Need a rural American area

[Cristo Meyers]

Ash Vs. Evil Dead (and by extension, the Evil Dead movies) takes place in Michigan. So the cabin in the woods is something your group could come across.

And winter in those areas can be pretty brutal with a lot of snowfall, so getting stranded by heavy snow is a very real danger.

[Blackhawk748]

Ash Vs. Evil Dead (and by extension, the Evil Dead movies) takes place in Michigan. So the cabin in the woods is something your group could come across.

Huh, just learned something.

And winter in those areas can be pretty brutal with a lot of snowfall, so getting stranded by heavy snow is a very real danger.

Oh ya, if you dont have a plow, you ain't driving out.

[Telonius]

Pennsylvania all the way. Home to Allegheny National Forest, lots of rural folks ("Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Alabama in between"), fourth-largest standing army in the world on the first day of buck season (seriously, look it up), lots of local politics and isolated communities (that could prevent a cry for help being investigated right away), ghost stories occasionally dating back to the 1700s (depending on where you are). Lots of mountain lions up in the hills; bears aren't unheard-of. And while Monroeville Mall is probably too close to civilization for what you're describing, you have the cinematic history of Night of the Living Dead to draw on.

[8BitNinja]

The desert of Arizona

about as rural as yo can get

[Otaku]

"Ok guys, we got two choices for running. Corn field, or corn field."

"We are so dead"

If you mean Iowa, while corn (and soybean) fields are the most abundant thing, there are still plenty of trees, lakes, hills. There are also small towns and small cities. The highest peak is only 1670 ft (if my quick Google search is correct) and there are no actual deserts (some places may feel like it, but actual rainfall says "no"). Obviously no oceanfront property for a landlocked state, but it is bordered on one side by the Mississippi river on one side and the Missouri river on the other, with a good selection of small and medium sized lakes in between (maybe a few large ones - I don't know the scale for such things very well).

And... this got stupid long so I'm just going to put it in spoilers; it ties into the discussion, but isn't essential to it.

Spoiler

Show

Still has an abundant amount of agriculture, though it has been shrinking dramatically at least in central Iowa, where I am originally from, over the last three decades (I am not old enough to comment about before then, but my elders assure me that the trend has continued). Unless you need large cities, deserts, or actual ocean, Iowa from the last 30 years to present is a good fit for various campaigns. It has a lot of things you wouldn't expect, but most are no where near as developed as they would be elsewhere. Except for agriculture, football, computers and general nerd culture. Collectively Iowa excels at those things. ;)

So yeah, this does not sound like what Jeivar is looking for in a setting. It does bring up an interesting related point: transportation. Iowa is a pretty typical American Midwestern state, which from what I can tell reverses the situations of a major metropolitan areas and is sideways as far as things go internationally. People are used to living in a small town and commuting to either another small town, slightly bigger town or large city.

In one sense no region is remote because the majority of people old enough to drive do and have access to a car. While we would try to avoid it, it was not uncommon for my family, who lived on a farm about 6 miles from the nearest tiny town, 9 miles from a moderately sized one, and 10 miles from a large town. Being rural, there was no taxi, bus, or train service. I had 2-3 miles of gravel roads (the kind of gravel roads meant to survive farm or construction equipment) to push through before getting to a paved one on bike (I never was any good on a bike anyway) so for some this would seem fairly remote. However by car (which again almost everyone had) it was under 10 minutes to get to the tiny town (where I went to High School), 15 to the moderately sized town and 20 to the small city... and for the latter thanks to the interstate highway only another five to 10 minutes to get to any point within said small city.

Why bring all that up?

Rural isn't always remote. If I drove in the correct direction, I could keep hitting farms, houses in small woods, etc. that were father and farther from suburban and urban areas. Some people I know had like a 45 minute drive to get to even a small town, and for a small state like Iowa that is pretty distant. On the other hand it is quite close compared to some regions even within the U.S.A.

Also regardless of where you are at, it can be much harder going based on the weather. Even as close as I was to three different towns, after a heavy snow (which depended as much on snowfall as on wind conditions), you had to wait for a county snow plow to travel... even if you had your own truck with a plow on it, it might be worth waiting. During the wet spring weather, you learned to avoid some roads because they became either mud or clay traps. Learned that the hard way shortly after I started driving; I avoided getting stuck in one or losing control and ending up in the ditch, but a particularly clay heavy stretch of roads cost me one of my hubcaps!

[8BitNinja]

The Alaskan wilderness

If you don't go there prepared or with any wilderness experience alone, you will die

[Blackhawk748]

Could someone drop some trivia about those places? I'm going to run a pen-and-paper game, not direct a documentary, but a bit of inspiration is always nice.

Every town has at least 1 Bar, guns are extremely common, and gunshots are not uncommon in fall (as theres a lot of hunting then). You can expect at least a foot of snow in winter and a ton of rain in spring, the woods have very thick underbrush on average so seeing more than 20 yards is impressive.

Oh and it looks really creepy with a nice groundfog.

[8BitNinja]

Every town has at least 1 Bar, guns are extremely common, and gunshots are not uncommon in fall (as theres a lot of hunting then). You can expect at least a foot of snow in winter and a ton of rain in spring, the woods have very thick underbrush on average so seeing more than 20 yards is impressive.

Oh and it looks really creepy with a nice groundfog.

Williams, Arizona

This is the exact description of the place, except for thick underbrush

[Amidus Drexel]

Every town has at least 1 Bar, guns are extremely common, and gunshots are not uncommon in fall (as theres a lot of hunting then). You can expect at least a foot of snow in winter and a ton of rain in spring, the woods have very thick underbrush on average so seeing more than 20 yards is impressive.

Oh and it looks really creepy with a nice groundfog.

That's (parts of) Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and (all of) West Virginia too, for what it's worth. You can also add narrow gravel roads and hilly/mountainous terrain as well - not quite as striking as the rockies, but unless you're standing on a peak, you wouldn't notice for all the trees.

A (largely tangential) note on fog in the mountains - sometimes it's heavy enough to sink all the way to the ground, but just as often we'll get low-lying clouds (about 300-600m up) that cut visibility on the mountainside while still leaving it relatively clear on the valley floor and on the ridges (granted, you can't actually see down very far from the ridges). It's not uncommon - when crossing a ridge under cloud cover - to drive from a light rain, up through heavy fog, to mostly clear skies, then back down into fog and rain.

[Scarlet Knight]

Lets put first things first.

Jeivar, what kind of American accents can you do? That will help us. No sense putting the game in Maine or the Dakotas if all you can do is southerner.

Unless, of course, your players have no idea what an American sounds like... then you can do Brooklynese for all they know.

[8BitNinja]

Lets put first things first.

Jeivar, what kind of American accents can you do? That will help us. No sense putting the game in Maine or the Dakotas if all you can do is southerner.

Unless, of course, your players have no idea what an American sounds like... then you can do Brooklynese for all they know.

No one knows what an American sounds like, because we all sound different based on the region we live in

[TechnOkami]

I dunno, I'd say I'm fluent in Suburbian and Memeanese.

[TheThan]

I dunno, I'd say I'm fluent in Suburbian and Memeanese.

hahah!

that got a chuckle outta me.

anyway I'd say a typical "American" accent is what you hear in the movies. I call it a neutral accent since it doesn't really place you anywhere. Unlike say a southern drawl; which places you as "from the south" or "a southerner" (believe it or not there's regional differences there too).

[8BitNinja]

hahah!

that got a chuckle outta me.

anyway I'd say a typical "American" accent is what you hear in the movies. I call it a neutral accent since it doesn't really place you anywhere. Unlike say a southern drawl; which places you as "from the south" or "a southerner" (believe it or not there's regional differences there too).

Ok, so what I have

that's a good self-reference

[Scarlet Knight]

No one knows what an American sounds like, because we all sound different based on the region we live in

We all know what an English accent is, yet when we try an do one it can sound like anything from Mr. Banks to Bert.

hahah!

that got a chuckle outta me.

anyway I'd say a typical "American" accent is what you hear in the movies. I call it a neutral accent since it doesn't really place you anywhere.

In every war movie there are 4 guys: "Tex" the cowboy, "Brooklyn" the cabbie, "Jefferson" the black guy, and "Kid"...he's the only one with a neutral accent.

[lurkmeister]

Pennsylvania all the way. Home to Allegheny National Forest, lots of rural folks ("Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Alabama in between"), fourth-largest standing army in the world on the first day of buck season (seriously, look it up), lots of local politics and isolated communities (that could prevent a cry for help being investigated right away), ghost stories occasionally dating back to the 1700s (depending on where you are). Lots of mountain lions up in the hills; bears aren't unheard-of. And while Monroeville Mall is probably too close to civilization for what you're describing, you have the cinematic history of Night of the Living Dead to draw on.

Agreed. If you're looking for Northeastern-style rural environs -- waaaaay out in the middle of nowhere but still only a day from New York -- Pennsylvania's Northern Tier (Elk County -- where there supposedly more elk than people -- especially) is the place to be.

[8BitNinja]

Agreed. If you're looking for Northeastern-style rural environs -- waaaaay out in the middle of nowhere but still only a day from New York -- Pennsylvania's Northern Tier (Elk County -- where there supposedly more elk than people -- especially) is the place to be.

More elk than people? How soon is elk season?

[Rockphed]

Rural isn't always remote. If I drove in the correct direction, I could keep hitting farms, houses in small woods, etc. that were father and farther from suburban and urban areas. Some people I know had like a 45 minute drive to get to even a small town, and for a small state like Iowa that is pretty distant. On the other than it is quite close compared to some regions even within the U.S.A.

Based on how you define your terms, I think Michigan's upper peninsula is significantly more remote than Iowa. Sure, you can probably hit a small town within half an hour if you know how to go, but the only real cities are Sault St Marie, Marquette, and Houghton. Everything else is wilderness broken up by trees, bars, and gas stations.

The local economy is based on lumber, recreation, and mining. If you want to know how minerals were removed from the area, look up the Edmund Fitzgerald.

The coasts of Michigan have more lighthouses than the entire eastern and western seaboards of the United States.

So, your party should consist of an unemployed miner, two drunk hunters, and a bar maid in a light house.

[lurkmeister]

More elk than people? How soon is elk season?

I think it just ended!

[Otaku]

Based on how you define your terms, I think Michigan's upper peninsula is significantly more remote than Iowa.

Yup, based on what I have heard it is. I had a typo where "On the other hand" became "On the other than" which is gibberish and confused my meaning. I was trying to get at the fact I don't know what Jeivar thinks of as remote. ;) Long commutes are business as usual for some but abnormal for others, and sometimes the same time frame has very different distances; the difficult in town commute where most time is spent in traffic jams or just walking versus the same amount of time pushing the limit on an interstate.

[sktarq]

Personal definition of remote: climb the tallest thing within 1/4 mile of point A (Tree, Hill, whatever). If from altitude I can still see no sign of human habitation AND I could not walk for 6 hours in any direction and not hit a road (the key in forested region). If both conditions are true then it is remote.

[8BitNinja]

I think it just ended!

Well, I guess it's too late to put in for a tag

[AMFV]

Personal definition of remote: climb the tallest thing within 1/4 mile of point A (Tree, Hill, whatever). If from altitude I can still see no sign of human habitation AND I could not walk for 6 hours in any direction and not hit a road (the key in forested region). If both conditions are true then it is remote.

Most forests could be remote then depending on how good at LandNav you are. it's possible to walk six hours in a few acres in a valley and not hit a road.

[Otaku]

Most forests could be remote then depending on how good at LandNav you are. it's possible to walk six hours in a few acres in a valley and not hit a road.

Aye. I get what sktarq was going for, but at the very least we have to emphasize "rural" remote because there are indeed some urban or suburban areas that are remote; only the "no signs of human habitation" thing keeps them from qualifying as is... and my point is that if we weren't discussing rural areas in the first place, just remote, there are cities (especially those in poor shape right now) where you'll hit large stretches where you can't find anyone.

It isn't a bad set of guidelines to start with, though.

[8BitNinja]

Is it okay if it is within close proximity of law enforcement/military/professional mercenaries that kill monsters?

[AMFV]

Aye. I get what sktarq was going for, but at the very least we have to emphasize "rural" remote because there are indeed some urban or suburban areas that are remote; only the "no signs of human habitation" thing keeps them from qualifying as is... and my point is that if we weren't discussing rural areas in the first place, just remote, there are cities (especially those in poor shape right now) where you'll hit large stretches where you can't find anyone.

It isn't a bad set of guidelines to start with, though.

My point was more that remoteness isn't so much a matter of how far things are, as how isolated you are.

[8BitNinja]

The Canadian border

enough said

[AMFV]

The Canadian border

enough said

Which is basically all of the states in the Northern US. If you include Appalachia, that's basically the entirety of the Northeast. The Rockies gets you most of the West, the middle states have large empty areas as well. Bayeu will get you the Southwestern ones. There is wilderness hours of walking from anywhere in EVERY single continental US State (unless you count the District of Columbia), Hawaii I'm not sold on, but I don't doubt that's the case there as well. The US is really really big. Like the third largest country in the world big, people don't tend to realize that, I imagine since movies tend to be filmed in cities, or in wilderness spots that are relatively accessible.

[Amidus Drexel]

Which is basically all of the states in the Northern US. If you include Appalachia, that's basically the entirety of the Northeast. The Rockies gets you most of the West, the middle states have large empty areas as well. Bayeu will get you the Southwestern ones. There is wilderness hours of walking from anywhere in EVERY single continental US State (unless you count the District of Columbia), Hawaii I'm not sold on, but I don't doubt that's the case there as well. The US is really really big. Like the third largest country in the world big, people don't tend to realize that, I imagine since movies tend to be filmed in cities, or in wilderness spots that are relatively accessible.

Well, there's not much wilderness in New Jersey, Delaware, Connecticut, or Rhode Island, and honestly Maryland is mostly cities and suburban sprawl as well, but yeah, nearly every state in the US has isolated rural areas somewhere.

[8BitNinja]

If you want to get typical slasher, go for somewhere in Kansas. Not a good idea for what you requested, but just a thought