This is not the first Doctor Who RPG. The first one published was a system created by FASA back in the mid 1980s, which used a similar system to their Star Trek RPG. I used to run that game back in the mid-80s, and I had a lot of fun with it. For today's audience, however, it would likely prove too mechanically fiddly.
I missed the next version of a Doctor Who RPG, Time Lord (1991), which failed in one of my key requirements for a Doctor Who RPG: you couldn't create your own player characters with it. Reports from people who have got the book have been generally poor. It is available a free download for people who are interested.
This new game, from Cubicle 7 Entertainment, is a far more attractive game than either of its predecessors. To begin with, it's in colour. It also, I suggest, knows its potential audience well: it provides a flexible system that is sufficiently easy and light to learn and play that supports the story-based and wide-ranging format needed by Doctor Who.
What is in the box?
The box is, sadly, not larger on the inside. However, you are likely to have trouble getting everything back into it! The contents may be larger than the inside.
Inside the box are the following:
a 4-page "Read This First" booklet
a 86-page Player's Guide
a 140-page Gamesmaster's Guide
a 32-page Adventures Book
8 pregenerated character sheets featuring characters from the new series
6 pregenerated "template" character sheets
6 blank character sheets
3 sheets of punchout "gadgets" (pregenerated and blank)
1 sheet of Story Point cardboard tokens
a "coming soon" leaflet
6 dice
The main trouble with getting everything back in the box are those Story Point tokens: there are a lot of them, and mine have ended up in a zip-lock back which doesn't fit inside the box. Everything else does, though.
Strangely enough, the Read This First booklet was the bottom thing in the box rather than the top!
The first heading on the Read This First! booklet is "Where's the Board?", which gives an introduction to the RPG for new players, suggesting that all that you need to start are the rules summary in the booklet, the example of play in the Player's Handbook, and to choose a Gamesmaster who will read the adventure in the Adventure Book.
The Player's Guide
The Player's Guide is divided into four chapters - an introduction, rules on creating characters, the rules for playing the game, and finally a short chapter on how to play a roleplaying game and hints and tips for playing the Doctor Who RPG in particular.
The Gamemaster's Guide
The Gamemaster's Guide actually reprints the main two chapters of the Player's Guide - the character creation rules and game rules - at its start, although slightly edited with extra information to aid the Gamesmaster. This is brilliant, as it means that the GM doesn't have to keep asking for the Player's Guide back; it can stay with the players.
After that, the Gamesmaster's Guide gives information on Time Travel and Time Lords, a number of creatures that can be met in the game (including most of the main opponents in the new series, such as Daleks and Cybermen. No Weeping Angels yet, alas!), a chapter of help on game mastering, and finally a chapter on creating adventures.
From the last chapter, I get the idea that the best way of running a Doctor Who campaign is similar to a series of the new series: each session is as an episode of the TV series, either a self-contained story or part of a bigger story, with a campaign story arc and personal story arcs for the PCs as well.
The Adventure Book
One of the most impressive books in the set is this: it contains two short adventures, "Arrowdown" and "Judoon!" and then 24 adventure ideas - which are actually described in a column (or more) each, so that you've got a lot of material to work with. As coming up with adventures for Doctor Who is more challenging than just designing dungeons for D&D, this is much appreciated.
The Character Sheets
Every main character of the revived series has a pregenerated character sheet: the Doctor, Rose, Martha, Donna, Sarah Jane Smith, K-9, Mickey and Captain Jack Harkness. The game also has a few "template" sheets for those who don't want to play one of the regular characters but don't want to go through the business of character creation: Medical Doctor, Musician, Student, Unit Soldier, Scientist/Inventor, and Torchwood Operative.
The sheets do show you how little information is needed to play the game: There are 6 Attributes, 12 Skills and then a number of Traits which define each character - along with a number of Story Points.
The Game
The basic mechanic of the Doctor Who RPG is this: roll 2d6, add one attribute and one skill and try to beat the target number (which is normally 12 but can range from 3 to 33).
That's all very simple. Slightly more complexity is added by degrees of success: succeed by 0-3 and you've achieved a Success. 4-8 is "Good" and 9+ is "Fantastic". Meanwhile, fail by 1-3 and "Failure", 4-8 is "Bad" and 9 is "Disastrous". For those who don't want to do the maths, you can instead roll an additional die with the roll, with a "1" indicating a minor success or major failure and a "6" indicating a minor failure or major success.
Opposed checks as you might expect: each person rolls the dice and compares their result to the other's. It all works very well, and the 2d6 gives a degree of predictability to the results - certainly more predictable than the d20 roll of the Dungeons & Dragons system.
Combat
Doctor Who stories are not about combat, as the game takes pains to explain. However, it does come up from time to time - more so if you use the system to run a Torchwood or UNIT game (as is suggested and supported by the rules), so the game uses the same basic skill system to resolve it.
Each weapon is rated by the amount of damage it does. Melee weapons do damage according to the Strength attribute of their wielder, Ranged weapons have damage codes. A 9mm pistol does 5 damage, a Dalek gun does "Lethal" damage. Yes, if you get shot by a Dalek, you're going to die. Damage reduces your attributes. Which attributes depends on the weapon and what you and the GM decide. Three attributes reduced to 0? You may die - although it's more likely that you'll be knocked unconscious and gain the "Unadventurous" trait, which means that you'll probably leave the Doctor at the next opportunity.
Such is a brilliant invention and properly reflects the Doctor Who world. You're agents of Torchwood? You're probably dead.
The actual damage done by a weapon does depend on the level of success - a minor success inflicts half damage (4 damage for lethal weapons). A major success inflicts half as much damage again.
Against powerful monsters, you might think you have no chance, but that's where Story Points come in - of which more later.
However, as mentioned, Doctor Who isn't mainly about combat. In a round, anyone who wants to talk goes first. Then characters who want to move. Then characters who want to do something ("I've got to reverse the polarity of this neutron flow!") Finally, the fighters get to act - shooting or attacking as it may be. Then the next action round gets underway.
Traits
There are both positive and negative traits that can define your character. Unlike D&D, many of these traits are roleplaying traits. As with the rest of the game, the definitions of the traits are somewhat loose and are open to interpretation from the group. The Attractive Trait gives you a +2 on checks when it might apply. When does it apply? Depends on what you and the GM decide. Rose is unlikely to be able to charm a Dalek using her looks, but she'd have a lot better chance with a young man.
Major traits include being an alien (including a Time Lord). These generally penalise the character by reducing the number of Story Points they have, or might need Story Points to activate. You can also have psychological problems (Cowardly, Greedy, etc.) which can interfere with your actions. Although there's nothing that directly penalises you if you act against character, your GM should give you story points when you act in character and remove story points when you act against your character.
Story Points
I've mentioned Story Points quite a bit in the previous sections. They are the main mechanic that allow the players to affect the game. Each character has a pool of Story Points that refresh at the beginning of each adventure (and they can gain more in the middle of an adventure). What can you do with Story Points? Well, almost anything, but the main uses are:
"I dunno... I'm stumped..." - get a hint from the GM.
"We only get one shot at this." - roll an additional 2d6 for a skill check
"That was close, nearly didn't make it!" - convert failures into minor successes
"It was just a scratch" - reduce the effect of injuries
"You're the most remarkable man I've every met. But I don't think you're quite capable of that." - do the impossible. (Rose looking into the Time Vortex; the Doctor trapping the Family of Blood).
"Hang on, I have an idea!" - something happens unlikely (like the villain falling in love with Martha) that changes the story.
There are more possibilities for the uses of story points; the imagination of the players and GM are really the only limiting factors.
Some villains have Story Points as well, which they will likely spend to survive.
Part of the balancing of characters involves giving more story points to the weaker characters. Thus, Rose and Donna have a lot of story points, and the Doctor and Captain Jack have only a few.
Gadgets
Apart from Traits, Attributes and Skills, character may also have a gadget or two - Sonic Screwdriver, Psychic Weapon, Squareness Gun. There are a number provided with the game, and suggestions for more.
Each is described by a number of traits and also has a pool of Story Points which the possessor of the gadget can use when using it.
Thoughts About the Game
The Doctor Who RPG is my big new RPG purchase and one that I hope to play very soon. The game aims to aid co-operative storytelling rather than antagonistic gaming: a game where the ingenuity of the players is more important than their stats, but the GM will be able to help the players when they need him or her to.
The game is not a complex one, but neither does it fall into the trap of being too simple. What it does have is a lot of scope. Six attributes, twelve skills, and then a lot of traits allow you to customise your characters without bogging down the character in too much detail.
The success or failure of such a game depends a lot more on the adventures and group dynamics than the simple mechanics. Both of the full adventures given in the adventure book demonstrate how you could write your own adventures. They're not given in great detail, but rather sketch the outlines that the group will then fill in as they play through them. A prescriptive approach would likely be counterproductive in any case: you need space to move in Doctor Who. I was really impressed with the story ideas given in the last few pages of the Adventure book, especially a trilogy of linked stories that could be played over the course of a campaign.
I'm a little worried that some of the adventures make it seem like the Doctor is played as a NPC; a viable option, although I quite like the suggested idea that one player plays the Doctor - but it changes to another player when the Doctor regenerates!
The game's production values are very high, and the cost is similarly high. Unfortunately, the curse of "page ??" appears in the Adventure Book and the character sheets, although not, I'm happy to say, in the main rulebooks. There are also other errors, some of which can be found in this thread.
The books are written in a chatty style that is very pleasant to read and have numerous sidebars providing examples and additional hints on how to play the game. Occasionally this comes at the cost of some clarity when you're trying to reference a rule, although the table of contents for each book (on the back covers) are very good. The game isn't a hard one in any case, and new players should be able to pick it up quickly.
New Gamemasters? There are worse games to start off with. Honestly, you need to be pretty creative and flexible to run this game. It's not as simple as running a D&D dungeon, but then it is designed to appeal to a different audience. In any case, it looks like it'd be a lot of fun, and I'm a long way from being a new Gamesmaster.
Further Adventures
The game is available now with David Tennant's Doctor on the cover, but rumours state that a new edition will shortly be available displaying Matt Smith's Doctor. A PDF of the game is also available through RPGnow. At some point, there will be a dedicated website for the game. You can also buy the Player's Guide separately as a PDF, which is great for people who just want to play the game and not GM it.
Already announced - if not yet quite available - is a Gamesmaster's Screen, a book with more creatures (Aliens and Creatures), and a book describing the UNIT organisation (Defending the Earth).
Although the game is written around the Doctor and his Companions, by no means is that the only way to play the game. The game includes suggestions for other styles of play: Torchwood, UNIT, Sarah Jane, or using a new Time Lord and his companions, or perhaps a Time Agent who uses a Vortex Manipulator to travel through time. The rules handle creating pretty much any sort of character you want to play - although they do suggest that playing the Master or a Dalek is a bad idea.
Cubicle 7 have done a great job with the initial release of the Doctor Who RPG. It has ignited my interest to actually run sessions of it (of which I'll post session reports when they occur), and seems to have perfectly hit the level that I want a Doctor Who RPG to be at. The game has scope and flair, and I rate it very highly indeed. Of course, this is written from the point of view of someone who hasn't played it yet, but the mechanics looks very solid and the theme and approach couldn't be stronger.
Fantastic!
I missed the next version of a Doctor Who RPG, Time Lord (1991), which failed in one of my key requirements for a Doctor Who RPG: you couldn't create your own player characters with it. Reports from people who have got the book have been generally poor. It is available a free download for people who are interested.
This new game, from Cubicle 7 Entertainment, is a far more attractive game than either of its predecessors. To begin with, it's in colour. It also, I suggest, knows its potential audience well: it provides a flexible system that is sufficiently easy and light to learn and play that supports the story-based and wide-ranging format needed by Doctor Who.
What is in the box?
The box is, sadly, not larger on the inside. However, you are likely to have trouble getting everything back into it! The contents may be larger than the inside.
Inside the box are the following:
a 4-page "Read This First" booklet
a 86-page Player's Guide
a 140-page Gamesmaster's Guide
a 32-page Adventures Book
8 pregenerated character sheets featuring characters from the new series
6 pregenerated "template" character sheets
6 blank character sheets
3 sheets of punchout "gadgets" (pregenerated and blank)
1 sheet of Story Point cardboard tokens
a "coming soon" leaflet
6 dice
The main trouble with getting everything back in the box are those Story Point tokens: there are a lot of them, and mine have ended up in a zip-lock back which doesn't fit inside the box. Everything else does, though.
Strangely enough, the Read This First booklet was the bottom thing in the box rather than the top!
The first heading on the Read This First! booklet is "Where's the Board?", which gives an introduction to the RPG for new players, suggesting that all that you need to start are the rules summary in the booklet, the example of play in the Player's Handbook, and to choose a Gamesmaster who will read the adventure in the Adventure Book.
The Player's Guide
The Player's Guide is divided into four chapters - an introduction, rules on creating characters, the rules for playing the game, and finally a short chapter on how to play a roleplaying game and hints and tips for playing the Doctor Who RPG in particular.
The Gamemaster's Guide
The Gamemaster's Guide actually reprints the main two chapters of the Player's Guide - the character creation rules and game rules - at its start, although slightly edited with extra information to aid the Gamesmaster. This is brilliant, as it means that the GM doesn't have to keep asking for the Player's Guide back; it can stay with the players.
After that, the Gamesmaster's Guide gives information on Time Travel and Time Lords, a number of creatures that can be met in the game (including most of the main opponents in the new series, such as Daleks and Cybermen. No Weeping Angels yet, alas!), a chapter of help on game mastering, and finally a chapter on creating adventures.
From the last chapter, I get the idea that the best way of running a Doctor Who campaign is similar to a series of the new series: each session is as an episode of the TV series, either a self-contained story or part of a bigger story, with a campaign story arc and personal story arcs for the PCs as well.
The Adventure Book
One of the most impressive books in the set is this: it contains two short adventures, "Arrowdown" and "Judoon!" and then 24 adventure ideas - which are actually described in a column (or more) each, so that you've got a lot of material to work with. As coming up with adventures for Doctor Who is more challenging than just designing dungeons for D&D, this is much appreciated.
The Character Sheets
Every main character of the revived series has a pregenerated character sheet: the Doctor, Rose, Martha, Donna, Sarah Jane Smith, K-9, Mickey and Captain Jack Harkness. The game also has a few "template" sheets for those who don't want to play one of the regular characters but don't want to go through the business of character creation: Medical Doctor, Musician, Student, Unit Soldier, Scientist/Inventor, and Torchwood Operative.
The sheets do show you how little information is needed to play the game: There are 6 Attributes, 12 Skills and then a number of Traits which define each character - along with a number of Story Points.
The Game
The basic mechanic of the Doctor Who RPG is this: roll 2d6, add one attribute and one skill and try to beat the target number (which is normally 12 but can range from 3 to 33).
That's all very simple. Slightly more complexity is added by degrees of success: succeed by 0-3 and you've achieved a Success. 4-8 is "Good" and 9+ is "Fantastic". Meanwhile, fail by 1-3 and "Failure", 4-8 is "Bad" and 9 is "Disastrous". For those who don't want to do the maths, you can instead roll an additional die with the roll, with a "1" indicating a minor success or major failure and a "6" indicating a minor failure or major success.
Opposed checks as you might expect: each person rolls the dice and compares their result to the other's. It all works very well, and the 2d6 gives a degree of predictability to the results - certainly more predictable than the d20 roll of the Dungeons & Dragons system.
Combat
Doctor Who stories are not about combat, as the game takes pains to explain. However, it does come up from time to time - more so if you use the system to run a Torchwood or UNIT game (as is suggested and supported by the rules), so the game uses the same basic skill system to resolve it.
Each weapon is rated by the amount of damage it does. Melee weapons do damage according to the Strength attribute of their wielder, Ranged weapons have damage codes. A 9mm pistol does 5 damage, a Dalek gun does "Lethal" damage. Yes, if you get shot by a Dalek, you're going to die. Damage reduces your attributes. Which attributes depends on the weapon and what you and the GM decide. Three attributes reduced to 0? You may die - although it's more likely that you'll be knocked unconscious and gain the "Unadventurous" trait, which means that you'll probably leave the Doctor at the next opportunity.
Such is a brilliant invention and properly reflects the Doctor Who world. You're agents of Torchwood? You're probably dead.
The actual damage done by a weapon does depend on the level of success - a minor success inflicts half damage (4 damage for lethal weapons). A major success inflicts half as much damage again.
Against powerful monsters, you might think you have no chance, but that's where Story Points come in - of which more later.
However, as mentioned, Doctor Who isn't mainly about combat. In a round, anyone who wants to talk goes first. Then characters who want to move. Then characters who want to do something ("I've got to reverse the polarity of this neutron flow!") Finally, the fighters get to act - shooting or attacking as it may be. Then the next action round gets underway.
Traits
There are both positive and negative traits that can define your character. Unlike D&D, many of these traits are roleplaying traits. As with the rest of the game, the definitions of the traits are somewhat loose and are open to interpretation from the group. The Attractive Trait gives you a +2 on checks when it might apply. When does it apply? Depends on what you and the GM decide. Rose is unlikely to be able to charm a Dalek using her looks, but she'd have a lot better chance with a young man.
Major traits include being an alien (including a Time Lord). These generally penalise the character by reducing the number of Story Points they have, or might need Story Points to activate. You can also have psychological problems (Cowardly, Greedy, etc.) which can interfere with your actions. Although there's nothing that directly penalises you if you act against character, your GM should give you story points when you act in character and remove story points when you act against your character.
Story Points
I've mentioned Story Points quite a bit in the previous sections. They are the main mechanic that allow the players to affect the game. Each character has a pool of Story Points that refresh at the beginning of each adventure (and they can gain more in the middle of an adventure). What can you do with Story Points? Well, almost anything, but the main uses are:
"I dunno... I'm stumped..." - get a hint from the GM.
"We only get one shot at this." - roll an additional 2d6 for a skill check
"That was close, nearly didn't make it!" - convert failures into minor successes
"It was just a scratch" - reduce the effect of injuries
"You're the most remarkable man I've every met. But I don't think you're quite capable of that." - do the impossible. (Rose looking into the Time Vortex; the Doctor trapping the Family of Blood).
"Hang on, I have an idea!" - something happens unlikely (like the villain falling in love with Martha) that changes the story.
There are more possibilities for the uses of story points; the imagination of the players and GM are really the only limiting factors.
Some villains have Story Points as well, which they will likely spend to survive.
Part of the balancing of characters involves giving more story points to the weaker characters. Thus, Rose and Donna have a lot of story points, and the Doctor and Captain Jack have only a few.
Gadgets
Apart from Traits, Attributes and Skills, character may also have a gadget or two - Sonic Screwdriver, Psychic Weapon, Squareness Gun. There are a number provided with the game, and suggestions for more.
Each is described by a number of traits and also has a pool of Story Points which the possessor of the gadget can use when using it.
Thoughts About the Game
The Doctor Who RPG is my big new RPG purchase and one that I hope to play very soon. The game aims to aid co-operative storytelling rather than antagonistic gaming: a game where the ingenuity of the players is more important than their stats, but the GM will be able to help the players when they need him or her to.
The game is not a complex one, but neither does it fall into the trap of being too simple. What it does have is a lot of scope. Six attributes, twelve skills, and then a lot of traits allow you to customise your characters without bogging down the character in too much detail.
The success or failure of such a game depends a lot more on the adventures and group dynamics than the simple mechanics. Both of the full adventures given in the adventure book demonstrate how you could write your own adventures. They're not given in great detail, but rather sketch the outlines that the group will then fill in as they play through them. A prescriptive approach would likely be counterproductive in any case: you need space to move in Doctor Who. I was really impressed with the story ideas given in the last few pages of the Adventure book, especially a trilogy of linked stories that could be played over the course of a campaign.
I'm a little worried that some of the adventures make it seem like the Doctor is played as a NPC; a viable option, although I quite like the suggested idea that one player plays the Doctor - but it changes to another player when the Doctor regenerates!
The game's production values are very high, and the cost is similarly high. Unfortunately, the curse of "page ??" appears in the Adventure Book and the character sheets, although not, I'm happy to say, in the main rulebooks. There are also other errors, some of which can be found in this thread.
The books are written in a chatty style that is very pleasant to read and have numerous sidebars providing examples and additional hints on how to play the game. Occasionally this comes at the cost of some clarity when you're trying to reference a rule, although the table of contents for each book (on the back covers) are very good. The game isn't a hard one in any case, and new players should be able to pick it up quickly.
New Gamemasters? There are worse games to start off with. Honestly, you need to be pretty creative and flexible to run this game. It's not as simple as running a D&D dungeon, but then it is designed to appeal to a different audience. In any case, it looks like it'd be a lot of fun, and I'm a long way from being a new Gamesmaster.
Further Adventures
The game is available now with David Tennant's Doctor on the cover, but rumours state that a new edition will shortly be available displaying Matt Smith's Doctor. A PDF of the game is also available through RPGnow. At some point, there will be a dedicated website for the game. You can also buy the Player's Guide separately as a PDF, which is great for people who just want to play the game and not GM it.
Already announced - if not yet quite available - is a Gamesmaster's Screen, a book with more creatures (Aliens and Creatures), and a book describing the UNIT organisation (Defending the Earth).
Although the game is written around the Doctor and his Companions, by no means is that the only way to play the game. The game includes suggestions for other styles of play: Torchwood, UNIT, Sarah Jane, or using a new Time Lord and his companions, or perhaps a Time Agent who uses a Vortex Manipulator to travel through time. The rules handle creating pretty much any sort of character you want to play - although they do suggest that playing the Master or a Dalek is a bad idea.
Cubicle 7 have done a great job with the initial release of the Doctor Who RPG. It has ignited my interest to actually run sessions of it (of which I'll post session reports when they occur), and seems to have perfectly hit the level that I want a Doctor Who RPG to be at. The game has scope and flair, and I rate it very highly indeed. Of course, this is written from the point of view of someone who hasn't played it yet, but the mechanics looks very solid and the theme and approach couldn't be stronger.
Fantastic!
