Milwaukee in the CU

[Stanley Teriaca]

While I kinda know the answer, what does the various Champions Universe products says about my home town of Milwaukee Wisconsin, beyond being a 'vacation spot' for supervillains from Chicago?

Edited June 7 by Stanley Teriaca

[Lord Liaden]

The only reference I've been able to find so far, is that it's one of the main sites for "The Arena," the underground superhuman pit-fighting circuit operating in the United States. See Champions Universe pp. 56 and 139, and Millennium City pp. 102-103, for more about the Arena.

[Hermit]

34 minutes ago, Stanley Teriaca said:

While I kinda know the answer, what does the various Champions Universe products says about my home town of Milwaukee Wisconsin, beyond being a 'vacation spot' for supervillains from Chicago?

 

After an admittedly hasty skim, nothing I can find. Milwaukee seems to be pretty open to any inventive Gamemaster's personal touches. While Chicago has a pretty well renowned super team , the Peacekeepers, it is only ONE team  and the only team (IIRC) for the second city so may not be able to race over to save Milwaukee on the regular, and certainly not patrol it. While not as close, Millennium City (Formerly Detroit) has a LOT more teams and superheros period than Chicago so 'aid' is just as likely to come from there. If it IS being used as a vacation spot by villains from the Windy City, that actually sounds like a good hook for PC heroes to assemble there and become something a home guard against same.

 

EDIT: And good on the ever lore laden Lord Liaden for getting that Arena info!

 

 

 

 

[Stanley Teriaca]

4 minutes ago, Hermit said:

While not as close, Millennium City (Formerly Detroit) has a LOT more teams and superheros period than Chicago so 'aid' is just as likely to come from there.

Yep. I can see help coming over the great Lakes over than from down south, if needed.

 

Milwaukee had two unofficial superteams, the original MetaGuard from the 90s (disassembled after The Battle For Detroit in my universe), and the SNN sponcered New MetaGuard

4 minutes ago, Hermit said:

If it IS being used as a vacation spot by villains from the Windy City, that actually sounds like a good hook for PC heroes to assemble there and become something a home guard against same.

And of course a vacation spot for Detroit also. And maybe from the Twin Cities also.

4 minutes ago, Hermit said:

 

EDIT: And good on the ever lore laden Lord Liaden for getting that Arena info!

I agree on that. I did't even know about the Arena.

4 minutes ago, Hermit said:

 

 

[Hermit]

The proximity to MC and Chicago could mean there's also overflow and access to the MARS Police Unit stuff MC has. Milwaukee might grumble about getting 'hand me downs' from those two locales, but that's still more up to date police gear than further away places like St. Louis might get, IF that's how you wanted to play it. The Ophidian plague (Sp) from Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth might have hit a city known for beer extra hard (Though this maybe an outdated view on my part) allowing you to leave fall out that persists to this day. Maybe COIL still has it's fangs deep into the underbelly of the city or VIPER is rebuilding there yet.

 

If you like ICON from Cops, Crews, and Cabals that could also have created a vacuum the younger newer organization filled in since 2005.

[Lord Liaden]

Lake Michigan is the third-largest of the Great Lakes by area and second-largest by volume. It's also directly connected to Lake Huron by the Strait of Mackinac, so together they're technically the world's largest freshwater lake. A decent place to put a hidden underwater civilization.

[Stanley Teriaca]

6 hours ago, Hermit said:

The proximity to MC and Chicago could mean there's also overflow and access to the MARS Police Unit stuff MC has. Milwaukee might grumble about getting 'hand me downs' from those two locales, but that's still more up to date police gear than further away places like St. Louis might get, IF that's how you wanted to play it.

Well, I'm sure our police chief would accept such equipment and training. And with MC, Chicago, and St. Louis on the edges with there villains (super or not), they would grugenly welcome such an assist.

 

6 hours ago, Hermit said:

The Ophidian plague (Sp) from Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth might have hit a city known for beer extra hard (Though this maybe an outdated view on my part) allowing you to leave fall out that persists to this day. Maybe COIL still has it's fangs deep into the underbelly of the city or VIPER is rebuilding there yet.

Yes, we are STILL known for our beer. With a bar on almost every corner how could we NOT be known for our beer.

 

Which would be a perfect place for a loose supervillain group designed like a union. If only there was a better name than Union of the Snake for such a team.

 

Members:

Cockatrice (mixer of bird and snake look and poisonous claws, acid poison secreations, poisonous cloud which temporary blind, scails wich resemble bird feathers, no ability to turn people to stone but plays that up by wearing special glasses which do nothing special but the heroes don't know that)

Pit Viper (snake brick which creates an area of darkness which moves with him)

Black Racer (speedster snake man)

El Q (Hispanic snake brick who can fly and styles himself as a rudo luchidor)

Blindsnake (self taught blind martial artist snake man with 'radar vision')

 

And of course a few revolving members. King Cobra is interested in the team, but only if they can be controlled by him. If not, then he will destroy them. If CoIL becomes the Union's enimies, the VIPER might swoop in to make them low level members of the Dragon Branch, maybe.

 

6 hours ago, Hermit said:

If you like ICON from Cops, Crews, and Cabals that could also have created a vacuum the younger newer organization filled in since 2005.

Sounds doable, if only I know more about them.

 

With summer here, and we are the City of Festivels, how much longer before a paramilitary criminal orginzation like VIPER hold the lake front hostage during Summerfest?

Edited June 6 by Stanley Teriaca

[Stanley Teriaca]

Considering Milwaukee IS the city of festivels, a new fest is probably M Fest (short for Mutant Fest, a celebration of Milwaukee's Mutant Community). Unforcently it is only for one day and not even on the Summerfest grounds.

 

It is also watched by the IHA.

[Lord Liaden]

Of course Milwaukee is the center of the Cult of the Fonz. 

 

[DShomshak]

Ooh. What a statue for Golem to animate!

 

Oops, Golem's possessed and animate statues are mute. He can't make the Fonz actually *say* "EEEEEIIIGH!

 

At least not without Vilsimbra to supply a suitable illusion.

 

Hm. Getting complicated, here.

 

Dean Shomshak

[wcw43921]

13 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

Lake Michigan is the third-largest of the Great Lakes by area and second-largest by volume. It's also directly connected to Lake Huron by the Strait of Mackinac, so together they're technically the world's largest freshwater lake. A decent place to put a hidden underwater civilization.

 

I always thought Lake Michigan would be the place for Stronghold II, a submerged facility accessible only by submarine.  Even if a prisoner breaks out of their cell, there's still several hundred feet of water between them and freedom.

 

My own write-up for Hypnos's mother, Doctor Bedlam, has her living in Milwaukee, although she never committed any super-crimes there, mostly out of a determination to not get caught.  You're welcome to use the character, if you like.

[Lord Liaden]

1 hour ago, wcw43921 said:

 

I always thought Lake Michigan would be the place for Stronghold II, a submerged facility accessible only by submarine.  Even if a prisoner breaks out of their cell, there's still several hundred feet of water between them and freedom.

 

 

I would recommend Lake Superior. It's significantly deeper, and being more northerly it's more sparsely populated should there be a breakout.

[wcw43921]

The advantage of Lake Michigan is that it's completely enclosed with the borders of the United States.  With Superior or any of the other Great Lakes we'd have to make some sort of arrangement with Canada--who may not wish to have a supervillain gulag that close to its borders no matter how sparsely populated the surrounding area.

[Stanley Teriaca]

7 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

Of course Milwaukee is the center of the Cult of the Fonz. 

 

Well, I can see a cult of Fennie, with there cat worship and holy song of "High Hopes".

[Hermit]

10 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

Of course Milwaukee is the center of the Cult of the Fonz. 

 

 

I actually thought about Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley being based in Milwaukee. My brain went to a 'Captain Universe' kind of situation on a local scale.

 

Every now and then, when there is no other hero to save the day, a good person in the city limits finds themselves adorned in the jacket of the Fonz, and gifted with superior physique, fighting skills, and the power of cool! (High Presence, Ability to fix devices with a tap, and a kind of Plot armor because bleeding is only so cool)

When the minor crisis is averted, the person finds the jacket is gone, and they feel their old selves again.

 

 

[Lord Liaden]

  

10 hours ago, DShomshak said:

Ooh. What a statue for Golem to animate!

 

 

1 hour ago, Hermit said:

 

I actually thought about Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley being based in Milwaukee. My brain went to a 'Captain Universe' kind of situation on a local scale.

 

 

Those are both fine ideas. But there's also no reason the concepts couldn't be combined -- the statue itself comes to life in times of need. Super-strength and durability already implicit.

 

The statue is officially called "The Bronze Fonz." If that isn't a superhero nickname, I don't know what is. 😎

[novi]

One more reference, from the 5e VIPER book, is that the VIPER Academy is located in southeast Wisconsin.  This is where recruits go to get trained up and become agents.  The newly built planned community of "Honor" houses "The Greene Hill Lodge and Spa".  It is supposedly a retreat for overstressed business travelers, but it's all VIPER.  It's even functional, as recruits get a few days of pampering on either end of the training course in the underground base.

 

I think that the VIPER Academy being in Wisconsin supports the idea that Milwaukee, and by extension the rest of Wisconsin, is a quiet part of the CU.  Which makes sense, as Chicago and the Twin Cities are larger and richer targets on either side of Wisconsin (literally - each has a Federal Reserve Bank).

 

On a certain level, I've long thought of Wisconsin as the 'Lovecraft Country' of the Midwest.  We've had an excess of serial killers, plenty of cryptids, and all kinds of Native American sites.  And a plethora of seemingly idyllic small towns...

[Lord Liaden]

Excellent catch, novi, thank you! The book entry even specifies that the Academy is "not far from Milwaukee."

 

I don't have that book in PDF, and the index doesn't have a "Milwaukee"  listing, so I wouldn't have caught that detail without luck. (See, you shouldn't just wait for me.) 😜

 

1 hour ago, novi said:

On a certain level, I've long thought of Wisconsin as the 'Lovecraft Country' of the Midwest.  We've had an excess of serial killers, plenty of cryptids, and all kinds of Native American sites.  And a plethora of seemingly idyllic small towns...

 

There's a small lake in CU Maine called Sunday Pond, which is the center of a wide variety of odd local phenomena. This is due to a nearby "dimensional convergence" through which forces, and sometimes beings, from beyond our universe leak through. It certainly wouldn't be hard to drop something of comparable influence into Wisconsin. (Sunday Pond is detailed in Hidden Lands.)

Edited June 7 by Lord Liaden

[Stanley Teriaca]

1 hour ago, novi said:

On a certain level, I've long thought of Wisconsin as the 'Lovecraft Country' of the Midwest.  We've had an excess of serial killers, plenty of cryptids, and all kinds of Native American sites.  And a plethora of seemingly idyllic small towns...

Well, in the serial killer front we had in the area Ed Griend (Plainsvill) and of course Jeffry Dahmer. The thing is, we tend to not actualy know how many till they get caught.

 

Also Milwaukee is known as the place black people go to die. This might be because of an Extradimensinal force akin to Pennywise who is affecting the murder rate to the people more open to do in fact murder. It might tie into the cryptoid world in the area.

[Stanley Teriaca]

Of course, the majority of this isn't official and us brain storming stuff up, beyond the stuff which actually is official that is. Use my posts with a grain of salt and a pint of beer, sometimes at the lakefront.

[Stanley Teriaca]

Here is a list of six crypids who l8've in Wisconsin.

 

https://discoverwisconsin.com/6-creepy-cryptids-call-wisconsin-home/

 

Out of all of them, The Beast of Bray Road is perhaps more known.

[Stanley Teriaca]

Trump says Milwaukee is a horrible city. How do we spring some plot ideas off of that?

[DShomshak]

As this relates to a RL political campaign on which people have extremely strong feelings, it's probably best to leave this alone.

 

Dean Shomshak

[Stanley Teriaca]

2 hours ago, DShomshak said:

As this relates to a RL political campaign on which people have extremely strong feelings, it's probably best to leave this alone.

 

Dean Shomshak

Ok. Just noting that the RNC will be held here. A tempting target for, say, Deathstroke to send a message.

 

I understand the reluctance to talk about politics as actual politics, as opposed to plot trees. So I'll won't mention it again in this thread.

Edited June 15 by Stanley Teriaca