Set in Manhattan
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To summarize: The game idea I am working on is set in Manhattan, New York City—potentially in the "vague" 1970s or 1980s; haven't decided for sure yet. One moment I lean toward a That 70s Show desire for disco and Hell's Angels and the other I ponder the nostalgic approach of The Goldbergs' pop culture silliness.
Regardless, the game setting would be centered upon a fictional, magical "pocket realm" neighborhood populated by modern fantasy characters.
Question/Loose Opinion Poll: As a potential player of such a game, would you be satisfied if only the fictional neighborhood was fully fleshed out as grid rooms? If "Outer New York" were built as a small network of vague neighborhood/borough rooms surrounding contemporary landmarks or potentially centered on city parks. If +Temproom code were made available to allow people to make more specific locations for the duration of play within those areas.
Your thoughts as new or veteran gamers?
(Edit to fix a typo.)
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@sibermaus That sounds totally reasonable, imo.
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Temprooms and such are not an issue with Ares. Just let people use the scene code to set it wherever.
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I vastly prefer a game to have a grid that has a good handful of fully fleshed out grid-rooms rather than vague locations. It takes a lot of the guess work out. I don't want to sit there and have to worry about where I am, what it looks like, and also how I set the scene and how people RP in it. Plus it allows for some consistency? Like yes there could realistically be 500 different coffee houses in Manhattan, but at least I know what these 3 grid coffee houses look like in "your" vision.
I don't want to play "guess what this gridroom looks like". I just want to have a set desc in the gridroom and play.
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I personally feel that Danceteria and the Mudd Club, Fiorucci, Bleecker Bob's, Nelson Sullivan, Immaculate Consumptive, Swans, pre-Guilani Manhattan and Tish and Snooky (no, not that one) don't get nearly enough love.
An early-mid '80s WoD game would be amazing. Especially as there'd be no cell phones.
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I am with @bear_necessities - please give at least a core grid/set of rooms. I am able to riff off things easily enough but when I want a pick-up scene but don't have a particular idea I 100% of the time go wander the grid or (on Gray Harbor) look at the location listing to spark an idea then check the desc to make sure it works. Sometimes it is a single line that will breathe forth a whole scene.
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@silverfox Going to third this. The grid and its room descriptions need not be extensive, but they provide a lot of feel for the theme and the intended flavour of the game you are invited to play. It's a very powerful way to communicate where the focus is.
