Briefly: a ren-fair theme park came and went near Fredricksburg, VA.  Discarding the obvious modern ones, here's inspiration for loads of creepy abandoned/plague/haunted villages for a D&D adventure.  

OK, RPGSers, whatcha got!

First, a map:

http://i.imgur.com/YSXJs.jpg

Next, ground images:

http://imgur.com/a/TQ8qw#46

http://io9.com/the-haunting-remains-of-the-virginia-renaissance-faire-1448130076

http://www.flickr.com/groups/1716439@N22/pool/with/8478281419/#photo_8478281419

(Edit: the IO9 comment thread is hilarious; every second post is MAN SOMEONE SHOULD TOTES FIX THAT PLACE UP AND RE-OPEN IT...as if that will magically stop what happened from happening again, and also, buildings in that condition are not "fixed up" they are "bulldozed" and other stuff is built where they once were).

I like this map:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/_inou/8599332766/

This is in my hometown. I used to go that faire when it was open. It was a pretty decent place and it would make a great Halloween spooky walk attraction.

Fascinating.  Why am I thinking a game where a group of LARPers decide to play D&D there, only to find themselves in an actual fantasy world somehow?

I want to run this as an Aliens scenario. I use the Classic Traveller rules for all my Aliens stuff, 'cuz its fast and deadly.

The colonial marines drop on a RenFaire-style vacation island, but its half human participants and half-androids via Yul Brenner's Westworld who are always in medieval character.

Unlike Bishop or David, these are cheap low end androids who don't really think, but just act out their RenFaire roles...regardless of what is occurring.

The marines find mostly androids and blood splatter, seeking out where they hell are the actual human vacationers...

I think that I'd make it a "D&D Island" more than historical RenFaire so they would encounter animatronic fire breathing dragons, 3D hologram ghosts, and other bizarre "fantasy" programming that interferes with their mission.

Quote from: Spinachcat;702292I want to run this as an Aliens scenario. I use the Classic Traveller rules for all my Aliens stuff, 'cuz its fast and deadly.

The colonial marines drop on a RenFaire-style vacation island, but its half human participants and half-androids via Yul Brenner's Westworld who are always in medieval character.

Unlike Bishop or David, these are cheap low end androids who don't really think, but just act out their RenFaire roles...regardless of what is occurring.

The marines find mostly androids and blood splatter, seeking out where they hell are the actual human vacationers...

I think that I'd make it a "D&D Island" more than historical RenFaire so they would encounter animatronic fire breathing dragons, 3D hologram ghosts, and other bizarre "fantasy" programming that interferes with their mission.

Huh. That is not something that would seem intuitive... at least, I don't see "abandoned Ren Faire" and have as my first thought "Aliens".

RPGPundit

Abandoned nuclear missile bases are a popular one for post apoc fans to explore. Theres apparently quite a few out there buried now, Rather creepy like a dungeon exploration for some of the more intact ones.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G83W0yCP6x4

The lost Amnian colony upon Anchorômé. Filled with a symbiotic relationship of chihuahua-sized ants and a rapidly growing fruiting ivy (like kudzu), akin to some acacia trees and their ant colonies. The colonial outpost aspired to trading with the locals, but they made a disastrous choice in trying to cultivate the fruiting kudzu as a garden food.

Most of the trading post wealth has either been left untouched or dragged into the ants' various lairs as debris to safely cover their young.

Quote from: Omega;702922Abandoned nuclear missile bases are a popular one for post apoc fans to explore...[/url]

There was a comic book sequel to the old "Prisoner" series where the island is abandoned and the village sits on a nuclear missile base. For that story it worked very well.

Another option is for a standard fantasy world party to find this RenFair village, discover it is abandoned and oddly and shoddily built, and then for the players to realize they have been transported into the modern world.

A couple of LARPs have bought and used abandoned factories for their sites. Locally I believe a LARP called KANAR seems to have some sort of fort set up where they play regularly. Could be park structures. Not sure really.

For that matter some parks and wilderness areas can have some interesting stuff laying around forgotten. When I was in school for a camp project we were left out at an unknown location and the task was to use compass and other means to get back to the camp. Along the way we came across an old graveyard way out in the middle of nowhere. According to the supervisor we were the first in over a decade to have found the place.

Here is an abandoned base exploration tour.

http://triggur.org/silo/