Comments on: Use Your Town in Your Next Game

By: Martin

Martin — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 04:55:37 +0000

Real-world locations taking on new life is a great way to put this — I’m glad I’m not the only one who’s found that to be the case with games that make use of this technique.

By: Daemon

Daemon — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 21:57:50 +0000

Actually, almost every game that I’ve played in that took place in any variation of the real world, was set in the city I live in.

I suspect that you’ll find most people do this, if only because people are very familiar with their own cities.

Actually having been there means that we have a solid sense of “place” that is almost impossible to achieve with nothing but a verbal description and a map. You can desribe a bar until you’re blue in the face, and you’ll never achieve the same effect as having actually been in there.

By: Zephyros

Zephyros — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 20:06:45 +0000

I joined in for a few sessions of a Shadowrun game set in Dayton OH, where I went to college. We were able to find a description of Dayton in the Shadowrun style and time period online (link) , which made prep work easy on the GM. I definitely concur - setting a game somewhere familiar makes things come alive for everyone in a way they normally might not, otherwise.

By: DNAphil

DNAphil — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 17:12:27 +0000

I ran a 2 year long Vampire game in my home town of Buffalo NY. In fact we would sometime take field trips to see some of the areas in the game.

In fact we did character questions one night in the corner of a trendy Coffee bar downtown, on a dark winters night. It really gave you that Vampire feel.

To this day, I cannot see the Buffalo sky line and not think about the Vampires looking down at us from Bank Tower.

By: ScottM

ScottM — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 15:49:12 +0000

Will was a big fan of this; he ran several Vampire games set in Fresno (in a loose series). Sometimes it worked exactly as you mention– the creepy warehouse takes on a new life. You get to know the river more carefully when bad guys are fording it to attack…

By: Spleen23

Spleen23 — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 04:00:58 +0000

Was in a werewolf game set in and around the hometown of detroit where we had went up against a vampire run corperation and ended up with some evidence that could bring the law down on them if it made a big enough stink in the media.
Before the next game both real world local papers stopped publishing due to strikes, a event which was mirrored into the game.

By: John Arcadian

John Arcadian — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 01:01:02 +0000

I just finished a Vampire the Masquerade game set in the town I live in, Akron, Ohio. We set it in the 1930′s, but everyone knew the areas and basic history of the town so they got into it a lot more. They staged coups and bought companies that were around and still are in the city. They also picked havens that they knew and built a lot of real life information into their characters.

I’ve also downloaded city maps from the city planning office and used them as the blueprints for fantasy cities. It is a different interpretation but one that gave me as a designer some different ideas on city planning.

By: Kestral

Kestral — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 19:41:38 +0000

Another great tip, and one I’ve had some good experiences with. Even if it’s mostly used as a backdrop, the real-worldness ups the believability of the game a slight bit. One of my favorite memories of a LARP I’ve been in involved the players (including me) going to a Chinese restaurant held by a triad in-game that was actually a real-life restaurant in town, and mid-game, going to the real-life restaurant that inspired the game version. Roughly 30 people all sitting around, eating may not seem that worthy of a specific memory, but it was a moment inspired by the game, and by friendship. It made the game feel more real, and makes me smile when I see all the people there in my mind’s eye.

We did this because originally, it was the only place everyone had roughly equal experience with, since we came from 3 different cities on the whole. Each would have been one of our choices, but we didn’t want to hurt other players with a lack of information. However, it made games more enjoyable because of the small things; the example above was just a small one, and one of many.