Need a small town near Seattle, Foreigner seeks advice from authentic American. Options

[FuelDrop]

Hey all.
I'm working on a mission for my shadowrun game (which is based in Seattle) and i want to set it in a small town within a few hours travel of the city (a day trip, so to speak). The problem I face is this: I'm an Australian who has never been to the United States, so I know little to nothing about what kind of atmosphere to create for a small American town in that part of the country (I don't consider anything learned from movies accurate until independently verified).

While I could simply make something up, I figured that there's an untapped resource available here on Dumpshock in the form of posters who, you know, actually live in the area and know something about it.

If anyone can suggest a town and some landmarks that'll still be around in 2070, I would very much appreciate it.

Edit: Here's the basic concept of the run so far:

[ Spoiler ]

Background: In the town of *placeholder*, *placeholder* from Seattle, there’s trouble afoot. Dirk Friendly has been kicked out of his girlfriend’s place for no apparent reason and barely an hour later he spotted her walking arm in arm with a stranger with a strange expression on her face. Not willing to consider the possibility that his girlfriend of three years would dump him for a complete stranger on a whim, Dirk has spent the last three days trying to find out what’s going on. Everywhere he’s gone for help in *Placeholder* people have been at best unhelpful, leading Dirk to suspect that the mysterious man is a mage, and controlling the minds of his fellows.

The Client: Dirk Friendly. After fleeing *Placeholder* he ended up in Seattle, trying to drown his sorrow in one of the clubs the group frequents.

The Job: find out if the stranger is controlling the minds of the townsfolk and, if so, put a stop to his dastardly scheme.

The Complication: The man isn’t a mage… he simply did his research. He’s managed to acquire enough blackmail material to effectively hold half the town to ransom, and is abusing it to feed his hunger for power and authority.

[Method]

Some place like Cle Elum or Ellensburg would probably work, but you should note that anything just outside Seattle is going to be in Tribal Lands now.

[Tecumseh]

There are plenty of small- to medium-sized towns within a few hours of Seattle but, as Method points out, they haven't been "small American towns" for 50+ years by the 2070s. How many of them still exist in the future - and in what condition - is hard to come by in the rulebooks.

About how large and how far were you thinking? I'm a native Seattlelite and there are several others around here. If you narrow down what you're looking for slightly, we'll come up with some good options.

Starting with Method's suggestions, Cle Elum is about 100km east of the Seattle/Salish border, in the Cascade mountains. It still exists in the future and is a mining town controlled by the Cascade Ork tribe. The current population is just shy of 1,900, but as GM you could make it as large or small as you like. Ellensburg is another 50km to the east of Cle Elum. Population is around 18,000.

[FuelDrop]

Ok, here are some things that'd be perfect for the mission:

1) Low population. It doesn't have to be everyone knowing everyone, but being able to evoke that feel would be great.

2) Isolated. I'm really after a town that feels like its own little self-contained world, where strangers stand out by miles. That should add some extra challenge to information gathering!

3) The town that time forgot. Not literally, of course, but somewhere small and isolated enough that neither corps nor governments can be bothered to interfere. The sort of place that could still be part of the USA... and some of the older residents may still think they are! Obviously, not somewhere fully up on current events in story, so somewhere in real-life that's obscure enough to slip under the radar without trying.

Basically, since the mission I'm building is primarily about putting shadowrunners used to dealing with organised crime and megacorps in a situation they're totally unused to and can't just blast their way out of I need a town that can have a closeness and sense of community they're not used to encountering.

Now I come to think of it those definitions are probably not too helpful in narrowing a place down, so I'll rephrase my question:
If you were going to set up a run like this around Seattle, which town would you set it in?

[Shrike]

I'm thinking Othello.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Othello,_Washington

[FuelDrop]

I'm thinking Othello.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Othello,_Washington

I like.

[Bearclaw]

Ever since First Run I've used Denny Creek off and on. The town itself is pretty isolated, but the area around it is a smuggler stop over.

[ShadowDragon8685]

I do have one question...

Why are the Runners getting involved with this, FD?

Is Dirk Friendly paying them to do this? Chances are that if he was living on his girlfriend's beneficence, he doesn't exactly have a lot of nuyen with which to pay professional criminals.


The only reasons I can think of that they might do this job are
1: Out of complete and total pity for Dirk Friendly. (Not likely; this isn't D&D, they can't live for basically free, they have rent to pay. They're going to go investigating any and every woe of a drunk in a bar.)
2: To put a stop to this mind control nonsense. (Again, not likely; if any of the players are magicians, or even if they simply have their Arcana knowledge skill up-to-snuff, they'll know that a magician can't enact the kind of widespread mind control Dirk is suspicious of. Also, even if they don't, why would they necessarily care, if they're not being paid to care?)
3: They hear Dirk's story, leap to the conclusion of Bugs, and load up for bear, heading out to the town with the intention of stopping this infestation right here and now. (More likely, but only if they have a crusading streak in them. More likely they'll want to stay as far away as possible.)


I think that's the major thing you need to figure out: what is their incentive for doing this?

[FuelDrop]

I do have one question...

Why are the Runners getting involved with this, FD?

Is Dirk Friendly paying them to do this? Chances are that if he was living on his girlfriend's beneficence, he doesn't exactly have a lot of nuyen with which to pay professional criminals.


The only reasons I can think of that they might do this job are
1: Out of complete and total pity for Dirk Friendly. (Not likely; this isn't D&D, they can't live for basically free, they have rent to pay. They're going to go investigating any and every woe of a drunk in a bar.)
2: To put a stop to this mind control nonsense. (Again, not likely; if any of the players are magicians, or even if they simply have their Arcana knowledge skill up-to-snuff, they'll know that a magician can't enact the kind of widespread mind control Dirk is suspicious of. Also, even if they don't, why would they necessarily care, if they're not being paid to care?)
3: They hear Dirk's story, leap to the conclusion of Bugs, and load up for bear, heading out to the town with the intention of stopping this infestation right here and now. (More likely, but only if they have a crusading streak in them. More likely they'll want to stay as far away as possible.)


I think that's the major thing you need to figure out: what is their incentive for doing this?

OOC: because it's a mystery to be solved, and my group is notoriously easy to distract with shiny things!
IC: Because even if you aren't getting paid, "saving the whole town" from insect spirits, mind control, whatever comes with its own benefits: IE somewhere that's out of the way, will hide you for a few days/weeks and is unlikely to sell you out. Also, just because Dirk can't pay doesn't mean no-one can, or will.

[hermit]

Forks, Olympic. Olympic because that part of Salsih-Sidhe is, to the best of my knowledge, called Olmpic.

[Dreadlord]

Forks, Olympic. Olympic because that part of Salsih-Sidhe is, to the best of my knowledge, called Olmpic.

Been reading Twilight? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[hermit]

My brain is scarred. It itches, but I cannot scratch. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Halinn]

My brain is scarred. It itches, but I cannot scratch. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Try brain bleach.

[hermit]

Try brain bleach.

Extra strength did the job. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

The man isn’t a mage… he simply did his research. He’s managed to acquire enough blackmail material to effectively hold half the town to ransom, and is abusing it to feed his hunger for power and authority.

Uhm, and why did Friendly's girl dump him? Because he knew what she did last summer? I'd rather go with a Horizon/Dawkins Group experiment there to be honest.