A Resource Guide for Live and Tabletop Roleplaying Games set in the 1920s,
including Lovecraftian Horror and Gangster Genre Games.
The Great War
      The Great War (1914-1918) was the formative event for many people in the 1920's. The War was not as truly global as WWII. In Britain and France, virtually everyone felt the effects of the war, but in America, only 4,743,800 men were enlisted, as opposed to 16,353,700 in WWII. In addition, many men never got to France, since America entered the war in April 1917, and the war ended in November 1918. Nevertheless this first great "bad war" left a deep scar on a generation. 

      " From the morning of September 24th to the night of October 3rd, I had in all eight hours of sleep.  I kept myself awake and alive by drinking about a bottle of whisky a day.  I had never drunk it before, and have seldom drunk it since; it certainly helped me then.  We had no blankets, greatcoats, or waterproof sheets, nor any time or material to build new shelters.  The rain poured down.  Every night we went out to fetch in the dead of the other battalions.  The Germans continued indulgent and we had few casualties.  After the first day or two the corspes swelled and stank.  I vomited more than once while superintending the carrying.  Those we could not get in from the German wire continued to swell until the wall of the stomach collapsed, either naturally or when punctured by a bullet; a disgusting smell would float across.  The color of the dead faces changed from white to yellow-grey, to red to purple, to green to black, to slimy."

      Robert Graves, Goodbye to All That

      Statistically the great influenza epedemic of September and October 1918 was worse than the war, certainly taking a much higher civilian toll. The war, followed by the epidemic, led to a strong swing toward moral puritanism which brought in the prohibition era. We think of the "Roaring 20's" as a period of wretched excess, but the people of 1919 saw the `teens as a decade of excess.

      As with the other subtopics, this site cannot provide a comprehensive source for WWI articles on the Web. Instead the idea is to present core information that will enable you to find specific WWI information.

      One final note. When writing about the 20s, or playing a character in the 20s remember that it is not "World War I."  It was called "The World War" or "The Great War." Obviously, we had not yet had World War II.

      General Topics

      Trenches on the Web

        Simply the best WWI site on the Web. If you can only visit one First World War site, make it this one.
      The World War I Document Archive
        More useful than it sounds. Lots of primary source documents from WWI, online. Also: Memorials, Personal Reminiscences, WWI Biographical Dictionary, WWI Image Archive, Special Topics and Commentary Articles, Links to Other Resources
      Military History Resources and Links
        A set of general military references, which include the First World War
      WWI Another Look
        An interesting collection of photos of WWI from a single, apparently unknown, source
      Specific Topics

      Fighting the Flying Circus, by Eddie Rickenbacker.

        This is the war biography by Eddie Rickenbacker, which contains, among other things, his account of the downing of Quentin Roosevelt. This is interesting because it pertains to the War, but was also widely read in the 1920s.
      World War I and the Golden Age of Aviation
        A collection of for sale prints showing the Airwar.
      RLM War Diary - Ypres 1917
        Apparently the entire online text of a personal diary of the war.
      WWI Propaganda
        A collection of posters showing the propaganda of the war.
      The Versailles Treaty
        The complete text of the Versailles Treaty. Rather dry, unless you specifically need the official text.
The Resource Guide for Live and Tabletop Roleplaying Games set in the 1920s,
including Lovecraftian Horror and Gangster Genre Games is the property of Gordon Olmstead-Dean. Your comments and suggestions for additions, or notes on expired links, are appreciated.
Articles found on these pages may be freely distributed unless otherwise specificed.
 
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Last Updated March 20, 1998