Aberrant RPG - North Carolina

[NFVD]

This is not, stricktly speaking, an Aberrant question.

Im setting my Aberrant chronicle in a fictional city in North Carolina's coast. I was just wondering if my American and/or North Carolina forumite counterparts have any information they would like to share about the state. I'm refering to interesting unique facets of the land, traditions, manerims, weird laws, etc that can help bring the chronicle to life instead of just being a game set in "some city in the States". It would also be nice if someone would define the "typical" North Carolinian (did I get this one right?), I'm sure that like everywhere else in the planet the state has some typical qualities/defects associated with their inhabitants.

And, even better, if there is something unique about the place that ties in nicely with the Aberrant game and you feel I simply must bring in some way please say so.

,,

Yeah, I could do some backgound work and scan the net for info on the state, but I'm a lazy bastard and its set on a fictional town anyway. I just need some interesting tidbids to throw at my players and remind them where this is taking place. ::laugh

If you are curious why I chose this setting it's simple. I wanted the city to be on the East Coast and NC looks to be around the middle of it. Hey, at least I didn't close my eyes and point at a random location on the map. ::tongue

[Hyper-Focus]

Well, my brother lived for a while in the Research Triangle area, which I bet would be a fertile setting for some goings on in your game. Basically, its an area that consists of Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill. It is also refered to as the Raleigh-Durham Research Triangle.

In the Triangle you got a buttoad of universities, corporations, and medical centers. It contains major pharmaceutical corporations like GlaxoSmithKline and BigGen. Chemical and plastics componies like BASF and DuPont. All these componies are funding reasearch at the various universities. Economically, the Triagle fared much better then other areas in the same state that have fallen on hard times with the death of the manufacturing and agricultural sector in the American southeast.

Check the Wikipedia Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_Triangle

For your game, seems like the natural place to attract mega-intelligent novas to work for one of the various corporations, or even to teach at a school or practice medicine as a hospital. Player characters may want to look into choosing one of these institutions as a plausable current of former employer. A corporation (nova or baseline controled) could serve as a viable antagonist through several stories. Add to this the moral complexity that taking down the corporation will cost thousands of people their jobs. Its a plausable setting for some "mad science" goings on. Research gone awry, secret government biotech programs, Proteus dissections, take your pick. Id also suggest doing some research into the current economic depression in the Carolinas and how that fits into your game. A group of Novas acting out of the area is going to have economic impact, for good or ill.

As to NC being the "middle of the east coast" Culturally and historically, the Mason-Dixon line between Maryland and Pennsylvania has marked the border between North and South on the east coast. MD, PA, Delaware and Virgina are sometimes called the "Mid-Atlantic States" further confusing the issue. Now, Im from Washington DC, the belly of the beast. Our former president John F Kennedy once said that Washington DC was a city of "Northern hospitality and southern efficancy". This was not supposed to be a compliment.

So if your setting it in NC, dont forget to research southern culture, particularly that of the Applalachian Mountain Range. Mix the good of the American South (slow pace of life, nice people, gorgeous countryside, a sense of history and pride) with the bad (racism, religous extremisim).

[BlueNinja]

If you have not actually been to North Carolina, then I highly advise pulling up Yahoo or Google maps, throwing it on Hybrid, and browsing some of the places. Look for large buildings, parks, residential neighborhoods - all places you can put novas, or the baselines they'll be interacting with. Get an idea of the geography - mountains, rivers, and other natural landmarks. See if you can figure out where police stations and military bases are. Pick a location for a Rashoud facility (because if it's a good area for novas to congregate, then Utopia's probably going to build one there). Change a restaurant into a Star Lords*, because they'll also follow novas.

My Trans-D game is headquartered from Selma, a small town I've driven past many a time, so I used Google maps to pick out exactly where I wanted the headquarters for SuperGeek Enterprises to be. Since my building was supposed to be constructed according to rather strict specifications, I picked an empty plot. You might want to convert existing buildings for some things like that.

*: I cannot remember if the Star Lords chain of restaurants is in canon, or an invention of my last ST. Think a restaurant chain that specializes in nova memorabilia for decoration, and extends free meals to all novas. Great for those who want publicity/Influence, bad for those with Cipher.

[Centimane]

Actually, my family lives in North Carolina, the "Research Triangle" area and I'll actually be flying out to visit them for a couple of weeks on the 27th of this month. Blade90 is my brother and he lives out there right now, so I'll PM him to get his attention and see if he has anything he can add to this thread. For now though I'll have to stick to what I remember from my last visit over a year and a half ago.

First off, almost the entire South is covered in forests, and only the largest and most populated cities in the South are any different. The only large city in the American South that I've personally spent lots of time in that *didn't* have a crap-load of trees all through it was Atlanta, and it's only like that as you get into the heart of the city. Almost everywhere else is tree-covered with occasional meadows and glenns and what have you. The exception, of course, would be anywhere they happen to be growing some crops or raising livestock of some kind.

Also, in all of the South, it gets extremely hot and humid in during the Summer months. The actual tempurature may only be in the low 80's, but the humidity can be as high as 90% at times which makes it feel like it's hot enough to boil water, and you can actually feel the moisture being sucked into your lungs with each breath. Most people born or raised in the South hardly notice it though, and I actually got used to it myself after the second year of living in Georgia. Winters vary depending on where in the South you are. North Carolina gets cold enough to snow on occasion, but usually not that much, and for much of the winter there's either no snow or the snow is melting (it's not the prettiest thing in the world when it's like this either).

The specific area that Hyper-Focus was mentioning is pretty much the most industrialized, "citified" part of North Carolina, and is referred to by it's residents as the "Raliegh-Durham Area". It happens to be one of the fastest growing communities in the United States right now, but it's kind of hard to tell because, as I mentioned before, there are so many trees everywhere that you can't usually see more than the street you're on, and maybe a few of the taller buildings in the surrounding area (people in the South don't seem to have much use for skyscrapers, and even in the middle of Atlanta there are only a few modest skyscrapers blocking the sky - it's nothing at all like New York or LA).

All of the South, and North Carolina's no exception, is extremely proud of it's history and heritage, both the good and the bad parts. They have little to no shame about either. Buildings are usually made of a reddish-brick material because of how readily available the necassary clay is in that part of the world. Even in the midst of large towns or cities, you will find much to remind you of Colonial America, and that's just the way they like it (I like it too, it's much nicer than the "modern" style of buildings you find in most of the West). Streets in the South are a joke. Not because they're poorly maintained (although some are, in the poorer parts of any given state in the South), but because they're mostly built on top of old indian and colonial trails. Because of this, they meander and wind about, and follow nothing that even vaguely resembles a grid pattern. You can be driving down a street called Peachtree, go straight through an intersection without turning, and suddenly find yourself on Roswell Drive. Because of this, people in the South will commonly give you directions that involve at least a few landmarks, rather than relying on street names.

The people in the South really are extremely hospitable most of the time, the lifestyle is much more laid back than in the North or West of the USA (though it's about the same as in the Mid-West), and people will wave and say hello when passing you in a car or while walking, even if they've never seen you before. The exceptions to this rule are the larger cities where big business and lots of newcomers from other states have brought the hustle and bustle and mind-your-own-business mentality of cities such as New York or LA. However, even in the cities you will still find lots of people who behave in a most Southern manner indeed. In the South they say, "if you're 15 minutes late you're early", and it's pretty much the truth. People actually put a fair amount of effort into, and take a fair amount of pride in, taking their time about things.

One of the things I'd recommend looking into is the Civil War and the part that North Carolina played in that war. There are historical towns and landmarks all over the state, and most born-and-raised locals can tell you at least a little bit of the history of their local area.

That's about all I have to share for now. Hope it helps.

[Finbar]

Hey! With "Star Lords" I can add something here! Star Lords is indeed canon.

If it helps!

FR

[NFVD]

Wow!

Thanks guys, for all this wealth of information!

Funny thing is, most of this ties in very nicely with the random ideas I had when designing the city. I wonder if my latent MR-Node is acting up? ::laugh

My campaign will be set in January 2008 and I'm planning to let my players run around dealing with city and state issues until after the Slider Assassination, when they will be given the opportunity to travel the world and deal with larger issues.

I got myself a real mottley crew so far:

"The Gentleman Dervish" who dresses like James Bond and carries a swordcane while he Quantum Leaps around town on his rounds and is a total gloryhound and media whore.

Edward Elric, a "secret nova" taint-ridden kid from the UK with Elemental Anima over earth and metal, who has a nova brother even more tainted than him.

And the "Shadow Rogue", a cat-burgler turned industrial spy who can go invisible and turn in to air AND managed to keep his true power levels hidden from Utopia when he was training at the local Rashoud Facility.

Each of these guys due to player design have 8 to 10 "secret knowledge" entries on them. It's been hell to make a FOR YOUR EYES ONLY file for every player...I guess most of the first sessions will be single-player-ST chats about what their PCs did with that knowledge before the chronicle actualy begins.

Something I got to ask about North Carolina, what the Gun Control situation there?

[Blade90]

Hey there, sorry about taking so much time to respond. I couldnt respond immediately after I first got my bros PM about this post and nearly forgot about the mention afterwords. Unfortunately though, theres really not much more I can add that Cottus and the others havent already said. I will however make a few remarks based on what I've seen from driving around the area Im in.

As my bro said people around here are rather proud of thier history, and I suppose its because of this that alot of 'older' buildings are still standing. Things arent simply still made in the older styles, but many times the buildings are just really old ones that are still standing. Usually when your driving down back streets and the like you will commonly see old farm houses and such that might have even been built all the way back when the area was first being colonized. On one street that I commonly drive down, as you go down it you'll see about three or four -really- old abandoned shacks. Ones pretty much collasped in on itself. Also I suppose I should note one other thing.

Almost everywhere else is tree-covered with occasional meadows and glenns and what have you. The exception, of course, would be anywhere they happen to be growing some crops or raising livestock of some kind.

Over all that is true, but I have noted several areas in the general area I live where people raise cattle, but the area is still rather tree-covered. They have a clear, fensed in area where they keep the cattle, but walk even just like seven feet from certain parts of the fense and you'll once again come to rather densely forested areas. Needless to say, even in in the more densely populated areas around here, its still quite green.