155) A girl in Fantasy Elven Dress, a guy in some kind of World War II uniform, a refuge from the 50s with leather jacket, and a normal kid in a baseball cap, seem to be moving along carefully but with a purpose.
156) Four suspicious men walk past discussing a bank robbery (actually roleplayers)
157) A bunch of cosplayers wandering around looking for a waffle-house. One of them is nursing a black eye.
158) A group of punked up teens have the youngest girl in the group on a leash. The police are arguing with them, suspicious that they're trying to peddle her ass.
159) The PCs spot several gothed up looking types wearing leather trench coats and fairly obvious katanas and .50 desert eagles. Anyone who makes a decent spot check will realize the weaponry is not real. Its the local Vampire LARP group out on a "full costume" social.
160) A group of pirates walks past. One block later, a large number of vampires are gathered around a pub, and a suspicious number of well-dressed gentlemen in similar hats are seen nearby.
161) It looks like the staff of an entire renaissance guild/ faire is walking along the street. They are all chattering away, some loudly bellowing to other people up or down the line, all the time using period speach.
162) A number of people in animals suits, some kitchy, some to a near hollywood level, amble by.
163) In a small park, a Medieval Simulation group in full armor practice their fighting techniques. A few hangers on in various states of odd garb watch.
164) A pack of teenage girls pulling several suitcases each pass by. Go to Comment
165) The smells of the restaurant you pass are delicious.
166) A brand new sports car pulls out of a garage onto the street.
167) A cart vendor, who obviously learned his trade at a ballpark, calls out for people to buy some freshly roasted peanuts.
168) A crowd has formed around the hot dog vendor. There is a near feeding frenzy going on.
169) A couple is having a picnic on a lovely boulevard divider which has grass and flowers on it.
170) What looks like a football team (dressed in street clothes) come walking down the street stuffing hotdogs in their mouths and drinking sodas.
171) A cart selling "roasted rat on a stick" is on the corner. The proprietor looks surprised as someone in a suit strolls up to order one with teriyaki sauce.
172) An ice cream vendor pushes his cart, while singing a song in Spanish. He is followed by a trail of kids.
173) A man in a cowboy hat is selling Real Barbeque, fresh out of the smoker in the pickup truck behind him. The pulled pork seems to be the popular item.
174) A man sells sushi out of a huge cart on the corner. He is cutting it right there as you order.
175) An older Japanese man is selling Noh Masks (Japanese theatre masks) from a table on the street for wearing or decoration.
176) A taiko drummer practices on the street corner in front of a shop.
177) A kendo class practices in the small blacktop lot across the street.
178) Three people are literally dragging a fourth into a Japanese Restaurant / Sushi bar
179) A guy hawking anime CDs out of a steamer trunk runs a continuous stream of patter to get someone interested in his products.
180) A shopkeeper and employee hangs a sign up on their storefront using two rickety ladders.
181) A girl with a tiny karaoke machine/ speaker, belts out J-Pop tunes as she walks and dances down the street.
182) The girls are prodding along another girl who is actually a very feminine looking boy in a teenage girl outfit. (I was thinking school uniforms, but go with what you want).
183) A bride and groom ride down the street in a horse drawn carriage.
184) A limo with someone riding a surfboard on the roof drives by.
185) Six police officers in dress blues, and a few civilian wives, walk down the street towards you.
186) Three women, who seemingly just met, are taking off their shoes and showing them off to each other.
187) A bunch of Harry Potter cosplayers walk down the street like they are on school holiday. Of course, you hope they are cosplayers or larpers.
188) A stoplight literally blows up as some catastrophic failure of lightbulbs takes out all three of them.
189) You hear a car alarm.
190) A number of Buddhist monks have just met a number of Orthodox Rabbis. They are both bowing to each other and talking animatedly about something.
191) A rowdy pack of six to eight year olds in Karate Gis emerge from a storefront dojo.
192) Some people are flying a kite in an open space.
193) A woman dressed to the nines is having her picture being taken by a photographer in the park.
194) A businessman talking on his cellphone walks into a mailbox and falls over.
195) A wedding cake is being moved from the car to a doorway across the sidewalk. Several people have stopped to form a human shield between pedestrians and the five layer monstrosity. Unfortunately, the people carrying the cake are not too strong.
196) A group of young women all wearing the same ugly mauve dress are trying to hail a cab.
197) On the steps of a church standing next to a bride, are two men with shotguns.
198) There is a man in a tuxedo running down the street (to or away from The Church is up to you.)
199) People in very ethnic dress emerge from a church and start heading towards the cars. Those that have left earlier have clogged the street with traffic.
200) A guy is standing on the sidewalk infront of the church crying.
201) A person with a clipboard is trying to get people to register to vote.
202) You see a hawk fly down the "canyon" formed by the tall buildings on either side of the street, only a few scant feet above the cars. Go to Comment
Okay I am done for now. Should I make it 202 or leave it as it is?
And if anyone wants to add, please feel free. And add to any of the scrolls. Things only get better as the community works on them.
http://www.strolen.com/view.php?node=free_search&free=101
http://www.strolen.com/view.php?node=free_search&free=30 Go to Comment
203) A van-mounted sound sytem starts playing the national anthem. Everyone stands to attention and starts singing.
204) A man walking down the street with tomato ketchup all over his clothes. He seems perfectly calm, obviously trying to ignore his predicament.
205) The path to wherever the PCs need to go is blocked by a parade. If the PCs are creative and daring, maybe they can briefly join the parade long enough to be able to slip out on the other side.
206) You see a small group of people standing nonchalantly as one of them ducks down to pry up a grate covering a storm drain. He pulls on a rope attached to a portable cooler. (it's a geocache)
207) The bus stops and the first passenger off is a cat.
208) In front of the players is a police blockade. Locals mutter and curse, but players notice two odd things.
First, National guard are about to charge in the blocked off building. Second, a large white van sits outside. A man and a woman in a lab coat look on the scene, taking turns futzing in the van.
209) They turn a corner to find a completely abandoned street. About half a block in, even sound stops. In the center is a construction barrier around a sinkhole.
210) There was a train stop here yesterday and a lot of previous days. Today, it is gone.
211) A small white pickup truck parked with it's lights on, the doors unlocked and the key in the ingnition. The owner is nowhere in sight and the truck is begging to be stolden and stripped.
212) Someone's on the side of the road with a car that needs a jump.
213) Someone's just missed their bus or train, arriving winded at the stop just as it pulls away. They're anywhere from phlegmatic to weeping/
Artist Options
214) An artist is making a chalk drawing of a forced perspective picture taking up most of the sidewalk. It's a picture of someplace the PCs have seen but something is disturbingly different.
215) You see an artist drawing a hyperrealistic mural on the wall near a cafe. It is of several people standing there chatting/ waiting for the bus stop.
216) The sidewalk is filled with chalk art. There is tape and stands up to keep people from walking on it.
If you have stepped into the Twilight Zone or TimeKnot
217) Related to 210, today there is a subway/ tube station on a street you pass every day. It wasn't there yesterday, nor was there any construction. If you go down, it is an odd looking station. If you take the train or look at the map, you notice it is not for this city. Or if it is your city, it is not completely right.
218) Related to 214, you see a mural with people waiting for the bus stop. The bus drives up and stops. When it drives away several of people in the mural are gone (or new ones are added).
219) A person walks up to one of the players and starts chatting to them excitedly, asking about all the news they've missed out on. The problem is, the person has been dead for years, yet are at the same age as they were when they died and looking perfectly okay and resemble the person EXACTLY. Any checks reveal they are INDEED the person. More reports come up of this sort of thing...
220) A totally unrecognisable body of troops rolls through the city. People are gathering around excitedly, watching this odd display until the soldiers order them to line up. The local police and a militia engage in a gun battle with these people, which is one sided. The soldiers are soon joined by fighter jets and soon the local media outlets are overtaken. The problem is, the insignia and flag are not from ANY earthly nation.
221) There is a large monster roaming through the streets of the city. You catch a glimpse of it doing destruction and scaring people. Then you blink. The scene in completely normal. Nobody remembers the monster but you (and maybe someone else). The monster was in one of the street chalk pictures you saw on the street yesterday.
222). There is a women screaming at some store clerk that is standing at a door of a shop (obviously keeping her out) about "This not being the right shop" and "what has she done". The police are walking up the street. Go to Comment
Most of these are things that happen in the background. They are not supposed to be scenes that your characters are really involved in. Think of them as things happening in the background, scenes or tableau, that help give a busy/ random/ odd city feel.
(Or they are quick establishing scenes in the movie sense, just a few moments of film between story scenes.)
Though some can be made into player character scenes because the players engage them. (That makes them scene seed.) If they do, great. If they don't, continue on with your planned events. Go to Comment
You are right, this is mostly modern city. I play modern setting games most of the time, so for people like me, this is useful. You could adapt many of them to a Victorian Era (Steam Punk), The Era of Pulp/ Noir (which I have done), WWII or Near Future (like Cyberpunk which I haven't done yet, but it could be done). You will have to adapt things to match your city or world anyways. However, some can not (hence why a generator might not be useful). Roman or fantasy cities have not been represented. Nobody has posted any scenes for those. The original thread was to include them. Nobody has added any. If you see a missing gap, feel free to fill it. That is how this place works.
Anyone willing to take that challange and add them to this, or create their own scenes submission? Axl can try to organize them too. You do it, and I can rename this to modern city, and you name yours the way it fits. Go to Comment
Since nobody is going to add non modern western city stuff, I am going to rename the thread. If you want Roman, Obvious Fantasy, or Obvious science fiction, go make your own thread. Go to Comment
223) An old battered suitcase lies quite purposely but casually placed on a gutter. If opened, it reveals $25 000 in local currency, a loaded revolver and a picture of the person to be killed. (Great movie/ book plots are the best.)
224) A car is parked on the side of the road and a woman is trying (and failing) to refill it from a jerrycan. They aren't using the spout so it's not pouring well and not going into the tank. The fun part, they are smoking at the same time.
225) Some guy with a laptop and a wireless connection logging on to www.strolen.net sitting outside a store.
226) A guy wearing normal clothes (well, normal for a comic book geek: say blue jeans and a Spiderman t-shirt) plus a black cape. It's not Halloween. All he's doing is ordinary things like going to a used book store to see what's new in old books.
227) An orthodox rabbi and catholic priest walk by both carrying takeout coffee cups having a friendly and animated discussion about something completely non-sequitor. (It was who was going to win the Stanley Cup in this case).
228) The character's are cut of by a motorized 12 speed delivering chinese food or pizza.
229) A man is talking animatedly into his hands free mobile as he walks down the street, suddenly you realise he doesn't actually have a hands free mobile. Crazy? maybe.
230) A woman who looks rough around the edges (perhaps homeless) sits oddly still and with eyes closed throughout a subway/streetcar/bus trip. She is unresponsive to nudges and bumps, and if people look closely, they realise she's dead.
231) A nearby manhole cover briefly lifts a few inches, then settles back down again. Observant characters will notice that there was a guy underneath it. (http://www.history.com/minisites/citiesoftheunderworld/ is shooting in San Francisco)
232) A pickup truck pulls up at the top of some stairs or similar. people leap out and setup a kayak at the top and ride it down, where the kayak is loaded back into the pickup and they drive away. Urban kayaking is a very odd thigns. There is a also a plant with a camcorder to watch the event and the reactions.
233) A skilled classical guitarist is playing on a street corner (not far from the farmer's market. He isn't busking for money, just for the fun of playing.
234) While trying to get somewhere quickly, the PCs encounter a film crew shooting footage of a wire-fu action scene in the middle of the street. Complaints or inquiries reveal that this whole section of the street has been requisitioned for the entire day.
235) The nearest coffee shop's front display window explodes outward as a chair sails out into the street. An irate woman can be seen (and heard) having loud, angry words with the proprietor.
236) A woman asks for money for her baby, the baby appears drugged or comatose (the babies are apparently shared among a gang).
237) The film crew for Paranormal Investigation TV show are sitting around the local Coffee Shop at noon wearing their "show shirts" and drinking too much coffee. Some are more jittery than their coffee intake would imply.
238) TV news van parks nearby and begins to get ready to broadcast.
239) Someone who is important is being swarmed by media types trying to get their qustions answered.
240) A gunshot is heard. People panic. (It is scary when they briefly look around and go about their business.)
241) A mob of children gather round a character openly trying to pick his pocket, each of them going for a different pocket. They count on people not wanting to hit children to get away from it. Go to Comment
242) You find a number of body shaped chalk outlines on the street just outside where you were last night. You didn't hear a thing.
243) Some people are setting up an odd looking machines with lights and tubes over some kind of access point (sewer cover, communicaiton junction, etc). They seem to have a city truck and city utility uniforms. However, they really don't look like water and power people.
244) You trip over some spent gun casings/ shells on the sidewalk.
245) The stoplight is flashing red in all directions. You can be amused by all the people trying to get ahead and jump the cue when the intersection is a four way stop.
246) You are watching the stop lights. It is doing an odd order. It is like someone is changing the lights at random. So far, nobody has crashed.
247) The stoplights face red in all directions. The horns are blaring.
248) Power Outage for this set of block. The buildings (residential and commercial) are all dark, as are the steet lights. There are police officers directing traffic at the intersections.
249) A utility truck is blocking a lane of traffic. Traffic is getting backed up.
250) In front of a coffee shop, there are a bunch of people in hazmat suits, with their hoods down and some gloves off, casually drinking coffee and baked goods.
251) A car is wrapped in police tape.
252) One of the video cameras that monitor an ATM and bank entrance swivels to watch you.
253) Where an ATM was in the wall yesterday, a large hole is today... there are wired and tubing, as well as a plastic casing just hanging there.
254) A truck is delevering a stand up ATM to a restaurant. There seems to be some kind argument about it.
255) A toy radio control car goes zipping past you and turns a corner into an alley.
256) It is the middle of the day, but a load of newspapers are being dropped off at a newstand. Go to Comment
258) It is night. In one of those little green square parks, there are party lights hung - and glowing bright. If you look through the bars in the fence, the party is all set up. If you look well, you will notice that it is full of half eaten food, drinks, and the sounds of static of a player that has stopped playing. It is as if, everyone just got up and left.
259) It is night and it is raining. You notice that the bricks in a wall that you are standing near/ walking near are disolving.
260) You are walking along at night, there is a muffled scream that ends abruptly.
261) You are walking along at night, there is a muffled scream that ends abruptly. You could swear that scream came from the sewer grate you were standing near.
262) It is night time and there is a street blocked off for a street faire.
263) It is night. It is late. For a moment, the sounds of the city still, and you can hear crickets.
264) It is late night. A number of people in baker's whites leave a closing diner.
265) It is late at night and a garbage truck is collecting trash from dumpsters. That doesn't seem that odd, except don't they do that during the day? ....
267) It is late at night. A panting person blows past you at a dead run.
268) It is late at night and the bus driver is stopped at a stop. He has fallen asleep. Loud snores can be heard through the bus windows.
269) It is late a night, you are being followed by what you think is a hooker, walking suggestively and making an occaisional comment. But they way she moves and her eyes makes you think she is after something else.
270) It is late at night and a number of cabbies congregate on a side street not too far from a few blocks of clubs, bars, and restaurants.
271) It is late at night. A truck with a police escort drives by. You see a nuclear warning/ biohazard symbol on the truck.
272) It is late at night. You see someone in a ninja costume waiting by the bus stop. (to add more fun, you blink or the bus drives by without stopping, and he is gone.) Go to Comment
That is the point. Little things to throw in the background to show the world is still moving and does not (completely) revolve around the PCs. Most of these are things players won't enage. If they do, they are either between "adventures" or really bored with the one they are on. Go to Comment
72) A local construction crew has the sidewalk marked off with yellow tape. Half of the men are working with pneumatic jackhammers busting concrete while the others lean on their shovels smoking cigarettes.
73) A performance artist doing interpritive dance on the street corner
74) Two police cars sitting on a side street, the drivers talk, blocking what little traffic there is.
75) City Sanitation truck running it's rounds, stop and go every 30 feet while the men load the city waste.
76) A group of kids run out of a restaurant, the waiter/owner in persuit. Dine and dash in the city.
77) Generation Y-er jamming to his iPod obliviously runs into one of the PCs, 'Get out of my face man, watch it!'
78) Cop on a Segway Human transporter rolls by, putting parking tickets on cars parked illegally, or at meters that have run out.
79) The local newstand, sells candy bars, newspapers, and cigarettes. The ethnic owner sees alot of things but keeps his mouth shut unless asked directly.
80) A rabbi carrying a book and a sack of groceries down the side of the street, smiles politely and walks on.
81) A group of wife-beater clad skinheads leaning on a corner, looking slantwise at everyone who walks by, they are itching for a fight.
82) A pale person walking down the street stops in front of the PCs, starts coughing, then vomits on the sidewalk. Go to Comment
Oh and not sure how I missed this one. Fantastic scroll! So many juicy tidbits. So useful. This may sound obvious, but a "story" starts taking shape in my mind, for almost every blurb i read. Go to Comment
This is good and there are some quite funny ones in here, also this would be a great resource for a GM who is worried that his view of a city isn't random enough or too slanted. But the list is too large and varied, and perhaps could benefit from another layer of organization.
You could have night and day, winter and summer lists. But as you say a city is made by the people in it and the interactions that might be usual for one city may be very unusual for another. So this sort of list glosses over the things that make all your other city images so fantastic.
I am not saying it isn't useful to some, but it is more of platform for ideas than idea in and of itself. And in that regard I think it could use some honing. Go to Comment
Locations (City) (Any)
155) A girl in Fantasy Elven Dress, a guy in some kind of World War II uniform, a refuge from the 50s with leather jacket, and a normal kid in a baseball cap, seem to be moving along carefully but with a purpose.
156) Four suspicious men walk past discussing a bank robbery (actually roleplayers)
157) A bunch of cosplayers wandering around looking for a waffle-house. One of them is nursing a black eye.
158) A group of punked up teens have the youngest girl in the group on a leash. The police are arguing with them, suspicious that they're trying to peddle her ass.
159) The PCs spot several gothed up looking types wearing leather trench coats and fairly obvious katanas and .50 desert eagles. Anyone who makes a decent spot check will realize the weaponry is not real. Its the local Vampire LARP group out on a "full costume" social.
160) A group of pirates walks past. One block later, a large number of vampires are gathered around a pub, and a suspicious number of well-dressed gentlemen in similar hats are seen nearby.
161) It looks like the staff of an entire renaissance guild/ faire is walking along the street. They are all chattering away, some loudly bellowing to other people up or down the line, all the time using period speach.
162) A number of people in animals suits, some kitchy, some to a near hollywood level, amble by.
163) In a small park, a Medieval Simulation group in full armor practice their fighting techniques. A few hangers on in various states of odd garb watch.
164) A pack of teenage girls pulling several suitcases each pass by. Go to Comment