Exemplars Base, San Francisco

History

The original West Coast X-Men were based in a building owned by the team's founder, Defender, situated on a two-acre allotment approximately one mile west of 19th Avenue along Fulton Street and overlooking the northern edge of the Golden Gate Park. When the Texas X-Men relocated to San Francisco in March 1992, they initially used this existing facility. However, they found it too susceptible to attack, so they took up temporary residence at the Alameda Naval Air Station until they completed work on the present custom-built base. It was renovated in September 1994, with the addition of a Danger Room (level 0), more office space (level 2), and more recreational areas (level 4).

Location and Appearance

The current base is located on 1 square kilometer of bush land located near where Skyline Boulevarde crosses Sneath lane, approximately 10km south of San Francisco (see map of location).

The front entrance to the estate is a wrought iron gate supported by two brick pillars and there is a four-wire fence surrounding the grounds. The driveway that leads towards the main house is composed of loose gravel compacted onto the ground. The house itself faces the north-east and has a dark red roof and its textured outer concrete walls are painted white with blue detailing. It is built on the side of a hill and there is a pool area dug into the hillside behind it. A path leads from the house off to the aircraft hangers which are located approximately 100m to the south of the house. The 100m long antenna used by Cerebro and the tachyon tracker is buried underground elsewhere on the estate.

The roof is tiled and has a small slope from back to front on it. The tiles that make up the roof are cyclone wired to reduce the risk of having them blown away by strong winds or air currents. The exterior walls of the building are 2ft thick besser brick lined reinforced concrete, as are several of the inner walls. Most of the inner walls are made from 4 inch thick pre-fabricated reinforced concrete sections. The back pool area is paved and all windows and doors have security grills attached.

Floorplan and Layout

Schematic of the base and immediate grounds.
The hanger is to the left of the main building when looking at it from the front.

Within the building there are a total of twenty bedrooms (levels 3 and 4), plus two extra guest bedrooms (level 4), and one "secure", "no-powers" room (level 2). Level 3 has a covered verandah on the left hand side of the building, and level 4 has a covered verandah overlooking the pool. The interior of the upper three floors has wood paneling on the walls. Public access ways, including hallways, general living spaces, kitchen, bathrooms are all tiled. Individual bedrooms are carpeted.

The lower two floors, the offices (level 2) and car park/lab level (level 1), do not have wood paneling on the walls, but have merely painted plaster covering the walls. Once again, the floors in general access areas are tiled, except in individual offices and rooms. The Danger Room (levels 0 and 1) is 30m wide by 30m long, and completely underground. It is two stories high, with access being through the Danger Room control room (level 1), reached via the labs. There is also a hidden emergency exit from the Danger Room control room to the left of the building.

Security

Because of the risk of attack by super-powered villains, the base has a multi-layered security system, consisting of:

• physical security measures;
• electronic surveillance and security measures;
• the Vampire security system (Cerebro plus radar);
• the house and personal alarm/communication system;
• the tachyon tracker; and
• computer security.

Game Design

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