The alternate title of this thread could have been "I'm Steve, I live in Seattle and I'm a setting Nazi"

Basically I like the Canon Seattle setting, even though it has a lot of differences from the Seattle I actually live in. Sure things like layout can be explained by 65 years of city development, wars with the NAN, and the awakening.

Some of the things I regularly hear discussed about Seattle just don't wash real well.

Myth 1: It rains all the time. It does rain in Seattle a lot, that's true but that means mostly between late October and Mid-May. Also it's not a hard driving rain like you see in the Plains States or Midwest. It doesn't downpour ery often, it's usually a steady light misty rain that can last for days.

Extra Flavor Detail Overlooked in Canon: Landslides. The slow continuous soaking rain combines with the glacier created Geology and Topography to to make many areas in Seattle prime mudslide areas. Ironically these areas are also some of the most expensive real estate in the city. Neighborhoods like Queen Anne, Magnolia, and Capitol Hill are in reality huge piles of sand deposited by the Glacial Run Off in the last major ice age. The next layer down is a layer of something called Blue Lake Clay, which is almost water impermeable. So in the late fall, winter, and early spring when you get lots of rain the water builds up in the sandy soil that makes up the hills and periodically some prime view property on one of the slopes slides down hill.

Probably will add more later (like when I get my next work break).

Oh, this is just in time! I'm leaving for Seattle tomorrow on a family vacation, and I'd like some advice about what to see. We're definitely going to Pike's Fish Market, but not to the Space Needle, and we're obviously not going to see the Aztechnology Pyramid.

Make sure to see the SCIRE, or at least its future site.

~J

This is all my fault... I mentioned hearing that it rains in Seattle...

Amusingly, I've been in Seattle a lot, having relatives and friends from there, so I know the area well enough.

Another Thing to hit: The Volcano Nonsense. Ok the description of the Volcanoes in the Canon material is a bit off. First the idea of Lava Fields in Puyallup is just plain silly. I'll buy that massive ritual blood MAgic can set off a volcano, but reroute it's internal "plumbing" I have problems with. Mount Rainier has pretty much tight vertical internal plumbing. Also Cascade volcanoes Explode, the lava is very "sticky" and gas laden. There aren't really much in the way of lava flows, it gets scattered over the landscape in chunks of Pumice, Tuff, and Dacite. The Puyallup Barrens are very likely buried in Ash and Mud. Most of the Damage done by the Mount Rainier eruption would be caused by Lahars. The continuing ash clouds that would occassionally be puffed out of the volcanoes would mostly blow away from Seattle as the dominant weather patterns come off the Pacific (from the Southwest for warm wet weather (year round), from the Northwest for clear weather (cold in the winter, warm in the summer).

As somebody who's been a Seattle tourist, I'd endorse the recommendation for the Underground Tour in Pioneer square. It really was pretty damned cool.

Other attractions that come immediately to mind -- If you get a chance to check out Gasworks park, I remember that being pretty interesting. The Sci-Fi museum over by the Space Needle was kind of disappointing. You said you were skipping the needle -- good call. If you get a chance to go out to Fremont, check out the one Troll currently living in Seattle.

Damnit, I KNEW I'd forgotten some things.

You want to see the Troll.

Gas Works has been toned down a bit in the last couple of years (they've restricted climbing on the old machinery somewhat) but it's still frickin' cool-looking.

If viewpoints are your thing make sure to visit Kerry Park on Queen Anne, hands down the best place to take pictures of the city.

If this goddamn application I just put in goes through, I'm gonna be living down the road from Kerry Park. Knowing my luck, though, someone will offer to double the rent, just to lock out other applicants.

I'm trying to move to Seattle, but for some reason most of the landlords there seem to have their heads lodged up their rears.

I have to add my support to the Underground Tour. Ignore anyone that says not to go, they don't know what they are talking about. It's great. For some reason Seattle residents shun it.

It's not the good deals I need. It's for people to take my applications and process them!

Wow, thanks so much for all this advice! I just have to convince my parents to come see some of these things.
For example, I just showed my dad that page about the Fremont Troll, and his only response was to interject a disdainful question: "Largest Lenin statue in the US, huh?" (The page mentions that the Lenin statue is close to the Troll.) Because Dad firmly believes that socialism ultimately leads to destitution and hopelessness (while laissez faire capitalism ultimately leads to justice and enlightenment), just about anything that even implies communist sympathies really exasperates him. Therefore, I believe that it may take a lot of wheedling on my part to get him anywhere near Fremont. But I think I can at least rope Mom and Dad into taking the Underground tour.

I also want to thank those of you who offered to give me a tour, but I'm afraid I'll have to respectfully decline. It's not you, it's me - or, more accurately, it's my parents. They're very protective of me, because I'm their only child and they had me comparatively late in life. I just can't see myself being able to convince them to let me go with any of you guys. I mean, what am I going to say?

"Hey, Mom and Dad, can I go off by myself for a few hours to meet with these guys? No, I don't know any of them personally, but I have spent a lot of time talking to them on the Internet about this game where you pretend to be a criminal. There may be some drinking involved, but I think you can trust me not to drink because I won't even be able to buy alcohol for another year and a half. Pretty please can I go with them?"

They just won't be persuaded.

I just did a month long road trip, and we went through Seattle (spent an evening there, at Kell's Irish Pub because it was already like 4:30 pm when we got there). I dictated notes to my wife while we were driving through to use in my game. Mostly, I thought it was interesting just how far it is in between the parts of the future sprawl (Auburn, Tacoma, etc). There's...highway in between them. Haha. I guess I just assumed it had already filled in and become one plex.

Great town though, I would have loved to stay longer, but this trip was very "see a place move on see a place move on see a place move on".

Oh, and I did the underground tour, and it was awesome. Those guys/gals that tour guide down there are great, and there's a lot of interesting info. Well worth the time and it's pretty cheap too.

I have to say that the thing that bugs me the most about the Seattle of 2070 is the northern border. I live up in Everett and it makes absolutely no since to me. There are mud flats that cut in around exit 198 off of I-5. The way the borders stand in 2070 there would be part of the city of Everett in Salish-Shidhe territory that would be sandwiched between the portion of Everett in the Seattle Metroplex and these mud flats.
In a sense it's creating as isolated pocket sort of like Point Roberts, WA is today. I suppose it's a minor thing but it gets to me. In my campaign the northern border is just a few miles further north.

Of course, I grew up in the Portland Metro area and the town I grew up in , Tualatin, isn't even mentioned in the Tir Tairngire sourcebook. The sourcebook says the wall passes through Durham to King City which are both tiny towns sandwiched between Tigard and Tualatin. Wow, maybe i'm just bitter.

Some interesting SR-related things I have noticed so far:
-On our first night here, we went to a fairly fancy restaurant, and instead of seating us at a regular table with the rest of the commoners, they led us downstairs into a small room, isolated from the rest of the restaurant. I guess Mr. Johnson wasn't using it that night.
-On the way to the bathroom in said restaurant, I saw two dwarfs, whom I assume were either brother and sister or husband and wife.
-At the famous fish stall at Pike's Market where they huck the fish around, some of the seafood is advertised as "Troll-Caught."
-On the Bainbridge Island-Seattle ferry, I heard the following announcement: "ATTENTION RUNNERS. RUNNING IS NOT ALLOWED ON WASHINGTON STATE FERRIES. NO RUNNING PLEASE!" Fat chance, mister.

Glad to hear you're enjoying seattle, FG Sorry that you can't meet the local crowd.

The last run we had that involved the ferries featured a car chase leaving the Alaskan Way Viaduct and (through a bit of creative physics) ending up on the sun deck of a ferry just pulling out of the terminal. Trust me, THAT one went over real well with Lone Star

MYth number one. THat Seattle is a city big enough for the US to let either Los Angels, or the San Fran Bay area go to maintain. Myth number two Seattle is a port big enough to draw major investments from international corps over LA or SF. Seattle is I recall either the forth or fifth largest port that US has on the pacsific. THe other three or four basicly being in either LA or SF. Note that NEw York get less shipments that LA....


So the biggest myth of shadowrun Seattle is Seattle is a city that matters.

You forgot Long Beach.

The point is this, the myth of Seattle matter hinges on the fact that the US goverment would willing and freely give up two cities that make more money than most nations do. THat they would be willing to give up an econamy that is bigger than any nation save, US, China, Germany and I think England(at least those are the four nations I recall as being richer than Califonia on it's own.) SO yea, Seattle being a city that counts still the biggest Myth about Seattle.

You forgot Japan.

I never understood why the USA let California go so easy, without any attempt to hold them back, either in political or military way.

Maybe the possiblity that LA would be flooded one day was too high for them.