Hot Spots you want

[Anders]

This thread for wishing on more Hot Spots supplements. What Hot Spots do you want and why?

I've always felt that the Bronze Age has been unfairly overlooked for RPGs. The Bronze Age is the age of myths, of heroes like Gilgamesh and Hercules. A time when monsters roamed the earth, to be defeated by manly men (the Gilgamesh epic is so manly you can practically smell the testosterone).

So I would like a Hot Spots of a Bronze Age city. Uruk or Babylon would be my favorites.

What do you think?

[(E)]

I think York pre 1000AD might be worth consideration.

An outlier idea might be Russell/Paihia around 1800 when iy was known as the red light district of the pacific.

Also any Bronze age is good

[Christopher R. Rice]

WAY too many to contemplate.

I'd personally be interested in writing something like Dodge City or "the American Frontier 1800-1900" or maybe the Appalachians during the Whiskey Rebellion.

[ajardoor]

Well, for the Pulp eras, we got New York City and Chicago as the big iconic cities of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. Prohibition, the Great Depression, Jazz, mobsters, corruption, and famous landmarks.

Campaigns set there can be based on Call of Cthulhu, The Great Gatsby, Public Enemies, the iconic noir stories, and even the first Batman comics!

[Phantasm]

Hot Spots: The Berlin Wall. Special attention paid to the Berlin Airlift campaign. Of course, it won't be complete without at least one obligatory block quote from Pink Floyd. :)

Hot Spots: Tenoctetlan and the fall of the Aztec Empire.

Hot Spots: Cahokia, ca. 1200-1400AD. The height of the urban Mississippian culture.

Hot Spots: Harappa and Mojeno Daro. A look at the Indus River civilization.


Okay, I know that the last three will require a large chunk of Speculation Bordering On "Make Stuff Up", but even informed guesses can work for gaming situations.

[patchwork]

Hot Spots: Zanzibar. I am most interested in the earlier bits, Medieval, Renaissance, pre-European contact (1498). However, There is some mileage to be had in colonial-era Zanzibar as well; changing hands from the Portuguese to the Omani to the British, all of them ruling it very lightly until they decided to get serious about abolishing slavery...in 1873.

Edit: you asked why, and I really didn't address that directly. I'd like a non-Western city that was cosmopolitan, with many cultures and religions interacting and trading, for a change of pace. The similarities with, say, Florence (cosmopolitan trading city of the same era) would really allow the differences to shine, and early European contact, if desired by a GM, wouldn't be hugely disruptive. The slave trade would be pretty dark for many people but also offers obvious plot hooks. If one chose to do a section or sidebar on magic or other weirdness, one might be able to do some very different styles than we usually see.

Hotspot: Botany Bay. The early days of Australia as a penal colony are done pretty well in other sources, but it both makes for a potentially interesting addition to a colonial-era game, it could provide interesting hints for doing other colonies and/or criminal arrangements.

[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.

[robkelk]

Nara, Japan, 710 to 794 (when Nara was Japan's capital). The first actual urban area in Japan, the place and time where Japanese literature and Japanese waka poetry started being written, the rise of Buddhism in Japan, the establishment of a currency, the government reforms and attendant social upheavals ... there was something for almost every style of roleplaying going on there and then.

[Prince Charon]

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

Also, adding my hope for a Bronze Age Hot Spot.

[Daigoro]

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.

I went looking for the Like button for this post but it was missing.

My suggestion: Medieval SE Asia- the 13th century thalassic empire of Indonesia, that told Kublai Khan where he could stuff his envoy; or 16th century Burmese-Siamese wars, just as Dutch and Portuguese trade is picking up and with Japanese traders and samurai spread throughout the region before their seclusion era.