D&D 5E The Official 5E Version Of Doctor Who Is Coming In Just 2 Weeks!

In two weeks (or back in 2022 depending where in space and time you are right now) Cubicle 7 will be launching DOCTORS & DALEKS, the 5E version of its popular Doctor Who: Adventures in Time & Space tabletop RPG which has been in production for over a decade.

The game launches on Tuesday, July 19th with the Doctors and Daleks Player’s Guide.

Cubicle 7 has been producing the official Doctor Who RPG since 2009, with over 20 books. A second edition launched last year. This new edition is the D&D 5E edition, and was first announced back in February.

D&D 5E - Doctors & Daleks - Cubicle 7 Brings Doctor Who to D&D 5E

Cubicle 7 -- makers of the official Doctor Who roleplaying game -- has announced that the Doctor will officially be coming to 5E soon under the name Doctors and Daleks. There are no dates or details yet, over than that the Doctors and Daleks Player's Guide will launch 'soon'. A NEW COMPANION...

www.enworld.org

Doctors and Daleks​

A New Way to Adventure through all of Space and Time

Doctors and Daleks brings the epic adventures of the Universe’s most famous Time Lord to the world’s most popular roleplaying game. Running parallel to the award winning Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game, Doctors and Daleks is a new line of products that brings Doctor Whoadventures to your table using 5th Edition rules.

The first book, the Doctors and Daleks Players Guide, brings you everything you need to get started with your adventures in Space and Time!

• Streamlined character creation rules to quickly bring to life a new time travelling adventurer. Create a new Companion for the Doctor, or build your own Time Lord! Do you want to do a bit of time tourism as part of Team TARDIS, or will you create a group of Time Agents to fight back against pesky paradoxes?
• Rules for playing fast paced, combat light sci-fi adventures using the world’s most popular roleplaying game system. Fight like the Doctor with non-lethal weapons, manoeuvres, gadgets, and the power of emotional and logical arguments — or just run away really fast!
• A time traveller’s treasure trove of technological marvels, including sonic screwdrivers, psychic paper, a water gun, and time machines.
• Rules for using and customising the TARDIS, as well as creating and piloting any other kind of time travel device you can think of from the dawn of history to the very ends of the universe.
• Advice on making every Doctors and Daleks adventure feel like you’re living in an episode of the legendary Doctor Who TV Series.
• An expansive look at the history of the Doctor’s Universe, detailing some of the aliens and creatures the Doctor has encountered across space and time, including profiles for Daleks, Cybermen, and Weeping Angels, ready to be played!

The Doctors and Daleks Player’s Guide will be followed by the Alien Archive, a dedicated catalogue of some of the Doctor’s most notorious foes, presenting dozens of recognisable aliens from the series for the players to add to their games.

Alongside these, The Keys of Scaravore is an epic adventure for levels 1-5, that leads the characters to the Wild West and distant worlds, encountering Draconians, Silurians, Zygons, and more, before finally facing the terrifying Scaravore itself.

 

[overgeeked]

So "The Doctor" is actually the Time Lord/Gallifreyan Species, and then they pick from one of the 6 classes (one for each attribute). They do get more stuff, like extra ability score increases, access to SRD spells like telepathy and augury based on level, they regenerate if they die, and so on.

Quips are like spells, yep, but they're based on your class ability score (str, int, dex, etc). Every class has access to Cantrip Quips (infinite use cantrips basically) and then the 3 "caster" classes have access to a full range of more powerful Quips.

For those wondering, the classes are

Charmer (Cha)
Empath (Wis)
Protector (Con)
Stalwart (Str)
Thinker (Int)
Trickster (Dec)

Each class also has 3 Archetypes, loosely based on various companions, such as The Sentinel for the Protector, which is based on Madame Vastra, or The Agitator for the Charmer, which is based off Donna Noble.

Side note, the Protector is actually my favourite, as it's all about looking after your friends and keeping them safe

Ah. I see.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Exactly. If you want to play Doctor Who. There’s already an RPG out there for that.

So what purpose does this new RPG serve then? Doctor Who with lots and lots of combat? So…not Doctor Who. That’s weird.

Well, we already know it won’t have lots of combat, so…

There’s a huge difference between Daleks rampaging and killing things (which, unless the Doctor and companion are directly targeted you don’t need combat rules for) and the Doctor and companion rampaging and killing things…which never happens.

And no part of 5e dnd stock requires any such thing, much less a variant game that replaces HP with plot points.

You don’t need a huge combat rules section in a game that’s not actually about combat. Is your game about friendship and talking, then you need rules for friendship and talking. Is your game about fighting and killing, then you need rules for fighting and killing. Doctor Who is not about combat. So any game that says Doctor Who on the cover but is about combat, with a huge section of rules about combat…has missed the memo on what Doctor Who actually is as a franchise.

Or, you’re tilting at windmills, because this books isn’t going to have a huge section on combat, and even its conflict rules (oft-dangerous conflict being absolutely an enormous aspect of the franchise) aren’t there for lethal physical combat.

Apparently its not about combat, but rather conflict, which Dr. Who (as a story presumably made for entertainment) has in abundance. They're just modifying the combat rules of 5e to accommodate it.

And which still can benefit from things like speed, initiative, threatened areas, etc. most of the combat chapter can be used without changes to run non-lethal conflict.

I'm sure a few hundred pages of combat rules are perfectly justified.

Please show these few hundred pages of combat rules. Seriously. We know that the official classes, races, spells, and probably most feats, won’t be part of this game, so we have, what, just whatever they don’t change from the combat chapter?

Thanks for the handy list. I've bolded the others in there that definitely wouldn't have any problem with resorting to violence, there are others who'd be questionable. So basically, definitely not never.

You forgot a few. Rory Pond spend how long as a centurion? Amy becomes a warrior in one episode.

THE DOCTOR shoots another time lord to buy time to try to save Clara.

Mickey Smith joins the military and is seen fighting aliens with Martha Jones.

Jack Harkness. Oh, and you can play as time agents, or torchwood, etc.

I’m sure I’m forgotten some, as well.

There a whole War Doctor.

 

[overgeeked]

A couple of illuminating blog posts.

Doctors and Daleks – The Rules – Cubicle 7

cubicle7games.com

Doctors and Daleks – Conflict! – Cubicle 7

cubicle7games.com

 

[Voadam]

I already used Baba Yaga's Dancing Tardis as a theme when I ran the Reign of Winter Pathfinder Adventure Path. Looking forward to what can be mixed and matched for my 5e games.

I already own most of the Cubicle 7 Dr. Who RPG stuff but 5e is my game system of choice so they have essentially been mostly statless sourcebook inspiration type of stuff for me, as well as satisfying some of my Dr. Who fan purposes.

 

[Jer]

Plot Points aren't just all the enemy HP added together, but more of the HP of the encounter. We have a detailed section on how to build encounters, but it essentially means you can throw dozens of Daleks at your group, but the party don't have to trudge through reducing all their HP. It also means you can use any enemy at any level. So you don't need to be level 10 to face a Dalek.

This sounds genius and yet so simple that I'm angry at myself for not thinking of it before. There are a few game design bits that I'm going to want to be looking at here I think.

I wasn't originally going to buy this - I have the Doctor Who RPG already and a ton of the supplemental material as well - but I might be picking this up just to see what they do with the systems to make a game based on the 5e system that isn't assumed to be a combat game.

 

[antiwesley]

What has been basically ignored is the fact that the companions are there to engage in the violence FOR the Doctor.
I believe it was a modern run Davros quote about how the Doctor 'builds up an army around him."

Ian Chesterton, for example, does engage in fisticuffs and swordplay in a few episodes. Katarina, like Jamie, came from a time when violence was more acceptable, and while we had so little of her, she never had the chance...
Sara Kingdom was an agent of the Space Security Agency, and carried around a blaster she used a few times.
Steven was also a spaceman with some craft in fisticuffs, as well as handling a gun.
Ben Jackson, an able seaman, of course, also used his fists before his words at times.
Jo Grant, as clumsy as she was, was a fully trained UNIT agent, and knew how to use violence.
The Third Doctor and the Venusian Akido that he was not afraid to use.
Our lovable imbecile, Harry Sullivan, was a Navy Doctor attached to UNIT as well.
The Fifth Doctor used a gun as well, in self-defense.
If we're going to count one-off companions, we do have to include Chang Lee, who was in fact, was a gang member.

Point is, as I stated above, Doctor Who is filled with violent people on both sides, with the side of good acting as an agent for the Doctor him/herself.
In this respect, 5th Ed's combat rules are perfect for DW.
Think about it, in reality, the Doctor is the assistant GM. He/she sets up the scene for the GM proper, and handles the companions in such a way that they can often be railroaded into a certain action that may or may not be violence.

 

[MarkB]

What has been basically ignored is the fact that the companions are there to engage in the violence FOR the Doctor.
I believe it was a modern run Davros quote about how the Doctor 'builds up an army around him."

I'd forgotten just how affecting that scene is. Just the look on Tennant's face carries it.

 

[overgeeked]

I'd forgotten just how affecting that scene is. Just the look on Tennant's face carries it.

Another thematic...bump in the road for 5E Doctor Who. D&D players abhor being captured...yet it's a staple of Doctor Who. 5E characters are practically immortal...yet characters in Doctor Who drop like flies (mostly NPCs, granted). D&D players refuse to run from fights...yet it's the default option (after talking) in Doctor Who.

 

[MarkB]

Another thematic...bump in the road for 5E Doctor Who. D&D players abhor being captured...yet it's a staple of Doctor Who.

In D&D, being captured is the end of a conflict. In this system it might well be the beginning.

5E characters are practically immortal...yet characters in Doctor Who drop like flies (mostly NPCs, granted).

Exactly - mostly NPCs, not player characters, and NPCs in 5e are no better at survival. Basically a non-issue.

D&D players refuse to run from fights...yet it's the default option (after talking) in Doctor Who.

D&D provides terrible provision for running from combat, both in terms of doing so successfully and gaining benefit from it. I don't get the impression that will be the case with this system.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Thanks for the handy list. I've bolded the others in there that definitely wouldn't have any problem with resorting to violence, there are others who'd be questionable. So basically, definitely not never.

Ian, Steven, Sara Kingdom, Ben, and Jamie would all make that list as well. The men in that list were specifically there to deal with physical threat that the 60s Doctors were unwilling to get into. There are a lot of scenes of them getting into physical scraps. Ian, for example, takes on an Aztec warrior at the top of a pyramid and eventually causes his opponent to fall to his death. Most of their opponents are just knocked unconscious or suffer some sort of accidental or self-inflicted karmic death (like said Aztec warrior).

Sara Kingdom was a space security agent from the future and just liked to get into fights and shoot things. She even compliments Steven that he's almost as good as fighting as she is...