Post by the powers that also be on Dec 9, 2012 16:09:24 GMT -5
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NYC
the idiot's guide
By virtue of both popular demand and my own unceasing genorosity, I have compiled a list of basic facts regarding successfully RPing in the glorious city of New York on HIDDEN, with a concentration on Manhattan. Anything not on this guide that you have a question about: Google. Or, you can just ask me I suppose.
New York City is divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island. Manhattan is the smallest of the five boroughs, but also packed with an incredible amount of people. Manhattan itself is further divided into roughly three different areas: Uptown, Midtown, and Downtown.
Midtown & Downtown are what are typically thought of as “the city” in the public mindset. Midtown has Times Square, Broadway, Fifth Avenue, the Empire State Building and gallons of goggling tourists who don't know how not to clog up the sidewalk. Downtown is the Financial District with the New York Stock Exchange, the South Ferry and a ton of skyscrapers that look very pretty. (Also as a note, because I've been told this isn't the case everywhere: downtown in Manhattan is south while uptown is north-ish.) Within these three areas are the neighborhoods of New York.
Keep in mind when you're choosing where your character lives and hangs out that each neighborhood can and will have its own distinct culture. For example, there have been days growing up in East Harlem where I could go without speaking English to anyone on the street, getting groceries or doing laundry. Someone who lives on the Upper East side is probably affluent, and a plucky young transplant from outside the city might want to live in the East Village.
2.
The division of the supernatural races on HIDDEN is fairly straightforward, with regards to the neighborhoods. Typically weres and the seelie fae reside uptown, while the vampires and unseelie fae enjoy the rotating buffet of tourists each night in midtown. Demons and fallen frequent downtown, while ghosts and human wakers such as sorcerers, magi & mediums roam as they like. Angels also go where they will.
This of course doesn't mean that you can't have your vampire gaming the Stock Exchange or your seelie fae at a Broadway show, but keep in mind that they're going to be on their guard, and if you bring a lot of friends with you, you might just kick up a rather bloody and messy affair. And no one wants that. Do they?
3.
When it comes to getting around Manhattan, public transportation is generally the key. Driving your own car is tedious, slow and absurdly expensive. Taking a taxi is less tedious, certainly not slow (the stereotype of outrageous and near-illegal cab driving techniques in New York is not without base) but almost as expensive, if you're using a taxi on the regular. The bus or the subway is your best bet.
In the words of your friendly neighborhood admin regarding the subway: “it costs like $2.50 a ride. it is cleaner than it was five years ago. the not-express moves like a snail.” That is basically all you need to know. Count your blessings that I decided to omit the two thousand word write-up I had of the lines. No, I don't know what possessed me either.
4.
Manhattan runs on a grid system. Avenues run north to south. Streets run east to west. Don't worry about it beyond that.
5.
Above all: have fun. Don't worry about being a stickler for perfection. Unless being a stickler for perfection is your idea of fun, in which case don't listen to me. Anyone who notices that you accidentally mentioned your character eating some brand of chocolate bar that isn't sold in the northeast and calls you out about it is an asshole. The point of RP is to enjoy yourself.[/style]
Schools. The public school system is numbered, and there's a whole lot of them. If you're playing a high school student, you can probably just handwave their specific school away. Private schools are usually dramatically better in quality of education, and upper middle class families will often send their children there. There are a few waker schools (Damodred School in the Upper East, and St. Augustine Academy on Staten Island), which are all private.
There are many colleges. Columbia University is the local Ivy; it's uptown with an enclosed campus as well as a neighborhood that feels like a college town. NYU is often just as competitive as Columbia and found downtown in the heart of the city, right where the action is. The New School is nearby NYU and perhaps more famous for its art school Parsons. There are plenty of other private institutions, plus many public universities run on the CUNY system. You can wikipedia them.
2.
Work. There are jobs in NYC. There are a lot of jobs in NYC, especially if you include Brooklyn, where many businesses keep alternate offices. For academics, there are many schools (see above) to teach at, and there are all sorts of botanical gardens, zoos, and museums for non-teaching happy-researchy sorts to do good work. For government, there's NYC's own government run by the mayor, which includes all normal public amenities (firefighters, police, hospitals, etc) and also administration jobs. The national government doesn't keep many offices here, besides for the usual CIA, FBI, and other outposts. The United Nations has a presence in NYC, so there are diplomats, interpreters, and other international folk around too.
But of course, New York is most known as a commercial city these days, now that industrial companies have fled for cheaper grounds. The grand majority of jobs in the city available are on Wall Street or somewhere else downtown, and they'll have a job for anyone. From artists to analysts to bouncers, there's a business, a law-firm, a bank, or whatever else--ranging from fancy schmancy all the way to extremely sketchy--that can hire your character.
3.
Transport. Let's face it, most people commute to work. Living in Manhattan proper is expensive, and you can always find a bigger, better place in Brooklyn for the same price. Queens and the Bronx provide even cheaper for commuters, and there's also New Jersey for those that don't mind the slow drive into the city.
Manhattan apartments may have a basement garage (where you pay rent and lease on parking spots just like an apartment), but otherwise save for the stray overpriced parking lot, you better learn how to parallel park on the street. Of course, you don't need a car to get by in the city. In the boroughs, especially as it gets further and further from Manhattan, people are increasingly more likely to own a car and have the space to park it too.
Primarily, your character will use the subway system to get around town, and some characters may even use buses. (For midtown and uptown, the subway lines don't run east-west, so you have to take the bus unless you fancy long, long walks.) Taxis are easy to hail, and they're used if you've got the money to blow. Taxis aren't always faster than the subway, but they're always more convenient and certainly more comfortable.
HIDDEN in plain sight is a modern-day supernatural noir game set in New York City and sprawling the rest of America. Magic is real, and so are angels, ghosts, gods, vampires, and witches. It doesn't matter if you believe in them, because they're coming for you either way.
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( VERTIGO ) - takes no math classes.
( TSUNDERE ) - Not actually staff, but has residual staff powers from v4. Feel free to pester with questions.
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