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sparkindarknessAs 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 :))
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-28 12:45 pm (UTC)You get tehse insular communities for their own protection very often. I find that's often the case with many organised crime - the Krays in London were depressingly popular in the neighbourhoods they operated in
The Keu jin would have a major presence - but they have that pesky inability to create new Kue Jin which would be what gives the kindred and edge - especially since the Quincunx have only just begun the great leap outward. Actually I'd expect there to be a large UNAFFILIATED and UNEDUCATED Kue-jin population - Kue-jin that have arisen from the local population without the benefit of thq gaki or the Quincunx to educate them.
That's an insane beginning for a city - sawdust sewage and no women *boggle* That book would been ideal - can you imagine that setting? The underground alone would have made for some great nossie lairs
(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-28 09:46 pm (UTC)At one point we found a building that had obviously at some point been a Masonic temple-- there were Mason symbols in the stone above the door, in the walls and floor. The place was huge, but had no signs, no markings, just a small unobtrusive locked door with steps leading upwards inside. On the top floor, 5 stories up or so? A massive open balcony, with huge pillars, totally decked out in opulent red and gold. I'd like to know what goes on in there.
I went on the Underground Tour twice-- you can go down below street level and see the buildings' original entrances, and all sorts of crazy things. The sawdust settles and rots, so the floors down there wobble up and down sometimes like 3'. (At one point a little kid drowned in a pothole in the sawdust-filled streets-- he was trying to paddle a little boat across it, the thing was something like 9' wide, 18' long, and 8' deep.) When they got toilets, they had to be built above sea level because the plumbing went to the ocean-- which in some cases meant climbing up 15 stairs or so to get to the toilet, which is fun in the dark while you're toting a shotgun to fend off plague-infested rats. (the underground was eventually condemned due to
AIDsbubonic plague) If the toilet was not high enough and you happened to flush while the tide is coming in you'd end up with a massive geyser.Yeah pretty much only the Sabbat would be able to shake up the Kuei-Jin much, and that by sheer fucking Zerg rush. Which could be quite effective, depending. To even get the Kuei-Jin to bother to pay attention much less reveal themselves, they'd have to start by going after the mortals in the asian communities, fucking up the businesses and infrastructure, which would threaten the support systems and food sources for the Kuei-Jin-- which are vulnerable in that they are unusually VISIBLE, Chinatown being such a distinctive thing, organization has its down side. The international districts do have very clear borders, though, and there would be solid defenses of some kind to prevent that type of invasion. It'd be messy, good popcorn stuff.
Kuei-Jin have groups specifically dedicated to hunting down the newbies and whipping some civilization into them-- the thing is, without that, new Kuei-Jin tend not to ever surface from a crazed bestial state and get themselves dead rather quickly, after making a big cannibalistic mess. There might be a few orphans that manage to survive, but not necessarily a large group.
One of the characters I'd made was a dude who was born in Seattle around the turn of the century, fatherless, mother a prostitute-- he'd never been anywhere near his homeland and couldn't even speak the language fluently till after he rose and got dragged back there for re-education. He was a bootlegger, a gangster-- not yakuza or tong style, but a garden variety suspender-wearing, drug-dealing, woman-beating, tommy gun-toting thug. He's quite mellow and philosophical now, appreciates tea, but still talks with an entirely American accent, which confuses people beautifully.