Wow, thanks everyone for the great advice. 

Since the players I'll be playing with are on vacation, they asked me to do the City work so we could play when they got back.  I decided to stop the progress for now and spend some time really working on it together.  It seems that that is a key point to doing this stuff well, as well as a major part of the fun.   

I also like the idea of the mannerism bank.  That really made sense to me!

Thanks again!

I live in the Seattle area, and have a couple of friends who are going to start a game with me.  We have never done an RPG, so this is our first and I was elected to be the GM.  Agh!  Anyhow, I figure since none of us have really played one, it can't be all that intimidating if I make a mistake.  lol  They asked me to come up with the city and story arc for our first game since they are on vacation until next week.  I need someone to run my ideas by and see what more I need to add in order to make this work.  Hopefully someone out there can help me out

City Name: Seattle
Campaign Title: "The Stranger Inside Me"

*Theme
  *Idea:  Everyone's polite, but not friendly
  *Aspect:  Mind Your Own Business
  *The Faces: 
    *Mark Emmert - UW president
    *John Shorb - Dean of Student Affairs
    *Sara Fleischman - Public Relations for UW
    *Georgette Ward - White Council Witch

*Threat
  *Idea:  Violent ghost attacks on university campuses
  *Aspect:  This Town's What It Used To Be
  *The Faces:
    *Ross Johnson - Campus Security
    *Sam Clark - Professor of Sociology at UW
    *Missy Renez - Reporter from Seattle PI
    *Fr. Daniel Syverstad - Blessed Sacrament Church in the UD
    *Linda Ann Healey - Warning Ghost

*Threat
  *Idea:  Seattle Secrets
  *Aspect:  Much Goes Unnoticed
  *The Faces:
    *Phil Lipson - Cosmic Librarian
    *Brett Standley - Collector
    *Edgar August Grimm - Head of BAM and wizard - Brotherhood for the Advancement of Metaphysics
    *Callista Boone - Ectomancer

Status Quo:
*The Supernatural Status Quo:
  BAM is working toward bringing awareness to the general public of those threats that go bump in the night as, the White Council is working to discredit them.
*The Mundane Status Quo:
  Negative attention is death.  Deal with things internally and nothing bad can happen.  Secrets are key.

Movers and Shakers:
*In the Dark/Maintain Status Quo:
  *City Government - Mayor and Cops
  *Mark Emmert - Pres of UW
  *John Shorb - Dean of student affairs
  *Sara Fleischman - Public relations for UW
*In the Know/Maintain Status Quo
  *Ross Johnson - Campus Security
  *Georgette Ward - White Council Witch
  *Brett Standly - Collector/Owner of Ye Olde Curiosity Shop
  *Sam Clark - Professor of Sociology UW
*In the Dark/Rock the Boat:
  *Missy Renez - Reporter for Seattle PI
  *Friends and families of the victims - I haven't thought up these folks yet
*In the Know/Rock the Boat:
  *Philip Lipson - Cosmic Librarian/Curator of Seattle Museum of Mysteries
  *Blessed Sacrament Church - Fr. Daniel Syverstad
  *Edgar August Grimm - Wizard - Head of the BAM
  *Callista Boone - Ectomancer

That's about it so far...I have places identified and faces that go with them too.  The overall arc of the story is that someone is possessed by the spirit of Ted Bundy and is tormenting the spirits of his past victims. 

A couple of questions:

1. Is this too specific at this point?
2. Can you take a character from this story and play them in a different story if that story calls for it...so can NPC's become PC's in other stories?
3. It is a bit bigger than I intended and am wondering if it's too big and if it is, how do I scale it down?

Thanks for all the help folks
 
  *

I loved both the books and the TV series. I saw the TV series first before realizing they were based on characters from books.  When I discovered the books, I was a little taken back by the differences, but then I ended up enjoying the different story lines.  I think I'd have been more upset if they tried to make each book into an episode or base a season on one book (like they did with True Blood). I liked that they did something different and it worked.  I am still so bummed it was not renewed though.  I really, really loved that show...it made my Sunday night!