By Our World, we are referring to the world we know in our normal lives. The world as it was by the 1930s, with the same countries, maps and people they had back them. Well, maybe with some differences since magic is real, some people have psionic powers and super-science is a thing, even though all of this is rare and almost unknown by pretty much everyone.
As for the Lost World, we are referring to an isolated land, unknown by all, where the laws of our common reality don't quite work the same, where civilizations long gone still thrive, and where legends are real. Dinosaurs and other prehistorical creatures still roam the place and the coming of people from Our World may change everything.
Our World
For most gaming purposes, Our World in the Adventurers of the Lost World is pretty much the same world we know from the 1930s.
State of Affairs
The 1930s are a time of change. New ideas and new ways of doing politics, economics, and pretty much everything is being discussed. The legal rights of workers, women and children were in evidence. Protesters were making their voices be heard by many different ways, and even though some of them tried to follow a peaceful path, violence was the default answer the authorities gave. The stock crash of 1929 made the nations around the world come up with solutions to their internal and external crises. This gave birth to various "isms" and put the world nations in opposing sides, preparing the way for a future incoming war.
Technology
Technology was developing by leaps and bounds in the 1930s. The radio was present in almost every home in the developed countries and there were even reports of radios found in communities in the middle of jungles around the world. With this single device people all around the globe could hear the news as they were happening and this made a huge impact in their lives. The most successful politicians knew about this and made much use of the radio during this period.
In the theaters fully sounded movies were common place and by the mid 30s full color movies were starting to appear, for the amazement of the viewers. The studios and film makers were on a furious competition with each other by then and even spies were used to collect every bit of information they could. Cameras were also getting better and smaller ever passing year. Almost every were you would go there was someone ready to take a picture when something important happened.
Electricity was present in most family houses in the towns and cities of developed countries but in the rural areas and in less developed regions of the world people didn't have access to it and would have to make it using batteries, that's assuming they had access to them. The telephone had also reached a stage where power could be supplied by its own cord and became smaller and more practical, making the networks grow larger and more widespread.
Transportation
In the 1930s the automobile was becoming more affordable in more developed regions of the world and many families could afford them. On other regions they remained a luxury item for the privileged or a tool for work. The majority of overland transportation was still made by trains. When traveling across the seas ships were still the most used form of transport, with options for both the rich and the poor alike. Airplanes were used mostly for intercontinental travels with very few pilots daring to travel further afar. Planes needed regular stops to refuel, so travel routes were fought over.
Warfare
Just as it was happening in other areas, development was also being made in the war industry. By the 1930s most of the weapons we would see in action in World War II was already in use. Armies had at their disposal automatic rifles, machine guns, flame throwers, grenades, artillery rockets and many other armaments. Armored vehicles were being used by most armies too and the growing tension between the nations were pushing the development of better tanks for the upcoming conflicts. In the air the nations were starting to use planes for aerial assaults, bombardments and aerial combat made some pilots quite popular among his nations. Soon more and more deadly weapons would be invented and tested on the battlefields.
A World Divided
The 1929’s stock crash affected the economy of the whole world, send most of the countries around the globe in one of their worst crises. Everyone agreed that something had to be done quickly but what exactly should be done was a matter of debate and conflict. Each country had their own ideas and many of them were diametrically opposed, putting them in the brink of war.
Capitalism
In most western countries Capitalism remained the favored regime, even after the 1929s stock crash. In this form of government the State should not meddle in the economic and social issues of society and should remain focused only in the most strategic roles and in the national security. The economy would regulate itself as the companies and workers would interact. This way, society itself would allocate the resources more efficiently.
Communism
Contrary to the capitalist countries beliefs, Communist government would argue that the State need to take control of the economy and the means of production to allocate the resources to better serve the People. The goal is to distribute wealth more equally among the population, preventing the owners of business to explore the workers. However, this was done by authoritarianism and the governments ended up forcing its ways with violent means and cruel actions.
Socialism
Socialism was basically the middle ground between capitalism and communism, and although rejected in the United States, it's fairly popular in Europe. It believed that the State should not control the economy and the means of production but should regulate and intervene when needed to prevent the exploitation of the masses and undesirable inequalities. The capital should remain in private hands but the government should make sure the workers had their share of the gains and benefits of production.
Fascism
Wildly different from the former 3 ways of government Fascist countries had an authoritarian government that controlled the economy and the social classes to promote the development of the industry and the enrichment of it's population in lieu of another group that the regime sets up as the enemy and the one responsible for all their problems. By attacking and taking the resources from these groups and uniting the nation in a single minded cause, these government had an impressive initial success, specially since they hid all the atrocities they committed from the rest of the world.
On the Brink of War
The Spanish civil war was the training grounds for the upcoming conflicts and saw the action of all the above regimes fighting for influence. As the years progressed, more and more disputes and conflicts would escalate to the crises that would lead to the second Great War.
Once again, I remind you this is the text from the draft I am writing, so there will still be corrections and some changes. Work has been progressing nicely. Soon I will have some exciting news about the future publication!
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