Designing Dresden 1 – Choosing a City
For some context, I’m Rob Donoghue, and I’m writing the RPG along with Fred. For our sanity, we split up certain tasks, and as I was recompiling some notes, I started writing some of the design process for my own sake, and Fred pointed out that it was the sort of thing that might be worth sharing. As such, I’ll be posting about elements of the design process as we continue to work on the game.
I suppose it’s best to begin at the beginning. When we started designing the Dresden Files RPG, setting was a key question. The novels take place in Chicago, so it will be necessary to provide some setting information on the windy city, but the books also pretty much dominate that city, which means two things. First, if you want to run a game in Chicago, the novels will already do you pretty well. Second, if you want to run your own game without taking Harry and friends into account, you’re going to want another city.
With that in mind, we decided we’d pick another city and give it a proper writeup, both as an alternative setting and as a guideline for GMs looking to magic up a city that they’re already familiar with.
It’s to that latter end that I’m writing this now. When I finish, I’ll distill it into bullet points of wisdom for the game, but there’s some utility in making the process a little transparent.
So that comes to the question: what city to use? As the resident research monkey, this one ended up in my lap.
First off, we wanted an American city. We’re just not going to be able to write a European or Canadian game. My sole regret is that that knocked Quebec City off the list, but that would probably have been too problematic anyway.
We also wanted a real city. Inserting a Gotham or Metropolis (or San Dimas, which is apparently real: Who knew?) into the map would be a break from the source material.
Lastly, it’s important to remember that the city is a character in the game, as much as anyone else. We’re pulling from detective fiction here, and certain cities are better suited for certain types of story, either because of the nature of the city or because of the stories that have already been told there.
So for the first list, we start in the west and work east.
On the coast, there are really five candidates: Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego. San Jose and Oakland kind of unfairly got the boot as a result of living in the shadow of San Francisco, but so it goes.
Working inland, we stop off and grab Las Vegas, Salt Lake City and Austin. There are probably other candidates in Texas, but honestly, if we’re doing Texas, it’ll be Austin: it’s the high culture freak city of Texas.
We skip most of the midwest – we don’t want anything near Chicago. The south… well, let’s cherry pick New Orleans and Atlanta. I’ll also grab Tampa as a placeholder for “some city in Florida”.
That leaves the mid atlantic and New England, which is a virtual smorgasbord. Richmond, DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Trenton, NYC, Hartford, Boston and Burlington.
Probably passed up some decent contenders getting here, but it’s already a pretty big list:
- Atlanta
- Austin
- Baltimore
- Boston
- Burlington
- DC
- Hartford
- Las Vegas
- Los Angeles
- New Orleans
- NYC
- Philadelphia
- Pittsburgh
- Portland
- Richmond
- San Diego
- San Francisco
- Seattle
- Tampa
- Trenton
Ok, time to break out the axe.
Seattle gets the boot immediately – it’s the Shadowrun city, and I don’t really want to deal with that.
San Diego also gets tossed after a little thought, because it’s a little to close to the big city version of Sunnydale, and while that could be a lot of fun, it’s not what we’re looking to do.
Trenton gets a “I’m not really sure why that’s therein the first place” removal.
Burlington is only there because I grew up there, and while I think it would rock, that’s kind of a fringe position, so it’s gone.
Pittsburgh has a lot going for it, but it’s already spectacularly well represented in gaming, albeit under a pseudonym, so I can pass.
New York City – Man, it may be the greatest city in the world, and it has never really been done justice by any game because it’s just too big. If I were a New Yorker, I might view this as an interesting challenge, but I don’t carry New York in my heart, so it’s just a recipe for disaster, so it is, begrudgingly, off the list.
Boston’s a pretty awesome option. Full of history and crime, it’s probably the most european city in the US, which seems ideal for modern magical crime. Unfortunately, the nice folks at White Wolf seem to have thought the same thing, and have made it the hub of the latest incarnation of Mage. There’s enough overlap there that I want to dodge that.
Austin and Portland get tossed out together. They’re both great, colorful towns, and if this were an Urban Fantasy game more of the Emma Bull sort of flavor, they’d probably be the top contenders, but when I think about both, i don’t really think about any kind of dark undertone. I think about music festivals and the coolest damn hotel in the country.
L.A. gets the boot for some of the same reasons NYC does, but also because LA has it’s own kind of stories, and while they’re good stories, they’d end up overshadowing the ones we want for Dresden.
Unfortunately, that same reasoning also rules out DC. I love DC, but if it’s the center of a game, it better be hopping with federal agencies and shadowy conspiracies, otherwise you’re just letting it go to waste.
Ditto Las Vegas.
New Orleans is almost too obvious, and honestly, I’m not sure you can use it without getting vampire all over yourself, and that smell just won’t go away. Also, since the Hurricane, it’s in such transition that anything we write would get outdated almost instantly.
Salt Lake City is under the shadow of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and while it’s been proven that you can put Mormonism at the heart of a really rocking game, it’d be playing with fire, and I don’t think I could do it justice.
Hartford? See Trenton.
Atlanta or Richmond….that’s tempting. A historied southern city can bring almost as much to the table as boston could. But here’s the thing: it would really have to be southern. Done right that would be magnificent, but I need to accept that I’m a yankee boy at heart, and I just wouldn’t be able to do it justice.
Florida has a similar problem, though it’s not the south – it’s Florida. There’s been so much really good crime fiction out of florida with strong themes of corruption that I ended up tossing it for a lot of the same reasons as LA.
And then there were 3: Baltimore, San Francisco and Philadelphia.
San Francisco deserves some respect in this. You have Silicon Valley on hand for the contrast of tech and magic, and if you need crime, you have Oakland right on hand These kinds of contrasts and themes are powerful stuff.
On the other hand, Baltimore and Philadelphia both have that rich, layered history that comes of being an old east coast city. Baltimore also ends up winning that particular tussle because it’s also a very dark city. It’s a crime-ridden hellhole in parts, and that’s perfect for what we’re looking at.
So Charm City or the City by the Bay? Ultimately, the decision came down to 2 things:
1) Baltimore is the home of Poe. Boo Yah.
2) Baltimore is within driving distance, which will make research much easier.
As such, it’s Baltimore for the win!
Next up: Hitting the Books
(and I note, we actually are further along than this, but it’ll be a little bit before the log catches up)
“Pittsburgh has a lot going for it, but it’s already spectacularly well represented in gaming, albeit under a pseudonym, so I can pass.”
Where?!
I must know!
CU
Very nice work. Baltimore sounds interesting.
I love your logic. Sometimes it seems like you quickly brush off a good city, but it’s a fun read nonetheless.
Baltimore seems like a good choice. It’s a nice city, was once the home of the greatest wargame company on the planet, and is/was the home of Cal Ripken. Some friends visited once and had great things to say about the city, except there seemed like a lot of one-way streets so you could never get “there” from “here”. Other than that I don’t know of any major landmarks, buildings, etc that fill up Baltimore, so I don’t quite know what to expect. Looking forward to what you put together!
I also am curious about your Pittsburgh under another name reference.
Baltimore ended up hitting some doubly good notes as I started researching (more on that soon) so I’m definatley pretty excited to use it.
And as for Pittsburgh, it is prominently placed in the Exalted setting.
-Rob D.
“the high culture freak city of Texas” I just love that quote. And it is so very true!
I figured that Miami would’ve been a good choice because it’s one of the actual points on the so-called Bermuda Triangle.
I’m glad you picked Baltimore. Homicide: Life on the Streets and Dresden Style magic. MMMm
Actually, had Fred been the one doing this section, there’s a decent chance it might have been Miami or some other representative of Florida. He’s got the love.
I’ve only recently become aware of how much fantastic Florida crime fiction there is – a few years ago I would have just thought “Miami Vice” and left it at that, but now I think of Florida as this magnificent combination of vibrant energy and redolent heat, like somebody took the south of William Faulkner, put it in a shaker with some Dashell Hammit and poured it over crushed mint leaves. Florida is it’s own world, and liek New York and some of the other places we looked at, it’s almost too powerful a presence if done right, and if done wrong….well, why bother?
Looks like you made a great choice! I feel cheered that my city of Philadelphia made the top three.
As a New Orleanian, I’ll just casually mention that we are a bit more than the Anne Rice novels
More than the history, the feel of New Orleans is like no place else and I’ll probably base my campaign there. I’ll also hope that the RPG is successful enough to plan expansions and city guides and stuff like that.
Heh. I actually figure most of these cities have more depth than I give them. There’s a certain component of perception that I was also trying to juggle. Practically speaking, the new World of Darkness is using New Orleans as it’s default, which kind of puts dibs on it. New Orleans is also kind of topical at the moment, which is always rough
for putting in print.
-Rob D.
As I’m a Pitsburgher I was disappointed when you dropped it from the list. Living in Va. now I held out hope for Richmond, but my wife and I both cheered when Baltimore won out. Did you guys consider the Hampton Roads area at all? Lots of Civil War history, large military presence, and aits a thoroughfare of the drug/arms trade.
As a New Orleanian transplanted into Austin, I applaud your decision to toss Austin without thinking- it’s not a dark place. I also deeply appreciate your respect to my battered hometown.
Awww, Burlington would have been neat in that I could look out my window and see the location Im trying to describe, but as a city to base a game in, I think not. Too small, too accepting, no real place for baddies to hide in.
YES!!!!! As a Marylander, you just not only clinched the sale of the game, but drew three of my fellow gamers who aren’t into Dresden into this game. I’m GIDDY!
I grew up in New Orleans and I will say that no matter what you hear or read if you do not experience the depth of culture and history that is New Orleans you will miss the best of this dark mysterious lady. The news has blown the destruction in New Orleans out of proportion. Flux has always been a part of the New Orleans culture. You should reconsider leaving it out of the RPG or at the least plan an additional book later in publication. I now live in Baltimore and I have to say as a long time gamer this town definately has some excellent history including the occurances of mystical or supernatural stories. I wish you the best of luck and hopefully will see some of the local color make it into your book. I look forward to the stories you choose and the system you develope. I have introduced Dresden’s world to my roleplaying group and continue passing on Jim Butcher’s writting to anyone who will read it.
Man, I’ve lived in Austin all of my life and there is some seriously creepy shit you guys are missing. However, I still applaud the decision to move it away from Austin becase 1. Austin was one of the feature cities for In Nomine, and 2. Baltimore hasn’t had a gane yet and I think it’s high time it did.
Kudos!
P.S.
Dude this game is gonna rock!
Sounds like you put a good amount of thought into the City elimination process.Baltimore sounds good, never been there,will have to start doing some research.Nice to have you pick a city that hasn’t been overdone in gaming. Looking forward to the game.The group of friends i game with are waiting to be introduced to Harry’s world,afraid i have been going on and on about Harry for some time. good luck and hope to be able to get the game soon..
I was rooting for Atlanta as I read down the list, and I was surprised it surived the cut as long as it did. I might consider setting a game in Asheville, NC where I now live, but I think it might take more effort to incorporate the detective themes than the magical ones! It’s a strange place, and all manner of weird things could hide among the mortals here and even seem relatively normal in comparison.
Keovar Arcanes
At some point, when you’re looking to expand into other books in other cities, I really suggest you take a look at Vancouver. It’s got a really unique flavor.
You know … that sounds great, but you should also leave it at the game master and the gaming crews’ discretion. Base it in Baltimore but allow it to go where it may. Inthe books there are a lot .. and I mean a lot of other wizards around that live in different cities. So let it be expandable to where we may go.
You may wnat to add little blurbs about some of the other major cities and maybe a “Whos, who?” in magic and the arcane around them.
As it happens, Matthew, that’s exactly what we’re doing. Baltimore is just being selected as the *example* of how to take a city you’re familiar with and convert it into a Dresdenified city.
You’re *supposed* to expand it to whatever you want — that’s the point of using Baltimore as an illustrative example.
Just something interesting, using Baltimor, if you expand out in a 200 mile radius think of all the cities you hit, along with hitting some of the largest National Parks in the Eastern US. *chuckles* if you expand out and use that as a hub it could be quite interesting because you are not quite northern, not quite southern, but somewhere in between and there are alot of battlefields within a couple of hours drive.
Luke
XD
As a New Yorker, I would, in fact, find NYC a very interesting challenge. Besides, consider this– within NYC, there are the burroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, etc. You could just do a Manhattan setting or something.
If not, though, I do hope I’ll have some flexibility in customizing my own game outside of Baltimore. I’ve never been there, so therefore, it does not exist.
eh, I know its a bit late, but I was pulling for Richmond while reading, simply because its the closest to me… haha. I’m sorry you’re a yankee
I have several college buds from Baltimore and I think it is a great choice.
I was thinking on London, eventhough you said you wanted an American city, but as with NY and LA, it is a bit big and spread out into so many different areas and neighborhoods that it wouldn’t be any eaiser.
DC would have been awesome, but as you said, without the whole government intervention and what-not it would be lacking
I don’t think I’ve ever seen such random logic in choosing something from a list… I like it. Have to say Baltimore sound cool but Miami might have had something going for it. And as resident of England, I have to say “what? Nothing from this side of the pond? I reckon there’s potential for an expansion later on then…”
I take it there is the possibility of supplemments for different cities in the future? Would be nice to be able to expand to some of the other cities on the list and possibly some European ones as well?
Good point on Baltimore…But I was hoping for Austin ..well because I am from Texas…Houston could have been an alright choice since it has the most hauntings in Texas. Tons of spooky stuff because of the smaller out lining cities. Galveston and Kemah have a ton of spooky history.
Kinda blows that Seattle got thrown out, but I understand having played Shadowrun. Unfortunately that means I gotta write it up myself. Good challange for me I guess being new to the area.
There is a large Asian and Pacific Islander population in the area so I finally get my excuse to use my knowledge of folklore. Depression is high in the area, so there is the White Court. Now with Sasquatch sitings and The Native American lore of the area it should be a good game.