[Scion] Seven Wonders of the United States

[Arcanum_V]

I'm putting together some ideas for an upcoming Scion game, and borrowing a bit from Neil Gaiman's use of the House on the Rock in American Gods, I'm thinking it might be interesting to have other important, iconic locations play some role in the game. The scope isn't global, so I don't need the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World or the recently-elected new Seven Wonders. What I want is seven wonders of the United States.

"Wonder" here should be construed as anything built by humans that is iconic, important, or magnificent--the "must sees" of a package tour of the USA. What are your nominations?

[SkyLion]

Here in SF, I would say the Golden Gate bridge. Not really cutting edge by today's standards, it was however amazing in its time and is of great historical and emotional signifigance. Very iconic of California as well.

[phoenix]

SkyLion lives in Science Fiction.

I nominate Lady Liberty.

[Prince of Boredom]

I would say the typical ones often thought of would be:

The Statue of Liberty

The Golden Gate Bridge

Mount Rushmore

The Astrodome (this used to be on the 7 modern wonders list as the first fully domed stadium; now a bit unimpressive)

The White House

The Alamo (yes, I'm a Texan)

The St. Louis Arch

Hoover Dam

Fenway Park (less 'magnificent', more 'iconic' of the 'old school' baseball fields; never tell a Bostoner it's not important...)

Ford's Theater (where Lincoln was shot; more for what happened there than the place itself)

Empire State Building

Alright, that's what I can come up with in 5 minutes.

[Alex Green]

Finance:

Wall Street

The Fed.

Law

The Supreme Court building.

Whatever building houses the original Constitution.

Government

The White House.

Congress.

Technology:

Where ever the Space Shuttle takes off from.

The Hoover Dam

Culture:

Disney World.

Whatever street has the Holleywood "Stars" on it.

[SkyLion]

SkyLion lives in Science Fiction.

I nominate Lady Liberty.

,,

Huh? Hey piss off ye trumpet-bleatin' ******! I'll not have ye besmirchin' th' honour of our fair Golden Gate! ::wink ::tongue

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wow! ::blink Guess wank3r is on the restricted lists...who knew!

[Arcanum_V]

So far, I'm liking the ideas. Lady Liberty is definitely up there, but she's also a bit problematic, as the last Adventure! game ended with the team battling some baddies who had animated her with an endoskeleton and some primates. I don't want to reuse too many old elements since these are the same players, and I'd hate for them to think I'm a one-trick pony GM.

I really like the Arch. Good idea. It looks like a gate, it's billed as "the Gateway to the West," and I'm all over gates and portals. Even though it's a Scion game, it's going to have Nyarlathotep's fingerprints all over it (I do love my King in Yellow), and the Arch is just the kind of place for a Scion-Titan showdown. Plus there's a pretty good spaghetti restaurant nearby.

Rushmore might get put in as a bit of misdirection, with the real site being the Crazy Horse monument. My understanding of Mythic America is heavily informed by Steve Darnell and Alex Ross' Uncle Sam, so my Mythic America should include some of her less respectable events as well. I like the tension between Crazy Horse and Rushmore and their competing ideas of what constitutes American history.

The Golden Gate Bridge is also good. Again, there's that "gate" mythology and the implication that something might come through it or it might serve as a piece of a portal.

The original Constitution is in the National Archives in DC. My concern here is to avoid having the game look too much like the asstastic National Treasure. Philadelphia's Constitution Hall and the current shrine around the Liberty Bell might fit in, but in minor ways.

[phoenix]

Hey, the Golden Gate Bridge was erected in 1937, about 50 years later than the Statue of Liberty. Way to miss Reconstruction, the Spanish-American War and World War II, Bridge! ::tongue

[SkyLion]

And while we're at it we should ammend Lady Liberty's tablets of "Give me your poor, your tired..." to include "so that we may have cheap labor and undercut American's salaries while hypocritically making them criminals and destroying their lives in spite of our blatant using of them... ::glare

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((Sorry..immigration is a hot topic, especially in Cali right now...))

[Hyper-Focus]

I like the idea of including the good, the bad, and the ugly of America for your seven wonders. So Im going to take a stab at a few.

Now, I'm a Washingtonian, born and raised. As in the District of Colombia. And if you want to talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly of the United States then DC is a good place to start. The vital center of our nations democracy suffers from a distinct lack of democracy itself. We lack representation in congress despite the fact we have more people then Wyoming. Thanks to a Supreme Court decision we cant tax all that beautiful government land, so we're constantly broke. Not that DC can control its own budget, The US Congress controls that. And did I mention that it has been unspoken tradition during Republican control of the House of Representatives to give chairmanship of the DC Oversight Committiee to the the most racist southern representative they could dig up, up to and including Jesse Helms. The joke gets even funnier when you learn that DC is 80% African-American.

Okay, my point before I went off on that rant was that DC is not just the happy collection of bland marble buildings you saw when you visited here for an 8th grade civics field-trip. Now, if making an entire city a wonder seems a bit too abstract I have a suggestion.

The National Mall: Nothing combines the bright promise and dark pomposity of the American story better then the national mall. The contradictions abound. A place of protest (MLK's March on Washington, and countless others) bounded on two sides by buildings representing the summit of governmental authority American authority, the Capitol and the White House. The Museums of the Smithonian represent the promise of arts, technology, and innovation. In reality, museums have fallen into disrepair and some (such as the American History Museum and the Air and Space Museum) amount to little more then propaganda and extended advertisements for Lockheed-Martin and Boeing. You've have the stately WW II memorial. The Vietnam memorial juts out like a jagged scar, a wound on the nations psyche not yet healed. The Mall served as a gigantic field hospital during the civil war...the ground is seeped in blood and history.

Oh, and did I mention that it all appears to be built along the geomantic ratios of a masonic temple? With the Washington Monument at the center?

Sorry for slipping into hyperbole and flowery prose there for a second. It happens to the best of us. I don't know much (read:anything) about the Scion setting and mechanics, but I gotta imagine there should be enough there for a few stories.

In the next few days I'll give you some thoughts on the Pentagon and an American Wonder. Just wait until you hear about Ground Zero Cafe.