Ghostbusters Brooklyn Resources
Just because the Ghostbusters RPG is a bit on the humorous side doesn't mean I don't do some homework. Our game is set in the 1980's and based in Brooklyn, NY. Though I lived in Connecticut throughout the 1980's, I still had family in Brooklyn and spent many summers there.
With that in mind, a few decisions have been reached. The team is based in the Kings Plaza Shopping Center, the mall that was closest to my grandparents old house. I've many memories of my grandfather looking for a parking space as there was no way he was going to pay money to park at the mall...
Through a little eBay scouring I managed to snag a copy of a map of Kings Plaza, circa 1990, a few years after the game is set, but good enough for gaming our purposes. Below is a so-so scan of the map - the document is a bit too long for my scanner to accept it so I'm resorting to a phone-camera-scan...
I've not been to the mall since around 1998 or so but I imagine many of these stores are gone.
As it turns out, one can find all sorts of interesting things about a mall from the leasing company's website, including floorplans. Alas, the New York Department of Buildings doesn't seem to have blueprints showing the mall circa 1985. I imagine I might be able to get some with a phone call, but that is probably more effort than I want to go through...
One note regarding the site plan is where there is now a Lowe's was once a parking lot. The garage still existed in the 1980's though. Below we can see the ground floor of the mall as it exists today:
And the second floor shows us:
While convenience tells us the Ghostbusters would like a storefront near the exits, there is a certain humor in picturing them running through the mall on Black Friday...
Going with wild guesses as to scale, I went ahead and sketched a map of what their headquarters might look like:
The back door would be dependent on the store having back access, which not all of the stores do. I'm pretty sure this would violate a few gazillion zoning laws, what with the proton accelerators and bunk room. But they are cleared by the Walter Peck...
What have we learned? We've learned that Dan has a high level of compulsion for details, even in a humorous game.
With that in mind, a few decisions have been reached. The team is based in the Kings Plaza Shopping Center, the mall that was closest to my grandparents old house. I've many memories of my grandfather looking for a parking space as there was no way he was going to pay money to park at the mall...
Through a little eBay scouring I managed to snag a copy of a map of Kings Plaza, circa 1990, a few years after the game is set, but good enough for gaming our purposes. Below is a so-so scan of the map - the document is a bit too long for my scanner to accept it so I'm resorting to a phone-camera-scan...
I've not been to the mall since around 1998 or so but I imagine many of these stores are gone.
As it turns out, one can find all sorts of interesting things about a mall from the leasing company's website, including floorplans. Alas, the New York Department of Buildings doesn't seem to have blueprints showing the mall circa 1985. I imagine I might be able to get some with a phone call, but that is probably more effort than I want to go through...
One note regarding the site plan is where there is now a Lowe's was once a parking lot. The garage still existed in the 1980's though. Below we can see the ground floor of the mall as it exists today:
And the second floor shows us:
While convenience tells us the Ghostbusters would like a storefront near the exits, there is a certain humor in picturing them running through the mall on Black Friday...
Going with wild guesses as to scale, I went ahead and sketched a map of what their headquarters might look like:
The back door would be dependent on the store having back access, which not all of the stores do. I'm pretty sure this would violate a few gazillion zoning laws, what with the proton accelerators and bunk room. But they are cleared by the Walter Peck...
What have we learned? We've learned that Dan has a high level of compulsion for details, even in a humorous game.
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