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 FOR YOUR ADVENTURES THROUGH ALL OF SPACE AND TIME!

The wild adventures of everyone’s favourite Time Lord comes to the world’s most popular roleplaying game in Doctors and Daleks. Take your gaming group into the TARDIS and travel anywhere, anywhen. Want to meet Leornado da Vinci? Or see what life is like in the year 3,000? What about another planet entirely? All of space and time is your Venusian macro-oyster, but keep your wits about you — there’s a lot of danger in the vastness of eternity.

We are delighted to announce that we are working on Doctors and Daleks – a new line of products that brings Doctor Who adventures to your table using 5th Edition rules! The first release – The Doctors and Daleks Player’s Guide will launch soon.

The wild adventures of everyone’s favourite Time Lord comes to the world’s most popular roleplaying game in Doctors and Daleks. Take your gaming group into the TARDIS and travel anywhere, anywhen.

We’ll also continue to support the new Second Edition of our award winning Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game, with a host of new products on the way soon!

 

[Aldarc]

I went back and read the tweets on the C7 account. I pulled a single comment that has kind of stuck and one I've seen in different iterations.

"I think it's telling that the majority of people complaining about the 5e conversion don't currently play the non-5e version of the game either."

That struck me... If you are complaining about this, do you currently play the current licensed game (which they are still planning on producing and supporting)? And if not, why are you complaining? The people that are currently part of that community, okay, makes sense, but everyone else... sounds like sour grapes.

But that's just my 2 cp.

Again, because the complaining is less about about the game per se but about "5e everything" in the market. The first Tweet thread that I linked to above also dovetails nicely with this broader point as well. It's about a frustration with the current state of the market for those designing non-5e-based games.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

As a fan of both I'm struggling to see how this will work. Some of the essence of 5e ( levels, hit points, AC, weapons, etc) just aren't a thing for companions.

Really?

 

[John R Davis]

Now find the 97% were they are not armed, especially in the last 20 years ( assuming you ignore Jack & River)

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Now find the 97% were they are not armed, especially in the last 20 years ( assuming you ignore Jack & River)

So, your argument is, if you ignore all the companions that are armed, 97% of companions are not armed?

The truth is, going all the way back to Ian Chesterton, the Doctor usually has a companion who can mix it up in a fight. The main exception being Three, who took a few levels of monk (but still kept the Brigadier around as backup "Chap with the wings, there. Five rounds rapid.").

 

[Thunderfoot]

Again, because the complaining is less about about the game per se but about "5e everything" in the market. The first Tweet thread that I linked to above also dovetails nicely with this broader point as well. It's about a frustration with the current state of the market for those designing non-5e-based games.

Same thing happened in the d20 era of 3.X. The inustry survived and thrived and it's going to again. Niche systems will always be there and they will always play send fiddle to whatever version of D&D is currently available. The only systems to ever give then a run was the White Wolf worlds between 2e and 3e. And Pathfinder, but that was more we're staying with this edition while you abandon it. So there you go. All other systems, even successful ones pale in market share. So, the status quo is just that. Is it fair, no and neither is life. Is it equitable, yes. No one is forcing people to accept the new system, but I'll.bet a substantial amount of actual money that its does well just because people want a system they know.

 

[Weiley31]

I wonder with the Companions, if Cubicle 7 will end up making an expanded subsystem involving "hirelings" or their take on the Sidekick classes. Heck it's possible we could get more "Sidekick" classes compared to what WoTC offered us.

Really, people are sleeping on the more positive outcomes/aspects of this. AND the actual TTRPG version made by Cubicle 7 as well. And yet people see 5E and are like going "Groooooan, but we already have 5E at home."

 

[theCourier]

I went back and read the tweets on the C7 account. I pulled a single comment that has kind of stuck and one I've seen in different iterations.

"I think it's telling that the majority of people complaining about the 5e conversion don't currently play the non-5e version of the game either."

That struck me... If you are complaining about this, do you currently play the current licensed game (which they are still planning on producing and supporting)? And if not, why are you complaining? The people that are currently part of that community, okay, makes sense, but everyone else... sounds like sour grapes.

But that's just my 2 cp.

No, I don't play it because I don't care about Dr. Who. I think you're missing the point tho, because this whole kerfuffle isn't even specifically about Dr. Who the game or the franchise or whatever. It's about the industry standard of 5e being the only game that gets the majority of attention in the TTRPG scene.

I play and buy other indie games, before you try and ask if I'm "doing my part" or anything like that.

 

[Voadam]

Now find the 97% were they are not armed, especially in the last 20 years ( assuming you ignore Jack & River)

Ignoring Jack and River. Right.

I will look for some of those obscure 3% in the last 20 years.

 

[Shardstone]

I think the deeper issue is twofold. In addition to the overwhelming amount of momentum that D&D has built up in American culture, other tabletop roleplaying rulesets only make margial to mild differences in the meta play loop. That play loop being, sit down, talk with friends, solve challenges, pretend your in a story, use some rules that are stimulating. This is the core heart of the TTRPG, and without a very strong marketing campaign equal to what WotC has done, if not bigger in the ultimate long run, you cannot convince the market that YOUR way of running TTRPG is better then the "default" way already at hand.

You're competing not just with D&D, but with the entire entertainment industry. You're competing with movies, books, manga, clubbing, drinking, and all other social events. You're trying to convince people to stop doing what they're doing, sit around a table, fumble through my rulebook, and figure out how to make a fun experience out of it. Often times with little to no video support, online guides, or large community to help you get the party started.

And furthermore, there aren't enough customers, active players, and overall fans in the TTRPG market outside of 5E to give any one game the momentum needed to challenge this literal billion dollar corporation. TTRPGs are niche not because of their subject material, but because the format of play and the books and the game rules themselves usually make it just too much of a bother to learn the game well enough to have a fun experience that matches the D&D experience or exceeds it.

Of course, people still do this. So it isn't impossible. But what are publishers like C7 to do? There just aren't enough Dr. Who TTRPG fans for them to stay dedicated to just that system. From my perspective, also as a small publisher of TTRPG materials, anything I do that isn't 5E feels like a drop in the pond. I get no monetary reward from it for the most part, very little fan interaction. However, my 5E materials literally get me that stuff at a magnitude higher.

How can we expect publishers to stay "true" in such a hostile, impenetrable market? Why should C7 continue focusing only on the first Dr. Who game when they could actually get their work in front of more people, and thus get the money needed to make more work, by dipping into the 5E well?

But this reality is a very frustrating one. There's no agency here for the customer, the gamer, or the publisher, and at the end of the day, it feels like we are all at the mercy of Wizards of the Coast and D&D. And customers hate that. I hate that. But its the reality of the industry, and I only foresee it getting worse from here unless players around as big as Hasbro try getting behind other games too.

 

[Mistwell]

Do people complain like this when a licensed product is used with the Savage Worlds system?