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First location: Locke City, New Jersey, USA
BASICS
Locke City a particularly massive city on the coast of New Jersey, USA, and contains everything you'd expect a city to contain: slums, business and industrial districts, suburbs, hotels, schools. The city has a very strong multicultural make-up, and features an equivalent to a 'Little Italy' or 'China Town' for every culture you can think of. The city was hit by two earthquakes and a supernatural attack in the first half of 2014, causing destruction mostly in the city centre and business district and bringing it into national headlines. The repairs are still ongoing.
The city does not have a predefined geography. It is instead primarily left indistinct for the purpose of allowing the players and the plot to add what they need when they need it. For a general idea of the current weather, please see Ocean City, NJ; however, again, this is not a strict rule and may be bent for the purposes of plotting.
If you add something to the city geography beyond the generic, just drop a small note of it in the appropriate section of the comments. It's only for the purpose of building up the city's contents and perhaps allowing players to coordinate elements together. For example, how many of the school age characters go to the same school? Does someone work at another's favourite pizza joint? For the same reason, if your character works/goes to school/is a member of/etc a place on the list, you can comment to the top level comment of that place. Changes to the places should also be added by way of a comment to the place comment. Example (which is an actual part of the map, too). You may also include links in the general description.
The city contains the obvious for a real world developed city in the USA. Within the surrounding area (and in range of the player characters, yet partly outside of the echo boundaries) is an agricultural hub, taking advantage of a particularly fertile stretch of ground. Similarly a few large woods and forests are in range. Locations of note include:
BUSINESS DISTRICT
This area suffered the most damage in the earthquake and subsequent snake attack on March 9th. The roads have been mostly fixed by now and dangerously unstable buildings have been torn down, but there is still some substantial damage to be seen in the streets.
The Tuning Towers are located in the very centre of the business district The third tallest building in the USA, it stands at 1,350ft tall. Tuning Towers is known for its design that resembles a tuning fork, a combined base but split into two separate towers higher up. It was commissioned by the industrialist Harry Tunings, who had the design made to reference his name and not the other way round.
DEAD DISTRICT
Not officially known as such, the Dead District is the nickname for a large area of long abandoned buildings, that due to legal issues have been left standing to dilapidate. Although the expense is minimal in purchasing the land, every few years someone does and gives up on achieving anything with it quickly. The area spans several blocks and is inhabited by a small society of the homeless population. The name stuck after the then mayor claimed the entire district had dropped dead overnight.
Thunder corp has built a large compound here, housing a pentagon-shaped building.
FORT TURNER
A military installation just about in the range of the player characters. Fort Turner is a US Army base famous during the Revolutionary War for changing hands between the British and American forces an extremely high number of times. The base houses a small military museum within its boundaries, which is separated from the main installation.
HARBOUR
Locke City has, as a coastal city, a harbour. It is used for both commercial and private ships, and trade towards many harbours around the Atlantic goes through it. But not only container ships can be seen there, also the odd cruise ship and many smaller or larger private boats, motorized and with sails, can be found. A decently sized area of storage houses and offices is located in the harbour area, and it's not supposed to be the best neighbourhood in Locke.
LOCKE CITY UNIVERSITY
Abbreviated LCU, Locke City University is a moderately well-known and longstanding institution of higher learning with a considerable population of both full-time and part-time students. While the colleges and degree programs offered are varied, there is a particular focus on history, engineering, Asian studies, and a pretty decent medical program, complete with a teaching hospital adjacent to campus. Their school colors are red, green, and white, with a polar bear mascot named "Bliz" - a source of either embarrassment or fierce defensiveness depending on who you talk to, as well as various controversies over the years due to the claimed "Christmassy" theme in a place that's not even very North Pole-like.
PLAYER CREATED LOCATIONS
↬ Educational facilities
↬ Public services
↬ Food can be acquired here!
↬ Entertainment
↬ Stores
↬ Other
Locke City a particularly massive city on the coast of New Jersey, USA, and contains everything you'd expect a city to contain: slums, business and industrial districts, suburbs, hotels, schools. The city has a very strong multicultural make-up, and features an equivalent to a 'Little Italy' or 'China Town' for every culture you can think of. The city was hit by two earthquakes and a supernatural attack in the first half of 2014, causing destruction mostly in the city centre and business district and bringing it into national headlines. The repairs are still ongoing.
The city does not have a predefined geography. It is instead primarily left indistinct for the purpose of allowing the players and the plot to add what they need when they need it. For a general idea of the current weather, please see Ocean City, NJ; however, again, this is not a strict rule and may be bent for the purposes of plotting.
If you add something to the city geography beyond the generic, just drop a small note of it in the appropriate section of the comments. It's only for the purpose of building up the city's contents and perhaps allowing players to coordinate elements together. For example, how many of the school age characters go to the same school? Does someone work at another's favourite pizza joint? For the same reason, if your character works/goes to school/is a member of/etc a place on the list, you can comment to the top level comment of that place. Changes to the places should also be added by way of a comment to the place comment. Example (which is an actual part of the map, too). You may also include links in the general description.
The city contains the obvious for a real world developed city in the USA. Within the surrounding area (and in range of the player characters, yet partly outside of the echo boundaries) is an agricultural hub, taking advantage of a particularly fertile stretch of ground. Similarly a few large woods and forests are in range. Locations of note include:
BUSINESS DISTRICT
This area suffered the most damage in the earthquake and subsequent snake attack on March 9th. The roads have been mostly fixed by now and dangerously unstable buildings have been torn down, but there is still some substantial damage to be seen in the streets.
The Tuning Towers are located in the very centre of the business district The third tallest building in the USA, it stands at 1,350ft tall. Tuning Towers is known for its design that resembles a tuning fork, a combined base but split into two separate towers higher up. It was commissioned by the industrialist Harry Tunings, who had the design made to reference his name and not the other way round.
DEAD DISTRICT
Not officially known as such, the Dead District is the nickname for a large area of long abandoned buildings, that due to legal issues have been left standing to dilapidate. Although the expense is minimal in purchasing the land, every few years someone does and gives up on achieving anything with it quickly. The area spans several blocks and is inhabited by a small society of the homeless population. The name stuck after the then mayor claimed the entire district had dropped dead overnight.
Thunder corp has built a large compound here, housing a pentagon-shaped building.
FORT TURNER
A military installation just about in the range of the player characters. Fort Turner is a US Army base famous during the Revolutionary War for changing hands between the British and American forces an extremely high number of times. The base houses a small military museum within its boundaries, which is separated from the main installation.
HARBOUR
Locke City has, as a coastal city, a harbour. It is used for both commercial and private ships, and trade towards many harbours around the Atlantic goes through it. But not only container ships can be seen there, also the odd cruise ship and many smaller or larger private boats, motorized and with sails, can be found. A decently sized area of storage houses and offices is located in the harbour area, and it's not supposed to be the best neighbourhood in Locke.
LOCKE CITY UNIVERSITY
Abbreviated LCU, Locke City University is a moderately well-known and longstanding institution of higher learning with a considerable population of both full-time and part-time students. While the colleges and degree programs offered are varied, there is a particular focus on history, engineering, Asian studies, and a pretty decent medical program, complete with a teaching hospital adjacent to campus. Their school colors are red, green, and white, with a polar bear mascot named "Bliz" - a source of either embarrassment or fierce defensiveness depending on who you talk to, as well as various controversies over the years due to the claimed "Christmassy" theme in a place that's not even very North Pole-like.
PLAYER CREATED LOCATIONS
↬ Educational facilities
↬ Public services
↬ Food can be acquired here!
↬ Entertainment
↬ Stores
↬ Other
Education
Public services
Open Arms Homeless Shelter
Type(s) of facility: Non-denominational, charity-funded homeless shelter with no ties to the government.
Location: A few blocks away from the Dead District
General: Once an old apartment building, the Open Arms shelter was opened about ten years ago. The administrative offices are all on the second floor, a soup kitchen is located on the first, and the remainder of the floors are for the people that the organization serves. Open Arms is a non-denominational, charity-funded group, so it survives solely based off of grants and personal donations; the government has no hand in its operation. While the facility doesn't have an actual medical team and isn't equipped to provide medical care beyond giving out Tylenol and bandaids, there's always an on-call nurse practitioner around, who can refer people to other medical facilities as needed.
example
LSR clinic
Type(s) of facility: Medical clinic, generally focused on serving the underprivileged.
Location: Well within the Dead District.
General: LSR is a fairly small clinic, named for the only remaning letters on its broken-down sign. Once a poor, barely-functioning place, it now runs fairly decently thanks to the revenue generated by the Wise Snake disaster. LSR focuses on helping those who can't afford to pay as much for treatment as it usually might cost. It consists of six or seven medical offices, a pair of administrative offices, a sickbay for treating injuries, and a lobby. It's currently run by Dr. Mordin Solus and Dr. Aaron Strider; more information can be found here.
no subject
St. John's Episcopal Church
Type(s) of facility: Episcopal Church with a medium-sized congregation (180-200 members).
Location: About five blocks northwest of the city center.
General:
A welcoming parish with an active community, St John's used to own a nice church building. It sustained massive damage in the 2014 earthquakes and subsequent snake attack, and due to a lack of funds had been abandoned by its congregation until the money for demolition and rebuilding would be gathered, while they met in another congregation's rooms. But then, between the 6th and the 7th of August, the damaged building was over night replaced by a new building. The congregation has since moved into the new church and added tents and containers to house makeshift offices and classrooms.
The new building is made up of two stories. To the left of the entrance of the main floor is a small meeting room that is now used as a storage room. Also directly on the left from the entrance is a set of stairs leading up to a study that has been turned into the secretary's office, though three medieval desks and an equally medieval bookshelf remain.
This may serve as a rough visual reference, though the chapel is not located on a rock and also isn't as reddish.
Helgeandskyrkan Church, Swedish consulate
Type(s) of facility: Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Danish and Finnish Lutheran Church. Swedish consulate.
Location: In the better parts of town.
General: A medium sized building in one of the better parts of town, hosting a church, offices, group and other public rooms and two kitchens. Originally founded as a seaman's church by the Swedish Church as Gustav-Adolf-Kyrka, nowadays the church is a cooperation between all (Lutheran) Nordic churches and functions as the cultural and practical center of the Nordic people (visitors and immigrants who hold on to their identities alike) in Locke City.
* It offers services in Swedish and Danish every Sunday and in Norwegian, Finnish and Icelandic once a month. All other churchly services can be had in all those languages as well, though appointments might be necessary due to some pastors not permanently residing in Locke. The office is always staffed and able to help in all languages, though.
* There is a variety of clubs and groups meeting in it's rooms, most of them not really related to the religious and more to the cultural aspects of the community. Choirs, parents', children's, teen's, women's and men's groups, scouts, various cultural groups, and so on. Partly in English, partly in one or more of the involved languages.
Language classes are also offered.
The facilities also host cafes and dinners with "Finnish, Norwegian, etc tables" and cultural foods.
Events like Lucia, Midsummer, etc are celebrated in the community.
* A Swedish consulate that also offers services for citizens of other Nordic countries is also located in the building. As such election parties are also held in the building.
Food
Bean & Gone Coffee Shop
Type(s) of eatery: Coffee shop.
Location: In one of the more downtown residential areas that a lot of students and similar people live in.
General: An independent coffee shop, known for heavenly coffee and cocoa, but the smoothies are pretty mediocre. Very homely and warm atmosphere, the furniture more alternative-grandmotherly-comfortable and less modern-stylish. Pricing is average, though they have good lunch offers.
Entertainment
Meadowland Falls Amusement Park
Type(s): Amusement park
Location: way out in the outskirts, actually just outside the echo boundary. Sorry folks, even your closest source of thrill rides is out of bounds. 8C
Unless there's a park on the pier, which there might be, i dunno.General: One of the biggest theme parks in New Jersey, Meadowland Falls is famous in the state and across the country for its roller coasters, the majority of which are built by (and named after, in some fashion or another) Jack and Maddie Fenton. It's got everything you could want from an amusement park--roller coasters ranging from small and calm to huge and adrenaline-spiking, rides for all ages, and grossly overpriced funnel cakes.
Stores
Other