It is 21st September 1940 and above the skies of Britain, the Battle of Britain is raging. Tomorrow, Woodwych Manor, in the sleepy Norfolk village of Woodhenge, is hosting a Top Secret conference with important consequences for the war effort.
Tonight, however, Lord Woodwych is throwing a party for his guests and the villagers.
Basic information
- Number of players: 22
- Setting: Marshenge, in Norfolk
- Time to run: 3 hours (including setup and debrief)
- Space Requirements: Large-ish room
- Authors: Jenny Andersson, Kath Banks, Philippa Dall, Martin Ellis, Rei England, Roger Gammons, Hanbury Hampden-Turner, Steve Hatherley, Su Jolly, Heidi Kaye, Tony Mitton and Janet Young (written at Peaky in April 2009).
Cast
Locals from Marshenge
- Mrs Bailey – Woodwych Manor’s housekeeper.
- Diggory Bulstrode-Smythe, Lord Woodwych – owner of Woodwych Manor and part of Marshenge Home Guard.
- Reginald Bulstrode-Smythe – son and heir of Diggory Bulstrode-Smythe and has recently returned to Woodwych Manor, having been invalided out of the RAF.
- Felicity Bulstrode-Smythe – daughter of Lord Diggory Bulstrode-Smythe, recently returned from finishing school in Brighton and helping organise food supplies for the war effort.
- Beatrice Fairclough – Marshenge’s postmistress.
- Terry Fitz-Smythe – Marshenge’s enterprising “spiv”, originally from London.
- Arthur Potts – Marshenge’s baker.
- Pat Ripper – Publican of the Bull’s Head and member of Marshenge’s Home Guard.
- Rev. Michael Verdant – Vicar at St Peter’s in the Marsh, Marshenge’s only church. Rev Verdant is also an amateur historian.
- Dr Hilary Watt – Marshenge’s doctor.
- General Cuthbert Whitelock – Retired Great War General and member of the Marshenge Home Guard.
Guests from London
- Kim Angellus – Dapper civil servant with a reputation for friendly efficiency.
- Alex Barnsley – Works in the government information department, dealing with communications and propaganda.
- Sam von Braun – Professor von Braun is one of the world's foremost experts on nutrition and microbiology.
- Leslie Carruthers – An enthusiastic upper class well-dressed young gentleman, who seems to be everywhere, but never gets anything done.
- Lee Clark – Le Clark is the leader of the national home guard and a decorated hero from the first world war who is highly respected for their knowledge of logistics and operations.
- Danny Daring – Danny Daring was an explorer and adventurer prior to the war.
- Charlie Smith – Charlie Smith runs and owns a large grocers shop in London.
- Lou Lovelace – Lou Lovelace is an agricultural botanist, expert on the most modern farming techniques.
- Hillary von Neumann – A secretary and translator in the Ministry of Food.
- Dr Tracey Spink-Nottle – Government statistician, chess champion and occasional cross-word compiler for the Times.
- Gabriel Spinoza – Originally famous as a mountaineer, Gabriel Spinoza fled to Britain from Mussolini's regime ten years ago.
Notes
The Marshenge Project was written in two halves at Peaky in 2009. A team of 12 writers was split into two sub-teams of six, each writing half of the game (one team writing the locals, the other writing the guests). A core group of four (two from each team of six) were responsible for overall coordination and cross-linking of the two halves.
The main reason for doing this was so that 8 of the original authors coudl actually play in the game (taking a character from the half that they didn't write).
The overall result was a bit patchy in places, but wouldn't take a huge amount of effort to improve. In that way, it's no different to the other Peaky games, and it means we did write a game for 22 players.