means for characters using the installation to spend hero points for inspirations, scene edits, and stunts connected to the contents of the trophy room.

Variable Environment: (100 power)

Beyond just adjusting thermostats and dimmer switches, the installation is capable of a full range of Environment effects, significantly altering the environment throughout, or in just a select number of rooms. Among other things, this means control over the temperature, gravity, and composition of the atmosphere (or whether there is even an atmosphere at all). This Feature can also serve as a kind of Deathtrap by flooding an area with toxic gas, evacuating all of the air, raising temperatures to fatal levels, and so forth.

Workshop: (10 power)

A workshop has all the facilities for making various things. It includes tools, workbenches, supplies, and so forth. The Gamemaster may rule certain projects require a dedicated workshop of their own (which is an additional fea- ture). For example, a workshop can easily handle woodworking, metalworking, and machining, but might not be suitable for creating high tech inventions such as if you have the inventor advantage or need to work on delicate engineering principles which require zerostatic or low temperatures or weapon protected areas. In this case each would require a separate dedicated workshop.