Author Topic: Alternate Locations for Dresden RPGs  (Read 23178 times)

Offline Lanodantheon

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Re: Alternate Locations for Dresden RPGs
« Reply #15 on: March 30, 2008, 05:30:21 PM »
Posted my response in the wrong thread.... Well I feel sheepish... :( :o

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.

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Offline R00kie

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Re: Alternate Locations for Dresden RPGs
« Reply #16 on: March 30, 2008, 06:16:21 PM »
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.
Wouldn't you be worried about the campaign turning into something half way between Yellow Submarine and Naked Lunch;)

I don't think as a GM I could run an extended NeverNever campaign without it beginning to feel ordinary - at which point its not really a NeverNever campaign.

Offline Lanodantheon

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Re: Alternate Locations for Dresden RPGs
« Reply #17 on: March 30, 2008, 06:49:26 PM »
Nothing wrong with running a trippy game. Even though it's not my style of game.
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MatthewD44

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Re: Alternate Locations for Dresden RPGs
« Reply #18 on: March 31, 2008, 04:02:25 AM »
Well if one had a very imaginative group you MIGHT be able to pull off a good campaign in Nevernever but personally if I were going to try to do that, it would be something found in the frey realms.. 

Offline SQuigley316

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Re: Alternate Locations for Dresden RPGs
« Reply #19 on: April 02, 2008, 06:47:23 PM »
While I don't have the rules for city creation produced for the Dresden Files RPG, I have been eager to run a game in this setting for awhile and have been coming up with my own Dresdenverse Philadelphia. 

The city has Poe influence (although not as much as the Evil Hat chosen city of Baltimore), has a tie to Bram Stoker while he was writing Dracula (could be a nice Black Court storyline) which was in the same hotel that the first Legionnaires outbreak occured in (thinking of tieing that to a Black Court massacre and cover-up as well), tons of Colonial American history obviously, has ethnic-culturally centered areas such as Chinatown (to the OP point of bringing in some Eastern traditioned genre supernaturals such as Jade Court and probably a dragon), Italian Market (had already created an NPC Old god named J. Peter Dieti, Jupiter modelled after the Odin character from Neil Gaiman's American Gods), Fairmount Park (which has been called "one of the largest urban parks in the country", making it an ideal Fey ground), all the hustle and bustle of a major city with some old world feel and a surrounding area that is brimming over with history and penache.

That said I have nothing too concrete overall storywise as I want to get my hands on the official RPG stuff for background and work it in before planning, although I will only be using the Dresden Files RPG as a guide and using the d20 system as it is the only system the group I play with will use.

Hoodooed

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Re: Alternate Locations for Dresden RPGs
« Reply #20 on: April 15, 2008, 06:56:43 PM »
I had been considering modern day New Orleans as a possible campaign setting for a Dresden Files game. There is a lot of local mysticism, history, et al, left untouched by the books and worth a flesh out… I was just thinking of the fun that could be had with Anne Rice’s old house for example.

I would second the mention of St. Petersburg as a potential setting also. I read the English edition of the Times from there twice a week and it really gives insight into the local area. I could see a lot of fun on city fencing day and a confrontation with the heirs to the Three Musketeers.

The best settings and game locations suggest stories and fun things easily. That’s my measuring stick… I've never actually visited either city.
« Last Edit: April 15, 2008, 07:17:34 PM by Hoodooed »

Offline Lanodantheon

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Re: Alternate Locations for Dresden RPGs
« Reply #21 on: April 16, 2008, 05:34:36 AM »
I had been considering modern day New Orleans as a possible campaign setting for a Dresden Files game. There is a lot of local mysticism, history, et al, left untouched by the books and worth a flesh out… I was just thinking of the fun that could be had with Anne Rice’s old house for example.

Two interesting considerations about running in N.O. came to mind:

1) Water grounds out Magic + Louisiana Swamp = very interesting place for a Wizard to be.

2) Hurricane Katrina probably redrew the supernatural road map since as mentioned, Water grounds magic. Any ancient magics sealing/veiling/controlling things that go Bump no mean precisely...nothing.


I would second the mention of St. Petersburg as a potential setting also. I read the English edition of the Times from there twice a week and it really gives insight into the local area. I could see a lot of fun on city fencing day and a confrontation with the heirs to the Three Musketeers.

Three Musketeers is French, what the heck do they have to do with Russia? Anyway...

Russia has a long history, which also means lots of magic running around. When I think about Russia in general, let alone St. Petersburg as a setting, I have 2 thoughts:

1. In Russian History there are 3 Kinds of Old.

Recent Old: As in Czar Nicholas II. As in that old staple....Rasputin. But, he may need to be avoided since even Hellboy has gotten a piece of his clichéd mystical ass.

Byzantine Old: The Byzantine (East Roman) Empire reigned for hundreds of years after the fall of western Roman Empire. With that fall can come old gods from Greece and plenty of other nasties looking for a place to live since the Byzantine Empire was also the Silk Road. 

Slavic Old: The Rus people predate a lot of other cultures. Their mythology is to the point now that a lot of it has been forgotten. In St.Petersburg, local White Council Wizards would typically be dealing with stuff no one knows anything about.

2. The Iron Curtain's down, but not gone.

Communist Russia probably played hell with the Magical community. Stalin probably gave even Mab the red ass. The KGB experimented with Psychics, but what about Wizards? Now that the Communists are gone, how does that change the community?


That's all I got on that.
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Hoodooed

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Re: Alternate Locations for Dresden RPGs
« Reply #22 on: April 16, 2008, 06:07:40 AM »
*Chuckles* It’s about fun. I am aware they are French in origin but nothing prevents them from visiting for the event and a little competition any more than being a Norwegian fairy tale prevented the Billy Goats Gruff from kicking Harry’s butt around Chicago.

There might well be magically dead zones in the New Orleans area but it wouldn’t be any more a handicap than Harry’s battle on the small island… Or the spells he cast from Thomas's boat deck underway over the lake. It actually threatens to add some interesting dimensions to things for non wizards too. Been looking over a few maps and asking questions like "is a sand bar enough" and "how might tapping ley lines play into things," and "is proximity to land and water depth a factor."

A lot just depends on what the rules say when they are finished. Being in a swamp land region might not be an issue at all if some of the boat scenes from the books are an indication while being over deep water would...

Thanks for the thoughts.  :)
« Last Edit: April 16, 2008, 06:58:32 AM by Hoodooed »

Offline R00kie

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Re: Alternate Locations for Dresden RPGs
« Reply #23 on: April 16, 2008, 08:24:42 AM »
2) Hurricane Katrina probably redrew the supernatural road map since as mentioned, Water grounds magic. Any ancient magics sealing/veiling/controlling things that go Bump no mean precisely...nothing.
Hurricane Katrina could well have been the results of an imbalance between the Summer and Winter court, and even if it wasn't just think how much magical energy must have been tied up in a storm that size if the little storms in 'Storm Front' are anything to go on.

It might be interesting to set your campaign before the hurricane. The players know its coming, but thats okay - its just foreshadowing, and they get to discover the events behind it.

Of course this might be a difficult topic for a lot of players. Anyone who was affected by the hurricane might find it poor material for a game. For many the wounds might still seem to fresh, so sound your players out carefully first.

Offline TangXiao

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Re: Alternate Locations for Dresden RPGs
« Reply #24 on: April 22, 2008, 06:45:09 PM »
One interesting thing to consider would be those cities which, for various reasons, have a mixed cultural heritage.  For example, (and this is an admittedly random example which presents itself only because I am traveling there soon) Qingdao, China.  This is a city which has, at various times, "belonged" to China, Germany, and Japan.  In certain areas of the city, the architecture is such that the city seems more German than Chinese.  In cities like this, you could mix and match the mythologies of the various cultures and even create a "turf wars" kind of scenario.  What do you guys think?

Offline Janathian

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Re: Alternate Locations for Dresden RPGs
« Reply #25 on: April 22, 2008, 07:42:44 PM »
That said I have nothing too concrete overall storywise as I want to get my hands on the official RPG stuff for background and work it in before planning, although I will only be using the Dresden Files RPG as a guide and using the d20 system as it is the only system the group I play with will use.

If you're going to be doing d20 - I highly recommend picking up Monte Cook's World of Darkness. He's already done a fantastic job of converting the Mage magic system to d20. He also has some really great spins on Vampires and werewolves that could fit into a Dresden game as a new, previously unknown supernatural baddy. While reading through it I saw that the magic system in particular could easily be dropped into a Dresden campaign, almost unaltered. I'm probably going to end up doing the same thing myself.

More in line with the original topic, My Dresden Game will either be in Central Pennsylvania (Outside of Pittsburgh, Altoona, State College, Johnstown - Imagine what the Johnstown Flood did to the supernatural community.) Or West Palm Beach, Florida. Pennsylvania gives me a ton more options than Florida, I think. I don't know of too many paranormal stories that have come out of Florida, but i only lived there for two years. Pennsylvania has loads and loads of Forest, the Appalachian Mountains, leylines for sure, and all kinds of weird stories. Florida has swamps and sand and hurricanes and lots and lots of buildings. (Imagine what Mr. Sells could have done if he pulled magical power from a hurricane instead of a thunderstorm :P)
« Last Edit: April 22, 2008, 07:49:30 PM by Janathian »

MatthewD44

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Re: Alternate Locations for Dresden RPGs
« Reply #26 on: April 22, 2008, 09:07:16 PM »
FL could be used for the pirates, fountain of youth myth, native American stories...

Offline Soulless Mystic5523

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Re: Alternate Locations for Dresden RPGs
« Reply #27 on: April 22, 2008, 09:33:38 PM »
The fountain of youth could be alot of fun to play with. I can see all kinds fun things to do with it eitehr existing and being jealously guarded, or not existing, but people still looking, and having to deal with the supernatuals that are looking as well.
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Offline Janathian

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Re: Alternate Locations for Dresden RPGs
« Reply #28 on: April 22, 2008, 10:05:25 PM »
FL could be used for the pirates, fountain of youth myth, native American stories...

Pennsylvania has Native Americans too, something I'm definitely taking into consideration for any future games and my in-the-works stories.

Pennsylvania would, i think, end up being a lot more fae and nature based. Florida I could see being based a whole lot more around vamps - especially reds and whites. Palm Beach and Miami practically scream White Court HQ, very close behind Los Angeles. THAT would probably be choice #1 for them.

Offline Lanodantheon

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Re: Alternate Locations for Dresden RPGs
« Reply #29 on: April 23, 2008, 05:37:30 AM »
Running DF games in any part of New England or around the Southeastern U.S. allows for use of material from a recent event (Relative to the Wizarding World), The American Civil War. Sometimes I wish I still lived in Jersey so I could mine that adventure material.
www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/the-emerald-city  (Nov 2012 Campaign of The Month)

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My name is Lanodantheon Thul, Conjure that by your own risk....But first, you have be able to spell it...