sparkindarkness (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sparkindarkness) wrote2008-09-26 10:56 pm
sparkindarkness) wrote2008-09-26 10:56 pm
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Help! Need someone who knows more about North American geography than I do!
As mentioned here: http://sparkindarkness.livejournal.com/204537.html I am running a werewolf game. Because I prefer to stick mostly to game canon and because the game requires the interaction of many many tribes it is to be set in the Americas (European werewolf tribes tend to have their own established territory and multi-tribal septs are rare or limited to maybe 3 tribes. It‘s also easier to shoot them there).
The things is I don't know exactly where to situate it. I want to keep it as close to the real world as possible (makes for less invention and more interesting research - in my last campaign they went Yuma, Arizona to Miami to Townsville, Queensland and I had lots of fun researching them all) but I am willing to tweak things (turn a moderate city into a NYC sized metropolis, for example). But I need somewhere to start.
So, what do I need?
A city moderately close to forested wilderness “close” can be “within 2-3 days solid travel” but more than a week would be pushing it. The wilderness has to be predominantly woodland.
Temperate/cold climate Snows in winter. Has pine trees. That kind of thing. No deserts, palm trees, calypso dancers.
Not somewhere already heavily established in White Wolf’s canon I like the canon, I use it a lot and don’t want to clash with it too badly since I may want to use it. So NOT: NYC, New York State, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago
A Camarilla City So nowhere that is established as Sabbat - so NOT Toronto (rest of Canada’s fine, I never bought the idea of all of Canada being a Sabbat holding - it made NO sense) Detroit, Miami, Mexico
Bonus points
Not essentials but they’d be nice bonuses if possible:
Native wolf population
Wilderness is actually a National Park or similarly legally protected
The city has a history (not necessarily current presence) of organised crime ties
All suggestions gratefully appreciated!
(ETA: I'm going to do brief research on each suggestion and probably post another post on detailed pros and cons of each :))
The things is I don't know exactly where to situate it. I want to keep it as close to the real world as possible (makes for less invention and more interesting research - in my last campaign they went Yuma, Arizona to Miami to Townsville, Queensland and I had lots of fun researching them all) but I am willing to tweak things (turn a moderate city into a NYC sized metropolis, for example). But I need somewhere to start.
So, what do I need?
A city moderately close to forested wilderness “close” can be “within 2-3 days solid travel” but more than a week would be pushing it. The wilderness has to be predominantly woodland.
Temperate/cold climate Snows in winter. Has pine trees. That kind of thing. No deserts, palm trees, calypso dancers.
Not somewhere already heavily established in White Wolf’s canon I like the canon, I use it a lot and don’t want to clash with it too badly since I may want to use it. So NOT: NYC, New York State, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago
A Camarilla City So nowhere that is established as Sabbat - so NOT Toronto (rest of Canada’s fine, I never bought the idea of all of Canada being a Sabbat holding - it made NO sense) Detroit, Miami, Mexico
Bonus points
Not essentials but they’d be nice bonuses if possible:
Native wolf population
Wilderness is actually a National Park or similarly legally protected
The city has a history (not necessarily current presence) of organised crime ties
All suggestions gratefully appreciated!
(ETA: I'm going to do brief research on each suggestion and probably post another post on detailed pros and cons of each :))
Re: *howls*
How far is this Morgan-Monroe National forest? I have trouble judging American map distance. (Oh and while I'm looking at the map - how does anything that far EAST get called the mid-WEST? And American cities are amusing to look at on a map - it's all a grid! Bet there's not a single round about in it)
There seems to be a decent amount of park land in the city to say the least and the sattellite image of google maps shows lotsa greenerie that suggests lots of forest. Good population sized and a diverse economy so i can throw just about any business there.
6,000 immigrants from Yugoslavia is good for the Shadow Lord connection. And a zoo is also a bonus. I can see a lot of things here the Children of Gaia would have a hand in (like the Children's museum)
Re: *howls*
This tells you what you can and can't do on various public lands and something about them if you care to wade through it.
http://www.in.gov/dnr/forestry/
Morgan Monroe is 24,000 acres 6220 Forest Rd, Martinsville, IN 46151 (Morgan Monroe State Forest) 39.7 mi - about 1 hour 13 mins
Yellowwood State Forest 23,326 acres Brown County
Nashville, IN 61.9 mi – about 1 hour 10 mins
Green Sullivan 8,000 acres 96.1 mi – about 2 hours 4 mins
Clark State Forest 23,979 acres 95.3 mi – about 1 hour 29 mins
Pike State forest 2,914 acres Winslow, IN 136 mi – about 3 hours 1 min
Jackson-Washington State Forest 18,000 acres Brownstown, IN 77.2 mi – about 1 hour 19 mins
Indiana is 1/3 the size in land area as England give or take. We have a lot of public land.
Re: *howls*
My main concern for the forests is that a) the be pretty damn natural (none of these coppiced to death) and preferably largely left to themselves. I've seen forests where you can't MOVE for hikers, tourists, picnickers, cyclists, joggers, rangers, boyscouts and people looking for "adventurous" sex. A bear may shit in the woods, but if he does in some of these woods it WILL be caught on 3 tourist's flashing camera.
The area around the caern is going to be patrolled by angry werewolves who kill humans who get too close - I want them to be able to do so WITHOUT there having to be an hourly collection to remove the bones
Re: *howls*
I'd have to say they're heavily used. It sounds like you need to find a large parcel of land for sale that is remote in an area that is sparsely populated. Wyoming is one of the western states that has large tracts of land though finding enough contiguous land may be tough.
None of these forests would hide a lot of missing people. Just one and you'd have a major search and if it's a kid it would be thousands of searchers with enough hardware to spot a warm body from the air (thank gov't surplus).
But with your own private estate and keeping very good relations with the local government you'd be ok. Eventually you'd want to become the local government.
On your other response I'm not sure of 'right to roam' on public lands but you'd be well advised to stay off private property here without permission in this state.
Though there is a free zone around roads and waterways where so many feet is considered to be public land.
Re: *howls*
I'm not sure what your requirements are in addition to what you'd said.
You can buy large tracts of land here if you have the funds. You can even get them made tax exempt if you do the paperwork right. I assume your use would be with conservation and preservation in mind and I think there are state laws for that but don't know for sure.
If those 6,000 people can get in and stick with each other they would be formidable both economically and politically. But they'd have to be smart about it.
If they have to hide, we're absorbing a lot of immigrants legal or not and while the economy is tanking in one area exports will be up and we do need labor. We have a very large immigrant population.
While I lambaste this area it's not nearly as bad as some states wrt 'feriners'. I don't like living in Indy but that's because I lived in the poorer areas. It is the economic, political and by design physical center of the state so it has jobs and other benefits.
Re: *howls*
The Glass Walkers? Have both the funds and the
I'm going out on a limb here, but I'm guessing America doesn't have any laws like our incredibly daft "right to roam" law.
Well that's not entirely the issue - different tribes of werewolves have their own human bloodlines they prefer (though they're not generally limited to them) for the Shadow Lords, their bloodlines hail from the Balkans - so a Yugoslavian presence means they have some local kinfolk