City vs. Location - Differences, Hierarchy?

[neko128]

Okay.  I'm reading through the rules (will get all the way through the books by this weekend, darn it!), and while I'm familiarizing myself with everything, I'm keeping in mind how it's going to relate to playing.  So I'm using my local area as an example - the NY Capital Region - and my question for you is, what's the best way to handle some of this?  Specifically, the region as a whole has a character and a nature, but individual cities in the region can vary wildly.  I feel like I should make "NY Capital Region" the "main City", but I also feel like - without making individual city descriptions for the various cities and towns in the area - I'm unfairly white-washing things...  While at the same time, I don't want to over-whelm the region definition with paperwork.  Specifically, there's the "NY Capital Region", but I also would want to have information on Albany, Troy, Schenectady, and Saratoga Springs on top of it.  So my options, as I see them:

• Make "NY Capital Region" the "city", and treat everything else as a location under the rules.  This, I feel, just kindof glosses over and loses the character of the component cities.
• Make "NY Capital Region" a "city", but also define Albany, Troy, Schenectady, and Saratoga Springs as cities in their own right.  Problem is, this creates a mountain of paperwork and a large amount of overlap - and some arguments about where things may belong (locations that could arguably be in more than one of the component cities because their "true" city isn't specced out).  I'm worried it'd just overwhelm the game.
• Forget "NYCAP" as a city, and just flesh out the individual cities.  Then I end up feeling like I've lost the "unity" of the component cities as a region, but that may not be fair.
• Errr, some other option I haven't thought of yet.

Thoughts?  Feelings?  Opinions?

[Falar]

I think I understand where you're coming from and I can also see how it applies to my little Tri-state area where West Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky all meet. There's a couple of cities that are geographically right next to each other but have a totally different feel to them with an area right in between that's not clearly of one or the other.

What I'd go with is to ninja up your own way to represent it. I'm not sure what you would feel is the best way to do that, but I do have a suggestion for basically how I'd do it. Read on for more, Captain Kitty!

Go with standard city creation for the New York Capital Region, but also add in one theme for each of the component cities. These would not be quite as important as your overarching themes for the Region and none of them would be Threats as it's more to identify what the city is like, rather than as much as a central point of the campaign.

After that, design your locations and keep in mind both your Regional themes and threats and your City theme. If you can possibly do it, flavor what your locations in Saratoga Springs in a Saratoga Springs bent, but mainly have them tie into the Regional themes. If there's a location that is in a middle zone, you might want to make that clear in the description and maybe make it a semi-focal point of the location. Heck, one of your themes for the Region could be something along the lines of "The Fence Is Everywhere" meaning that there are boundaries all over and some people/places are on one side or the other, and then there are the straddlers. I don't know much about the region for if that would work, but it's a possibility.

You'd end up overthemed, but I don't think it would me much of a big problem because your overarching themes and threats for the region is what you and your players are going to focus on. The other ones are more for local color and flavor, which is possibly just as important, but it's not going to be the drive of the campaign.

[neko128]

"Captain Kitty"?     That's a new one!

So if I understand what you're suggesting right, you're saying instead of treating them as locations *or* cities, account for them using themes but wrap them up into the "parent location" - NYCAP.  Which, of course, could be the 4th option on my original list.  So you'd end up with a City definition starting off something like this (none of it final, of course):

CITY: New York Capital Region

MAJOR THEMES and THREATS:

• The Idea: Crossroads of the North
• Still Waters, Deep Currents
• The Empowered and the Powerless
• Albany: Wheeling and Dealing
• Saratoga Springs: High Society and High Crime
• Schenectady: The Remains of the Mighty
• Troy: Decaying Legends

...

...Which of course violates the "no more than 3" maxim city creation states, but addresses my concerns.

[Falar]

I did say that you would end up overthemed, but remember, you're not using the city themes as much for how the campaign is going to play. They're to be more applied as to how the game is going to play there. It's still going to be about being the Crossroads of the North, with Still Waters and Deep Currents and the contrast between the Empowered and the Powerless, but how all three themes play out in the four different locales is modified by how they work.

Schenectady, for instance, might have an emphasis for the Empowered and the Powerless with fallen giants and people trying to pull themselves up by other's legacies. Saratoga Springs might be all right on the surface, pretending the be a High Society with Still Waters, but the Currents run Deep into crimes that strike at the heart and height of humanity. Stuff like that. They're not going to be the themes that run the campaign; they modify it for where a particular adventure might be taking place.

[neko128]

Eeeeexcellent.  This is falling together nicely. Thank you, your advice has been exceptionally useful in helping drag things together in my mind. 

[Falar]

No problem! I'm glad I could be of service to ya. I love how the City Creation works in this game and it's probably the place I've most tested my mind at. But I'm more of a GM than a player, so that's more or less how it tumbles.

That is not to say that I don't want to play. Heck, I don't want to GM this system UNTIL I've had some solid experience at playing. It's so far off the meter of what I usually GM that I wouldn't trust myself with getting it done properly for the players.