Classic: Warehouse 23

This is Classic material. Some conversion will be needed to use with 4e, some of which may have been done for you.

Warehouse 23 (1997, 1999) is a place that holds "Things they don't want you to have". It's an excellent starting point for some 20th century contemporary-secret-supernatural adventure, or easily make for a sort of conspiracy-themed myth parallel. After all, GURPS wouldn't be complete without a little Illuminati meddling...

Updating Considerations

Contemporary secret supernatural/fantasy is all about taking weird bits of history or urban legend and making the myth true. On a simple, not-so-serious level, this can be a series of high strangeness followed by quick coverups (your pet platypus being a superspy, for instance), but for deeper, more thoughtful adventures, you may need an ever-expanding source of secret-keeping.

Legacy of the War

The fictional history of the default Warehouse 23. Conceptionally it is "a compendium of mythology and superstition, with an emphasis on the myths of the 20th century".

Comment

The warehouse design has some similarities to Project Wildfire in The Andromeda Strain (1971); it is five levels underground with an elevator disguised as something perfectly normal. The main difference is Project Wildfire had the added security of being under another government project - that of the Department of Agriculture.

Alternate Warehouses

Concept-wise there are several things to consider with a Warehouse 23 being in the setting:

• Location
  • It’s Large (Choosing a Site), It Gets Lots of Traffic, It Needs Power, It Has Strange Emissions
• Occupants
• The Real Owners
• Cosmology i.e. how illuminated is the world?

Gallery of the Strange

A warehouse needs contents...and there is no shortage of that in the default Warehouse 12

Occult Secrets

• The Ark of the Covenant, The Holy Grail, The Spear of Longinus, Emeralds of Hermes Trismegistus, The Green Grimoire, The Memories of Michael Perry, The Crystal Skull, The Crystal Bell, The Oracle Gem.

Conspiracies, Cover-Ups and Hoaxes

• The Astro Globs! Cover-Up, Atomic Death From the Red Planet, Black Helicopters and the Price of Beef, The Fat Farm, The Mechanical Textbook, The MIB Files, The Warghetz Papers

The True Face of Science

• Barb Needlers, The Devolvo Ray, The Dream Stage, Explosive Flour, The Flying Saucer, Freeze Ray, The Genius Machine, The Love Potion, a Neurochemical Fable, Paratronic Key, Pocket Silence Machines, Slipspray, Super-Metals and Super-Plastics, The Weldon Pharmacy

Bizarre Finds

• Atlantis and the Lost Platonic Dialogues, Caves of the Dero, The Albemarle Dictionary, The Soulmate Database, Blood Rifle, Telekinetic Bombs

The Cryptozoo

• Atomic Monsters, Jersey Devils, and the Mythology of Today

The Menagerie

• Cat-Men/Goatmen, Cigar Angels, Electric Eel (Giant), Gallitz Pig, Gojira, Gremlins, Immortality Fish, The Loch Ness Monster, Martians, Neo-Giants: Sasquatch and Yeti, Sea Monsters

Odds Unbeatable and Grisly Ends

• Illuminated One-Liners

The Tools of the Masters

• Sidenote contains a list of things to find in the warehouse
  • Nanogun, Primitive Time Machine, Primitive Telepathy Helmet, Big Eggs, The Healer Symbiont, Preservation Gel, The Heart of Reason, The Purotron, Ticket to Hell, The Real Apollo Missions, The Philosopher’s Stone, The Swashbucklers, Engineered Bacteria, The Lost Tablets of Hippocrates, Super-Fruit, Angel Hair, The Venus Braintrap, Skeletons in the Closet, The Gold Plates of Moroni
• Orgone Energy
• Hypno-Power
• Mind Control
• Ultra-Tech Evil: Brain Hacking

Examples

• Of course, there's lots of items in the Alphabet Arcane
• The warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark
• The "Curious Goods" vault in Friday the 13th: The Series
• The Vault of The Lost Room
• Warehouse 13 (TV series)
• The entirety of the SCP Foundation's numerous Sites
• The Federal Bureau of Control from Control (2019)
• The Library from The Librarians (2014)
• Any location in GURPS that houses several Reality Shards

Crossovers

While a Warehouse 23 can--in theory--appear in any setting, there are ones where it is more likely to exist than others.

• Classic: Cabal
• Classic: Black Ops
• GURPS Banestorm

Additional Information

• The Mysteries Are Revealed: Designer's Notes for GURPS Warehouse 23
  • Warehouse 23: Arachne's Tapestry (Pyramid #16)
  • Warehouse 23: The Black Stylus (Pyramid #15)
  • Warehouse 23: The C-9 V.R.I.D. (7/31/1998)
  • Warehouse 23: Demon Seeds (12/14/2001)
  • Warehouse 23: The Electronic Surveillance Platform (Pyramid #10)
  • Warehouse 23: Gordon's Glove (Pyramid #7)
  • Warehouse 23: The Kraken (3/5/2004)
  • Warehouse 23: Mordal's Axe (Pyramid #8)
  • Warehouse 23: Mirror of Hidden Truth, Soulbreaker, and Weeping Wounds (2/22/2002)
  • Warehouse 23: The Obsidian Bond (2/19/1999)
  • Warehouse 23: The Pentacle Processor (6/18/1999)
  • Warehouse 23: The Seven Books of Alexander Lacan (Pyramid #9)
  • Warehouse 23: The Sword of Sorrow (9/3/1999)

Other Items

• See also: The Apple of Discord
• Video: The True Powers Of The Millennium Items

Additional Material

• Paranormal Waste Repository (Arcana wiki)

Notes

• Warehouse 23 is the distribution arm of Steve Jackson Games.