Superfund Sites are Super Fun

[RPG Post]

Superfund Sites are Super Fun

Not if you have to live there. In the real world. Obviously. But Superfund sites, like Picher, Oklahoma present a plethora of role-playing possibilities. Toxic waste, abandoned buildings with possessions still in them, fouled air, a few inhabitants armed and paranoid, with good reason: these locations, towns and cities work well for science fiction, horror and superhero games. With a little work, the central conceits of abandonment, decay, danger and despair can be worked into fantasy settings also; something perhaps involving a quest for a unicorn's horn.

Many superfund sites involve mining or military/munitions production facilities. Broken glass, crumbling, unsound structures and the very land is poisonous, radioactive, toxic and/or burning beneath your feet.

Abandoned ...By Humans

It's not just superfund sites. Web Urbanist showcases quite a few cities around the world as well as individual buildings and even ghost ships. Many sites online are dedicated to the exploration of abandoned U.S. theme parks and ones around the world. The people are gone but the scary clowns remain. Or, in the case of the Island of Dolls, disturbing children's toys hang from nooses on trees, parts fallen to the ground. Even more disturbing, though not abandoned in the traditional sense, is the Aokigahara Forest in Japan, where hundreds of people have gone to commit suicide. Bodies can be found just hanging around, really. And looters have cleverly discovered the dead are easy to pick-pocket.

Ghosts, Demons and Supervillains

Some stories write themselves and these sites lend themselves very well to certain themes, but there are always stories outside of the box. Sure the abandoned amusement park makes a great hunting ground for the deformed son of a psychic who was burnt as a witch, the rides somehow alive to his touch though the electric is long since gone. It makes a great place for your giggly psychotic supervillain too, but it could be a protected sanctuary, an anchor to an idyllic past, a source of tools and technology. The creepiness factor is high, just look at the names on many of the articles about these places, but think about why that is. The tangible sense of wasted potential or erosive loss could be redirected, seen as an analogy or a parable for a different type of tale.Spirited Away offered a, well not benign, but a less expected melding of the abandoned with the fantastic to great emotional effect.

Ghost Towns in the Middle of Cities

For gritty urban campaigns, large parts of Detroit and Gary, Indiana are abandoned and most cities have dwindling inner cities if not out right deserted. Likewise whole subdivision were built in the boom and never inhabited. Or the few people there have defaulted and left. Squatters move in, lawns die, decay sets in quickly. California and Florida have a large number of these ghost communities, but even in the Midwest where I reside, there are half completed suburban communities where one house was built out of twenty planned, ten of which are partially completed.

The pictures, the descriptions, the videos available online should stir up some ideas. For those in the vicinity of a ghost town or abandoned building or park, visiting the location can provide even more fodder. I have an abandoned cartridge factory not far from my house; it sits next to a bike path, overlooking the Little Miami River. Broken glass and rotting boards fill the windows, bricks are eroding, leaving a red dust staining the ground around it. Inside beams have fallen, the ceilings have gaping holes, the floors have permanent marks from the equipment that was once there.

If you decide to explore, be careful, take a camera and maybe a notebook. Sometimes there is beauty as things fall apart.