Anyone interested in "dispersed cities"?

[beachhead1973]

Okay, so we have the option to create "dispersed cities" that are really effectively regions, but written up in a similar way. Anyone else interested in this?

I've done sort of my own take on it, but it's over 15,000 words and so I am reluctant to inflict it on the board.

BUT! I did get a VERY workable "Area Journal" for  local area.

[Masurao]

What do you mean with 'dispersed cities'?

[TheMouse]

From context, I would take that to mean writing up a region following the city creation rules rather than writing up a city. So the "city" might encompass a number of towns, and each town might only hold a handful of defined locations. This way, you are mechanically interacting with something pretty similar to a city, but it can be something like a rural area with some towns and villages instead.

At least, that's what I'm getting from it.

[SunlessNick]

@TheMouse:  That's the impression I got too, perhaps with smallers towns counting as single locations.

@beachhead1973:  Is this take a specific region you've designed, or a how-to like the city creation chapter?  (And are TheMouse and I right about what you meant ought to be the first question really).  Anyway, if you mean the latter, the how-to, I'd be very interested to see it.

[Todjaeger]

There is a campaign set in New Haven, CT which is doing something like that, more or less.  There is going to be a significant number of locations detailed within New Haven, but since the city itself is rather small (only ~17 sq. miles, and 125,000 people) other nearby towns and cities which encompass the South Central region of Connecticut are going to be developed to varying degrees.

I'll post links to more as things develop.

[Sanctaphrax]

Please inflict your creation on the board, or better yet on the wiki.

I'd appreciate it.

[bobjob]

I've done something similar already with Austin, Tx. Our group has been to Round Rock, Oak Hill, Georgetown, Pflugerville, Bee Caves, West Lake... all of the surrounding towns. I don't want them to be confined to one city when there are multiple cities all linked together. You really can't tell where one ends and the next begins unless you're paying attention to signs.

[beachhead1973]

What do you mean with 'dispersed cities'?

Well, what I mean is the basic rules allow for fleshed-out cities filled with various locations, but also can be used, with some small modification and considerations on other scales and settings. What I have here is a "City" which includes one medium-sized city (for canada, about 350,000, i think), one smaller city, many smaller towns and several notable locales and areas in the region of South-Western Ontario. It's a HUGE document which has taken me months to write in it's current form, over 15,000 words. It's presented as the "Corey and McKenna Security and Investigations: London and Area Journal". It's been written by "the Muscle with brains" Steve McKenna and with some commentary by "The Talent with Trouble" Jon Corey. Evenually, as the other player has time to read the whole thing, he'll add more comentary and so it will be a collaborate effort produced by these two as a reference document detailing the area in which they work.

It's written in-character and so it bears the marks of people who are politically incorrect, inexperienced with the supernatural and quickly realizing they do not know nearly enough about the area they live in; thus the campaign aspect; Ignorance is Not Bliss. Much detail in some areas is lacking and some locations do not have full threats/themes/aspects/faces.

Mouse and SunlessNick, you sound like you have the right idea, that's pretty much what we were going for. As we're encouraged to use local areas we're familiar with, my group has run with this idea.

Are you sure you guy want me to post this? It is a weighty document and intended to be produced as an in-character work, much like the examples and indeed; the rulebooks themselves.

[SunlessNick]

I don't know whether the moderators would prefer the document itself or a link, but either way, I'm interested to see it.

[Masurao]

A city with 350,000 inhabitants sound large enough to me for a creation in its own right, but I'm small town :p Other than that, it sounds like a very neat-o document! I especially like it how you allow the players to add comments and stuff, I imagine it will turn out something like Your Story and Our World

[beachhead1973]

Okay, you guys asked for it...

A city with 350,000 inhabitants sound large enough to me for a creation in its own right, but I'm small town :p Other than that, it sounds like a very neat-o document! I especially like it how you allow the players to add comments and stuff, I imagine it will turn out something like Your Story and Our World

Well that was what really made me like the game system, which I had problems with because, really I have trouble with the system itself, but the obvious labour of love that was the two main books sold me. I'm still not an expert on the system, especially and emabrrassingly, how magic works, but that's what keeps me with it.

Now I haven't dotted all the I's and Crossed all the T's yet, but here goes...and keep in mind, some of the typical info has been left out due to the fundamental campaign aspect of the PCs, really not knowing enough about the supernatural aspects of their Area of Operations...

EDIT: crap, it won`t let me post it here, what are my alternatives

[Masurao]

Chop it up a bit and post it seperately? Or put on a free blog somewhere?

[Leffa]

You could share it through Google Docs

[Roxy Rocket]

Dispersed areas are definitely a way of saying 'not urban.' Movies like Jurassic Park, Tremors, Shutter Island come to mind. If you imagine the ship on Star Trek as a small town, with locations like bridge and engineering and laundromat, instead of zones you pretty well get the idea.

One of our tabletop people came from a small town and we went back there for a session, while the actual town was about a thousand people he portrayed it was having a population of just over a hundred 'folks.' It's not really bigger or smaller than a city according the mechanics.

I saw this show on pacific peoples making maps of their islands and among the peculiarities of the maps was that the islands weren't represented by relative position and size like a satellite picture. Instead, the islands were larger or smaller based on their historical importance and spaced evenly, with lines and symbols between them relating the parts important to navigating between the islands.

Google docs sounds fine. Wiki's are too hard to format and link page by page but useful if you've got a dozen people trying to puzzle out a setting. I know Beachy isn't just keeping us in suspense with his waffle-mancy.

(edit: Dispersed towns are a great way to combine a number of different flavors without diluting them. Attaching a large spa or resort, casino, wilderness areas and a farm-town to one another is way easier than trying to stick a castle into the middle of new york.)

[Sanctaphrax]

You could post it to the wiki.