Weird Wars: Home Front

I've previously posted about my Home Front setting idea for Savage Worlds' Weird Wars, basically the British Home Front of WW2 in the Weird Wars setting. Recently I had a few more ideas prompted by the release of World War Cthulhu London by Crucible 7 Entertainment, part of their own World War Cthulhu which is similar to Actung Cthulhu but it is more expanded to include other 20th Century conflicts.

So this week is the ideas I've had and some adventure seeds.

Section Q

Dunno whether to keep the organisation as Section Q or rename it the Special Investigation Group, though either way agents of this organisation would officially be known as Home Office Auxiliaries. The connection to the Home Office would mainly serve as a cover of a sort, mainly as a passive way of making sure not too many questions are asked. Though they exist in a sort of grey area when it comes to authority, particularly when dealing with other government departments such as the War Office.

Home Office Auxiliaries would be mainly civilians who've had brushes with the supernatural; ideally policemen, Home Guardsmen and scholars. A police constable in particular would already have some authority thanks to his warrant card, a Home Guardsmen would have access to weapons and similarly a scholar having academic resources to pull on. On the flip side civilians from certain trades such as sewer workers or staff on the London Underground would be able to bring their own set of skills and expertise, the same could be said of petty criminals.

Though depending on the day job the players' access to firearms could be difficult as the UK had strict controls on firearms since the early 20th Century. The 1920 Firearms Act restricted access to handguns and long guns due to fears of working class unrest, by 1937 the restrictions included most shotguns as well. It was still legal to own firearms if one acquired a license, though it depended on the local chief constable who's verdict was final and whether it was deemed there was a 'good cause' for the license to be issued (target shooting, bank courier or a farmer). With the outbreak of war the restrictions were enforced more rigorously, but it was possible to get a firearm on the black market but availability was limited and ammo rare. Anyone caught with a firearm without good reason faced 14 years in prison and could be suspected as being a spy.

Adventure Seeds & Real Life Weirdness

An adventure seed I had was the players being drawn in to investigate a series of disappearances from air raid shelters and of tube workers. The cause being a warren of Ghouls (use Ghuls from Weird War II) who have been snatching lone persons as food, though said Ghouls won't be too happy when their dinner is interrupted by uninvited guests.

Other adventure ideas can be taken from actual events that happened during WW2 in Britain;

*Two women during the war were tried and convicted under the 1735 Witchcraft Act (replaced by the Fraudulent Mediums Act of 1951 partially as a result of these infamous cases). Granted the 1735 Act considered witchcraft as a fraudulent activity with those charged under it being punished as vagrants and con artists. Though who's to say that a REAL witch couldn't be tried under the 1735 Act?

*There were several reports of people surviving direct hits from bombs on their homes, being pulled unharmed from the rubble afterwards. What if the reason they survived was something more than luck?

*In 1942 a British soldier billeted in a manor near Norwich ordered a book from a London bookseller, his army camp only identified by a mailing code and therefore unknown to the average civilian. After receiving the book a postcard fell out as the soldier opened it, the postcard turned out to be photograph from 1913 of the exact window where the soldier was stood. Surely this was just a coincidence?

*In May 1940 the Polish engineer Richard Lewinski who'd built a replica Enigma machine for British Intelligence vanished from his London apartment where he'd been kept under constant police guard. The investigation found that it was impossible that he left the apartment without the guards knowing and that he made no attempt to contact anyone in the Polish community or the Polish embassy. In addition he knew very little English and did not hold a British passport, therefore he was unable to leave the country. His fate remains unknown to this day.

*During the Blitz many RAF pilots reported strange sightings in the sky, particularly of WW1 biplanes (including the triplane of the Red Baron) that managed to outrun their Spitfire or Hurricane and disappeared into a rain-cloud over the channel. There was also reports of a Allied WW1 biplane that dived attack German bombers, on one occasion causing two bombers to swerve and collide with one another.