Urban Exploration and settings for urban fantasy

[Kristine]

I don't know if anyone else has been or is, interested in urban exploration (for those who don't know this is going into human built and then abandoned places usually to take pictures and explore - it gives you a creepy feeling of stepping back in time) but there are many pictures people who do this take, that you could acctually use for your game setting (and may even give you ideas)

Of course I don't recommend LARPing in these areas because they are often unsafe in parts of them but the pictures of actual places might be helpful for your players to get an idea about the places they enter, while gaming and get them into the history of the place you have set your story.

For those of you setting in your stories in Chicago I found this site: http://www.infiltration.org/uic/   -which has links to photos and pictures to some of the abandoned tunnels under the University of Illinois at Chicago albeit they are 10 yrs old.

some of the interesting things:

On Saturday April 11, 1998...Some of the more fascinating things we saw were:

    * A Nuclear Shelter underneath the main Library with a huge stack of boxes marked "Dept. of Civil Defense".
    * The Campus telephone switch - also underneath the main library
    * A window into the swimming pool of CCC (the student union bldg).
    * A room used to store containers of nuclear products with a ridiculous lock that opened when jiggled.
    * One unfinished section of tunnel was accessed by climbing up a ladder into a crawl space above the basement but below the floor.

Anyone got another city or place that they need pictures of where their might be an entrance into the Nevernever?

[TheMouse]

I would imagine that urban exploration in the Dresdenverse would be really, really dangerous at points. I'm talking beyond the real world worries of weak floors caving in, stabbing yourself with broken glass/ rusted nails/ random sharp things, being rendered unable to walk in a place where no one can hear you scream, or just plain old getting caught by the police. I would imagine that you'd have to worry about trolls, Black Court vamps, and all sorts of nasties.

Which is to say, it's a great thing to include in a game.

[MacsNewBrew]

hehe : undertown would be the ultimate in-universe urban exploration.

Hey if a Senior Warden of the White council doesn't like going there because it is way too dangerous.....

To me, an in-game equivilent to undertown would be Dogpatch USA.
There is just something extra creepy about an abandoned amusement park...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogpatch_USA
http://www.undergroundozarks.com/dogpatch.html

[Kristine]

holy crap!  they are EVERYWHERE!

http://www.defunctparks.com/parks/parks.htm

But this one in Ohio is ...well look at the pictures at the bottom of the page.

http://www.defunctparks.com/parks/OH/ChippewaLake/chippewa-lake.htm

[TheMouse]

I like the ferris wheel that has a tree growing through it. Very cool.

[drscorpio]

To me, an in-game equivilent to undertown would be Dogpatch USA.
There is just something extra creepy about an abandoned amusement park...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogpatch_USA
http://www.undergroundozarks.com/dogpatch.html

We drove past this last year. It's along both sides of Arkansas Highway 7. It's very creepy even in broad daylight.