I'm not 100% sure how many of you have experience in the game at this phase (or how much experience you have in general), but we're going to need to set some stuff up before we begin. We'll start with our city.

While I do have a slight preference, it's nowhere near a deal breaker for me. It's just on my list of cities I want to run/play Dresden in. It's Miami. Not real Miami. The Miami you see on TV, Burn Notice, Dexter, CSI: Miami. Drug lords. Beaches. Party yachts. Mojitos. That place.

Different cities will give us different tones. I did a one shot in Detroit, MI. It was not beaches, yachts, and mojitos. It was dirty streets, vacant neighborhoods, and poverty. But we got to kill ICP because they turned out to be warlocks. So it was all good.
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After we settle on a city we need to create themes and threats. We'll need a total of three in combination. So we're looking at two threats and a theme, or two themes and a threat.

Themes are something institutional to a city. It could be something as specific as an organization. For instance, I live near South Bend, IN. Notre Dame would very much qualify as something that would be used as a theme. "The Dome Gets Its Way" (referring to the iconic Golden Dome atop ND's main admin building) is very much a theme aspect in South Bend. But it doesn't have to be that specific. It can represent something more abstract. A theme aspect in Hollywood could easily be "Reputation is Currency". These examples both reflect our mundane world. They don't assume any supernatural involvement. Ours very well might.

Themes are such that if they change, it's because we invested a lot of time to make it change. Changing a city's theme represent a major shift in the status quo. These will essentially be omnipresent campaign aspects.

Threats are more immediate and acute. When you're dealing with a threat you're dealing with an issue that someone, something, or some group is behind. A new drug lord from out of town is shaking things up. The mayor's corruption is beginning to have a huge negative impact on the city. That kind of stuff.
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Step three, which is not always mutually exclusive to step two, is to create faces and locations. Faces are the characters that are kind of emblematic of themes, threats, or locations. Faces do not have to just be NPCs, too. PCs can be Faces for any of the game's elements.

Locations, too, can act as a kind of story focus for the themes and threats. If one of the city's threats involves two street gangs shooting it out on the streets for supremacy, then 10th and Main is a Location.

I've been watching a ton of Burn Notice lately, so I'm on board with Miami. It's a colorful town with a definite tone and a lot going on.

For a potential theme, I'd suggest something like Surf, Sand, and Sin. Water and beachs are mighty important to Miami, and the Sin can refer to a lot of different things. Heavy Vice Trade, White Court involvement, drug runners, whatever.

For a potential threat, it'd be fun to go post Changes, and have the Fomor coming up from the seas. The Sea is a Harsh Mistress, maybe. Have sort of a Mother Hydra/vaguely Lovecraftian menace out in the water who's sending minions into town to cause mischief. It'd be nice because the PCs can't just march into their headquarters and blow it up.

I'm not wedded to these ideas. Just tossing them out to get the ball rolling.

Before I make any more suggestions, where are we all in the novel series?

I'm up to date on the series (still haven't read Side Jobs, or any of the comics, but as far as novels go, I'm completely current.) I'm not thrilled with Miami--don't watch any of those shows, and not psyched about the possibility of playing a magic char surrounded by water--but I don't have a better suggestion, so I'm down.

I'm sure there's a city we can all gett psyched about. Nothing says it has to be the US, or even North America.

I'm fine w/ Miami. My only other thought would be to completely make a city up, since none of us are likely to be from or in a city we're using.)

Miami is very researchable, both in reality and in the stylized fiction you mentioned. I'm okay with it. It seems an interesting setting choice for Dresden--not many of the stories tend to have a Miami feel--so it might be easy to create a totally different world-feel there (which is a little bit of what I really don't want.)

But I'm honestly good with whatever. You won't find me dragging a game down.

A suggestion that spins it off in a totally different direction: what about somewhere in, say, Greece? It's foreign enough from our own culture that making it up isn't going to be much of a stretch anyhow. And all of their ancient myths are great Dresden fodder. Or Egypt.

Greece doesn't really light my fires.

For a foreign city, Central or South America could be a lot of fun. Chaos following a sudden power vacuum. Crippling, awful poverty contrasted against extreme wealth. Political corruption on a scale that would make a Washington lobbyist blush. Drug cartels, mysticism, strong community bonds.

Fun stuff. Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires... whatever. Iconic enough that it'd be easy to get a feel without worrying about the fine details.

If we want the Central/South American feel, we may as well go with Miami. It at least offers us an excuse for when we overly Americanize and/or stereotype.

Just saying... Are we overthinking this?

Probably, lol.

Moonhawke, thoughts?