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Alternate Locations for Dresden RPGs

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R00kie:
Jim has done an incredible job of exploring creature of legend, and appears to have examined almost every creature or monster we've heard of since childhood. The stories cover the Faerie Courts, Vampires, Werewolves, Ogres, Trolls, Holy Knights, Demons, Dragons, Outsiders, Fallen Angels and Wizards. The question is if you want to make the world your own, what is left to explore?


One option discussed in the "Alternate Time Periods for Dresden RPGs" thread is move the campaign to anothere time, but how about simply moving it to another City? How about moving it to Tokyo, Hong Kong, Bejing or even Pyongyang. There's a full set of Eastern legends and so far Jim hasn't explored them (much). Why not take them and make them your own for your campaign.


You can use some of the ammunition Jim's given you. Maybe whichever city you've chosen is Ancient Mai's home ground. He's mentioned the Jade Court but we don't know very much about them. You can decide what they are like. As for the NeverNever - presumably this would have a very Oriental feel to it.


Hey presto, you have a Dresden Campaign in a city with a very different feel and a whole new set of legends.


If you don't like that you could try the Middle east. Again you get a whole new set of legends. Maybe now Djinn play a bigger role. There's no shortage of legends from Arabia, Persia, and India. You can fill your campaign with djinni and magic carpets. In this case your source is Islamic legends and of course 'the Thousand and One Nights'.


Or you could look to pretty much any other culture. Maybe South America and Mayan legends, although that might take a little research. Egypt might not be a good choice - you might end up with a campaign that felt like a Dresden / Stagate SG-1  crossover, but almost any Culture you pick will come with a set of creature, legends and myths.


Personally I'm more likely to try a Hong Kong themed version because I've been there, and a I have a huge collection of Jackie Chan and John Woo movies for inspiration. I might steal the ocational Japanese legend and hope my players dont notice, but I'll try to stick to Chinese mythology (and there is more than enough). I'll place Mai far enough away to make sure she's not a majort sticking point, but near enough that she can come when the players mess up (either to clean up their mess, or to act threatening on behalf of the council, depending on what the situation demands). Your mileage may vary. Perhaps you're a fan of the Arabian nights, or like Manga, in which case the Middle East or Japan might suit you better.


The other obvious location is your local town. Unless you live in Chicago you should be able to research what makes your town unique and emphasise this enough to make your setting unique. Unfortuantely for me one of my players is an academic at the local University and a historian. He has a better understanding of the local area than anyone else I know, and has worked virtually every legend about the area into atleast one of his campaigns. I'd feel like I was treading on well covered ground if I tried this technique. I'm going to leave all local stuff to him.


No the question that flows from that is with other cultures as the basis of the stories, should we still be using the Western image of the mage? Magic in other culture comes with its own set of baggage, and it may not be sensible to saddle your campaign with the Western mage image - but If we change that, are we still playing Dresden?

finarvyn:
Some good ideas, and the folks at EVIL HAT are a step ahead of you.

The "default" setting for the DFRPG will be Baltimore, so as to not conflict with Jim's pre-existing characters and storyline.

The playtesters are tinkering with guidelines as to how to "Dresdenify" other cities and at this point there are a dozen or more cities other than Chicago or Baltimore being fleshed out by playtesters.

R00kie:
Yeah, I found the write ups of Austin, Newark and Winnipeg. I've got to say I am very impressed by all three. I am incredibly curious as to how a non-western city write-up might look, which is why I suggested the above cities.

I initially thought I'd like to set my future Dresden campaign in either Hong Kong or Singapore.

[*]If I went with Hong Kong I had the clash of the English heritage with the Chinese ownership, and the clash of Democracy and Capitalism with Communism as a backdrop. The city is an incredibly vibrant place. In addition I have the full depth of Chinese mythology to draw on, and lots of Hong Kong cinema.
[*]If I went with Singapore I had the clash of a predominately Buddist/Taoist state with the surrounding Muslim states envious of their economic success. Singapore is literally surrounded by Muslim counries and faces constant terrorist threats posed by the Jemaah Islamiyah groups. In addition I could build on the conflict between old Malasian and new Singapore culture, and the Malay underclass within Singapore.

Unfortunately its pretty apparent that Singapore just isnt going to work for a Dresden setting. The city is too clean, too organised and too boyant. Singapore is clearly a city still on the rise, and doesnt seem to have the decadence and corruption neccessary for a Dresden campaign.

Its likely that by the time the game comes out my thoughts mght have changed but at the moment Hong Kong looks really good. In fact it looks good enough that I might just ask my group if they fancy a quick brainstorming session. I may not have the Alpha rules, but its pretty clear from the three write ups the sort of things they've been asking the play testers to think about.

Wolfhowls:
I think some eastern block countries would be cool.

Like Yugoslavia, Poland and the Czech. Republic.

A city that would be cool to see game information for would be St. Petersburg.

Lizard King:
Something my gaming group has done, when it's appropriate or possible, is place the game in our own town, (the Quad Cities, only 3 hours west of Chicago).  It's large enough to have some fun settings in it, and we KNOW it.  It gives a great, concreteness to descriptions and a great point of reference. 

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