Author Topic: Arcane St. Louis: Gateway to the Supernatural  (Read 3180 times)

Offline lankyogre

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Arcane St. Louis: Gateway to the Supernatural
« on: September 18, 2010, 08:19:12 PM »
My friends and I are starting a DF game and so far we've done two sessions, both character/city creation. (We needed time to think). I'm going to start a thread detailing our experiences and occasionally asking for advice. Hopefully there are those that can gain something useful from descriptions of creation and play, and I can mine more minds for ideas.

First off, we chose St. Louis because we are all from there and it gives a good background for creation. We are expanding St. Louis to include a lot of the Metropolitan area including the wineries and suburbs.

Arcane St. Louis: Gateway tot he Supernatural

Choosing a city was pretty quick. We all know it, we are all from here. Made sense.

Then we went on to talking about Themes and Threats. Our first thought for a theme was the idea that St. Louis is made up of multiple townships and municipalities. There are dozens of different police departments, school districts, fire departments, and city councils throughout the area. We figure supernatural nasties can use this to their advantage, jumping around enough and not drawing too much attention to themselves. I know people who have called 911 and reached the wrong dispatch, just because of where a phone tower is vs actual city/county lines.
For right now we have decided on the aspect: Big City, Little Towns, though that might change a little to be darker.

Second theme was the rivers. We decided that the rivers would be some sort of ley lines, but also act as a giant threshold around the city. The rivers have historically controlled a lot of what made St. Louis important, and we decided that maybe now there are supernaturals using the thresholds of the rivers to hide out. St. Louis would have a higher concentration of supernaturals, but a lot of them just want to lay low, and will try not to do anything that will draw attention to themselves.
Here we settled on Where Two Rivers Meet, but again that may be too generic and/or not dark enough.

Since we already had two themes, we picked a threat for the third. We liked that there are different kinds of werewolves that are functionally so different, so we decided to throw that in St. Louis. St. Louis also has a decent crime rate and lots of areas of the inner city and North St. Louis can be pretty bad and have areas of abandoned buildings. We decided that there is are rival gangs battling in North Country. One gang is lycanthropes and the other is a group of shapechanging werewolves. They have recently really started pushing each other and its threatening to get out of control. This ended up tying into some of our other faces as well as we looked at other things.
As an aspect we talked about Who Let The Dogs Out, representing the werewolves, but also the fact that something else is behind their aggression.


After talking about Themes and Threats we then jumped down to the Balance of Power and Movers and Shakers. Here we just discussed a lot of things that we want to include, and jotted down a few notes.

Supernatural Status Quo
-Skavis in the Police Department
-Summer Court presence in the wineries
-Disinterested local warden that wants to gamble
-And then the werewolves
Mundane Status Quo
-Blues and Jazz presence in the Loop
-Lots of colleges
-Rising unemployment. A lot of big corporations (TWA, McDonald Douglas, Anheiser Busch, auto factories) have "recently" sold out or moved.
-Sports town
-multicultural; Bosnian/Kosovo refugees, areas of French & German settlers, Indian population, African-American population, especially because of the unique position during the civil war, etc
-high crime rate. St. Louis is frequently pretty high on the list of dangerous cities to live in per capita

We decided that the Skavis, Summer Court, and resident Warden are happy with the way things are, as are the corrupt cops and most of the wineries. On the other hand, there are a lot of multicultural activists pushing and pulling things, the werewolf situation is rocking the boat, including relief workers in those areas, and since the Summer Court is strong, the Winter Court has to want to mess that up.


Offline lankyogre

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Re: Arcane St. Louis: Gateway to the Supernatural
« Reply #1 on: September 18, 2010, 08:20:16 PM »
Then we went on to Locations and Faces. We created 9 Locations, and then made a Face for each one. Because the two werewolves are faces for both Locations and the Threat, we have since thought of another one or two Faces it would be nice to have.

Location: The Arch – currently houses a portal to the Nevernever brought to St. Louis in the 90's by Albanian refugees (the real reason for the war in Kosovo).
Face: Bresian Agolli – Leader of the Albanian refugees that protect the Arch gate. Only really cares about keeping the gate safe and unused by mortals. Ignores anything else going on, even if its at Lacledes Landing.
Theme: Albanian refugees will do anything to keep the gate free of mortals
Aspect: Guardians of the Gate

Location: Sugar Creek Winery– home to the Summer Court presence in St. Louis.
Face: Dionysus – High Sidhe of the Summer Court that presides over a small court at Sugar Creek Winery. In some way related to the Greek god Dionysus (whether the god himself or a sidhe grown from part of his court). His “court” is essentially a continuation of the Bachus.
Theme: In some way there is always a party going on at Sugar Creek Winery, and the party participants can get pretty crazy.
Aspect: Where the Wild Things Are

Location: Missouri Botanical Gardens – public gardens where many summer court changelings have found a home and established a clique as changelings and not Fae or Human.
Face: Annabelle – gardener and outcast changeling, wants to be human, but afraid of what the choice will mean. One of the only changelings that is willing to interact with humans at the gardens.
Theme: The Botanical Gardens are filled with meandering paths that wind all across the grounds, providing many hiding spots and means of getting to anywhere.
 Aspect: Just a Stroll in the Park

Location: Union Station – home and hide-out to a gang of Lycanthropes. Ex-mallish, ex-train station.
Face: Alejandro “Lobo” – Leader of the lycanthropes. Wants to clean up North County and remove the werewolves
Threat: Half the stores and locations are closed and empty and not much real business is done. The ex-train station is cavernous, but not well populated.
 Aspect: No One Hears Your Cries

Location: St. Ninian's – Catholic Monastery in St. Louis city. Gothic church and monastery. Includes crypts and passages that may have played a roll in the Underground Railroad.
Face: Brother Hubert – new member of the order that resides at St. Ninian's. Somewhat in the know and tries to help others as much as possible. His superiors constantly contradict him or deny his pleas for help
Theme: Its usually possible to get some form of shelter or assistance from Brother Hubert.
 Aspect: Refuge and Retreat

Location: Uncle Vinny's B&B – abandoned motel and “B&B” that serves as the hang-out for the werewolves in North County.
Face: Brock – Leader of the werewolves. Originally the gang felt left behind by society and gained a little power to take back their home. Since then the Skavis have pushed them into feeling more isolated and therefore more violent.
Theme: Uncle Vinny's was originally built in the '50's in much safer and happier time. Since then it failed and has been left empty and abandoned for the better part of half a century.
 Aspect: Relic of Another Time

Location: Precinct 9 – Also known as the Downtown St. Louis Police Unit, Precinct 9 is the de facto center of the Skavi controlled police department
Face: Nina Skavi – Lieutenant of the St. Louis branch of the Skavi family. Her primary job is keeping the Skavis in power and keeping her patriarch happy.
Threat: The Skavis have been using there presence in the police department to invade corrections facilities, monitor competition, control politicians, and maintain their own power base.
Aspect: To Serve and Despair

Location: Ameristar – Modern and enormous “riverboat” casino on the Missouri River
Face: Leonard “Leo” Articus – White Council Warden assigned to St. Louis. He has been here almost two centuries and grown complacent and disillusioned. He has decided that the enemy you know is better than one you don't, and as long as the White Council doesn't give him orders, he would prefer to gamble and drink.
Theme: The Ameristar provides a continual distraction for many people from their real lives. The casinos are there, and they are always involved in legislature.
Aspect: Fancy Distraction

Location: Fox Theatre – Century old movie theatre remodeled as a performance hall. Home to a spirit that resides in St. Louis and hides in the threshold of the river.
Face: Chadwick Busch – young nephew of the Busch family involved with the restoration of the Fabulous Fox Theatre. Outspoken critic of “modern” musicals and performances. Sometimes host or puppet to the Spirit of the Theatre.
Theme: There is a sleeping spirit that has been drawn to the emotion of the theatre.
Aspect: What Dreams May Come

Offline lankyogre

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Re: Arcane St. Louis: Gateway to the Supernatural
« Reply #2 on: September 18, 2010, 08:22:21 PM »
There are four players in the game and we are playing at Feet in the Water

A budding hydromancer that made a deal with a Sidhe to "get" his one true love. Now she is frozen in a block of ice and he is in debt. His uncle taught him about magic and is a "do the right thing stick in the mud"

A changeling that wants to be human but fears the choice. Mother is a Maenad from the Summer Court. She has incite emotion and toughness. Here's a question. The myths and stories about Maenads describe them as not being hurt by flame or weapons of iron. Since typically the catch for fae is cold iron, should I ignore the myth, or give Maenads a different catch? And what catch would it be?

A potion maker herbalist. Teaches herbalism and sells any plants for the supernatural community. Has a familiar of some sort.

A superhero with wings. In over his head, wannabe crime fighter that can summon ectoplasmic wings.


I will update this spot with more on each character at a later point.
« Last Edit: September 18, 2010, 08:30:10 PM by lankyogre »

Offline lankyogre

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Re: Arcane St. Louis: Gateway to the Supernatural
« Reply #3 on: September 18, 2010, 08:26:32 PM »
A few questions that I have, or places that I would like some help are:


Should the Albanian protectors be more like the Magi from the Mummy, i.e. essentially mundane mortals with stunts sworn to protect the gate? Or should they be supernaturally gifted, one idea was a group of werebears (black bears)?

Anybody have any suggestions on aspects or themes/threat? Since I'm the only person with the rulebook a lot of the phrasing work and "rules" fell to me and I came up with things the best I could. We all discussed the ideas, but sometimes the "choice" was left up to the one with the rule book.

Should "Dionysus" be a fae that was believed to be a Greek god? Especially since satyrs and centaurs are already established as fae. Or should he be a Sidhe that has since identified with that concept?

Saving room for other questions
« Last Edit: September 18, 2010, 08:31:29 PM by lankyogre »

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Re: Arcane St. Louis: Gateway to the Supernatural
« Reply #4 on: September 18, 2010, 09:29:30 PM »
Suggestion:

Their is no reason why that there can't be Centaurs and Satyrs who are not Fae.With that I suggest having Dionysus as a God.To me that is way more interesting then having him as a Fae.

Offline luminos

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Re: Arcane St. Louis: Gateway to the Supernatural
« Reply #5 on: September 18, 2010, 10:39:28 PM »
One of the short stories makes it pretty clear that Dionysus is a god.
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Offline ThistledownJohn

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Re: Arcane St. Louis: Gateway to the Supernatural
« Reply #6 on: September 18, 2010, 11:14:26 PM »
Very cool!  :)

We're playing a St. Louis based game as well.  I'll be sure to keep tabs on how yours is progressing.

If you're interested, give ours a listen...

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Offline Bruce Coulson

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Re: Arcane St. Louis: Gateway to the Supernatural
« Reply #7 on: September 18, 2010, 11:44:40 PM »
Don't forget the large number of tunnels and (mostly) forgotten storage beneath St. Louis.

Patience Worth and her legacy would also be worth looking into.
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Offline lankyogre

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Re: Arcane St. Louis: Gateway to the Supernatural
« Reply #8 on: September 19, 2010, 04:35:33 AM »
One of the short stories makes it pretty clear that Dionysus is a god.

Do you know which story? I have read most of them, but there are a few that I couldn't get a hold of so I'm just waiting for Side Jobs to catch up.

Suggestion:

Their is no reason why that there can't be Centaurs and Satyrs who are not Fae.With that I suggest having Dionysus as a God.To me that is way more interesting then having him as a Fae.

Since the changeling is pretty firmly attached to the summer court at Sugar Creek and the group really likes that idea I want to keep the fae. I think I'll look at some of the other names for Dionysus and make the Sidhe in charge the embodiment of a single aspect, representing the Bachuus.

Don't forget the large number of tunnels and (mostly) forgotten storage beneath St. Louis.

Patience Worth and her legacy would also be worth looking into.

I've seen a few people reference tunnels in St. Louis, but I am not familiar with them. I have lived in St. Louis for 15 years, and some of my players longer, and I'm not sure any of us are familiar with what you are referring to. I also couldn't find it with a quick google search. Patience Worth seems just odd to me.

Very cool!  :)

We're playing a St. Louis based game as well.  I'll be sure to keep tabs on how yours is progressing.

If you're interested, give ours a listen...

Thistledown Actual Play Podcast

I'll keep checking on yours as well. Its always interesting to see different takes on the same cities. There is another St. Louis Play by Chat on these forums as well, and they have another take on the city.


Thank you for the suggestions. I'll post the aspects for the characters soon, when I have all of them.

Offline Todjaeger

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Re: Arcane St. Louis: Gateway to the Supernatural
« Reply #9 on: September 19, 2010, 06:52:09 AM »
Do you know which story? I have read most of them, but there are a few that I couldn't get a hold of so I'm just waiting for Side Jobs to catch up.

It's the short story, "Last Call".

A link to a wiki article about Patience Worth is here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patience_Worth.

Here's another wiki link about caves and tunnels around St. Louis. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caves_of_St._Louis

Here's a link to a St. Louis brewery cave as well.  http://www.undergroundozarks.com/falstaff.html
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Offline lankyogre

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Re: Arcane St. Louis: Gateway to the Supernatural
« Reply #10 on: September 19, 2010, 01:40:53 PM »
Oh, yeah. I've been looking for information regarding abandoned subway tunnels or something like Chicago or New York. I've known about the caves and never thought about those. I will keep those in my mind for an additional location at some point, or an extension of St. Ninian's.