locales

[whswhs]

It looks as if I'll be running my second THS campaign next year. This one is not a mystery campaign, but a cosmic horror one, based on interpreting the various sorts of possible transhuman entities in Lovecraftian terms, as "vast, cool, and unsympathetic."

One thing I need to decide on is a good base location. I think it would make sense to set it in a community somewhat analogous to the fictitious Arkham: strongly academic, with a significant number of eloi, and with cultural resources out of proportion to its actual population. A Fifth Wave community would likely have more presence of any transhuman entities.

Some possibilities:

Japan: Kyoto
New Zealand: What city in New Zealand would be (a) most academically and culturally driven or (b) most receptive to transhumanism in a largely preservationist nation?
ABC: Vancouver
USA: San Francisco
Ecuador: Quito
Chile: What city would have the right cultural profile?
South Africa: Johannesburg

What would be good or bad about these? Are there any good possibilities I'm not thinking of?

Bill Stoddard

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I think it would make sense to set it in a community somewhat analogous to the fictitious Arkham: strongly academic, with a significant number of eloi, and with cultural resources out of proportion to its actual population.

New Zealand: What city in New Zealand would be (a) most academically and culturally driven or (b) most receptive to transhumanism in a largely preservationist nation?

Dunedin. University of Otago.

[Jürgen Hubert]

Aachen, Germany. :D

It has only about 260,000 people at present, but it has four institutes of higher education, one of them rather famous, and is in general of a rather progressive bent.

It certainly has lots of cultural resources. It's a spa town founded by the Romans. It was the seat of Charlemagne. It sits at the crossroads between Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands. And the pleasant surroundings of the Eifel mountain range will certainly continue to attract the idle rich to this region.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Jürgen Hubert

It has only about 260,000 people at present, but it has four institutes of higher education, one of them rather famous, and is in general of a rather progressive bent.

Now that you mention it, isn't it the location of a (or the) RWTH? That one I've seen often enough on twenty years' worth of scientific journal articles.

Bill Stoddard

[Jonathan Willis]

Originally Posted by whswhs

New Zealand: What city in New Zealand would be (a) most academically and culturally driven or (b) most receptive to transhumanism in a largely preservationist nation?

My first thought would be Wellington. Dunedin is certainly an academic center, but not so much a cultural one. Although Dunedin is close to Fiordland, if you wanted a reasonably isolated wilderness to place unnamed horrors in.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Jonathan Willis

My first thought would be Wellington. Dunedin is certainly an academic center, but not so much a cultural one. Although Dunedin is close to Fiordland, if you wanted a reasonably isolated wilderness to place unnamed horrors in.

No, I'm more looking for placing unnamed horrors in the wilderness of the Net.

Bill Stoddard

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by whswhs

What would be good or bad about these? Are there any good possibilities I'm not thinking of?

Why Earth? Aren't there vastly more posthuman societies in the Deep Beyond? Gypsy Angels for instance? If you must have it on Earth, what about the undersea communities; shades of "Cyclopean and many-columned Y'ha-nthlei, perhaps?

[cptbutton]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Why Earth? Aren't there vastly more posthuman societies in the Deep Beyond? Gypsy Angels for instance? If you must have it on Earth, what about the undersea communities; shades of "Cyclopean and many-columned Y'ha-nthlei, perhaps?

The real reason no humans have ever visited Yuggoth, err, Pluto.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Why Earth? Aren't there vastly more posthuman societies in the Deep Beyond? Gypsy Angels for instance? If you must have it on Earth, what about the undersea communities; shades of "Cyclopean and many-columned Y'ha-nthlei, perhaps?

For the same reason that HPL set most of his stories in the cities where he was comfortable. If I want to do the equivalent of sending them to the Mountains of Madness I can always do that. But having the threat from outside manifest itself in the midst of everyday life is dramatically more effective, to my mind.

Bill Stoddard

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Jonathan Willis

My first thought would be Wellington.

As the national capital, Wellington might lack the "obscure backwater" vibe of Arkham.