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Playing City of Heroes again reminded me of the Midnighters / Midnight Club / Midnight Squad. It's the BPRD, but as an NGO. This passage in the lore caught my eye: Unlike many of the other hero organizations that have blossomed and then faded in Paragon City's past, the Midnight Squad has endured in one form or another since the 1920's. This amazing record of success stems entirely from the fact that the Squad has never been a formal team of heroes like the Freedom Phalanx or Dawn Patrol. Instead it is more like a very exclusive private club, the only requirement for which is that you know a great deal about magic and the occult. Members come and go, but the club remains. I think there's something to that. In this PBP format, at least, attempts to organize Justice League or Avengers style "teams" have met with limited success at best. But an affiliation organized more along the lines of a traditional gentlemens club, working mens club, or similar fraternal organization, might work better. The idea I'm brainstorming is a private club for Bedlam City vigilantes, probably with an emphasis on the supernatural ones (whom I believe make up the majority, as befitting a town that's basically on top of a Buffy-style Hellmouth), but not exclusive to them, based out of a central location which can act as a meeting place, temporary safehouse (for the heroes or their guests), and/or permanent residence for one or more of the heroes. The building could also act as a centralized, collaborative library, workshop, and storage space. The club members would have a vague obligation to provide aid and hospitality to other members in need, which would provide a ready-made excuse for any members to thread with each other. Maybe the club would actually exist on paper as a 501c7 tax-exempt member-funded social club, or maybe not. I could see reasons for both approaches. Mechanically, I assume the building would be a Headquarters which I'd pay for; other PCs could contribute Equipment ranks if they wanted to, but I don't think it would be necessary. Maybe members could spend 1PP on a Feature representing access to the club. The descriptor could just be their name on the rolls, or a physical object, or even an invisible magic tattoo which only appears when they want to enter the club or otherwise identify themselves as members. Maybe the building could have the Sealed feature, and thanks to protective wards, it would only be physically accessible to Feature-having members and their explicit guests. Maybe the HQ could also have features like Personnel, Self-Repairing, and Defense Systems, represented by ghosts and/or revenants (serving voluntarily, of course - maybe damned souls who signed up to work off karmic debts and escape Hell?). Being a literal haunted house would be very on-brand. Strix is doing the Spawn thing right now, penniless and squatting in an abandoned house, so I'd have to come up with some reason for him to come into money, and possibly get himself a consensual Renfield. I'm open to suggestions on that front. Has the name "Midnighters" or some variant been used on this board before? I've seen it pop up in enough places that I don't remember.

This is a thread to collaborate on threads for Emerald City, specifically for ways to get FC heroes out to the West Coast, either temporarily or permanently. It's also a place for those who have the book to help those that don't.