Give me snapshots of New Orleans

I'm starting up a modern fantasy game, similar in tone to Savannah Knights, where the protagonists delve into the hidden world of magic most people don't realize exists. They'll be spending some time in New Orleans, which is a hub for humans to interact with magical creatures.

Now, I've been to New Orleans several times, but it's been 4 years since my last trip, and I only ever really was around downtown, the French Quarter, the Audobon Zoo and the aquarium. I need snapshots of the rest of the city, and of places in the touristy areas I might have missed. If you've been to New Orleans, or seen something cool in a movie or book that took place in New Orleans, share a brief amount of information about something you remember, and give a suggestion of how it could fit into a game.

The game is taking place in the fall, so no Mardi Gras, sadly. Does anyone here know what the weather tends to be like in late October? Anyone experienced Halloween in Nawlins?

And yes, don't worry, food will play a big role in the adventure.

Ummm... the only shots of Narlins I have, all have pictures of girls waiting for beads in them.

I meant verbal snapshots, not actual photos. But nice, nevertheless.

I've been there several times, usually in the spring or summer, though. Most of the time I spent there was in the French Quarter, of course, but some of the neatest places in the Quarter are the less touristy places. There are really cool coffee shops that have indoor/outdoor courtyards attached, and a lot of little hole in the wall bars of every flavor (cajun, irish pub, blues/jazz).

Of course, for the big places, there's Jackson Square (which is what most people see in movies of New Orleans), Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau's tomb, and the riveerside marketplace where you can buy darn near anything.

One of the most interesting places in New Orleans is the LaLaurie Mansion, the home of a wealthy French socialite in the 1830's who, it was discovered, had brutally tortured and murdered dozens of her family's slaves in the locked attic.

Other sights commonly associated with New Orleans are the extensive graveyards filled with above-ground mausoleums. My Aunt, who lived there for several years, explained that the dead were buried in above-ground concrete tombs because, in a city on the floodplain of the Mississippi River, it wasn't a good idea to bury the bodies underground. One good flood and the corpses were uprooted and would float right down the middle of the street. The graveyards are beautiful, though, filled with historic statuary and gothic architecture. They are also very dangerous, home to muggers and thieves who aren't afraid to strike day or night at tourists who wander in to see the sights of the graveyards alone.

Outside the city are plantations that date back 150-200 years in some cases. I quick search of the internet will revela a num ber of theswe, and the occasional ghost stories that are associated with them as well.

There is a lot more, but these are my initial memories of New Orleans. It has been 4 or 5 years since I've been down there myself.

I just vacationed for about a week there last month. Most of my time, okay - pretty much all of it, was in and and around the French Quarter though. What stands out in my mind the most are the couple of place we became temporary regulars.

Cajun Mike's Pub & Grub just outside the quarter: a hole in the wall place that stretched deep into the tall, tall building it was at the bottom at. A long bar, a few tables, fantastic po'boys, and an occasional mega crawfish boil. When my wife and I wandered by early in the afternoon they had a huge pot of them about to get cooking. When we wandered back by we joined in the crawfish races down the sidewalk before heading in to eat until we were stuffed. [game image - up ahead of you on the sidewalk are several people croching down near a tall pot over a burner. As you get closer you see they're trying to race crawfish down the sidewalk.]

Deja Vu inside the Quarter: another hole in the wall place down away from most of the party area. A long bar, several tables and booths, and tattooed waitresses that are happy to chat with you. Good food at a good price. I can't think of a good game image here, unless you want to play on the name and have some kind of prophet running the place.

The Cemeteries are of course a great spot for a game encounter (pictures should be easy to find on the net, if not, we took plenty and the place is shown in Easy Rider). There's more than one, and the one closest to the French Quarter is generally safe. Across the street from that one is a small church that features the original statue of "St. Expedite", which has a long and interesting story that might be fodder for a game feature.

Alll the way down the long back street behind St. Louis cathedral (the street name I've forgotton) is Congo Park (I think that's the name) where the slaves were allowed to congregate after Sunday morning church. It's there that a lot of their African culture was kept alive and adapted to American life, which led to little things like Jazz. The game applications almost write themselves in a city with magical creatures.

In the Quarter, off the street that runs alongside the north (?) side of St. Louis Cathedral is a small street, maybe 20 yards from end to end. It isn't on the map. My wife and I found it quite by accident. On that street is a small shop (as in about 10 - 15' wide and 20' deep, including the back rooms) that caters to the "vampire" kind of crowd but without the pretentions. What makes it interesting, besides the fact the street wasn't on the official tourist maps we used, was that it has what they say is the oldest and smalled courtyard still around in the city. I obviously can't verify either, but it is way small. Maybe 8 by 8 feet. They had a fountain there rigged with a fog machine, which just made it look cool.
As a game application the PCs might have to find the courtyard on the street the map missed, or something.

There's more, but I'll have to look at the notes I wrote and think about how to get game stuff from the places.

Somewhere near the French Quarter is a big old bronze statue with a placard stating "On this site in (Date) nothng happened".

It has entertained many people (Slightly) with it's nothingness.

I think to folks exploring a world of hidden magic the sign would say somehting else.

Here is a site for you: http://www.immortelle.net/

Maps: http://www.neworleansonline.com/guide/citymaps/

i've been several times. maybe i still have some of my old guide books handy. i'll check tonight. if so, i can drop them in your lap.

Nawlins

I've spent considerable time in New Orleans (or Nawlins, as some locals say). I used to date a girl who lived just outside the city. I'll share some images, memories, and impressions that may be useful for your game.

Dawn at Cafe Du Monde: As you walk through the Quarter, the smell gets to your first -- a morning after sort of smell -- stale beer, vomit, and worse. A woman staggers along the outside of Jackson Square, obviously still drunk and trying to find her way home after a long night. Those smells are displaced by the smell of strong coffee and baking pastires as you duck under the canvas tarps pulled down the outside of the cafe as protection against the morning chill. You grab a chickory coffee and three beignets and then sit at a table in the corner. The coffee is unbelievably strong and bitter, which is a welcome compliment to the fried pastries covered in heaps of powdered sugar. You can hear the river birds just over the levee. The sun strikes the front of St. Louis Cathedral and begins to illuminate the square as the coffee takes hold of you and opens your eyes to the day.

www.cafedumonde.com

I've got more I will try to post later. I will say New Orleans both scares the crap out of me and enlivens and inspires me whenever I visit.

Now that I'm not quite so sleepy, I'll relate some of my memories.

The Golden Statue of Joan of Arc sitting atop a horse, pointing forward and bearing a banner that flares out behind her dramatically.

The House of Blues. You've got to go down a little alley past bouncers to get in, and even then you're only in the casual part of the restaurant. If you want to eat while getting live music, you've got to pay more. I never did. The ceiling of the common room is adorned with dozens of relief sculptures of the faces of famous blues artists, arcing overhead and lit with dim blue light. The only faces I remember recognizing are, ironically, John Belushi and Dan Akroyd.

On our walk back from the House of Blues, we spotted a dude singing a classic song, standing and clapping and singing on the side of the road, with a hat on the ground next to him for donations. The song might have been When the Saints Go Marching In, or any of a dozen other things, but it was classic enough that we were all able to stand with the guy for three minutes and sing and clap along with him in a little New Orleans jam session. We paid him ten bucks and thanked him for the fun.

Bignettes are tasty. We washed our hands a lot.

There's this great ferry that goes across the Mississippi from the aquarium to the zoo. It's a little three decker thing, and the times I rode it the weather was in the 40s. It's damned windy when you're in the middle of the Mississippi.

One night, we were walking the French Quarter, and we stopped in a humadore and picked up cigars, because this was right after our high school graduation, and we felt like smoking to celebrate. So we're smoking these $15 cigars, feeling like big men, when we turn onto Bourbon Street. In fact, I'm amazed no one has mentioned Bourbon Street before. The place was crowded as hell, and even far from the Mardi Gras season, there were women flashing people. But what stands out most in my mind is looking down the street, over the heads of the crowd, and seeing this huge wooden cross set up in the middle of the road.

There was a cluster of missionaries, holding up this cross and handing out flyers, decrying us as sinners and asking us to accept Jesus into our lives. Now, everyone in the group was a Christian, but we were still amused as hell at this show, so we went over there, puffing smoke, and listened to them talk for a while, nodding politely, occasionally offering them a draw on a cigar. When we got bored of their talking (because, honestly, these are the sort of people who never end a conversation on their own), we took their pamphlets, walked away, and dumped them on the ground with all the other hundreds of pamphlets littering the road.

As we headed back to the car, we could see a scattered trail of pamphlets, like a visual record of who was most resilient, and was able to hold out the longest before dropping the things.