Short List!
Oct. 1st, 2008 02:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sparkindarknessThese cities all meet enough of the requirements to be strong contenders, so I’m beginning to poke them. There have been a few recent suggestions that I haven’t had chance to look at yet as well :)
My main con coming up here is nom-nom factor which I am measuring under these rough terms (the lost kids test, which is macabre and fun :P):
Your kids are lost in the woods:
REALLY HIGH nom-nom factor
The kids are already dead. Any search party will take heavy casualties and will return with an eternal fear of shadows in the darkness and an infinite respect for Mother Nature’s wrath
HIGH nom-nom factor
The kids will die of exposure before being found. Months will pass before anyone stumbles on the bodies
Moderate nom-nom factor
The kids are lost but with a LARGE concerted search effort we may just find them before they get in trouble.
Low nom-nom factor
Bothersome, gather some neighbours together, sure of finding them
Very low nom-nom factor
You worry about them meeting a stranger in the woods and being kidnapped (i.e. the chances of them running into other people are high)
Non-existant nom-nom factor
Called the kids on their mobile phones and told them to get home. They stopped in the forest gift shop on the way
A less macabre test
You’re heading to the woods with your lover for some public sex0ring.
Really high nom-nom factor
There are easier ways to have a suicide pact
HIGH nom-nom factor
You’re being followed by a film crew recording “natural born survivors” or are planning a really cheap “divorce”
Moderate Nom-nom factor
You find a place for your sex0ring but keep near the edge of the wood
Low nom-nom factor
You can go just about anywhere in the wood for your romp and not worry about being distracted or getting lost.
Very low nom-nom factor
You can’t actually use the wood for sex0ring without being arrested because there are so many damned people around
Non-existant nom-nom factor
You check into a log cabin hotel, buy condoms from the vending machine and order room service to bring up some whipped cream.
Indianapolis
Pros
State capital - with all the infrastructure and government opportunity that implies (and corruption)
Lots of park land
State forest near by
Lots of the usual nice amenities - universities, airport, transport links, diverse and strong businesses
Rust belt city so I can have lots of abandoned warehouses (these are an essential. Every vampire has an abandoned warehouse for nefarious meetings. It is known. In one chronicle it was a joke that an enterprising Ventrue had bought land and constructed 20 abandoned warehouses to lease out to vampires for all their plotting. He had a rota).
Population high (approx 800,000 and 2,000,000 in surrounding area)
Moderately diverse
Baltic Population
Cons
Further west than I’d prefer
Forest lacks nom-nom factor
Madison
Pros
Greenery everywhere you can shake a stick at,
A strong history of liberal causes and counterculture
A strong PRESENT of counter culture goodness
State capital - with all the infrastructure and government opportunity that implies (and corruption) (Albeit on a smaller scale than Indianapolis)
Lots of the usual nice amenities - universities, airport, transport links, diverse and strong businesses
Cons
Population on the lower end of acceptable
Too far west for preference
Forest has lack of nom-nom factor.
Terribly low crime rate. Really really low.
Minneapolis/St. Paul
Pros
Good sized [population (3,000,000 in surrounding area)
Forests close to the city. Lots of parks - lavishly funded ones too
Native American history of the appropriate tribes
Lefty liberal history inc. equality, workers rights, native rights
Diverse population
Diverse immigration inc. Scandanvian (Get of Fenris), Russian Jews (Silver Fangs) and Poland/Balkans (Shadow Lords)
Lots of the usual nice amenities - universities, airport, transport links, diverse and strong businesses. Really nice High tech in business
Arts is nicely high (even with a theatre called Penumbra) if I don’t use it for this chronicle I’m going to set a Toreador one here
Large foreign born population
Cons
Getting far too far west for preference
The forests/greenery looks extremely patchy and sporadic - there’s lots of it but it’s spread out and tamed and has very little nom-nom factor.
Ottowa
Pros
It’s in the east
An actual capital - with all the infrastructure and government opportunity that implies (and corruption) times 10 and an assurance that the local vampire population are going to be beefy and scary (and it’s not currently embroiled in conflict like DC)
Forest with high nom-nom factor. I may be reading the mpa wrong but once you get out of city limits and especially looking northwards there are just TREES everywhere
Biiig population
Hi-tech industry (silicon valley of the north - well, you‘ll save on cold rooms I guess)
Very large foreign born population, inc Balkans population
Lots of business and infrastructure to play with
Cons
We’re encroaching from Croatan to Wendigo areas. Not inescapably but a little far.
My main con coming up here is nom-nom factor which I am measuring under these rough terms (the lost kids test, which is macabre and fun :P):
Your kids are lost in the woods:
REALLY HIGH nom-nom factor
The kids are already dead. Any search party will take heavy casualties and will return with an eternal fear of shadows in the darkness and an infinite respect for Mother Nature’s wrath
HIGH nom-nom factor
The kids will die of exposure before being found. Months will pass before anyone stumbles on the bodies
Moderate nom-nom factor
The kids are lost but with a LARGE concerted search effort we may just find them before they get in trouble.
Low nom-nom factor
Bothersome, gather some neighbours together, sure of finding them
Very low nom-nom factor
You worry about them meeting a stranger in the woods and being kidnapped (i.e. the chances of them running into other people are high)
Non-existant nom-nom factor
Called the kids on their mobile phones and told them to get home. They stopped in the forest gift shop on the way
A less macabre test
You’re heading to the woods with your lover for some public sex0ring.
Really high nom-nom factor
There are easier ways to have a suicide pact
HIGH nom-nom factor
You’re being followed by a film crew recording “natural born survivors” or are planning a really cheap “divorce”
Moderate Nom-nom factor
You find a place for your sex0ring but keep near the edge of the wood
Low nom-nom factor
You can go just about anywhere in the wood for your romp and not worry about being distracted or getting lost.
Very low nom-nom factor
You can’t actually use the wood for sex0ring without being arrested because there are so many damned people around
Non-existant nom-nom factor
You check into a log cabin hotel, buy condoms from the vending machine and order room service to bring up some whipped cream.
Indianapolis
Pros
State capital - with all the infrastructure and government opportunity that implies (and corruption)
Lots of park land
State forest near by
Lots of the usual nice amenities - universities, airport, transport links, diverse and strong businesses
Rust belt city so I can have lots of abandoned warehouses (these are an essential. Every vampire has an abandoned warehouse for nefarious meetings. It is known. In one chronicle it was a joke that an enterprising Ventrue had bought land and constructed 20 abandoned warehouses to lease out to vampires for all their plotting. He had a rota).
Population high (approx 800,000 and 2,000,000 in surrounding area)
Moderately diverse
Baltic Population
Cons
Further west than I’d prefer
Forest lacks nom-nom factor
Madison
Pros
Greenery everywhere you can shake a stick at,
A strong history of liberal causes and counterculture
A strong PRESENT of counter culture goodness
State capital - with all the infrastructure and government opportunity that implies (and corruption) (Albeit on a smaller scale than Indianapolis)
Lots of the usual nice amenities - universities, airport, transport links, diverse and strong businesses
Cons
Population on the lower end of acceptable
Too far west for preference
Forest has lack of nom-nom factor.
Terribly low crime rate. Really really low.
Minneapolis/St. Paul
Pros
Good sized [population (3,000,000 in surrounding area)
Forests close to the city. Lots of parks - lavishly funded ones too
Native American history of the appropriate tribes
Lefty liberal history inc. equality, workers rights, native rights
Diverse population
Diverse immigration inc. Scandanvian (Get of Fenris), Russian Jews (Silver Fangs) and Poland/Balkans (Shadow Lords)
Lots of the usual nice amenities - universities, airport, transport links, diverse and strong businesses. Really nice High tech in business
Arts is nicely high (even with a theatre called Penumbra) if I don’t use it for this chronicle I’m going to set a Toreador one here
Large foreign born population
Cons
Getting far too far west for preference
The forests/greenery looks extremely patchy and sporadic - there’s lots of it but it’s spread out and tamed and has very little nom-nom factor.
Ottowa
Pros
It’s in the east
An actual capital - with all the infrastructure and government opportunity that implies (and corruption) times 10 and an assurance that the local vampire population are going to be beefy and scary (and it’s not currently embroiled in conflict like DC)
Forest with high nom-nom factor. I may be reading the mpa wrong but once you get out of city limits and especially looking northwards there are just TREES everywhere
Biiig population
Hi-tech industry (silicon valley of the north - well, you‘ll save on cold rooms I guess)
Very large foreign born population, inc Balkans population
Lots of business and infrastructure to play with
Cons
We’re encroaching from Croatan to Wendigo areas. Not inescapably but a little far.