Let's start with some background - I have a few GURPS books, but I've never actually played any GURPS. And a while back, I bought the Martial Arts book. To my great surprise, that book even had rules for the (in the Western world) obscure martial art called Shorinji Kempo, which I practice myself in real life. And what's even more surprising was the fact that book's description of it was 99% accurate.
This seeded the idea that I could try to create a version of myself in GURPS, but where I try to stay true to reality. In other words, the character would be a software developer with the skills to match, and a Shorinji Kempo black belt.
Well, then the next logical step would be to solo play with that character (I'm an active solo RPG player, just not with GURPS yet). And since the PC is based on me, the game world could be based on the real world too. I'd live in the same town, have the same family and friends, etc. That way I wouldn't have to do much in the way of world building.
But then I could divert from reality and make up stories about conspiracies (or whatever) happening in my local area that I could come across and get drawn into. Perhaps there's a secret underground network of tunnels under the city center, connecting various buildings. Who built them, and why? And who's using them now? Why the secrecy?
I think this could be an interesting exercise. If I wanted to, I could do real life research about the history of my town for inspiration, even visiting locations to take photos, and so on.
Am I crazy for finding this idea interesting? Has anyone done anything similar?
A decent amount! But that could have just been my own interest.
When I was making the New Orleans stuff I researched multiple neighborhoods, made maps from Google Earth, edited them in image editors, and put them in something the players could see. As well as writing backstory for different places or how I would think of them.