New Lands

[Doomsday]

I'm just kind of concerned that people might be mistaking Germans from that era as nazi's :o

[Decrepitdan]

    Well, in the light of the denazification programs post wwII, and the way we are taught about it in popular culture, many think all germans Were nazis in that period. I had hoped the release of the movie Valkrye would stem some of that.

[Haibane]

It was the Indiana Jones link that put me off... it's been done before and the game deserves better than copying another idea. Indiana Jones is set in the 1930s BTW, if it was set in the 20s there wouldn't be any Nazis ;)

As to nationalities the French, British and Italians were all keen explorers in the 20s since they had imperial lands and scholars from those nations were encouraged to investigate the traces of civilizations being continuously uncovered.

The Germans were almost wholly inward looking in the 20s with all sorts of social upheaval going on, I don't think they had much inclination to look scientifically beyond their own borders in comparison to other states and the National Socialist Party was an insignificant bunch of radicals for most of the decade.

I think a mixed nationality group of anthropologists would be pushing the bounds of believability, almost always one senior scientist or naturalist in a university would make or hear of a discovery and organise a team to support him or her to go investigate, funded by the university and in the Italian case possibly by government money too.

I'd suggest the anthropologists are therefore all of one nationality and possibly should know each other (or at least know of each other's reputations) before the game starts. Italians are cool by me, it's a lovely country and they are fantastic people ;)

And why do we need an antagonist group? Surely the tribes the anthropologists encounter will give us enough material to make a game of it without extra complications and watering down of the numbers in the groups.

[Cosmo_ac]

And why do we need an antagonist group? Surely the tribes the anthropologists encounter will give us enough material to make a game of it without extra complications and watering down of the numbers in the groups.

This is true.  If the game is done well enough, and the enviroment interesting enough, we might very well not need Antagonists.

[Haibane]

The beauty of the game for me would be for 1920s Europeans to be dumped into an alien environment and encounter bizarre cultures, with a sexual slant, obviously. Just dealing with that while developing inter-group politics and relationships should be the focus. An antagonist group is just going to water down the main point of the game and distract from what should be an exciting enough plot.

[Decrepitdan]

All true and well said by all. :)    I think that hailbanes idea of all being the nationality is a particularly good one, from the standpoint of suspension of disbelief. She already covered that though.

[RedEve]

It was the Indiana Jones link that put me off... it's been done before and the game deserves better than copying another idea. Indiana Jones is set in the 1930s BTW, if it was set in the 20s there wouldn't be any Nazis ;)

Come again? The Nazi party was well in place already back in the 1920s. If you meant that they weren't in power yet, then I'd agree, but there definitely were Nazis around in the 1920s.

As for the second point, why should the entire team have the same nationality. Just because they all work or are associated with with same institute does not mean they share the same nationality.

[Doomsday]

I think we're all getting too caught up with the subject of nationality right now :-)

I think, as RedEve said, we could be multi-national as each character would prefer.

[Haibane]

Come again?

My third paragraph clarifies.

As for the second point, why should the entire team have the same nationality. Just because they all work or are associated with with same institute does not mean they share the same nationality.

I didn't explain that too well. Yes, there could be mixed nationalities, just about, but it would be most unlikely. Todays modern science field is bonded together by electronic communication and American, Swiss, Finnish and any other nationality of scientist you can think of all come together to undertake projects. People from one side of the globe travel to work at institutes on the other, it's commonplace.

But, just bin that concept altogether, right now, okay? Trust me.

This is the 1920s. It was different.

There is only postal letter communication for scientists to share vital ideas. Telephone could be used to talk casually but for the passing over of documents we're talking paper and envelopes. And most of that would be by sea. Not even airmail would be around in significant amounts yet. So communication between nations would take days at least and possibly weeks if ocean barriers were in place.

Also in the 1920s groups were as partisan then as they are now and if you think about the secrecy that surrounded Carter's Egypt expedition and how it was an all-British enterprise you get an idea of the way scientists thought then, more so than now I think. Patriotism filtered down to scientific levels much more strongly then.

I think we could consider the team being sponsored by a university in Europe somewhere and perhaps stipulate that at least 2/3rds of the characters in the team are that nationality. That would make historical sense. And there were direct national conflicts of interest going on. A team sponsored by say, a French university would quite possibly not accept German scientists, or Russian. Just a possibility.

Just my thoughts, BTW, in my usual style of seeking verisimilitude, no need to get too excited about them.

[MagicalPen]

Yeah....I think I am going to back out of this one.

[Hyde]

Okay here is what we will do. I wasn't truly looking for a Nazi era game as I had expected it to start around the 1920 or so. Still there seems to be a larger intrest in the Nazi aspect and I have no real issues with that. Nazi / German which ever you wish to label it it sounds like the main issue is semantics.

I've got more then one tribe in mind so I'll set up two games hows that sound. If you'd like to be in the Nazi game let me know Via PM if you'd like to be in the Non-Nazi game let me know via Pm and I'll sort out the characters and get the balls rolling. I've GM'd multiple games at a time before with no issues so we'll do it this way and explore both fun options hows that?

[Doomsday]

I think the main consensus here is that while the nazi game would be interesting, we'd rather just go with non-nazi. Besides if it's set in 1920, that's the perfect time to play a "Roaring 20's" American character. And I don't even think the Nazi Party had formed until the late 20's.

But yeah, stating interest for either game. Do we have some sort of character sheet to go off of?

[Hyde]

Well the expedition will be a smaller group. The main idea is that one of the scientists of the group (Either an NPC or perhaps a player if you choose) has found a way to transport the group to a new realm that even he/she has not visited. There will be group based supplies obviously like food and water. Survival gear like a few tents and cantines some flint perhaps. As for character sheets lets keep it simple for now

Name:
Race:
Age:
Sex:
Description:


Reason for being on the expedition:

Supplies that they may be taking besides preset group supplies mentioned above:

Also if you wish to provide a picture you are more then welcome to I believe it helps.

[Voichin]

As an aside, what does everyone think of the possibility of a culture of people existing who use sexual acts as their only form of currency?

Sorry for jumping in the topic like this but huh?! Apart from the difficulties in distinguishing rape from theft and the gradual decline of income with the progression of the age, how are these people going to make any savings?

[Doomsday]

Sorry for jumping in the topic like this but huh?! Apart from the difficulties in distinguishing rape from theft and the gradual decline of income with the progression of the age, how are these people going to make any savings?

http://i36.tinypic.com/1zq3pg7.jpg

Obviously.

[Decrepitdan]

I would say that would be one of the interesting points of such a culture. Perhaps they don't worry about such concepts as savings, perhaps age is not as big of an issue from their conception of beauty.
If a culture was more of a tribal culture, focused on even exchange, the acts would likely be regimented, each having its own place on a scale of relative value.
This of course could be influenced by the spiritualism of the given people, or be nearly entirely out from under it's sway.
Younger generations may be relied upon to take care of "expenses" as we would think of them for their elders.
Rape could be seen in many fashions, depending on which bend the road takes.

[Doomsday]

I think rape could be like collecting on a payment, something like that. Repo man, or the rapist man :o

[Decrepitdan]

I had briefly thought upon that. Perhaps such a collection of nonpayment would be sanctioned by the tribe, whereas any other form of such action was seen as theft and punishable by any number of methods. This would of course be rare, as I had concieved of trades usually being consensual and agreed upon, kind of the old "Shaking on it." concept. 
The dynamic between children and their parents would of course be completely different, how I have little idea.

[Haibane]

It definitely makes for an interesting encounter with a bunch of straight laced 1920s westerners. Or evening 'swinging' westerners come to that.

I'd suggest there is no concept of 'rape' in such a society, if a payment is due the debtor just gives the payment to the creditor, or its just 'taken' and there's no ill-will either way. Maybe even struggling in 'denial' is what happens with a larger payment. As someone above pointed out, younger family members could be the currency for the elderly and infirm.

Small transactions in everyday activities could usually be just kissing and fondling.

I'd also imagine that pregnancy would be a huge thing in such a society, perhaps the males can switch their fertility on and off at will so that most transactions do not risk pregnancy while the very biggest payments of all might involve a female being made pregnant and handing the child over when born to be raised by the family that is owed the debt and they then have both an extra pair of hands to do work and an extra vessel to make and take payments.

For the purposes of Elliquiy rules I also suggest a 'passage of rites' ceremony on their 16 birthday at the climax of which celebtrations and wild partying the newest adult of the tribe has their virginity taken.

As an extra twist, how about such a society being matriarchal?

[Decrepitdan]

     Sounds like a good Idea, honestly.

[Doomsday]

Those are a lot of excellent ideas that we could run with :o

[Hyde]

I agree and I've taken alot of them into consideration and can very easily see them being encorporated into the game.

So then. Who is still in and what are the characters?   ::)

[Doomsday]

I'll work on a character ASAP, I can't wait for this to get off the ground :D

[Doomsday]

I'm curious, how many plan to play as tribals, and how many plan on playing as the misplaced explorers?

[Decrepitdan]

     Misplaced explorer! Contemplating options right now  :-)