I live in Baton Rouge, and I've just been voluntold to run a game set in New Orleans. Some of my quick notes on the setting are...
* Neutral ground: Jean Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop. It's one of the oldest buildings in New Orleans, and for a long time was run independent of the local powers because of Jean Lafitte's influence (he was a local privateer big-wig back in the day). It's also small, crowded, dark, musty, and thematically perfect for a hole-in-the-wall meeting place. Practically, you might have to invent a side room or second floor to segregate the supernaturals from the normal patrons, but that wouldn't be too hard.
* St. Louis Cathedral: I've been in there a few times, and I think it would be more interesting to have it be holy ground but not be controlled by anyone. A place of rest and temporary refuge, but not true safety.
* Garden district: This is a good place to have some sort of stabilizing, positive influence. This area is very near to some bad areas but is actually rather nice, leading nicely to a setup where something is protecting it against the corrupting influence of its surroundings.
* French quarter: I want this area to be *full* of stuff. You have neutral ground at Lafitte's, surrounded by White Court holdings, holy ground at St. Louis, graveyards infested with ghosts and/or necromancers, and tons of tourists just to make things interesting.
* Farther afield: Outside of the Quarter and the Garden district you have the Superdome (which I think should definitely be haunted or corrupt in some way after what happened there during Katrina), the remnants of Charity Hospital, and the CBD, which are all ideal settings to play into the overall theme of corruption.
* Antagonists: I've been working a few angles on developing antagonists. The Black Court (maybe even Mavra) may be trying to establish a foothold
(creating a sanctuary city where they can move into the power vacuum left by the Reds)
, while Ghouls are in the ruined areas of the Lower 9th and New Orleans East, possibly some Kemmler disciples and other dark sorcerers/wizards hiding in the shadows. The more ubiquitous, theme-level antagonists would include the White Court (primarily in the Quarter) and ghosts. I am intentionally avoiding the fae, because they don't suit the themes I'm going for, but I can see how they might fit into some games. Instead, the spirit world will be more strongly populated with ghosts and other spirits (especially Lwa), because I think they suit NOLA's character better.
* Allies: It would be foolish to ignore New Orleans's connection to Voodoo. Setting up the voodoo community as evil or corrupt is too obvious, though, and I thought it might be a bit flat. Instead, I'm going to turn the Voodoo cultural center and the current high priestess into New Orleans's version of Father Forthill - a strong, faith-based practitioner and servant to the Lwa. She can also be one of the links in the Paranet, holding the supernatural community together. The PCs will round out this category; I don't want there to be too many allies, or the game wont be as overtly corrupt as I'm shooting for.
I'm still working the details right now. Still though, I hope this helps.
