1937: The Abyssinia Affair
An Ohio professor suddenly goes missing, abducted from his own home by gun-toting thugs. His two children head for Europe in search of him, constantly pursued by shadowy gangsters. Days later a precious ancient religious artifact, The Black Shield of Abyssinia, is stolen from the British Museum in a daring overnight heist. Solving the mystery and recovering the missing artifact and the professor brings the adventurers on an international pursuit as the storm clouds of world war gather over Europe and Africa.
1937: The Abyssinia Affair is a historical setting for traditional table-top role-playing games. This book details technology and culture for the time, multiple locations, fictional characters, and a default, but adaptable, plotline. The various settings and “non-player” (referee-controlled) characters retain enough of a “sandbox” nature that game referees could re-envision the default plot entirely or use the setting as background to develop multiple alternative plotlines set in 1937. As written, the intended flavor of the game might be described as “realistic historical fiction”—albeit with more than a trace of 21st century perspective. While much of the material derives from period maps and publications and the actual timeline of world history, I’ve also taken liberties for the purpose of maintaining adventure-oriented places and people.
The book is 150+ pages, with 23+ pages of carefully-researched background on the United States and World of 1937 and well over 100 pages describing the settings of rural Ohio, New York City, London, Paris, Munich, Venice, Egypt, Sudan, and ultimately Italian-occupied Ethiopia.
The setting is inspired in part by the action-adventure stories of the “pulp” era and its later derivations: Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Adventures of Tin-Tin, and King Solomon’s Mines, as well as period romantic dramas like Casablanca. The default plot and setting details are deliberately mundane—designed to give a fictional feel of the real time and place. However, many gamers, inspired by the fantasy context that gave rise to role-playing games, may also want to incorporate supernatural creatures, powers, and wonders into the storyline (the conclusion of Raiders certainly comes to mind). To be sure, many of the original pulp stories and comics included a supernatural element. Some possibilities for supernatural alternatives are included as boxed “Super Spice” additions throughout the text. These “adventure seeds” offer some suggestions for how supernatural or horror games could be realized in these settings.
1937: The Abyssinia Affair does not include any rule mechanics for playing the game. Some obvious possibilities that would work well with this adventure setting include GURPS (especially GURPS Action, GURPS High-Tech and/or GURPS Cliffhangers); Spirit of the Century; Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes; FUDGE; Pulp HERO; or Modern Age. Character descriptions provide just enough detail to help a referee understand what characteristics to set higher or lower, which skills to include, and defining motivations. Throughout the text, boxed “quick roll” tables provide some simple variation to characters, encounters, or events. Resolution of these simple tables should be fairly seamless regardless of gameplay system.
Successfully funded on KICKSTARTER, Spring 2021.
DOWNLOADS FOR 1937: The Abyssinia Affair
Maps for 1937: The Abyssinia Affair with grids and handouts:
The published version contains erroneous data for weather in Venice in the Appendix, p. 158. The corrected version of the page is included here:
The published version includes a few errata, as follows:
p. 85- Should read “Die Fuerher” rather than “Der”.
p. 86, 89- Change Herr Schone’s first name from “Uwe” to “Hans”. The first name Uwe is Frisian and would be unlikely in Bavaria.
p. 115- The reference to Johnny Eguavoen should read Johnny Abboud.
ON-LINE RESOURCES FOR ROLE-PLAYING IN THE 1930’s
Dirty 30’s A resource for roleplaying in the 1930’s
RMS Queen Mary Deck Plan and Photos
Airships, including the Hindenburg
Macchi MC.94 Flying Boat
New York City Subway Historical Maps
International airline travel in the 30’s
Historic maps of London
Historic maps of European cities
Basics of Amhara culture