Help me build Urban Fantasy NYC

I am going to be running an urban fantasy game based in modern day New York City. I have started worldbuilding and wanted to see if I could get some help brainstorming and developing it. I'm sure others have done this before, but I've found very little online so far. I plan on having most of the urban fantasy races one would expect: vampires, weres, fey, sorcerers, half-demons and gifted humans. The supernatural will not be known to most humans. I plan on having a head vampire and were-rats being the predominant were-group. I'm planning on having a rat king/queen in charge of all of the underground subway tunnels. I've got a bunch of other random ideas bouncing around as well. So my question is this: what would you expect/want to see in an urban fantasy NYC? What interesting locations? What would the different supernatural groups be doing or be in charge of? Where in NYC would you expect to see certain supernaturals? What would your urban fantasy NYC look like? Thanks!

First, Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere (set in London) might be a help to you:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neverwhere_(novel)

So might his American Gods, or works of others like Big Trouble in Little China, Grimm, Special Unit 2, Dresden Files, Being Human, Clive Barker's Imagica, the original Kolchak: The Night Stalker and so forth, depending on the kinds of stories you want to tell.

RPG sourcebooks from World of Darkness games like Mage, Vampire, Werewolf, etc., Shadowrun or the D20 Modern books for Urban Arcana and Dark Matter are also obvious goldmines.

Second, NYC isn't just a big city, it is a very globalized, polyglot city. Beyond the bogeymen & crypto-critters of American and European origin, the supernatural inhabitants of that area should be as varied as the population itself.

If there are supernatural beings with intellect and heirarchy, there might be regional rivalries- or alliances- with their counterparts & analogs in other cities or countries. Creeps vs Bluts, anyone?

One of the great things of New York is how different the character of the city is not just from one borough to the next, or even one neighborhood from the next, but even one block from the next.

You should also take the very real byzantine and aging subway and tunnel systems and build cool subterrainean locations and groups.

Some material that might inspire subterranean adventure set in NYC:

* John Saul's The Manhattan Hunt Club (https://www.amazon.com/Manhattan-Hunt-Club-John-Saul/dp/0449006522).

* The film Dark Days, Marc Singer's documentary on the community living "Freedum Tunnel" an abandoned section of the New York subway.

* Caleb Carr's The Alienist, while set in 1895, at the time Teddy Roosevelt was Chief of Police for NYC, you can take some of the encounters and locations and update them for modern times.

* Since Vampires are a major party of your story, read up on the Vampire Club sub-culture of the Goth sub-culture in New York (e.g. the Long Black Veil club, The Court of Lazarus). This is just to help you google for pictures and interviews and essays that can help you create locations and encounters. I think you are better going with existing fantasy works for Vampire organizations, rather than the Pax Vampyri and the Black Trinity (http://www.courtoflazarus.org/main.php?module=paxvampyri) or the Temple of Set's Order of the Vampyre. The former is basically cosplay with codes and the second takes itself seriously as a religion.

* Central Park is a great place to build encounters. It is big, over 840 acres. A village of working-class african americans (Senaca Village) was violently cleared out to create it, which has been the basis of ghost stories. Ramble Cave is an interesting feature of Central park that is no longer accessible. Starting the in early 1900s, it was a frequent area of crime, suicide, and harassment of women and was long ago closed down as too dangers to maintain. But it is still there. Maybe that's not the whole story? What dark secrets are hidden in Ramble Cave? McGowan's Pass is the ruins of the Academy of Mount St. Vincent, which closed in the 1850s. Its driveways and foundtions are now used as a mulching and compositing area, but you could come up with something more interesting. Cleopatra's Needles. An obelisk in Central Park and the oldest monument in NYC. It is 3,500 years old and was taken from the Egyption city of Iwnw (a/k/a On a/k/a Heliopolis). Its twin now stands on Victoria Embankment on the River Thames in London. Too much to go into here but the Freemasons, based on items found under this monument when the Romans moved it in 12 BC demonstrate link between Freemasonry and ancient Egypt. There are all kinds of conspiracy theories about this obelisk and two others in NYC and how they line up. You could build an entire adventure around the obelisks of NYC.

* Read up on the various NYC ghost tours, they may give you some story fodder and interesting locations you might not have thought of.

One nice think about NYC is that their is just so much interesting history and locations and subcultures to draw from.

See the Secrets of New York videos from NYC media: http://www1.nyc.gov/site/media/shows/secrets-of-new-york.page

The Atlas Obscura Guide to Hidden New York has some good pictures with short write ups that can inspire many and encounter location

Recreating the old "speakeasy" feel has become a trend and these hidden bars make for good locations to meet NPCs: https://www.thrillist.com/drink/new-york/secret-nyc-bar-speakeasy-hidden

Too much fun. Love NYC.

Check out the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series and The Dresdan Files. The Dresden Files RPG also has a system for creating your city. I believe.

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Why not just buy one?
https://www.amazon.com/Ptolus-City-...ZFC_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1487062047&sr=1-3

This is a great documentary, absolutely. I think of that fearless electrician whenever I'm working with wiring...

As far as what I like to see in Urban Fantasy, I like the idea that the fantastical is hidden, wonders hiding in the shadows, waiting to be discovered if we only dare look.

As far as NYC goes, I’d associate the magic with places that are gone or changed for the worse these days – the subcultural strangeness of St. Marks Place, the neon pulse of Mother, and the raw gunk of CBGB’s.

MNblockhead said:

* The film Dark Days, Marc Singer's documentary on the community living "Freedum Tunnel" an abandoned section of the New York subway.

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Thanks for all of the ideas so far! I am definitely going to have to work in elements of folklore, urban legends and historical landmarks and people. NYC has a rich and weird history. I love the idea of NYC being a melting pot for supernatural immigrants. I can definitely see there being rivalries/alliances between sups from different places playing out. I think that can add a lot of flavor. I already have a skeleton of what I want to build and this is helping me to flesh things out.

To give a little more background on what I have planned. I have been mining generously from a number of urban fantasy book series to put together my NYC. My plan is that the PCs will be working for an interracial council of supernaturals in NYC to help "clean" and put a stop to situations that may expose the supernatural world to regular humans. I plan on having a fey orchestrating events to expose supernaturals. The premise being that the fey used to be worshiped as gods and he she wants sups out in the open and ultimately worshiped and increasing their power.

I plan on having a master vampire of NYC (think Anita Blake). Given their refined immortality, I think placing them on the Upper East Side with the rich. I was thinking of having them in control of the museums in the city and thus in control of interesting artifacts and other powerful stuff.

I am going to have a Rat Queen in charge of the underground (sewers and subway tunnel) and maybe organized crime. Were-rats will be the predominant were-beasts in NYC. They'll also be the gate keepers for creatures of the night using the underground to travel the city during the day. I also just like the idea of the Queen being a professor at NYU.

I like the idea of half-demons running Hell's Kitchen. They would also run many of the vices in the city.

I like the idea of NYC sitting on a nexus of magical ley lines and thus drawing creatures of magic to the city.

Not all humans can be in the dark. Some know what is going on. I feel like the mayor has to know and I am going to have a secret unit of Secret Service agents who also work to keep knowledge of the supernatural hidden (think Warehouse 13).

I love the concept of Sorcerer Corporations down on Wall Street. Magic could soooo easily be used for personal gain and profit.

I feel like I can also use fey to fill in lots of random and weird things in the city.

Central Park! The possibilities are endless here. Thanks @NMBlockhead for the ideas there.
[MENTION=51168]MichaelSomething[/MENTION] - That book looks awesome! Even if I don't use it for this, I LOVE detailed city books like that. It is now on my must buy list.
[MENTION=30438]Ralif Redhammer[/MENTION] - St. Mark's and CBGB's! Brilliant. What is Mother? That's one I'm not familiar with. I'll blame it on being from NY.. lol..

Central Park could be an entrance to Underhill.

And something in me is screaming that the head vampire in NYC- if not a whole bunch of them- should be Italian.

"What's that stain on your shirt?"

"Ummm...marinara?"

Dannyalcatraz said:

Central Park could be an entrance to Underhill.

And something in me is screaming that the head vampire in NYC- if not a whole bunch of them- should be Italian.

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Yes! Underhill in Central Park. I will have to do that.

Haha! I do like the idea of Italian vampires in... Little Italy of course.

I'm toying with the idea of having Dracula be the head vampire-- though he'd go by Vlad or some variation. I love the idea of him having a non-Romanian last name in an attempt to blend. When asked about his impaler days, he be like "that was... What are the kids calling it these days? Yes, it was my emo phase."


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"Vladimiro/Wladimiro" is the Italian form of Vladimir.

For a surname..."Impalatore/Impellitteri", perhaps? Or "Lancia"?

Hey...his head enforcer within the family could be Joey "Sticks"________, because of the stakes* he carries to keep the other bloodsuckers in line.





* or crossbow & bolts