Changelings, Las Vegas

I’m going to run a LasVegas game here soon for changelings. It’s the perfectsetting for the Moon/Night and Sun/Day courts. Unfortunately I’ve never beenthere so can anybody give me more info on LasVegas other than the Strip? I really want to get afeel for the whole city. 

Well, first you have to understand that there are two "Strips".  One is the big one with most of the casinos that everyone goes to most of the time.  However, separated from it by a fairly large ghetto (Which, in my game, is Night territory) is an older Strip, the one that is a crossroad with Fremont Street.  The two are far enough away from one another and distinct enough in character to be essentially separated.

Las Vegas has spread out to consume most of the Valley, in all directions.  The Airport is close to the strip.  East of that is the central Vegas area, mostly filled with lower middle class people. 

In the far Northwest is Summerlin, full of slightly rich, quiet prudes and old money types.  The whole suburb is pretty nice, with very few poor areas.  Makes good for Day Court territory.

To contrast, in the Southeast is Green Valley/Henderson.  While more leaning towards the upper-middle and rich sorts, these people are more of the tacky new money types than the elegant old money ones.  They act more spoiled than noble.

The Southwest is still in the process of development.  Its one of the only places in Vegas you can still find huge swaths of desert pavement and wild desert plants. 

In Summerlin, there is a place called Lone Mountain, a single.. well, lone mountain that has been entirely surrounded by the suburb.  When me and my pagan friends go up, there, we call it the faerie hill.. it might be a good idea to use it in some changeling or fae context.

Vegas was founded around the Springs Preserve, which is just on the edge of Summerlin, near a big mall.  It was the springs that supplied water to the travellers in the old desert, and is now a sort of park.  Surely, there have to go be interesting things going on, there.

There are a few washes that pass through Vegas, notably the Flamingo Wash in central vegas.  Washes, as little streams of near swampland stuck in the middle of wastelands and empty lots, give a lot of flavour (And scent, unfortunately) to otherwise plain areas.

Remember, the desert around Vegas is not the kind with sand and dunes.  It's the kind that looks like vacant lots.  There is desert pavement, a hard, packed, pale dirt.  This dirt is often embedded with sharp rocks, and lots of thorny shrubs.  We don't get many palm trees unless they were put there unnaturally--Tall thorned shrubs and Joshua Trees are the norm.  Even still, much of the desert-areas within town (Especially our growing number of desert landscapes) havesilvery purple Sage and pretty brightly coloured Lantanas.  There are other unique things, like fluffy pampas grass and agave plants.  All of this is fairly easily worked into the Hedge--My city hedge looks like you've stumbled into a vacant lot, though a big portion of it is also the manicured mazes of desert landscape, seemingly growing madly on its own from the Hedge itself.

Just on the edge of town is a place called Red Rock Canyon.  The whole place is striking and beautiful--a maze-like canyon made of deep red, black, and sandy colored sandstone (Though obviously predominantly red).  A related place is a bit further north of Vegas, but has a similar feel.  This place, called the Valley of Fire, has the same red rocks.  These rocks, however, have been shaped by erosion into strange statues, towers, and formations.  There are lots of tiny mormon forts and houses (As big as a walk in closet, or just a little smaller) dotting the landscape of the Valley of Fire, but it isn't nearly as easy to get lost in the wandering canyons there as it is at Red Rock.  Both of these places are ripe with story potential.

And a bit of history.  Vegas was stuck in the Wild West until around the 20's, when the little stop in the center of the deadly and grueing 40 Mile Desert became its own tourist attraction from the nicer hotels they started making for people.  It wasn't very long ago that we were just a little dot in the middle of a vast desert--as late as the 50's, we didn't have any more than.. like.. 50,000 people, perhaps fewer (My dad was around back in the 60's and 70's, he knows better tha I do).  SLowly, however, the cowboys and travellers were joined by tourists, especially after bigger attractions showed up (All with Wild West themes, by the way).  It wasn't until the mob opened up the Flamingo that there was a major change in Vegas's atmosphere.  When the Mob sunk its claws into the city, things got better.  There were more jobs, more people coming in, more money for people.  Oddly enough, at that time and for quite some time afterwards, the Mob was better to our city than our police were.  While the mob was trying to push a profit and did illegal things, the Police were overpowered, often stealing from people they arrested and charging people for rediculously overdramatized charges (Being charged with a fellony for having pot resin on your clothes and paying ludicious crimes, to name one).  Things got turned around as the population grew and the police and government started cracking down more on mobsters than on the people.  Eventually, the mob was questioned by the arrival of the powerful Howard Hughes (In my game, poor crazy old Howard was a Fetch, and his powerful Changeling double used his money and power to become one of the most influential changelings ever, growing to a reeeeally high Wyrd and even ruling Las Vegas as King of the Day until only a few months ago).  Howard Hughes bought a few mob casinos, and pretty much changed the Casino game from a mob one to a rich CEO one.  Now, the Strip is dominated by powerful companies and their even more powerful owners.  We were undergoing a very huge population boom, with jobs and new residents practically popping out of the woodwork.  Of course, when the Recession hit, no one could afford to visit vegas or gamble anymore.  We lost a lot of our financial stability, and we were hit harder by the housing market crash than practically any other city (Houses on my block went from almost 200k to down to 60k.  The Condos in the rich and ritzy Las Vegas Country Club, once selling for 300k+, were being auctioned starting at 30k).  That brings us to today, when Vegas is desperate and hungry, hoping for the country to improve so that they'll come have fun in Vegas again.

Hope that wasn't too much info, or not enough.  I tend to rant about the value of my hometown as a Changeling setting, as most anyone would :)

Oh wow, thank you, thats a lot more than I expected. Its really got my ideas spinning now I need to start writing.

Summerlin also runs almost all the way up to the Native American reservation NW of the city. Anasazi ruins are found in that area.

Nellis AFB is a massive feature on the NE corner of the city and the base is broken into two parts. Area 1 is your typical military base while Area 2 has a lot of stuff we don't know about. Area 2 also houses the nukes found at Nellis AFB.

If you jump on the highway and drive north west you pass into one of the biggest military ranges in the country (not the biggest, but in the running for 2nd or 3rd largest I believe). Less than an hour up the road you run into a dismal little town called Indian Springs that is home to Creech AFB. This place is straight out of the movies. Roswell has its own legends but "Groom Lake" which is the 'real' Area 51 is in the mountains there.

The Hoover Dam has more to do with the boom of Las Vegas than tourism and the mob actually. The town's origins actually has to do with an entry in a popular journal and a description of the two springs found there, the Mormons building a fort there as a halfway point between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City and the mining industry because precious metals were found in the area. That all started around 1829.

While the Hoover Dam was being built in 1931 an entire community of folks sprung up at what is now known as Boulder City (the town was built by the government I might add). There isn't a lot out in that desert and people were flooding there during the Great Depression to find work on the dam. However, being built by the government meant Boulder City could not allow drinking, gambling or prostitution of any sort. The state of Nevada saw an opporunity and legalized all the fine things the boys couldn't get in Boulder City, hehe.

From that moment on Las Vegas was all about drinking, gambling and women. It has been that way ever since. Prostitution went out when Nellis AFB came in. The city needed more income to sustain itself (because the truth is the casinos made some people very, very rich but kept a lot of people poor) and the military said they would not allow a base to be built there if their servicemen were going to be corrupted. The compromise was drinking and gambling remained legal but prostitution did not. So you can thank the USAF for the way that is run in the city now. The mining industry died and agrictulture dried up after 20 years or so. Today the two major industries that support the city are the casinos and the military bases (which employ more people from the city than most people realize).

The mob moved in for a while but their influence has been horribly exxagerated by history. They saw an opportunity and moved in. They made some money but then Nevada created the commission and gambling became known as "gaming." NOTE: Try finding a 'gaming' store in Vegas is a nightmare for this reason by the way. Suddenly the whole thing was a legitimate business and real businesses across the country (and world for that matter) got involved. The mob was quickly driven out (or into politics in a couple cases) by companies with more money to invest. I know everyone jokes that the mob still controls things but the truth is they haven't controlled much there in a long, long time.

First atomic bomb was detonated at a Nevada test site. One of the few tests done above ground before the ban which forced all the testing underground.

Vegas is a great city and I enjoyed my time living there. I only visited the casinos maybe a dozen times in several years but I always found something to do. There is a lot of history and culture there and there are a lot of interesting places to visit.

This may be of use: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/2651937/The-people-living-in-drains-below-Las-Vegas.html

nothri:

This may be of use: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/2651937/The-people-living-in-drains-below-Las-Vegas.html

Wow.  I've lived here all my life and never heard of that.  I knew about the homeless people living under bridges (I'm sure a good few will make perfect ogres, but in real life it's pretty sad).  I also knew about the big "homeless street" that was just past the Old Strip.  There was an entire tent city across the street from the Indian Reservation that's inside town limits.  However, the city cleaned that area up.  The people living under the Strip in the drains seem better equipped and a little better off, but it's true.  The housing situation here is pretty bad.

And yeah, I had completely forgotten to mention Boulder City and Nellis.  Boulder City is a weird little town.  They bought most of the area south of themselves, specifically to leave it empty and prevent Vegas itself from building there.  Boulder City DID indeed ban all of the fun things that Vegas is known for, and is still a very small, quiet, and conservative little town.  My acting guild does a Renaissance Faire down there.  While Vegas's faire seems to welcome the "Bad Faeries" and their adult humor, I actually got in trouble in Boulder City for it.  Luckily, they don't call me clever for nothing, and I managed to turn their complaints against me into a criticism of their own poor parenting skills.

Nellis is a pretty big part of our city, as is the government base feel in general.  The infamous Area 51 is nearby.  If there ever were a hive of Task Force: Valkyrie agents, I would say it would have to be there.  Surely, they realize just how many"pod people" are living in Las Vegas, stealing the lives of innocent humans (Who they have no idea are Fetches). 

The Boulder Dam indeed changed things for Vegas.  Before the Dam, the hotels and entertainment only drew a few people.  It really was the workers brought in to build the Dam that brought the vice to Vegas (Along with the Railroad industry).  Opium dens and prostitution became a major problem.  High School students were going to brothels for their senior trips, and spending their study days in the same places. 

However, Boulder Dam isn't quite what it used to be.  Lake Mead (The largest man-made lake in the world, if I recall) is disappearing at a much faster rate than other "natural" water losses.  Everyone is worried that the Lake will disappear.  Goodness knows how many things we will find down there--Dozens and dozens of mob-corpses, sunken and lost objects, even an entire Amerindian ruin (Called the Lost City).

I completely forgot about the lake disappearing myself. That is definitely a major concern for the city.

Cleverest of Things:

Nellis is a pretty big part of our city, as is the government base feel in general.  The infamous Area 51 is nearby.  If there ever were a hive of Task Force: Valkyrie agents, I would say it would have to be there.  Surely, they realize just how many"pod people" are living in Las Vegas, stealing the lives of innocent humans (Who they have no idea are Fetches). 

Heh. That's certainly true, but my first thought is detached wisps of Grey Keepers on autopsy tables, or conspiratorial pledges made between high up government officials and otherwordly fae entities, perhaps going so far as to assist in abducting humans in exchange for Fetches. Even if Area 51 is just a normal, every day military base and Roswell was overly excitable people becoming particularly overly excited about a weather balloon or a spy plane....tongues will wag, rumors will spread, glamour will saturate dream....and the Others will hear the siren call and come to investigate. If Groom Lake wasn't originally a spot for Fae attentions, the rumors will have drawn them there long ago. Who can separate fact from fiction now? There could be anything there from some unearthly token in the shape of a flying cigar shaped disk to high up government officials replaced with things of ash, smoke, and shadow reporting to their grey skinned masters.

nothri:

Heh. That's certainly true, but my first thought is detached wisps of Grey Keepers on autopsy tables, or conspiratorial pledges made between high up government officials and otherwordly fae entities, perhaps going so far as to assist in abducting humans in exchange for Fetches. Even if Area 51 is just a normal, every day military base and Roswell was overly excitable people becoming particularly overly excited about a weather balloon or a spy plane....tongues will wag, rumors will spread, glamour will saturate dream....and the Others will hear the siren call and come to investigate. If Groom Lake wasn't originally a spot for Fae attentions, the rumors will have drawn them there long ago. Who can separate fact from fiction now? There could be anything there from some unearthly token in the shape of a flying cigar shaped disk to high up government officials replaced with things of ash, smoke, and shadow reporting to their grey skinned masters.

Indeed.  Area 51 would have to have several stories of its own, perhaps caused by interactions with them.  I could see what is a "typical" TF:V base, but one that shows just how dangerous and twisted things can be when fae are involved.  The Alien Studies Division (or whatever you want to call the branch of the government that sits around down there) is probably infiltrated with Fetches, many unwitting but at least a few very firmly in the command of their masters.  I can see wisps and hobgoblins and other malicious entities posing as agents.  Some government officials quietly approve of this due to the malicious loyalism you had mentioned before.  Many workers of Area 51 have been kept in the dark.  Though they run secret tests and labwork, they were never informed of what exactly they were testing, and all their especially interesting results are snapped up without their notice.  The Seers of the Throne have probably quietly infiltrated the group, in hopes of using it to debunk and hide any true evidence of the supernatural.  There might be Changeling or two in the ranks, acting in "Cancer cells", ALien convertees and friendlies that have proven their worth and have a personal vendetta against the alien Fae.  There are artifacts and machines in their storage facilities that come from dozens of places, including a few god-machines that may contain True Fae within.  Other machines are more traditional--Hedge mounts and other machines extracted from Hedgespace, goblin fruits, tokens and the like.  But there are a number of devices that would confound even changelings.  These may have been lost items from legendary Atlantis that are as of yet unrecognized as anything but alien.  There might be true otherworldly objects and items, from interplanetary rather than interdimensional origin. 

All of this wrapped up in a pretty red ribbon labelled "Confidential".  Who could ask for more?  Plus, with all the high fantasy that flies around in my game, I thought it would be fitting that the Changeling's enemies have a considerably more sci-fi sounding explanation for them.