Michael Dean
Explorer
I'm in the mood to create a 1920's-era small town to be used for a wide variety of games; pulp, Cthulhu, Prohibition mob wars, etc... I hate making one from scratch because I don't seem to get the versimilitude I'm looking for in terms of where things should be or street sizes, etc..
So I've been using google maps to zoom in on some likely towns that might fit the bill and getting the layout and cherrypicking what I like.
My requirements were:
1. That it be a small to medium size Midwestern U.S. town or city (I was looking for Michigan at first).
2. That it have a lake near the town, for water-based adventures.
3. That it not be too far from a major city, so big-city problems could logically come to town (Big City Assasins come on the noon train to kill the adventurers).
4. That it have enough space to plop down a small college or university (ala Miskatonic U).
5. That there be enough woods/hills/farmland nearby to have a place for tracking bad guys or wilderness adventures.
6. A place to place a nearby Army post or reservation and airstrip, so if the players need to call in the cavalry to deal with a wannabe King Kong, there would be some heavy artillery.
After goofing around picking places in Michigan (where I live), because I had a notion of using Detroit as the Big City, I had a stroke of inspiration. And the small town that wins the "Best Place to Build a Fake 1920s Town?"
LAKE GENEVA, WISCONSIN!!!
It's perfect and meets almost all of my needs, and what it doesn't can be added in with no problems. It's close to Milwaukee and semi-close to Chicago. I was wondering how I would get mob guys into Lake Geneva, and the wiki for Lake Geneva says that Al Capone used to vacation there! Perfect. In fact, it used to be the "Newport of the Midwest", where the wealthy would come from Chitown and Milwaukee to summer. So there are a lot of famous mansions around the lake, like Black Point Mansion, that would provide the requisite Cthulhu haunted houses. I can have high-society adventures along with hardboiled detective stores.
The layout of Lake Geneva is fairly contained over a small area and not spread out too far, which makes mapmaking fairly simple. And there is enough wide open spaces that make putting a small University fairly easy as well.
So thanks, Gary Gygax, because without you I would never have thought to look at Lake Geneva!
So I've been using google maps to zoom in on some likely towns that might fit the bill and getting the layout and cherrypicking what I like.
My requirements were:
1. That it be a small to medium size Midwestern U.S. town or city (I was looking for Michigan at first).
2. That it have a lake near the town, for water-based adventures.
3. That it not be too far from a major city, so big-city problems could logically come to town (Big City Assasins come on the noon train to kill the adventurers).
4. That it have enough space to plop down a small college or university (ala Miskatonic U).
5. That there be enough woods/hills/farmland nearby to have a place for tracking bad guys or wilderness adventures.
6. A place to place a nearby Army post or reservation and airstrip, so if the players need to call in the cavalry to deal with a wannabe King Kong, there would be some heavy artillery.
After goofing around picking places in Michigan (where I live), because I had a notion of using Detroit as the Big City, I had a stroke of inspiration. And the small town that wins the "Best Place to Build a Fake 1920s Town?"
LAKE GENEVA, WISCONSIN!!!
It's perfect and meets almost all of my needs, and what it doesn't can be added in with no problems. It's close to Milwaukee and semi-close to Chicago. I was wondering how I would get mob guys into Lake Geneva, and the wiki for Lake Geneva says that Al Capone used to vacation there! Perfect. In fact, it used to be the "Newport of the Midwest", where the wealthy would come from Chitown and Milwaukee to summer. So there are a lot of famous mansions around the lake, like Black Point Mansion, that would provide the requisite Cthulhu haunted houses. I can have high-society adventures along with hardboiled detective stores.
The layout of Lake Geneva is fairly contained over a small area and not spread out too far, which makes mapmaking fairly simple. And there is enough wide open spaces that make putting a small University fairly easy as well.
So thanks, Gary Gygax, because without you I would never have thought to look at Lake Geneva!
