Using a smaller city

[Birstel]

Hello,
   I just got my books last week and am looking to start with my gaming group.  I was thinking about using Montgomery, AL for our city, but I'm not sure I'd be able to make enough stuff for the group to use.  Would using the smaller towns and cities surrounding Montgomery work, or should we go with one of the major cities nearby? (Atlanta, New Orleans).

Thanks for the advice

[smoore]

We are using Tallahassee, FL without much problem. Its much smaller than Montgomery. Instead of concentrating on just the city we did the city and surrounding counties, writing up the larger and more important of the small towns around the city like neighborhoods/locations. As the distance increased the town had to be proportionally larger to be of interest to us. There are many small unincorporated places we did in Leon county, but in the surrounding counties we really only did the county seat and incorporated communities, and even ignored some of those at the far ends of those counties.

See http://www.tallahasseewerewolf.com/index.php/R-DRPGLocations?w=RonsDresden

[MacsNewBrew]

Also, I wouldn't rule out any state/national parks or other areas of interest. An excellent example (in Japan) would be Aokigahara http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aokigahara.

Where I grew up, the Buffalo National River and surrounding Boston Mountains http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_National_River is close to an metro area of 350k plus people. Rugged terrain and lots of history. Oh, and big 500 foot cliffs for dramatic moments.

Look to local folklore. I have a book "Ozark Tales and Superstitions" that could give some very rich back-story or plot points in that area as well. It turns out the ghost at the cemetery on State 45 was a widow visiting her husbands grave, but focus on the juicy bits.

Where I live now, Heuston Woods http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/parks/parks/huestonw/tabid/745/Default.aspx is real, true old growth forest within an hour drive. Everything else has been cleared for farmland for two, three hundred years.

Are there any local stories about grisly crimes?

The area you want to use was populated by mound builders. Two different societies, on each side of the river. What really were those mounds for? Use that.

Look to the past if you need ideas.

[Birstel]

Thanks for the ideas!

[TheMouse]

One cool thing about using small communities is that you end up with a bunch of contrast.

Instead of using one city split into -- say -- a dozen interesting locations, you can use a handful of places, each split into a couple locations. A smallish town might have 3 detailed locations, the next town over might have 2, and the nearby park might have another couple. If one of those towns is a tourist town, while the other is a factory town, you're going to have a good deal of variety in locations you have there.

Though I haven't tried it, I must imagine that groups of smaller towns will work much like using a big city. Instead of traveling from Staten Island to the Bronx, you go from Gloucester to Rockport, or Amherst to Northampton. The particulars of travel will be different, but the trip will take comparable time and effort.