How would one go about making a 1930s treasure hunter campaign?

Spirit of the Century.

Tbh if you're gonna shoehorn any Xpunk stuff into a 1930s setting dieselpunk would probably be the best bet.

Only autists make a distinction between steampunk and dieselpunk these days tbf

Indiana Jones without Aliens

I saw all three Indiana Jones movies and I don't remember any aliens.

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What films should I watch?

You weren't paying attention.

Just off the top of my head
>King Kong
>The Mole People
>...

Fuggit:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_adventure_films_of_the_1930s

No. Your just imagining things, like the Bearstien Bears and your mother loving you.

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Thanks.

Also something similar to the French foreign legion is super important

Them, and other expats of all kinds as well.

Take the Drake's Fortune series of games and place it in 1930s.

here

In my opinion, if OP is going to run this like a one-shot campaign, there should be five points along the journey:

>Setting out from home: This is when the players are still in the good old USA and have the opportunity to easily acquire the supplies they want. Travel arrangements across the Atlantic/Pacific, securing a guide (through contacts, remember, this is the 1930s so you can't just call someone in Africa, and any letters received might be weeks or months out of date if the GM wants to add a little tension and intrigue, maybe their contact's letters stopped coming, or maybe their contact disappeared in the time between sending the last letter and the PCs leaving the States). PCs are still confident, cocksure, and clean.

>Base camp: The PCs have arrived in Foreignistan, discover how weird and uncouth the natives are, and made contact with some white dudes who have been living here for a while. Having a base camp and some friendly NPCs who maintain a presence there is very important for a couple reasons: if the PCs are being pursued from events further up the river, the base camp can serve as a bulwark where they can get help in making a last stand to defeat their pursuers; and if the PCs get in over their head some friends from the base camp can plausibly arrive to aid them.

(comment too long, cont.)

>The Ruins: This is where the PCs think they're going. They actually do get there, but when they do, they discover a mystery, which leads to...

>The Unknown: A cavern collapse traps the PCs and opens up a mysterious doorway carved in ancient hieroglyphs, the temple has a secret passage that actually connects to the inside of a volcano, the mysterious monks actually guard a portal to another dimension, the savage islanders have constructed a giant barricade and set up a sacrificial altar... whatever it is, when the PCs cross over into the Unknown, they're off the map, out of contact with their base camp, and on their own. This is a good place to winnow down some unnecessary supplies and give the players a reason to keep moving instead of turtling up and waiting for rescue. A couple of tragically killed NPC helpers/guides wouldn't hurt. They may find that the supplies they brought along for their expedition might be useless, or the simplest, cheapest items (maybe a flashlight that can blind and terrify the locals) are the most valuable all of a sudden. And speaking of the locals, that leads to our final point:

>The Denizens of the Unknown: These are the characters that live in this place that the PCs didn't know existed. Maybe there's a lost civilization of humans that escaped underground during the Biblical flood whose entire political structure relies on the belief that they're the only humans left. Maybe it turns out the island beyond the wall is full of giant animals. Whoever the PCs discover in the Unknown, they're on their home turf while the PCs are the clueless outsiders. If the PCs were looking for a mythological relic, chances are somebody here has it. This is the true adventure that the PCs will have to escape from.

>Only autists do X
>Proceeds to do X

So you're an autist then?

Also big helmets

Everybody loves big helmets.

Shows 'em you're important.

That looks like a cascade of delicious, buttery popcorn.

Goddammit, can't unsee

Children Who Chase Lost Voices is sort of a modern Japanese take on similar ideas as . It's (probably) present day Japan, but the second half of the film is essentially just the last two parts of and I thought it was well done, though it may or may not align well enough with the goals of this thread. Still, Hollow Earth Theory.

I think the last part goes too far into the fantasy realm. I like the idea of actually having to prepare an expedition properly though it sounds like it would add a new and interesting side to the game.

It would actually. Everyone likes the "pick your gear" phase of D&D, making that part of the challenge would be cool.

It could also be far more indepth than in D&D.

Eg party is majority screwed over if they run out of fuel deep in the jungle. Also having maximum carry weights more realistic in play would make things interesting.

>party runs out of boat fuel so must continue through tribal land on foot putting them in far more danger.

the original lost world book by Arthur Conan Doyle is good turn of the century inspiration

>separated from the rest of the party
>danger nearby
>cock your rifle
>realize you had grabbed the shotgun by accident
>you're carrying bullets, not shells

I read it in eighth grade and that scene still sticks with me.

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As much as I like that film I would rather set it in south east Asia. I just prefer the whole deep in a jungle fighting tribal savages to find an ancient idol deep inside a Cambodian Hindu temple.

Well there are 2 ways I would think to go about this. The first is straightforward, a treasure hunt in the 1930's. The setting and culture is based on that area in the 1930's, and the technology and equipment are also limited to that time. Pick an area or a treasure that interests you, do some research, and take it from there.

The other way is a bit more interesting. The 1930's treasure hunter genre as we know it today is because of Indiana Jones. So in the development, you'll need to make that distinction. Is it going to be just a treasure hunting campaign or will it be an Indiana Jones themed? If it is, it can't just be "We're in X location, and we're looking for Y treasure", and will have to have a lot more of a structured narrative. There would have to be some sort of evil organization that is also looking for the treasure, and sessions end with you discovering clues with where you're supposed to look next.

Two-fisted bump of heroism

Indiana Jones never wore a gear on his fedora for no fucking reason.

Use this OP.

seconding

You already have a system purpose built for this exact thing, OP, and it's quite an underrated one too. And its rulebook is free.

So in your mind, does every dieselpunk character wear a striped flatcap with a little smokestack puffing out the top?

I will take a look at it. Thanks.

Spirit of the Century described it like this:

The world is growing smaller. The maps are getting more detailed, the unknowns are becoming known. You essentially live in the last age where there are still dark, secret places. Where mysticism may hold sway. This doesn't invalidate the science as you know it, either. Because these places are exceptional. All over the world, all over the universe, even, two objects dropped at the same time will hit the ground at the same time (yes, barring air resistance and such). However, in the Temple of the Jaguar King, the heart of a guilty man will hit the ground before the heart of an innocent one.

I've always loved modern or near-modern settings in which there were pockets of the paranormal and places of power like this.

Same. The third Indiana Jones movie really hit me at a young age with its idea of this trace of actual magic left over from way back when.