This is the History of Improbable Earth!

Improbable Adventures is set in an extremely cinematic 1930’s, one where the Rocket Corp patrols the skies of the largest cities, one where ancient treasures are yours for the taking, assuming that you can defeat the accursed tomb guardians, one where gangsters rule the streets and have running gun battles with the police. Improbable Adventures is a setting where anything is possible and the Player Characters could become just the heroes that the world needs, or the greatest criminal masterminds of all time, the future truly is up for grabs. Though it’s not the only location in the setting, this book will focus the majority of its attention on Mile High City, a densely populated urban center that floats above the New Jersey coastline. The 1920s and 1930s were an exciting time as they were on the cusp of the future as science and technology were beginning to come into their own, they were the beginning of the future. However, with Prohibition, The Great Depression, and war looming in Europe, they were a dark and dangerous time as well as desperate people attempted to carve a little niche of their own. Also, the frontiers and little explored areas of the world were being thrown open as explorers plumbed their depths, Archaeology and Anthropology, and other “soft” sciences began to throw open society and the people that made up society. The Improbable Adventures setting hopes to emulate and bring to life in a larger then life fashion this time and allow the players to be the daring explorers, the dashing rocketeers, the untouchable police officers and federal agents, or the dirty gangsters out to make a quick buck.

Timeline

The Pulp setting of Improbable Adventures begins in the mid-1800s with the writings of Jules Verne and ends at the start of World War II in 1939.

1861 American Civil War between the Union and the seceding Confederacy begins. Russia abolishes serfdom. French intervention in Mexico.

1863 Formation of the International Red Cross.

1864 First Geneva Convention is adopted. The Chincha Islands War begins and was an attempt by Spain to regain its South American colonies. The Journey to the Center of the Earth is written. The War of the Triple Alliance ends. Paraguayan ambitions for expansion and destroys much of the Paraguayan population.

1865 The US Civil War ends. Reconstruction in the United States begins.

1866 Successful transatlantic telegraph cable follows an earlier attempt in 1858. Astro-Prussian War results in the dissolution of the German Confederation and the creation of the North German Confederation and the Austrian-Hungarian Dual Monarchy. The Chincha Islands War ends. After the Meiji Restoration, Japan embarks on a program of rapid modernization.

1867 The United States purchases Alaska from Russia. The Canadian Confederation is formed. French intervention in Mexico ends.

1869 First Transcontinental Railroad completed in the United States. Suez Canal opens, linking the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. Japanese modernization program ends.

1870 The War of the Triple Alliance ends. The Franco-Prussian War results in the unification of Germany and Italy, the collapse of the second French Empire, the breakdown of Pax Britannica, and the emergence of a new imperialism.

1871 The Franco Prussian War ends. Second Industrial Revolution begins.

1872 Yellowstone National Park is created.

1873 Maxwell’s A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism is published.

1874 The British East India Company is dissolved.

1875 Famine in India.

1876 Because of the massive expansion in population, territory, industry, and wealth in the United States, this is referred to as the “Gilded Age”.

1877 Reconstruction in the United States ends. The Great Railroad Strike in the United States, it may have been the world’s first nationwide labor strike. Russo-Turkish War begins.

1878 Russo-Turkish War ends. The Balkans are freed from the Ottoman Empire in the Treaty of Berlin. The first commercial telephone exchange is built in New Haven, Connecticut.

1879 Anglo-Zulu War begins in South Africa. War of the Pacific between Peru, Bolivia, and Chile begins.

1880 The Boer War begins.

1881 The first electrical power plant and grid is built in Godalming, Britain.

1884 The War of the Pacific ends. The Sino-French War begins.

1885 John D. Rockefeller and other investors “of like mind” begin construction on Mile High City, just off the New Jersey coast. The Sino-French War ends, leading to the formation of French Indochina.

1888 Slavery is banned in Brazil.

1889 Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad establishes the Ahmadi Muslim Community.

1890 The Wounded Knee Massacre was the last battle in the American Indian Wars, this event represents the end of the American Old West.

1893 Construction on Mile High City is completed.

1894 First Sino-Japanese War begins.

1895 First Italio-Abyssinian War begins. First Sino-Japanese War ends, China cedes Taiwan to Japan and grants Japan a free hand in Korea.

1896 Olympic Games revived in Athens. Klondike Gold Rush in Canada. Talio-Abyssinian War ends with Italy’s defeat by Ethiopia.

1897 Gojong, or Emperor Gwangmu, proclaims the short-lived Korean Empire.

1898 The United States gains control of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines after the Spanish-American War.

1899 The Philippine-American War begins.

1900 Australia Becomes a Commonwealth The Boxer Rebellion in China. Italy's King Assassinated. Kodak Introduces $1 Brownie Cameras. Max Planck Formulates Quantum Theory. Sigmund Freud Publishes The Interpretation of Dreams. Famine ends in India, 26 million perish.

1901 First Nobel Prizes Awarded. First Trans-Atlantic Radio Signal is broadcast. Queen Victoria Dies. U.S. President McKinley Assassinated.

1902 Boer War ends. United Kingdom conquers Dutch settlers in South Africa in two Boer Wars. Mount Pelée Erupts The Teddy Bear is Introduced. U.S. Passes the Chinese Exclusion Act.

1903 First Flight at Kitty Hawk. First Message to Travel Around the World. First Silent Movie, The Great Train Robbery. The first World Series is played. Plague in India.

1904 The first Popular American Film is released Ground is broken on the Panama Canal. New York City Subway Opens. Russo-Japanese War Begins. Trans-Siberian Railway Completed.

1905 "Bloody Sunday" - Russian Revolution of 1905. Einstein Proposes His Theory of Relativity. Freud Publishes His Theory of Sexuality.

1906 The Dreadnought Launched. Finland First European Country to Give Women the Right to Vote. Kellogg's Starts Selling Corn Flakes. San Francisco Earthquake. Upton Sinclair Writes The Jungle.

1907 Ten Rules of War Established at the Second Hague Peace Conference. First Electric Washing Machine. Picasso Introduces Cubism. Typhoid Mary Captured for the First Time.

1908 Earthquake in Italy Kills 150,000. Ford Introduces the Model-T. Three Year-Old Pu Yi Becomes Emperor of China. Turks Revolt in the Ottoman Empire.

1909 Japan's Prince Ito is Assassinated. NAACP Is Founded. Plastic Is Invented. Robert Peary Becomes the First to Reach the North Pole.

1910 Boy Scouts Established in U.S. Halley's Comet Makes an Appearance. The Tango Catches On. Robots Invented.

1911 The Chinese Revolution. Ernest Rutherford Discovers the Structure of an Atom. Greenwich Mean Time Adopted. The Incan City of Machu Picchu Discovered. Mona Lisa Is Stolen. Roald Amundsen Reaches the South Pole. Standard Oil Company Broken Up. Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Catches on Fire. First Magnetic Acceleration Guns (MAG) tested in the American southwest.

1912 Oreo Cookies First Introduced. Parachutes Invented. Piltdown Man, the "Missing Link," Discovered (Fraud). SOS Accepted as Universal Distress Signal. The Titanic Sinks.

1913 First Crossword Puzzle. Henry Ford Creates Assembly Line. Los Angeles Owens Valley Aquaduct Opened. Personal Income Tax Introduced in U.S. Philippine American War ends.

1914 Archduke Ferdinand Assassinated. Battle of the Marne. Charlie Chaplin First Appeared as the Little Tramp. First Traffic Light. Panama Canal Officially Opened. Second Industrial Revolution ends. Westward Expansion ends. World War I Begins.

1915 Armenian Genocide. D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation Released. Germans Use Poison Gas as a Weapon. Lusitania Sunk by German U-Boat Second Battle of Ypres. 1916 The Battle of the Somme. The Battle of Verdun. The Easter Rising in Ireland. The first Self-Service Grocery Store Opens in the U.S.

1917 First Pulitzer Prizes Awarded. Mata Hari Executed for Being a Spy Russian Revolution. U.S. Enters World War I.

1918 Daylight Saving Time Introduced. Influenza Epidemic. MAGs used in battle for the first time. Russian Czar Nicholas II and His Family are Killed.

1919 Prohibition Begins in the U.S. The Treaty of Versailles ends World War I.

1920 Bubonic Plague in India. First Commercial Radio Broadcast Aired. Harlem Renaissance Begins. League of Nations Established. Pancho Villa Retires. Women Granted the Right to Vote in U.S.

1921 "Fatty" Arbuckle Scandal. Extreme Inflation in Germany. Irish Free State Proclaimed. Lie Detector Invented.

1922 Kemal Atatürk Founds Modern Turkey. Tomb of King Tut Discovered. Michael Collins Killed in Ambush Mussolini Marches on Rome. The Reader's Digest Published.

1923 Charleston Dance Becomes Popular. Hitler Jailed After Failed Coup. Ruhr Occupied by French and Belgian Forces. Talking Movies Invented. Teapot Dome Scandal. Time Magazine Founded.

1924 First Olympic Winter Games. J. Edgar Hoover Appointed FBI Director. Leopold and Loeb Murder a Neighbor Out of Boredom. V.I. Lenin Dies.

1925 Flapper Dresses in Style. Hitler Publishes Mein Kampf. The Scopes (Monkey) Trial.

1926 A.A. Milne Publishes Winnie-the-Pooh. Houdini Dies after Being Punched. Robert Goddard Fires His First Liquid-Fuel Rocket. A woman swims the English Channel.

1927 Babe Ruth Makes Home-Run Record. BBC Founded. The First Talking Movie, The Jazz Singer. Rocket Packs are adopted for use by police forces in the United State. Lindbergh flies solo across the Atlantic. Sacco and Venzetti Executed. Robots are adopted for use in industry.

1928 Bubble Gum Invented. First Mickey Mouse Cartoon. First Oxford English Dictionary Published. The Kellogg-Briand treaty outlaws war. Penicillin Discovered. Robots used in farm fields in California, it proves disastrous as robots are not able to differentiate between crops and weeds. Late in the year, Robots are adopted for use as domestic help in the houses of the wealthy.

1929 Byrd and Bennett Fly Over South Pole. Car Radio Invented. First Academy Awards. New York Stock Market Crashes. St. Valentine's Day Massacre. 1930 Gandhi's Salt March. Pluto Discovered. Sliced Bread Available. Stalin Begins Collectivizing Agriculture in the U.S.S.R. Late in the year, Ethan Dupreii is pulled into the attempts of a group of “Ottoman” Turks and Le Mangouste’s attempts to steal plans to build a doomsday device.

1931 Al Capone Imprisoned for Income Tax Evasion. Auguste Piccard Reaches Stratosphere. Christ Monument Built on Rio de Janeiro Hilltop. Empire State Building Completed. Scottsboro Boys Accused of Rape. U.S. Officially Gets National Anthem.

1932 Air Conditioning Invented. Amelia Earhardt First Woman to Fly Solo Across the Atlantic. Lindbergh's Baby Kidnapped. Scientists Split the Atom. Zippo Lighters Introduced.

1933 Adolf Hitler Becomes Chancellor of Germany. FDR Launches New Deal. First Nazi Concentration Camp Established. Loch Ness Monster First Spotted. Prohibition Ends in the U.S. Wiley Post Flies Around the World in 8 1/2 Days.

1934 Bonnie and Clyde Killed by Police. Cheeseburger Created. The Dust Bowl. Mao Zedong Begins the Long March. Parker Brothers Sells the Game "Monopoly".

1935 Alcoholics Anonymous Founded. Germany Issues the Anti-Jewish Nuremberg Laws. John Maynard Keynes Suggests New Economic Theory. Social Security Enacted in U.S.

1936 Carnegie Publishes How to Win Friends and Influence People. Hoover Dam Completed. King Edward VIII Abdicates. Nazi Olympics held in Berlin. Spanish Civil War Begins.

1937 Amelia Earhart Vanishes. Golden Gate Bridge Opened. The Hindenberg Disaster. Japan Invades China.

1938 Broadcast of "The War of the Worlds" Causes Panic. Chamberlain Announces "Peace in Our Time". "Extinct" Fish Found. Hitler Annexes Austria. The Night of Broken Glass (Kristallnacht).

1939 First Commercial Flight Over the Atlantic. German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact Signed. Helicopter Invented. Refugees on the St. Louis Refused Entry Everywhere. World War II Begins.