I decided that it might be neat to start a post about all the weird places and myths that America has spawned in its 200+ years of existence. I think it could be great fodder for horror games.
What creepy myths have you heard? What bizarre locations do you know of? How could it be used as the focus of an adventure?
Here's one near me.
In Montgomery, New Jersey, there is a place called the North Princeton Developmental Center. It is the size of a small college campus, and even had its own small power station and police department. There are many large, ominous brick buildings throughout the complex, all of which have been boarded up and locked. The guts of several buildings have given into rot, time, and the elements, and have collapsed in on themselves.
Elaborate asphalt paths wind throughout the complex, and the entire area is enshrouded by thick woods. The surrounding area is mostly rural / suburban. The nearest neighbors are about a mile away. Here, no one will hear you scream. It was originally a self-sustaining village designed to prove that epileptics could lead productive, healthy lives.
As the treatment for epilepsy improved, the NPDC began to lose its purpose. Eventually, it turned towards the treatment of the severely mentally ill.
The NPDC struggled to keep its doors open for years and years, but eventually it was shut down and abandoned.
Now the town of Montgomery has bought the property and deteriorating builidngs and wants to turn it towards a "productive civic use".
But what ghosts, what secrets, what horror might still haunt these halls? Forgotten souls who slipped through the institutional cracks? A woman who shoved a pencil through her ear to silence the voices in her head? Orderlies who abused the patients entrusted to their care? What will happen when they send in the construction crews, with all their dangerous heavy equipment? Will they endure the quiet menace, the silent dread, the accidents, the unexplained deaths? What might they excavate? Will the town discover secrets best left hidden?
That's for your gaming group to find out.
And how do I know all this?
Because I was there.
Now the question is this...
Was I a visitor?
Or a patient?
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Last edited by LucitasBastardChilde; 07-12-2006 at 02:42 PM..
America's Stonehenge.. in Salem, New Hampshire. Ancient stone circle in ruin on a hilltop in rural New England. What did they summon here?
Old Newgate Prison.. in West Granby CT. An old coper mine that was used a prison during the revolutionary war. What did the prisoners find when they dug too deep?
Dudleytown in Cornwall Ct. An abandoned cursed town that still reaches out its evil to this day.
Here is what I think is one of the starngest places in Salt Lake City. Gilgal Garden
How you could make use of it in a game I will leave to the far more imaginative people of RPG.net
(Yes, there is a statue of a sphinx with the face of a LDS prophet)
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Route 666 the devils highway running through the four corners area of New Mexico & Colorado
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(As usual, it is a bit grating for us Canadians to learn that our southern neighbours have claimed all of "America", but maybe I'll start a site for Canadian legends later. Our legends are older! )
Are you familiar with the Danvers Mental Institution? It's featured in the film Session 9, and has a bit of a write up in the "Boston Unveiled" sourcebook for M:tA.
Anyway, it's creepy as all hell, and being retrofitted into luxury condominiums:
Oh, BTW, I hope it won't constitute threadcrapping on my part to add a site that is not in the U.S. at all but is creepy as all hell: the Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gridskipper
At 1,083 feet and 105 stories, the gigantic pyramid of the Ryugyong Hotel dominates the skylines of Pyongyang. With 3,700 rooms and five (or seven?) revolving restaurants on its various peaks, the Ryugyong is one of the largest hotels in the world. Or it would be, if the hotel had ever been completed – construction ceased in 1992, when money for the project ran out (this isn’t Dubai after all). Supposedly, the plan was to sheathe the hotel in gleaming blue glass, but that’s a long way from ever happening now. The empty concrete shell, abandoned for over a decade, could well have served as Pyongyang’s architectural symbol. Instead, it’s an embarrassing derelict that the government refuses to list on official maps, despite its overwhelming size and presence. It shouldn’t be surprising for a state fueled by denial like North Korea, but startling even so.
Apparently, this dominates the skyline but everyone refuses to acknowledge it's there. It's like pretending you don't see the elephant in your living room. And it screams for a game -- Feng Shui? Shadowrun? Unknown Armies? Conspiracy X?
That sounds a bit like the massive MI6 building in britain, that had several thousand people working there and wa next to a very busy road, but nobody would admit it was there.
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