Silver Age City

[SKJAM!]

Also with transportation--cross-country buses are still very popular, and stop at every small town, so the bus depot will be big.  City buses less so, but they run downtown often enough to be available for tossing during fights.

 

In addition to the big two newspapers, there's a lot of low-circulation weeklies for the various neighborhoods, ethnic groups and special interest groups.  Including the local pinkos, although admitting you're on their subscriber list can cause Social Limitation.  An investigative-minded hero might spot useful information in the weeklies that's under the major media radar.

[Spence]

Bumping for my own convenience.

 

I should be starting to edit my stuff from this thread, and some of the suggestions, into a more logical sequence. I should also be working on an initial sketch map.

 

Instead, I've started wondering exactly what would be the minimum amount of information required for a not-New York east coast (of the US) metropolis.

 

Being not-New York means it actually is New York except when differences are relevant.

 

The first key things it needs is a name and a rough map, to show spatial relationships between key points and regulate travel times and the faster moving combats.

 

And I'm also getting distracted by the urge to create some Australian supervillains.

 

This is exactly why I use Hudson City. 

 

The book is very well written covering pretty much everything about a city from layout to sewers.  From Mayoral Offices to Police and Fire.  Plus there is a full color modern style city map for only $5 in the store.  Including major underground lines and transportation lines. 

 

The best part is it was designed to support an RPG game. 

[assault]

Rewriting Hudson City, or any other published setting, would be far too much effort.

 

I own a bunch of them.

[DShomshak]

The ethnic neighborhoods could include one from a country you invent for your world. To use a Marvel example, Silver City could be notable for having the largest Latverian community in the New World. (With, as SKJames says, its own weekly newspaper.)

 

IRL, My own nearest big city had a notable Yugoslavian complement in its early population. Back in the 1960s, Croatian Hall was still a major civic center.  More recently, I forget which major Texas city has the world's largest Mayan population outside Central America.

 

Dean Shomshak

[assault]

That definitely happens. Supposedly, Melbourne is the third largest Greek city in the world. Similar things apply to some of its other Balkan populations.

 

(The bigger Greek cities are Athens and Thessaloniki. Surprisingly, not New York.)

[assault]

Rewriting Hudson City, or any other published setting, would be far too much effort.

 

In case that doesn't make sense, I mean "rewriting stuff that I would personally never have bothered writing in the first place", or effectively editing it out to only leave the stuff I care about. Which wouldn't even include the maps, beyond a certain point.

[assault]

You probably need a whole lot less city if your game is relatively episodic.

 

Let's see: place to run scenarios, obviously. Depends on the scenarios.

Locations to find contacts. Police stations, prisons, courts, etc.

A base, if applicable, and its surrounding neighbourhood.

Where PCs (and their DNPCs) live, and the surrounding neighbourhoods.

Where PCs (and their DNPCs) work, and the surrounding neighbourhoods. (eg what does the PC do at lunch time? Do they buy a newspaper? Where?)

 

Basically, the last few things support the PCs downtime, while the first couple support their adventuring. Everything else is scenery.

[assault]

I suppose only mapping for relevance is a bit railroady, since it's only the GM who decides what is relevant or not. But of course mapping can be extended according to the players' wishes. The point is that it's dynamic, rather than an exercise in sitting down and filling in the blanks up front.

 

Besides, if the PCs really want to spend their time lurking on the top of buildings waiting to catch muggers, they are going to end up eating a lot of donuts.

[massey]

I suppose only mapping for relevance is a bit railroady, since it's only the GM who decides what is relevant or not. But of course mapping can be extended according to the players' wishes. The point is that it's dynamic, rather than an exercise in sitting down and filling in the blanks up front.

 

Besides, if the PCs really want to spend their time lurking on the top of buildings waiting to catch muggers, they are going to end up eating a lot of donuts.

 

I disagree with that last part.  Since this is the Silver Age, waiting on top of a building should be a valid crime-fighting tactic.

[pinecone]

Not only crime, silver age heroes often meet by attacking each other on a rooftop

[DusterBoy]

Any silver age city has got have a raygun gothic-airstream retro-futurist aesthetic, but mashed with modern tech. So it looks like something from a 30s/40s/50s profection of the 21st century, but you also have mobile communications, wi-fi, the internet, hybrid cars, etc.

 

But you also have monorails, nuclear powered spaceships, space stations, colonies on the Moon and flying saucers.

 

Obviously, this would be in some kind of alternate Earth, since such a city could not (probably) exist in ours.

[Spence]

Any silver age city has got have a raygun gothic-airstream retro-futurist aesthetic, but mashed with modern tech. So it looks like something from a 30s/40s/50s profection of the 21st century, but you also have mobile communications, wi-fi, the internet, hybrid cars, etc.

 

But you also have monorails, nuclear powered spaceships, space stations, colonies on the Moon and flying saucers.

 

Obviously, this would be in some kind of alternate Earth, since such a city could not (probably) exist in ours.

 

Sometimes absolutely true.  But sometimes they were just in a normal city that was visited by the retro-futuristic stuff.

[DusterBoy]

Or, some now half-forgotten visionary deliberately tried to build such a city and succeeded after a fashion. A kind of experimental "City of Tomorrow" as it were. Then it kind of fell into disrepair as reality passed it by. Then another man, not perhaps with the same vision, but cetainly with Money decided to refurbish it and make it work in the real world, not the world of "the Future".

 

Or given the nature of such settings, there could have been a confluence of realities at this site and - voila! mes amis!

 

And interesting take on the above is William Gibson's short story The Gernsback Continuum in which a man starts to hallucinate this very sort of future, complete with atomic powered flying car, crystal spire city and the perfect Aryan family which has "all the sinister fruitiness of Hitler Youth propaganda". Oh yes, and there's a twelve engined flying wing aeroplane complete with a dance hall, because this guy swears he hears jazz as it goes overhead.

[massey]

That's not really Silver Age. That's more a postmodern retrofit of the Silver Age.

[massey]

Double post

[DusterBoy]

Yeah, I realised when I was typing that.

[assault]

That's not really Silver Age. That's more a postmodern retrofit of the Silver Age.

 

What Massey said.

[Cassandra]

Has anyone suggested Silver City?

[assault]

I suggested it as a working title back on page one.

 

There are a couple of real world towns with the name. One in New Mexico, another in Idaho (a tourist ghost town). Quite likely some others.

 

This thread and project has fallen back into my to do heap. I'm currently working on origins for Australian supervillains.

[pinecone]

Well here is a riff on the brain storm. A mining town, say Silver..then an ancient meteor is found...Kelverite! A second "boom" rebuilds the town. Plus supers, both good and evil...?

 

So Silverton cronicles..?

[Doc Democracy]

You know, came to this late and it is amazing the relatively few names that come out.  I was going to suggest Nashville as a decent place - it has colour and actually has (had?) a thriving financial sector (I think someone described it to me as the financial capital of the South.

 

However, then someone mentioned a waterfront and it is pretty much lacking that, so I moved to Memphis.

 

I think a silver age campaign set in Memphis might be awesome....you have the whole Mississippi to play with...Chicago to the north and New Orleans to the south...