What exactly is the waterfront on the city's east side? Is it a river? A lake? Ocean? And what about the extremities of the city, where exactly does the numbering system of 1st street start out in relation to the downtown? And what about 105th street? It's in the north, apparently, but no mention besides that. And how far do the blue and red lines go? What happens when you go south past 1st street? What's the naming system down there?

Is the geography of the city left purposefully vague so that it can be easily transported to any locale?

In a nutshell, the answer to your last question is yes.

Most East coast cities grew up near where a river meets the ocean, so wherever New Milan is, there's probably a river and an ocean there, or a river and a lake for cities that are a bit "upstream."

The address numbering scheme is explained in the New Locations download:


I'd say there's probably another body of water south of 1st, or the burbs start there. Think 69th St in Upper Darby (just west of the Philly city limits)...

Okay. So it's really what the GM of the game determines the surrounding area of New Milan to be like. Gotcha.



Another body of water would make more sense in terms of the city's history, as that would make a logical place to start counting street names within the city limits. For Philly, the numbers start at the Delaware. Chicago starts at going south of Jackson. NYC starts around Greenwich, but that's mainly because that was after the initial settlement of New Amsterdam's walls and they realized they should have logical street names. Boston's just too screwy to figure out. If I ever move to Boston (it's one of my top 5), I will never own a car. Screw driving there. Ever. I'll just live off the T.

They might have started numbering streets at the edge of what was considered habitable ground, then industries (or housing for people with no sense) grew up to the south. Unlikely, but possible...

It probably is a body of water tho... either a bay off the ocean, river off ocean or lake, or a branch in a river.

I prefer to just think of it as a Bay,

Yeah, I left it vague on purpose. 105th street is definitely to the north and, like Gino, I like to think of the water as a bay. Oxford is the "0" street as you count address East (right). Everything to the left is West. 1st street is south of the map somewhere in Chinatown. The upper right hand corner has a few extra streets that aren't outlined.

In many ways, leaving parts of the city vague helps your GM because he can add certain areas as he needs them. For instance, while I was running a demo, the PC's decided that they wanted to meet outside the city at a car crushing facility. We didn't have one in New Milan, so it was easy to just say it was about a 20 minute drive. The PC's got what they wanted and I didn't have to detail a huge new location that they were going to abandon after one meeting.

There's a balance to the amount of detail in a campaign. The PC's and their rivals will always be the most detailed because they're the most important. You ad the detail as you need it. For instance, one of the reasons I did 100 NPC's was to give your GM a list of NPC's to use as he needed them. If the PC's suddenly decide to go to a chop shop, boom, the GM can pull out his sheet and note the NPC's listed. Even if he doesn't use the one I outlined, the NPC's give him a gauge to build others. GM'ing is all about crunching stats. It's a lot of work! One of the best things you can do as a player for your GM is let them know what sort of adventure you see your character going on. That way, your GM can custom-build a scenario that's right for your character.

Mr. D.