When talking with a friend about common expressions, the phrase "Holy Toledo" came up, and it gave me a loose idea to set a DFRPG game in Toledo, focused less on mortal practitioners and more on faith based magic/characters of all stripes. A bit of research right away gave me a few ideas:
- Most major religions have multiple presences in the area- aside from Christianity's general monopoly on worship, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism all have 2 or more houses of worship in the greater metro area
- Human trafficking is a relatively major problem in Toledo (4th highest in the country), due to it being an intersection of interstates near several major airports and the border with Canada only 40 minutes away. I was considering having both mortal cops as well as supernatural opposition to this akin to The Paranet Papers' Cult of Ishtar, only with Native American trappings.
- A major city for almost 200 years, and Native American presence centuries before that, there's a lot of history to draw from in the area. There was a mostly bloodless conflict called the Toledo War that I'm trying to figure out how to incorporate. It was a relatively boring conflict, so to use it there would have to be cloak-and-dagger elements to the conflict. Perhaps a conflict between the 2 of the Vampire courts (or maybe the Sidhe), each backing one of the states?
- The town's nicknames include Glass City (the country's leading glass producer) and Frog Town (due to the former Great Black Swamp that used to cover the area), both of which could be tied in with demons or other supernatural folks.
I want to stay away from Denarians and Knights of the Cross, at least initially, and instead focus on other fallen angels, demons, or creatures/monsters from other faiths. Current themes I'm looking at are in this vein:
- A literal holy war (demons or some such verus another faction, humanity, etc.)
- Human trafficking, both from a mortal perspective and the supernatural facets
- ?Possibly something involving 2 Vampire courts and the Toledo War
- ?Inter-faith unity or conflict on how to address issues (either mortal or supernatural)
I'm hesitant to commit some of the heavier concepts to a game, such as human trafficking. Any suggestions are heartily welcomed.