What is the best modern city to run urban fantasy in?

Yeah... say what you like about that Fox presenter who said Birmingham was a 'no-go zone', I would not feel safe about walking down many parts of London at night. There's some areas where literally everyone is of a specific demographic (usually Muslim).

If this becomes urban FANTASY, though, isn't that a good thing? Who knows what those foreigners are hiding in their midsts, or what dark horror stalks the streets of Hackney at night? What about when it starts to extend its territory to Chelsea, or the City?

Luckily I'm far out enough from it that my area has not been affected much.

I went there once. It was nice, but not really a huge, huge city. Don't think it'd be good for urban fantasy unless you're doing some sort of political scandal, given the number of international bodies situated there. And if you're doing that, throw in Geneva too.

And now you have. I guess it's a good place by reputation; I don't know enough about it to comment.

>Istanbul
There's plenty of stuff that could be used as fodder for a political-type game (refugee crisis, Kurdish nationalists, political scandals, protests).

It was an imperial capital for 1500 years, so there's plenty of reason for your shadowy magical cabal (vampires, wizards, demons, whatthefuckever) to have a powerbase there. Also lots of interesting places and landmarks to use (What is the true nature of the Serpent Column in the Hippodrome? What's going on atop the Galata Tower on the 13th of every month? And the Grand Bazaar is a great place to have a chase scene.)

Also there's plenty of underground cisterns, catacombs, etc. Always handy to have around.

And the food's great.

Seconding London and Istanbul, I've run several campaigns in both.

Also adding Chicago, it's got tonnes of weird history (they reversed a river; there's an underground town that's crushed beneath the skyscrapers, the White Palace serial murders, etc.).

Well, the Zulu have a number of interesting mythical critters.

>Abatwa, super arrogant ant-sized people who use extremely lethal poisoned weapons and kill anyone who even accidentally insults their size
>Inkanyamba, enormous, territorial, flesh-eating freshwater eels that can control the weather and cause storms when they fight each other
>Impundulu, a man-sized bird that drinks blood, can assume human form, acts as a familiar to witches and evil sorcerers, and can summon lightning bolts
>Tikoloshe invisible goblins who bite off people's toes while they sleep, but can be foiled by elevated beds
>zombies, of the old-school "conjured by an evil sorcerer to act as slave labor" variety, including the legendary South African zombie trains, trains that only appear at night and whose entire crews are zombies that seek other people to join them

You could also have other mythical creatures from neighboring regions show up. For example, Zaire, Angola and Zambia have the Kishi, a handsome and seductive looking person who shows up at parties and events to charm a young human of the opposite sex into going off along with them. The Kishi then reveals the hidden hyena head on the back of its skull and murders and devours its victim.

So, for urban fantasy...

>Abatwa living everywhere unseen like The Borrowers, surviving in the cracks of human civilization, occasionally murdering anybody who says something they interpret as disparaging, the deaths blamed on heart attacks and the like
> Inkanyamba living in the sewers, fighting each other and occasionally causing sever rainstorms
> Impundulus roosting on top of high-rises, occasionally descending to earth in a lightning strike, assuming human form to seek food while sorcerers try to enslave them
> Tikoloshe scurrying around at night, invisibly biting people’s digits off
>zombie subway trains
>packs of Kishi hitting up the night clubs to charm people with their singing and dancing, scoping out potential victims

Man, London's sewers alone are chock-full of old myths and legends. The giant Black Swine of the Hampstead sewers, swarms of human-eating rats, long lost Tosher colonies that have mutated over the generations, the Queen Rat and her half-human progeny...

There's a legend that the last Byzantine emperor was turned into a living marble statue by an angel and hidden in some underground catacomb somewhere in the city, to return when the city needs him.

Awesome. So when the Kishi reveal their hyena heads do they turn around and bend their jonts all fucked up like while the hyena head springs out? That's the image I'm getting in my head now

buy also loving the scenarios

>Two rival sorcerers get into a beef with on killing the other
>The dead sorcerer's Impundulus decides to get a bit of vengence and stirs up the local gangs in the rival sorcerers area by selectively targeting and killing members of each gang and trying to get the deaths pinned on the sorcerer.

A nice myth, but in fact the last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaeologus, was beheaded along with his entire family by the invading Muslims on the altar of the Santa Sophia cathedral. Something that Turkey celebrated just last week.

FYI, sorcerers could also command tikoloshes. You could have an all-out sorcerer gang war with tikoloshes, zombies, and impundulus fighting in the streets while some bored Kishis smoke cigarettes and watch from the sidelines.

I imagine the sorcerers would be based on whatever local traditions are prevelent to the tribes in that part of the country

but talking about this reminded me of the game Dreadout which is like Fatal Frame except based in Indonesia

I've run two of these now.

One was in a foreign country and the other was my home city.
The other country was a lot easier to run with because my players didn't really question things. Downtown was just 'Downtown' and if they wanted to go somewhere it was just. "okay, you drive along the highway" where as in my home city it's like, "You're at Ultimo" "You can't travel south, you're on a one way road heading to Anzac bridge"

Perhaps it's my fault for being that specific.

Cities in question were;
Miami
Sydney (home)

But that's bullshit, user. Constantine was last seen charging out a side gate accompanied by some of his retinue. A headless corpse, found amongst the fallen, was later brought before Mehmet, and his flunkies theorized it was Constantine based on some personal effects but nobody was really sure if it was him or not. This ambiguity gave rise to a number of legends that Constantine was still alive, including the marble emperor story.

I don't know where you saw the story that he was dragged into a cathedral and beheaded, but there is no historical evidence for it.

Oh man. We had a pretty good thread last night about all the weird Seminole folklore from Florida. Urban Fantasy Miami would be right fucked at night.

It would have gone over my head.
I'm trying to see how effective seeding in some indigenous Australian mythos into my campaign. I know very little about folk-lore. I don't know how much Australian folk-lore exists.

>nightmare mode

Well, people already did London and Istanbul... so I'm going to say New York. I know it's sort of the go-to city for a lot of fiction, but it genuinely would be an interesting melting pot of all the different cultures that call it home, and they'd presumably bring their different kinds of magic and different mythical creatures along with them.

>Dante Must Die

Bejing or Tehran. With Beijing you can all the centuries old style politicking of the Immortals, like a dozen different Highlander clans all hiding amongst the human population, in addition to all the ghosts, demons, and nature spirits, plus a few dragons. The city's half way to a Cyberpunk hellhole already, so it'd basically be a less technologically advanced Shadowrun. Tehran, on the other hand, would have a neat mixture of Muslim and Zoroastrian material to draw on, with djinn, peri, divs, kahin cabals, and surviving Hashashin cults hiding in the shadows.

There's a fair bit of Aboriginal folklore to draw on. Lots of monsters and weird magical traditions.

Setting is Mage: The Awakening.

If anyone knows what pic related is, one player has PTSD. Makes it too easy to feature this thing.

Sorry!! one player's character!
Not the player himself

Merida, Mexico. An urban sprawl city surrounded by jungle for most of it's border. Very unique architecture all over. Every home built like a fortress.

>Abatwa, super arrogant ant-sized people who use extremely lethal poisoned weapons and kill anyone who even accidentally insults their size

Veeky Forums beware.

>>nightmare mode
>Well, people already did London and Istanbul
Are you a towelhead?

...no? I'm from Ohio. What the fuck is your problem?

Really any decently old but big city will suffice. I personally tend towards using European cities like Kraków or Berlin.

I quite like the idea of running something with a Celtic underworld theme. Dublin or Edinburgh spring to mind as the obvious choices but you could also make a fair argument for somewhere in northern France or England.

Saint Petersburg

Oh shit, why didn't I think of that

>domovoi still living in people's ovens, getting into sectarian disputes over whether gas or electric is better
>schools of sorcerers who still teach the old secrets of speaking the tongues of beasts and assuming their forms
>upirs preying on the poorest and most vulnerable of society before spending the day under a dumpster or something, basically living like vampire hobos
>rusalka hookers who hang out down by the water front
>hordes of homeless banniks, because who has a bath house anymore?

>There is a pissed off vodyanoi who's caused it to rain constantly because some hoodlums stole his slipers.

Detroit, obviously.
youtube.com/watch?v=LsJkcCkKoGs
youtube.com/watch?v=YBIOLRke41o

>no Shanghai
Literally New York on crack. You have the ultra rich, the super poor, and westernization vs traditional values.

>the domovoi can be appeased with offerings of sunflower seeds and chants of "CYKA BLYAT!"

Moscow.

>Out getting some booze at the convience store
>See this old lady pushing a cart with a pot in it
>Whatever, still kinda fucked up and looking to get more fucked up
>Get booze and leave
>See this bitch get in her pot and leave

Watch out for the Nain Rouge.

>domovoi pend their free time squatting in alleys around a single bottle of vodka

My rule is: Anywhere that's been featured in an action movie and my players haven't personally visited.

That'll get you cities that people are familiar enough with to have a basic idea of what it looks like, but not familiar enough to be like "What? Keaten doesn't intersect 8th, it's across town!"

Dubai. The city is littered with abandoned supercars from posers escaping their massive debts. Hotwire yourself a Jaguar XJ220 or Ferrari F40 as a chase car.

Also, djinn everywhere. Just underfoot, in your hair, everywhere. Like roaches.

Prague.

Manila, Philippines
Chennai, India
Dhaka, Bangladesh

So much mythos to tap, and these cities have the kind of population density that makes it simultaneously impossible and easy for things to just blend in. There's always a witness, but who gives a shit?

If I'm allowed to cheat and go back 30 years, though, definitely Kowloon Walled City. Right before the authorities demolished the the whole thing.

Don't forget the ghouls.

>Manila, Philippines

You mean "Metro Manila," right?

I mean, traditional ghouls are basically just savage, feral djinn.

Hard Mode: Cleveland Ohio
Nightmare Mode: Cleveland Ohio
Dante Must Die Mode: Sydney is pretty okay I guess

Why Cleveland?

>People start making wishes to Djinn for luxery items during economic high tides. The Djinn works it's magic by charming the back officers to allow the loans knowing the people could never pay them back if shit went south
>Shit goes south
>Laughing fire.jpeg

Dante Must Die: Jerusalem. Lots of political friction, people with various mythologies, a constant juxtaposition of the holy and the profane.

If I were going to run a game in Shanghai, it would be set in the 20s or 30s. British, French, Japanese and German interests jockeying for power. Infighting between Nationalists and Communists. Opium gangs playing all the factions against each other. Someday I'd really like to run a noir or pulp styled campaign in that setting.

I kinda dig the fact that the last 'Roman' emperor died fighting beside his men, and was possibly buried with them in the same mass grave.

>London.
Neverwhere captures it nicely.

Tokyo or some other massive city in the east with lots of history.

10/10 would play in a Neverwhere campaign

Detroit.

Washington D.C. area, including Baltimore.
Hard: Boston (Yes, they did New England but Boston was barely covered. More like an overview of Boston with no real detail. And it was 1e VtM. Nearly everything got retconned from 1e VtM)
Nightmare: Monaco
Dante Must Die: Calcutta

Balkans history in general is utter horseshit no matter which side tells it.

/pol/ is easily triggered

Shanghai on all counts.

Reminds me of Montreal by Night being 99% about either the West Island or their retarded Sabbat Metaplot characters.

>Sydney
Sure if you want to roleplay a giant poo in a giant toilet. That place is the gathering place of human waste the world over. Don't use it as a setting unless you're into scat.

I actually just meant just the city of Manila, though sprawling out into the surrounding metropolis would be cool too. Manila city has arguably the highest population density of any city left in the world (Kowloon takes the cake as far as historical records), but Metro Manilla is still fucking packed.

All of the real power players are in Makati though, which is the far more important city.

That makes sense. Manila city also has the docks, which for whatever reason I think of as integral to any modern fantasy campaign, but there's really no reason not to use all of Metro Manila other than the pain of trying to keep track of the districts.

Prague
Prague
Prague
Prague

Las Vegas, Berlin, Moscow, Cairo, Hong Kong, Seoul, Melbourne, Auckland

I'm going to give an off the wall suggestion and throw Providence out there.

Lots of potential for cool Lovecraft stuff, and since Rhode Island is so fucking small you can get a lot of variety if you get bored and want a break from your urban setting. A 20 minute drive in any direction will net you a wealth of new and interesting locations for a one-off adventures, beaches/seaside town, dense forest, small towns, abandoned colonial forts, spoopy mansions, etc.

Chicago. Especially for running a DFRPG campaign.

As and say, it's really not that amazing. Have you ever been there? Sure, it's really different from American cities (because all of those were built with planning in mind), but if you include Prague then basically every other European city is up for grabs. The only thing that makes Prague more interesting is its political institutions.

I'd prefer London, Paris, Lyon, Berlin, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Rome, Venice, Madrid, Barcelona, Geneva, Zurich, Warsaw, Moscow, Volgograd, Saint Petersburg, and Reykjavik before choosing Prague.

Speaking of which, Icelandic folklore is horrific. Reykjavik is a comparatively tiny city, but given Iceland's geography and climate, I'm sure you can fit in many cool ideas.

Bruges

You. I like you.

Nightmare+Dante Must Die: Geneva, Switzerland
reverse-DanteMustDie: Kraków, Poland

Setting a UA game on Manila does sound interesting. With the amount of changes going on there recently there's a lot of ideas you can use.

I think you mean Constantinople

Istanbul was Constantinople, now it's Istanbul not Constantinople, been a long time gone, Constantinople, now it's Turkish delight on a moonlit night.

>Calling the whole city for the old city center

...

>istanbul not constantinople

Why did "Constantinople" get the works?

Austin, Texas.
Seriously, the people here are batshit insane.

London: a dangerous middle eastern city full of djinn, ghouls, iblis, rocs, and other creatures.

Docks = smuggling, trade, shady sailors, & warehouses, any number of which can spawn loads of plot hooks

What about Budapest or Vienna? Or Belfast?

All those damn protestants and scots Irish killed the native mythical beings of Belfast, I wager.

How would you make an urban fantasy out of a completely modern city like Los Angeles? No real myth to it.

This is what happens when you get your "facts" from /pol/ and Fox News.

I've lived in London for 6 years and never felt unsafe walking around late at night.

Obviously, there are areas I avoid out of precaution but that's true about any major city.

Paris on the other hand, that's a scary fucking city. People get mugged and assaulted in broad daylight by gangs of arab youths there.

Hong Kong.

The cultural influences of China and England; along with their mythologies all mixed together.

These total opposites clash, but then form a cohesive harmony, providing the viewer/reader/player with a surreal world of high-tech low-lifes
in a neon painted coastal city teeming with bizarre creatures and legendary characters.