Chicago setting expansion

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Jan Paparazzi

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I am currently expanding my Chicago modern setting. I want every neighborhood to offer something different to the players. This is what I got so far and I am currently using this. For the Downtown district I am using The Loop of course, because that's the central business district and Near North (I call it the Gold Coast), because that area has all the rich people stuff in it with the Magnificent Mile, Gold Coast, River North etc.

For the North Side district I use Lincoln Park as an upscale (not as rich as the Gold Coast) somewhat greener area. I didn't see the point in using Lakeview, because it's not different enough from Lincoln Park. I crammed them into one area. For the West Side I did something similar. I crammed Wicker Park and Bucktown (and Pilsen) into one former blue collar nowadays hipster arty farty neighbourhood.

The South Side give me more options so I am currently using Bronzeville as a poorer area (the slums or project) although I could also be using something like Englewood for this. Maybe that's better. I also use Hyde Park as a university neighbourhood and I have Chinatown on hold. I can always add that one in as an ethnic neighbourhood.

Now I am doubting to use Back of the Yards (Southwest Side) or Pullman (Far Southeast Side) as an industrial area. Or maybe I should use both? I am also not using any neighbourhood from the Far West Side, Far Northwest Side and Far Southwest Side. Maybe I should use an area from one of those districts like Beverly, Uptown or Garfield Park?

I am a little bit indecisive about this, because I don't want neighborhoods that fill the same role and I can't find as much about the areas that aren't tourist hotspots. I get most of my info from Wikitravel and some youtube movies designed for tourists.

PS The setting I have in mind emphasizes the rich corrupt north versus the poor rundown south and all the spirit activity that spirals out of control because of this. The difference between rich and poor becomes bigger and it becomes more haunted. Greed and corruption vs. urban decay and crime.
 
The horror movie Bones (starring Snoop Dogg in his first film role) played with some of these social/economic tensions, as I recall (although I don't know if it was a strict north-south thing). I've been thinking about running a one-off adventure inspired by the film. A renovated brownstone, a revenant, a couple succubi, and some hell hounds would do the trick.
 
Actually I was hoping that someone would suggest what neighborhood I should absolutely use in my setting. This far I have The Loop, Gold Coast (Near North), Wicker Park, Lincoln Park, Hyde Park (a lot of parks), Bronzeville and I am thinking about adding Chinatown, Back of the Yards and Pullman.
 
I think I'm too close to the source material to provide useful feedback. As a Chicagoan, my response to which Chicago neighborhoods you should use is "all of them." By the way, the Gold Coast and Near North are not the same place, although they are close to each other.

What's your goal with your setting expansion, and what game is it for?
 
....What's your goal with your setting expansion, and what game is it for?
Same question, also what is the genre etc.? The genre really influences my suggestions.

Been to Chicago many times...Marina City always called out to me as enclave worthy.
 
Modern horror/urban fantasy. More the first than the second. Setting is populated with hunters, investigators, conspiracies, witches and cults etc. A lot of hauntings too. Expect a lot of ephemeral beings (ghosts, spirits, demons etc.)

My players play a bunch of youtube ghost hunters who stage everything. It's 100% fake until it isn't. Probably a lot of urban exploration as well.
 
Well, if including supernatural beasties is a key element, then I would suggest including Beverly & Mount Greenwood, at the southwest edge of the city, because those areas are still overwhelmingly Irish, so could be a good home for banshees and whatnot. This area is where the South Side Irish Parade happens.

Also, including some of the far north areas, like West Rogers Park, gives you an abundant Jewish population, so could be a good home for golems.

Some quirks of the city that may help give your setting some flavor:

  • One of my buddies was born & raised in the Jefferson Park neighborhood, on the Far Northwest side. The guy who owns the corner store on his block can speak to you in fluent Polish or fluent Spanish, but speaks almost zero English.
  • There are city parks everywhere, even in the "bad" neighborhoods. Richard M. Daley, who was mayor for many, many years, loved parks and was a huge supporter of building new ones.
  • No one calls it "the Willis Tower." They either still call it "the Sears Tower," or they call it "the former Sears Tower."
  • It's pretty common for Chicagoans to get irate with folks from suburban Chicagoland who claim to be "from Chicago."
  • Chicagoans into baseball are generally Cubs fans or White Sox fans. It's kind of frowned upon to be both. Once a year, there's a series of games called the Crosstown Classic, where the teams play each other.
  • In the Summer (I mean, normal Summers, not COVID-era Summers), there is some sort of festival going on somewhere in the city literally every weekend, from mid-May until mid-October.
  • The Chicago-style hot dog is very popular, and, according to Wikipedia, "The Chicago area has more hot dog restaurants than McDonald's, Wendy's, and Burger King restaurants combined.[22][20]"
  • I've lived here for a little over 14 years, and I can count the number of people I've met who have what Hollywood portrays as a "Chicago accent" on one hand.
  • We usually get 3 or 4 false Springs, with Winter returning with a vengeance, before actual Spring arrives.
 
Recall you had Hyde Park, the Univ. of Chicago is one of the top science schools in the nation, especially in physics and chemistry.

Just looked them up on wikipedia, did not know they discovered REM sleep, knew of their work in quantum mechanics and nuclear physics. that right there makes me think they know way more about the supernatural than they let on...perhaps they have a secret government institute going back to WWII?
 
An academical setting is always good for a horror setting. Plus it's very different from the rest of South Side, so it had to be a seperate area.

I am mostly interested in the community areas of Chicago (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_areas_in_Chicago) and I try to have a mix of areas that fit some sort of city model (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentric_zone_model ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sector_model ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_nuclei_model). I try to have between 5-12 different areas which all are different and easy to grasp. I also looked at Watch Dogs (https://watchdogs.fandom.com/wiki/Chicago).

I try to have areas that are Central Business District (CBD), commercial, industrial and residential (rich, middle-class and poor).

Let me try to fill it in:

Central Business District: The Loop (duh)
Commercial: Gold Coast/Magnificent Mile
Residential (rich): Gold Coast, Lincoln Park/Lakeview, Hyde Park
Residential (middle-class) : Wicker Park/Bucktown
Residential (poor): Bronzeville, Englewood
Industrial: Back of the Yards, Pullman

I think might move Wicker Park to rich and add some suburbs as middle-class. And I think I might make some changes to the poor and industrial areas.
 
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I know it's necessary to simplify things for the sake of games, but just for the record, in real life it's way more nuanced and complicated than "North Side- rich/South Side- poor."

Anyway, here's some more hopefully useful trivia:

  • The Chicago Public Library has 82 branches spread all throughout the city.
  • The main downtown branch, the Harold Washington Library Center, takes up an entire city block and is ten stories tall. It is the largest public municipal library building in the world, iirc. There are large statues on the roof that at first glance, people take for gargoyles, but they're actually owls. In a supernatural world, maybe those owls come to life...
  • The Italian beef sandwich is a Chicago creation.
  • Chicago was instrumental (no pun intended) in the development of electric blues music.
  • House music was also a Chicago creation.
  • Depending on exactly where you are and what the issue is, dealing with law enforcement could mean contact with the Chicago Police Department, Illinois State Police, Cook County Sheriff's Dept., Forest Preserves of Cook County Law Enforcement Dept., the Illinois Conservation Police, or some combination thereof.
  • A lot of famous alternative bands have come up through Chicago, often playing at The Metro, which has been in business since 1982 & is a stone's throw from Wrigley Field.
  • If you're including suburban areas, you may want to include the Bahai Temple in Wilmette. I've not been inside, but I've driven past numerous times and the building, as well as the gardens surrounding it, are beautiful.
  • Almost all roads in Chicago go either due East-West or due North-South. Because of the shape of the city, Western Ave is the only road that runs the entire North-South distance of the city from the north border to the south border.
  • Chicago's predominant Celtic-punk band, The Tossers, actually pre-date more famous Celtic-punk bands like the Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly. Many of the Tossers' songs are very evocative of Chicago, or at least a particular perspective on Chicago. The band is from the Beverly neighborhood that I talked about up-thread. A few examples of their Chicago songs:
The Tossers playing "Teehan's" live:



Studio version in case you couldn't make out the words:



Tossers playing "A Fine Lass You Are," studio version



Tossers "Emerald City" official music video. Lots of great shots of the city in this one.



Tossers playing "USA." Lots more footage of the city.

 
My one experience of shady urban Chicago was having to pay a large burly fellow 10 well earned dollars to get me safely to the train from the Greyhound station on my way to Adepticon.
 
Oh, one more thing: most bars close @ 2 am, but a small percentage have a special license that allows them to stay open until 4 am.
 
I know it's necessary to simplify things for the sake of games, but just for the record, in real life it's way more nuanced and complicated than "North Side- rich/South Side- poor."
I actually like things simplified. Actually, I think I will simplify it even more. I want to instantly get what an area has to offer and then I will fill it up with building and other interesting locations.
 
The four terminals at Chicago-O'Hare International Airport are numbered 1, 2, 3, and 5. The real life explanation is rather mundane, but I think it presents a great opportunity for a supernatural explanation. :smile:
 
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