Sunday 11 December 2016

Yet more VBCW with Cluedo characters...

Right, well, the classic Cluedo characters are these:

Miss Scarlett
Professor Plum
Mrs White
Reverend Green
Mrs Peacock
Colonel Mustard

These are the classic Cluedo characters, or at least the Waddington's versions I used to play with when I was a kid (I don't know of any earlier versions of the characters than these) though to be honest they look a little more '40s than '30s:


Original Cluedo characters (c) Hasbro

and the use I have put them to in my speculation about using their appearance as randomly-triggered events (acting as randomly-activated effects) are as follows:

Miss Scarlett - Morale boost
Professor Plum - Ballistics boost
Mrs White - Close combat boost
Reverend Green - Morale boost
Mrs Peacock - Ballistics boost
Colonel Mustard - Close combat boost

and the factions to which they will belong are these (if the first listed isn't fighting apply the second):

Miss Scarlett - Fascist or Socialist
Professor Plum - Socialist or Fascist
Mrs White - Socialist or Anglican
Reverend Green - Anglican or Socialist
Mrs Peacock - Anglican or Fascist
Colonel Mustard - Fascist or Anglican

Every faction has two first choices and two second choices. The second choice depends on who's fighting. If Fascists (Miss Scarlett & Colonel Mustard) are fighting Socialists (Professor Plum & Mrs White) then the other two, who would normally be on the Anglican side, would go to their second choices (Rvd Green to the Socialists and Mrs Peacock to the Fascists). That seems quite self-explanatory.

What I'm thinking at the moment is making using the same principles but making the Cluedo characters unit commanders. Their primary and secondary faction attributions would stay the same. Their effects at boosting units' stats would be somewhat modified but would essentially affect the same stats - Scarlett and Green would boost morale, Plum and Peacock would boost shooting and White and Mustard would boost close combat.

I do wonder sometimes by the way if Mrs Peacock is the mother of Captain Stephen Peacock from 'Are You Being Served?'. The actor who played Captain Peacock (served in North Africa in WWII with the Royal Army Service Corps, and also possibly in the Royal Engineers and the Royal Marines) was Frank Thornton, born in 1921 (Thornton actually served in the RAF). Assuming that the actor was the same age as the character he played, Captain Peacock was born in 1921 and as I understand it he would have been eligible to join the Army any time after his 18th birthday early in 1939. Thus, we can be fairly certain that Stephen would have either joined up in 1939 or been called up some time a little later.

Frank Thornton as Captain Stephen Peacock in Are You Being Served? (c) BBC
If she had a child in 1921, who would have been 17 in 1938, then Mrs Peacock is likely to have been born earlier than 1901, putting her at a likely age of 'more than 37' in 1938. She's generally portrayed as being a mature woman perhaps in her 40s, which would fit pretty well.

Anyway...

Units with the Cluedo characters as commanders -

Scarlett's Newcastle Saviours of Britain Volunteers or Union of Actors, Dancers and Allied Theatrical Trades (Newcastle District) Militia:
Captain: Miss Rose Scarlett or Comrade Rose Scarlett:
Quirk: unusually high morale

Jarrow Mechanical Institute Militia or South Tyneside Free British Volunteer Rifles:
Captain: Reg Plum ('the Prof') or Professor Reginald Plum;
Quirk: unusually good at shooting

East Stanley Unemployed Workers' Defence Group or St Andrews' Parish Voluntary Defence Force:
Captain: Nora White or Mrs N. White;
Quirk: unusually good at close combat

Lanchester Anglican League Defence Force or Lanchester Workers' Patrol:
Captain: Reverend Hugo Green or Hughie 'Padre' Green;
Quirk: unusually high morale

Hamsterley Anglican League Defence Force or Derwent Valley League of Fascists Volunteer Brigade:
Captain: Mrs S. Peacock;
Quirk: unusually good at shooting

North Durham Loyal British Volunteer Regiment or North Durham Local Defence Force:
Captain: Colonel: Hammond Mustard, DSO, MC & bar;
Quirk: unusually good at close combat

I should probably make some flags to go with these units using the Scrontch's Flag Designer.

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