Context
This describes the headquarters used by MATRIX, an original super-team in a DC Heroes super-hero tabletop role-playing game campaign.
(Although we never agreed exactly on the acronym, it stands for either Multi-operative Access Tactical & Resource/Information Exchange or Merged Access to Tactical & Resource/Information Exchange.)
It is chiefly useful as inspiration in other campaigns.
This document was shared in 2007, which is important when it comes to the technical specs therein.
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General characteristics
The MATRIX Headquarters facility replaced the old Challengers HQ, which the team had to stop using during the fiasco with their wrongful death lawsuit. It was planned and built by deceased member Fastball with his own money.
It was turned over to the organization after his death and probate cleared, which was just in time for the reorganization as MATRIX. The team has been in residence for 3 years now.
Location
Northwest corner of Moonachie Avenue and Red Neck Road, adjacent to the Teterboro Airport.
This places the team less than 2 miles from the Meadowlands Sports Complex and about 6 or 7 miles from Times Square.
Construction
Almost every wall in the building is made of a special “sandwich” with outer layers of concrete filled cinder block, and an inner layer of concrete strengthened with carbon Aramid thread and other substances. These walls total about 4 feet in thickness and have Body 11.
The thinner interior walls used here and there are Body 5. The roof and floors are Body 7, except in the Weight Room.
This room has an shell of Aramid thread densely woven into its structure and has Body 14 throughout. It also floats in a large supply of heavy duty hydraulic fluid that prevents items dropped here from affecting the rest of the structure.
The doors in the building are all Body 7. With the exception of doors leading outside, any door that crosses a major wall can also act as an airlock.
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Security
Except for the bedrooms, bathrooms, and locker rooms, the entire building is wired for sight (including infrared) and sound. Normally, security recordings can be accessed only by MATRIX members and only in the Security Room (see Security Room.)
Coverage is triply redundant, with each security sensor package having its own battery back-up and limited coverage with clockwork movie cameras if all power is interrupted.
To cover arrivals/departures of hoversleds and flying characters, there is a cloaking projector on the roof. It can be operated by MATRIX transceiver or hoversled computer system. It projects a 10 meter diameter bubble of “clear air” from MATRIX HQ to the target with a maximum range of 12 AP. It gives the effect of Invisibility 4 and works against visible light, infrared and Radar.
The system has limitations: It requires a clear line of sight and therefore usually has the far end at least 500 meters above the ground. It is also power intensive, sucking up 75,000 watts/hour at maximum range.
Safety
There is at least one wall mounted fire extinguisher in each room of the building, with fire hoses in the Work Shop, Hangar, and both the Upper and Lower Main Hallways. First aid kits are located in the Entryway, Kitchen, Security Room, Laboratory, Workshop, Gym, Weight Room, “Dock” and Hangar.
All drinking and wash water is distilled on site, and the air is filtered before and after being pumped through the ventilation system.
However, all fire suppression systems (Sprinklers and/or Halon) must be manually triggered as a precaution against accidental discharges.
Floor plan
Facilities
Entryway
This room is subdivided into the actual reception area, a few small offices, and a small office suite for Mr. Brady. The doorway to the outside world is lined with sensors and detection gear (Thermal Vision: 08, Ultra Vision: 08, Detect Metahumans, Scientist: Analyze 6).
Entry is by passcard with code, or by being buzzed in from Reception or Security. MATRIX personnel are not to be in costume in the entryway, as this area can be easily seen by outsiders. The doorway to the rest of the building is by passcard with code and/or thumb print scan and will only pass one person at a time.
Medical
This small room is divided into a dispensary and a diagnostic / treatment room. The level of treatment available is not very extensive (only up to bullet wounds), but use of a complex real time ultrasonic/photonic scanning/projection system allows for rapid diagnosis of physical trauma (-1CS to OV/RV of a Diagnosis check, can also be written up using the Enhance Power.)
The system is designed for use with a holographic projector that would have the projection placed “over top” of the patient, but this had not been acquired by Fastball prior to his death.
Kitchen
This room contains sufficient stoves, ovens, microwaves, pots, pans, utensils, etcetera to allow preparation of serious amounts of food. The refrigerators, freezers, and cabinets in the room are large enough to store a couple months worth of food for twenty people.
One relatively small cupboard is actually a climate controlled wine rack. (No fine china, but you can’t have everything.)
The completely automated dishwasher/autoclave keeps all the dishes and silverware clean and sterile.
Dining Room
This room has a facade of cherry paneling covering the concrete walls. The western section of the room nearest the kitchen is split between space for chafing dishes and a well stocked bar.
Dominating the rest of the room is a 20′ long, 4′ wide, solid oak dining table. There are 16 chairs around it made of African ironwood and they can hold persons weighing in excess of 400 kilos. They thus are capable of holding the average Asgardian.
Living Room
This room contains two large sectional couches, two recliners, a few coffee tables and an entertainment center with TV, VCR and a fairly decent sound system. This room is open to the hallway so noise from here can be heard in the hallways.
Along the south wall is a hidden doorway that leads to the Security Room.
Security Room
This room is where all the normal security devices and scanners for the building are monitored from. There are two computer workstations, but no way to download anything. These stations require a MATRIX passcard and a password to operate and are not connected to any other computer in the building. The system has protection against tampering (12 APs).
This room can tap into the Conference Room, but only from the right hand computer station. Attempting to do so from the other station results in an alarm and a system shutdown.
Reference Library
This room contains a wide variety of information sources. Newspapers on microfiche and CD include the NY, LA and London Times, the Daily Bugle, the Daily Planet and the Washington Post.
There are also maps, almanacs, textbooks, encyclopedias on paper and CD, phone directories for the most of the Greater NYC area, and a CD version of the nationwide directory (which is of questionable reliability).
The main Internet link is in this room, but on a dedicated computer not hooked up to the rest of the system. The MATRIX ISP is LexCom. It is against MATRIX procedure to connect any computer to the main system that has been in contact with the outside world without intensive examination.
Conference Room
This room contains a white noise projector that provides protection from eavesdropping in this room (Invisibility vs. Sonic Detection: 10) except by the Security Room, which can bypass it. It also contains a 21′ conference table, about a dozen chairs, and a projection system.
Computer Room
This room contains the main computer for the complex and four workstations. The main processor uses 16 4 gigabyte RAM chips. (About equal to 16 CD-ROM’s worth of RAM.) Using parallel processing this gives an effective clock speed of 6000 to 7600 Mhz.
Memory is rated at 550 Gigabytes on the system, and around 9000 Gigabytes of “Cold Storage”. All the Cold Storage memory is in optical format, and as such is immune to magnetic effects.
Also in this room are a couple of printers, a scanner and other assorted goodies.
Laboratory
This full scale science lab contains scales, sinks, glassware, crucibles, a ventilated hood, Bunsen burners, a fairly wide variety of basic chemicals, and a spectrometer for identifying unknown substances.
Workshop
This room contains wood and metal working tools capable of working with materials up to Body 12. Costume/body armor repair/fabrication tools are here.
Also included are a small kiln and one of the new 3D copiers. This particular machine has been tweaked to a resolution of 0.025 mm and has a maximum scan size of 20 cm by 20 cm by 30 cm.
These machines scan an actual object or take computer input and then make a copy of the item in Body 1 plastic. This is very useful for designing prototypes.
In the far corner is a “pop-up” trash can made in the likeness of R2-D2.
For Gadgetry purposes, MATRIX facilities are a 13 AP Lab.
Weight Room
This room is reinforced with Aramid fibers and floats in a buffer of heavy hydraulic fluid and heavy industrial springs.
Free weights made of encapsulated neutronium are available up to 25 tons. Hydraulic systems made to act like a universal gym are good to 50 tons. There is insufficient bracing available for anything heavier than this.
Hand weights Cross beams Plates 1 12 ton 1 2 ton 2 4 ton 2 8 ton 1 1 ton 4 2 ton 4 4 ton ----------- 4 1 ton 2 2 ton 2 50 kilo 2 500 kilo 2 1 ton 2 10 kilo 6 250 kilo 2 500 kilo 4 100 kilo 2 250 kilo 2 50 kilo 4 100 kilo ------------
Men’s and Women’s Locker Rooms contain showers, changing area, lockers, hydro therapy tub, steam closet/sauna (2 people max, and you need to be awfully friendly for that).
The main gym is of non-skid material, and is laid out as a regulation size basketball court. The walls of the room are cushioned, making them a bit springy. Along the east side of the floor are workout mats and step aerobics gear.
The storage area above the locker rooms contains parallel and uneven bars, high bar, pommel horse, short horse, springboards, and a large mat suitable for floor exercises. There are no still rings.
Dock
The “Dock” is where large material shipments are received. MATRIX policy forbids being in costume while in the “Dock” area. This area extends through the second floor, and has storage shelves with boxes and a fair amount of dust. The boxes contain long term non-perishable supplies.
The door to the Gym can not be opened if the “Dock” door is open and vice versa.
Elevator
Maximum capacity 15 tons. Opens in both directions.
Hangar
This location contains 4 Mark IV Hoversleds, plus repair/refit facilities for same. (One 10AP repair kit for each.)
The roof hatch takes one round to open or close. The hangar doors cannot be opened if the roof hatch is open and vice versa.
There is an independently powered holographic projection covering the roof hatch.
MATRIX’s larger vehicles such as the large transport ‘copter and the reconditioned C-100 are stored in a rented hangar in the Teterboro airport, about 1200 yards north of this building’s location. The are plans to construct a helipad behind the building, but plans have yet to be approved.
Fuel Storage
This room is divided into two sections. The first contains av-gas powered generators as well as over 4000 liters of av-gas. Ventilation in this room and the hanger is optimized for removing gas fumes from the air. Needless to say, this is a non-smoking area.
With a battery buffer, the whole acts as an uninterruptible power supply system for the building.
Bedrooms 1 through 4
These rooms are subdivided into a bedroom containing a queen sized bed, nightstand, 2 dressers, and a 21″ TV, some closet space, and a small bathroom, with shower stall, commode, and sink with a medicine chest.
Master Bedroom
Jokingly called the “Honeymoon Suite”, this room is similar, but the bed is king sized, the closets are larger and bathroom contains a jacuzzi.
Fiction Library
Containing over 7500 hardback and paperback titles ranging from mainstream to science fiction to mythology to mystery, a wide variety of reading material is available in this room. There are no romance novels in this library, but oddly enough there is a fairly wide variety of children’s books.
There are also several comfortable chairs scattered around the room along with a study table.
Rec Room
This room contains a regulation sized pool table, a ping pong table, and a few different types of video game rigs. The Rec Room is traditionally a ‘powers free’ zone. This is also where the video library is kept. (Over 1000 titles including every Star Trek episode made and at least 40 John Wayne movies.)
There is a DVD player but the big screen TV is a 51 inch projection model.
Utilities
Besides being the HVAC center, laundry room and holding the main water tanks, this room contains the automatic cleaning robots that keep the entire HQ clean. They are fairly simple devices with Body 1 and abilities essentially of 0.
They are not truly intelligent and are incapable of doing things beyond their programming. They can only enter rooms covered by the security system and as such cannot enter the bedrooms, bathrooms or locker rooms. They also cannot enter the Security Room.
Storage
This room is about 30′ by 30′ and has one of the few double doors in the building. It is thought that Fastball had planned this room as a holding area or a detention cell, but apparently he died before coming to a final determination.
Over the last three years, MATRIX has turned this into sort of a trophy room.
