Their Finest Hour- Blitz Spirit Releases Next Week

As the last few logistical and grammatical details work their way through the chaos, I’m pleased to announce that next Friday The Blitz Spirit will be available to download for free on this blog next Friday. The Blitz Spirit contains 16 pages full of new Associations, new Talents, New Privileges, new Assets, and new complications. Each entry is loaded with illustrations and setting details both historic and fantastic to immerse your adventurers into the Battle of Britain of the magical Victoriana world!

Here’s a small taste:

Their Finest Hour- New Associations

The setting of “Their Finest Hour” holds the same abundance of riches as Victoriana. This sea of adventurous possibilities could drown some parties, but Associations throw out the life preserver of campaign themes.

The Home Tradition Section

Aware of the incredible magical energies powering the Nazi war machine conquering across continental Europe, Churchill ordered the assemblage of an organization fit to secretly scour Great Britain in search of its legendary past. The agents of Home Tradition Section include dishonored crackpots, little-regarded researchers, specialist criminals, and treasure hunters deemed unsuitable for military service for the task. Along with a small staff, the HTS numbers little under 100 members.

While some members of HTS are registered Thaumatergists, the Guild has no affiliation with the section nor does the section draw on the vast magical resources of the Guild. This is due to both the Guild’s increasing responsibility in the war and the HTS’s remit to study magical traditions not sanctioned by the Guild. Agents and academics of the HTS often travel under the cover of the ROC (Royal Observer Corps), claiming their excavations to be preliminary construction of watchtowers, and their long hours tramping through the country as part of a short term observation assignment.

Current Research Projects of the HTS include:

Operation Quadrangle- Track down the historic truths behind the legend of King Arthur, Camelot, and Merlin

Operation Omit- Examine the possibility of harnessing Ley Lines connecting places of power in Great Britain

Operation Acre- Find and make contact with the lost kingdom of fairies

Operation Pursuant- Catalogue folk magic of the British countryside not recognized by the Guild and access for military application

Operation Visit- Obtain and catalog magical relicts of Great Britain

Operation Scarlet- Search for the channel for evidence of the lost city of Ys and the possibility of mermaid civilization (The HTS scaled back the efforts of Operation Scarlet since Dunkirk)

Skills: History, Language, Athletics, Lore, Appraisal, Navigation

Privileges: Friend of the Library,

Bargle Street Station Committee

When the air raid siren warns of enemy bombers, civilians run to the nearest shelter. In and under the heart of London, the underground tunnels and tube stations nightly protect the population of the surrounding city-blocks from the mass devastation of air raids. Fear, charity, and desperation forge unique communities beneath the surface. At the Bargle Street Station, the respectable middle-class families living on Upper Bargle Street mix with the hoochie-coochie girls, gamblers, con men, and assorted riffraff of Lower Bargle Street in the safety of the underground.

Through the chaos of classes and criminal records, “The Bargle Street Station Committee” maintains the station, organizes entertainments for morale, and keeps the population of the underground cooperating during the desperate days of war. The Committee consists of a handful of locals respected by both sides of the street for their pluck and reliability, such as doctors, gang leaders, matrons, and madams. When disaster falls from the sky, terrible sewer monsters crawl up from below, or the constables search for ill-gotten goods, the Committee protects the nightly refugees of Bargle Street Station through professional skill and larcenous canny.

Skills: Accounting, Forgery, Gambling, Legal Matters, Pickpocket, Streetwise,

Privileges: Ear of the Street, Gang Member,

Their Finest Hour- New Complications

Unsurprisingly the world of the Blitz is a dangerous and complicated place. Will the pressures of sudden death, foreign foes, and the co-opting of the entire civilian population to the war efforts prevent adventurers from participating in Their Finest Hour?

Belligerent ARP- You don’t see eye to eye with the Air Raid Precautions volunteers in charge of your neighborhood.  They may be overly enthusiastic, strict, corrupt, or simply be out to get you from a prewar grudge, but you really wish they didn’t have authority over you during a blackout.

Bombed Out- A direct hit from a bomb chewed up and swallowed your home and all of your worldly possessions, leaving you with a crater and the clothes on your back. You rely on friends, relatives, or temporary government housing in a Rest Center (mostly schools, theaters, and churches filled with persons displaced by bombs) for a place to live.

Deep-Shelter Mentality- Subterranean places give you a sense of security, and you spend as much time as possible underground. You still go about your everyday life, but your eyes watch the skies waiting for the bombs to fall every moment you spend on the surface. The world underground is safe. Stay underground.

Enemy Alien- Whether it shows in your face, accent, or name, your lineage descends from a nation of the Axis powers. At worst, the German, Italian, and Japanese communities in Britain face internment and deportation. At best, open hostility and suspicion.

Old Injury- The war’s taken a toll on your health. You recovered from a serious wound in the recent past, but it still acts up a bit. Choose two attributes when you take this complication. At the beginning of a fight or other dramatic moment, perform a Fortitude or Resolve test with 3 black dice. If failed your old injury flares up. Temporarily lower the chosen attribute scores by 1 for the rest of the scene. Canny players may use their sudden weakness towards a social or tactical advantage.

Possible symptoms of your old injury include:
Strength- Fever, terrible back pain,

Dexterity- Hand uncontrollably clenched into a fist, loss of balance

Fortitude- Coughing fit, shallow breathing

Presence- Temporarily slurred speech, bodily tremors

Wits- Ringing in the ears, mild memory loss,

Resolve- Horrific headaches, confusion

Refugee- After the war took away your homeland, you settled in a new country to struggle for a better life, wait out the war, or strike back. Your new home’s ways are strange to you, as are yours to the locals. Work is scarce, pity and sympathy even scarcer.

Sprog- As the new man in a military unit, you fall at the bottom of the totem pole. When the higher-ups hand out duties, the worst jobs fall to you. As an untested outsider, you’ll have to earn the respect of your squad, but for now, even your mates wait for stupid mistakes and consider your inexperience a danger to their side.

Unpatriotic- You speak your mind, and your mind does not agree with the war. If you’re not careful, sharing your unpopular views on Isolationism, Pacifism, Communism, or Fascism, leads you into all sorts of trouble.

UXB- An unexploded bomb fell near your home. Your property only sustained slight damage, but the authorities forbid anyone from approaching the danger zone until it's safe. Any attempt to return home requires some pull with the local officials, artful sneaking, or an excellent explanation, not to mention some very cautious steps.

Their Finest Hour- New Assets

The scarcity brought by rationing and isolation polished certain everyday-commodities into treasured delicacies. Freedom of travel and creature comforts might be crucial tools to survive the Blitz.

Air Raid Shelter- (any, 1/3) 

You have ready access to your own private air-raid shelter. For 1 point, you own a simple Anderson shelter of corrugated steel half sunk into your garden, big enough to protect for 4 to 6 people from shrapnel, tremors, and fire. It’s uncomfortable and damp but it’s safe enough. For 3 points, you possess a reinforced basement beneath your home or a vault under your business capable of withstanding anything but a direct hit. These larger shelters safeguard many precious possessions, extended family members, trusted neighbors, or substantial provisions and comforts.

While the main quality of an Air Raid Shelter is protection from the destruction of enemy bombers, characters find plenty of other uses for their private and secure hideaways.

Automobile- (upper/3, middle/4) 

You own an automobile. Whether you wander the open road at tremendous speed, or motor safely home every night from work, your automobile gives you tremendous traveling freedom and flexibility.

Bicycle- (any, 1)

You own a simple single-seat bicycle complete with the luxuries of a bell, basket, and brakes. Your furious peddling terrorizes sidewalks, alleys and country lanes.

Night Club Proprietor (lower/middle, 4)

You own and operate a small drinking establishment of a disreputable and illegal quality. While the law says restaurants and nightclubs close at 10:30 for “public safety”, you know a cheap drink, pretty girls, and a jazz band helps people of all sorts forget these trying times. And you make a profit from it too. Every time the police close down one club, you open another in a conveniently abandoned space with a new flashy name and new prices. Your sleazy occupation gains you 1 point of Notoriety.

Government Issued Gas Protection- (any, 1)

During the early days of the war, the government feared enemy gas attacks above all and issued respirators to the public. You’ve maintained your equipment and assembled a complete gas protection kit through tinkering or trading. It consists of a respirator, gas hood, eye shields, gloves, and boots. Any attempts to resist gaseous attack (such as mustard gas, foul smells, chloroform, or ectoplasmic goo) gains +3 dice. Your equipment also protects your skin from head to toe giving you AR 1.

Lorry- (middle/3, lower/4)

You own a lorry. It may not be glamorous or nimble, but it’s remarkable how many problems a good solid lorry solves. For hauling heavy loads, transporting up to 10 human-sized persons, or simply blocking off a side road from police cars, you depend on your lorry.

Private Airplane- (upper/5)

You own your own private airplane. As a busy mogul, flying enthusiast, or world traveler, your airplane carries you hundreds of miles over water and land at great speeds. Your airplane is a sporty monoplane with a 30-foot wingspan capable of reaching flying speeds of 130 mph. It seats one pilot and two passengers with very limited space for cargo.

Top of the Line- (any/ +1 see description)

Admiring compliments and envious stares greet you as you show off your pride and joy. Any Asset giving you a material possession or property can be upgraded to be Top of the Line by adding +1 point to its cost. Top of the Line Assets ooze luxury, style, and prestige. With Top of the Line, an automobile becomes a glamorous roadster, a barge upgrades to a clean, charming river-ferry, and a laboratory fills with the latest and most impressive scientific apparatus.

 Top of the Line can be bought and added to Assets already used by the character. The character trading in their old car, comfortably furnishing their air-raid shelter, or redecorating their apartment explains the upgrade well enough.

A Top of the Line Asset gives their owner a temporary point of Propriety or Notoriety whenever they are seen with the Asset. The player chooses which Reputation gains the bonus point when they purchase the Top of the Line Asset.

Victory Garden- (Any, 2)

You’ve bent your green thumb toward helping the war effort.  The produce growing in your Victory garden stretches your ration book, feeds your loved ones, and bolsters your circle of friends.

Your garden may be in a box on your rooftop, a small plot in a sports field requisitioned for government use, a bomb crater filled with soil, or even in your yard.