To counter the influx of political comments, how about a little RPG-related help?

We're planning to start a campaign with players being beginner investigators to the Weird (you know, supernatural & stuff), pursuing it across different worlds. And here's where Chirine the street steps in.

See, Chirine is, as you might have guessed, a street. A sentient street that communicates via haiku-like short poems that show up as graffiti here and there.

Controlled entirely by the GM (meaning: ME!), he teleports at will across time and space, connects to various streets, alleys, roads and other means of local transportation in the vicinity of PCs' target. You know the drill: investigators are informed that some weird thing happens somewhere out there and Chirine transports them as close to the point of interest as possible. In addition he provides a place for them to stay, store their equipment, do research, conduct some experiments between sessions and such.

The idea of such an entity was [strike]stolen[/strike], borrowed from the surreal DOOM PATROL comic book series...



...which in turn might be traced back to H.P. Lovecraft. Where he got the idea, I don't know.

Anyway, here's where I could use some help.

See, I have an initial plan for Chirine and some buildings, but I'd welcome a handful of additional buildings more.

So far I have:

• Apartments - here's where PCs are gonna stay and live. It's a small section consisting of a few separate buildings, an amalgam of different architectonic styles.
  
• Lake - just a place to sit & relax, feed birds, catch a fish, perhaps run a few laps,
  
• Headquarters - rather tall building where PCs gather, discuss plans, train, store equipment, trophies, perhaps organize a prison. It's rather crude construction resembling a cooling tower/silo built in brutalist style.
  
• "What If" warehouse - large building filled to the ceiling with containers full of stuff that could've exist, but doesn't. Imagine Apple smartphones developed by Google, or Blu-Ray disc with "Indiana Jones" movie featuring Jared Leto as Indy. There's no index of stuff, so random search is the only way to get stuff. The majority of results consist of just a junk, but sometimes one gets something interesting, as long as it doesn't exist in reality and isn't what PCs are looking for. Long building made of red brick.
  
• Mysterious Cathedral - old, apparently haunted place. On the inside it looks like abandoned long ago, on the outside it's a cross between Sagrada Familia and Aya Sofia, but no specific style might be recognized. Nobody knows why it's there and Chirine refuses to discuss the place.
  
• Research Station - small (but much bigger on the inside) laboratory featuring high tech equipment of often unknown origin and application. On the outside it looks like a semi-professional radio station.
  

Last three buildings are supposed to deliver additional plot hooks. You know, some ghost materializes in Cathedral, or a gate to alternative dimension opens in Research Station.

Here's a rough sketch of the place. (Criticism is forbidden! )

[ATTACH=CONFIG]233[/ATTACH]

So, how about some weird building? Just a general idea is enough.

Thank you in advance!

P.S.
I'm planning to use Lords of Gossamer & Shadow system, large portions of JAGS: Wonderland setting and the overall tone is supposed to be rather light, closer to a "oh shit, here we go again" comedy but with strong underlying horror theme. Chirine himself is supposed to resemble a certain user of this forum, part stoic, part enthusiastic, always glad to help or share some wisdom.

Just first impressions of the map...you knew forbidding criticism wasn't going to work, right?

It's too big, too spread out, too many places where vision should allow you to see between buildings...to what?  The surrounding city, white mist, black nothingness?  Instead, it should be a single street, even a narrow winding alley, with buildings/tenements on both sides that really blocks out the sky.  Once you transition onto The Street, you should never know really if you are in some other dimension or if you threw a tennis ball over the building if it would land in the East End of London or wherever you left.

Other than that, brilliant theft.

Or, you could have The Street look like it could belong wherever it is.  They don't find Chirine, it finds them.   They walk into one of the buildings which looks like Upper Manhattan and exit with The Street looking like the slums of Cairo.

Quote from: CRKrueger;906953Just first impressions of the map...you knew forbidding criticism wasn't going to work, right?

Damn you, HULK, you always smash things.

The map is meant to merely give an information about "what"s and "where"s - neither the scale nor the placement of buildings are to be treated like they depict real dimensions.

QuoteOr, you could have The Street look like it could belong wherever it is.  They don't find Chirine, it finds them.   They walk into one of the buildings which looks like Upper Manhattan and exit with The Street looking like the slums of Cairo.

It's reasonable, but I'm planning Chirine to have his own opinion concerning a few destinations. For example, there's a place where he won't simply travel to without players convincing him it's a right thing to do, because he has "bad memories" about that. And there's a place that might infect him, potentially even kill him if he stays there for too long, so for players it'll be the race against the time. Then, it's not that Chirine isn't open - players are gonna learn that while they were away, the Street has a new resident(s)...

Simple "teleport" might prevent this and a few other events I have from happening.

'Chirine'. That's kind of an odd name.



(I pronounce it with a hard 'ch' at the beginning; quite a few people have used it with a soft 'sh', instead.)

Quote from: chirine ba kal;906963'Chirine'. That's kind of an odd name.

There's a funny story behind it. See, there was this guy rolling up his character in summer of '76 - VERY IMPORTANT year for me...

...

...Oh...

Something tells me you may have heard this story already.

Quote(I pronounce it with a hard 'ch' at the beginning; quite a few people have used it with a soft 'sh', instead.)

Ha! It's exactly the way I pronounce it. Thanks for the confirmation, and I hope you're not angry for borrowing it. Treat it like a tribute, uncle Chirine!

Quote from: JesterRaiin;906966There's a funny story behind it. See, there was this guy rolling up his character in summer of '76 - VERY IMPORTANT year for me...

...

...Oh...

Something tells me you may have heard this story already.



Ha! It's exactly the way I pronounce it. Thanks for the confirmation, and I hope you're not angry for borrowing it. Treat it like a tribute, uncle Chirine!

What story would that be... ?

I am not angry at all! I think that this is funnier then banana peel and pratfalls. I mean, if I make occasional 'guest star turns' in Dave's Blackmoor as A Mighty And Powerful Demon From Beyond Time and Space, why not?

Quote from: chirine ba kal;906983What story would that be... ?

...ah well, it's a story full of action and drama. Betrayals, backstabbing, occasional decapitations but also romance, friendship and selfless sacrifice. I'd have to contact my agent to make sure I'm free to share more details.

QuoteI am not angry at all! I think that this is funnier then banana peel and pratfalls. I mean, if I make occasional 'guest star turns' in Dave's Blackmoor as A Mighty And Powerful Demon From Beyond Time and Space, why not?

Thanks again - that's what I hoped for.

I'm highly uncreative, but quite good at [strike]stealing[/strike] borrowing & emulating. I think 8/10 NPCs I made for my games were impersonations "with a twist" or at least heavily inspired by someone I knew. Chirine the Street is supposed to be experienced, calm, wise, but also enthusiastic about PCs goals, so, well... Let's say I have a hunch my choice for the inspiration was correct. I hope my implementation will be as good and true to what I learned about the original as I want it.

Quote from: chirine ba kal;906963'Chirine'. That's kind of an odd name.



(I pronounce it with a hard 'ch' at the beginning; quite a few people have used it with a soft 'sh', instead.)

I guess those people were tripped up by French pronunciation;).

I managed to find a few photos relevant to the topic.

Headquarters:

Spoiler

Cathedral:

Spoiler

Research Station:

Spoiler

"What if..." Warehouse:

Spoiler

Apartments:

Spoiler

The Lake:

Spoiler

I've been thinking about additional places:

A small plaza featuring a fountain.
Whatever is thrown into the fountain is multiplied by a random number and is transported to other part of the Street, but it's impossible to tell where. It might appear behind the Research Station, it might be found in a cellar underneath one of apartments.

Spoiler

A shopping center.
Looks impressive on the outside, but inside it's vastly empty - just a long chain of brand new shops and offices. They were never put to any actual use, and hardly any contains any merchandise. Still, it's possible to find some objects there. Nothing extraordinary, of course. Just some pencils, coffee cups, perhaps a computer or two, some furniture like chairs or desks.

Great place to convert into a personal workshop or a magazine.

There's also a big screen outside of the center. Chirine likes to communicate through it, by displaying his haikus in bright, vivid letters with fonts matching his current state of mind. Every once and then Chirine might be persuaded to use the screen to play a movie, transmit a soccer game, or such.

Spoiler

But what about distance?  You plop down that research station, what do you see around it, past it, etc...  The Street shows up in the middle of Paris what are you actually going to see past and between the buildings as you're walking down The Street?

Quote from: CRKrueger;907141But what about distance?  You plop down that research station, what do you see around it, past it, etc...  The Street shows up in the middle of Paris what are you actually going to see past and between the buildings as you're walking down The Street?

So far, my assumption is that Chirine either:

- chooses a place large enough to match his size (some empty space, outskirts, a few miles away from the city itself),
- expands the local reality (as in "suddenly there's a whole new city block between Samsung skyscraper and a museum"),
- there's "reality merge" (Chirine's buildings show up next to already existing buildings and constructions),
- there's some sort of trans-space - instead of actually moving, Chirine extends one of its endings, like a tentacle, connects it to some place in a target city (for example, a dead end in a back alley), ehile the rest of him stays in his own "dimension", or wherever he really exists,
- "Resnick's" solution - Chirine is everywhere, it's just you don't see him - to reach him you must do something specific, for example enter and exit local bank 5 times, then turn left, right, left and ta-daaaa, you're standing next to "What If..." warehouse. Same thing with exiting the Street. He simply tells you where and how to go to reach Manhattan, Cafe of Broken Dreams or the 9th Circle of Hell,
- an amalgam of above solutions: you ask Chirine, he extends his ending, connects it to the point of arrival. When you turn back there's nothing, an empty space, or a solid wall. If you want to travel back, you need to contact with the Street via some device, write his name on a wall, or something like that

The most important things to remember are that:

- Chirine isn't meant to stay there indefinitely
- "What do you mean? It was always here!" effect should be enough to explain his presence
- "MAAAAAAAGIC. I ain't gonna explain shit" is always relevant.

Quote from: JesterRaiin;907173So far, my assumption is that Chirine either:

- chooses a place large enough to match his size (some empty space, outskirts, a few miles away from the city itself),
- expands the local reality (as in "suddenly there's a whole new city block between Samsung skyscraper and a museum"),
- there's "reality merge" (Chirine's buildings show up next to already existing buildings and constructions),
- there's some sort of trans-space - instead of actually moving, Chirine extends one of its endings, like a tentacle, connects it to some place in a target city (for example, a dead end in a back alley), ehile the rest of him stays in his own "dimension", or wherever he really exists,
- "Resnick's" solution - Chirine is everywhere, it's just you don't see him - to reach him you must do something specific, for example enter and exit local bank 5 times, then turn left, right, left and you're standing next to "What If..." warehouse. Same thing with traveling form the Street. He simply tells you where and how to go to reach Manhattan, Cafe of Broken Dreams or the 9th Circle of Hell,
- an amalgam of above solutions: you ask Chirine, he extends his ending, connects it to the point of arrival, when you turn back there's nothing, empty space, or a solid wall. If you want to travel back, you need to contact with the Street via some device, write his name on a wall, or something like that

The most important things to remember are that:

- Chirine isn't meant to stay there indefinitely
- "What do you mean? It was always here!" effect should be enough to explain his presence
- "MAAAAAAAGIC. I ain't gonna explain shit" is always relevant.

You've been hanging around with Mr. Anderson, haven't you? What you have here is the street that runs past Ye Olde Phoenix Inn...
I'll be down at the end of the bar chatting with Holger, Valeria, and Rupert; I'm the one with the brown bubbly stuff on the rocks with a straw in a tall pilsner...

Quote from: chirine ba kal;907174You've been hanging around with Mr. Anderson, haven't you? What you have here is the street that runs past Ye Olde Phoenix Inn...
I'll be down at the end of the bar chatting with Holger, Valeria, and Rupert; I'm the one with the brown bubbly stuff on the rocks with a straw in a tall pilsner...

Unfortunately, the only connection between Mr. Anderson and me is along the lines of 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon.

Still... An Inn, a pub, a bar.

...I can't believe it. I forgot about the most important place in the universe. (facepalm).

Thanks for the reminder, I need to develop something like this. Hmmm... Why not fantasy-like inn decorated with paintings depicting scenes from apparently fantasy world? Hmmmmmmm... (thinking in progress)

Ok, I think I have it covered.

- Ba Kal Pub

Old water tower made of red brick. There's a pub in the lower part and above it - a library.

The pub seems like taken straight out of fantasy world - a fireplace, wooden walls, floor and furniture, animal skins lying here and there. Each wall is covered with bigger and smaller framed paintings depicting scenes from some unspecified but obviously fantasy reality. Above the bar, someone hung up a photo of a guy in glasses, smiling mysteriously and holding something that looks like an icosahedron made of bone. It's signed "ba Kal" and it is considered a tradition that the first drink should go in the name of "ba Kal", even though nobody has a clue who this "ba Kal" might be and why he has a pub named after him.

Next to the bar are stairs leading to a chamber full of book-cases filled with ancient tomes and common books alike. The majority are written in unknown languages and rather impossible to decipher. It's worth noting that the library is always surrounded with silence - even if someone would be "celebrating" loudly in the pub below, no sound would reach people staying above.

There's a trapdoor in the ceiling leading to an attic. It serves no specific purpose, but it's connected (via short bridge) to a small turret. Inside, in a very tight room (not enough for a grown man to stand up), featuring no windows or sources of light whatsoever one might hear a distant, but loud sound resembling a heartbeat. Urban legend says that if someone locks himself inside and spends a night there, he is gonna learn what to do to summon yet another building to the Street... Or he will know the true meaning of "madness".

There's no one working in the Pub, but somehow it's always clean, barrels are full of beer and there's no shortage of bottles with good alcohol of unspecified origin. Books are in a good condition too, there's no dust to be found, no insects, fungi or similar "plagues".

Spoiler