Hot Spots you want

[Blind Mapmaker]

Actually mentioned in the new Silk Road Hot Spot: Dura-Europos. An important trading and border city between Rome and Persia with a mix of cultures and religions that is very unusual (Christian, Jewish, Mithraic, Greek, Roman, Palmyrene). It would make a great outpost for Roman (or earlier Persian) trading or spying PCs. Given the limited sources, it might be a bit short for a Hot Spots volume though.

Hot Spots: Palmyra would also be a great choice. A unique Semitic culture that defies stereotype with its powerful queens, cosmopolitan nature and huge ambition. And I didn't even mention the mummies. Palmyra has something for everybody: religious and cultural matters (fusion art), military matters (Zenobia's empire), trading (silk road vs. Mediterranean) and simply city adventures in a sprawling desert metropolis.

[dcarson]

Timbuktu, center of the north Africa caravan trade, capital of the Mali empire, scholarly and book center.

[vicky_molokh]

Ur and/or Babylon.

[Buzzardo]

Originally Posted by SolemnGolem

Hot Spots: The Walled City of Kowloon

A lawless exclave unclaimed by the UK and unpoliced by mainland China, this structure became an eyesore mishmash of temporary housing turned permanent, run by triad gangs, featuring its own economy. For a while it was one of the most densely populated living areas on Earth.

Suitable for nightmarish prisons, challenging SpecForce missions, and even conversion into a Dungeon Fantasy style microcosm of scum and villainy.

Originally Posted by dcarson

Timbuktu, center of the north Africa caravan trade, capital of the Mali empire, scholarly and book center.

I'd buy both of these without hesitation.

Some other ideas:

• The Arabian peninsula in the time of Mohammed.
• Boston in the time of the American Revolution.
• New York in the time of Tammany Hall and Boss Tweed.
• Chicago in the time of the prohibition.

All of those are instant adventure settings for various kinds of campaigns.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by SolemnGolem

Hot Spots: The Walled City of Kowloon

Originally Posted by dcarson

Timbuktu, center of the north Africa caravan trade, capital of the Mali empire, scholarly and book center.

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Ur and/or Babylon.

All of these were what I was about to reply with, but I read the thread first. So +1 to everyone.

Great Zimbabwe is another in the "probably gotta make a zillion things up" but still cool.

Jericho, too.

[Crystalline_Entity]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Ur and/or Babylon.

Definitely, slight preference for Babylon, from Hammurabi to the Chaldean Empire.

Originally Posted by (E)

I think York pre 1000AD might be worth consideration.

That'd be interesting, though depending on length, York has had a varied history from Pre-Roman times to the present day so I wouldn't stop at 1000CE - if you file the serial numbers off it'd be a good example of a city from a number of eras (Roman, Viking, mediaeval, early modern, present day).

[tshiggins]

Hmm. How large of a "hot spot" are we talking, here?

Because, India during the Mauryan Empire....

The era saw the expansion of a vast empire that covered almost all of the subcontinent, except for the southern tip and Sri Lanka. It happened partially in response to the appearance of Alexander the Great's armies in the Indus Valley. Even though Alexander withdrew, the knowledge of the existence of vast empire with a skilled, aggressive ruler and a powerful army raised tremendous alarm in the India of 322 BCE.

At its height, under Ashoka, the Mauryan Empire covered more than 5 million square miles, and featured tremendous internal intrigue as the descendants of conquered areas schemed and plotted; religious strife as the rulers of the empire adopted Buddhism at the expense of traditional Hindu beliefs; and constant contact (via Silk Road trade) with both the Hellenic world and the China of the Warring States.

There is no more rich period in the history if India, until the British East India Company began to control territory in the subcontinent, at the expense of the Mughal Empire in the early 18th Century.

(Probably silly. That would require an entire book to do it justice, really.)

On a more practical level, I think it might be fun to write up Golkonda, the city in southern India that acted as the military and administrative center of one of the richest and most famous gem-producing areas in the world. Until the discovery of the Kimberly Pipes in South Africa, the Golkonda region produced the vast majority of the world's diamonds, including the Koh-i-Noor, now affixed in the crown of the Queen Mother of the United Kingdom; the Hope Diamond that rests in the United States' Smithsonian Institute, and the Nassak Diamond, which changes hands amongst the world's billionaires, every now and then.

The city was also a vibrant center of trade until conquered by the Mughal Empire, and gained a mythological aura as an exotic city of vast wealth and spiritual significance.

[Phil Masters]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

Hot Spots: Londinium. The London of Ancient Rome seems like a great place for a roleplaying setting.

Once upon a time - probably back in 3rd edition days - I tinkered with the idea of proposing a GURPS London, with chapters covering the city in various periods - Londinium, medieval London, Tudor, the Great Fire, Victorian, the Blitz, Transhuman London...

It would have been a huge amount of work to research and have had limited game usefulness, and didn't really fit how the game was evolving at the time. But if some obsessive were to propose a Hot Spots sub-line, I'd be amused.

[Proteus]

Hot Spots: Galveston, Texas

In the beginning, you have Indians and Spanish explorers. Then pirates (including Jean Lafitte!). A bit of Texas Revolution and American Civil War action. Then a major, multi-ethnic port city (center of trade in Texas, with The Strand known as the "Wall Street of the South") and center of American immigration. Subject to the U.S.' deadliest natural disaster in the Hurricane of 1900. Then a tourist destination, good for Prohibition fun and Voodoo adventures.

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

Hmm. How large of a "hot spot" are we talking, here?

The wish list says:

"a specific locale – which might be a city, a nation, or a general geographical region"

The first two books in the Hot Spots series covered individual cities, but the most recent has dealt with a vaguely defined region with a Germany-sized core and tendrils out into the rest of the world. A sufficiently qualified author might talk his way into a book about an empire the size of the subcontinent, though someone a bit less ambitious might consider picking a city or other sub-region sufficiently representative of the larger entity, sort of like Hot Spots: Constantinople is nominally about the city but sneaks a lot about the Byzantine empire through the back door.