Are some cities too big? If so how would you ringfence?

[ironchicken]

So I live in West London so our city would lead towards London.

But London is really big and really old with lots of potential places of power. It just seems to big for our town to me, I feel it would lose some of the personal atmosphere. What do you think? Is somewhere like London to big?

In addition, if we wanted to limit the game to say our area in West London how would you set boundaries in a story plausible way?

[CMEast]

Perhaps you could limit the influence of the bad guys that your PC's will be fighting? Trolls under bridges, ley-line powered rituals, ghosts that haunt only particular locations, sponsored magic that only has a limited range (linked to a certain spot or landmark), hellmouth-style shenanigans, curses or geasa on the PC's, even wardens taking the equivalent of their supernatural passports while they are under investigation.

Hope one of these might help

[BobForPresident]

In addition, if we wanted to limit the game to say our area in West London how would you set boundaries in a story plausible way?

Granted, depending on your era (modern, whatever), your PCs can always just jump on a plane and go wherever, but if you anchor their stories to even as specific an area as say a ten city-block radius, they're less likely to stray. When you keep their love interests, enemies, families and power sources (magic shops, weapons shops, etc) close by, they'll usually stick around. But introduce elements into the game that come from foreign lands and that's where you lay the temptation for them to travel.

I've always found that if you don't bring up "boundaries", the PCs will operate within them as long as you keep things interesting within said boundaries.

[ironchicken]

I think the thing that tends to unease me is the number of uber locations in London. This would mean a lot of the lesser locations would be lost. London is wall to wall monuments and historical exotica.

Is anyone else doing anything around London?
 

[Baron Hazard]

The way i set up cities these days uses google maps.

Dresdenized Seattle

Using this method you can just focus most of your pins and therefor (ongoing important supernatural elements) in one place. This also allows you to expand a little bit as you come up with ideas that may push you further and further out without overwhelming you with too much information.

[JosephKell]

Perhaps you could limit the influence of the bad guys that your PC's will be fighting? Trolls under bridges, ley-line powered rituals, ghosts that haunt only particular locations, sponsored magic that only has a limited range (linked to a certain spot or landmark), hellmouth-style shenanigans, curses or geasa on the PC's, even wardens taking the equivalent of their supernatural passports while they are under investigation.

Hope one of these might help

Many cities have district/neighborhoods.  I recommend looking for a website with such a map.  These districts tend to have themes themselves and lend to default turfs.

White Court tend to be at the "up town" and hip places.

Ghouls would probably hang out in the more downtrodden places where "street people" (can't call them "homeless" because then people ask why we can't get them homes) tend to congregate as they represent prey few people will ask questions about.  This could actually be a scenario, especially if you casually mention city council opening a new homeless shelter in one scenario.  Then in another something like "Mayor and City Council taking responsibility for the decline in the homeless population."  Then later a scenario where the protagonists investigate what is happening.  "Soylent Ghoul is [homeless] people!"

The only problem is "how do you casually mention ANYTHING in a roleplaying game?"  Do you make up a fake newspaper for your scenarios (with a lot of it as dead ends?).  Players tend to latch on to any detail given to them (the more innocent, the more they latch).

I guess the fake newspaper could work if it is just a bunch of headlines (with few details).

[theDwarf]

So I live in West London so our city would lead towards London.

But London is really big and really old with lots of potential places of power. It just seems to big for our town to me, I feel it would lose some of the personal atmosphere. What do you think? Is somewhere like London to big?

Well, maybe.
Take a look at Chicago ... city ~2.8 million;   urban ~8.7 mil;  metro ~9.8mil and density 12.6k/sq.mi.
London  ... city ~7.6 million;   urban ~8.3 mil;  metro 12-14 mil and density 12.3k/sq.mi.

So actually the urban populations are equivalent and the densities are similar therefore in some ways they map very well.  When looking at the Butcher stories most of the action is set in the City of Chicago proper, and even then mostly within limited areas and neighborhoods, but sometimes extends into other parts of Cook County or into surrounding counties.  Note that the Chicago Metro area extends 2-3 counties north of Cook County and includes Kenosha County is another state! (Kenosha is in Wisconsin, Chicago is in Illinois)

With London it should be in some ways easier for the players to stay local most of the time but then occasionally foray to other areas for specific tasks/reasons and thus only rarely interact with the local High Council members, go to a more major magic shop, visit a museum for a mission, or such.  If you create the city with your players you should have a much better grasp of where the action will most often or most likely take place and then London may not be as overwhelming as you may think (given the players are defining their comfort zone and you have over 2000 years of legends and events to draw from  )


Edit:  I was watching the Dresden Files TV series and in there they mention Winnetka (which is still in Cook County, 14mi north of downtown) and even Milwaukee (which is not in the same state and is actually close to the same as the distance between London and Canterbury (according to one site)).

So, when discussing a large metropolis like London it is only too large if you let it become so.  You can probably deal with pieces of it well enough, and detail 1-3 areas very well, and then wing it beyond that. 

[fabulator]

One thing I've always like about London is the way the underground zones split up the city into manageable chunks. Try focusing on just Zone 1; that's got most of the big stuff.  Its a bit east of your location but its a thought. Otherwise just stat up your neighborhood/district as you would any other city and see how that goes.

[Da_Gut]

Number one: Don't mention the (soft) limits you set. Down the road, if someone starts pushing pens in google maps or something, and notices "Hey, we've never been out of West Whateverville!" then everyone will get a chuckle. For the most part, players never really notice any soft limits you set. Though, if you point out the soft limits, they promptly find a zillion reasons for why those limits are "crimping their style".