Knowledge of Real World Places Only Through Gaming

[Bullgrit]

I just noticed the poster neceros lives in Puyallop, WA. The only knowledge I have of Puyallop is from the Shadowrun game's reference to the "Puyallop Barrens" -- basically a gang and crime infested, run-down part of the sprawl. Until seeing neceros' location note on his post, it had never even occurred to me that Puyallop might actually be a real place in the real world. I have no idea what the real Puyallop is like, I only know my in-game experiences with it (and I wouldn't want to live there without major firepower at hand).

This got me thinking, what other places in our real world do I know only from gaming? So, how about you? Any real world places you know only from gaming? From your game-only knowledge, what's the place like?

Bullgrit
Total Bullgrit

 

[OakwoodDM]

Seattle.

That may sound bad, but I am English, living in England, and I was in my early teen years when I was first introduced to Shadowrun, so knowledge of American cities wasn't my highest priority. But, yes, almost my entire knowledge of the city of Seattle comes from those fine folks at FASA. Terrifying.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Seattle.

That may sound bad, but I am English, living in England, and I was in my early teen years when I was first introduced to Shadowrun, so knowledge of American cities wasn't my highest priority. But, yes, almost my entire knowledge of the city of Seattle comes from those fine folks at FASA. Terrifying.

I almost didn't believe that the city I visted last year was the same city I used to run in the shadows and killed or at least knocked out countless of corporate guards.

But I saw the famous Monorail!

 

[diaglo]

the land down under.

never visited. but i'm dieing to find out if it looks just like a mad max set. only on a larger scale.

 

[Voadam]

Vampire exposed me to a lot of the midwest and history that I had not known about before. Chicago had just been the name of a city to me before and Gary Indiana was mentioned in The Music Man or I would never have even heard the name before playing.

Ars Magica brought me great info on medieval spain and some jewish history from their Iberia and Kaballah sourcebooks.

The changes in the Shadowrun world were too far removed from reality for me to associate Shadowrun Seattle with expectations about the real Seattle. Same for After the Bomb and Rifts places and their real world counterparts.

 

[Dlsharrock]

Tibet. I bastardised a region in the Himalayas for a fantasy campaign. I wanted it to be realistic so I used Eingana (a really great RPG tool btw) which presents the whole world as an explorable 3D environment. As is usually the case when you play in one setting for a long time (4 years in this case), I got to know the region intimately. I could probably get a job there as a tour guide.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

I just noticed the poster neceros lives in Puyallop, WA.

It's Puyallup, BTW. Two 'u's. Oh, and so that we can identify non-natives, it's actually pronounced pyoo-AL-up. I was born & raised in the Seattle area and used to live in Bonney Lake, about 10 miles from there.

So, how about you? Any real world places you know only from gaming? From your game-only knowledge, what's the place like?

No, but the reverse is true - having lived for 40 years in Seattle and vicinity it was interesting seeing it represented in Shadowrun, Gamma World, etc. But then I tended to have problems with seperating the real places that I knew from the fictionalized science fiction places that they were supposed to be.

 

[Wik]

Hm. D&D gave me an interest in ancient Mesopotamia, but I had heard about it beforehand. However, I knew nothing about the Byzantines or Constantinople before I started gaming.

But as for modern-day locations? I can't seem to think of any.

 

[Tonguez]

the land down under.

never visited. but i'm dieing to find out if it looks just like a mad max set. only on a larger scale.

Yes it does - that wasn't a set, that was downtown Kalgoorlie

 

[Hairfoot]

the land down under.

never visited. but i'm dieing to find out if it looks just like a mad max set. only on a larger scale.

Only the outback. The cities look like Bartertown. Except for Canberra, which is like a post-apocalyptic zombie capital.