How interesting are Australia and Canada for Urban Fantasy?
>>43790343
As interesting as you make them? What are you trying to ask here OP?
>>43790343
Canada has three cities of any interest when it comes to "urban".
>Montreal
>Vancouver
>Toronto
The GTA makes up a sixth of Canada's population. It's also the most ethnically and culturally diverse city in the world, so you could have a lot of imported demons/magic too. It also has the second hippest neighourhood in the world, so there's that.
I live in Toronto, so I'm a little biased about settings based there, but I think it's an excellent and underused setting for modern stuff.
>>43790343
well canada has bears, cougars, sasquatches, the ogopogo, yetis wendigos, skinwalkers, ancient indian burial grounds just to name a small amount of urban fantasy topics
never been to ausiland, but i hear they have more things that can kill you per square mile than the rest of the planet
There is a ton to work with there
>>43790374
>a sixth of the Canadian population
So... four people?
I think a Newfoundland setting could work for Call of Cthulu though. An isolated rock known for horrors from the depth and unintelligible speech can only be improved by Cthulu
>>43790408
6 Million but yeah. California has more people than all of Canada. The Tokyo Metropolitan Area has more people than all of Canada.
>>43790374
dont forget the huge asian cultureal influences on the west coast (Vancouver)
Triads smuggling demons out of asian into different parts of the world via vancouver would be a pretty cool campaign idea. Something a la gremlins but with more organized crime
Also, Canada is a HUGE drug exporter. Triads control coke and heroin while bikers control the meth on the west coast. east coast, bikers own it all.
Triads, Hell's Angels, drugs, guns, smuggling and demons. I'd put that shit in a blender n play it
>>43790472
Yeah, Vancouver used to, and probably still does, have more heroin use than any other city in the world.
A funny anecdote I once heard about it was that American heroin users would come to Vancouver to get drugs, shoot up, overdose immediately, and die because the the heroin was uncut/pure straight from SE Asia.
>>43790508
>the heroin was uncut/pure straight from SE Asia.
lol. amusing story, but not a chance. That is a hell of a good way to get caught
>>43790343
There's not really enough "urban" in Canada for Urban Fantasy, Toronto Anon >>43790374
neglects to mention that his city is sparsely-populated suburban sprawl.
>>43790550
>>43790550
Life is hell.
Though downtown isn't so bad, as small as is it.
>>43790550
>claims to know about the urban regions of canada
>only talks about toronto
>confirmed for americunt/torontsheit
>>43790606
I mean Vancouver is almost certainly the best.
It's dense, really nice while also being fucking shit in some parts, and is a hot bed for all the fantastical wackiness unique to Canada.
What about an Arctic setting? Force the players to keep track of their resources and their exposure to the elements. Animals would need to be dealt with, shelter would need to be built, and then something would need to be overcome. Maybe the Inuit would have been right about spirits and whatnot
>>43790408
Walker in the Wastes is a Call of Cthulhu campaign in Canada's ice wastelands. No, I don't mean Scarberia.
http://www.amazon.com/Walker-Wastes-Call-Cthulhu-Campaign/dp/B0012H2XE6
>>43790550
>>43790565
You teenagers are so cute when you try to talk about suburban living.
>>43790759
>Maybe the Inuit would have been right about spirits and whatnot
That's not so much fantasy as horror— to quote one shaman interviewed by Knud Ramussen on their religion: "We do not believe, we fear."granted, by that time missionaries had done a damned good job convincing the inuit that their traditions were satanic and wrong
>>43790374
I'm planning a post-apocalyptic game in Toronto, is there anything I should take particular note or care with when writing the setting?
>>43790550
>Toronto is a sparsely populated suburban sprawl
You know if you know jack shit about what you're talking about, it's probably a good idea to not try to talk about it.
>>43790831
That's what I was thinking of anyway.
The spirits are real, and they hungerI know nothing about Inuit traditions and beliefs
>>43790867
Go be butthurt somewhere else, sprawler.
>>43790823
I mean, I live down at Bloor and Dufferin. So all I know about suburban living is second hand from my friends who live in Etobicoke and Scarborough. Largely that's that it's boring and you have that it takes an eternity to get anywhere.
>>43790862
Again, remember the fact that almost half the people in Toronto are not white or black.
Downtown there's something called Path which basically acts as a huge underground shopping mall, subway station, walking route. It's supposedly the most extensive of it's kind in the world. If it were the apocalypse, I would imagine a lot of people would be trapped/live down there.
>>43790343
As possibly the only aussie still awake, i have to say that australian cities are pretty shabby as far as cities go. Darwin is something like a mixing pot for a lot of SEAsia, but if you want SEAsian flavour you go to singapore, vietnam or somewhere in the Indonesia Archipelago. Sydney, brisbane, adelaide, perth, all pretty bog-standard.
Apart from that, we're just australians in cities. The most interesting stuff Australia has to offer is tribal stuff, colonial stuff and natural stuff-old aboriginal legends, bushrangers and convicts, our bizarre landscapes and our wildlife, both current and extinct. Things like three-meter-tall carnivorous kangaroos, wombats the size of ATVs and monitor lizards that were five metres long and weighed literal tons, leaving komodo dragons in shame, in addition to modern terrors like nature's perfect crocodiles, deadly snakes, sneaky fuck spiders and worst of all, the terror of an angry cassowary.
The only urban centres of Australia worth a damn are Sydney and Melbourne, both of which would have their own lists of advantages and disadvantages. Hypothetically the Brisbane/Gold Coast area could be rolled into a single urban setting to rival the big two, and could provide all sorts of interesting plot opportunities. I don't really see any reason why any particular game should be set in any of them, though I don't see why they couldn't, either.
>>43790343
The servo monkeysAboriginalshave a fairly rich cultural heritage, you could easily pull portions from the Dream Time and incorporate it into the setting's fantasy. Apart from SydneyBut it's a shithole anyway so it doesn't really matterthere's few animals in urban environments that can pose a threat to you if you're not a little bitch, but there's always an abundance of lizards, marsupials and obnoxious birds, so take that as you will.
Really though, there's nothing really spectacular about urban Australia that'd set it above any other urban area, so it's more dependant on what else you're putting into the setting.
For Canada Winnipeg could work. Violent Crime higher than anywhere else in Canada, highest native and filipino populaton per capita in canada for major cities, pretty intense poverty tying into the whole thing.
Gangs working into urban fantasy are always a treat, the level of different culture interacting means that basically any ethnic group created for whatever purpose could have a foothold there. It's a frozen shithole, but if that don't make good drama I don't know what do
>>43790867
Having been to it, it is a fucking sprawl with a few urban islands.
>>43790923
>takes an eternity to get anywhere.
Because you take public transit, poorfag. Driving around in cars in the suburbs is fucking fast, most of the time. The TTC is abysmally slow, especially in winter.
>>43790374
>Most diverse city in the world
>Not NYC (and more specifically queens)
I'm actually in an urban fantasy campaign set in Halifax, Nova Scotia (Canada's East Coast) and there's a lot of material at least regarding the dead and history. I'm playing a Medium who can interact with spirits and the GM (from Halifax) put together a big list of places that are haunted. He also pointed out a couple places of power when I asked (Witchcraft, the system we're using, has bonuses for casting magic in places and times of power).
--The swarm of dead around the old abandoned library that you’ve already seen. The library used to be a poor house. The nameless dead have been buried there for the past two hundred years or more.
---A notorious international terrorist, Sandy Keith, the Dynamite Fiend, is haunting the old Alexander Keith brewery near the waterfront. He’s been flaring up intolerance, and encouraging arsons and fire lightings around the city for well on a hundred and fifty years.
--- There’s a restaurant downtown called the Five Fishermen that is powerfully haunted. It used to be a morgue that ended up housing both the dead of the Titanic, as well as many who died in the Halifax Explosion.
--- Across the street from the Five Fishermen is St. Paul’s Anglican Church. In one of the windows there is a Silhouette of a figure that never leaves. They say it’s the ghost of a priest who lost his head in the Halifax explosion, but no one knows for certain.
---There are two angry ghosts that battle with each other in Point Pleasant Park, around the old artillery emplacements and forts. One is said to be a pirate that was hung there in the 18th century. The other a German spy from the Second World War.
--- George’s Island. During Le Grand Dérangement, the Expulsion of the Acadians, the island was used as a prison for Acadians before they were sent off to France, Briton, and the States. Strange lights and sounds have come from the island, and it’s become a place of power, for some reason.
>>43791337
>>43791615
I'm surprised Bangladesh isn't on there. Maybe them moving to Toronto is a more recent thing, but they are goddamn everywhere.Including one in my bed.
>>43791644
its just fucking india, mate.
>>43791670
not him, but telling a bengali that and the result will be worse than calling a macedonian a greek
>>43791670
It's really not man.
Really, India isn't a country unto itself. It's cultural divisions between regions are almost as noticeable as those between European countries.
>>43791581
>no spooky reinterpretation of the Halifax Explosion
>no Robie Haunted House portal to hell
alright that second one is a modern urban legend and not a proper haunting, but still.
>>43790343
Why would it be somehow harder to make those places interesting than the US?
You won't get the exact same setting, but that's rather a plus. Go make an interesting setting and don't be close-minded idiot, geez.
>>43791699
He did actually explicitly state that Halifax is fucking FULL of ghosts because of the explosion. I didn't bother mentioning it because there wasn't a specific location to mention other than "Halifax."
>>43791615
>>43791615
That's cute.
It's kind of like what NYC's pie graph looks like if you replace "all others" with "US citizens."
>>43790374
Toronto is boring as fuck. 6 million people and they're all accountants.
Montreal's got history and buildings dating back to the 1600s, so if you wanted to work in something about occult factions fleeing Catholic hegemony in France, that'd work.
Vancouver has a huge Chinese and Indian community, so if you were going for an Oriental or South Asian sort of thing, that'd make it.
Both also have a considerable criminal underworld. Triads running a lot of things in Vancouver, Irish gangs controlling the port in Montreal (HA used to have a huge presence, but a lot of them are dead and behind bars now).
>>43796629
HA?
>>43796651
Hell's Angels. They were HUGE in Quebec, but the hammer came down on them like a motherfucker. They're still around, but nowhere near as much, and now other gangs are moving in to fill the power vacuum.
>>43790343
Australia FTW!
Seriously, you have all the multi-cultural importing of otherworldly horrors, the 'dreamtime' (Aboriginal Myths), not to mention that the sparse expanses between the major towns and cities means that word of any 'incursion' would take at least 6 hours to get to the neighboring towns (after all, with no wi-fi/phone reception and blackouts from magical incursions, you have to either go on foot, or survive the onslaught of otherworldly abominations attracted to the roar of your engine.
Add to that, while guns were officially confiscated, as descendants of convicts, no one really gave a fuck, and still kept their guns... which means very little ammo... as well as the common sentiment that the Copper drongo's are barely able to deal with <30 outlaw bikers...
>>43790343
THIS IS WHAT URBAN FANTASY LOOKS LIKE IN CANADA
>>43791581
Ah, Halifax.
I remember the weirdness in my elementary school. Tower Road school, it used house dead bodies after the Halifax Explosion.
Unfortunately, it turned out that one or two people were alive but couldn't be heard/discovered alive because they were under a few layers of dead bodies.
Thus these nameless spirits haunt the school, doing annoying weird shit to the janitors like walking up and down the stairs, removing light bulbs and stomping around in the attic.
Actually got to go up there once. There were actually trunks up there and old timey newspapers. They were brittle as hell, I wish we could have preserved them but they had advertisements for Eaton's clothing and goods from 1910 to about 1915.
Couldn't get to open the trunks though, I always what was in those things.
>>43790954
>the terror of an angry cassowary.
As an Aussie who has seen his dog killed by one, I can attest to this.
It's hard to try and make any Australian city useful in a urban crawl sort of game. The population just...isn't dense enough. At our best, all of Australia has about the population of New York City. Every game set in one of our cities basically has to have the numbers toned down as a result.
>>43797413
>>43797413
But isn't the low numbers part of the charm of Australia?
I'd in particulate point to Brisbane for haunting, and organized crime, Sydney or Melbourne for secret societies and organized crime.
The low human population means that you can focus more on the weird shit that goes down.
>>43797413
Imagine if greenpeace or such organization of Eco-terrorists use animals/avarians as demon-hosts to try and shut down the Uranium mining?
>>43797628
>The low human population means that you can focus more on the weird shit that goes down.
It can work, but you have to be careful for numbers. You can't really have hundreds of vampires and werewolves running around in a population with less than 4 million.
Depends on how your GM runs games and how your group plays them.
Normally if I use Melbourne as a setting for any Supernaturally chicanery I won't have more than maybe 2 dozen supernatural characters/critters.
bunyips and yowies are kinda neat i guess
>>43797675
>shut down the Uranium mining
Then you'd have Canadian moose cavalry showing up. Those mines are largely owned by the Canucks or done in partnership with them. Canada fucking owns the uranium industry.
>>43797730
Exactly... But for Australia, I'd go weredingos...
A weredingo outlaw bike gang that traffics profane relics and / or drugs that have... unnatural side effects?
The whole 'Vicious Lawless Association Disestablishment Act' was introduced to curb bikie expansion... what if this is being used to break up "The Pack"?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_folklore
Some cool stuff there you could base adventures off
>>43797839
>Canada fucking owns the uranium industry.
As a native canadian I feel like I should have been aware of that before now.
>>43797858
> weredingo
Please do not do this.
What about the hope and busts in Calgary? It is like the 1920s. Boom quickly, bust quickly, demons working in the background, and churches battling these demons.
>>43799032
>Canada
>owns no nukes
>actively campaigns against nukes
>actually funds the entire nuke making industy
Canada is just a quieter, more polite version of the States.
>>43790408
As a person from NL, I'm almost crying from laughter
>>43797839
How do you know aboot da moose calvary, eh? Keep that shit quiet ya hoser!And for The Queen's sake man, dont mention our bear-tanks or i'll put ur fuckin head in da snowbank bud!
>>43790374
Ottawa is a really nice city too.
Regina is a run down city that looks like someone smashed it up with a hammer.
The thing with Canada is that you wouldn't want it just in the cities. We have such a massively diverse open landscape to play with up here.
>>43799255
What about the orca cruisers?
Stereotypes aside, Tasmania could work as the setting of a horror game. Descendants of the various convicts that escaped that took to cannibalism, hauntings from all the native Tasmanians that got wiped out, Tasmanian Tiger sightings. Plus all the hippies there are bound to be up to some shenanigans involving nature spirits.
>>43799256
That the country is alive?
She can be found when you look sideways at where the arctic wind meets the pacific draft? She can be found dancing on the cairn of bones by the northwest passage? She can be heard whispering deep in the forest of the coast? She can be seen swimming by the mouth of Peggy's Cove, circling the light tower? She can be felt racing through the fields of wheat?
>>43799295
For just one time, I would take the northwest passage, to find the hand of franklin reaching for the beaufort sea.
>>43799295
I did not come to roleplay sir.
>>43799282
http://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/index.htm
>>43799263
That's it bud, u called down the wrath! ur off to prison! I hope you like free meals, free healthcare, friendly guards, easy access to drugs and booze, expensive smokes and a grueling 3 week sentence.
>>43791581
Why just Halifax?
There are plenty of other spooky places in Nova Scotia.
As a Nova Scotian, it's kind of amazing how many damn stories I heard as a kid about buried pirate treasure and crap.
Even the Swiss Air accident has a 'treasure' story. Rumor floated about that a safe containing rubies and sapphires was on board the plane. When it crashed, it scattered the jewels all over. If you're lucky, you might find them in the water!
Or Isle Haute, where infamous pirate Ned Low may have buried his treasure. Local biologists send the occasional bulletins begging people to stop digging for buried treasure on the island because of the bad ecological effects it has.
Or if you follow the flaming ghost ship of the northumberland strait, it'll lead to a sunken ship loaded with silver bars. Or alternatively force you to chase the ship forever.
>>43799282
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Pearce
>>43799420
>Halifax
>not Dartmouth
Anyone who has lived there know what happens when u cross that bridge. Its like Canadian Oakland XD
>>43799427
Isnt that the fucking bush cannibal from the east coast?
>>43799415
No worries, our Global Strategic Reserve of Maple Syrup will preserve our sovereignty and bring fear to the hearts of Canada's enemies!
>>43799533
ALL HAIL THE COMMONWEALTH OF CTHU...BRITANNIA!!!
>>43797413
Cassowaries are fucking terrifying. Emus are just giant stupid chickens, but cassowaries are aggressive, powerful animals waiting to kick you with two hundred kilos of simmering rage. Kangaroos are rarely aggressive, but when they get shitty, they try to grapple you and then rip your stomach open with their back legs while balancing on their tail. The whole boxing shindig? That's just males jockeying for position before they try to strike a killing blow. If one is obviously weaker, then it submits, but if they're both similar, then it can end with one dead animal, if not both.
In reply to OP, Australian cities do nothing better than any city in any other part of the world. Sydney/Melbourne are just fairly bog-standard cities that are tiny on the global scale. Urban fantasy would have to relegated to some variety of rural fantasy, and anywhere thats not the east coast would have to have a long-ass period to get anywhere, since everything is so spread out.
>>43790408
No way, go for PEI, now that's some scary shit. Look up Lester.
>>43799255
Take off, eh?
Ya hoser!
>>43799295
>>43799309
>Stan Rogers-mind
Good taste, guys
>>43799475
>XD
Kill yourself.
>>43799256
>Regina
>Not glorious Saskatoon
At least pick the best city in the province.
>>43801326
>Lester
B. Pearson?
>>43790374
Calgary matters too. Calgary is nice cause there's alot of variety in a relatively small area while also having alot of nearby wilderness to venture too. We're a real city I promise /tg/
>>43799032
You're the source of pretty much every nuclear weapon in the western world, as well as much of the civilian reactor design, experimental enrichment technology, nuclear medicine (five years ago the world had a severe shortage of various medical isotopes because Canada was one of two nations that produced those isotopes and one of their reactors required maintenance), and a very large chunk of the raw materials mining since northern Saskatchewan/south-east Northwest Territories has the purest uranium in the world.
US has a lot of enrichment as well but they get most of the raw materials from Canada. The Saskatoon-based mining company Cameco owns or has a large partnership percentage ownership in the largest uranium mining operations across the world, such as the new mines in Australia and the massive ones in Kazakhstan.
Funnily enough, the creeping destabilization of the international diamond market is in large part to your uranium industry, since Cameco used to have a precious metals/gems division due to rare metals often being an indicator of uranium deposits. That division got spun off and the assets sold to various interests so they could focus more on their core profits of uranium, so many of their test sites and operational diamond mines were sold to independent and local companies rather than De Beers and was the start of the whole Yukon diamond rush.
Canada is also one of the few countries that when a disarmament treaty happens, those nuclear warheads have to go somewhere. So they get sold to the highest bidder for destruction, which tends to either be a French or Canadian company.
>>43802308
>Saskatoon
>Not brutal Prince Albert
Guard the Diefenbaker Bridge to stop the saveges from crossing the North Saskatchewan. Endless wooded wastes to the North, Vast empty prairie to the south. Good fantasy setting yo, too bad I live here.
>>43797628
Perth has a lot of spooky abandoned buildings. It's weird because the ground floor of a building might be a shop, but 2nd floor could be an abandoned cinema.
>>43799172
They're coming for your babies senpai.
>>43790343
>canada
>interesting
>leaf
Honestly in terms of an urban fantasy writeup full of stereotypes, you only need the following regions of Australia:
'The Outback' + Rainforests - all the shit that isn't within 20kms of the ocean. Here be dragons and all that. Or Rainbow Serpents.
Sydney - generic city that has lots of sun and leans right-wing. Claims to be 'prettier'. Streets are all bendy and awkward in the CBD.
Melbourne - generic city that's more overcast in terms of weather and leans left-wing. Claims to have 'better culture'. Streets in the CBD are a straight grid partially half given over to THE FAMOUS TRAMS!
Perth - don't actually set any adventure here. They're just a background setting detail of "economic changes? Perth won't like it"
Tasmania - literally genocided all the natives IRL. Prime spot for spookyghost island.
>>43799427
I was going to mention this guy but I forgot his name.
>>43790343
What they have going for them is that they both offer vast, vast areas of isolated, inhospitable, mostly uninhabited, relatively little explored land which exists alongside cutting edge modern western civilization. This contrast is probably very exploitable.
>>43802462
Fascinating.
>>43803191
Literally the best flag m8.
How can a nation with a leaf on its flag not be filled with friendly people?
>>43799475
>Its like Canadian Oakland XD
All the rich kids from away are scared of Dartmouth, the hilarious art school dweebs who want to live in the north end but won't walk through The Square.
I lived in Dartmouth on Windmill Road, pretty much underneath the bridge, two blocks away from where Jellybean Square used to be. I also lived in Halifax on the corner of North and Creighton.
Halifax's north end is way more violent than Dartmouth, and really, Fairview puts either one of them to shame.
>>43790343
They both work great for outdoorsy type urban fantasy but other cities do what theirs do so much better.
>>43797858
>Weredingos
Land filled with weird lethal monsters like Yowies, Bunyips, Yaramayhawhos, Mudugudda, and Tallmen.
With genuinely haunted places like Hanging Rock, and you go the Werewolves but [insert species here instead] route.
Mate, I'm disappointed.
>>43803840
This goes for you >>43797730
too.
>>43803239
What about Adelaide and Brisbane?
>>43802462
>So they get sold to the highest bidder for destruction, which tends to either be a French or Canadian company.
That's what they want you to think. French, Canadian and French-Canadian nuclear apocalypse soon.
>>43803865
Adelaide is a grimy hole with an oversized red light district. Brisbane is overshadowed by the Gold Coast. Neither are particularly interesting or have much in the way of outstanding history
>>43803239
Don't forget that Tasmania is home to extinction-level, transmittable, super cancer.
>>43803840
>genuinely haunted places like Hanging Rock
kek
do you think Dracula or Frankenstein are real too?
>>43803892
>Adelaide is a grimy hole with an oversized red light district. Brisbane is overshadowed by the Gold Coast.
>
>>43803950
What? Those are true. Neither are particularly interesting places, and Adelaide seriously has a massive red light district, thats the feature that sticks out in my memory of the place.
>>43804007
>entire opinion is based on patchwork memories of some personal experience
Why the fuck do people like you even post? We're after some interesting insights and ideas, not your shitty blog.
>>43804013
wow friend, you seem upset. Go ahead, tell me what those two do thats interesting as a setting. You can use any of them, but the OP seemed to be looking for standout features, which Brisbane and Adelaide lack.
>>43804013
Adelaide DOES have a stupid-huge red light district for a city of it's size.
And call it a city is being optimistic.
That place is a fucking hole. Best not to use it at all, except as a place for characters to lay low after something better happens in a more interesting place.
Check out the Werewolf: the Apocalypse supplement Rage Across Australia for some interesting ideas on fantasy in modern Australia. Granted, it's dated (90s) and has some of that trademark old White Wolf shittiness but it may still be worth a look.
>>43790343
In both cases you would be better off including the countryside as those elements are far more interesting for them.
>>43802308
>Saskatoon
Lovely place. Have a cousin that lives there, I enjoy the stories about them being late for work because a couple moose wandered into downtown and took up residence in a park, spending some time eating saplings and playing in traffic while everyone around them tried desperately not to incur their wrath.
>>43804013
>after some interesting insights and ideas
What, things that Melbourne and Brisbane lack?
>>43804104
fuck, Adelaide and Brisbane
>>43790402
In Urban settings all you're going to find that'll kill you though are Redbacks and Funnel Webs - spiders. 'Be careful when picking things up outside' is as dangerous as that gets. Most of the rest are snakes, crocs and jellyfish and most of those live in the tropics in sparsely populated areas.
And generally none of them are going to hurt you if you don't touch them.
>>43804122
Unless you're dealing with a cassowary, which will chase you halfway to hobart if it decides it doesnt like you.
>>43790343
Victoria, off the coast of B.C. on Vancouver Island, apparently has the highest population of Wiccans in North America.
>>43790343
im from country western Australia but I will see what I can do
perth is pretty shit
Melbourne has a shitton of trams (its really great they run so often it doesent matter if you miss one) and a 7/11 on almost every block
im not even exaggerating about the 7/11s there fucking everywhere admitidly I don't have much to compare the 7/11s to we have none in perth and its been years since I went to the gold coast but comparing it to Singapore and Phuket its fucking huge amounts
Tasmania has some great mountains if your willing to leave the city.
also we may not have many trains left outside the city but we have a few that go some pretty long distances.
also stupidly expensive airfares.
im honestly not sure what most of that means for urban fantasy though expect a lot of dwarfs in tasmaina.
also Australia has a lot of bushfires so species that can fight fires will probably get a lot of respect.
>>43804174
That is because we also have the highest population of pot smoking hippies AND hipsters
A saw a 300+lbs 'wiccan' on th bus yesterday with a pentagram covering her entire back. fat people shouldnt be allowed to wear open backed clothing on public transit... gross
>>43804196
>fat people shouldnt be allowed to wear open backed clothing.
There, i fixed it
>>43804208
>Fat people shouldn't be allowed in the public eye
don't fix things half way
>>43803892
>oversized red light district
>one street
>oversized
kek
>>43804465
>practically main street of the city, huge amounts of whores compared to the population
>dinky little 'city' that barely merits the term
>only item of interest in the area is the red light district, which is also the only tourist attraction
>shitty climate, no interesting history
>people only go there in order to catch the Ghan up to Darwin, Adelaide is worse than Darwin
also,
>kekposting
>Canadians are politely discussing the various histories/cultures of their cities and regions
>Ausfags are shitting on each other's descriptions of places
Really, tho, Australian cities aren't all that distinctive, compared to the rest of the world. If I were to set an adventure in Australia (and I'd love the opportunity to), it'd focus on the colonial times in the Outback. So much good material there.
One thing I'd add is that Aboriginals used fire for pretty much anything - cutting trees down, caterising wounds, hunting, initiation ceremonies, primitive farming, etc. Gets me thinking about a tribe of natural pyromancers.
Look up stuff like Wandjinas, wagyls and gwion-gwion, or tjurunga for a bit of flavour.
>>43804635
>Ausfags are shitting on each other's descriptions of places
Mate, we're pullin' the piss, it's what we do.
>>43805068
mate, i was gonna call you a wanka for speaking for all aussies, but that picture is great and ought to be posted more. Keep on shovelling shit at those who deserve it
>>43802462
A lot of the world's worst mining companies call Canada home because of the absurdly lax oversight. They base here and commit atrocities in South America and Africa
>>43799256
>Ottawa is a really nice city too.
The fact most of the city is separated from the downtown core by the Greenbelt (also, a whole lot of nothing) may not be great material for an urban campaign, mind you.
>>43803840
Bunyips sounds funny
>>43803892
But you're forgetting the night life, I've been to both Gold Coast and Brisbane club areas and compared to Brisbane, the only thing the Gold Coast has going for it is their beach, they barely have any adult entertainment areas. In brisbane you can find tons of night clubs, brothels and strip clubs in the city itself and the surrounding areas not to mention Brisbanes night life 'red light' district: Fortitude Valley
>>43803892
In addendum to my previous statement of >>43809638
This would be perfect for the more 'exotic' services that can include mystical creatures being used in a sexual nature, underground exotic creature brothels and night clubs/strip clubs.
>>43790637
Fuck Vancouver. Might as well base the game in Seattle
>>43803660
>I lived in Dartmouth on Windmill Road
HOLY CRAP I LIVE THERE
>Halifax's north end is way more violent than Dartmouth
I live in North Dartmouth. They call it "The Darkside" for some reason. I never hear anything bad coming out of North Halifax, but then again, I'm stuck in Highfield, where I have to be careful.
>All the rich kids from away are scared of Dartmouth, the hilarious art school dweebs who want to live in the north end but won't walk through The Square
Bahaha, ain't it the truth.
(You're name isn't Cory, is it?)
>>43810078
*Your
Same guy as
>>43810078
and
>>43810078
Sorry, I was Sperging over meeting someone on /tg/ who loved in my hometown
I should've said that I live off of Windmill road, not too far away from Tufts cove, and I frequently go to Highfield Park.
>pic related
I live on the Magdalen Islands, an archpelago lost in the middle of St-Lawrence gulf. Best setting ever if you ask me.
For those not similar, it's close to Nova Scotia/Newfound Land in terms fishing/ocean etc, but the storm we get from being such a small island in the middle of nowhere are insane.
We're spot on in the season. Wind, rain, so much wind haha. We sky is always wierd colors like Chtulu was coming himself, and while the mainstream lore is one of acceptance and happiness, the underground that lives here goes way back in the ancient and horrific times.
Like, we have a saying that say we welcome tourists with open arms, but never close the arms on them as we want them to leave eventually, because there are secrets that must be unknown.
I'm CRAVING for a game located on the island. The problem is, we're about 12k, and not so many gamers.
Just come by!
>>43801326
I'm not findin what your sayin.
Please anon, enlighten us.
>>43805068
Well, there's also the culture difference. Ausfags seem to be the type that will outright say you're an asshole if they're pissed off. Maybe get into a fistfight and call it a day.
Canadians if they're mad but not pissed off enough to throw a punch, will try their damnedest not to be impolite but get all passive aggressive polite. Sorry suddenly becomes a weapon of irritating unwarranted superiority. Because it's more like a 'sorry you're such an asshole' or 'sorry you're not as polite and civilized as I am' when it's said.
>>43801326
Prince Edward Island?
Wasn't there some crazed guy with a serious multi decade grudge who up and went and gunned some family in revenge? Something about his sister?
Perhaps for the Island, we should have a story setting of smiling farming families who bear murderous personal grudges that is aggravated by some supernatural being.
>>43810389
Wanted to go there once to eat your famous oysters. I heard they're fantastic and that you have a microbrewery too.
But what's the language situation? I'm practically english speaking only with elementary school french. Is that enough to get by?
>>43809541
Dear god no.
Bunyips are by far one of the largest, most vicious creatures of Aborigine lore. That giant, carnivorous Sasquatch-like daemon will chase your ass down with a roar as bad as the Banshee screech.
You do NOT want to ever meet a Bunyip.
>>43810583
Most likely, yeah.
French is the dominant language (about 98%) but pretty much every touristic attractions/restaurants/hotels/inns have an english service.
I wouldn't suggest you hang out with native anglophones here tho, they're very xenophobic, of course due to years of persecution from the french people here (old wars never die...) but if you don't mind being surrounded by french people while still being served in English, then come for sure.
The oysters are delicious, and you talk about the microbrewery. Have you seen pictures of its location?
It's close to the beach, yeah, but not like Florida where everything is close to the beach. It's lost in the middle of no fucking where, very close to the coast, ravaged by the winds. At night, all you hear from the basement is the sea raging beside.
It's like the perfect commercial basement to play a game in, or actually, to have any kind of creepy stuff. You're surrounded by miles of nothing but sand, sea, darkness and winds. You don't want to go outside alone by there.
Or maybe you want.
But hell, if you only want a homebrew beer and a very nice ambiance, friendly people, it's a nice place to meet to! You'll see a lot of open minded and enthousiats people, like an oasis in the middle of a tempest.
>>43799256
>The thing with Canada is that you wouldn't want it just in the cities. We have such a massively diverse open landscape to play with up here.
This. I come from the boonies of BC and there is some crazy shit out there in the mountains.
Some odd happenings from my area:
>Hill people who will dismantle your car if you abandon it over night
>Rumours of ghosts and aliens stalking the woooooooods
>Lost hippie communes and small gatherings of metaphysical cults (most of the communes have dispersed by now but the cults are still there as far as I know)
>A friendly Jamaican woodsman with a black-belt in a karate
>A man who had enough and decided to live in hole
>A psychotic camper who will sit and talk a while about dead bodies
>A grow-op guarded by fucking bears
There is a long-running rumour/roleplay/urban legend that originated on /x/ that the basements below First Canadian Place in Toronto (a shopping centre on King st.) Go down dozens of levels and house the Canadian equivalent of the BPRD or SCP foundation.
No doubt it is total bullshit, but is lent credence by the abnormally heavy security and elevators inaccessible to the public.
More likely it has an old cold war fallout shelter under it.
>>43810583
>>43810709
Here's the best location I could find for it on Google Earth.
>>43810881
I doubt it would be a secret scp type place but surely such a handy fallout shelter would be shared with the public.
I suppose they might want to make sure only important people know about it so there will be room if something goes wrong.
>>43810915
So really, no matter where you put a house on that island, it's close to the water. Like less than 5 km away sort of thing
>>43810503
He' talking about the women disciplinary institutes operating in around the 60/80's, can't remember when precisely.
Basically the heads of those institutes did some fucked up psychological damage to the 15-18 year old girls.
Most of them were disenfranchised, wards of the state, or pregnant teens who had their babies taken away. They were forced to act out their daily routines with precise, symmetric timing. Any individuality was strongly discouraged, and girls names were changed on the fly to accommodate new girls with the same name. Some girls would occasionally attempt to steal items from chores to commit suicide, but were more often than not stopped (not personally sure if any girls succeeded).
The worst part of all of this was that most of the staff believed they were doing the right thing at the time. they believed that these girls were wronged or cursed by society and they needed to be repaired.
That's the best I can put the incident into context, but yeah this has great opportunity for urban fantasy. First thing that came to mind would either be remnants of dark occult activities to 'purify' the prisoners, or freaky-deaky spooks of tormented teen girls roaming the halls.
>>43810955
Pretty much. I think the largest land you have is 8km, so if you're in the middle, you'll be 4 km away from the sea on both side. then it narrows to what, 100m? You have a road in the middle of that, with the sea on both side, to move from an island to an other.
Amazing view in the summer.
Fucking terrifying in a winter or fall storm.
>>43810956
shit that's messed up great potential for a game.
>>43809978
... Is Seattle like Vancouver at all? I've never been to the West Coast and never seen the Pacific Ocean in Canada. The Atlantic is insanely scary enough.
And the West Coast has a way different feel to the more English/Scottish/Irish influenced East Coast.
Like how Westerners like their litchi ice cream or salt caramel ice cream or some exotic flavored ice cream. But Easterners prefer traditional flavors like vanilla ice cream or chocolate ice cream.
Or like, how Westerners need to invite people to their house. While Easterners just kind of pop on in by opening the door and saying hi.
>>43810956
That's pretty messed up but not really at all surprising. Our home and native land seems to have it's fair share of spooky psycho/sociological experiments to uphold puritan values.
Semi related: My grandpa -an eccentric of Quebecois decent- said that in the 60s he had signed on to be test subject for some type of government brain experiment. It involved taking a LOT of LSD and something about electroshock. He laughs and says he can remember next to nothing about his late 20s. It's pretty spooky if true but it's also pretty likely he was just high as balls and need an excuse for why he abandoned his family for two months.
Personally I'v always been a fan of that variety of psychedelic, conspiracy fantasy that never gives you something as easy as demonic rituals to grasp onto.
>>43811283
if true that's pretty spooky indeed.
So my fellow Canadians how would I make a setting set in Alberta interesting this coming from an Edmontonian. I know very little about any spookiness in my home city
>>43811283
We also had Camp X. A commando camp in whitby that trained a lot of famous americans/canadians/brits and was nicknamed "the school of mayhem and murder".
Rumour was that to graduate, you had to kill a classmate who had failed or some shit.
Considered by many to be the best espionage training centre of WWII. A monument to the countries involved stands there now.
>>43790343
At least 5 seasons interesting.
Toronto was a pretty scary place in the 80s
If you want to know why Australia doesn't work as an urban fantasy setting, watch 'The Last Wave' and 'Picnic at Hanging Rock'.
Then realise that these are the best examples of Australian Supernatural Cinema.
I'll see if I can write up anything interesting about Melbourne.
>Sizable organised crime elements. Most prominently Bikies and Italians that have lost the accent.
>Notable shitty suburbs include Frankston, butt of a large amount of jokes where the punchline is teen pregnancy, St(ab) Albans, Broadmeadows ("Broadie").
>Notable seedy areas include King St in the CBD and St Kilda, the latter also incidentally has some nice beaches.
>Recent reputation for being filled with hipsters, not unlike Seattle or San Francisco. "Natural" pseudosciences like homeopathy, anti-vaxxing, yoga, and all sorts of spiritual bullshit going on, so prime "new-age" cult material. Notable hipster suburbs include Northcote and Brunswick.
>Psychotic socialists are pretty common, violently protesting anything vaguely Israeli or supposedly Israeli. Current targets are the Rise Up Australia anti-immigration movement, who are full of bogans who glass anything with a vague hint of brownness or "Islam". The socialists, while arguably in the right keep making these really fucking threatening "anti-fascism" posters that are thinly veiled hit-lists.
>Currently in the grips of a terror panic. Australia at one point was supplying the most foreign fighters for ISIS/ISIL/Daesh.
>Incidentally, Melbourne has the second highest ethnic greek population including actual greek cities.
>More general to Australia, but the mining companies have stupid amounts of power/money. There's numerous incidents where mining industry lobbying and campaigns has gotten people, including prime ministers, out of power.
>>43812574
everywhere was a scary place in the 80s
>>43813597
NO FUCK YOU SPANDEX AND FRIZZY HAIR BITCHES WITH GIANT BUSH 4EVA! COCAINE AND AIDS!!!!!
Also Hotline Miami is pretty balla
Does Round the Twist count?
>>43811917
>Lost Girl
>interesting
>>43813612
hey I remember that show. Like, barely, but I do.
>>43813493
I think it's largely due to Australian Filmmakers not named George Miller having this disdain for anything "genre". If I have to see another trailer for a suburban drama or 'feel good' family comedy I'm gonna have to glass a kunt.
In addition, the only locally produced Fantasy/Scifi TV series in recent memory were Farscape and Danger 5.
>>43813612
fuckin' sick m8.
>>43813612
I dunno.
Have you ever, ever felt like this?
>>43811169
>I've never been to the West Coast and never seen the Pacific Ocean in Canada
The stereotypes are pretty accurate.
lots of asians
if you're on whistler there's lots of australians
real mild weather
hipster central
Lovely scenery, but the maritimes are better.
>>43813657
Have strange things happened?
Are you goin' 'round the twist?
>>43813612
If we're counting kids stuff that was breddy gud, might as well include the written works of Paul Jennings, which Round the Twist was initially based off, and Andy Griffith.
Also speaking of written books, I think Yahtzee wrote Jam, an apocalypse story set in Brisbane.
>>43811283
Or the time we tried to genocide the natives, politely. By forcing all their children into boarding schools so that we'd kill their culture within two generations.By and large it worked too
>>43813799
Silly me, mentioning written books as opposed to those unwritten books.
>>43813818
Is that for canada, because that happened in Aus too.
>>43811283
Welcome to Saskatchewan anon. We had and still have LSD medical research going on here.
The plan is to cure insanity by exploring induced insanity.
>>43813845
Might be a commonwealth thing then.
>>43811428
The spirit of Calgary invading Edmonton to hang out on her couch, since Calgary is down and sad about the loss of jobs in the oil patch.
>>43813875
Yeah, I don't know why, Britain did well when it came to mushing Natives and their cultures.
Didn't take in India and China, mind.
>>43796728
I really don't get why people insist on acting as if Toronto is that potentially interesting. At least Van makes up for its lack of history by not trying to be Generic-Midwestern-City-Number-10
>>43814160
I think it's because we're a bunch of East Coasters.
Well, I am at least.
DARTMOUTH NS REPRESENT!
>>43813720
Well, have you heard the word about the bird and the spider?
>>43813918
Hey, if it works...
>>43814304
I know, just not in China and India.
Maybe because their cultures, their cultural sensibilities and the like were, well, very strong/old?
It's kind of a douchey thing to say, as, well, I don't have any real beef with Natives, I'm just speculating. What do you think?
>>43814215
But proper east coasters have Halifax, Annapolis, QC and Montreal. Well and the Saint Johnses if you feel like running a breather. Honestly the most interesting part of Nova Scotia is just how many ghost settlements the fucking place has.
>>43814377
>most interesting part of Nova Scotia
I meant Newfoundland, not NS. The shit ton of forced resettlement they did in the 20th century to boost the size of Saint-John's is weird in its own somewhat boring way.
>>43814377
>Honestly the most interesting part of Nova Scotia is just how many ghost settlements the fucking place has.
NIGGA FUCK YOUBut you're not wrong. I was just saying earlier that East Coasters would think of Toronto and be like "wowee! A big city!", which I myself will admit to thinking a few times.
>>43814413
I mean, all the provinces in the east have them but it was specifically a typo.
That said there is something to be said about using these abandoned cities.
>>43814406
Whoops, didn't see this.
Well, we have a few Spoopy places, Devil's Island and the like. Maybe a few ghost settlement here and there but nothing major
Vancouver oozes geek chic hipsters. My first thought for an urban fantasy in the city would be the manifestation of tumblr horror into reality.
Which I don't think is necessarily an awful setting. Slenderfags are annoying as fuck but dealing with the digital phantasm could make for an interesting story.
>>43813545
ah yes the mining companys are fucking huge
>>43814466
>Vancouver oozes geek chic hipsters
So does Halifax. Jesus that place.
>Slenderfags are annoying as fuck but dealing with the digital phantasm could make for an interesting story.
...could be a thing, yeah, for Either Vancouver or Halifax.
Could be crazy with Sydney Mines too now that I think of it.
>>43814353
Well, China and India weren't tribal communities at the time. I suspect it's something to do with the tribal element. The cultures just aren't strong enough to stand up against a stronger one squashing it down.
>>43813611
>Hotline Miami + Canada
>Hotline Miami + Cronenberg
I guess that would just be Videodrome Part 2
One must be high as balls when crusading for the New Flesh
>>43814551
>I suspect it's something to do with the tribal element.
That's interesting. I'm listening to a series of lectures on Norseman, and the Prof put forth that a very similar Tribal element is probably what broke the Norseman down in the end.
(I mean, they had their kings and such, but were still not as top-heavy politically as other feudal era kingdoms, which means a lot of villages and towns running around doing their own shit)
Fascinating. Strength in unity proves itself in these instances I guess.
Anyway, this is me rambling. East Coast Canadians do that.
>>43811428
Well getting shanked is pretty spooky, Edmonton is a great place for getting shanked.
>>43814662
Nigga, have you ever been shanked!?!?!?!W-What's it like...?
>>43790343
>OP never saw all those great children shows made by Australians and Canadians
>Pretty much contant urban fantasy for budgetary reasons
Your childhood was definitely less colourful than it could be.
DUDE
>>43814783
Srsly. Round the Twist and Are You Afraid of the Dark were the shit. What, did OP live in a Mormon commune or somesuch?
Australia has some draconican refugee policies they are willing to bend the united nations convention on the status of refugees as much as possible to keep people out.
which is even odder when you consider that our immigration policies are otherwise fine apart from a bit of retardation a few years ago when they expected immigrants to know things about our sporting history.
so theres probably some ideas for sessions in there.
>>43814819
also shit roads.
>>43814353
It's worth noting that by the time Europeans arrived the American Natives were already pretty fucked. They had gone through some famine and plagues. They lost a lot of people and most of their great powers were compromised. With the new batch of small pox that came around with the Euros on top of everything else, they had no chance from the get go.
They had to very seriously rely on relations with Brits and the French to survive. So for a couple hundred years their culture was being tenderized by foreign powers without much chance for resistance.
If anything, they were fucked up because their culture was older and more unified than those of Europe and Asia. They had a sort of homoeostasis thing going. Everyone was on a pretty similar level and a lot of their separate tribal traditions could be translated between each other without too much trouble. They didn't need kingdoms or rigid codes because everyone sort of internalised the rough set of traditions which had been set since forever. No, it wasn't some kind of primitive paradise but it did have a balance to it.
British, Chinese and Indian cultures were all pretty radically different BUT they had all been dealing with each other to a certain some extent for quite some time. They had to learn how to make their structures work when set next to other structures. I think that made them more flexible when dealing with other peoples, letting them bend without breaking.
For the natives, dealing with a group of people so radically different was seriously new. They did do a pretty good job of adapting, all things considered but still got trounced do to sheer numbers.
>>43814809
>20 years later
>You can still hear the sound of it
Mate, I've got one word for you. Just one word.
Spellbinder
>>43815043
>I've just finished reading some late 19th century history book
Please stop. Just stop. Don't say a word. I'm not sure what is worse. The fact someone wrote such bullshit in the first time? The fact it's still available in libraries? The fact there are people who still perpetuate such nonsense?
>>43815083
Present a counter argument or shut the fuck up
>>43814783
I don't think Blinky Bill is quite Urban Fantasy, though.
>>43811428
1- Read any history of your city written from a Marxist perspective
2- Add vampires/mages/demons
3- ????
4- PROFIT
>>43815131
There is no need to present a counter argument. You are now making a stupid fallacy based on "no counter arguments = I'm right".
You aren't.
You aren't.
Your entire argument is based on a fallacy that there was some one, unitary, homogenised Indian culture, while stipulating high diversity of Europeans. Given that Europeans were operating on NATIONS, while we are talking about TRIBES here, please explain me how the fuck 30-something nations, sharing similar or the same religion and most of them claiming roots to the same sources are more diverse than few THOUSANDS of completely different tribes?
What the fuck you are even trying to push here?
>>43790343
Ausfag here.
BASH LEBS BASH WOGS BASH BOONGS BASH KEBABS BASH KIWIS BASH SUDOS BASH SEPPOS BASH INDOS BASH GOOKS (except Chinese, be nice to Chinese).
>>43815242
To be fair, the ones in Canada, at least the ones that interacted with the french and english, weren't that diverse, you find four or five core groups with some satellite groups orbiting them.
That said, considering so much of french and subsequently english-canadian culture owes to contact with them, it's still precious to assume they just died out (especially considering the Ashinisabeg and the Cree are among the largest subsisting native groups north of Mexico)
>>43815309
>BASH KIWIS
m8 ima foockin smack ya one koont
>>43815242
>You are now making a stupid fallacy based on "no counter arguments = I'm right".
I think it was more so the fact that you came in like a bitch.
Cuz no one likes a bitch.
I mean, now that you've said why you had a problem with it, it's fine. But dun b a bich
>>43815910
Four or five core groups in just modern-day Quebec is still much more than saying all Indians were the same, won't you agree?
>>43815918
We about to form a BOISTEROUS FRIENDSHIP.
Get ready to have your ass kicked and your parrots imported, ya sheepshagging snowboarder!
>>43816091
Well yeah, that's pretty dumb.
>>43813715
Damn right they are. I'm a Torontonian, but the wife's a newf. Fiesty fiery women, the newfies. And damned good cooks. Screech is some awful shit though.
>>43816476
Do the Newfs have any lutefisk-tier local abomination cuisine?
>>43797290
>English is infected
>Protagonist doesn't know enough French
>No one thinks to use Pig Latin
Idiots.
>>43816486
Probably not as bad as lutefisk, but if you have a newf make you the traditional "jigg's dinner" and you eat like a standard north american, buckle yer feckin seatbelt and get ready for stomachaches and the porcelain ride of your life.
1) salt beef. I know you think you have had salt beef. But what you may think is salt beef is really corned beef. Newfie salt beef is actually supersaturated with salt and comes in an actual bucket. One bite and your stomach is now recoiling deeper into you.
2) pease puddin. Also super salty. Like habitant yellow pea soup, but imagine it has been rendered and boiled down to thicken it, and it is now the consistency of really dense mashed potato. Is sits in your stomach like a cannonball and WILL block you up for days.
3) figgy duff. No idea what this is. Not too bad, but pretty much mysterious.
4) "salad". There will be 3-5 of these, but none of them will be anything you recognise as salad. More often deserts or some odd mishmash of stuff that has never seen a salad in it's natural life.
All this stuff IS tasty... but over the next 24-72 hours, you will have a bad time. Just ask for baking instead. Newfie baking is glorious and comes complete with silly names for cookies, and assloads of sugar and molasses.
>>43816738
Here's an idea, put an Innsmouth-esque twist on Newfoundland screech-in ceremonies.
It's already got reciting key phrases in incomprehensible dialects, the drinking of drinks of questionable quality, and the kissing of bizarre creatures.
>>43816738
Well, it appears you are forgetting the abomination known as flippy pie.
Basically, every year, Newfoundland culls seals and sells the pelts to various countries. Meat can be eaten (taste like fish) and the fat rendered for other uses.
So what's left after the fur, teeth, fat, meat is taken? The flippers of the seals.
Which apparently Newfoundlanders thought would make a great tasty ingredient for a pie.
OP: check out the Dust Echoes series for some cool ideas about the Dreamtime and AUS Aboriginal mythological creatures- they're all very creepy. They used to show these before the news when I was a kid and it never failed to scare the shit out of me.
>>43819178
Oh and a few years ago there is an incredibly newfoundlandy crisis on the Rock regarding another delightful delicacy that Newfoundlanders seem to love to bits.
Fussel Thick Cream... That's right, canned cream
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/newfoundland-reeling-over-tinned-cream-shortage-that-retailers-blame-on-strict-dairy-supply-management-laws
>>43811169
>... Is Seattle like Vancouver at all?
Climate-wise, yes. They're both in the Pacific Northwest rainforest. We both act smug when our eastern countrymen get five feet of snow while we just endure a bit of rain. Our idea of a "bit of rain" would be "a monsoon" to anyone in the Midwest/Prairies.
anyone got any info on Tallmen (aboriginal myth?
>>43816547
Pig Latin wouldn't have worked. The problem wasn't the words specifically, but the associated mental attachment. Using different languages was a bit of a barrier, but wasn't perfect - it's why he had that weird spiel towards the end.
Pig Latin is just English. You think of the word and rearrange the letters.
It would have been worse than using French.
Idiot.
>>43799213
We don't have nuclear BOMBS but we're one of the world leaders in nuclear power.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CANDU_reactor
>>43813873
On a related note, Canada is the world's number one producer and exporter of LSD.
I'm not saying the Fae are involved.
But I'm not NOT saying it, you know?
There's already some pretty good Urban Fantasy set in Canada - mostly from Canadian authors, naturally.
Tanya Huff:
The Blood series, six books, starts with Blood Price. All of them are set in Toronto except for the last one, which is set in Vancouver. They follow a former police detective involuntarily retired due to prematurely failing eyesight, who in a fit of pique decides to become a private investigator even though she really, really can't she squat at night. Ends up doing the buddy cop thing with a vampire who is old english nobility and basically acts like good-guy-Ventrue. The vampire isn't even bestgirl during the series' romance arc-- an arc which deliberately takes backseat to the rest of the plot. Has a three book spin off series set in Vancouver about a minor character from the originals working the film industry out there and getting into supernatural trouble. Also got a short-lived TV series that drew too much from Buffy and not enough from the actual books, but which wasn't terrible.
The Keeper series, three books, begins with Summon the Keeper. Set in Kingston and maybe also Toronto. Follows a Keeper named Claire, kind of a supernatural repair and pest control person, dispatched to monitor a hotel with a hole to Hell in the basement.
Charles deLint:
Almost everything is set in Canada, but a lot of that is set in a fictional city called Newford. For stuff set in actual cities, Moonheart and its sequel Spiritwalk are set mostly in Ottawa-- these two are about the residents of a house that straddles the worlds, so there's also a fair bit that's not even set on earth.
Jack of Kinrowan and its sequel Drink Down the Moon are also set in Ottawa, I think. The first one is about a woman named Jackie who meets a fairy one night and gets stuck playing the role of Jack in the fairy tale shenanigans that follow.
I'm sure there are others, but I'm at work now and can't scan my bookshelves at the moment.
>>43816547
>Pig Latin
Literally what?
>>43822354
>The Blood series, six books, starts with Blood Price. All of them are set in Toronto except for the last one, which is set in Vancouver. They follow a former police detective involuntarily retired due to prematurely failing eyesight, who in a fit of pique decides to become a private investigator even though she really, really can't she squat at night. Ends up doing the buddy cop thing with a vampire who is old english nobility and basically acts like good-guy-Ventrue. The vampire isn't even bestgirl during the series' romance arc-- an arc which deliberately takes backseat to the rest of the plot. Has a three book spin off series set in Vancouver about a minor character from the originals working the film industry out there and getting into supernatural trouble. Also got a short-lived TV series that drew too much from Buffy and not enough from the actual books, but which wasn't terrible.
I think I saw the TV series of this?
First thing: I'm an Eurofag and I found this thread extremely enjoyable, knowing very little about the areas in question (outside of the very basic stuff).
One thing bugs me though:
>[CITY] is not big enough for urban fantasy
Is this really true? I mean, obviously it all comes down to what kind of adventures you want to run, but do you really need to have room for, say, hundreds of vampires or other spooks? If you are playing mortals-getting-tangled-in-the supernatural, five vampires in a place are more than enough to keep you busy for a while. And you can always go the UA route - everything is humans.
>>43822451
It's-ay en-way ou-yay ake-tay e-thay irst-fay onsonent-cay and-ay ut-pay it-ay at-ay e-thay end-ay of-ay e-thay ord-way ith-way e-thay ound-say ay.
>>43822580
... what?
No, seriously, how the fuck I'm suppose to read this?
>>43815052
>Spellbinder
Oh Jesus... That was the best show made for kids that I ever saw. And I saw a lot of them. Whoever invented it, especially the second series, was a true mastermind.
>>43824138
It's when you take the first consonant and put it at the end of the word with the sound ay.
Alternately, you could have just googled "pig latin".
Oh shit. I almost forgot some Toronto weirdness, not so much creepy, but obviously odd. The tunnel men! Earlier this year, two construction workers just up and decided to build a tunnel to hang out in, as a literal "man cave". Built this huge ass tunnel under York University. The cops found the tunnel before the guys and thought since it was around the Pan Am games that this was some kind of terrorist plot, but after someone recognised the equipment on tv, they found the tunnelers. Who just were unable to understand why making a fucking dwarfhold under someone else's property was a bad idea.
Pic is the mastermind behind the tunnel and his hobbit hole.
When asked why he made the tunnel the guy actually just said it was "for personal reasons". Seems like a sufficiently dwarfish answer to me.
>>43822580
its kind of funny how after the first few words i could read it pretty normally.
pig latin is completely useless though.
>>43822451
>>43824138
>He doesn't know what pig latin is.
You poor deprived soul.
>>43813873
Oh, the MAPS studies! it's quite impressive what they're doing, DESU. The PTSD stuff with MDSA quite intrigues me
http://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/high-culture-part-3-1.3331467
>>43827149
The dude who did this was a construction major who just wanted a little man-cave where he could get away from the noisy home life of his appartments.
I kind of like the Esoterrorists angle from her, myself
http://www.kenandrobintalkaboutstuff.com/index.php/episode-132-underground-subterranean-fort/
>>43822498
Its kind of a mindset thing. You live in a small-town/small city thing in Canada, you get the impression that where you are is deprived & choked.
It's a cultural thing: Margaret Atwood once said that ur-Theme of Canadian Literature was of alienation & isolation in a claustrophobic environment, and that Algernon Blackwood's The Wendigo was probably the best exemplar of this idea. It creeps into smaller areas more likely than you think
>>43828512
I am actually aware of Atwood's work, which tangentially could be interesting to cross with what is being told here (survival and all that).
I don't know, it might be becuase of different models of small communities, I just don't think that every urban fantasy has to get on the scale of the Dresden Files.
>>43819315
The 'Tall-Men' were part of a race of spirits known as The Quinkins. Quinkins was a general term for supernatural spirits of all shapes and sizes.
Some were evil, like the Imjims, and caused strife among the aboriginal people. The tall-men, or the Timara, were very friendly towards the aborigines, especially children. The Timara had long, spindly limbs and a small, oval shaped head on a quite short neck. They took long, sweeping strides when they walked, and did so on two legs. Their arms could easily reach the top of a eucalyptus tree standing up.
The Timira are most well known from their stories 'The Quinkins', and 'Quinkin Mountain'. In one of these stores, they even went so far as to battle another tribe of evil Quinkins.
You can find summaries of these stories here:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5231511-quinkin-mountain
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6662174-the-quinkins
Also, for those who are interested, this is a vid-link to the story of how the rainbow serpent shaped Australia, and what happened to him afterwards.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vh6moD9ZOU
I think a campaign where the Rainbow Serpent is being summoned back via ancient rituals would be pretty cool.
While I'm at it, I might as well throw in the story of the Giant Devil Dingo. You could probably do the same thing for it, except he can still wreck ya in spiritual form.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QKyJdAsrj4
>>43821827
What so the Fae decided the potato famine sucked balls too and joined the endless stream of starving superstitious Irish to the New World?
What did the Fae do? Blackmail the shit out of them and becoming the Fae Mafia branch of the Irish Mafia?
>>43824181
I remember watching "The Odyssey" as a kid
For those that don't know it, it's
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Odyssey_%28TV_series%29
>>43828949
Oh hey, that reminded me of something I saw a while ago.
What if there was a night-club full of Mimis?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3DH7vRUHRk
>>43790343
what do you actually want in a setting?
There is plenty in Australia to keep your players busy, i'm from Western Australia.
>>43830366
Just confirm something for me, I hear there's lots of south africans in WA. Is this true? Anything else of note apart from being generally dorfish?
>>43790374
Vancouver here. Ignore Toronto fag, it's essentially indistinguishable from a large american suburban population.
Out here is essentially less-tryhard portland with a larger asian population and very close proximity to thick expanses of temperate rain-forests.
Calgary is okay, but the secret to finding interesting settings around there is to play with the strange smaller cities that sprout around it. Three-block towns where you half-expect cuts, but instead you get teenagers who get really board and have invented their own weird subcultures.
Non-Toronto Ontario is very similar to not-Calgary Alberta, but has much more of a Fargo feel to it. Also cold as hell.
Montreal isn't what I would call bohemian in the same sense as a crazy-hipster hovel city like we've got on the west coast, but they're their own strange niche of arty. Jazz, quebecois/anglephone tensions and zones, Hell's Angels North.
The maritimes are, as many people have mentioned, excellent for an ancient eldritch evil. They're weird, nobody knows what they're up to, they're in the ocean all the time, they're almost empty population wise, and there are scattered viking landmarks here and there. Just make sure one of your old ones is a giant lobster who subconsciously influences newfies to marry their cousins.
>>43822451
>>43824138
How in the fuck do you not know what pig latin is? That's like not knowing how to tie a square knot.
>>43822451
>43822451
Are-ay ou-yay ucking-fay erious-say?
>>43830976
All these people butthurt about Toronto! But hey, that's jealousy for you. Haters gonna hate on the most influential city in Canada.
But seriously, this poster is dead on about non-Toronto Ontario being a good setting. I only started working in the city a few years back, and have travelled around the small towns of Ontario quite a bit. Small town urban fantasy would do well there, as places range from freaky Fargo-esque 2-street towns, like Milford, where there appears to be only a scrapyard next to a fire station next to "town hall" and that is the only reason they get to be a town.
To stuff like Picton/Kingston/Prince Edward County. Larger towns, but with bizzare deep histories and a deep distrust of outsiders. Those places sit in an area called Loyalist country, which is where all the Brits who left the US during the war of independence went to. So it is full of old as hell British names, ancient gothic mansions and weird old families who have been interbreeding for generations.
Then you have faded towns like Bowmanville, where it apparently was bustling in the 70s and 80s, but whatever happened, now is quiet and grey and depressing, with understaffed infrastructure everywhere.
Or Hamilton, also known as "The Hammer" where all the iron refineries are. And the air is so choked with grime that people have reported driving through the town during a rain, and finding black iron sludge on their wiper blades. Imagine breathing that crap in all your life.
Ontario is full of friggin weird towns everywhere.
>>43828974
>What so the Fae decided the potato famine sucked balls too and joined the endless stream of starving superstitious Irish to the New World?
>What did the Fae do? Blackmail the shit out of them and becoming the Fae Mafia branch of the Irish Mafia?
Sounds about right. Now they mass produce and sell drugs that pull mortal souls partially into their spirit world, to gather influence for their shadow war with Raven, Coyote, and the other local Trickster spirits.
>>43831250
Don't forget the nickel!
From the town where the hills are constantly on fire from toxic nickel slag!
>>43810670
Don't forget they're also ambush predators that live in creeks, lakes, and rivers.
>>43814863
>Entire Economy dependent on Roadtrains and Trucking.
>Trucks have to traverse the continent on dirt tracks that are flooded for half the year, and on fire the other half.
Fuck, you want a campaign just make it about Trucking across the country.
>>43831250
>jealous of not living in a soulless shithole with decrepit public transit
Have you ever been to any place that's not Toronto or Edmonton?
>>43821197
That's a great load of unsubstantiated bullshit you posted.
>>43833899
Did you even watch the movie? Listen to the directors commentary?
Fuck, they paint it in black and white.
>>43831250
Loyalist County, Prince Edward County and the Thousand Islands are great, I love all the little towns like Bellville and Gananoque where everything is tiny and old. You get a lot of hard core 1812 reenacters down there, and weird, insular communities on Amherst Island and the rest of the Thousand. The Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence could easily be full of bizarre Fishman and aquatic fae, and the whole area around Kinston is right on the bottom of the Champlain Sea, making it a hotbed of weird and horrifying fossils. It's really common to find the things in the walls of the countless limestone buildings if you pay any attention at all while walking around in downtown Kingston. The city was also originally intended as the capital before they changed their minds and moved it to Ottawa, and the town hall is a grand, enoumous building constructed with the intention it would serve as the nation's parliament. Right outside the step is the province'so longest running farmer's market- quite possibly the country's, too. There's a lot of good stuff to use in the area.
who would play a campaign in a world built around the big lez show mythos
