|
I like James idea of working the insane cold into a city trait. I've actually heard something like that before on a radio show. Like the frontier towns in Canada were never as violent as the frontier in the US and the extreme cold was a major factor.
Ideas:
Smerg: New Orleans, Toronto, Las Vegas
1. Songdragon - Vancouver, Seattle, New Orleans
2. Divineshadow - ?
3. Arctaris - ?
4. AdAstraGames - Toronto
5. Davi - ?
6. Torolf - Toronto, Oregon, New Orleans
7. Saedar - ?
8. Ithuriel - Toronto
9. Barcas - ?
10. Valegrim - ?
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16, 2011 Top 32
|
Maybe the Winter Court holds an unusual sway over the city and uses their powers to curb crime somewhat, for some nefarious scheme.
Or perhaps a pact was made with a Native spirit to keep the peace, but its method of keeping the peace was to freeze the town out of the mood.
Or perhaps the emotions that usually power violent and criminal behavior are being siphoned somewhere to power a ritual that is 100+ years in the making?
I love the Dresden Files RPG.
I am fine with Toronto.
Like James, the first thing I thought of when the too cold for crime, was that of the winter fae. Perhaps the the Winter Knight is afoot. Heck, depends on our starting point, someone being the Winter Knight. But that is... later. ;)
A couple of ways to address that. Either the white council or some other organization exercises an iron fist over the supernatural in the city which could be a problem for the players, or the city has invested into the idea of safety to the point that they fabricate the statistics. Red Court or White Court could have people in power to massage the officially reported numbers.
Too Cold for Crime' could be a trait.
Another way of expressing the low crime rate might be 'Toronto the Good'.
It certainly says something of a major metropolitan city with a crime rate that is 1/2 to 1/3 of other cities.
I agree that there would either have to be some force working to 'cover up' the official records or some force working to keep the streets safe.
Of the two options, I would always vote for a cover-up as it provides far more interesting ideas.
The city is a real mixture of people and cultures. You might consider that with all those groups they take a view of handling problems 'privately' rather than involving the 'official' police.
--------------------
Another interesting idea is that a recent Superior Court decision struck down the existing prostitution laws (laws governing operating a bawdy house and living on the proceeds of prostitution though prostitution is not illegal in Canada <though communicating for the purposes of prostitution is a crime> ).
There could certainly be some questions on who benefits and who loses by such a change in the law from a supernatural point of view.
-----------------------
BTW I've lived in Toronto back in the late 80s and early 90s. TO (Toronto) is also only 3 to 4 hours drive (3 for some of my friends and 4 for me) away so it one of the major cities that I visit often.
I could dig Toronto. Majority!
You raise a good point about insular cultures (such as the Asian population) not notifying police about some crimes. My beloved city has a sizeable Asian population that sometimes won't call police for their own reasons, as well as illegal immigrants too afraid of deportation to report crimes.
Re: Prostitution laws - The White Court would benefit, surely. Who else?
Well, lots of people could benefit from legalizing certain aspects of prostitution, even in the first couple books, the big name in prostitution was a Red Court vamp, and afterwards was a vanilla mortal.
I could just as easily see politicians worried about political fallout doing that to cover themselves, or legalizing it as a 'favor' for other interested parties.
Toronto gets quite a bit of tourism, too. A public low crime rate and legal prostitution could easily fit into an aspect like, "ANYTHING FOR TOURISTS"
|
Locale:
Subway:
"Ever wonder why the Fey don't do much in New York? It's the damned subways. The subways opened up something that's dangerous, and the Fey cleared out centuries ago. It's also why New Yorkers have no sense of humor; being around the Fey tends to give one a lighter outlook on life. Or maybe it's the influence of the thing they woke up."
Lost Children
"In a city this size, kids go missing. Oh, sure, it's all on the news with amber alerts and orange alerts when it's the daughter of some rich suburbanite, and the pictures are photogenic. When it's a kid from the projects? The cops, they tend to think it's a runaway., wait for the kid to come home, and then just shake their hands. Justice is what you can afford, and a lot of the people out there can't afford much."
UPS Shield Logo.
"Ask any adept, and they'll say the Brown Shields are up to something. It's only been a decade since UPS changed their logo to a shield from a package, and I can't help but wonder - are the brownshirts in the brown trucks up to something more sinister than just dropping off Amazon packages? And why is it that the thing you sign on never seems to show your signature when you write on it? And there's that funny form you can fill out at the UPS shops directly, with addresses that don't show up on any map...and aren't available on the web site."
(This is "UPS as 'hidden army of adepts' and 'conduit to the NeverNever')
The Hidden Ways
"There's this family, they live on an old farmhouse outside of town. They always seem to be well enough off, their kids went off to college...they didn't seem to come after anybody. But some of them, they talk with strange accents. And sometimes, they have relatives in from out of town that nobody knows how they got there. And what's that thing with teaching their sons how to use swords as a hobby?"
(CF: Joel Rosenberg's Keepers of the Hidden Ways.)
Okay the UPS thing is awesome. And like I said I can do any city so I'll vote toronto
Locations
In setting up the city, Locations are geographic areas that people are likely going to visit and have stories involving. It could be a single building, a few connected city blocks (financial core), or it could be some unifying theme (like the Subway system).
A couple of ideas have been put forward already for Locations. I'll mention a couple that might fit some earlier ideas or are just interesting.
Casa Loma
This huge structure is in the centre of the city. It was the only place in North America where the they showed the movie props from the Lord of the Rings to the public before each release of the movie. I went to this and it was awesome to see the movie props and to walk around this place. Officially it is owned by the city but you could definitely set some supernatural court up with owning or using this site.
The Old Don Jail
This is where people were executed for various crimes and is rumoured to be infested with ghosts. If you have some medium or necromancer involved in a nefarious plot then this might be one of their 'recruiting' stops.
TTC Map
In Toronto, it is said the TTC goes everywhere. Who knows, maybe there is some literal truth to that statement with a possible connection through the NeverNever. If people go missing then this is one of the snatch areas often frequented by people begging for change or street performers.
Queen Street West
This is the area off of the main shopping centres. It is an area with comic shops, smaller bookstores, small art dealerships, and plenty of independent culture. Plenty of people will pitch a tent in this region to sell shirts and such off the street in this region. Plenty of teens and twenty year olds flock to this area. There is also the city's own TV station here along with Canada's Much Music HQ. Plenty of music and film celebrities come here to be seen.
Theatres Toronto
There are a couple of clusters of theatres in Toronto. The Princess of Wales theatre is probably the most famous. There is also an Opera House in Toronto. Most middle class and better people go out here at least once a year and it is a big draw for people to go to TO for a show. There is also a Medieval Times theatre with full armour and jousting if you want to work that into some story.
ROM
The Royal Ontario Museum (often called the ROM) is the big historical museum of the area (even has a Subway stop called Museum). There are several other museums near by for Art and Modern Art. The ROM often brings in special attractions like King Tut's displays. Recently the Ossuary for James came to the ROM but was damaged in Transit ( James Ossuary ). What might the Ossuary have really held which resulted in it being damaged and why was it promptly called a 'fake' afterwards (supernatural cover up or possible switch)?
Metropolitan Reference Library
Five stories tall and with 51 miles of shelves. This is the penultimate library of the region. There might be private collections or strange book sellers (Queen Street West area) but this is the grand daddy library with all sorts of books stored inside. It is an Antiquarian's dream house of records and information.
I hope those give you some ideas.
One other thing, I would like to tack on one location for game purposes. I would like some sort of bar or beanery place that all the characters can come, visit, and 'share' their stories. I am thinking that the 'storytelling' side of the game will be the various characters sitting down together to tell 'what happened'. A bit like an adventurer's club or a historic society would gather to tell of their latest expedition.
How easy is it to get firearms up there? Presumably, an American couldn't bring his guns across the border in most cases.
Full automatics are not allowed except by military and police.
Standard Paper-work to own Firearms is the Firearms Acquisition Certificate which now requires that you complete a Gun Safety Course (there were people Grandfathered into the program like me initially that did not need the safety course. I've let my FAC lapse; so, I'd need to go through the course to handle a pistol or rifle again).
Rifles need to be registered which is part of a program called the Long Arms Registry program. You need a certificate of ownership and there are rules on the storing of both weapons and ammunition (not in the same place, gun locks, and so forth). You can't just carry a pistol or rifle around and need to have a certificate for transporting it (just notify the local police you are carrying it somewhere and where the weapon will be stored).
Recently, an American tried to smuggle a semi-automatic pistol into Canada (I live on the border so I get this type of news often). It was probably a $500 pistol but the fine cost the man $6,000 when he was caught. Charges for crimes and jail time are also more severe if you are carrying a firearm.
Recently, there has been a move by the Federal Government to get rid of the Long Arm Registry program for cost reasons. There is big resistance with police as they use that data base across the country a few thousand times a day (not sure what they are checking but likely if they're going into a home then they would be checking if any known firearms were on the premise). The program has mixed approval amongst regular voters. Some see it as a necessary evil and others see it as a waste of money.
It was the Long Arm Registry that got me to clear the rifles and pistols that I had inherited from the house. I decided it wasn't worth keeping up the FAC anymore and the trouble of securing the firearms made it better to just get rid of them and keep the couple of thousand in sales.
I do know several hunters in our church with a fair number of firearms. Most are ex-war vets or group up hunting on their farms.
|
|
For the cold as a theme/aspect of the city how do you guys feel about something like Gripped by Winter?
It both implies the Winter Court of the fey exercising some control over the city and environmental effects. Allows you to play off of both of them.
For anyone who doesn't have the books, these descriptive phrases in bold we are throwing around set guides for the kind of game and setting we want to play in, but also function mechanically. For example, if you were in a car chase and the lead car was making checks to out drive you, you might call the tag "Gripped by Winter" or "Too Cold for Crime" into play by declaring the lead car hits an ice patch and loses control. If you were trying to sneak through a gate into the Nevernever you might encounter Winter Fey scouts or guards watching the gate if the GM calls "Gripped by Winter" into play. The general idea is that the tag offers both benefits and consequences. Those might not be great examples, but it kinda gives you an idea of what the Aspects are for.
Not that I'm advocating a change of venue; I'm not.
However, Windsor is right across the border from Detroit. And about 240 miles from Toronto. This could make for an interesting 'away party'.
The penalties for doing anything illegal with a firearm should be thrown out for people to ruminate on. The traditional Action Movie trope about how firearms work doesn't apply in the US; the appellation "with a firearm" is usually good for another 10 years of sentencing guidelines in the US. No idea what it is in Toronto.
Not that I'm advocating a change of venue; I'm not.
However, Windsor is right across the border from Detroit. And about 240 miles from Toronto. This could make for an interesting 'away party'.
The penalties for doing anything illegal with a firearm should be thrown out for people to ruminate on. The traditional Action Movie trope about how firearms work doesn't apply in the US; the appellation "with a firearm" is usually good for another 10 years of sentencing guidelines in the US. No idea what it is in Toronto.
I would think Niagara Falls and Buffalo New York would be a closer pair to choose.
If you include the Niagara region then you have some fruit and vineyards in that area. Plenty of small wineries which can be interesting locations for an out of the way event.
Niagara Falls is also a huge natural wonder. It isn't in Toronto but if you want to increase things to the surrounding regions some then it could surely be in play as it is within around a 2 hour radius of downtown Toronto.
North of the city there are quite a few cottage towns which are places where people with money keep usually a second home to race north on the 400 highway on Fridays (from Spring to Fall).
For the cold as a theme/aspect of the city how do you guys feel about something like Gripped by Winter?
It both implies the Winter Court of the fey exercising some control over the city and environmental effects. Allows you to play off of both of them.
If I were to choose between 'Too Cold for Crime' and 'Gripped by Winter' then I would choose 'Gripped by Winter'
I'd choose 'Gripped by Winter' because a statement like 'too cold for crime' could activate to cut down on various stories which isn't as interesting as having an area which is fully under the effect of the Winter Court.
The penalties for doing anything illegal with a firearm should be thrown out for people to ruminate on. The traditional Action Movie trope about how firearms work doesn't apply in the US; the appellation "with a firearm" is usually good for another 10 years of sentencing guidelines in the US. No idea what it is in Toronto.
Most things don't work like they do in action movies. That's why most documentaries don't involve giant explosions.
Anyway, the city so far:
Toronto
Theme: Gripped By Winter (It could be a Threat instead.)
Theme:
Threat:
Locations:
Casa Loma (The closest thing to the Winter Court's home base on this plane?)
The Old Don Jail (Good place to have the undead as a Threat.)
The TTC (Possible location theme: "Can Go Anywhere With The Right Ticket"?)
Queen Street West
Theatres Toronto
ROM (It has to have enough magical artifacts there to constitute it's own Theme)
Toronto Metropolitan Library (If we're going to involve Cthulu or the lie in this, here's a good place to put him. Lots of old tomes that could melt minds)
*Currently-unnamed home base type area*
Of course, feel free to toss any other ideas for locations or neighborhoods I can add to the list. Also, what do we want the main threat to the city to be? The fey? The undead? Something beyond the understanding of mortal man?
I also like "Gripped by Winter." How about "Too Good to be True" for the other Toronto theme?
I rather like Too Good To Be True. All the benefits of Toronto may have been granted by a pact made by a former leader, and now it's time to renew.
|
|
I also like "Gripped by Winter." How about "Too Good to be True" for the other Toronto theme?
I like that! It ties to the idea of the lowered crime statistics and plays on the stereotype of Canada as pleasantville. Also I can see it as a foundation for some horror stories just under the surface.
What kind of antagonists are you guys interested in? I imagine winter fey as an entrenched established presence, but not necessarily as the main threat. Looking around the web it seems like the city is full of ghost stories. Maybe demons, cultists, and mysterious organizations like UPS :)
I'm not as interested in seeing the Red Court. It's too cold for them ;)
Just a note on themes, threats, and aspects.
Let's say that you have this great idea for a character battling old ones because you really like HP Lovecraft and Call of Cthulhu. After city generation is done there doesn't seem to be any old ones in the 'city' campaign or a location for them.
Do they not exist in the campaign and do just have to make a character that fits the new surroundings?
Nope.
Every character during generation will create 7 aspects related to their character. These aspects will give you a chance to 'personalize' the campaign.
If you want old ones as an opponent and they haven't turned up in the 'city' generation or were not considered important enough to make the top of the list of initial ideas then you just need to make an aspect that 'brings' old ones into the campaign.
Sample Aspects could be;
Pawn of the Old Ones for someone who is their service.
Investigator of the Old Ones for someone who wants to investigate mysteries involving Old Ones.
Crusader against the Old Ones for someone who wants the Old Ones to have you on their speed dial of people to visit and eliminate.
Marked by the Old Ones for a person with a mysterious fate tied to the Old Ones.
[ed: While I used the term Old Ones in the above aspects you could just as easily use any name like White Court, White Council, Summer Court, Dread Wizard Harry, etc ]
------------------------
I also like the Theme, 'Too Good to be True' There are fate points in those words.
I also like the Theme, 'Too Good to be True' There are fate points in those words.
In that case, let's mine it for all it's worth.
Anyway, I vote for some shadowy organizations as the overall enemy. You know, strange conspiracies, crazed cults, that sort of thing. I just like the restless dead and tyrannical fey being distractions from the guys trying to summon their dark masters.
Seconded on Too Good To Be True, Eh?
Possible trope - medical tourism (it runs both ways across the border in Canada.)
The mention of Windsor is that it's right next to Detroit, which is about as close to a dystopian cyberpunk city as you get in North America...
Just an idea, but with so many players, we could actually run two different groups in the same location, perhaps with similar-but-different goals or different methods.
Just an idea, but with so many players, we could actually run two different groups in the same location, perhaps with similar-but-different goals or different methods.
Only seven players have shown up in this thread so far. Not quite enough to split into two groups.
Oh really? I was using the other thread's count, which was getting pretty high.
I went back and looked for some possible leads for other locations or review what people suggested for threats to see if something seemed to be a fitting choice.
I reviewed the post that talked on the secret garden in TO and thought that was cute bit of location that could easily have a mystery attached to it.
The town going to 'ghost' town in the Pickering lands could also be the kind of place for that small collection of 'weird' or 'inbred' people to dwell. The normal people having mostly moved off and only the cultist inbred types are left. There might a deeper mystery in why the government closed down so much land as 'crown' land. Maybe something really terrible (ancient mystery gate or sleeping old one) is on that property. Distance is the crown's best 'cure' for the problem to keep the majority of the public from tripping over the danger and making it worse.
I saw this article doing google searches on terms that might show some value.
Call for papers confronting the Supernatural
I found it neat that this is by a group called, 'Archeology Institute of America, Toronto Society'. Their crest hints at Athena and her Owl companion and the date says 1879. Who are these archeologists and what is their interest in the supernatural?
Interesting find... Marysburgh vortex in the eastern part of Lake Ontario, is likened to the Bermuda Triangle. What fun we can have with that... a portal to where? The Nevernever? There also seem to be some mention of Lake Monsters.
Possible trait: Cultural Gateway (who is to say, what cultures!)
|
|
Too Good to be True reminded me that one of the first things I read was an urban legend that Toronto perpetuates. People believe, writers claim, and politicians make speeches about how Toronto was named the world's most multicultural city by the U.N. That never actually happened, but for some reason people have believe that it did for maybe 30 years now.
That archaeological society is gold.
More stuff-
Like NY, Toronto has abandoned subway stations and lines underground. Also some that were never even completed which are like a cross between roughed out cavern and stations.
Toronto has both the Cosa Nostra and 'Ndrangheta (two different groups of Italian organized crime). Someone mentioned a Triad gang earlier too. Their Chinatown is one of the biggest in North America.
That's right! I had forgotten about Chinatown. I wonder what it would look like for the Jade Court to manifest there while Winter was trying to keep the city firmly under control...
That's right! I had forgotten about Chinatown. I wonder what it would look like for the Jade Court to manifest there while Winter was trying to keep the city firmly under control...
I looked at the Jade Court information in Dresden Files Vol 2 Our World. It was unfortunately very brief and just mentioned the Knight of the Cross used to fight them often but no details on powers or weaknesses.
So, if we were to include the Jade Court there are two ways to do it.
Way 1 is that we decide on a general history and sample set of vampires to form the Jade Vampire Core abilities. Sources of information could be Wikipedia for Vampires (they have listings of vampires from countries around the world) and White Wolf's Kindred of the East. There are a few movies and anime that are Asian and feature vampires. The hard part with the movies and anime is to siphon out the western vampire influences which are different.
Way 2 is similar to Way 1 but you leave it in the GM's hands (mine) to work out the abilities in terms of powers and weaknesses. This makes them more mysterious but also leaves the players more in the 'dark' as what to expect.
---------------------
A podcast group called Thistledown Actual Play have been taping there recent sessions of creating a city and creating characters. Podcasts 9 and 10 are the city creation. Podcast 11 is the Character creation. Each podcast is around 2+ hours. I've been following along to see how another group does it.
The city they chose was St Louis and this link is for the home page. God down the page to find the earlier podcasts 9 and 10.
Way 2 is similar to Way 1 but you leave it in the GM's hands (mine) to work out the abilities in terms of powers and weaknesses. This makes them more mysterious but also leaves the players more in the 'dark' as what to expect.
I vote for this. After all, no one knows what the Jade Court vampires can do, why should the players? Just don't make them too much more powerful than the other clans of vampires.
So, updated city so far:
Theme: Gripped By Winter
Theme: Too Good To Be True
Threat:
Locations:
Casa Loma (The closest thing to the Winter Court's home base on this plane?)
The Old Don Jail (Good place to have the undead as a Threat.)
The TTC (Possible location theme: "Can Go Anywhere With The Right Ticket"?)
Queen Street West (Do we concentrate on it's role as a shopping center or as a media center?)
Theatres Toronto (Too many things we could do with this to list here)
ROM (It has to have enough magical artifacts there to constitute it's own Theme)
Toronto Metropolitan Library (If we're going to involve Cthulu or the lie in this, here's a good place to put him. Lots of old tomes that could melt minds)
*Currently-unnamed home base type area*
Chinatown (Jade Court outpost?)
For the city-wide Threat, I still vote for a good old-fashioned cult trying to bring about the apocalypse.
Alright, since the editing window just closed on my last post, I just thought of a decent Threat: Sliding Into Bedlam The city's veneer is starting to crack. Things are beginning to go to hell (literally or metaphorically). Some people are trying to pull it down faster. The Winter Court is holding on as tight as it can. But, even as the city freezes over, it's still going to burn soon.
Oh, and ideas for the theater district:
-An outpost of White Court vampires control here. (Do they still answer to the Winter Court?) Trying to force the Jade Court out of town?
-Secret connection to the Summer Court. Trying to shake things up, get the Winter Court out of power. Not very successful?
-Controlled by Winter Court for propaganda purposes.
-Connection to Never Never, things bleed through. (The occasional King in Yellow style play that warps minds?)
Also, thanks for that podcast link. It's good.
So on the supernatural side, the Winter Court is trying to maintain the status quo while the Jade Court vampires are trying to establish a North American foothold, plus an unknown cult trying to call in the price of the pact that keeps things too good to be true. Who are the movers and shakers of the non supernatural world?
Yeah, we have been neglecting the mundane stuff.
-The mayor/city government: Probably under the Winter Court's control.
-The police: Don't know much about the supernatural, just glad things are as good as they are.
-Crime families: I'd say the Triads are connected to the Jade Court(and thus want to shake things up and take over) even if most of the gang doesn't know about the vampires; One of the other groups is connected to the Winter Court and has more influence than they normally would; The remaining major group doesn't know what's going on and just wants to take out most of their competition's influence.
I can't really think of any other ideas at the moment.
There is a few box section east of Younge Street around Jarvis street that is known for prostitution. If you want a white or red court area then this might be a better place.
Of course, with White Court it really depends on the family as to which emotion they feed upon. Some feed on sexual energy like the Raiths but others feed on anger or despair.
Actually, despair might be a nice counter point with prostitution and drugs. A certain number of people going missing from this group to keep the level of despair higher.
You could even tie into Detroit which might be a current centre for White court despair vampires who are slowly branching into Toronto.
With the Winter Court in power and their heavy negative emotions the two groups are somewhat compatible to co-exist which helps keep the area in more harmony and the crime more in control.
--------------------
If people are interested in a cult for a threat then we could again look at the area in the Pickering area as the mystery locus from which the threat is centred. The cult believes that something is in the area and they want to bring it forth. Possibly with ties to ancient native legends.
Who was native? Iroquois?
I'll bow to your superior knowledge of Toronto's neighborhoods in placing factions.
So, is everyone fine with the Threat I came up with?
Who was native? Iroquois?
The closest reserve is Scugog Reserve owned by the Mississauga Nation of the Ojibway People.
There is also Georgina Island Reserve which is a band of Chippewas which are part of the Ojibway People.
Last, the biggest reserve (actually largest in Canada with 27,000 people) in the area is south west and nearer Brantford and is called Six Nations of the Grand River reserve. This group has the six nations of Iroquois living together (Mohawk, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Seneca, and Tuscarora) and some Deleware of Algonquin people also live there.
Six Nations of the Grand River wiki
--------------------------
I am good with the suggested threat.
---------------------------
I just found this link on history of Toronto.
Sweet so we can have wolf town. So what power lvl are we playing at?? Because, we have set up some major threats and if we aren't gonna be startin high, which I kinda don't want too, then we ought to scale back a little.
I'm curious about that too, although we still have a decent chunk of city creation yet. Also, I wouldn't worry that much about the enemies being too strong. It's not like we're going to be punching Queen Mab in the face on our first adventure.
EDIT: Updated the city list
Theme: Gripped By Winter
Theme: Too Good To Be True
Threat: Sliding Into Bedlam
Locations:
Casa Loma (The closest thing to the Winter Court's home base on this plane?)
The Old Don Jail (Good place to have the undead as a Threat.)
The TTC (Possible location theme: "Can Go Anywhere With The Right Ticket"?)
Queen Street West (Do we concentrate on it's role as a shopping center or as a media center?)
Theatres Toronto (Too many things we could do with this to list here)
ROM (It has to have enough magical artifacts there to constitute it's own Theme)
Toronto Metropolitan Library (If we're going to involve Cthulu or the like in this, here's a good place to put him. Lots of old tomes that could melt minds)
*Currently-unnamed home base type area*
Chinatown (Jade Court outpost?)
The Seedy Side of Town (White Court area? Do we even want them involved in the city?)
So, now to solidify the location themes/threats.
Are we keeping the Brown Shields - UPS as some sort of arcanist conspiracy? And how much DO they charge to ship IKEA furniture to the NeverNever? :)
Something I'd like to see tried - we have the White Court / Winter Court, we have the Jade Court, and presumably the Triads are working for them.
Perhaps the Triads aren't working for the Jade Court. The Jade Court is moving in, expecting the Triads to knuckle under...and they aren't.
Which leaves us with the Winter Court wanting to know why the Triads are getting ruckusy, the Jade Courts wanting to get the Triads to knuckle under, and the Triads trying to preserve their turf as they slowly realize they're in over their heads.
Perhaps the Triads are trying to get some magical mojo to avoid being squeezed...and in doing so have woken Something They Shouldn't've.
One of the common themes in the Dresden books is "Someone who has ability, but no training, gets in WAAAAAY over their head."
I agree that if the Jade Court makes an appearance, we should have no idea what they're like and what they can do. I also hope we won't be punching Queen Mab anywhere on any of the adventures, really. Not even Harry even thought about trying that.
Possible themes:
I already like the suggested TTC theme
Chinatown: Big Trouble in Little Chinatown
Old Don Jail: You can't Ghoul home again
Queen Street West: Anything to get on TV
Toronto Metropolitan Library: If you write it, they will come
I do like the idea of the UPS conspiracy, but it seems to me that that sort of story element is less obvious and perhaps less suited for the city's main (initial) threat.
Which leaves us with the Winter Court wanting to know why the Triads are getting ruckusy, the Jade Courts wanting to get the Triads to knuckle under, and the Triads trying to preserve their turf as they slowly realize they're in over their heads.
That's cool, lets go with that. Still, they're going to want to keep outsiders uninvolved. After all, this is Chinese gangsters fighting Chinese vampires. You Canadians want to meddle, find some Canadian gangsters and Canadian vampires.
Big Trouble in Little Chinatown
That might work as a Threat, but it's a tad dull. Besides, if we're going to reference things with it's aspect name "Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown." shows the idea of them refusing to let other people handle their problems better. Have to come up with something else if we want Chinatown to have a Threat, though.
Old Don Jail: You can't Ghoul home again
A tad punny for my taste. I'd rather have something like The Restless Dead or Crime Never Dies for the Threat, just because it's ghosts that are the threat there and not ghouls. (Nowhere for them to hide there, in any case.)
Queen Street West: Anything to get on TV
I'll second this one, just because it sounds cool.
Toronto Metropolitan Library: If you write it, they will come
This one doesn't really grab me. Of course, I can't come up with any pithy saying to say that they have an extensive collection of occult books that probably shouldn't be read, so maybe.
I do like the idea of the UPS conspiracy, but it seems to me that that sort of story element is less obvious and perhaps less suited for the city's main (initial) threat.
Yeah, let's just keep that in the background as something that might be true and maybe the people that say a corperation's symbol changing is because of satanism will be right.
EDIT: Since this post isn't long enough yet, some more Aspect ideas:
Casa Loma: Throne of the City (Assuming the Winter Court uses it as their seat of power, of course)
The TTC: Can Go Anywhere With The Right Ticket
ROM: More Than Just Replicas (Fancy way of saying they have real artifacts there too.)
Also, we still haven't come up with our nice little home base type location. Since it would be important enough to have it's own aspect, we probably should at least name it.
"No One Expects The RCMP..."
Another possible thread to weave in is the nigh unto traditional "bought judge/bought cop" archetype. Perhaps the RCMP is investigating something in Toronto, or perhaps someone has framed the RCMP for a corruption investigation, and the internal fighting between Toronto Metropolitan and the RCMP is diverting cops from other places where they're needed?
Not all problems need to be supernatural...
I've been tempted to try and work out how the Toronto Argonauts actually have the Golden Fleece, or a reasonable facsimile therof. Or are all a Templar plot through their ownership group...
With Georgina Lake and Scugog Reserves we can certainly have one or both with a were presence. The Six Nations reserve has several communities within the boundaries and any one of those might be for the 'different' people.
So, there is plenty of possibilities for one or all of those to be a 'wolf town'. It is quite possible that there might be some other were types like raven or snake also in the mix.
-----------------
I like the mysterious idea of a group called the 'Brown Shields' with the UPS.
Again, like the Jade Court you have two options.
Option 1: We decide as a group what they really have as an objective and what they want which will help 'fix' them into some sort of role and location within the city.
Option 2: You give it to the GM (Me) to work up what their goal and abilities are and say to me think up some place in the story for this mystery group. 'We want them but we don't want to know what they are really doing here'.
-----------------
Power Level in Dresden RPG is based upon 'Refresh' Level of fate points. There are some ideas though that don't really fit into too small a total of 'Refresh' Level of Fate Points.
The start of the Dresden Books has Harry probably built around a 10 Refresh level of Fate Points (this is the maximum recommended starting point of Refresh Points but also the lowest that a full beginning Wizard of the White Council can really be built).
I would say by the events of the latest book that he has probably grown in power to a level of 14 Fate Point Refresh total (I won't mention details for my thoughts on this to avoid giving away spoilers). There have been several significant 'power ups' for Harry as he has made various bargains for power and has upgraded his equipment. His wrist charm bracelet has evolved over time, he uses less potions now to carry spells for emergencies, he now mixes other types of energy into his spells, he has learned to fight better in hand to hand and use a shotgun with various types of rounds, he has upgraded his laboratory several times with better equipment.
My thoughts right now are for a 9 or 10 point refresh pool which people will likely spend 4 to 8 points of acquiring various stunts and powers.
Pure humans get +2 to the 'Refresh' pool but only as long as they don't have any powers. The first point of supernatural powers and the human loses the +2 bonus for being purely human.
This should allow people to develop pretty much any concept within the rules. Again, I'm not limiting people to the 'rules' provided templates or powers. If you have an idea then we can talk it out and figure on a representative balance based on what already exists in the Dresden RPG and other Fate games.
--------------------
PS: Thanks Davi for doing the secretarial job of keeping track of things.
--------------------
Since we have been referencing the movie 'Big Trouble in Little China' I looked at some of the quotes from the movie for ideas.
'China is Here' Basically all the China mystical stuff is transplanted and exists with full supernatural laws inside of China Town (western magic might not work correctly within the area). It is a mini Regio of power which the Winter Court cannot control do to the conflict of supernatural laws. It also creates a 'thorn' in the side of the Winter Court because it disrupts the 'natural' Winter Courts dominion of the city.
'Chinese have a lot of Hells' The area is riddled with gateways to horrible regions of the NeverNever where all the Chinese Hells are located. The worship of ancestors has included trying to appease those ancestors that have been committed to these various hells. There are Chinese practitioners that use these hells to bring forth horrors to defend China town and their authority within the area.
'That's how it always begins. Very Small.' It always seems like no big deal when you deal with China Town and the Supernatural but before you know it then it mushrooms into something far larger and more ancient then you could ever have expected. Kidnappings aren't kidnappings but the prelude to summoning demons which bring forth the reign of ancient gods. A fight between restaurant owners is really the surface of a gang war that stretches back to rival secret societies thousands of years in the past.
Okay, I hope a few of those ideas might work.