How's this for a city concept?

[Becq]

Has anyone here heard of the "Freedom Ship"?  It was a concept that has -- as near as I can learn -- gone nowhere in the decade or two it has been around.  In all likelihoods, I'd not be surprised at all to hear confirmation that it was a giant scam.  But even so, it's an interesting concept...

For those of you who've never heard of it, imagine a giant floating city, with all of the features most cities have, including parks, malls, an airport, and quite a lot of ocean view.  It was claimed to be capable of supporting around 85,000 residents, guests, and crew, and was going to be the better part of a mile long.  It was going to sail around the world, stopping at most of the major coastal cities along the way, making a complete circuit every two years.

So imagine that in the Dresdenverse, the ship was actually built.  Wouldn't it make an interesting "city" for the game?  Part of the city would be 'constant' -- the residents and crew (some 65,000 or so in all) would be largely unchanging, similar to any other city.  But there'd also be some 20,000 guests providing an evolving population.  And even more so, the ship was supposed to spend most of the time (about 70%) anchored near one city or another, with the balance spent travelling to the next city.  Which means that you might have a few sessions in Los Angeles, then San Francisco, then Seattle, then Vancouver, then a few at sea, followed by a stay in Tokyo, and later Hong Kong...  Yet the core of the city would remain the ship.

Now, obviously you'd have to make a few concessions.  First off, you'd have to say that the sheer size of the ship would make the grounding effects of the water negligible.  Then you'd have to come up with a reason why Wizards wouldn't simply cause the ship to break apart by their very existence -- which might be handled by saying that in essence, the ship is after all basically a floating barge, which is fairly low tech, and on such a scale that even deliberate hexing would accomplish nothing of significance.  Or you could say that the builders were 'in the know' and set the ship up a bit like McAnally's Pub, therefore dispersing all but the direct effects of spells.  Or there might be something else of a mysterious nature going on that might make up a story just in the finding out.

Any thoughts on the matter?

(Here are a couple of web pages of interest, or search for things like "floating city" or "Freedom Ship")

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Ship
http://www.freedomship.com/
http://www.freedomship.com/freedomship/voyage/voyage.shtml

[adgramaine]

A thing like this has massive potential, no pun intended. There are too many ways a GM could run with something like it. I could actually see various factions using the ship-city has a base of operations. But then, what's considered Accorded Grounds? Certainly not the whole blasted thing! It could end up being a huge target of the supernatural community. Imagine a BCV stowaway, leaving the ship when it is at port and doing all the hunting ashore.

By itself, you'd almost need to stat out the Jade Court seeing how the thing would be parked nearby for four or so months...

[knnn]

What happens when you open a portal to the NN?  Is it moving through the NN as the ship moves, or does it stay fixed?

[adgramaine]

The NN is a fluid thing reaching into the real world fairly mercurially. IIRC the points where the NN touches the real world can and sometimes do change. So I don't see the ship being in movement causing many issues...

[Becq]

I'd thought of the NN issue, and while I haven't settled on The Answer(tm), I'll offer this: The novels talk about the connects to the NN being based to a large extent on what basically amount to the Aspects on that scene (emotions, moods, the feel of the area, etc).  So based on that, I think that the Ship-City would be very similar to any other town as far as the NN is concerned.  The Dresdenified Ship would have a seedy underbelly that would lead to darker areas, and so on.  Most of the areas that are linked to should probably have something of a transient feel to them, though.  It might be worth toying with the idea of having the ship link to the Fae equivalent of a 'port town'.  Something a bit like that market town just past the Wall in Stardust.

[adgramaine]

... Something a bit like that market town just past the Wall in Stardust.

I want to play this game now.   

[Becq]

I want to play this game now.   

I'm glad you like it!

Of course, it would be a lot of work for both players and GM.  After all, you'd have to re-create half of the city every few sessions... 

[adgramaine]

Conceptually, it rocks. The city's Aspects would change just as much as a character might endure. In a way, the Freedom Ship becomes the "Tenth Character", referencing if I may Firefly/Serenity. The fact that upkeep would be a serious work effort shouldn't dissuade most gamers that I know.

Plus there are so many useful story lines and possibilities, such as previously mentioned Accorded Grounds, international law and maintaining order in a city with myriad cultures living, and not just visiting. Just because we do something here as law, means nothing to the Japanese when it comes to enforcing their own laws, or vise versa. And I'm only scratching the plot surfaces. Some one bring in a Brillo pad and let's see what we can scrape up!

[ralexs1991]

i totally love this idea

[Becq]

Ok, so as a mental exercise, how would we stat up the ship?

Possible Themes/Aspects:
* A Home In Every Port
* "Hey, if you don't like the view from your window, just wait a week..."
* Biggest.  Damn.  Boat.  Ever.
* $#%&!  What time zone are we in again?

I'm wondering, would the ship have a mayor?  City council?  I'd guess that it would, which leads to me starting to see shades of Battlestar Galactica here, with possible conflicts between the captain/crew and the civilian government.  Probably fewer Cylons, though.  Maybe.

[knnn]

White Court Vampires were created by man. They rebelled. They  evolved. And they have a plan.

[ralexs1991]

this actually reminds me of that old anime robotech does anyone else remeber what i'm talking about?

[T.R.C.C.]

Thanks for posting this Becq. I never heard of something like this. Closest idea was Japans underground city. Alice city.
*Opens game folder and inserts ship.*

[Becq]

this actually reminds me of that old anime robotech does anyone else remeber what i'm talking about?

Yup.  Deep Space Nine and Babylon Five have similar themes, too.  Or Star Trek in general, for that matter.

White Court Vampires were created by man. They rebelled. They  evolved. And they have a plan.