Posted my response in the wrong thread.... Well I feel sheepish...
I've just checked though, and the fire is actually mentioned in the Wikipedia entry
It is important to note that although I went through public schools in Spokane and had to sit through many lessons on local history....I didn't care about that at the time.... This is the first time I have heard of the 1889 fire. Kinda makes me feels bad.
Anyway, back on topic:
After talking about my setting for a while, I think it's important to talk about more conventional Dresdenified settings.
Although a good number of people will be playing in Dresden Files versions of their hometowns, other will be using more interesting cities. My Dresdenification (Wow, new word) of my hometown is a bit off the beaten path and most people won't do that. Most Gamers want settings that have the potential for a little bit of everything in them. Plus, setting the game somewhere other than your home helps with immersion since playing in your hometown reminds you where you are.
The advantage of running in your hometown is player vs. character knowledge is the same geographically. If I say to my players, "A group of Gremlins drop their veil at the corner of Sprague and Division," my group knows where that is and exactly what it looks like and will laugh hysterically at the revelation. (Sprague and Division has the highest accident rate in the city.)
The advantage of running in another city is that you get to go places you can't go in real life. That is even though part of DF's draw is the fact that it's reality with a twist. Plus, the major cities will already be written up by designers, so your workload as a DM goes down.
I do think, however, that the DFRPG will have its own trends in alternative locales. These trends can't be avoided sometimes, but I'm sure it will greatly depend on the group running. SOme groups will be smart enough to run a game anywhere. SOme groups, will think they know about a place and run a DFRPG there because they have big heads.
For example, I used to run with a group of people who would probably choose to run in Tokyo. Not because they know the geography of Tokyo, are experts in the Japanese lifestyle, or enough Japanese mythology to make a good game, but because they are demented Otaku who think they know those things...
That being said, Dresden Tokyo would be an interesting setting. Why? Not for the history, not for the effects of Nuclear Weapons on the magic world to be explored across the islands, but because of the people. Japan has one of the highest population densities in the world. Tokyo, the largest Japanese cities is crawling with people all the time. Running Dresden Files in a place like that would be interesting because there are people everywhere. Concealment of the magic world be damned. Evocation on a Tokyo Subway.....
But, that may in fact be wrong because I've never been there like so many of us. If I was in a game of Dresden Tokyo, the DM would have to make up a lot (even if they lived there at one time). And let's not forget if it is an Otaku heavy group, you have to brace yourself for gratuitous Highschool dramas, Anime references and Negima! jokes. Granted, I wouldn't even play in a game like that unless they really sold me on it.
There are however, 2 ideas I did have as alternative locations for play locations for DF that could be fun.
1. Globe Trotting. WHy use one city when you could use them all? Would get very hard from week to wekk though.
2. The Nevernever. I think it might be fun if the group was a bunch of people trapped in the Nevernever for some reason and were unable to get out. Screw Lewis Carrol references, this would be a trippy campaign. THe NEvernever can and does look like anything imaginable.
