Streetlight People - who are they ? In your game? or a hypothetical one

[Luke Bunyip]

Oh, THEM! I used to work night shift at a city underground railway station. We had heaps of Streetlight people turn up, once all the office workers had disappeared back to the 'burbs.

:)

[Rocket Man]

And of course, if you're gaming in a Narnia environment, the Streetlight People are newly arrived children from England, mixed with the occasional wandering faun for variety.

[ciaran_skye]

Originally Posted by Irish Wolf

And why shouldn't the fae adapt to changing times? Perhaps Central Park is filled with the dryads of all those trees, and the streets teem with the half-seen forms of pookas, and leprechauns trying to replenish their gold supplies by buying lottery tickets...

Or the Satyrs who worship the statute of Pan in the middle of the park.

It's a real local urban legend that's gotten my brain churning on an urban fantasy. Add on that I know a young woman who dresses as a Satyr for fun and you have a great story hook.

[robkelk]

Another take: in a particularly callous world, Streetlight People are the ones who are forced to stand in one place all night, holding lanterns. And they're glad they aren't Park Bench People.

[Rocket Man]

It gets even worse if you consider the possibility that the singer's phrasing was off: the "Street Lightpeople" are the angels of Light that became Outcast after their master, the former Archangel Lucifer, fell from Heaven ... they're Light-people who literally got turned out on the street. Some still try to perform their ancient service as guides, questers and teachers, but others have become bitter in their exile and can be dangerous to cross on a dark night ... especially since that dark night may suddenly become PAINFULLY bright.

[Mark Skarr]

Originally Posted by Andrew Hackard

I gotta stick with the hookers. Sorry, Ed.

Yeah, I'm with you and Icelander. As Forum Pervert, I've got to go with hookers. There what we'd play "ho there" with on Central in Albuquerque.

On the other hand, hookers do get some screen time in most of my games.

[Hemlock]

Originally Posted by Rocket Man

In a noir PI game, they're the 1930s equivalent of the Baker Street Irregulars, of course; the petty crooks, orphans and other disreputables that note the goings-on of the criminal underworld and pass information to their detective ally. Some mobsters have heard of the "Streetlight People," making the bad guys a little more paranoid ... but in a Depression-era setting, there's no avoiding the ragged, and thus no certainty that a cynical detective with a heart of gold may not already know your every move.

It doesn't have to be a Noir PI game for that kind of group ...

I once ran a fantasy game (set in GURPS Tredroy) where a similar loose confedertaion of street urchins, teen-age low-skill thugs, and other petty criminals were existed as a source of information and surveillance for the PC party thief character. And even once helped to provide a very useful peice of (non-magical) equipment.

[Qoltar]

Here are two ideas I had recently .....:

First idea: In a campaign set in the late 19th century /early 20th century - "Streetlight People" might refer to a group that has information or helps out investigators of the unusual - much like the Baker Street Irregulars of the Sherlock Holmes stories. The difference is they only meet their conacts (the player characters) within sight of the streetlights.

Second idea: A ghost or spirit form of people that have already died, but they're rather benevolent. The "Streetlight People" are charged with helping out living folks when they most need it - but only at night time. Also, they can get violent, if needed to - but very rarely as it tends to exhaust them and they risk permantly disappearing from the world if they tax their energies too much.

The second idea ...I see them as sometimes drinking coffee at all-night diners or second-rate PERKINS franchises. They mildly enjoy being around people again - but only in small groups as they can never really quite connect with them as much as they might want to.

Looks like two or three of us are thinking along similiar lines with the 'network of helpers' idea.

- Ed Charlton

[tantric]

People that develop weird psychic powers when they trip on psychedelics, named because streetlights turn on and off when they walk under them. Yeah, it's happened to you, too, admit it.

Shortly after my first experiences with DXM, I started to notice strange occurances of streetlights either going on or off as I would pass them. Sometimes I would just simply look up at a burned out light and it would flicker a few times, then come on. Usually it would be the same couple of lights, night after night. You may think, what does this have to do with DXM? Well, I didn't really think much of it until I talked to two other people, each reporting the same phenomenon, convinced that it is tied to something beyond our regular grasp of technology. What causes these strange episodes of electrical malfunction? Some may point out that the lights are on sensors and as you pass them, they detect headlights, but that theory is often shot down due to the fact that you may have already passed the streetlight when it lit up, or you may not even be in a car at all. On one night, I had just been walking out of the movie theater with my girlfriend when right as I passed under it, a theater light (affixed outside the movie theater) shut off, while the one just before it continued to glow. We both noticed it. It's to the point that now everytime I'm out somewhere driving after dark, I notice some strange activity with streetlights either turning on or off,
flickering, or both. Also, from what I've heard it may not just be limited to streetlights. Other electrical devices such as radios and anything else you can imagine may also be effected. Some say it has to do with supernatural forces, since it has been noted that in some cases ghosts like to mess around with electricity. Others may point out it would be something inside our mind controlling the devices. And yet others may scoff and call us insane.
Now, after talking with the two other individuals that have reported this, I realized I may not be crazy after all, and I'm also not discounting this as a simple case of paranoia. I do not know the intricate workings of a streetlight. If you do, on the otherhand, and know what may cause this disturbances please feel free to email us. I am passing along the insight of one of those individuals below:

[Rocket Man]

Originally Posted by tantric

People that develop weird psychic powers when they trip on psychedelics, named because streetlights turn on and off when they walk under them. Yeah, it's happened to you, too, admit it.

And from the other side of the gallery: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/...ily-emanations