The Amazing 1920s | Chaosium Interview 

Does anyone else want a video of Mike and James telling us what’s on the bookshelves behind them, or is that just me?

My favorite thing about the 20's and why it's my favorite cthulhu setting is that it allows for many of the tools we have in the modern era. Things that make us feel powerful as humans. Things like guns, cars, and telephones. Yet in the 1920's these things were new, often not very reliable, and not nearly as potent, therefore much better for horror. It's a bit harder to capture horror vibes in the age of smart phones and cameras everywhere.

I love the 20s as a setting. Whenever we play modern settings it’s always a fudge to get around smart phones, security cameras etc

I mean if you want a decade that's different at the start and the end...just compare 2011 to 2015 to 2016 to 2020. Those four years feel like they were in different centuries.

Love this video, it was super informative!!! I actually had problems with setting my scenarios correctly in the 1920s : I decided to start in the February of 1920, without knowing that this was a time of depression and sorrow. After all my players created their characters with that year as an indication by me, I realized that at the start of the decade most houses did not have electric appliances and cars were rare... What I had in mind was the 20s in their full bloom.

I’d like to see this for the Georgian period with Lynne Hardy. Also side note my grandfather was born in the 1920’s. He turned 101 this year. It’s crazy and fascinating to me that the end of this period would be in his living memory.

The 20's make a rich background for a few good reasons. The original works were set around that time, and are easily accessible as a source of inspiration. That time period saw tremendous political and societal upheaval, bookended by the two wars. The limitations of science and technology of that time period can promote a kind of vulnerability for modern players who are used such things as the internet and mobile phones. Weaponry is more limited. Taking out the Shoggoth with a Bowie Knife and a .32 revolver is going to be much more daunting than with an AR15 and a Javelin Missile system.

Bryson's 1927 is incredible, one of the best books I've ever read. The coincidences alone are mindblowing, and the scale of Lindburghs fame makes modern stars look like recluses.

Charles Lindbergh

This chat about the historical aspectd of the 1920s has been extremely helpful! Thank you all very much for making this video.

Having the Scenario hinging on you can trace the location of the bad guy from the Postmarks of the mail was a killer of Investigators..... we forget there were several mail delivery’s each day then and the Franking mark gives location..... but nowadays we have forgotten things like this....., this still pips me thirty years later.... our Keeper had his weaknesses I guess. You want to know about the “Green Door”?...... ask Shaking Stevens..... he can tell you all about that . (I now have a dreadful ear worm.)

Lindbergh😊

So just a few minutes in. I have a lot of respect for Mike Mason. There's a comment that you made about it being the 1920s but it's also a fictional game and not to get hung up on too many historical accuracy. But I was running the game in the 1980s when it was friends thinking new and I had, and keep in mind I'm a woman running the game. But you know I'm I'm the odd duck that loved hiking in the woods and climbing trees and reading about adventurers and science fiction and yes indeed those stories and horror movies were my favorite things. To the point that I remember great Bradbury and story and in his TV series, as well as dear old Vincent Price is Old Friends rather than distant strangers who happen to write some of my favorite stuff. So you know this is who's running the game. And yes I did enjoy a bit of love craps after Edgar Allan Poe and before limited relationship with the tales of Stephen King LOL. But I had no fear than three military and historical experts at my table. These were guys who loved a studying the the history of warfare of our country of the the second and first world wars the weaponry going back to flintlocks and who would have used what kind of weapons and what would or would not have been available, easily passable, or greatly frowned upon or outright illegal to have. They also knew a great deal about the history of far-reaching places and often help reset a tone when in those foreign lands. Their expectation of some measure of historical accuracy greatly enhanced the game for the rest of the group because you had this realism backdrop this historical accuracy in the environment and it made the supernatural Cthulhu Mythos elements that much more mind-breaking and nerve rattling and Bone chilling, largely because of the historical accuracy that I Endeavor to keep everything else in. There was some things that we just we don't know what this is or it may have been like this but for these tonight our purpose is this and we would Wing a lot of things. And there are other people at the table who were not as well red and informed in the matters of warfare throughout the world. We didn't have the one guy who knew all five weapons of the Sikh. Another was a simply well-read in all things nearly encyclopedia gentleman whose character is based on Sherlock Holmes Indiana Jones and Doc Savage. And he could carry the character well because he was easily as smart as all three of those dudes. Had the great pleasure of calling that man my husband. The house is full of books and none with Pages unturned by him. We looked at what the errors were like, because of the well read nature of that first great group of Cthulhu investigators, the vernacular was often correct or at least attempted and of course there were expletives but usually uttered by the players and not by their characters LOL. But the historical accuracy was a great deal of the fun for me as a keeper willing to listen to input of my well-read players, and my players willing to hear the tale and be involved in the story and be led down dark and shadowy ways and to nightmares Untold and Horrors unimagined. By golly those were the days! Playing today is different. But I Endeavor to hang on to the flavor of those dear old days and the original material presented to us by Sandy Peterson.

Our 20s Wikl Vary. Makes Sense

During Prohibition my great grandmother made moonshine and then held ticketed dances where she served it. Totally legal. The only problem was that her husband was a cop and his boss told him to shut it down because it was a bad look. They had a big fight about it that ended with my great grandfather breaking the still so my great grandmother couldn't make any more moonshine.

Great idea for a show

Proof reading in the 7th ed book. It flip flops several times throughut the book for rules. Shotgun rules change throughout rather than being consistent.

It would be interesting to have a setting in the 1970s or 1980s where technology is far more simple than it is today before the Internet people only have land lines. You have to use pay phones most people read newspapers and books.

I think the most important thing to remember the 20’s is it’s an age of extremes and contradictions; an age of hedonism and religious revival. Innovations in many scientific fields while spiritualism flourished. The number of rabbit holes one go down from simply researching a mundane thing like light bulb.

Goingt onrunnthe ”Lightless beacon” and I think I’ll make the passanges boat a booze party ship… :-)

I disagree with some bits of Mike Mason's opinions on the era. I speak from someone who had parents who lived during the period. For instance, I think Mr. Mason misunderstands what Prohibition was all about. However, I'll go into more of this later.

As long as you are consistently charging your players roughly 1000% the actual 1920's pricing for a Thompson SMG, don't worry about it :P