Epic Battle Locations

[JThunder]

Dual purpose thread. I'm trying to come up with a grand scale location for a big battle scene in the heroes' final confrontation with an evil sorcerer. Specifics, he's trying to summon up a huge demon and I need something in the New York area to act as a doorway for him to use as the focus for his spell. I want it to be something memorable so that they can always refer back to it as "that big fight at ______."

Also, what real world locations have you used to stage your more memorable conflicts?

[Severance]

Well the first thing that springs to my mind (and probably in most other people imho) as a "focus" for the evil sorcerer's spell is the Empire State Building. As for most epic setting for a final confrontation in one of my campaigns, it would have to be running through the floors of a 60 story skyscraper to stop a corrupt businessman and his personal army of metahumans.

[imfarias]

I'm not from the area - I'm a southern boy - but a quick google image search shows New York has some ornate arches that already look like King-Kong-sized doorways. The entry colonnade to the Manhattan Bridge and the main entrance to Prospect Park in Brooklyn look good.

I ran a similar situation where the final fight was a wizard/priest trying to resurrect a dead god at the epicenter of the 3 Galveston Pyramids... yes, there are pyramids in Galveston. They're like a theme park but they are the exact size (and I think relative position) of the Giza pyramids and nearly on the same line of latitude.

[Doctor Devious]

Possessing the Statue of Liberty is a tad cheesy, but easy!
A baseball game is always handy for outdoor size plus LOTS of random innocents to protect.
Summoning a demon beast from the ice black waters at the base of the watchtower at Alcatraz has a certain attraction.

[JThunder]

I'm not from the area - I'm a southern boy - but a quick google image search shows New York has some ornate arches that already look like King-Kong-sized doorways. The entry colonnade to the Manhattan Bridge and the main entrance to Prospect Park in Brooklyn look good.

That's the kind of stuff I'm looking for --something grand and majestic, for something utterly horrifying to emerge from.




...or this one from Washington Square Park in Manhattan:

[heathwilder]

Not that it's beautiful but climbing out of the Times Square Metro into Times Sq is very viscerally Gothic in it representation of Hell as below us, and smashing out into Times Sq is always fun, esp. if you are using a giant monster that can be at many levels below and above at once.

Depending on the PL and Str scores of the Heroes and Villain you could start in caverns below the metro and smash/crawl the fight to the surface emerging in Times Square for the final couple rounds, rescuing commuter trains and aghast tourists along the way. This isn't probably what you're after though.

New York Public Library is pretty amazing and Bryant Park is right there itching for a battle map to be put on it ... google some images
An interesting fact is that there is a huge stack underneath Bryant Park which could be home to all sorts of nefarious villainy
http://www.nypl.org/locations/tid/36/node/65792

[Sid]

Just off the top of my head:

If you've seen the Avengers, you can see Grand Central Station and the Chrysler Building being shown off quite a bit. You've also got Yankee Stadium of City Field (in the Bronx and Queens technically), Madison Square Garden (where the Knicks and Rangers play, also where the Hulk held his arena games during the World War Hulk storyline), Central Park, as others have mentioned the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building. Lesser places might be Wall Street, the rebuilding twin towers (although you might not want to touch that) and Penn Station (although that is Madison Square Garden).

You've got the subway stations, Time Square, Broadway, the Ed Sullivan theater where David Letterman films his TV show, but now you're getting a bit smaller.

[Mighty Joe]

It was mentioned and it may be cheesy indeed, but I favor the Stature of Liberty.

Big open area, nice tall arcane focus point for bad mojo to channel through, and as a bonus it is summoning a demon to enslave and destroy - at a site and symbol which stands for Freedom and Liberty! Gives them a chance to stop the badguys from causing wider destruction as well before things really break loose.

Awesome rally point for the defense of humanity I think, and close enough to be filmed by news crews!

[Muidas]

If there is going to be some foreshadowing of some kind, try Cleopatra's Needle in Central Park. A nearly 70 foot tall 200 ton obelisk would make a pretty cool club for a really huge demon.

[Setothes]

The Statue of Liberty would make one heck of a lightning rod for a conjuration spell that needs a whole lotta lightning to open the portal. Having the center of the summoning circle be on the island itself, and the outer 'five points of the pentacle' be on boats positioned precisely around the island (and linked by a giant circle of fire, as they've circled the island and left oil-soaked ropes behind, floating in the water), would create a ginormous summoning circle, and then as the spell reaches it's climax, roiling black thunderclouds pour forth a constant stream of lightning that hits the statue until it's glowing with St. Elmo's fire, at which point it animates and points it's torch at the summoning circle on the island, and a torrent of lightning channels down into the circle and opens the portal.

For Cleopatra's needle, that would be an ideal focal point for an Egyptian themed summoning, such as calling forth an army of mummies, or an aspect of Anubis or Set. Necromantic effects would also fit well, with the glyphs on the needle glowing and a dark 'tide' of supernatural energy washing out and unleashing a massive storm of incorporeal undead that are mostly terrifying, but can also possess and animate corpses, causing the 'dark wind' to rush towards morgues and cemetaries, seeking out bodies to inhabit...

[gerbilattack]

I have to ask first what kind of demon? You will want your entrance and location to be based on it's style and sense of if any. Symbolism can be rather potent. Is it a huge bestial creature with a mouth full of sword like teeth, a huge spined and scaled bulk four massive clawed appendages and from it's it's eye-sockets bleed rivers of flame?

Is it Humanoid much like Diablo (from the blizzard series) from Diablo 1 while being much bigger than a mortal not building sized?

Is the summoned creature like Hades Bigger than mortal and human like But wreathed in dark power with his godly power over the dead (and immortality) the heroes biggest problems?

Is this demon hideous or beautiful, will it pretend to be angelic (even for an instant) or Show it's dark majesty? Or will the demon look for subtlety the heroes come and find after the ritual and light-show they arrive, see the ritual elements, but the head cultist and whatever they summoned (if anything) is gone. Does the cult leader know what is is summoning or might we end up with Hellboy?

If you plan on using religious iconography (such as a church) make sure it is alright with all of your players.
So what is is and what is it's M.O.?

[Unbeliever]

There's also the building that was used as the main setting in Ghostbusters. I think it's called "San Reino" but you can wiki it. It's a pretty cool looking building in real life -- I happen to know b/c it's not far from where I live.

I also second Washington Square park. And, I think Heathwilder means the Grand Central station subway station. The one at Times Square is all lights and not particularly memorable.

[Flicker182]

I think for my game I'm going to run when the pcs return to the present they'll be fighting inside a space craft the Main Villain created that will be flying over Staples Center. Not certain of that yet. Need a good landmark location that isn't the Hollywood sign (would prefer level ground and easy access to electricity so players can figure out to short circuit his equipment).

Sadly since the stadium won't be filled with people (due to his rampaging and sacking of the Earth) the heroes won't have as many hard choices to make when it comes to saving civilians (although they'll have a different problem that is even harder) but they will have a great place to fight. Downtown Los Angeles!

[gerbilattack]

go with tradition: use the Golden Gate Bridge:

Pros and cons
Pros:
If windy or heavy characters may cause the bridge to sway a little (penalties to attack, may need Acrobatics checks for running or the like), Variably levels of civilians... as well as empty and full cars to use as weapons, Unusual combat space (narrowish, long, and with a long fall into water), electricity can come from a thunderstorm or from something on the way to the bridge (jump ship to land on the bridge, or escape sinking ship onto the bridge), Terrain makes damage interesting (too much an put holes in the bridge, or knock people off with knockback), and the cables allow upward movement or the ability to recover from being knocked off. Electricity can also come via cars or lights +cables (electrify the cables and attach them to the ship.

Cons: Unlikely to be no civilian traffic, Repairs will take time (and perhaps earn bad reputation), High risk of damage to bridge/cables, Risk of a player (or villain) being 1hko off the bridge into the water perhaps resulting in death, risk of dropping an entire bridge into the ocean, explanation for why main villain would hover over a bridge (looks nice? far away from military attack/close enough to civilians to deter large arms? Hostages?), Unlikely to fly in a sufficiently dangerous thunderstorm, near water(or rain), or near electricity if ship is easy to fry.

[gerbilattack]

while the above is not exactly in LA (and neither is one of the below) a few other places that ,may be of interest are

Los Angeles International Airport Link for picture:
http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/family/los-angeles-city-guide1.htm
Both interesting looking and an interestingly appropriate or inappropriate location, having good access for air to ground interaction, plenty of material (near the airport) and space (in the landing/takeoff area) Time pressure (planes in the air cannot land and are burning fuel), and other good and bad things.

A music concert hall: picture and imagine the reaction if in the middle of a concert (especially a cover of one of Elvis Presley's pieces an alien spaceship* appears, comes to hover over location.
http://discoverlosangeles.com/play/arts-music-and-entertainment/los-angeles-music-festivals.html
Things of note: only good mid concert: large number of Civillians, Laser lights may make detecting energy weapon fire difficult (for both sides), Sound (if going) may cause confusion, plenty of electricity.

Disneyland: very close* in Anaheim.
(just search "disneyland" or "Disney Land" in the images sub-search)
Things: a number of attractions the part can interact with, before, during and after the attack; roller coasters, a castle, crowds of children, Food stands, fireworks (in the evening)-- your party will have access to all kinds of things for any shenanigans, up to and including a lake and a mechanical dragon. Biggest drawback is differentiating the supers from those dressed like supers or characters, but not as bad as a convention for that. Also damages: Disney may offer a deal of sue [the players] damages or allow them some ability to (if no one was injured) do some damage control and use [the players] images.