I have made this city map for my “Bump in the Dark” game.
I hope I can revisit it in the future (+6 months). I don’t think it looks quite right. Not like a true metropolis.
So constructive critique is welcome.
Everyone are welcome to use it.
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If you need a Mexican Ghetto it should be the Barrio. Black Ghetto is a little questionable. Give it a fictional name like the neighborhoods in the book.
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Thank you very much.
I’m not from the United States so I don’t have any first hand experiences.
Naming the districts is a good idea, and I’ll definitely do that.
I also need to write some descriptions of the districts. To make them a little more interesting.
Where they go on a mission is not very interesting at the current way we play. That need to change and different names will give som character to the city.
and wait, why and how is it questionable?
Ghetto is an older term. And people don’t really say Black Ghetto. You wouldn’t say “meet me in the black ghetto”. It wouldn’t be labeled that on a map. Also is it really only black people who live there? People may take offense to that.
Matt Colville has an excellent methodology for this: Find out what the land was originally called, find out how to say it in the language of the people who live there now, then find a “common” way or short-hand for that name or phrase. I’ll try finding a link to his world building video that covers how he does this.
Ghetto has a STRONG negative connotation in the english language typically reserved for slums populated by ethnic minorities disenfranchised by a bigoted “majority”. I would use the term “quarter” to denote a neighborhood or borough that has an ethnic majority. Chinatown and Gypsy are also questionable terms.
Thank you for your replies.
Ghetto was ment to be a negative description. I was under the assumption that neighborhoods with a large non-white population was also more poor. If it’s true or not is besides the point. I want to make good stories but with respect.
I’ll change the names and the underlying assumptions of the districts. As a bonus I’m sure they’ll be much more interesting too.
I’ll also look into the worldbuilding video.
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If you want to address those real world tensions within the fiction, then that’s entirely legitimate, but just make sure that you handle the subject matter with utmost respect and set expectations EARLY within the ruleset with sufficient trigger warnings. Let us know if you’d like help with sources and research avenues.