[Vampire] What to fill my city with?

[Ichneumon]

So... for a game of Vampire the Requiem (but I guess, this question would be the same for Masquerade), my current city is an adaptation of modern London. A while ago I wanted to put some points on a map, but apart from monuments, museums, churches and the "standard" vampire-stuff like night clubs, blood banks and places to have Elysium, I was not certain what stuff would be useful (from a vampire-perspective) to be in a city. I know that you don't have to put everything on a map and can just assume it is there when during a game a player suddenly needs a grocery store (many intelligent players already assume that), but still my city feels rather empty with just those "standard" stuff and I was would like ideas for non-conventional places that might be interesting/useful/necessary for Vampires apart from night clubs. I just don't know where to begin.

What do you guys fill your cities with?

[Fox Box Socks]

Actual banks and accounting firms are just as useful to Vampires (gotta keep that money somewhere). Beyond that, just think about what's in your city; a bar district, public parks, slums, etc.

As for NPCs, large urban populations tend to mean more Mages, Sin-Eaters and Changelings. Werewolves somewhat uncommon in city-type settings, but they're nothing stopping them from claiming a park or a three-block area as their turf or hunting grounds. Prometheans living on the city would have to be transients, sleeping in different places every night as to not risk Disquiet. Hunters, if present, should stick to whatever areas their covenants or conspiracies dictate (The Ascending Ones stick to the ghettos, Union cells are based in the suburbs, The Cheiron Group mostly operate out of the financial district, etc).

[Selrahc]

Docks/Warehouses. Stuff to steal. Place to hide out. Good place for this stuff.
Slaughterhouse. Blood for down on their luck kindred who can't find a neck.
Occult interest areas. The area where anyone who wants something supernatural goes to find it. A magic shop run by some occult being would be standard, but with a lot of room for leeway.
Criminal interest areas. If you need to buy a weapon or need a corpse vanished, it can be useful to know some of the nastier mortals.
Police station and political centres. Vampires can often get involved in human politics to a greater or lesser extent. Having a local police lieutenant or mayor's aide as a ghoul can be very helpful.

[Ichneumon]

Thanks, I've used most of your suggestions. I'll add more occult things and I haven't yet made up my might on how much I'll be including other supernaturals yet. The game will likely be very "vampire centric" anyway, even if it features an occasional group of Sin-Eaters or Werewolves. Mortal vampire hunters play a large role though.

This is the current city, divided in 8 main districts, with all the current highlights:

-A ghetto of Asian and Italian immigrants. The entire ghetto is owned by the Carthian Movement, who have declared the district to be an Open Hunting Ground, as long as people hunt discreetly. The neighborhood is very poor and consists of many small dark alleys, in which it's easy to lose oneself. They’re always very crowded.
*Italian Restaurant “Gates of Rome”: The HQ of the Carthian Movement.
*Soup Kitchens: There are multiple soup kitchens in this area, providing food for the poor.

-Business District
*Stock Exchange
*Royal Hospital
*The Time Newspaper Head Office
*The National Bank
*Justinian’s Plague: A higher class exclusive night club, only Kindred can become members. It’s an Elysium.
*Capital Park: a public park
*John & John Solicitors: lawyers and legal advise
*St. John Cathedral: large Cathedral with a huge underground library with lots of “forbidden” books on the occult. Long ago owned by a group of hunters, now owned by the Ordo Dracul
*Royal Hospital

-Popular shopping and tourist district
*Abbott Park: a public park. Many ley lines come together here, forming a great nexus.
*The Five Pillars: war memorial
*Fast food and vegetarian restaurants
*Pure White: Launderette
*Greenwater Garden: large market place with groceries and supermarket
*Police station
*Royal Opera House: It’s owned by the Invictus

-Entertainment District, with a reputation for night life and sex industry. The Prince has declared this area an Open Hunting Ground.
*Horizon Underground Nightclub
*Joey’s Bar: a pub
*Fast food restaurants
*Brothels

-Dockyard
*Warehouses, empty or filled with cargo
*Ships and boats and the docks
*The office of a small group of Private Investigators
*Soup kitchen

-Industrial District
*Factories and warehouses, some are old and abandoned
*Parking lots
*Power plant
*Scientific laboratories
*Offices
*Slaughterhouse

-Run-down area of the city with many poor and unemployed, high crime rates, drugs and illegal art dealing etc.
*Art studios
*Cemetery: an old Victorian style cemetery
*Ordem e Progresso: A club house of a group of Brazilian Anthropologists with a strange interest and expertise in the occult
*Church: an old abandoned church
*Library
*Hospital

-Culteral area and upper class residences
*The homes of the rich
*Art galleries and art museums
*Blood Bank
*History Museum
*Asylum

[Selrahc]

Sounds like a good list of locations. I can't think of anything major that you've left out there.

[Doc Roc]

The Tower Of London is basically amazing for any *WoD game, along with some of the other monuments. If you have a Thames, you need to know where the bridges are. They're amazing chokepoints, they serve critical transit needs, and they're just darn neat with all their nooks and crannies.

[The_Jackal]

I think you've got the cart before the horse. Don't think: What can I put in my town that Vampires can use, think: What's already there and how can Vampires put it to use. Get an actual London tourist guide, and start taking what's there and customizing/altering it for your campaign. What would your Ventrue make of Savile Row? Or Fleet Street? Trafalgar Square? The British Museum? Hyde Park?

My point is you don't actually need to invent the city wholesale. One of the great things about using a real-world setting is that you can take it as is, and make tweaks and alterations only when necessary.

I'd also point out that unless you live or have lived in London, doing it as a setting is highly ambitious. First of all, it's a gigantic city. It's only the 18th largest city in the world in terms of population, but it's the third largest in terms of land area, after New York and Moscow. That's a LOT of setting to keep track of. Now in some ways, that makes your job easy, in so far as you have a lot of palette to work with, but it also means that there's going to be a lot of ground to cover. You may want to restrict the initial chronicle to just a portion of the city, and grow as your campaign grows, fleshing out the city as your neonates grow in power and influence.

[FreelanceAngel]

What do you guys fill your cities with?

I build a custom city about ten years ago, and I'm STILL adding to it for my game. You're never done building a city.

However, the easiest thing to do- especially since you're working with an actual city that you can get maps and guides of- is to find locations that would be useful for your next story session. Are the vampires heading to talk to a Sabbat snitch? Where would they do this? Perhaps near the Thames or near Whitechapel, simply because that's how the Sabbat mentality works. Mark that spot on your map, jot down a few descriptive bits and you're ready to go.

It's impossible to have a location ready for anything the players might think of, so if you have to, just leave the locale nameless until you've had time to design it or find it. There's nothing wrong with telling the players that the PCs are in "a Goth club," "a four-star restaurant" or an "apartment building." You don't have to customize everything simply because the location isn't fictional- if they need to know what London looks/feels like for the game, there's Google Maps. ^_~ Just let the story guide you through the city as you create it, and you'll find it much easier to learn what your players do and do not need to run across.

[Slade]

Thanks, I've used most of your suggestions. I'll add more occult things and I haven't yet made up my might on how much I'll be including other supernaturals yet. The game will likely be very "vampire centric" anyway, even if it features an occasional group of Sin-Eaters or Werewolves. Mortal vampire hunters play a large role though.

This is the current city, divided in 8 main districts, with all the current highlights:

-A ghetto of Asian and Italian immigrants. The entire ghetto is owned by the Carthian Movement, who have declared the district to be an Open Hunting Ground, as long as people hunt discreetly. The neighborhood is very poor and consists of many small dark alleys, in which it's easy to lose oneself. They’re always very crowded.
*Italian Restaurant “Gates of Rome”: The HQ of the Carthian Movement.
*Soup Kitchens: There are multiple soup kitchens in this area, providing food for the poor.

-Business District
*Stock Exchange
*Royal Hospital
*The Time Newspaper Head Office
*The National Bank
*Justinian’s Plague: A higher class exclusive night club, only Kindred can become members. It’s an Elysium.
*Capital Park: a public park
*John & John Solicitors: lawyers and legal advise
*St. John Cathedral: large Cathedral with a huge underground library with lots of “forbidden” books on the occult. Long ago owned by a group of hunters, now owned by the Ordo Dracul
*Royal Hospital

-Popular shopping and tourist district
*Abbott Park: a public park. Many ley lines come together here, forming a great nexus.
*The Five Pillars: war memorial
*Fast food and vegetarian restaurants
*Pure White: Launderette
*Greenwater Garden: large market place with groceries and supermarket
*Police station
*Royal Opera House: It’s owned by the Invictus

-Entertainment District, with a reputation for night life and sex industry. The Prince has declared this area an Open Hunting Ground.
*Horizon Underground Nightclub
*Joey’s Bar: a pub
*Fast food restaurants
*Brothels

-Dockyard
*Warehouses, empty or filled with cargo
*Ships and boats and the docks
*The office of a small group of Private Investigators
*Soup kitchen

-Industrial District
*Factories and warehouses, some are old and abandoned
*Parking lots
*Power plant
*Scientific laboratories
*Offices
*Slaughterhouse

-Run-down area of the city with many poor and unemployed, high crime rates, drugs and illegal art dealing etc.
*Art studios
*Cemetery: an old Victorian style cemetery
*Ordem e Progresso: A club house of a group of Brazilian Anthropologists with a strange interest and expertise in the occult
*Church: an old abandoned church
*Library
*Hospital

-Culteral area and upper class residences
*The homes of the rich
*Art galleries and art museums
*Blood Bank
*History Museum
*Asylum



Whoa there, young'in.
Rule #1 when "designing" a real world city: why? There are over 100,000 books on any big real world city out there, Former's are the best. Hit up a travel agency or a book store and they will give you more information on the city you can ever want to know. Let the print do the talking.

1a: Then of course, hit up Professor Wikipedia, PhD. All the history will be there, all nice and hyper-linked for your ease of reading. Since Vampires are immortal (in theory) they will have been there during the event in question.
Now, avoid the temptation to make every event some how connected to vampires. Most things that happen are mortal driven, not vampire driven. Vampires love the status quo and things that upset that are not viewed with much appreciation.

#2: Now, from a Vampire perspective: Vampires are people too, and need the same things. Food, Shelter, and Safety are the #1 priorities, just like for the mouth breathers. Once those are taken care of, the next thing on the Vampire's to do list, is a surplus of the above, especially food. Therefore, the Vampire is more likely to live in an area with easy access to the munchies. Slums, Housing Projects, Jails, and Mental Institutions offer this in abundance.

#3: Now that Mr. Vampire has his basics taken care of, now its on to what ever projects interest him the most. Your high end politicos will be gravitating towards the business side of town, your rabble rousers will be gravitating toward the blue collar side of town, your intellectuals will be gravitating towards the college side of town, and so on. Those places will be in the Fodor's book, and you should populate appropriately.

Hope this helps.