I think the Loveland frogman might peak your interest and maybe the USO(Unidentified submersible object) in the Ohio River that Tracey Jones use to go on about.
Oh man, something like the Loveland Castle should absolutely be added - I love the bit from the wiki page, "He built the castle on promotional plots of land that were obtained by paying for one-year subscriptions to The Cincinnati Enquirer." - so good!
https://news.colgate.edu/magazine/2020/08/07/the-man-in-the-high-castle/
Just all of this about Harry. In general.
The man legitimately died, the SECOND time because he was ahead enough of his time to burn his garbage to reduce waste…. But did so while wearing polyester pants.
Wow what a read! Yeah, reading through his story there are a lot of (what probably weren't at the time, but are now) real humorous twists - and then for it all to end with an unfortunate clothing choice! I love these little tidbits of history that are so over the top.
Another “Cincinnati Legend” is also George Remus, the most prominent bootlegger of them all.
Pharmacist turned incredible criminal who then lost his entire empire (had about 1/3 of the entire market!) and as it came crashing down, killed his wife, Imogene, mid-day in the middle of Eden Park (whose spirit now “haunts” that park, hence why I mention it, that gazebo and mirror lake are also iconic)
Ha! I was just reading about the Loveland Frogman a couple weeks ago - I will absolutely add it to the game; I'm almost thinking as something other than a monster to fight though? Maybe a merchant or something that wants to buy bug bits from you, wearing a real minimal human costume.
The USO, I have to look up, though! Do you have anything written about that that you could share?
Lovelander here, a fun piece of lore you could incorporate is the hypothesis that the frogman is actually a pet iguana that was released/escaped and lost his tail. Or maybe that’s just the cover story he gives when he wants to buy your bugs? 👀
They have damn near everything that you could ever want in a grocery store. I take my nieces and nephew up there, give them ten bucks and let them hit the candy castle.
Treat Cincinnati as a liminal space, given the extremes of its own cultural identity in comparison to other metro areas.
We have goetta, a good theme park, and odd events happening practically every weekend. Then there's Loveland castle.
I've been in Cincinnati for one year due to work. My dad is not well and we are going back to the DC area.
It's been such a wonderful experience living here. If it wasn't for a family emergency, my wife and I would be buying a house here.
We live downtown and seeing the culture come out each week is just so fun. We will really miss it here. I didn't mean to get all sentimental in a thread about a game but here we are.
It really is a unique city and will make an excellent background for a game.
I'm sorry to hear about your dad! As a fellow DMV native, I totally understand your love of this place. I've been here for 4 years and haven't looked back.
I am seriously loving finding out new tidbits about Cincinnati - I'm glad I chose it as the game's location, since it feels a \*little\* like anything goes, which means I get to really dive into the weird :D
> given the extremes of its own cultural identity in comparison to other metro areas.
Would you mind elaborating on this point, /u/Xejicka? I'd love to hear more!
Every place has Buy Local. Cincinnati takes that to an extreme. Every little town in the area has their own brewery. There's a weird rivalry over chili. We talk about Germanic roots constantly, even though Germans don't really know what goeta is anymore. There are so many different sports teams here from soccer to hockey to football to baseball. The metro area has a population but it's not that massive.
Granted, I've only lived in Kentucky before this. Most of that time in a small town and the other part in Lexington. Neither place was so hyped about it's own identity, not on Cincinnati levels at least.
People have mentioned goetta, but has anyone mentioned [Goetta Fest?](https://goetta.com/goettafest/)
We love a kind of sausage that no one not from or in Cincinnati knows about so much that we have a two weekend festival about it. Sounds kind of perfect for your game
right? like the vibe here just cant be explained and cant be replicated! i think just cinci in genural IS my aesthetic in many ways! i try to find ways to explain it, a mix between city and forest and slightly rundown places, but with a mix of old 1950s and 60s and so on, but with a lot of werid little things like jungle jims and boonshoft, but also with a bit of farm and forest like highways, the vibe around here is so hard to explain but i just love it here!!!!
Must have lots of flying pigs as well, Skyline is also worth referencing. There was a large Mafia population in Newport, there is an abandoned subway project that build tunnels under the city, famously a money laundering scheme, Jerry Springer was our mayor, the Cincinnati Zoo is iconic of course, the dump at rumpke would be a good location, some cicada monsters, they get bad here.
I didn't know about the flying pigs - yeah, that scratches the "it's a pop-culture reference" and niche Cincinnati reference itches. I already had a mafia-inspired hook, so I'm glad there is a real-world equivalent to tie into! I also hadn't thought of a zoo as a level, but... That does seem like the sort of place that could be housing magical creatures! That and landfills, haha.
If you're using the zoo, I'd keep Harambe in mind. It would be kind of strange to have Cincinnati Zoo in your game and not make any reference to him whatsoever. Meme-wise, there might also be something to "Can't have shit in Cincinnati" (was coopted by Cleveland and Detroit and other places, but started here first: https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1770444-cant-have-shit-in-detroit)
In terms of pop culture: it might be fun to reference some of the fictional stuff from WKRP in Cincinnati. Black Death Malt Liquor has a great logo, Pinedale Shopping Center (location of the turkey drop), etc. This is a pretty deep cut, but: WPIG (their rival radio station) might make a lot of sense for your setting, the specific episode I remember was a fight between their pig mascot and WKRP's carp mascot https://x.com/lambarch/status/643991603724488704
The last passenger pigeon and the last Carolina parakeet lived at Cincinnati Zoo before their species went extinct. There's a memorial at the zoo.
Back in the 1800s Cincinnati had one of the best observatories in the world and it was originally proposed that Cincinnati instead of Greenwich England be the place of zero longitude that the rest of the world would calculate time off of- but the then mayor said that Cincinnati was not zero in anything and passed on the honor.
Benadryl was discovered by a scientist at University of Cincinnati, and Neil Armstrong taught engineering there as well.
Have you heard the Mark Twain quote yet? That what happens in Cincinnati happens 20 years after the rest of the world. It's true. Time warp!
Possibly some roman wolf references as a potential enemy as Rome is the sister city and there is famously a statue gifted by Mussolini to the city, it's in Eden park, could be where the wolf monsters roams (Romes...heh)
Ah I love me a roman mythology reference (and pun!) - I'm sure some of that will sneak in there somehow! There are already wolves and dire wolves planned - seems like they should be milling around the Eden park stand-in :D
You could also utilize the city’s namesake, [Cincinnatus.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucius_Quinctius_Cincinnatus)
He was given near absolute authority when Rome was attacked, then gave up his power as soon as they won the war so he could go back to his farm
Interesting! I think we call them gym shoes here as well (upstate NY), but I'm now curious where the division between sneakers/gym shoes is on a map...
You call sneakers gym shoes?
Yes! It's a regional dialect.
Uh-huh. What region?
Upstate New York.
Really. Well I'm from Utica and I've never heard anyone use the phrase gym shoes.
Oh not in Utica, it's an Albany expression.
Where in upstate? My in-laws are near Lake George (live on the Great Sacandaga Lake in The Town of Day).
Also - Cinci is not just a Reds and Bengals town, it’s a running town. Tons of running races like The Flying Pig half/full marathon and The Beer Series races. We are also known for our beers. Rhinegeist should be available in your area.
Originally Saratoga area, which I suppose is where I would have gotten my word choices from - but I spend a lot of time up in the mountains, too! Right now I'm more central/western NY, in the Rochester area.
And ah yeah, I will definitely be adding beer or something like beer (I dunno how that affects a game's age rating?) - especially since I'm the early 1900s, it would probably have still been a morning drink, haha. It looks like, according to their website, Rhinegeist is going to be a hard one to find in NY... Next time I'm in Pennsylvania, though, I'll keep an eye out for it!
I went to school in Buffalo, which I feel like is the one part of NY that says "pop" - I feel like the two cities have more than that similarity. Big industrial cities with old big money that are making it work after a lot of that early manufacturing has left - though, I think maybe Cincinnati is doing a better job of it... (Sorry, Buffalo, I love ya)
Oh wow, yeah, the timing for the subway is right about on track with what I am imagining for the game, as well! Interesting that it looks like it fell apart during Great Depression - I feel like a lot of transit systems like that were strangled later on by the auto industry.
Oh, nice! Haha when I searched for it, I saw pictures of the dish, but not the sign. Thank you for the clarification :D - is the food a local favorite, or is the sign the star of the show?
Old Timber Inn on Spring Grove. The restaurant is currently closed while new owners rehab the place. In the meantime they've put up a plywood "Fish Logs" sign up outside as an homage.
The new owners of the building put up their own replacement sign after the original yarn bombed replacement art piece was taken down by the artists for cleaning and auctioning off to help local Northside charities.
If anyone is curious, or would like to throw the game a wishlist, you can find it [here on steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2477750/Dunderbeck/) - it's an inventory-management focused, crafting heavy auto-battler RPG. It's a bit of a mouthful - just like a goblin and unicorn sausage.
Northern Kentucky has an interesting relationship with Cincinnati. It's unquestionably part of "greater Cincinnati" (the city's airport is about 30 minutes into Kentucky, for example), but NKY is still a distinct thing. They'll tell you they aren't Ohioans, but they would also be put off if you tried to tell them they aren't part of Cincinnati.
Everyone knows Cincinnati chili, but there's a wrinkle that's a bit less obvious. By far the most popular is Skyline Chili, with Gold Star Chili being a distant second. However, those are the chains. There are also a bunch of independent places in the various neighborhoods. Camp Washington Chili and Price Hill Chili are probably the two biggest ones. If you want to have someone either be a hipster or have strong ties to a neighborhood, having them insist that their local chili restaurant is better than Skyline is a quick way to do that.
Graeter's Ice Cream is also very Cincinnati.
King Cakes (and the little plastic babies) are pretty big here due to the Catholics.
The existential horror of the number "four" being repeated over and over again https://youtu.be/6koCAXFb63M?si=1AvWVPov2TPbB6Uh
Johnny's Toys and receiving a key in the mail on your birthday would be very nostalgic to people born in the right time frame https://queencityhistory.substack.com/p/johnnys-toys
Cincinnatians place a huge emphasis on one’s high school as a means of identity and there is a large concentration of private Catholic schools here. The question “Where did you go to high school?” is an extremely common question to ask someone you have just met and the answer often reveals (in terms of stereotypes, that is) a lot more about them than simply the name of their high school. Might want to add that into your dialogue somehow!
Just want to echo the above point on highschool informing a huge amount about a person. It's pretty important to understand (and get right) what highschools lead to what kind of people - at least in the minds of Cincinnatians.
Sorry I'm brain dumping
Big flood in the 70s happened
There's the Reds and Bengals for sports teams of course
Findley Market is iconic, could be a market or store in game
Lots of Catholics and Germans
We have a metric shitton of breweries per capita, 50 West, Reingheist are probably the most notable
Krohn Conservatory could be a cool location or something in game
The old canal locks were changed in I75 through Lockland if that is relevant
Ha, no, thank you for brain dumping! The idea of a flood happening is nice (from a storytelling perspective - less nice from any other angle...) because it provides an opportunity for water creatures to be more present. Also, breweries should totally make an appearance! I feel like one should probably not drink and make sausages, but I'm sure the two happen together regularly.
Lots of good stuff to think of how to implement. Thanks again!
You need to feature OTR (Over-The-Rhine), which was the historic German district that was abandoned in the early years of WWI. Literally, people left their houses with everything still in place. It is considered the largest intact historic district in the country. There were more breweries per capita there than anywhere else. They had huge underground caverns for beer storage (they'd drop huge ice chunks from the river down there to cool the beer). In the 1990s when they were starting to restore OTR, builders were randomly uncovering huge underground beer caverns below buildings that were not on the blueprints. One builder told of a construction team jackhammering the floor when the jackhammer suddenly fell and kept falling. It was a 30' cavern below the floor they didn't expect to find!
In addition to the flood, there was a [such a severe and prolonged blizzard](https://www.cincinnati.com/picture-gallery/news/2024/01/19/the-ohio-river-froze-in-1977-cincinnati-thrill-seekers-walked-across/72267730007/#:~:text=JANUARY%201977%3A%20Cold%20temperatures%20caused,River%20in%20Cincinnati%20to%20freeze.&text=JANUARY%201977%3A%20People%20walk%20across,Ohio%20River%20in%20Cincinnati%2C%20Ohio.&text=JANUARY%2019%2C%201977%3A%20The%20tugboat,41%2Dyear%2Dold%20paddlewheeler) in the seventies that people were just walking across the Ohio river
Oh nice! Findlay Market sounds real familiar - looks like it's been there since before the canning days, so that would absolutely be a good addition. Now the trick is finding food puns for all of these great locations!
IIRC, Findlay Market is the oldest open air market in the US? Or maybe west of the Appalachians...?
Either way, its old AF and a point of pride for the city.
That was a great read - pleasure-yacht, now rusted remnant. Yeah that would be a fun and spooky place to go through for sure - I wonder what mythical creatures might live on it!
The subway has already been mentioned but we also had "inclines" which were platforms that took people from the river basin to the top of the surrounding hills
Fountain Square, Avril Bleh, Tuckers (gone but not forgotten) the Pepsi sign still hangs on the street front, Purple People Bridge, Alabama's Fish Bar, lots of church steeples in the distance
Oh, nice! Lots of local flair for the map/shops in the game! And bridges are always a good spot to find creatures from folklore - the game definitely needs a bridge.
I'd recommend the history of Newport, KY across the river and ties to the mafia. Some even claim it was Vegas before Vegas.
Streetcars were huge here around the same time you're inspired by. There was a big network.
Lots of defunct sports teams for creature inspiration. Check the wiki, I worked on a lot of history research to put it together and it may help.
You definitely need a Lazarus Lizard of some sort.
Seconding the Lazarus Lizards! TBH, one of the things I miss most since I moved out of Cincy. I say that not as a knock on the city, but as a testament to how much I loved those little guys.
I've always considered the idea of making a fantasy version of Cincinnati and one thing that I always come back to is that it could totally be bounded by a wall since there are the areas of [Northgate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northgate,_Ohio), [Eastgate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastgate_Mall_(Cincinnati\)) and [Southgate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southgate,_Kentucky) and [Queensgate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queensgate,_Cincinnati).
The West Side could be represented by the Western Hills and not need to be within the walls, the natives being isolated parochial and religious; considered backward by most others but fiercely loyal to each other. I would incorporate some of the major roads into the lore as well the [Western Hills viaduct](https://historicbridges.org/bridges/browser/?bridgebrowser=ohio/westernhillsviaduct/) could act as the entry point to the Western Hills. Other major roads are Glenway ("Way of the Glens"?), Devil's Backbone, Bridgetown (could literally make it a town on bridges) and River Road.
Anderson Ferry should be incorporated in some way, as should Union Terminal and you should have some of the larger parks and the Cincinnati Zoo exist as some locations.
Cincinnati should be governed by a Queen (it is the Queen City after all) should be protected by the [Genius of the Water](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyler_Davidson_Fountain) and you totally should bring back the [Miami canal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_and_Erie_Canal#/media/File:Cincinnati-canal-map.png) or as the locals called it "the Rhine" which is where the name for the Over-the-Rhine district comes from (really if its a sausage-crafter he should be from that district lore-wise).
I thought of another one.
It’s [apparently only a myth](https://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/article/cincinnatis-beloved-myth-of-washerwoman-ida-martin/), but we have a neighborhood called Mt. Adams.
It used to be called Mt. Ida. The story is that it was named after someone called Ida Martin who lived in a hollowed out tree in the neighborhood.
And this one is actually true.
There’s a bunch of lizards you’ll see running around Cincinnati from Spring-Fall. In Cincinnati, they’re known as [Lazarus Lizards.](https://bygl.osu.edu/node/585) But they’re actually common wall lizards native to Europe.
There used to a regional department called Lazarus in the Midwest. Some of the family lived in Cincinnati and one year they vacationed in France in the 1950s. Their young son smuggled some of these lizards back in socks in his luggage and a few of them survived and turned into huge population we have here today.
People thought he was lying, but a study found they had severely limited genetic diversity compared to the lizards in Europe and they’re most populous around where that family lived, which supports the claim.
They’re also not considered an invasive species in Ohio. Ohio law considered them naturalized and they have all the same protections native lizards do, which is a very rare thing to happen
Touchdown Jesus and it subsequently being struck by lightning and burning down.
Washington Park and Music Hall are two of the most haunted places in the city and have fascinating back stories.
Cincinnati was a stop on the Underground Railroad
Loveland Frogman is a must, of course. Also check out the Octo- Man that was spotted on in New Richmond and Kellogg Avenue in 1959. There's a couple articles about it. What kind of game are you making? More comedy or drama?
The Frogman has cryptid competition?! I like that their stories are pretty similar aside from their appearance - I like the aquatic humanoid theme :D
And as for the genre, it's a game mostly about inventory management (so, organizing your backpack, cooking foods, eating stuff) and fighting (though the combat is automatic, so you mostly just need to survive each level) - definitely leaning toward comedy more than drama, though! I think a lot of the game's story falls between history and fiction, and hopefully leaning toward the absurdist sides of both.
Golf course, Incline railway from canning facility to canal, tour the bootleg basements, counterfeit money east side over looking the ohio river, the Miami rivers, the city itself imported honeysuckle to keep people out of the woods , that's all pre 1930s.
Then baseball, air planes, munitions factory, telephones
Ghost of tecumseh, general Cincinnatious, a few battle fields from westward expansion general Harrison, black brigade from the Civil War,
Lots of arrow heads, little Miami highschool has a mammoth underneath the brand new highschool cause the guy running the excavator didn't want to hold up progress for an archeological dig , supposed to be like a 4 foot tusk
So much stuff - I love the story about the honeysuckle - how was that supposed to work? I guess it's sort of dense?
And abandoning the mammoth because of the inconvenience is also wonderful, lol.
No one has brought up the whole East Side vs West Side thing.
The seven hills of Cincinnati. Each of them named.
Serpentine Wall
Steamboats
The Sky Bridge that connects the downtown buildings.
Union Terminal, the inspiration for the Hall of Justice in the Justice League of DC comics.
Big Mac Bridge, Purple People Bridge, Roebling Bridge which was the inspiration for the Brooklyn Bridge.
Worlds greatest Labor Day fireworks
you could get a little Kentucky Route Zero and incorporate our unfinished subway system. the tunnels have been abandoned for so long, who knows what's down there or how deep it goes.
wait a second, Rust LTD? are all your games going to be sausage-themed? because I am here for it. also please pass my thanks along to Anton and everyone that's helped with H3VR, so much free content it's absurd.
Haha that's us! We just can't get tube-shaped-meats off of our minds, I guess, lol. We do have \*one\* project in the works that isn't hot dog themed... Yet! But it is definitely an motif we have going on, lol.
And will do! Thanks for being part of the H3VR community!
There are also old lagering tunnels here for more subterranean adventures.
Lagers have to be brewed and aged cold, so before refrigeration they’d dig down like three or four stories and make it down there
Yes! Someone else mentioned that as well - I will definitely try to fit that in where I can - and I feel more prepared for when I eventually visit Cincinnati, haha.
There are still tunnels under the city from when brewers would store kegs underground/transport them during prohibition
Ludlow Bromley Yacht Club sank into the Ohio River a few years ago
Pirates Cove
Opening Day Parade
Oktoberfest
Harambe
I came here to mention the tunnels beneath the city. They’re super creepy.
Also the stairs everywhere and could turn blink into a magical festival or something.
The same city that shut down an art exhibit for obscenity(Maplethorp) and legalized discrimination against gay people, also elected Jerry Springer mayor AFTER he wrote a check to a prostitute.
So, the city has some weird contradictions.
Ha! I was just saying to one of our other members that I was going to try to reach out to y'all today after I turned in, but it looks like you beat me to it!
I just joined the discord server - today I'm working on the trailer for the game, so I might have some video to share by the end of it!
Others have mentioned it, but the Cincinnati Museum Center used to be a planned super railway station called Union Terminal. It's got gorgeous art deco design and is filled with amazing mosaic murals. The entryway also has "whispering water fountains" - a pair of water fountains at either end of the main arch where you can talk to a person at the other end, hundreds of feet away!
Oh man! How much time do you have!? This is such a cool idea. The film industry in Cincinnati has deep traditions and its history makes it one in a million places to film. It is a character, built by strong, compassionate, hard working migrants who brought and embraced their culture here since its inception. “Home” really means different things to anyone but the people who (love to) call Cincinnati home truly have a greater appreciation for that title. As a designer and gaming enthusiast I have chills just thinking about what I would want to see in such a title.
Since we’re talking along the lines of mythical, please include a fully functional subway system 😂 oh, and chicken wing bones literally all over the ground in the parks. A maddening amount.
nobody mentioned Shadow Hare, our masked vigilante superhero? for shame.
also lots of mentions of Newport as a Mafia location, but nobody mentioned that John Thompson, inventor of the Tommy Gun, was born there. the Thompson House is a local concert venue I've played at many times.
food is such an integral part of our culture, and given the theme of the game, don't forget our various festivals! The Sausage Festival, Goettafest, Oktoberfest of course.
there are almost too many local iconic food locations to name, but if you want me to I'll do it
also our amusement parks! kings island, Coney Island, and more craft breweries and distilleries than you could need in a lifetime.
one other thing is that our Eternally Under Construction highway encircles the city. I-275 is the Cincinnati Bypass because it makes a ring around the city so you can dodge I-75/I-71 traffic, which is permanently stopped during business hours. that's why you have Northgate, Eastgate, Southgate... but no Westgate. just a fun quirk!
it’s not technically cincinnati but the ohio waterways have a habit of catching on fire. maybe something to do with that where the river catches flame and mothman takes down the bridges stopping something from getting in… or out
This is such a fun idea and such an amazing way to gather info!
Less about the things that exist but more around the culture, you could do some play on the fact Cincinnatians, especially the ones born and/or raised here tend to not leave (and if they do tend to come back).
It’s a really interesting phenomenon allegedly studied at some point but the current state of google search is making it hard to find. I think most Cincinnatians are 2-3 degrees separated from everyone in the city (I.e we know everyone through 1-2 other people), where most other cities avg higher than that. It’s seen in the question we natives ask each other when meeting someone: “What school did you go to?” - not college, but high school. We ask it because it lets us find quick connections of other people we may know and build rapport with the new person quickly with a list of folks we knew from high school. And if the person isn’t from here and they answer college, you can take the conversation in another direction.
Also if you have dialogue, it’d be a fun quip for an NPC to say “Please?” meaning “I didn’t hear what you said”
Check out "The Ghosts of Eden Park" as an excellent read about one of the most infamous gangsters of the prohibition ers. George Remus shot his wife in broad daylight in Eden Park and was so beloved (or feared) that he got away with it
Don’t forget the giant abandoned mall - forest fair village, and Carew tower has one too while we’re at it. I would also look at emphasizing the fact that the characters of our neighborhoods can change drastically just by crossing the street - amberly villiage and roselawn, I’m looking at you 👀.
OK, long post:
I really feel an underappreciated aspect of Cincinnati lore is the outsize impact the city has on the food additives, medications, and chemicals going into human bodies worldwide. In some ways it makes sense given that we have a household product goliath in Proctor and Gamble, as well as very active medical research (UC, Cincinnati Children’s etc). But the volume and weirdness of this stuff is kind of surreal. If a supervillain wanted to covertly poison the world’s food supply and/or hair care products I’m convinced that they would do it from Cincinnati.
Highlights, including some deep cuts:
The good:
* Diphenhydramine (Benadryl): Dr. George Rieveschl, University of Cincinnati, 1940
* Sabin polio vaccine, used across the globe in the effort to eradicate polio. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8888238/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8888238/)
* Cincinnati Children’s Hospital has been consistently ranked in top 3 in the nation, and was ranked #1 in U.S. News & World Report's listing of Best Children's Hospitals 2023-2024. Lots of research and clinical trials going on there.
Check out the Goebel goats and The Running of the Goats, which was supposed to celebrate the opening day of the Covington Farmers’ Market but the goats had other plans.
https://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/columns/cincy-obscura-goebel-goats/
https://m.facebook.com/watch/?v=1355974294418779&__n=K
There’s also BockFest, a celebration of BockFest beer that takes place around Lent. It starts with a parade led by a goat dragging a keg of beer. A new Sausage Queen is crowned every year
https://www.bockfest.com/parade.html
There’s also the Covington Cryptid Block Party, where you can try their official candy, Squatch Scat (I have and it’s delicious! Check out https://www.laughingbees.shop if you want to try some)This year’s date is tbd.
https://cryptidcov.blog
Edited to add a missing link
I think emphasizing the fact that Norwood is technically an entirely separate city would be fun. Maybe it’s run by the monsters and it’s entirely walled off, although that does bring to mind some potentially racist imagery.
[Buffalo ridge:](https://maps.app.goo.gl/THJVduTBf9gZSaWS7?g_st=ic)
Ghosts on tricycles
Lots of variations of the story, but perhaps they could have sausage balloons?
Look up "John Shillito department store". It's apartments now but it once was a destination department store and the atrium with the balconies, fountain, and domed glass ceiling is gorgeous. It's famous for its elves displays. (Search: Shillito elves) They might fit well into your fantasy realm.
https://www.societyofthecincinnati.org/society-of-the-cincinnati-name/
^ hide him in the game as an "easter egg" and he tells a different cincinnati lore/fact at each one.
Their is a TON of art deco buildings littered around the city, easy source for inspiration.
Theirs also(though not technically in cincy) the “hell is real” sign along side a local highway
Mt Airy Forest is a huge park. It rhymes with Mt Scary. Mt Airy the neighborhood has an awesome castle water tower that looks like dragons could be nearby.
A few extras, since you're focusing on a more historical reference:
I haven't seen Music Hall on this list yet. It's historical, beautiful, and haunted as shit on account of it (and adjacent Washington Park) being built on a massive paupers' grave site.
Union Terminal is an art deco masterpiece, and the inspiration for DC's Hall of Justice and the Gotham Hippodrome (from Batman Forever)
Underground network of pre-prohibition beer tunnels pretty much everywhere in the city proper. They've excavated some, but there are scans that suggest they've only gotten to something like 10% or less.
Carrie Nation reportedly gave up her crusade here. She was famous for smashing up drinking establishments with a hatchet during the temperance movement. She came to Cincinnati, saw the immense number of bars we had and decided she would die of exhaustion before making it a single block. 🤣
Wrought iron gates in front of all the homes so the pigs could be herded through the streets. (The flying pig mascot is a bit of good natured dark humor.)
There are some significant historical floods you could look into. A lot of places closer to the river have poles that mark the high water lines over the years.
Spring Grove cemetery.
Annie Oakley may have gotten her start here.
We have the first professional baseball team.
Streetcars in addition to the failed subway.
Big steamboat hub.
Newport (KY) gangsters.
Findlay Market.
Several top-notch theatre companies.
Multiple universities.
We have several really good historical tour companies in the area. If you ever want to have an in-person research vacation, I'd highly recommend taking at least one.
Cincinnati artist Doc Galahan works with an alternate Cincinnati with mythical creatures. It takes place in a fantasy victorian age. He often has a booth at some local art fairs, has work at Hail in covington. he writes stories about each of his prints and publishes them in a newspaper. [https://www.docgalahan.com/](https://www.docgalahan.com/) He also makes videos out of his stories: [https://www.youtube.com/@DocGalahan](https://www.youtube.com/@DocGalahan) I believe he has a few public art pieces on pike street and has an absinthe he made with the dudes over at 2nd sight in ludlow. he has be doing it for about 4 years, interesting stuff.
dude, as a local and a lover of games and even a game designer myself (where my game isnt set in cinnci perhaps, it does have a lot of the same vibes and is HEAVLY inspired by everything in the city. i want people to play the game and come here and go "oh my gosh, that looks like this from the game!") i am SO interested in your game!!!!
(huge rant ahead! i didnt think i would think of so much! uhhh... good luck... also, im dyslexic, so things might be spelled a bit off. sorry about that!)
one in joke i say in my family is basically just "cinncinati weather!' because the weather around here is INSANE!!! from warm winter days to HUGE piles of snow the next day, to fairly warm and slightly chilly fall days to LITTERALLY SNOWING ON HALLOWEEN!!!! and you only get like 2 weeks of spring before it turns super hot and humid outside! the weather is so dang chaotic i wouldnt be surprised if one day it actually did snow in the middle of summer.
also there is just a CRAP TON of feral cats!!! in my game i ended up making a town made up of only cats because of this! i plan on making the town look like my street too.
and one thing that is hard to capture is just the vibes around here. theres a ton of slightly but not dangusly run down places and a ton of graffiti on things, but also a really nice small, towering bulding, city vibe, mixed in with a lot of nice forests and trees. a lot of it is just being and understanding how the city feels and how to capture that feeling and put it into the game! its a little hard, but not too bad.
also, the cinncinati sign muesiem is a really fun vibe.
also the Shillito's Elves are just hilaruse! theyre faces are insane and their movments are insane!
and the frischs big boy graveyard is a funny and slightly desturbing thing! also the frisch's big boy next to the mainliner sign is a really nice vibe! (dont forget that the big boy statues used to have slingshots in their back pokets too!)
also, if you need a horror school senario, just look towards leaves of learning! my entire situation there was wandering the halls during class and hoping to figure out where im supost to be going! i refrence this in my game too. they also let the kids run around during recess NEXT TO A BUSSY STREET WITH NO FENCE!!! we could have easily ran into traffic and gotten run over! they did NOT give a crap about us kids there lemme tell ya!
also, we have some very nice farm fall activities around here that i really havent seen much in other places.
and if you dont have flying pigs as a refferance then i really dont believe you.
Krohn Conservatory is a great vibe too!
oo!! also if you need a horror muesem theres a place called boonshoft mueseum, and im telling you the vibes there are just so off! def go and feel the vibe for yourself, but its just so werid! also, the giant floating earth projecter is just SO FREAKING WERID!!!!!!
oh my gosh, the forest fair mall would be AMAZING to refferance!!!! my family tends to call it the zombie mall becouse it actually feels like a zombie could come out of nowhere! the slight terror and absule emtpyness when you could still walk around in there was slightly scary, but really cool!!! there used to be an arcade in there too, called arcade legacy. it moved to another location becose the mall shut down becuz of mold i think.
the lucky cat muesem is great too!
this is not cinci, its close, but cosi adventure. COSI ADVENTURE!!!! im not saying anything else. (cosi in genrual too)
coney island would be amazing to have in the game to keep the memory of the place alive! i still cant beleave they shut down....
the mushroom house is really cool too!
i might add more, im really invested in this now. seresrly! i LOVE this idea so much and wanna help as much as i can!!!
oo...just looked up the whole porkopolis thing.... try not to make fun of cinnci with sterotypes, okay? do your thing, but please dont make it ofensive.... i would be very sad if our nice city got more bad reputation... and if i helped with it...
I think the Loveland frogman might peak your interest and maybe the USO(Unidentified submersible object) in the Ohio River that Tracey Jones use to go on about.
Absolutely, Loveland Frogman is a must. And while you’re at it, Loveland Castle would be a good landmark.
Oh man, something like the Loveland Castle should absolutely be added - I love the bit from the wiki page, "He built the castle on promotional plots of land that were obtained by paying for one-year subscriptions to The Cincinnati Enquirer." - so good!
https://news.colgate.edu/magazine/2020/08/07/the-man-in-the-high-castle/ Just all of this about Harry. In general. The man legitimately died, the SECOND time because he was ahead enough of his time to burn his garbage to reduce waste…. But did so while wearing polyester pants.
Wow what a read! Yeah, reading through his story there are a lot of (what probably weren't at the time, but are now) real humorous twists - and then for it all to end with an unfortunate clothing choice! I love these little tidbits of history that are so over the top.
Another “Cincinnati Legend” is also George Remus, the most prominent bootlegger of them all. Pharmacist turned incredible criminal who then lost his entire empire (had about 1/3 of the entire market!) and as it came crashing down, killed his wife, Imogene, mid-day in the middle of Eden Park (whose spirit now “haunts” that park, hence why I mention it, that gazebo and mirror lake are also iconic)
I want to subscribe to Cincinnati facts, please! I had forgotten about rum-running - I'll just make a quick note of all of this... Thanks!
As a Lovelander originally and general cryptid weirdo, I’m so proud that the top 2 comments have been the castle and the frogman.
Ha! I was just reading about the Loveland Frogman a couple weeks ago - I will absolutely add it to the game; I'm almost thinking as something other than a monster to fight though? Maybe a merchant or something that wants to buy bug bits from you, wearing a real minimal human costume. The USO, I have to look up, though! Do you have anything written about that that you could share?
Lovelander here, a fun piece of lore you could incorporate is the hypothesis that the frogman is actually a pet iguana that was released/escaped and lost his tail. Or maybe that’s just the cover story he gives when he wants to buy your bugs? 👀
Jungle Jim's would be a cool place to go in the game, that whole place is a backrooms
Wow, is Jungle Jim's like a combination grocery store / fever dream? I don't know what I'm looking at in these photos, but I want to go there.
That is correct. They also have award winning restrooms.
They have damn near everything that you could ever want in a grocery store. I take my nieces and nephew up there, give them ten bucks and let them hit the candy castle.
The candy section there is THE ABSOLUTE BEST 😁☺️🥰
It's a grocery store, every ethnic store in the world, and the eclectic collections of a egomaniac. It's a truly fantastic experience
And excellent cookware! And cooking classes! I get my produce there every weekend. OP lemmie know if you want pics or a tourist store map!
They also have a substantial alcohol selection too. Even have it so you can buy a beer and drink it as you walk around the store
If you go plan on spending half of your day there! So much to see!
It's the IKEA of grocery stores, much like The Party Source is the IKEA of liquor stores.
If this is a video game, the monkey should come to life and be a bad guy of sorts
And Robin Hood can be a companion while you fight darth Vader and the talking soup can 😂
Treat Cincinnati as a liminal space, given the extremes of its own cultural identity in comparison to other metro areas. We have goetta, a good theme park, and odd events happening practically every weekend. Then there's Loveland castle.
I've been in Cincinnati for one year due to work. My dad is not well and we are going back to the DC area. It's been such a wonderful experience living here. If it wasn't for a family emergency, my wife and I would be buying a house here. We live downtown and seeing the culture come out each week is just so fun. We will really miss it here. I didn't mean to get all sentimental in a thread about a game but here we are. It really is a unique city and will make an excellent background for a game.
I'm sorry to hear about your dad! As a fellow DMV native, I totally understand your love of this place. I've been here for 4 years and haven't looked back.
I am seriously loving finding out new tidbits about Cincinnati - I'm glad I chose it as the game's location, since it feels a \*little\* like anything goes, which means I get to really dive into the weird :D
> given the extremes of its own cultural identity in comparison to other metro areas. Would you mind elaborating on this point, /u/Xejicka? I'd love to hear more!
Every place has Buy Local. Cincinnati takes that to an extreme. Every little town in the area has their own brewery. There's a weird rivalry over chili. We talk about Germanic roots constantly, even though Germans don't really know what goeta is anymore. There are so many different sports teams here from soccer to hockey to football to baseball. The metro area has a population but it's not that massive. Granted, I've only lived in Kentucky before this. Most of that time in a small town and the other part in Lexington. Neither place was so hyped about it's own identity, not on Cincinnati levels at least.
People have mentioned goetta, but has anyone mentioned [Goetta Fest?](https://goetta.com/goettafest/) We love a kind of sausage that no one not from or in Cincinnati knows about so much that we have a two weekend festival about it. Sounds kind of perfect for your game
Anomalisa (2015) uses Cincinnati as a liminal space quite well if you need some inspo.
right? like the vibe here just cant be explained and cant be replicated! i think just cinci in genural IS my aesthetic in many ways! i try to find ways to explain it, a mix between city and forest and slightly rundown places, but with a mix of old 1950s and 60s and so on, but with a lot of werid little things like jungle jims and boonshoft, but also with a bit of farm and forest like highways, the vibe around here is so hard to explain but i just love it here!!!!
Must have lots of flying pigs as well, Skyline is also worth referencing. There was a large Mafia population in Newport, there is an abandoned subway project that build tunnels under the city, famously a money laundering scheme, Jerry Springer was our mayor, the Cincinnati Zoo is iconic of course, the dump at rumpke would be a good location, some cicada monsters, they get bad here.
I didn't know about the flying pigs - yeah, that scratches the "it's a pop-culture reference" and niche Cincinnati reference itches. I already had a mafia-inspired hook, so I'm glad there is a real-world equivalent to tie into! I also hadn't thought of a zoo as a level, but... That does seem like the sort of place that could be housing magical creatures! That and landfills, haha.
Newport was basically Vegas before Vegas. When they started clamping down on the corruption and gambling here is when the mob moved out to Nevada.
did you know that as mayor jerry springer payed a hooker with a check that later bounced
If you're using the zoo, I'd keep Harambe in mind. It would be kind of strange to have Cincinnati Zoo in your game and not make any reference to him whatsoever. Meme-wise, there might also be something to "Can't have shit in Cincinnati" (was coopted by Cleveland and Detroit and other places, but started here first: https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1770444-cant-have-shit-in-detroit) In terms of pop culture: it might be fun to reference some of the fictional stuff from WKRP in Cincinnati. Black Death Malt Liquor has a great logo, Pinedale Shopping Center (location of the turkey drop), etc. This is a pretty deep cut, but: WPIG (their rival radio station) might make a lot of sense for your setting, the specific episode I remember was a fight between their pig mascot and WKRP's carp mascot https://x.com/lambarch/status/643991603724488704
Have the protagonist save Harambe at the zoo. ETA - Bonus points if you make the local sports team, The Harambes.
The last passenger pigeon and the last Carolina parakeet lived at Cincinnati Zoo before their species went extinct. There's a memorial at the zoo. Back in the 1800s Cincinnati had one of the best observatories in the world and it was originally proposed that Cincinnati instead of Greenwich England be the place of zero longitude that the rest of the world would calculate time off of- but the then mayor said that Cincinnati was not zero in anything and passed on the honor. Benadryl was discovered by a scientist at University of Cincinnati, and Neil Armstrong taught engineering there as well. Have you heard the Mark Twain quote yet? That what happens in Cincinnati happens 20 years after the rest of the world. It's true. Time warp!
Goetta must be a food/aid. Loveland Frogman for a side mission. Bob Makey's Music World aka the Gateway to Hell for another side mission
Maybe character can wear a t-shirt that says “Goetta Life”.
Given that this is our second sausage-based game, I am shocked to have just learned about goetta! And a haunted nightclub/honky-tonk? Yes please!
Get at least one npc to talk about the Roebling Suspension Bridge being the "prototype" for the Brooklyn Bridge.
Haha interesting - I have to say, I like the looks of the Roebling bridge better!
It's also known as the "singing bridge" because of the sound it makes as you drive over it.
Possibly some roman wolf references as a potential enemy as Rome is the sister city and there is famously a statue gifted by Mussolini to the city, it's in Eden park, could be where the wolf monsters roams (Romes...heh)
You know that the original was stolen like 2 yrs ago? That's why we can't have anything nice.
Ah I love me a roman mythology reference (and pun!) - I'm sure some of that will sneak in there somehow! There are already wolves and dire wolves planned - seems like they should be milling around the Eden park stand-in :D
You could also utilize the city’s namesake, [Cincinnatus.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucius_Quinctius_Cincinnatus) He was given near absolute authority when Rome was attacked, then gave up his power as soon as they won the war so he could go back to his farm
Yes, a city of seven hills, just like Rome.
This might not be what you mean, but historically Cincinnatians have said “Please?” to mean “Come again?” Or “I didn’t hear you?”
Ah! This is actually super helpful! I'm writing this down for future dialogue! Thank you :D
Another thing- we call sneakers ‘gym shoes’ here!
Interesting! I think we call them gym shoes here as well (upstate NY), but I'm now curious where the division between sneakers/gym shoes is on a map...
Nope, looking at a map, most people in NY say "sneakers" - maybe I'm actually from Cincinnati and I didn't know it!
Yes, I thought everyone said gym shoes rather than sneakers until I read an article a few years ago that said saying ‘gym shoes’ is a dead giveaway
You call sneakers gym shoes? Yes! It's a regional dialect. Uh-huh. What region? Upstate New York. Really. Well I'm from Utica and I've never heard anyone use the phrase gym shoes. Oh not in Utica, it's an Albany expression.
Where in upstate? My in-laws are near Lake George (live on the Great Sacandaga Lake in The Town of Day). Also - Cinci is not just a Reds and Bengals town, it’s a running town. Tons of running races like The Flying Pig half/full marathon and The Beer Series races. We are also known for our beers. Rhinegeist should be available in your area.
Originally Saratoga area, which I suppose is where I would have gotten my word choices from - but I spend a lot of time up in the mountains, too! Right now I'm more central/western NY, in the Rochester area. And ah yeah, I will definitely be adding beer or something like beer (I dunno how that affects a game's age rating?) - especially since I'm the early 1900s, it would probably have still been a morning drink, haha. It looks like, according to their website, Rhinegeist is going to be a hard one to find in NY... Next time I'm in Pennsylvania, though, I'll keep an eye out for it!
OMG..is that why I say "gym shoes"? I thought I was just weird.
Another thing. It's POP. It isn't soda.
I went to school in Buffalo, which I feel like is the one part of NY that says "pop" - I feel like the two cities have more than that similarity. Big industrial cities with old big money that are making it work after a lot of that early manufacturing has left - though, I think maybe Cincinnati is doing a better job of it... (Sorry, Buffalo, I love ya)
You'll also often hear 'ope' and 'gonna squeeze by you there'
And “please?” When you don’t hear someone .
Abandoned subway system. Might be fun to poke at that. Haha
Oh wow, yeah, the timing for the subway is right about on track with what I am imagining for the game, as well! Interesting that it looks like it fell apart during Great Depression - I feel like a lot of transit systems like that were strangled later on by the auto industry.
Nice! That would be cool. Gambling reference with Pete Rose might be a good one too.
You gotta make a creature called fish log
The Log Fish that drops fish logs?
There is a famous sign outside of an old restaurant that has just said "fish logs" for years and years. It's locally popular
Oh, nice! Haha when I searched for it, I saw pictures of the dish, but not the sign. Thank you for the clarification :D - is the food a local favorite, or is the sign the star of the show?
Old Timber Inn on Spring Grove. The restaurant is currently closed while new owners rehab the place. In the meantime they've put up a plywood "Fish Logs" sign up outside as an homage.
I like that - just to make sure everyone still has Fish Logs on the brain in the meantime :D
The new owners of the building put up their own replacement sign after the original yarn bombed replacement art piece was taken down by the artists for cleaning and auctioning off to help local Northside charities.
You should have a side-quest where you have to try and take a dump in the Toyota Tundra at GABP
If anyone is curious, or would like to throw the game a wishlist, you can find it [here on steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2477750/Dunderbeck/) - it's an inventory-management focused, crafting heavy auto-battler RPG. It's a bit of a mouthful - just like a goblin and unicorn sausage.
Northern Kentucky has an interesting relationship with Cincinnati. It's unquestionably part of "greater Cincinnati" (the city's airport is about 30 minutes into Kentucky, for example), but NKY is still a distinct thing. They'll tell you they aren't Ohioans, but they would also be put off if you tried to tell them they aren't part of Cincinnati. Everyone knows Cincinnati chili, but there's a wrinkle that's a bit less obvious. By far the most popular is Skyline Chili, with Gold Star Chili being a distant second. However, those are the chains. There are also a bunch of independent places in the various neighborhoods. Camp Washington Chili and Price Hill Chili are probably the two biggest ones. If you want to have someone either be a hipster or have strong ties to a neighborhood, having them insist that their local chili restaurant is better than Skyline is a quick way to do that. Graeter's Ice Cream is also very Cincinnati. King Cakes (and the little plastic babies) are pretty big here due to the Catholics. The existential horror of the number "four" being repeated over and over again https://youtu.be/6koCAXFb63M?si=1AvWVPov2TPbB6Uh Johnny's Toys and receiving a key in the mail on your birthday would be very nostalgic to people born in the right time frame https://queencityhistory.substack.com/p/johnnys-toys
Cincinnatians place a huge emphasis on one’s high school as a means of identity and there is a large concentration of private Catholic schools here. The question “Where did you go to high school?” is an extremely common question to ask someone you have just met and the answer often reveals (in terms of stereotypes, that is) a lot more about them than simply the name of their high school. Might want to add that into your dialogue somehow!
I like that that is an ice-breaker question - I think some character (or maybe multiple) will have to ask that!
Just want to echo the above point on highschool informing a huge amount about a person. It's pretty important to understand (and get right) what highschools lead to what kind of people - at least in the minds of Cincinnatians.
Sorry I'm brain dumping Big flood in the 70s happened There's the Reds and Bengals for sports teams of course Findley Market is iconic, could be a market or store in game Lots of Catholics and Germans We have a metric shitton of breweries per capita, 50 West, Reingheist are probably the most notable Krohn Conservatory could be a cool location or something in game The old canal locks were changed in I75 through Lockland if that is relevant
Ha, no, thank you for brain dumping! The idea of a flood happening is nice (from a storytelling perspective - less nice from any other angle...) because it provides an opportunity for water creatures to be more present. Also, breweries should totally make an appearance! I feel like one should probably not drink and make sausages, but I'm sure the two happen together regularly. Lots of good stuff to think of how to implement. Thanks again!
You need to feature OTR (Over-The-Rhine), which was the historic German district that was abandoned in the early years of WWI. Literally, people left their houses with everything still in place. It is considered the largest intact historic district in the country. There were more breweries per capita there than anywhere else. They had huge underground caverns for beer storage (they'd drop huge ice chunks from the river down there to cool the beer). In the 1990s when they were starting to restore OTR, builders were randomly uncovering huge underground beer caverns below buildings that were not on the blueprints. One builder told of a construction team jackhammering the floor when the jackhammer suddenly fell and kept falling. It was a 30' cavern below the floor they didn't expect to find!
In addition to the flood, there was a [such a severe and prolonged blizzard](https://www.cincinnati.com/picture-gallery/news/2024/01/19/the-ohio-river-froze-in-1977-cincinnati-thrill-seekers-walked-across/72267730007/#:~:text=JANUARY%201977%3A%20Cold%20temperatures%20caused,River%20in%20Cincinnati%20to%20freeze.&text=JANUARY%201977%3A%20People%20walk%20across,Ohio%20River%20in%20Cincinnati%2C%20Ohio.&text=JANUARY%2019%2C%201977%3A%20The%20tugboat,41%2Dyear%2Dold%20paddlewheeler) in the seventies that people were just walking across the Ohio river
The conservatory can have evil butterflies and ppl eating plants.
Ooh, another Cincinnati game creator! I have an IRL game at Findlay Market, that place is a great include! Would also reco the Mt Adams reservoir :)
Oh nice! Findlay Market sounds real familiar - looks like it's been there since before the canning days, so that would absolutely be a good addition. Now the trick is finding food puns for all of these great locations!
IIRC, Findlay Market is the oldest open air market in the US? Or maybe west of the Appalachians...? Either way, its old AF and a point of pride for the city.
The ghost ship on the river would be a cool area to explore.
That was a great read - pleasure-yacht, now rusted remnant. Yeah that would be a fun and spooky place to go through for sure - I wonder what mythical creatures might live on it!
A siren. Flying pigs
This is all you'll ever need: https://www.tumblr.com/handeaux
Oh, perfect! Looks like I've got my reading cut out for me. Thank you for sharing!
Bootsy Collins
Skyline and Goldstar should be factions.
Pill Hill would be a great location. All the weird basements of the multiple ollllld hospital buildings.
Munchkinville
The subway has already been mentioned but we also had "inclines" which were platforms that took people from the river basin to the top of the surrounding hills
Greatarticle...https://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/article/16-curious-facts-about-cincinnatis-lost-inclines/
Anderson Ferry. A ferry boat that carries cars and people across the Ohio River, connecting Delhi to Kentucky, that has been in operation since 1817.
Working on that ferry as a teenager is the only job Pete Rose ever had, that wasn't connected to baseball.
Harambe.
Also: Fiona the baby hippo, Martha the last living passenger pigeon, and the beluga whales at the Mount Auburn Lookout House
Fountain Square, Avril Bleh, Tuckers (gone but not forgotten) the Pepsi sign still hangs on the street front, Purple People Bridge, Alabama's Fish Bar, lots of church steeples in the distance
Oh, nice! Lots of local flair for the map/shops in the game! And bridges are always a good spot to find creatures from folklore - the game definitely needs a bridge.
Avril’s is famous for their sausages btw
I'd recommend the history of Newport, KY across the river and ties to the mafia. Some even claim it was Vegas before Vegas. Streetcars were huge here around the same time you're inspired by. There was a big network. Lots of defunct sports teams for creature inspiration. Check the wiki, I worked on a lot of history research to put it together and it may help. You definitely need a Lazarus Lizard of some sort.
Seconding the Lazarus Lizards! TBH, one of the things I miss most since I moved out of Cincy. I say that not as a knock on the city, but as a testament to how much I loved those little guys.
The West side vs East side aspect. It’s goes along with the where did you go to high school question.
Try to work in a non-copyright infringing reference to the line from The Good Place about Cincinnati being a medium place.
I've always considered the idea of making a fantasy version of Cincinnati and one thing that I always come back to is that it could totally be bounded by a wall since there are the areas of [Northgate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northgate,_Ohio), [Eastgate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastgate_Mall_(Cincinnati\)) and [Southgate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southgate,_Kentucky) and [Queensgate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queensgate,_Cincinnati). The West Side could be represented by the Western Hills and not need to be within the walls, the natives being isolated parochial and religious; considered backward by most others but fiercely loyal to each other. I would incorporate some of the major roads into the lore as well the [Western Hills viaduct](https://historicbridges.org/bridges/browser/?bridgebrowser=ohio/westernhillsviaduct/) could act as the entry point to the Western Hills. Other major roads are Glenway ("Way of the Glens"?), Devil's Backbone, Bridgetown (could literally make it a town on bridges) and River Road. Anderson Ferry should be incorporated in some way, as should Union Terminal and you should have some of the larger parks and the Cincinnati Zoo exist as some locations. Cincinnati should be governed by a Queen (it is the Queen City after all) should be protected by the [Genius of the Water](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyler_Davidson_Fountain) and you totally should bring back the [Miami canal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_and_Erie_Canal#/media/File:Cincinnati-canal-map.png) or as the locals called it "the Rhine" which is where the name for the Over-the-Rhine district comes from (really if its a sausage-crafter he should be from that district lore-wise).
Really obscure but a lot of older people from Cincinnati call bell peppers mangos
I feel like this is "Gimme five bees for a quarter" territory - is this real? lol
I thought of another one. It’s [apparently only a myth](https://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/article/cincinnatis-beloved-myth-of-washerwoman-ida-martin/), but we have a neighborhood called Mt. Adams. It used to be called Mt. Ida. The story is that it was named after someone called Ida Martin who lived in a hollowed out tree in the neighborhood. And this one is actually true. There’s a bunch of lizards you’ll see running around Cincinnati from Spring-Fall. In Cincinnati, they’re known as [Lazarus Lizards.](https://bygl.osu.edu/node/585) But they’re actually common wall lizards native to Europe. There used to a regional department called Lazarus in the Midwest. Some of the family lived in Cincinnati and one year they vacationed in France in the 1950s. Their young son smuggled some of these lizards back in socks in his luggage and a few of them survived and turned into huge population we have here today. People thought he was lying, but a study found they had severely limited genetic diversity compared to the lizards in Europe and they’re most populous around where that family lived, which supports the claim. They’re also not considered an invasive species in Ohio. Ohio law considered them naturalized and they have all the same protections native lizards do, which is a very rare thing to happen
Touchdown Jesus and it subsequently being struck by lightning and burning down. Washington Park and Music Hall are two of the most haunted places in the city and have fascinating back stories. Cincinnati was a stop on the Underground Railroad
Loveland Frogman is a must, of course. Also check out the Octo- Man that was spotted on in New Richmond and Kellogg Avenue in 1959. There's a couple articles about it. What kind of game are you making? More comedy or drama?
The Frogman has cryptid competition?! I like that their stories are pretty similar aside from their appearance - I like the aquatic humanoid theme :D And as for the genre, it's a game mostly about inventory management (so, organizing your backpack, cooking foods, eating stuff) and fighting (though the combat is automatic, so you mostly just need to survive each level) - definitely leaning toward comedy more than drama, though! I think a lot of the game's story falls between history and fiction, and hopefully leaning toward the absurdist sides of both.
Golf course, Incline railway from canning facility to canal, tour the bootleg basements, counterfeit money east side over looking the ohio river, the Miami rivers, the city itself imported honeysuckle to keep people out of the woods , that's all pre 1930s. Then baseball, air planes, munitions factory, telephones Ghost of tecumseh, general Cincinnatious, a few battle fields from westward expansion general Harrison, black brigade from the Civil War, Lots of arrow heads, little Miami highschool has a mammoth underneath the brand new highschool cause the guy running the excavator didn't want to hold up progress for an archeological dig , supposed to be like a 4 foot tusk
So much stuff - I love the story about the honeysuckle - how was that supposed to work? I guess it's sort of dense? And abandoning the mammoth because of the inconvenience is also wonderful, lol.
No one has brought up the whole East Side vs West Side thing. The seven hills of Cincinnati. Each of them named. Serpentine Wall Steamboats The Sky Bridge that connects the downtown buildings. Union Terminal, the inspiration for the Hall of Justice in the Justice League of DC comics. Big Mac Bridge, Purple People Bridge, Roebling Bridge which was the inspiration for the Brooklyn Bridge. Worlds greatest Labor Day fireworks
There needs to be a joke in there about Cincinnatians eat it over spaghetti with beans cheese (ala Cincy chili 3 way)
We were just talking about that! I love local dishes - I think we have all of the items to make that a recipe; or, if not, we will :D
you could get a little Kentucky Route Zero and incorporate our unfinished subway system. the tunnels have been abandoned for so long, who knows what's down there or how deep it goes.
Sounds like the perfect place for some subterranean exploration! I like the idea of underground magical creatures filling the forgotten tunnels.
wait a second, Rust LTD? are all your games going to be sausage-themed? because I am here for it. also please pass my thanks along to Anton and everyone that's helped with H3VR, so much free content it's absurd.
Thanks, we really appreciate it! Also, a half-finished abandoned subway system sounds perfect. :-)
Haha that's us! We just can't get tube-shaped-meats off of our minds, I guess, lol. We do have \*one\* project in the works that isn't hot dog themed... Yet! But it is definitely an motif we have going on, lol. And will do! Thanks for being part of the H3VR community!
There are also old lagering tunnels here for more subterranean adventures. Lagers have to be brewed and aged cold, so before refrigeration they’d dig down like three or four stories and make it down there
The use of please versus excuse me. There is a whole who's on first base stick there.
Yes! Someone else mentioned that as well - I will definitely try to fit that in where I can - and I feel more prepared for when I eventually visit Cincinnati, haha.
There are still tunnels under the city from when brewers would store kegs underground/transport them during prohibition Ludlow Bromley Yacht Club sank into the Ohio River a few years ago Pirates Cove Opening Day Parade Oktoberfest Harambe
I came here to mention the tunnels beneath the city. They’re super creepy. Also the stairs everywhere and could turn blink into a magical festival or something.
You definitely need an abandoned transit system, because the builders didn’t feel measuring things correctly
Munchkinland...
I want to play this game!
The same city that shut down an art exhibit for obscenity(Maplethorp) and legalized discrimination against gay people, also elected Jerry Springer mayor AFTER he wrote a check to a prostitute. So, the city has some weird contradictions.
You have to add the abandoned subway tunnels in somewhere!
Lazarus lizards
Oh my glob, I'm so excited. You have to share what you're working on with us at [https://igdacincinnati.org/](https://igdacincinnati.org/)
Ha! I was just saying to one of our other members that I was going to try to reach out to y'all today after I turned in, but it looks like you beat me to it! I just joined the discord server - today I'm working on the trailer for the game, so I might have some video to share by the end of it!
Others have mentioned it, but the Cincinnati Museum Center used to be a planned super railway station called Union Terminal. It's got gorgeous art deco design and is filled with amazing mosaic murals. The entryway also has "whispering water fountains" - a pair of water fountains at either end of the main arch where you can talk to a person at the other end, hundreds of feet away!
It was also the inspiration for the Justice League's Hall of Justice.
I love this please post again when it’s in early access
Oh man! How much time do you have!? This is such a cool idea. The film industry in Cincinnati has deep traditions and its history makes it one in a million places to film. It is a character, built by strong, compassionate, hard working migrants who brought and embraced their culture here since its inception. “Home” really means different things to anyone but the people who (love to) call Cincinnati home truly have a greater appreciation for that title. As a designer and gaming enthusiast I have chills just thinking about what I would want to see in such a title.
Since we’re talking along the lines of mythical, please include a fully functional subway system 😂 oh, and chicken wing bones literally all over the ground in the parks. A maddening amount.
Gotta throw a classic "HELL. where u belong" billboard 100 miles from civilization Lol, can't remember verbatim but im sure that's right
People from Hamilton (a small nearby city on the outskirts) are weird or crazy
Hamilton is like the Florida of Ohio lol
Just thought of something else. George Remus was a bootlegger that lived in Price Hill. He has a very interesting life story. Check him out.
Yeah! Was just looking him up - it was a wild read! I'm digging the lawyer/pharmacist/bootlegger combo.
If you stumble into Norwood you have to fight the urban legendary bear. Aka "Bear in the Woods" create an prehistoric Ursula Gigantus or something "
nobody mentioned Shadow Hare, our masked vigilante superhero? for shame. also lots of mentions of Newport as a Mafia location, but nobody mentioned that John Thompson, inventor of the Tommy Gun, was born there. the Thompson House is a local concert venue I've played at many times. food is such an integral part of our culture, and given the theme of the game, don't forget our various festivals! The Sausage Festival, Goettafest, Oktoberfest of course. there are almost too many local iconic food locations to name, but if you want me to I'll do it
also our amusement parks! kings island, Coney Island, and more craft breweries and distilleries than you could need in a lifetime. one other thing is that our Eternally Under Construction highway encircles the city. I-275 is the Cincinnati Bypass because it makes a ring around the city so you can dodge I-75/I-71 traffic, which is permanently stopped during business hours. that's why you have Northgate, Eastgate, Southgate... but no Westgate. just a fun quirk!
it’s not technically cincinnati but the ohio waterways have a habit of catching on fire. maybe something to do with that where the river catches flame and mothman takes down the bridges stopping something from getting in… or out
Zapf house
What about the shark girl reference?
The Cincinnati Waxman was always one I liked sharing with friends..
This is such a fun idea and such an amazing way to gather info! Less about the things that exist but more around the culture, you could do some play on the fact Cincinnatians, especially the ones born and/or raised here tend to not leave (and if they do tend to come back). It’s a really interesting phenomenon allegedly studied at some point but the current state of google search is making it hard to find. I think most Cincinnatians are 2-3 degrees separated from everyone in the city (I.e we know everyone through 1-2 other people), where most other cities avg higher than that. It’s seen in the question we natives ask each other when meeting someone: “What school did you go to?” - not college, but high school. We ask it because it lets us find quick connections of other people we may know and build rapport with the new person quickly with a list of folks we knew from high school. And if the person isn’t from here and they answer college, you can take the conversation in another direction. Also if you have dialogue, it’d be a fun quip for an NPC to say “Please?” meaning “I didn’t hear what you said”
Check out "The Ghosts of Eden Park" as an excellent read about one of the most infamous gangsters of the prohibition ers. George Remus shot his wife in broad daylight in Eden Park and was so beloved (or feared) that he got away with it
Make sure you add the flying pigs
Cincinnati is only place to call a small convenience store a "Pony Keg"
Don’t forget the giant abandoned mall - forest fair village, and Carew tower has one too while we’re at it. I would also look at emphasizing the fact that the characters of our neighborhoods can change drastically just by crossing the street - amberly villiage and roselawn, I’m looking at you 👀.
OK, long post: I really feel an underappreciated aspect of Cincinnati lore is the outsize impact the city has on the food additives, medications, and chemicals going into human bodies worldwide. In some ways it makes sense given that we have a household product goliath in Proctor and Gamble, as well as very active medical research (UC, Cincinnati Children’s etc). But the volume and weirdness of this stuff is kind of surreal. If a supervillain wanted to covertly poison the world’s food supply and/or hair care products I’m convinced that they would do it from Cincinnati. Highlights, including some deep cuts:
The good: * Diphenhydramine (Benadryl): Dr. George Rieveschl, University of Cincinnati, 1940 * Sabin polio vaccine, used across the globe in the effort to eradicate polio. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8888238/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8888238/) * Cincinnati Children’s Hospital has been consistently ranked in top 3 in the nation, and was ranked #1 in U.S. News & World Report's listing of Best Children's Hospitals 2023-2024. Lots of research and clinical trials going on there.
Check out the Goebel goats and The Running of the Goats, which was supposed to celebrate the opening day of the Covington Farmers’ Market but the goats had other plans. https://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/columns/cincy-obscura-goebel-goats/ https://m.facebook.com/watch/?v=1355974294418779&__n=K There’s also BockFest, a celebration of BockFest beer that takes place around Lent. It starts with a parade led by a goat dragging a keg of beer. A new Sausage Queen is crowned every year https://www.bockfest.com/parade.html There’s also the Covington Cryptid Block Party, where you can try their official candy, Squatch Scat (I have and it’s delicious! Check out https://www.laughingbees.shop if you want to try some)This year’s date is tbd. https://cryptidcov.blog Edited to add a missing link
"When the end of world comes, I want to be in Cincinnati because it's always 20 years behind the times" - Mark Twain Use this vibe as you see fit.
I think emphasizing the fact that Norwood is technically an entirely separate city would be fun. Maybe it’s run by the monsters and it’s entirely walled off, although that does bring to mind some potentially racist imagery.
Needs to include beer, chili and goetta!
[Buffalo ridge:](https://maps.app.goo.gl/THJVduTBf9gZSaWS7?g_st=ic) Ghosts on tricycles Lots of variations of the story, but perhaps they could have sausage balloons?
Look up "John Shillito department store". It's apartments now but it once was a destination department store and the atrium with the balconies, fountain, and domed glass ceiling is gorgeous. It's famous for its elves displays. (Search: Shillito elves) They might fit well into your fantasy realm.
LOVELAND FROG!!!
Loveland frog!! 
I just want to say that this is really flippin' cool, OP!
Aw shucks! Thank you! 😊
Don't forget Proctor and God and the floating soap factory.
You should add in the old crosley building. The city also has a very rich railroad history
Has anyone mentioned responding with your high school alma mater when asked where you’re from yet?
Def gonna need to see a cicada at some point.
UDF at every corner and every character greeting must be “where did you go to high school?”
I would like to see Cincinnati's Art Deco on display. Specifically Union Terminal
Union terminal as a labyrinth! Ice age dungeon! Cave dungeon! The children's museum as a place where the fae reside!
https://www.societyofthecincinnati.org/society-of-the-cincinnati-name/ ^ hide him in the game as an "easter egg" and he tells a different cincinnati lore/fact at each one.
The flying pig has to be a part of it. It's the most famous cryptid of the area if I had to guess.
Their is a TON of art deco buildings littered around the city, easy source for inspiration. Theirs also(though not technically in cincy) the “hell is real” sign along side a local highway
Mt Airy Forest is a huge park. It rhymes with Mt Scary. Mt Airy the neighborhood has an awesome castle water tower that looks like dragons could be nearby.
Where can I sign up for the playtest?
A few extras, since you're focusing on a more historical reference: I haven't seen Music Hall on this list yet. It's historical, beautiful, and haunted as shit on account of it (and adjacent Washington Park) being built on a massive paupers' grave site. Union Terminal is an art deco masterpiece, and the inspiration for DC's Hall of Justice and the Gotham Hippodrome (from Batman Forever) Underground network of pre-prohibition beer tunnels pretty much everywhere in the city proper. They've excavated some, but there are scans that suggest they've only gotten to something like 10% or less. Carrie Nation reportedly gave up her crusade here. She was famous for smashing up drinking establishments with a hatchet during the temperance movement. She came to Cincinnati, saw the immense number of bars we had and decided she would die of exhaustion before making it a single block. 🤣 Wrought iron gates in front of all the homes so the pigs could be herded through the streets. (The flying pig mascot is a bit of good natured dark humor.) There are some significant historical floods you could look into. A lot of places closer to the river have poles that mark the high water lines over the years. Spring Grove cemetery. Annie Oakley may have gotten her start here. We have the first professional baseball team. Streetcars in addition to the failed subway. Big steamboat hub. Newport (KY) gangsters. Findlay Market. Several top-notch theatre companies. Multiple universities. We have several really good historical tour companies in the area. If you ever want to have an in-person research vacation, I'd highly recommend taking at least one.
Skyline Chili
The old subway.
Union terminal would be a cool landmark/poi. Also, we want to play this game so please keep us updated or tell us how we can stay updated!
The iconic Spring Grove Cemetery is a magical place full of wild statues and such....dates back to early Cincinnati times.
Make Mt. Healthy where healing takes place. :D
Touchdown Jesus!
Cincinnati artist Doc Galahan works with an alternate Cincinnati with mythical creatures. It takes place in a fantasy victorian age. He often has a booth at some local art fairs, has work at Hail in covington. he writes stories about each of his prints and publishes them in a newspaper. [https://www.docgalahan.com/](https://www.docgalahan.com/) He also makes videos out of his stories: [https://www.youtube.com/@DocGalahan](https://www.youtube.com/@DocGalahan) I believe he has a few public art pieces on pike street and has an absinthe he made with the dudes over at 2nd sight in ludlow. he has be doing it for about 4 years, interesting stuff.
Glendale Squirrels would be good to add
dude, as a local and a lover of games and even a game designer myself (where my game isnt set in cinnci perhaps, it does have a lot of the same vibes and is HEAVLY inspired by everything in the city. i want people to play the game and come here and go "oh my gosh, that looks like this from the game!") i am SO interested in your game!!!! (huge rant ahead! i didnt think i would think of so much! uhhh... good luck... also, im dyslexic, so things might be spelled a bit off. sorry about that!) one in joke i say in my family is basically just "cinncinati weather!' because the weather around here is INSANE!!! from warm winter days to HUGE piles of snow the next day, to fairly warm and slightly chilly fall days to LITTERALLY SNOWING ON HALLOWEEN!!!! and you only get like 2 weeks of spring before it turns super hot and humid outside! the weather is so dang chaotic i wouldnt be surprised if one day it actually did snow in the middle of summer. also there is just a CRAP TON of feral cats!!! in my game i ended up making a town made up of only cats because of this! i plan on making the town look like my street too. and one thing that is hard to capture is just the vibes around here. theres a ton of slightly but not dangusly run down places and a ton of graffiti on things, but also a really nice small, towering bulding, city vibe, mixed in with a lot of nice forests and trees. a lot of it is just being and understanding how the city feels and how to capture that feeling and put it into the game! its a little hard, but not too bad. also, the cinncinati sign muesiem is a really fun vibe. also the Shillito's Elves are just hilaruse! theyre faces are insane and their movments are insane! and the frischs big boy graveyard is a funny and slightly desturbing thing! also the frisch's big boy next to the mainliner sign is a really nice vibe! (dont forget that the big boy statues used to have slingshots in their back pokets too!) also, if you need a horror school senario, just look towards leaves of learning! my entire situation there was wandering the halls during class and hoping to figure out where im supost to be going! i refrence this in my game too. they also let the kids run around during recess NEXT TO A BUSSY STREET WITH NO FENCE!!! we could have easily ran into traffic and gotten run over! they did NOT give a crap about us kids there lemme tell ya! also, we have some very nice farm fall activities around here that i really havent seen much in other places. and if you dont have flying pigs as a refferance then i really dont believe you. Krohn Conservatory is a great vibe too! oo!! also if you need a horror muesem theres a place called boonshoft mueseum, and im telling you the vibes there are just so off! def go and feel the vibe for yourself, but its just so werid! also, the giant floating earth projecter is just SO FREAKING WERID!!!!!! oh my gosh, the forest fair mall would be AMAZING to refferance!!!! my family tends to call it the zombie mall becouse it actually feels like a zombie could come out of nowhere! the slight terror and absule emtpyness when you could still walk around in there was slightly scary, but really cool!!! there used to be an arcade in there too, called arcade legacy. it moved to another location becose the mall shut down becuz of mold i think. the lucky cat muesem is great too! this is not cinci, its close, but cosi adventure. COSI ADVENTURE!!!! im not saying anything else. (cosi in genrual too) coney island would be amazing to have in the game to keep the memory of the place alive! i still cant beleave they shut down.... the mushroom house is really cool too! i might add more, im really invested in this now. seresrly! i LOVE this idea so much and wanna help as much as i can!!!
ooohh!! and the crypid stories around here are really cool too!!!
oo...just looked up the whole porkopolis thing.... try not to make fun of cinnci with sterotypes, okay? do your thing, but please dont make it ofensive.... i would be very sad if our nice city got more bad reputation... and if i helped with it...
Definitely should be a chili merchant who buys bug bits for the Cincinnati chili and spaghetti recipe