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The Dresden Files => DFRPG => Topic started by: Arcteryx on August 29, 2010, 02:15:42 AM
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Is there anyone playing in a Dresdenized version of London and have city notes they're willing to share or point a link to? I'd be more than happy to reciprocate once our group gets through the same process.
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We are probably going to start the same process for London in a few weeks. Happy to share.
We have done one brainstorm so far and have the following questions/thoughts:
London has a lot of greens pace which suggests sidhe.
Why is London not a Red Court or White Council stronghold?
London is old
London has its own dragon
London has its own giants
the tube is ideal for something. Ghoul clans?
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im preparing a dresdenised version of London for my university gaming group, and i have to say much of what ironchicken has come up with i have as well.
some of my aspect for London are:
CITY OF A THOUSAND FACES [london has over 300 different languages spoken within its boarders]
WHAT LIES BENEATH [London has another city under the current one, it has hidden station, lost rivers etc, and of course the dreaded smog which in the 50s killed over 8 thousand people [can we say outersider?] ]
my take on the supernatural side of London again is simular to Ironchickens, the city of London has a stand alone government called the corporation of london, as we know. in the dresdenverse this is run by the dragon of england, tricked into the position by merlin [the original] and king arthur [he must protect england till some unknown deal is met], the fae courts are represented by Jack Frost [king of winter or so he says] and the Green man [emissary of summer] and a yet unamed wizard [im ering towards a sect of wizards called the knights of the round table or some such, in RL london the knights are a huge group who are quite secretive and do lots of good deeds for the city of london]
this is as much as i can remember while im at work , but i did find that there are alot of books about the 'hidden london'. i mean i lived just outside of london for over 20yrs and never knew they lost a river somewhere under the city hehe.
hope this helps
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Thanks guys, I appreciate that - we're going into city creation in a few weeks for our own game so I wanted to get some feel for what others were doing with their versions, so this helps. As soon as my group comes up with theirs I'll post it here as well.
Got me to thinking it might be nice if there was a 'database' of Dresdenized cities out there as a resource and/or reference, even just to get some ideas of what others are doing...
Are you guys doing anything with:
a) monarchy
b) metropolitan police / scotland yard & the separate city of london police (or treating them as one?)
c) lord mayor
d) "an american werewolf in london", jack the ripper stories & other classic london-set legends
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there is a wiki that is compiling cities it can be found here: http://dresdenfilesrpg.wikidot.com/
on the rest, without giving too much away as i know that some of the people who will be in the game lurk around here.
a] im leavin the monarchy out far too much temptation for players to mess with this hehe, however im saying they are generally protected due to the heat messing with a royal would bring on the supernatural world, and i like playing at street level maybe county level campaigns.
b] im saying that the british police are largely unaware of the supernatural world, but there is a SO unit who well deal with Special Operations hehe.
c] there is so much we could do with borris johnson hehe, but again im keeping this level out of the game.
d] here i can help, after reading about the rise in foxes in london and other wild animals i decided to have a floating city aspect WERE-NATION, a small group of weres are annoyed that their 'culture' is not represented in the accords and are building a small nation in and around london, much to the chargrin of well every other supernatural nation.
when it comes to jack the ripper im leaving him out, far too many london based supernatural games where hes come up, im putting him down to the workings of the occultist Nicolas Hawksmoor, who created alot of the churches in and around the areas the ripper killed people, in various occult books on london they suggest that he built his churches along various ley lines and they spell out an occult symbol when linked together, some have suggested that these churches are near some of the worst attrocitied carried out in london, and it is due to this occult symbol.
now my campaign [without going into it too much] is going to be about the giants of london, black dogs, black annis and the mythical foundings of london also the gates of london.
hope this helps, and i would love to hear of everyones dresden london im sure there are great ideas ive missed.
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I'm going to do something with the canals too - I remember walking around Little Venice in Maida Vale when I was in London earlier this year, and thinking "This would be such a cool feature in a setting for an RPG..."
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You may like this...
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IskKlnE3Nzc/SPhV1kTfBBI/AAAAAAAAAoc/R-zoLtaxpJ8/s1600-h/undergroundwater_map1024.jpg (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IskKlnE3Nzc/SPhV1kTfBBI/AAAAAAAAAoc/R-zoLtaxpJ8/s1600-h/undergroundwater_map1024.jpg)
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Yeah, that's a great one - here's the other that I found useful for the canal system itself:
BWL_network_map.pdf @ http://www.londoncanals.co.uk/index2/links.html
The actual link (Visit London By Water) is:
http://www.bwml.co.uk/downloads/London_by_water.pdf
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You know a song's just plain awesome when just reading it in a topic line gives you an earworm.
Gonna have to dig that up and play it several times now...
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Heh heh, yeah, I've been listening to it myself to get myself in the mood :)
London 2012 and preparation of, how it got its vote, ect - anyone dealing with this in any way?
I've been looking at the Call of Cthulu – London Guidebook, which details the city in the 1920's, but it gives you some good ideas as to how to distill a very large city into a gaming version that doesn't bog the GM or players down with too much detail. Tons of great ideas too.
London's got hundreds of parks & green spaces, an undercity from its days under Roman rule, just tons of great stuff to pick on and build up on. I've also just read Mike Mignolia's Witchfinder comic (weird ending...), and of course Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere is a classic on London Below.
China Miéville also has a great YA book, Un Lun Dun, which does a 'below' version of London.
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If you're looking for ideas for London, you could checkout A Madness of Angels and its sequel The Midnight Mayor by Kate Griffin. It's set a wonderful version of London. It's a bit more Zelazny than Butcher, but it looks at the interaction between business and magic. It has various groups of lesser practitioners, concept spirit (The Bag Lady, The Beggar King, etc) and a main character that taps into beliefs to use magic - to the point where he sets up a threshold in a public place that keeps out everything that doesn't have a ticket to be there.
There are also some good parts (more in the second book than first book) where they deal with the multitude of CC TV cameras scattered throughout London. At times those cameras are definitely important to working of the story.
Just a suggestion
Richard
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I should also mention that Fallen London - the online sort-of-mmorpg - has some neat ideas about a London Below as well.
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thanks for the ideas from other sources i will look into those as well.
however i must agree with richard-chilton, about the midnight mayor/madness of angels. i love these books and some of the ideas in them are going into my game, especially the begger king, and the trash elementals.
and from what i understand there are more cctv cameras in london than in any other city in the world. so i agree; why?
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I lived in London as a small lad (Age 2-3) I wish I remembered well anything.
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Well, I just got a neat view of London from ITV's Greatest Cities of the World, hosted by Griff Rhys Jones. London's the second episode in the series... it gives a bright, happy, wow aint-it-shiny view of that city. I was there earlier this year so it was pretty neat to watch it and recognize the spots...
Having said that, its not going to give you anything gritty or Dresden-like, but it did give me a few leads on a couple of the local myths and legends and it'd be great for introducing players that has never seen it or been there before.
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You may also consider the Fireborn GM book as a PDF. It is $5 IIRC and has tons of excellent stuff for a Dresden type game. Most of it is systemless too.
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Thanks for the Fireborn hint - I have that book and had totally forgotten about it! Shame about that game, it had so many cool ideas in it, but I could never talk anyone into playing it with me...
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This topic may be dead but I had to throw my two pence in.
http://www.paranormaldatabase.com/london/lonpages/london.htm (http://www.paranormaldatabase.com/london/lonpages/london.htm)
A great site for ideas on what may go bump and where.
http://www.murdermap.co.uk/ (http://www.murdermap.co.uk/)
Who gets bumped and where.
http://www.kch42.dial.pipex.com/leyslond1.htm (http://www.kch42.dial.pipex.com/leyslond1.htm)
City Ley lines
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Heh heh, hey thanx for that - it might be a dead topic here but not to me, our game's set there and we're finally going to get the game underway next week.
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I see from your profile you're from Vancouver, me too. Although I live in London now.
I had a few more thoughts about a London game, if you'll permit me...
How about making it the headquarters of the Venatori? Personally I see them having a garrison at the tower of London, under the White tower the head of Bran the blessed is supposed to be buried. Maybe it still talks from time to time? Google "Bran the blessed"
The London Stone is the navel stone (omphalos) of London and by extention of The British empire. What would happen if it fell into the wrong hands? It used to be much bigger, Dr John Dee (White council?) is known to have taken some to run experiments. Could be a good theme.
Finally I'm thinking that the Black Court have been dying (no pun intended) to get their hands on London since Stoker published his book. With church attendance down and all the wannabe vampires around maybe the time has come.
Anyway, hope this helps. If you need info for your game let me know.
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Much appreciated! The Venatori and the stone do figure in our setting, although not in quite the same way.
Campaign Title: LONDON CALLING
Themes:
Here Comes The Clash
West End Girls
Werewolves Of London
Their version of London is also constantly draped in mist and fog in the evenings and early morning hours.
I'll post more as the story gets underway - I'm hoping it'll be an interesting set of sessions.
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My group is playing a campaing based in London so here's the wikispaces page on our campaing with the city aspects nad some general information:
http://ardus.wikispaces.com/DFRPG
Unfortunately it hasn't been updated in a few months, but I hope it helps you :D
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I really like your Greenwich observatory idea :) I think I'm going to steal it :)
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I really like your Greenwich observatory idea :) I think I'm going to steal it :)
Sure, go right ahead! Im glad I could help :)
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Just wanted to add this book as a resource if you're setting a game in London: Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch. It's a very Dresden-like tale in itself and there's plenty of ideas to steal and pilfer if you so like.
Good stuff - two thumbs up!