Details about Berlin spring/summer 2018 for Fate of Cthulhu game?

[L.J.Steele]

I'm running the FoC adventure that 3/4 takes place in Berlin and on Brocken Peak. Any German pyramidians or pyramidians who've visited Berlin who could pass on any useful minor details to give a good sense of place?

[Pomphis]

I live there. What kind of details?

This page has various major events of 2018:

https://www.berlin.de/kultur-und-tickets/tipps/2018/

[Pomphis]

Berlin is unusual in that it is historically several cities. It is a single city only since 1920. So it does not have one center, but several. Spandau for example is basically a major city of it´s own. My firm once employed a paralegal who was the first member of her family to work outside spandau for (IIRC) three generations.

Later west berlin had a center around the Kurfürstendamm/Tauentzienstraße, east berlin around Unter den Linden / Friedrichstraße. Those two areas still compete about having the highest office and shop rents.

No skyscrapers. Lots of green and water. Great clubs, especially the best of all (Kit Kat).

[Celjabba]

I am not german and don't live there but I have visited quite a few time.
It is a great and very welcoming city for a weekend vacation (baring the fact that it is off-center and far away in a corner of the country ...)

From an outsider view, a few details that I hope will help flesh out your game :

-you can have your players confused by the house numbering systems (2 concurrent system) and that you have several streets sharing the same name (about a dozen Linden Str. , I believe, and who know how many Berliner Straße, probably one per old cities ... ) due to Berlin being, as Pomphis said, several cities.

-the city is incredibly alive, and stay alive during the night - this is different from many european cities.
While most of the public transport shut down in the early morning hours, many place will stay open.

-travel and transportation (I don't drive) : it appear confusing at first, but it is actually quite intuitive and very efficient.
Did you know there is a ferry system with several lines, along with the metro, autobus and trains ? Berlin have an extensive network of canals and lakes, more than Venise I think.
Sadly, the rowing boat ferry closed a few years ago, before 2018 unless you don't mind a little anachronism.

-I live near the German border, but on the other side of the country. In my opinion, very little "typically old German town" subsist in Berlin.
There is little (drink, food, houses, Kultur) that is typically "berliner".
If I remenber correctly, in 2018, the novelty was a new place with weird flavour ice-cream (I had a spicy one, Koriander I think - it was very good). Can't remember the shop name, it was near Frankfurter Tor.

-Berlin is one of the paradise for alternative lifestyle, and is remarkably liberal and lax about it.
Music, clothing, hairdo, street arts, housing,... shaped by many creative minds: artists, geeks, kinky peoples ... so your players can have lots of interesting encounters.

-Bureaucracy ... Kafka wrote a lot during his stay in Berlin, just saying ;)

[Pomphis]

Originally Posted by Celjabba

-you can have your players confused by the house numbering systems (2 concurrent system)

Yes. One is from one end to the other end, on one side even numbers and on the other side odd numbers, The other is numbers progressing on one side continously till the end, making a U-turn, and continuing on the other side of the street back to the start. It helps that signs with street names often have the numbers from that crossing to the next under the name.

Originally Posted by Celjabba

-I live near the German border, but on the other side of the country. In my opinion, very little "typically old German town" subsist in Berlin.
There is little (drink, food, houses, Kultur) that is typically "berliner".

True. The Currywurst. But places from pretty much everywhere on the world. Australian, afghan, egyptian, brazilean ….

Originally Posted by Celjabba

-Berlin is one of the paradise for alternative lifestyle, and is remarkably liberal and lax about it.
Music, clothing, hairdo, street arts, housing,... shaped by many creative minds: artists, geeks, kinky peoples ... so your players can have lots of interesting encounter.

It helps that in some areas rents are still cheap. And compared to other cities almost all of berlin is cheap.

Originally Posted by Celjabba

-Bureaucracy ... Kafka wrote a lot during his stay in Berlin, just saying ;)

True. The public administration is not very good.

People might talk about the BER, the new airport that was already a few years late in 2018 (and a few billions over budget too).

[Dr. Beckenstein]

Oh yes, people will make a lot of jokes about the BER. They still do.

Also, the public transport in Berlin is not really a prime example of "German Efficiency". Esp. the S-Bahn. Expect that your train does not show up on time. Or at all. A lot of Berliner will curse loud about it.

And in 2008, German TV made a fascinating documentary about Berlin. Camera teams followed inhabitants of the city for a day, and out of 750 hours of material they made a 24 hour documentary. It can be found on Youtube, but AFAIK without English Subtitles.