Baltimore and Other Possible Dresdenverse Cities

[prophet224]

Btw, in relation to the Playbypost for the Baltimore game?

The Baltimore Police Department has over 4000 employees.  Civilians, Police Officers, and aux Police officers.
There's no way that any random cop knows the personal motorcycle of any other random cop.

Wait - there is a PBP Baltimore game?  Cool.  And it is certainly possible that an officer could know another officer's 'ride', particularly if they talk at all or both happen to be bikers.

Now back to the regularly scheduled discussion:
Sigma, whereabouts in B-more are you?  I live up in Finksburg.  Anyway, the "Weird Maryland" book should provide some inspiration.

What else?  Obviously there is Black Aggie, but maybe the statue seems so bad because of its relation to the individual that was buried under her? More info here: http://lib.umd.edu/archivesum/actions.DisplayEADDoc.do;jsessionid=C42C770CA95E56B7FE966D09B3C64B4B?source=MdU.ead.histms.0012.xml&style=ead

Fort McHenry would be a great site for some stories, and Fells Point as well.  Locust point was where the original Port of Baltimore was, and could be used heavily.  Also, maybe the fire was started when something trapped here got loose.

Baltimore has a lot of sites and monuments and a lot of 'back alleys' as well.  Many things could lose themselves here.  According to Wikipedia, at least, it was once the second largest port for immigration.

So anyway, there are lots of possible connections and a number of 'secret' facilities around too.  There is a definite FBI presense - their building is over in Security.

Let's not forget, also, that Gettysburg is right up the road as are some other battlefields.  Harper's Ferry isn't far either, and Camp David sits int he middle of one of our parks (not necessarily supernatural, but could be interesting to bring into play).

[Remy Sinclair]

I've really wanted to do St. Louis. It seems like a historically important city, but nobody ever remembers it any more. I think there could be a lot of interesting aspects and stories to tell. Also, McCoy lives in MO, Butcher himself lives in MO, and Michael went on at least one Wild Goose Chase to STL.

Good City to use. Anita Blake book series takes place there. I just do not know much about the area.

[Janus Node]

I've been thinking about this, preparing my Campaign and all.

And, Miami and New Orleans were literally two of the first that popped into my mind, for those very same reasons.

Though, I also was thinking about San Francisco. Think about it for a second, San Francisco was home of the Gold Rush,  bringing in thousands of people, and who knows what else with them? And, of course, Alcatraz is located off the shore of San Francisco. So, all sorts of Baddies were home there. I mean, if people leave an imprint when they die, think of all the lost souls wondering around on THAT island.

I plan on running my game group in San Francisco for a couple of reasons;

1) Humphry Bogart Era Detectives - I love the story tropes that came with noir detective stories set in this city.  While I'll not be running my game as a 1920s period story (though that would be kind of cool not that I think about it...), there's still that sort of air of intrigue that comes with the city that can be used for aspect and location inspiration.
2) Alcatraz - I saw that also as a major place of interest.  Maybe there's a secret prison there still?  Maybe there's something left from all those criminals and depravity?  Maybe there's something that was there before the prison?  I'm not deciding anything yet because I want to see how the characters and group dynamic develops first, but this is such a rich location for SOMETHING.
3) Chinatown - Sure, every major city has one, but this is San Francisco Chinatown!  This is where "Big Trouble in Little China" went down!  Likely this is one of the oldest "Chinatown" districts in the US, and could hold many plot points.
4) The Bay Fog - I've never been to San Fran, but in the tradition of The Vancouver Method I still see this cinematic trope of the city as something that might lead to interesting twists.
5) The Golden Gate Bridge - An amazing bit of engineering, but maybe there's something more there?  Perhaps a hidden gateway to a Troll/Fae settlement?  Perhaps exotic metallurgy?

I'm still researching some stuff to present to the group, but overall it just feels like a setting that could do some interesting things across many different themes.  If anyone else has some ideas, please post!

[Crion]

I'm currently living in Pennsylvania, and I think there are a few options open to the area.

A friend of mine suggested Pittsburgh as it is a bit of a crossroads into neighboring states, plenty of colleges and museums, interesting architecture, odd streets (and anyone who's ever relied on a GPS in that city knows the feeling), and it's own legends (anyone else here familiar with "The Green Man?"). Let's not get into the industrial side of things; not as bad as Chicago, but some fodder is there.

My usual local players wanted to turn Reading, PA into this kind of game. Plenty of social issues, gangs, crossroads for illicit item trafficking, stones through from some wooded areas and farmland, etc. I can see it, but meh.

One of my former flatmates suggested Philadelphia, relying upon the history and various symbols (many compasses scattered around, supposedly).

I'd kick around more ideas and elaborate, but it's time to close shop. If I get the chance, I'll see what I can add to these to make a bit more sense.

[zcthu3]

We just Dresden-ified Christchurch, New Zealand (where we all live). We were really surprised how easy it was to come up with ideas and places! We were trying to keep the number of Locations down to 9 but we ended up with 18 anyway (9 primary, and 9 slightly less fleshed out)! After city and most of character creation everyone seems really jazzed for the game (except for one player who doesn't seem sure if he is going to like Aspects, but we think we can bring him around) - Really like the City Creation rules, they have really made this easy! This is rapidly becoming my favourite urban fantasy game...

[jackpot]

Working on 2 areas right now.  The first one that I'm working on it Sleepy Hollow, NY.  I love the story and the history of the area.  Also going to do Boston and the areas around it the whole are really just lends itself to the Dresdenverse very well.  Hope to have a game going soon.

[The Codex]

This is a Post for Janus,

Get yourself a copy of the 1920s source book for Cthulhu San Fran,

Its full of some totally awesome ideas and stuff you can pinch to help put together the setting as well as important figures and places, its a total winner.....

[Janus Node]

This is a Post for Janus,

Get yourself a copy of the 1920s source book for Cthulhu San Fran,

Its full of some totally awesome ideas and stuff you can pinch to help put together the setting as well as important figures and places, its a total winner.....

Heh, thanks much Codex!  I was actually just reading through that last night as I was coming up with one of the proposed threats; "The Thinning Veil".  Due to scheduling conflict actual in-person play is gonna be delayed a month, but we're doing city building in Google Wave.

[Omerus Banning]

Hmmm... How about Toronto?  Lots of large cemetaries, old churches all over the place.  Abandonned subway tunnels...

(click to show/hide)

Plus, it got mentioned briefly recently...  

[mime64]

I plan on doing Raleigh, NC as it's got boatloads of history. The murder rate is way too low to Dresdify it. So I'm afraid my scenarios will end up starting out like Scooby Doo capers.

[Chlorofiend]

Hmmm... How about Toronto?  Lots of large cemetaries, old churches all over the place.  Abandonned subway tunnels...

(click to show/hide)

Plus, it got mentioned briefly recently...  

I've been thinking either Toronto or Vancouver. Toronto would make a good home base for the one Warden regional commander Canada probably warrants.

[ifshnit]

Well, the RPG has rolled off the shelf.  Care to share what you came up with? 

As is (unfortunately) typical, real life kicked our butts a bit. BUT we're back to fleshing Denver out and should have something soon. Having the books in hand helps (now we know how we want to organize things a bit better). Any news on a wiki location for places or anything like that?

As it stands, we have a few neighborhoods fleshed out, a few locations, possible PCs and several NPCs. We're getting there! 

[ifshnit]

I'm likely going to start up a Dresden Files game set in Providence, RI (where I've lived for a while). 

Providence would be soooo nice to see as a Dresden city. Hell, I'd be shocked if you couldn't fill several pages with Providence alone.

[Todjaeger]

Currently doing a write-up for New Haven, CT, the home of Yale University.  Time permitting, will expand the write-up to cover other cities and towns in CT and will also hopefully be able to extend things to NYC.

So far, there are a number of locations just within the Yale campus itself, nevermind the neighboring schools like Hopkins Prep, Albertus Magnus or SCSU.  Both of the later schools have reported hauntings.  Given the overall small population of both CT and the cities within the state, it is unlikely that there would be too many full-blown Wizards, particularly since Harry is the only wizard within Chicago and the greater Chicago area, which has a much larger overall population.  Having said that though, there is certainly room for a sorceror or two, as well as a number of minor talents and focused practioners.

One point which others might want to consider when "Butchering" a location, is that full White Council level casters are RARE, the general impression I get is that on average, there is perhaps only 1-2 wizards per state within the US.  While several might be clustered together, particularly at sites that are particularly old or powerful in some way, wizards should still be a fairly rare person/NPC to encounter.