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5th Feb: Echo Chamber Season 1 blooper reel on Youtube here
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The time, place and circumstances of the narrative.
Time
- Alternative Calendar
If the end of World War II were used as an era, it would be the year 66 as of 2011.
- After the End
A catastrophe - manmade or natural - has wiped out a large portion of the human civilization and/or population. The survivors fight for survival in a post-apocalyptic world.
- The Apunkalypse
Punks usher in the collapse of civilization; the apocalypse ushers in the age of the punks. It's all the same song and dance, and the punks are here to stay.
- Ruins of the Modern Age
The Empire State Building is growing moss and most of its concrete is fading away.
- Scavenger World
- Anachronism Stew
Is that man wearing a toga, wielding a Katana and listening to an iPod?
- Big Fat Future
Obese is slim in 25 years.
- Cold War
Iron curtains, nukes and spies.
- The Dark Times
Between the dinosaurs and early human civilization there were dragons, wizards and evil beyond imagination.
- Day Of The Jackboot
War's over. We lost.
- Days of Future Past
Middle Ages + Spaceships = Star Wars.
- The Dung Ages
Happens during Dark Age Britain.
- During The War
- Earth Is Young
- The Edwardian Era
Between Queen Victoria's death and the outbreak of World War I, everybody's upper-class indulgent and foreshadows a lot.
- Enforced Technology Levels
Only certain kinds of technology, or a certain level of technology, is allowed. By law, manmade or natural.
- Fantastic Nature Reserve
A zoo, wildlife reserve, or other home for supposedly extinct or mythical creatures.
- Feudal Future
Sub-category of Days of Future Past.
- The Future
100 - 200 years into the future. Think of how every house in The Jetsons looks.
- Genteel Interbellum Setting
Sometime between 1918 and 1939.
- Here There Were Dragons
Once upon a time, Kings had wizards as courtiers and knights slew dragons.
- Hole In Flag
When everybody got tired of the nukes and spies.
- Just Before the End
We are a few days from extermination.
- Just One Second Out of Sync
A time out of place.
- A Long Time Ago, in a Galaxy Far Far Away...
Far distant in space, time or both. They've probably never even heard of Earth.
- Medieval European Fantasy
Swords, kings and Tolkienian lore.
- Medieval Stasis
Technology hasn't changed since 1250.
- Modern Stasis
4000 years later, still no jetpack.
- Place Beyond Time
A place out of time.
- Popular History
When movies set in 1968 look like they are set in 1968.
- Prehistoria
Hollywood Stone Age. All cavemen look Neanderthalish and live in harmony with dinosaurs.
- Present Day
When a show is set in the same year it is produced in.
- Present Day Past
The city wouldn't let the production close down streets so our movie set five years ago is full of post-2005 cars and billboards.
- The Soviet Twenties
- The Time of Myths
Ancient Myths (Bronze Age Greek, what-have-you) are not only real, they are mashed together into one time period.
- The Troubles
Between the 1960s and 1998 in Northern Ireland.
- Next Sunday A.D.
In the year 201X, things have changed just a little.
- Twenty Minutes into the Future
In the year 2015 everyone is a robot and speaks 10 languages.
- Twenty Minutes Into The Past
Not a Period Piece, but not quite the present, either.
- Twenty Minutes Into The Present
For sequels taking place at an unspecified time, but assumed to be the present day.
- The War on Terror
9/11 to the Present.
- The Wild West
Every Spaghetti- and Western.
- Wooden Ships and Iron Men
The Age of Sail.
Space/Place
- Abandoned Hospital
Mercy Hospital from Left 4 Dead is a good example.
- Abandoned Laboratory
Black Mesa is a good example.
- Abandoned Warehouse
Who even abandons warehouses?
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer
Because sewers in real life are at least 2 meter high and have enough space to hold a castle.
- Academy of Adventure
In every class you learn to fly and shoot laser beams out of your eyes.
- Adminisphere
- Advanced Ancient Acropolis
Exactly what it says on the tin. Often found in the darkest jungle. May overlap with City of Gold.
- Adventure Towns
Travel between towns for new quests.
- Adventurers Club
- Airstrip One
When the US is called Area 02. Airstrip One was 1984's Britain.
- Aliens in Cardiff
Unusually, the Alien Invasion has gone off the Tokyo-New York-Los Angeles-London tourist route to land in Plymouth.
- All Ghouls School
Faculty for the freaky and fanged.
- Amazing Technicolor World
A colorful world.
- The Amazon
The biggest jungle ever.
- Amusement Park
It's usually closed and happens during the night.
- Amusement Park of Doom
No one has entered in ages and because of that, the place is riddled with traps that kill you.
- Ancient Africa
Everyone in Africa has a bone in their nose and hair, dances around a bonfire, and lives in a straw hut.
- Ancient Tomb
Tombs, burial chambers, sepulchers, mausoleums, charnel houses, ossuaries, catacombs, crypts, sometimes even dungeons.
- Arcadia
Quiet life in the countryside.
- Area 51
A top secret research facility. In the desert.
- Ascetic Aesthetic
In this setting, less is more.
- Atlantis
The perfect lost world.
- At The Crossroads
Where the paths of two fates cross.
- Bad Guy Bar
Everyone inside is a macho wrestler with an evil look on his face.
- Barsetshire
Lord Wiggleshum of Fozzletop.
- Base on Wheels
How is it possible to keep an entire city on wheels that can drive anywhere, even submerge? Beats me.
- Bazaar of the Bizarre
A marketplace in the Middle East. You'll find all sorts of this and that in there.
- Beach Tropes
- Beautiful Void
Peaceful, but oddly empty.
- Bedlam House
Asylum on steroids.
- Beneath the Earth
People living under the crust. Their technology is primitive and they fear the outsiders.
- The Bermuda Triangle
Where planes and ships go to enter inter-dimensional rifts (maybe).
- Big Applesauce
Because New York is the only city aliens and monsters like to destroy.
- Big Fancy Castle
Much like Big Fancy House, but with more towers. And secret passages. And dungeons.
- Big Fancy House
A house on a hill. It's not dirty. It has more rooms than any other house around.
- Bigger on the Inside
A building that looks small - possibly ridiculously small - but opens up into a giant mansion or other area.
- Big Labyrinthine Building
A huge building consisting of nothing but a maze.
- Big Store
The setting for a Long Con. It looks like a business now, but it'll be empty again next week.
- Bikini Bar
Strip clubs in all but name
- Bizarrchitecture
There's a door on the ceiling and no one knows why.
- Boarding School of Horrors
The breeding ground of Sadist Teachers and girls who won't give you any.
- Boom Town
Whoa, these guys build and breed fast.
- The Bridge
Where sci-fi guys go to get to know each other.
- Bright Castle
- Building Of Adventure
A single building is the setting.
- California University
When kids in a High School drama get too old to be believable, expect most of them to go here.
- Campbell Country
Lovecraft Country...in England!
- Canada Does Not Exist
What do you do when you're ashamed to be shooting your show in Canada, but can't set it in America?
- Chez Restaurant
Expect snails, frog legs, temperamental chefs, and snotty waiters with funny accents.
- City in a Bottle
There has never been anything outside The City. Beyond its well-policed walls is unknown darkness.
- City of Gold
A country chock full of wealth and splendor.
- The City Narrows
Basically, your typical city slum, but even more dangerous.
- City Noir
Like a city, except it's always dark and rainy, and there are no police officers.
- City of Adventure
All the adventure and excitement you could possible crave conveniently rolled up into a single city.
- City of Canals
A city where waterways are used as streets. Usually mirrors Venice.
- City of Everywhere
Lady Liberty's just a few blocks from the Louvre.
- City Of Spies
City. With Spies. Get it?
- City With No Name
The writers were lazy when thinking about the location, or wanted it to be anywhere.
- Cliffs Of Insanity
Tall walls of rock keeping you from your destination.
- Clock Tower
The town clock, the one that everybody sets their clocks to. May be a bell tower you have to ascend.
- Close Knit Community
Whether rural, urban, or suburban, a place where everyone knows each other and looks out for each other.
- Cobweb Jungle
Why are there more webs than trees in this forest?
- Commie Land
Like regular land, but with hammers and sickles.
- Company Town
Hollywood, but not Hollywood.
- Container Maze
A labyrinth of crates or containers in a warehouse, storeroom or dock.
- Cool Airship
An airship, but with lasers.
- Cool Boat
A boat, but with lasers.
- Coolest Club Ever
So great, it's always packed.
- Cool Garage
A garage, but with lasers.
- Cool House
A house, but with lasers.
- Cool Starship
A starship, but with even more lasers than usual.
- Cool Ship
Anything that's called a ship and has lasers.
- Corpse Land
- The Couch
It's very soft, and is always center stage.
- Crappy Carnival
Like Disneyland, if Mickey was a grubby Con Man.
- Creepy Basement
Like a regular basement, but with more lasers spiders.
- Creepy Cathedral
The bells are haunting at midnight.
- Creepy Cemetery
The place with the reputation for mass-producing the undead.
- Cult Colony
An isolated group of religious settlers.
- Cut And Paste Suburb
Hey, I think I saw that house before. And that one too!
- Dacha
The Russian home away from home.
- Cutesy Name Town
- Dances and Balls
England between 1700 - 1900
- Dangerous Workplace
Drinking from the water cooler will burn down the building.
- Darkest Africa
Tarzan and co. See also Ancient Africa above.
- Deadly Decadent Court
Screw the rules I am rich!
- Death World
Watch out for that grass!
- Decontamination Chamber
- Deep South
Rednecks, moonshiners, KKK and all that
- Den of Iniquity
Where the Mooks and Minions unwind.
- Derelict Graveyard
Ship graveyard
- Desert Island
No one lives there. Good place to be marooned. Full of Jungle Japes.
- Domed Hometown
- Down In The Dumps
Is that a skyscraper of wrecked cars?
- Drive-In Theater
- Dying Town
Welcome to Tropeville. Current population: 7 4 3
- Easily Conquered World
Nothing could ever harm us.
- Elaborate Underground Base
A base that has a hangar, silo and laboratory.
- Elephants' Graveyard
A secret place where elephants go to die.
- Elevator Tropes
- Enclosed Space
Hope you don't have claustrophobia!
- Eldritch Location
Because Euclidean designs are for morons!
- Epiphanic Prison
To exit: Have epiphany.
- Evil Tower of Ominousness
That tower that's larger than the mountains? Definitely not the Evil Overlord's lair!
- Extranormal Institute
- Extremely Dusty Home
- Fan Convention
- Far Side Island
A tiny island in the middle of nowhere housing a single palm tree.
- Fashion Magazine
- Fat Camp
- Fictional Country
- The Final Frontier
- Floating Continent
- Flyover Country
- Forbidden Zone
- Friendly Local Chinatown
- Garden of Evil
- Gayborhood
- Genius Loci
- Geographic Flexibility
When the setting grows, shrinks, adds, and loses features as the plot demands.
- Ghibli Hills
- Gingerbread House
- Ghost Town
- Good Guy Bar
Where the heroes hang out after hours. Villains are welcome if they behave.
- The Good Old British Comp
- Grass Is Greener
- Greasy Spoon
- Hacker Cave
- Halloweentown
- Haunted Castle
- Haunted Headquarters
- Haunted House
- Hedge Maze
- The Hedge Of Thorns
- Hell Hotel
- Hell of a Heaven
- Here There Be Lions
- Hidden Elf Village
A secret, safe place far from the eyes of those other meddling nations.
- High School
- The Horde
- Hospital Paradiso
- Home Of Monsters
- House of Broken Mirrors
- Hungry Jungle
- Ice Palace
- I Don't Like the Sound of That Place
- Incompetence, Inc.
- Indian Burial Ground
- Industrial Ghetto
- Inn Between The Worlds
- Inn Of No Return
- Inner City School
- Inside a Computer System
- In the Doldrums
- Island Base
- It Came From Beverly Hills
- The Kingdom
- Lady Land
- Landmarking The Hidden Base
- Last Fertile Region
- Layered World
- Legitimate Businessmen's Social Club
- Level Ate
- The Library of Babel
- Lighthouse Point
- The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday
- Living Labyrinth
Because normal mazes aren't hard enough, this one changes so you can never leave.
- Local Hangout
- Locked In The Dungeon
- Locomotive Level
- The Lost Woods
- Lost World
- Lovecraft Country
- Lover's Ledge
- MacGuffin Location
- Mage Tower
contains telescopes, orreries, hidden artifacts, secret passages, tomes of eldritch lore, etc.
- Major World Cities
- Make-Out Point
- The Mall
- Malt Shop
- Martyrdom Culture
- Masquerade Ball
- Mega City
- Merchant City
- Mercurial Base
It stays out of the sun by following the night around the planet.
- Middle Of Nowhere Street
- Misplaced Wildlife
- Missing Floor
- Mobile Maze
- Moebius Neighborhood
- Monster Town
- Monumental Battle
- Monumental View
- Mordor
- Museum Of The Strange And Unusual
- My Local
- Mysterious Antarctica
- Native American Casino
- The Neutral Zone
- New Neighbours as the Plot Demands
- New York Subway
- No Communities Were Harmed
- No Tell Motel
- Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here
- Ocean Punk
- Office
- Old Dark House
The classic setting for Ten Little Murder Victims.
- Opium Den
- Ominous Floating Castle
- One Degree of Separation
- One Gender School
- One Product Planet
- Only Law Firm In Town
- Orphanage of Fear
- Orphanage of Love
- Outlaw Town
- Parking Garage
Nothing good ever happens in a parking garage.
- Patchwork World
- Penal Colony
- The Pentagon
- People Zoo
- Phone Booth
- Physical Heaven
Heaven on Earth... literally.
- Planet England
- Planet of Copyhats
- Planet of Hats
- Pleasure Planet
- Polluted Wasteland
- Port Town
A city by the sea.
- Possessive Paradise
A paradise setting with an unfortunate tendency towards the yandere.
- Premiseville
- Prison
- Privately Owned Society
- The Promised Land
- Quirky Town
- Railroad To Horizon
- Red Light District
- The Red Planet
- The Rez
- River Of Insanity
- Sapient Ship
- Scenic Route
- Sea Stories
- Secret Government Warehouse
- Secret Shop
- Secret Underground Passage
- Self-Inflicted Hell
- Setting As A Character
- Severely Specialized Store
We sell one thing, and one thing only.
- Shaped Like What It Sells
- Shattered World
- Shining City
- Shrine To Self
- Simulated Urban Combat Area
- Sinister Subway
- Small Secluded World
It may be safe here, but there's got to be a bigger world out there, beyond the walls...
- Small Town Boredom
- Small Town Rivalry
Two small towns close by, but that hate each other intensely.
- Smart House
- Smoky Gentlemen's Club
- Soapbox Square
- Soiled City On A Hill
- Southern Gothic
- Souvenir Land
- Space Amish
- Space Base
- Space Brasilia
Everything looks like identical whitewashed concrete towers with the same odd angles.
- Spaceship Girl
- Space Station
- Spy School
- Standard Royal Court
- Star Scraper
- Steel Mill
Lots of large machinery, fiery furnaces, molten metal and heavy objects falling from height
- Stepford Suburbia
- Strawman U
- Subculture
- Sub Story
- Suburbia
- Suck E. Cheese's
- Suddenly Significant City
- Summer Campy
- Superhero School
- Super Slave Market
- Supervillain Lair
- Swamps Are Evil
- Sweet Home Alabama
- Table Space
- Theme Park Landscape
- Thirsty Desert
- Thriving Ghost Town
- Tokyo Tower
- Torture Cellar
- The Tower
- Town with a Dark Secret
- Trailer Park Tornado Magnet
- Traveling Landmass
- Treasure Room
- Treehouse of Fun
- Tree Top Town
- Trophy Room
- Truce Zone
- Tunnel Network
- Turtle Island
- Uncanny Atmosphere
- Uncanny Village
- Undefeatable Little Village
- Underwater Base
- United Europe
- Unnecessarily Large Interior
- Urban Segregation
- Veganopia
- Vestigial Empire
- Vice City
The setting used in most Wide Open Sandbox games, particularly the "true crime" ones of the Grand Theft Auto variety.
- Video Arcade
- Volcano Lair
- Wacky Homeroom
- The War Room
- Watching A Video Game
- Water Is Air
- Whitehall
- The White House
- Where Everybody Knows Your Flame
- White Void Room
- Wild Wilderness
- Wizarding School
- World of Badass
- Wretched Hive
- Wrong Side of the Tracks
- Ye Olde Nuclear Silo
- Youth Center
Dimensions/Universes
Other/Both
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