Spokane Game.

[kytanos]

Since Ive noticed a fair few of us hail from the city of boredom. Ive decided to start this thread so we can meetup. and perhaps start a gaming group.

So my fellow spokanians. speak out! 

[Lanodantheon]

I believe the official term is Spokanite.

I've done a bunch of work on it already. It is my personal belief that Merlyn's downtown is White Council sponsored Accorded Neutral Ground.

I'm in.   

[kytanos]

I can only go saturdays and sundays, Perhaps 2 other days of the week are open after 17:30 but ill have to check my schedule.

Yay college.

[srl51676]

I have a Saturday Game already and a 2 year old so not sure what I can work out but I am interested at least in sharing location ideas. 
The Merlyn's idea is interesting it is handy to have a public place where you can talk about vampires and wizards openly with out getting weird looks or a trip to Medical Lake hospital.

A friend and I have been working on a google map for our local game. it was original a D20 modern campaign that we retooled into a Dresden stetting. It includes locations that are considered haunted by local lore and some stuff I created.
-The dragon hill in Manito park is from a story my mom made up for me as a child that a Dragon lived on top of the hill at the NE corner of Manito park
-The Local Hell's Angels club house on Sprague is run by Ursiel  and Opposed by a gang of Werewolves and Lycanthropes called the Wild Hunt Motorcycle club.
-The volcano marks are locations of supernatural power/activity that have not been fleshed out yet.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&ie=UTF8&t=h&msa=0&msid=110877311507005464871.00046a3383944a1a2812f&ll=47.652438,-117.401447&spn=0.086727,0.197239&z=13

If you have a Gmail account you can save the map to "My Maps" and edit it as much as you want. We are continuing to expand it in anticipation of the DFRPG release.

[mrsleep]

I've done a bunch of work on it already. It is my personal belief that Merlyn's downtown is White Council sponsored Accorded Neutral Ground.

How do you explain the downtown parking garage debacle?  There had to be something sinister involved.

[srl51676]

This should explain a lot of what goes on in spokane.

http://chawedrosin.wordpress.com/2008/07/23/spokanes-gypsy-curse/

[kytanos]

This should explain a lot of what goes on in spokane.

http://chawedrosin.wordpress.com/2008/07/23/spokanes-gypsy-curse/

Nothing, and I mean nothing can explain this city. :-)


((Since their are four of us, we should start talking scheduling, anyone up to gm? etc)) 3+1 gm is a good gaming group.

I know dresden isnt out yet, but we can hold out with something fun to pass the time. Plus if you really want we can do dresden with a different system. It's the campaign that matters in the end. not which set of dice you toss or how is grappling handled.

[srl51676]

I was just thinking about setting up Spokane and realized that this city is the only provider of medical care for much of the inland NW as such I think one or all of the local hospitals should be accorded neutral ground. All were founded by the church as well and thus one or all might be holy ground to some extent. What do you guys think?

[kytanos]

I think you got the wrong idea.

To me, with how often it's been seen in the book, and the behaviors of supernatural entities inside of it (gruff not killing harry when he was in the pub for example) It's not something you stumble across at every second block. A place has to be Special with a capital S to become accorded neutral ground. (the very fact mac's is accorded neutral ground. and harry's comments about it speak volumes. Mac did something big or pulled  serious political strings to get it)

Just because their the only care providers doesn't mean they have to be neutral ground, As seen in the dresden files society usually ticks along quite fine. There is no reason the hospitals have to have any special protection.

Additionally, what your talking about is not something to take lightly. You throw it around and you cheapen it. You use a trope to much and it becomes a clique and loses it's value and impact.  To have all the hospitals be accorded holy church ground. Sounds ridiculous.

Be more subtle and precise when designing a city. Instead of having all the things lumped in one place, seperate them. and put them in a place where it both makes sense, and the element can shine. Also give it some flavor, make it special and unique, make it fit the location and city.

Holy ground? Why does it have to be the white god's holy ground? Spokane was named after an Indian tribe right? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Spokane_Falls_1888.jpg Why not have Spokane falls be Indian holy ground.

Want some neutral ground? Didnt spokane used to have major rail business a hundread years back? Have one of those old rail hubs be neutral ground. Made even more interesting by the fact that business is long gone, and the train station is now probably used for something else. Want to meet safety with the vampire? Okay, he will be in the gift shop. :-)

[srl51676]

I'm not sure there is a ton of evidence for mac's being "Special" other than it is designed in such a way as to cater to and protect it self from its chosen clientele. He is an interesting character but I think people read way too much into him. (but on this we shall see)

"Mac did something big or pulled  serious political strings to get it" I would think this is because the location itself is small and insignificant to the big picture. Neutral ground is more likely reserved for maintaining a low profile from the mortal community or protecting places of power important to more than one faction. a mortal example would be The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem which is a holy site to Jews, Christians, Muslims and is controlled by none of them in order to maintain peace.

"It's not something you stumble across at every second block." Well I'm not sure that is true either. In the Las Vegas game run in Beta the entire Las Vegas Strip was Neutral ground. The idea both there and with the hospital is different than Mac's. They are not a haven. They are protected because any supernatural disruption would cause wide spread harm and bring the attention of the Mortal Authorities.

"Holy ground? Why does it have to be the white god's holy ground?"  I was thinking that it might be because Sacred Heart for example was founded and is still run by an order of nuns called the Sisters of Providence and has been on the site for exactly 100 years this year. True Faith I think would tend to rub off on a place so long established and home to so many prayers for the sick and dying. After some research I would limit the neutrality to Sacred Heart only as it is the only one that has both the history and the maintained connection to "The Church"

"Why not have Spokane falls be Indian holy ground." No reason it might not be there are a number of important sites for Native American religion in the area. As far as I can tell all Holy Ground does in the Dresdenverse I give a home field advantage to those that keep it holy and a disadvantage to their enemies. Kind of like a public version of a Threshold created by a family. The mutual reverence and affection for a location give it power. The Native American sites might have waned over time due to the near extermination of their people and the great degree to which they have assimilated. However these places were kept holy for thousands of years before Europeans came in the relatively recent past (1836). "The first humans to live in the Spokane area arrived between twelve to eight thousand years ago" Wikipedia. The falls would also poses other qualities as a place of great natural elemental force with an affinity for water and possibly earth and or a strong connection to the Nevernever.

Useful Links

Spokane Tribe History
http://www.wellpinit.wednet.edu/sal-cos/cos_toc.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spokane_%28tribe%29

Spokane History
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spokane,_Washington#History


Sacred Hear Hospital
http://www.shmc.org/index.php/page/286

[kytanos]

Well, I might have had abit of a strong reaction. but your hospital idea kind of sounded like ninja pirate cyborg. as it were. just too many things in 1 package. (I also will admit, I dont know much about spokane. It has never interested me so... >_>)

I will disagree with sacred heart being both holy and Accorded neutral ground though.

It simply doesn't make sense given the nature and members of the accords. It's holy ground, thus innately hostile or atleast disadvantages for certain members of the accords.

[srl51676]

"It simply doesn't make sense given the nature and members of the accords. It's holy ground, thus innately hostile or at least disadvantages for certain members of the accords."

All the more reason they would agree to neutrality. a place hostile to them were they can not be forced into a fight. but I can go either way.

There is some interesting stuff going on in Spokane history that can be very useful to a DFRPG game. Most of it can be found with very little effort on the net. I really like the idea of the city being a patchwork of different geographic influences. It creates a magical terrain that can be used to ones advantage in much the same way a solider would use physical terrain to provide cover or gain a tactical advantage. For example If I am a water mage I might try to lure my foe onto one of the bridges in order to invoke the locations aspect and gain the upper hand.
 

[srl51676]

Along with the Map I posted here is something else I am working on for my current group. it is a list of real and fictional NPCs or possible PCs for the Spokane area. Anything not underlined is true to the best of my knowledge. Much of the underlined text has been brought over from a D20 modern game based in the Dresden universe that I ran a few years back feel free to use some, all or none of this in your own games. I am a social studies teacher in real life so I enjoy doing the research and the sense of "realism" it brings to the game. Also if you add to it I would love to see what you are creating. Sorry the formatting of the list did not translate well.

Use of the list
1.   Underlined names, titles, organizations and information are fictional
 
City Government
•   Mayor: Mary Vernor
•   City Council
o   Joe Shogan
o   Amber Waldref
o   Jon Snyder
o   Bob Apple
o   Steve Corker
o   Nancy McLaughlin
o   Richard Rush
•   Spokane Police Dept.
o   Chief: Anne Kirkpatrick
o   Special Investigations
    Lieutenant: Raymond L. Harris (Chest Deep)
   Sergeant: Melissa G. Evans (Chest Deep)
   Detectives
•   Rodney N. Conner (Feet Wet)
•   John A. Perry (Waist Deep)
•   Spokane County Sheriff
o   Sheriff: Ozzie Knezovich
•   

The Press
•   Sara Leaming (Feet Wet)
o   a reporter for The Spokesman-Review in the Local news department. She reports on breaking news at night, and general assignments.
•   Meghann Cuniff (Feet Wet)
o   a reporter for The Spokesman-Review in the Local news department. She covers police and fire agencies in Eastern Washington and North Idaho.
•   Kristi Gorenson (Chest Deep)
o   a fill-in anchor and reporter for KREM 2 NEWS
o   Live in girlfriend of Kenneth Kaplan Raith
•   

Wild Hunt Motorcycle Club: A Motorcycle Club made up of lycanthropes and classic werewolves
•   Alpha Male: Ulric "Ric" Hunter (Lycanthrope)
•   Priest of Diana Godess of the Hunt : Uday "Rabbit" Rashid (Classic Werewolf)

Hell's Angel's Motorcycle
•   Leader: Paul "Cain" Foster
o   Joined the Hell's Angels in 2001 by luring his brother Michael, who had fraudulently claimed to already be a member, into an ambush at a party.
o   Member of The Order of the Blackened Denarius and Barer of the Fallen Ursiel

The Marks family
•   Grover Marks (?-1997) Haunts City Hall
•   Jimmy Marks (Feb. 14, 1945- June 27, 2007)
•   Patriarch: Tommy Marks (Chest Deep)

Religion
•   Catholic Archdiocese
o   Bishop: Most Reverend William S. Skylstad
•   St. John's Cathedral (Episcopal Cathedral)
o   Right Reverend James E. Waggoner, Jr (Feet Wet)
o   Reverend John Hay (chest deep)
   very active retired priest
   leads the weekly Wednesday 10am Eucharist in All Saints Chapel, and the weekly Wednesday 10:45am Bible Study.
   served in the Pacific Theater of WWII where he faced the Jade Court vampires
   is active in the battle against the White Court in Spokane, advocates for the closure of Club Envy.
•   Mount St. Michael Compound: A schismatic "traditional" Catholic monastery separated from modern Catholic Church after changes made at the Second Vatican Council in 1965. When alterations were made to the dogma and practice of Catholicism including a quiet turning away from a literal belief in the supernatural.
•   
Business Community

•   Merlyn's
o   Owner: John Waite (Feet Wet)
•   Club Envy: A night club owned and operated by the White Court of Vampires. Located beneath the Ridpath Hotel.
•   Owner/Manager: Margaret Raith
•   Secretary: Gwenneth Wright
•   HR/PR/Marketing: Kenneth Kaplan-Raith

[mrsleep]

Was thinking that the gay/transgender night club (can't remember the freaking name) would make a solid "real-world" setting for the WC instead of the fictional Club Envy.

[srl51676]

The name of the Place is Dempsey's Brass Rail. This would make a great real world location. Envy was created by my roommate for his up coming game and is designed to be a lot more underground than the very public Dempsey's. By total coincidence it turns out to be a real Tapas Lounge here in town as well.  However at your sugestion I think we will add Dempsey's to the list. The WC is a large organization with its fingers in a lot of pies.

http://www.dempseysbrassrail.net/

http://envyspokane.com/

Again great idea

Another thought the WC might also be the new owners of the Davenport.