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Forum Resident
Original Poster
#1 Old 19th Apr 2017 at 4:56 AM
Default Viva Peralta: a Story of Woodstock
Hello, all! Thank you for the invite. My current neighborhood is "Woodstock", inspired and fueled by my infatuation with New Mexico, and its story is one of a city that lost most of its population, and even its identity, in the wake of a disaster.

Quote:
Introducing the town of Woodstock, a mysterious and nigh-abandoned town in the middle of the desert, with a colorful past. The town's largest employer is the Sagan Observatory, which uses a field of 27 radio telescopes to probe the depths of space. The scientists and engineers themselves live in the city San Cruces*, largely out of personal preference despite the driving distance. For most of its early history, Woodstock (then known as Peralta) was a healthy mining town, and later became the site of an airbase for testing experimental aircraft and even the first rockets -- leading, naturally, to many UFO sightings. Following an enormous mine explosion and fire, however, most of the town was abandoned. The national government soon established an enormous radio telescope array near the city's remains, and laid legal claim to most of the land around the site. Because of this, the ruins of Peralta never revived as a city proper. The military base was greatly reduced, and what remains is described as "a supply depot". What arose instead was the odd community of Woodstock, as people attracted to the absence of any local government -- hippies, cults, survivalists, tax resisters, etc- - came to see what sort of life they could make for themselves. They constantly come, but almost never stay, meaning the town is less a community than a transient collection of odd stories, a collection which is constantly changing.


The city's residents are a mix of old Peraltans, eccentric transients, and people who work at the Observatory and the military base. The story is essentially one of a few local residents yearning to revive their old town -- reclaim it from being a tourist spectacle -- who find in the military-scientific complex a formidable opponent. The scientists themselves are not villains, but their concerns are consumed by the Observatory, with no thought given to the land it occupies or the locals who linger on its margins. But there's more to the story, as at least one resident is member of a shadowy government organization, associated with a secret project of sorts..

In creating this town's backstory, I draw on my time spent in Las Cruces, Roswell, Socorro, and Alamagordo. But Roswell is the chief inspiration, because when I visited it I was struck by how lovely it was in its ordinaryness. Its main street is utterly charming, and as I walked around I realized there was so much more to the town than the tourist spectacle, the "Roswell Incident". The people here promoted their past history -- for instance, the fact that they were once a boomtown for the cattle industry. In that, and in my conversations with locals, I realized they were weary with the alien caricature -- and living in a tourist town myself, I sympathized utterly.
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Instructor
#2 Old 19th Apr 2017 at 8:18 AM
This town sounds like it has a mysterious vibe to it! Almost akin to Strangetown's, but less generic, and much more distinctive. I admire the real-world inspiration, and I can't wait to 'meet' the residents :D! I love the mystery surrounding the scientists-it sounds like the makings of pretty intriguing hood

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Forum Resident
Original Poster
#3 Old 20th Apr 2017 at 1:14 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Emperor Crat
This town sounds like it has a mysterious vibe to it! Almost akin to Strangetown's, but less generic, and much more distinctive. I admire the real-world inspiration, and I can't wait to 'meet' the residents :D! I love the mystery surrounding the scientists-it sounds like the makings of pretty intriguing hood


Funny you should say that! One of the seeds of this was my desire to do a 'serious' Strangetown, one in which Buzz Grunt is a reasonable authority figure who is assigned to this depot in the middle of nowhere and is faced with a moral dilemma after he learns about a 'black project'. I couldn't figure out how to use the aliens, though, so I went another direction.
Field Researcher
#4 Old 28th Jul 2017 at 7:49 PM
This is an interesting concept, and I look forward to seeing what you do with it.
Top Secret Researcher
#5 Old 29th Jul 2017 at 7:34 AM
Quote: Originally posted by smellincoffee
Funny you should say that! One of the seeds of this was my desire to do a 'serious' Strangetown, one in which Buzz Grunt is a reasonable authority figure who is assigned to this depot in the middle of nowhere and is faced with a moral dilemma after he learns about a 'black project'. I couldn't figure out how to use the aliens, though, so I went another direction.



Your Background sounds facinating. I like New Mexico btw. Are you going to have Aliens? I hope so, I love Aliens.

for info on changing the Mac Open File Limit check out my post here http://www.insimenator.org/index.ph...html#msg1628939
Curiosity killed the cat,
but satisfaction brought it back.
 
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