Chud Stories - The place

[Hastur]

OK. I started this as a separate place to throw ideas around about a universe for an anthology - WildCard style (brilliant idea Poxy). I guess the first question is - Who wants to give it a go? Actually, I'm going to run with the idea with the following caveats:

1) First and foremost, if Nick says "No" then we quit right now.
2) See number one.

That said and agreed to, here is a plan, of sorts, that might make this work:

A) Name - Very small contest to make one. Rules will be that you have to give it a name, and a single paragraph of why it has that name.
B) Geography - This can be truly determined later, but it should be somewhere remotish so that anything really weird can happen. Also, the current size of this town should be about 65 - 100 thousand people. That way, the town is big enough to have interesting stuff happen, yet small enough that people can get to know each other.
C) Characters - Any writer can kill off his own characters if he likes. However, once a story for this place is published on the board, then any characters with any development (that survive the story) become real and can only be killed off by, or with the permission of, the owner of the story.
D) Town Landmarks - See the rules of characters.
This would only apply to "real" landmarks, such as a statue, bank or other similar thing that every resident of the place would know about in one way or another. Bars are a dime a dozen, so you can have a million of them. On the other hand, the statue of the founding father would be fairly permanent.

There's my $.02 worth. What say we start it?

[Richard Dickson]

Hey, seeing as how it was my idea, I'm all for it.

And I still think Chuddiston is a good name for the place.

[Nick Nunziata]

Go for it.

[Dan Whitehead]

How about:

Chud Rock
Chud West
Lake Chud
Chudder Gorge
Valley of the Chud

Why these names:

It needs a name that sounds like it's been here forever, part of the landscape. Even before the pilgrims arrived and fought off those zombie turkeys (and what a story that is), we need to get a sense that there's always been a settlement here. It needs the potential for a rich history, so we're not just restricted to writing stories set in the present. Those who want to can then fill in the back story of the whole town.

Things we definitely need in this town:

A Summer camp (known to the locals as Camp Stab)
Ancient indian burial ground
Abandoned sawmill
Derelict insane asylum
Sinister Amusement park
Bikini Cheerleader College

Founding father:

"Uncle" Mitch Chuddiston, pioneer and frontiersman

[Rath/Brendan]

I don't get it, but it sounds like a damn fine idea.

Names:
Chewer's Grove

Why: Because it sounds cool, and it has that eerie sort of presence. It can be related to some sort of legend in the city's past.

As for landmarks, there needs to be:

A high school.
A historical society/library with lots of gory details in the back pages
A lover's lane with monsters
A sinister chemical plant.
An evil chrome corporation building.
A coffee shop
A strip club named Heaven's Ecstacy.
A comic book/video store
A Lyon's Park

Characteristics:
It's hot all the time.
You can walk to most of these places.
It's kind of dirty.
There are black helicopters flying over the town ALL THE FUCKING TIME.

As for characters:
The Lord God, who walks among us, yet keeps his comments short and sarcastic
Nick, the friendly and affable mayor
B. Feld, the deputy mayor and all around good guy
Mikah, the rock star come home
Carl, the kick ass programmer/hacker and family man
Mr. & Mrs. Butane, who run the comic book/video store
Dr. Weasel, the town eccentric and dentist
Agent Orange, the British expatriate and government man

And those "dern kids", aka the CHUD Patrol (borrowed from Dan Simmons):
Verbs, the smart, funny, sherrif's son
Tony, the aspiring filmmaker and movie nut
Bandu, the local crazy kid and librarian's assistant/town historian

[Richard Dickson]

Dan Whitehead vs Candid Gamera:
Chudder GorgeThat gets my vote.

And I can't believe no one mentioned that this little burg should have a mortuary.

[Dan Whitehead]

The mortuary goes without saying really. It's where they keep the bio-contaminated corpses in loosely sealed barrels...

[Matt Carroll]

Chud's Gap
Chud on Stratford on Avon
Chud Bluff
Chud Cove

Just a few suggestions....

You'll need a big, gnarly tree.
A large, abandoned building.
Hookers.
A vaguely sinister local holiday or day of observance.
Wild dogs.
A faint chewing sound coming from every direction....

[Rath/Brendan]

Can we please get started on this?

[Rath/Brendan]

Hastur:
Geography-This can be truly determined later, but it should be somewhere remotish so that anything really weird can happen. I nominate the Midwest, 'specially parts of Ohio, or Maine/New England.

[Dan Whitehead]

We need to decide on the town name then. What's the best way to get a vote out of everyone who's interested.

And more to the point, who's going to oversee all this and make sure everything fits?

[Rath/Brendan]

Dan Whitehead vs Candid Gamera:
We need to decide on the town name then. What's the best way to get a vote out of everyone who's interested.I say we come up with a comprehensive list and people vote. I'll start a separate thread for this, if you want.


And more to the point, who's going to oversee all this and make sure everything fits?I think Hastur is in charge of that as she volunteered, but I'll gladly help out on compiling a "town bible"

[Blofeld]

RathBandu 2.0:
Can we please get started on this?Yes. See that thing with letters on keys?

[Dan Whitehead]

Blofeld:
RathBandu 2.0:
Can we please get started on this?Yes. See that thing with letters on keys?What does my dungeon keyring have to do with this? I'm not letting them out. I don't care how nicely you ask.

[Coyote]

"Geography-This can be truly determined later, but it should be somewhere remotish so that anything really weird can happen.

I nominate the Midwest, 'specially parts of Ohio, or Maine/New England."

This area has been done to death. I suggest we leave the location a secret to the public, although we do need to decide for us to keep things straight. To that end, we need to decide:
*Do we want mild climate, or extreme weather?
*How did commerce shape the town, conveyance-wise? Railroad? River? Lake? Port? (My suggestion...railroad yes, and make it a rivertown, with one side of the river being the lower income side, the more dangerous side...from a human standpoint, anyways.)
* Do we want more of a frontier feel to it (even though the west was settled long ago, many areas still have that frontier feel to them), or a cozy hollow feel to it?

These will help determine the geology.

[WrappedinPlastic loves life]

One little suggestion, the night sky would never have any stars or moon. It would just be an endless black abyss.

Also, no one can ever leave the town. You could put something about that in the library, as in the people who tried to leave were never seen again etc. etc.

[Coyote]

Not the town per se, just the hotel up the road.
It's such a lovely place.....