History Main / FakeTown

A character needs to build a town, fast. Maybe it's to [[{{Egopolis}} seem important]], maybe they need to lay a [[BoobyTrap trap]] for some unsuspecting victim, or maybe they need to test a ''dangerous'' weapon.

The solution? If there's no need to spend too much on it, slap up some plywood billboards made to look like the fronts of buildings. As long as no one looks behind it, the illusion should be effective. For a version not as dependent on viewing angle, you could also slap up empty shell buildings made from cardboard or other cheap materials. It doesn't need to be structurally sound; it just needs to hold up long enough to fool whoever it needs to fool. Or, should the fake town really need to look realistic, build actual houses and roads, perhaps install a power grid and water network; make it look like a thriving and inhabited place, except for the fact no one is supposed to actually live there.

* ''LightNovel/TheExecutionerAndHerWayOfLife'': Among the Four Major Human Errors that surround civilization, the one that occupies the Eastern frontier, Mechanical Society, is a seemingly lively StandardFantasySetting town whose inhabitants are all in fact lifeless, magical automatons.

** The episode "[[Recap/DuckTales2017S2E4TheTownWhereEveryoneWasNice The Town Where Everyone Was Nice]]" takes this trope UpToEleven with [[spoiler:an entire Brazilian town populated by fake people. They're puppets on the end of the tendrils of an intelligent, carnivorous plant. Turns out that it had invited Donald Duck's old band to be entertained so that the flower could eat them together with visiting tourists]].

* VideoGame/CallOfDuty:

* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert'': The Allies can erect fake buildings to set up decoy bases and deceive enemy forces.

* Near the end of World War I, the French built a replica of Paris, to scale, in the hope of tricking German bombers into bombing that instead of the real one.

* Finns built [[https://www.warhistoryonline.com/instant-articles/helsinki-bombings-1944.html a complete fake Helsinki city plan]] out of firewood on nearby uninhabitated islands to deceive Soviet night bombers in 1944. When the bombers arrived, the firewood was ignited, resembling a city in flames.
* During WWII, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Fortitude the British built up a huge fake army]] to make the Germans believe the D-Day landing would be in Calais. Among other aspects like false troop movements and command structure, they set up plywood and tarp tanks, airplanes and vehicles to inflate their numbers, allowing German spy planes to report back with their findings. It was a complete success, fooling Germans into thinking D-Day was a feint until it was too late.

Frequently, they are erected for deceiving purposes: in a CrapsaccharineWorld, they're helpful for creating a falsely peaceful and idyllic atmosphere, [[PolishTheTurd hiding away unpleasant realities]]; as a [[LuredIntoATrap trap to lure]] enemies or, conversely, as a [[RedHerring tactical decoy]], to distract them from a crucial target; in times of war, this often turns out to be a rather useful military strategy. This specific application is referred to as a "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potemkin_village Potemkin village]]".

When they lack a deceptive purpose, they may be set up as a staging ground for simulations, trainings or experiments, with the occupants aware of the fictitious condition of the place. This makes them an excellent SimulatedUrbanCombatArea or DeadlyTrainingArea, if something has to be tested in an environment that resembles an actual inhabited place, but, for safety reasons, there'd better be no civilians around.

A similar concept is ArtificialOutdoorsDisplay, although it tends to be used mostly for esthetic purposes with no deceptive intention. Do not confuse with GhostTown or GhostCity, as they used to be actual functional living areas at some point, unlike fake towns built specifically for non-residential purposes.

A character needs to build a town, fast. Maybe it's to [[{{Egopolis}} make themselves seem important]], maybe they need to lay a [[BoobyTrap trap]] for some unsuspecting victim, or maybe they need to test a ''dangerous'' weapon.

The solution? If there's no need to spend too much on it, slap up some plywood billboards made to look like the fronts of buildings. As long as no one looks behind it, the illusion should be effective. For a version not as dependent on viewing angle, you could also slap up empty shell buildings made from cardboard or other cheap materials. It doesn't need to be structurally sound, it just needs to hold up long enough to fool whoever it needs to fool. Or, should the fake town really need to look realistic, build actual houses and roads, perhaps install a power grid and water network; make it look like a thriving and inhabited place, except for the fact no one is supposed to actually live there.

* The very first issue of ''ComicBook/SuicideSquad'' featured a complete American airport in the middle of the Qurac desert, used as the training grounds of the titular team's first opponents, the Jihad. President Marlo pulled all the stops to perfectly simulate the ambience of the real thing, even staffing it with real people for the team's combat demonstration - which ended with everyone in the "airport" brutally killed.

* In "[[Recap/TintinTintinInTheLandOfTheSoviets Tintin in the Land of the Soviets]]", the very first ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}'' story, the title character sees a group of English communists being shown Soviet factories that appear to be working at full speed. From where he is, he can see that the factories are facades with people burning wet straw and banging on sheet metal to make it look like the factories are running at all.

* ''Literature/TheFaceInTheFrost'': The BigBad of the novel creates an artificial town called "Five Dials" as a trap for the protagonist. It's a very creepy place, bordering on EldritchLocation.

* The very first issue of ''ComicBook/SuicideSquad'' featured a complete American airport in the middle of the Qurac desert, used as the training grounds of the titular team's first opponents, the Jihad. President Marlo pulled all the stops to perfectly simulate the ambience of the real thing, even staffing it with real people for the team's combat demonstration - which ended with everyone in the airport brutally killed.

* ''Franchise/Wonderwoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: Issue 32 opens on Uvo making practice bombing runs on scale models of several city blocks of New York, Paris and London in preparation for an attack on Earth.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': Issue 32 opens on Uvo making practice bombing runs on scale models of several city blocks of New York, Paris and London in preparation for an attack on Earth.

* Nuketown from ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps'' and its remakes in subsequent games are set on a nuclear test range, befitting the original game (and [[VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsColdWar aptly-named sequel]])’s Cold War setting. Rather memorably, the bomb is dropped on the town at the end of a match, resulting in the end game scores being displayed in front of a nuclear blast.
** ''Cold War'' also has another example in its Campaign. The Spetsnaz set up a large simulation replica of an average American town, complete with restaurants (including the famous [[VideoGame/ModernWarfare Burger Town]]), an arcade, and all the flashy '80s fashion you'd expect.

** ''Cold War'' also has another example in its Campaign. The Spetsnaz set up a large simulation replica of an average American town, complete with restaurants (including the famous [[VideoGame/ModernWarfare Burger Town]], an arcade, and all the flashy '80s fashion you'd expect.

* Nuke-Town from ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps'' and its remakes in subsequent games are set on a nuclear test range, befitting the first Black Ops game’s Cold War setting. Rather memorably, the bomb is dropped on the town at the end of a match, resulting in the end game scores being displayed in front of a nuclear blast.

Although it may literally be a world made out of cardboard, do not confuse with WorldOfCardboardSpeech.

The solution? If there's no need to spend too much in on it, slap up some plywood billboards made to look like the fronts of buildings. As long as no one looks behind it, the illusion should be effective. For a version not as dependent on viewing angle, you could also slap up empty shell buildings made from cardboard or other cheap materials. It doesn't need to be structurally sound, it just needs to hold up long enough to fool whoever it needs to fool. Or, should the fake town really need to look realistic, build up actual houses and roads, perhaps install even a power grid and water network; make it look like in all a thriving and inhabited place, except for the fact no one is supposed to actually live there.

Frequently, they are erected for deceiving purposes: in a CrapsaccharineWorld, they're helpful for creating a falsely peaceful and idyllic atmosphere, [[PolishTheTurd hiding away unpleasant realities]]; they can be built as a [[LuredIntoATrap trap to lure]] enemies or, conversely, as a [[RedHerring tactical decoy]], to distract them away from a crucial target; in time of war, this often turns out to be a rather useful military strategy. This specific application is referred to as "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potemkin_village Potemkin village]]".

When they lack a deceptive purpose, they may be set up as a staging ground for simulations, trainings or experiments, with its occupants aware of the fictitious condition of the place. This makes them excellent SimulatedUrbanCombatArea or DeadlyTrainingArea, if something has to be tested in an environment that resembles an actual inhabited place, but, for safety reason, there would better be no civilians around.

* Nuke-Town from ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps'' and its remakes in subsequent games are set on a nuclear test range, befitting the first Black Ops game’s Cold War setting. Rather memorably, the bomb is dropped on the town at the end of a match, resulting in the end game scores being displayed in front of a nuclear blast.