Fictional Cities

[Narratio]

Re: Fictional Cities

 

I vote for fictionalising a real city. You can mess with the bits of the real city you don't like or need. And, as the game grows, you can place all the bits and bobs that you need without having to figure out exactly why the meat market is next to the railway station of the university is nowhere near a transport route. Mostly these additions can be cribbed from other products or scenarios, then have the names changed and serial numbers filed off.

[proditor]

Re: Fictional Cities

 

I use both. My CU has an NYC, but it also has a Hudson City across the river and down a bit. The advantage of the real world cities for me, is that I have a lot of familiarity with them and I can be more extemporaneous (or so I think) and since I used to wander around NYC a lot when I lived there, I have a pretty good grasp of what's where.

 

That said, I like the idea of Vibora Bay and Hudson City and Millenium City, and they are all nestled right in there amongst the real ones. Like Murrkon5 said, the real cities are probably only 80-90% "real" to account for the changes that have come about due to the weirdos in capes.

 

For me, and this is mostly iconic from the comics, I just couldn't see running a supers campaign without a New York City. I mean, like 50% of all the supers in the world live there!

[name_tamer]

Re: Fictional Cities

 

My CU has an NYC' date=' but it also has a Hudson City across the river and down a bit.[/quote']

 

Off-topic: did you ever try to fix the lcoation of Hudson City on a map? I'm fascinated by the problem of trying to tie in infrastructure, etc. with existing metropolitan areas.

[name_tamer]

Re: Fictional Cities

 

BTW, for those who are not afraid to visit the MnM boards, this link contains some interesting maps of fictional cities.

[wrestlinggeek]

Re: Fictional Cities

 

Another vote for fictional cities, here. I've run games in both real and fictional cities, but since I am not well-travelled (at all), I find I have problems with players having been to cities I never have. But if you create your own cities, you can pull bits and pieces you like from different cities, and mix and match. Two of my favorites have been Seacoast, Texas and Campaign City (yes, I actually did use that name), Maryland. I also ran good games set in real world cities of Atlanta, Washington, D.C, and Los Angelas. The key, I think, in using real cities is to make sure you know as much or more about the city as any of your players.

[Sundog]

Re: Fictional Cities

 

I've created a fictional city in Nebraska, Kingdom City, for my current campaign (The Skeleton Crew). The best thing about it is that the players have helped build the city - one guy drew a much better map, another suggested some locations, etc. With their help, it's turned into a much more real place in all of our minds.

[Hermit]

Re: Fictional Cities

 

I've created a fictional city in Nebraska' date=' Kingdom City, for my current campaign (The Skeleton Crew). The best thing about it is that the players have helped build the city - one guy drew a much better map, another suggested some locations, etc. With their help, it's turned into a much more real place in all of our minds.[/quote']

 

That's a good way to do it. It makes everyone feel a part of it and they can all make sure the sort of places their characters work, live and play at exist

[Vondy]

Re: Fictional Cities

 

I used real cities in my game because it was a globetrotting affair, but I'm not opposed to using fictional cities. For a solo game or a street level game that didn't travel much it would probably be ideal.

[TheRavenIs]

Re: Fictional Cities

 

As a follow up to my post so long ago, what we ended up doing in our shared world is that we modify existing cities amd almost make up new ones. It allows for the max amount of freedom of play.

[AlHazred]

Re: Fictional Cities

 

I use both, depending on what I want in a scenario. I use real cities in Pulp games, and if I have something in mind that requires the real city - such as specific sites in a specific place. I use fictional cities if I want to be able to go hog wild and not worry about "destroying" a real city I can use later. Really, it's a matter of taste.

 

For general reference:

 

List of fictional cities A-M:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_cities_A–M

 

List of fictional cities N-Z:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_cities_N–Z

[Cancer]

Re: Fictional Cities

 

I like the idea of using real maps of old cities and then reassigning stuff; this is an old trick, of course. (The supplement for 7th Sea, Freiburg, starts with a marked-up map of old Paris, for instance.) There aren't many that date to pre-Renaissance times, though. I blew an afternoon in the university library's map room finding and copying maps back in the pre-Internet days, and I've now got a couple of coffee-table books of old city maps.

[Macamboy]

Re: Fictional Cities

 

In most of my campaigns we've used real cities, and towns near to where the players live for familiarity. I tweaked certain aspects to give it a superhero feel.

 

I've only recently started to use fictional cities, namely Vibora from the HERO sourcebook of that name. I've also tied in an intro' to the campaign by starting it in Arkham (from Call of Cthulhu) and travelling across country to Vibora.

[Peregrine]

Re: Fictional Cities

 

Fictional city, with a real-world location: Trinity City, situated at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, on and around the location of the real-world Cairo, IL. A major catastrophe caused Old Cairo to sink beneath the swirling waters of the two rivers; on the submerged ruins was constructed Trinity Island, the new heart of the city. (Pre Hero 5e, it was a super-induced quake on the New Madrid Fault; I haven't used Trinity City in Hero 5e® yet, but I am seriously inclined to 'reboot' and substitute Trinity City for Detroit and have the battle with Destroyer have taken place in Old Cairo.)

[Maelstrom]

Re: Fictional Cities

 

I use San Francisco, which is a little of both.