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00:54, 29th March 2024 (GMT+0)

Building a Cyberpunk Baltimore.

Posted by NowhereMan
NowhereMan
member, 158 posts
Fri 28 Jul 2017
at 04:21
  • msg #1

Building a Cyberpunk Baltimore

I'm working on building a cyberpunk setting out of the city of Baltimore, and the RPoL community seemed like a good place to mine for ideas.

The setting as a whole is pretty standard cyberpunk - all chrome, style, and automatic weapons - but is more similar in tone to Shadowrun than Cyberpunk 2020, slightly leaning towards Black Trenchcoat on the Pink Mohawk/Black Trenchcoat scale.

It's a big project, so any and all input is welcome.
GreyGriffin
member, 123 posts
Portal Expat
Game System Polyglot
Fri 28 Jul 2017
at 06:41
  • msg #2

Building a Cyberpunk Baltimore

I highly recommend fabricating some kind of Great Chicago Fire type incident into your setting.  This'll give you license to bulldoze huge chunks of the town and build arcologies.
Gaffer
member, 1486 posts
Ocoee FL
40 yrs of RPGs
Fri 28 Jul 2017
at 13:55
  • msg #3

Building a Cyberpunk Baltimore

If you're familiar with Baltimore, you probably know all this, but...

With Johns Hopkins and Loyola and UMed, among others, you have a great base for academic/technical knowledge and/or sinister laboratories. A lot of the MD state government agencies are headquartered in Balto, although the state capitol is Annapolis.

Amid the state office complex on Preston Street is a great early-20th century National Guard Armory, built like a castle. Vast swaths of parkland abound and a good-sized zoo. Camden Yards and the Ravens stadium are down by the Inner Harbor, not to mention a very large industrial/shipping area. Not to mention Fort McHenry.

Not too far away in Frederick is Fort Detrick, long the center for US Army research into bioweapons.
NowhereMan
member, 159 posts
Fri 28 Jul 2017
at 16:48
  • msg #4

Building a Cyberpunk Baltimore

I'm actually not familiar with Baltimore outside of some cursory research and pop culture osmosis, so any and all input is welcome. I chose it because it, as far as I could tell, hasn't been covered by the big names in cyberpunk. I didn't want to go with Yet-Another-Seattle-Dystopia, and Baltimore's history and culture make it a prime choice for cyberpunk-ization.
Dara
member, 367 posts
Fri 28 Jul 2017
at 16:55
  • msg #5

Building a Cyberpunk Baltimore

You could also ask on r/Baltimore on reddit.  Not sure how active it is. but you would definitely get native Baltimore people to talk to.
NowhereMan
member, 160 posts
Fri 28 Jul 2017
at 16:57
  • msg #6

Building a Cyberpunk Baltimore

That's not a bad idea, Dara. Don't have a reddit account, but that might be a reason to get one.
Gaffer
member, 1487 posts
Ocoee FL
40 yrs of RPGs
Sat 29 Jul 2017
at 01:58
  • msg #7

Building a Cyberpunk Baltimore

In reply to NowhereMan (msg # 4):

I'm a native of the DC-Baltimore metro area, lived there for about 55 years and worked in Baltimore for the state government for about a decade. Feel free to mine my knowledge and ideas.
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