Do you live in San Francisco? Can you help me help my game?

[Meds]

That's Market Street, looking from Twin Peaks (or somewhere close by) towards the East Bay.

 

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

Cool, good info.

I should get some skyline pics from the web. I have Microsoft STREETS98, (I know its old) but at least it has maps I can print up with various resteraunts and other sites and locations that I can choose to show or not, which is kinda helpful.

Thanks,

FCW

Heh heh, lemme tell you something: those restaurants have probably changed owners, menus and names 3 or 4 times since 1998. Hell, a few of them probably did while I wrote this.

Stuff adventurers will need to know:

The HAFCI that Diaglo mentioned is the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic. They're the closest things to "healer clerics" for those gogo-types without health insurance.

Japantown is a great place to get a cheapo samurai sword.

Mission Bar (or just Bar) is where you'll go to meet the adventure hook.

The climactic battle will take place in the catwalk at the top of the "chimney" in the Museum of Modern Art.

 

[Akrasia]

I have lived here for 3 years now. The place is overrated. But then I am Canadian, and think that anywhere other than Toronto or Montreal (or New York or London ... if pressed) is overrated.

For a very negative (even by my standards) but nonetheless funny take on the Bay Are (including, of course, SF) see:

http://www.nickdenton.org/docs/mtmar02.htm

The best quote from that article:

"Supposedly cosmopolitan, San Francisco is in fact a collection of separatist ghettos. Mexicans live in the Mission, Gays live in the Castro, Chinese out in Sunset, and transient yuppies in the Marina; and they avoid eachother as much as possible.

The city is entirely lacking in glamour. The old money is inbred, and the new money is too geeky. The pretty people are in Los Angeles or Miami; the intellectuals are in New York; and the carpetbaggers left as quickly as they came. San Francisco's Clift must be the only Ian Schrager hotel where visitors pitch up with their tradeshow tote bags.

Culturally, the city is still eating out on its reputation as home to Beat writers such as Allen Ginsburg. That was nearly fifty years ago now. In the meantime, San Francisco has produced Danielle Steel, and that is about it. Of the wilder writers I know, most have moved down to Los Angeles, which is warmer and cheaper and, believe it or not, culturally far more vibrant."

Hope your game goes well!

 

[DragonLancer]

Let me also say thanks. For a while now I've been thinking of writing up SF for a Vampire/Requiem game so this thread has been a real help.

http://jamaats.mumineen.org/sf/albums/sf/sf_wp_10_1024.sized.jpg

Thats the picture posted a little above, and for a ges I've wondered what the white tower in the top left corner (with the pointy spire) is? It seems to be shown in every TV show set in SF. Any idea what that is?

 

[jerichothebard]

Let me also say thanks. For a while now I've been thinking of writing up SF for a Vampire/Requiem game so this thread has been a real help.

http://jamaats.mumineen.org/sf/albums/sf/sf_wp_10_1024.sized.jpg

Thats the picture posted a little above, and for a ges I've wondered what the white tower in the top left corner (with the pointy spire) is? It seems to be shown in every TV show set in SF. Any idea what that is?

It's the transamerica building. And the squarish section is actually a different building; the transamerica building is a pyramid all the way to the street. One of the more recognizable SF landmarks.

Interesting story: The building was never intended to be built. The blueprints were an architecture firm's lobby decor; they were just showing off. Then transamerica came to them looking for a new office building, saw it, and said, "yeah, that'll work." The rest is history.


jtb

 

[jerichothebard]

One other thing I just thought of. I have seen movies (there was one with Freddie Prinze Jr and Julia Stiles) where they are in Berkeley (East Bay) and talk about going to SF for the evening. Next shot is them driving over the Golden Gate Bridge. Next shot is them in SF.


The Golden Gate Bridge runs from SF to Marin County - North/South.

The Bay Bridge goes from SF to Berkeley/Oakland.

The GG, however, is far more picturesque.

 

[DragonLancer]

Ah, thankyou very much.

 

[Falcon]

Hey, could one of you guys tell me what hill this picture would be looking from and what street is that ryunning down the center?

http://jamaats.mumineen.org/sf/albums/sf/sf_wp_10_1024.sized.jpg

Thanks!

That pic is taken on what I think is called Buffalo Hill. It is a piece of rock that justs up just north-west of the Castro. At the eastern base is a museum, and there is a dog-walking area behind the viewer, down a hundred feet or so. It is right in front of Buena Vista Park, which provides wonderfulk views of the City, the Bay, the Pacific, etc, and there are lots of little, narrow, windy streets all around there.

For another point of interest, about in the middle of the picture and just to the left is a largish, squat building with what looks like pillars, set up a little on raw stone. That is the old San Francisco Mint. No longer used, but still surrounded by fences and the like.

The largish building at the bottom of the pic towards the right-hand corner is the Castro Theater, a famous art-deco movie theater, complete with Wurlitzer.

 

[FCWesel]

Thanks everyone for thier input, this will help. I found a number of pics online that I'll print up just so the folks playing will have a better idea of the 3D spacing of the place.

 

[Brennin Magalus]

I don't live in SF but I grew up in San Mateo County, which is just south of SF. If I were trying to create a fantasy version of SF I would emphasis a decaying, debauched city that is turning into an anarcho-syndicalist commune--that is, right before fiery meteorites scream from the sky and blast it into a smoking ruin. Either that, or I'd turn it into a penal colony like New York City in John Carpenter's Escape from New York