GURPS 1920's

[stilletto_rebel]

I need ideas for adventures. We are playing Cliffhangers without all the zombies and mummies and other weirdness; essentially 1920's era (1922 to be exact).

The players are all German ex-WWI soldiers in one form or another and have set themselves up as a Private Investigation/mercenary firm and are prepared to do pretty much anything for money as long as it's not out-and-out murder or likely to get them executed.

They are operating out of Berlin and I've had them on a couple of rescue missions (people and property) and have another lost person rescue mission waiting in the wings. The thing is, I don't want to keep using the same tired routine of going off rescuing some damsel in distress or runaway kid.

I'm also putting together a gun-running scenario to South America, but would really appreciate some more good ideas that I can develop while I build up the campaign sub-plot in the background.

I don't know much about the 1920's and am beginning to run out of hooks.

Cheers,

Stilletto_Rebel

[Jürgen Hubert]

Well, first of all I recommend plundering Call of Cthulhu sourcebooks on the era - even apart from the Mythos stuff they tend to have excellent period information.

And if you can read German, Pegasus Press have published both a Berlin sourcebook and a Germany boxed set for CoC...

[Ludek]

Look to the east, since 1918 a lot of stuff happened tehre and convinenty
recently tehre was a lot of germans tehre. This gives a lot of potential
espetially for German PC
At fist you will need hoks to get PC tehre, most of it are of rescue damsel variety but you need introduce Pc to new enviroment. I thought of following reasons:
Rescue X : relative of german articrat be it his lover from wartime or enemy who impresed him, Russian aristocrat, infliuetiall and respected orthodox
clergyman, kindnap German articrat who is red comisar and family badly
wants him in germany (and to convinently keep him in asylum) to avoid
shame.
Get X: important documents (espinage dossier, official sign of ritht to X
probanly land in Poland, Baltic republics), gold (let's say some german soldier
stased some gold in Russia/Ukraine during withrawal .. it could be army's gold
.. coming from private enterises :P ).
Transport X: Deliver person, sutff (most liekely weapons ) to some lication/person (tehy may need to seek it/him) as twist tiy may make Pc wonder whenewer they are doing unoffcial work for Govenment or for Comunists.

As complications you may use Gemrman, Polish .. well generally Comunists,
same goes for thir inteligence agencies. You may play also on Polish-Geman tensions (if tyou want straight action tehre are silesian uprisings), involve
them in hiding Germant araments form Allied inspectors(who addictianly may
be foregin spies).

[Atreyu_Hibiki]

I'm American, so I'm biased, but when I think of private-eye types operating in foreign lands, I think Casablanca and Indiana Jones. Sahara is probably a good start, too... most of these are pretty timeless, although rooted in their time frames, the base plot can always be shifted to a different era.

I'm also a big fan of the "Road to..." movies starring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. Although silly, those might give some ideas of "stuck out of my homeland" adventures as well.

[quarkstomper]

I agree about "looking to the east". The era and the setting is ideal for foriegn intrigue and espionage stories. You need shady aristocratic Russian exiles and Bolshevik agents. Have the players encounter a amnesiac girl named Anna who could be related to the Grand Duchess.

Do a little research into the art of the time. It's been too long since my Art History classes in college for me to remember a lot of details, but Berlin inbetween the Wars was center of German Expressionist art and the avant garde. This is more of an atmosphere thing, but you might be able to find some plot hooks off of it. (I don't remember; when did Hitler get kicked out of art school anyway...?)

[stilletto_rebel]

Some good ideas there - thanks guys :)

[GoodGame]

I'd go with the Russian civil war (1918 to 1922), with the PC's hiring on with the Whites as mercenaries perhaps, or dependable third-parties.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Civil_War

Or the War of Greek Independence (playing any side for money).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greco-T...281919-1922%29

The Shah of Iran / Iran independence might be ok too (probably with PC's playing on side of British seeking interests in the country).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reza_Shah

And they wouldn't even need to leave the country to play for or against Nazi's. Against would probably be as members of the federal gov't.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationa..._Workers_Party

[TheScribe]

You want to know something really easy that you can do to get your mind focused on the area? Go to your local library and flip through some National Geographics from the period. Great photos and articles from around the world. You'll get a story idea every issue, 90% guaranteed.

[Spudzill]

While the details may be difficult, the TONE of the 1920's should be familiar to most of us. The earlier editions of GURPS Horror touched on this and the Generational Theory of strauss and Howe( Found in Infinite Worlds). Basically think of the 90's. The twenties will feel very much like that, replace the Cinema and the Internet. Telephones and Automobiles with Computers, Prohibition with the War on Drugs, and you'll get the idea. Berlin was particularly modern with nude burlesque shows, women regularly congregating in pubs(and smoking-these things were big at the time) and the first magazines and periodicals advocating and being marketed for homosexuals,etc...

[Mgellis]

If they need a hang-out, there is always the Kit-Kat club. (Actually, the Master of Ceremonies--played by Joel Grey in the movie--is pretty creepy; in a GURPS campaign, maybe he's not human...maybe he's something like the Tall Man from Phantasm...)

Oh, yes, and there's that vampire from Nosferatu.

And the strangest things are going on in the Paris Opera House. It appears to be haunted.

Not to mention the bizarre happenings at an asylum run by a certain DR. CALIGARI...

And it gets worse. In California, some maniac is letting a gigantic mutant mouse pilot a steamboat! Oh, the humanity!

There is a long range issue for the campaign, of course...the Nazis eventually come to power. Since I'm assuming your players are not interested in having their characters become Nazis, what will they do? Leave the country? Join a secret group trying to overthrow Hitler? You don't have to worry about it for a while if the campaign is currently in 1922, but it might be an issue someday.

I hope all this helps.

Mark