#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 5, Room 12

This room is on the other side of Room #10, also behind a hidden door.  The room is the same shape and dimensions as Room #11.

This room has more of those animated statues, but many are in pieces. It almost looks like many have been opened and metal from the inside have been taken out. They look more like some sort of advanced clockwork creature.

There are some tools here and gold in the form of wire (78 gp total).

There is one tool that fits into a human's hand easily with a small depression near the middle. Pressing the depression causes a jet of flame 12" long to come out.

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The tool is a plasma knife, and it is used to cut open damaged robots that can't be opened by regular means. It has 1d4+6 "charges" remaining.  It can be used as a dagger, but the damage is 1d6 burning only, not piercing or slashing. It can also be used to start fires. 

FASA Doctor Who RPG: Part 4 The Adventures

No RPG is complete without some adventures to have. Here are all the official FASA Doctor Who RPG adventures published. All are out of print and hard to find these days.

It has taken me a few years, but I have managed to get all the adventures.  Some of these are so musty I am going to need to double up on my antihistamines just to get through them all!

The Iytean Menace

48 pages. 1985. Design and writing by J. Andrew Keith.

Now here is a fun one. The characters travel back to London in 1885 (I am already on board) to discover a retired Army Officer with a cache of futuristic weapons, a crashed spaceship, and a rogue body-snatching alien. It actually has quite a lot to offer. 

There are plenty of interesting NPCs and even a full set of PCs for the players to use. We are introduced to Time Lord Rollonovaradanavashir, or Rolo for short, and his collection of eight companions. We get coverage of the Type 51 TARDIS with its advanced computer systems and even some new skills.

Yes. That cover is Paris Street; Rainy Day by Gustave Caillebotte. Though the adventure takes place in London in 1885 not Paris in 1877. Minor detail I guess. 

This one might be fun to try out with the Paternoster Investigations gang with the Cubicle 7 system. 

The Lords of Destiny

48 pages. 1985. Design and writing by William H. Keith, Jr.

This one has a rather interesting premise. The characters materialize onto a 10,000km long starship built around a planet. As it has been traveling through space and gathering material, it has grown larger and larger. Now its computer is sentient and, of course, insane, so it is targeting mineral-rich planets to gobble up. To top it all off the characters are arrested right away and there is a rebellion happening on the ship of some 100 Billion people. 

This is another adventure, like most of the Doctor Who adventures and stories, that require more thought than beating people up. It is mentioned that while yes, blowing up the ship would solve the problem, it would also kill all 100 billion on board. 

This one introduces us to the Time Lord, "The Professor," which seems like an inventible name.  I would be lying if I didn't say I totally tried to square this guy with the Peter Cushing Dr. Who movies. His companions include Joan of Arc (yes. that one), a tabloid reporter from Peria, IL, and a test pilot from 9880 AD. 

Countdown

48 pages. 1985. Design and writing by Ray Winninger

The first adventures were published right on the heels of RPG Boxed set. This one came later. In this adventure the character's TARDIS gets caught in a gravity bubble and they land on the courier Leander in the 26th Century. The Leander is delivering medical supplies that only last for 48 hours and the flight in 30 hours long. There is some meddling with some Vegan pirates (not those Vegans, ones from Vega XII) and a Cyberman plot. 

This adventure is set up for first time Gamemasters with notes on how to run this adventure and adventures in general. Several options for resolving this adventure are given. And we even have a nice map of the starships.

For the Players, we have a new Time Lord, Kelaphaludner, aka Kelly, and some of his companions. Kelly will make more appearances.  Additionally, we also get the Fourth Doctor with Leela and Romana II as choices.  I think there must have been a push to include the Doctor and his companions. 

This one gives a special thanks to the Northwestern University Doctor Who club. This one is also slightly taller than the other books. 

The  Hartlewick Horror

40 pages. 1985. Design and writing by Ray Winninger

This one takes us back to some of the more horror-influenced stories of the Third and Fourth Doctor. The Fourth Doctor even appears on the cover. This one takes place on Earth 1923.  Here the CIA has detected energy waves on the same wavelength as the human brain. There are some disappearances, a strange seance, a trapped alien threat, and a group of angry villagers.

It feels very Hammer Horror to be honest and I think that was the point. There are supernatural overtones, but of course as typical with Doctor Who, it is an alien. It might a bit clichéd, but still, it is fun and there are some nice maps. 

For the characters, Kelly and his companions Phillip and Gwendolyn are back. They even show so updates from the last adventure. Also back as alternate player characters are the Fourth Doctor, Leela, Sarah Jane, and Harry Sullivan (not sure who the art for Harry is...).  There are even suggestions for a sequel the Game Master can do on their own.

The Legions of Death

52 pages. 1985. Design and writing by J. Andrew Keith.

This one features the newer FASA logo on the cover and the Third Doctor. This one starts with a temporal anomaly in Britain in 43 AD. Apparently, something (or someone) is helping the local Britions win battles against the Romans they were never supposed to have won. That someone turns out to be the renegade Time Lord the War Chief. 

This one is certainly for the history buffs out there. 

For PCs we get the Time Lord "The Colonel" and Time Lady Leoradrusendalular, aka Leora.  For alternates, we have the Third Doctor, Jo Grant, and Sarah Jane Smith. Additionally we have the Bigadier, and some others. Including the first companion from Chicago! There are good collection of NPCs as well. 

There are player's handouts and lots of background information. We even get coverage of the War Chief's Type 43 TARDIS. 

The adventure reminds a bit of some of things we would also see in the Tweleth Doctor episode "The Eaters of Light."

The City of Gold

52 pages. 1986. Design and writing by J. Andrew Keith.

While the TARDIS and her crew are supposed to be headed to Venezuela in the 21st Century to deal with some revolutionaries, they get sidetracked and land instead in 1543.  Instead of revolutionaries though they run into dinosaurs and rumors of El Dorado, the lost City of Gold.

There is a lot of background here, some player handouts, and some great maps. It also has the involvement of the Silurians, which is always a plus. This is also our first adventure with a 1986 date on it. 

For our PCs we get a Time Lord . "The Don" (ok...), the time Lady Maranodulandur, aka "Mara", a gunslinger named Jack Ransome, a human doctor Cassandra Maitland, and human cavalry officer Jacques D'Aubanville. For our alternate cast, we have the Fifth Doctor, Adric, Nyssa, Teagan, and Turlogh. And a lot of NPCs.

The Warriors Code

56 pages. 1986. Design and writing by J. Andrew Keith.

It's 1986 and America is fascinated with all things Japanese. This adventure is larger and we get Jim Holloway doing the cover art. This adventure takes place in Japan during the Tokugawa shogunate (1600 AD), just before the Battle of Sekigahara. Here the TARDIS crashes into another Time Ship from 5184 AD.  While both crews rush to make repairs to their respective ships they have Fuedal Japan to deal with.

I won't lie, you REALLY have to like Japanese history to get into this one. I am not saying it is bad, but it is a set piece. The Time Ship is just a MacGuffin to get you here. 

This one also focuses on the Doctor and his companions in the forefront. The Second Doctor is joined by Jamie, Ben, Poly, Victoria, and Zoe. For the original characters, we get the Time Lord "Noman" and the Time Lady Marinarratalasanavor, aka Marina, and some companions. 

There are maps, hints for play, and even some flowcharts. All of which are nice touches.  This is also the only perfect bound adventure. 

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I think all of these adventures could be played, with a little massaging, under the Cubicle 7 Doctor Who RPG rules. Many of the Doctors and the Companions have stats in their respective books as do counterparts for all the NPCs. 

The best thing about these adventures are the tidbits that add to or clarify the various rules. They are all geared toward a starting Game Master and naturally assume that anyone will grab any of these as their first adventure.  The only minor, tiny exception here is the Time Lord Kelly and his companions that do get better across their respective adventures, but that is it really. 

None of them will go down in history as classic adventures in the way that say some of the D&D ones have, but they are fun.

#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 5, Room 11

In room 10 to the right, is a secret door. It leads to a room filled (10) with more of the animated statues from Room 10. These, however all seem to be broken or not active.

This appears to be some sort of storage for these creatures (robots) and the is nothing else here.

If the characters choose to scavenge these robots they can find about 45 gp worth of gold wire on each one.

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These robots will not attack, their powercells are completely drained, but the Players won't know that. 

FASA Doctor Who RPG: Part 3 The Supplements

Getting back into my exploration of the FASA Doctor Who RPG.  Each adds more detail to three of the Doctor's deadliest foes.  Each was also sold as a two-book set, a player's book and a GM's guide. As expected, it more difficult to find the Player's books in the 2nd hand market these days.

The Daleks

Naturally the first supplement covers the Doctor's and the Time Lords' greatest threat, the Daleks. Here we have a Game Master's guide (the full color cover) and the Player's in-universe guide. 

Game Master's Book

This 40 page book covers everything known about the Daleks up to 1985.  We are given some background on them for the show, how they were created by Terry Nation (who still owned the copyright then) for Doctor Who and so on. We then get right into the in-game background.  We are given a time line of the Daleks from the time when the first humanoids evolved on Skaro to the "modern" day.  There is a lot of background on Skaro, the Kaled/Thal wars, and Davros.

I should point out here that while there is a lot of cannon taken directly from the show, there is also a lot of added material. Designed mostly to feature the exploits of the fictional C.I.A. (Celestial Intervention Agency) and to help "smooth out" some of the time line inconsistencies from the show. One example is a picture of a pre-mutated version of Davros. Another are some of the planets that the Daleks have conquered. 

There are some sections on the various aliens that have the most contact with the Daleks such as the Movellans, the Ogrons, and the Thals.

Dalek psychology is discussed and since Daleks are think alike and rely on tried and true methods, there are some handy flowcharts of what any given Dalek will do in any situation.

The Player's Book: The Dalek Problem

Now this 24-page book covers the Dalek from the point of view of the characters in the game, or more to the point characters that will be working for the C.I.A.  So there are truths, half-truths, and outright lies here. For example, the same timeline is repeated here with many omissions.  I am okay with that. Players entering this game will already know a lot, so there should still be some mysteries.

Overall the two books could have been combined into one book with a Players and Game Masters sections, but I do like the presentation.

What strikes me most about this book is how in hindsight you can see how the Time War was built up. Yes neither the Doctor Who writers or FASA were thinking about these things then, but the seeds are all here.  Honestly I can see a rogue bunch of C.I.A. agents breaking the Time Lock and trying to go back and stop the Daleks as they are presented here in a sort of "Let's kill Hitler" scheme. 

The Master

The greatest foe the Doctor has ever faced is the renegade Time Lord known as the Master.  Like the Daleks he is responsible for countless deaths and like the Daleks product, comes in two books.

Game Master's Book

This 64-page book is packed full of information. Like all the FASA books though, there is information from the show and stuff created for the game. So fantastic for a game resource but less useful as a guide to the character on the TV show.

In a very nice touch, there is a dedication to Roger Delgado on the first page. But I understand they could not use many of the photos of either Delgado or Ainley in this book, so there is a lot of art here. Even the cover is a painting of the Delgado Master in Ainley's normal costume. 

We get a recounting of his adventures from the Meddling Monk (which I don't agree with) up to the run of the 6th Doctor. I mean, even the War Chief is presented as a different Time Lord here. 

Like the Dalek book, there is a long timeline presented, but as a time traveler, this can get messy. 

We get the motivations behind what the Master does, his goals, and a bit of psychology/history. We also get some of his equipment and listings of other Renegade Time Lords, some of who now work for the C.I.A. We end with a full character sheet for his latest incarnation. 

Player's Book: The Master CIA File Extracts

This 16 page book covers what CIA field agents will know about the Master. This covers similar material including the Prydonian Academy Rebellion mention in the previous book and the Core rules. I can't recall if that was ever mentioned in the classic series or not. I am leaning towards not. 

The Cybermen

While certainly a deadly enemy of the Doctor, and a reoccurring one, they never quite matched the evil of the Daleks or the Master. These two books also were published in 1986 and they do feel different in a way.   

Game Master's Book

Moreso than the Daleks the Cybermen have a very convoluted history. We start with Mondas, the "twin planet" of Earth aka the 10th Planet. The coverage of Mondas is way beyond anything given in the show. In fact I get a solid feel of "Journey to the Far Side of the Sun" here, which , honestly, I am ok with.  There is also the ubiquitous timeline, with bits added in. 

The interesting parts come from how the Cybermen deal with others and other planets. Since they are cybernetic race controlled by a central "cyber mind" (this would later be called the Cyberiad in the time of the 11th Doctor) there is a hand flow chart for any Cyberman interaction.

There is coverage of the various Cyberman models over the years. And ideas on how to use them in adventures. We even get a nice map of the Tomb of the Cybermen, an episode I recently rewatched.

Player's Book: The Cyber Files CIA Special Report

This 16-page book is notable because it tries to explain Mondas. The book covers some more time line; fewer entries but in greater detail, and has a whole long section on the companions of the Doctor that have encountered the Cybermen. Ok that part is less useful. 

In reading both these books I fear there was a tendency to make Mondas and the Cybermen into pale imitations of the Skaro and the Daleks. Something that the 10th Doctor episode "Doomsday" proves to be pointless. 

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All three of these supplements are very useful for the FASA Doctor Who RPG.  I wouldn't say you *need* them to play, but they are fun to have. There is even enough information here for use with the other Doctor Who RPGs as well, though as to be expected there will be contradictions.

Sadly they are long out of print and finding them is a bit of a struggle. I can't recommend them unless you are playing the FASA RPG and are a super-fan of the topics covered.

#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 5, Room 10

At the end of this hallway is a door that "whooses" part of the way open. To get through will require a combined strength of 25. This opens to a long, but slimmer hallway.

Inside this hallway are eight metal-looking statues that a vaguely humanoid in appearance. Four of them get up to attack.

The "statues" are security robots. Treat as Rock Statues for combat purposes. They do not shoot molten magma but rather a "plasma beam" that works much the same way.  Only four are active; the others are inactive. 

Destroying the statues will yield 50 gp worth of gold in each in wiring. 

The Nightmare in Print!

Got some great news last night that my adventure for Fright Night Classics is now in print!

Print copies of The Nightmare are now available for pre-order for $20 via Paypal to cryptworldrpg@gmail.com. (Price includes shipping anywhere in the U.S.)

I would love to see this one do as well as the PDF sales.  

I have ordered from Yeti Spaghetti & Friends many times, and the orders are always secure and very, very fast. So they have my full endorsement here.

Let's make this one their best-selling adventure. I have more I want to write!

#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 5, Room 9

 Across from Room #8 is another wide-open room. This one has a large window that allows a view of the hall to the entry.

There are also several metal and glass-looking shelves, some with blinking lights. There is someone sitting in one of the chairs.

If these "shelves" (control panels) are touched, some will light up and noises can be heard. In one case an alien voice (a recording) can be heard. 

The someone sitting in the chair is long dead. The skeleton looks like a cross between a human and a snake. It is wearing one of the suits found in previous rooms.

The badge the skeleton has on its uniform appears to be gold.

[NOTE: if any character is a Dragonborn or the equivalent, then they are very, very uneasy around this skeleton but can't tell you why.]

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The someone is a dead Ophidian officer. 

The voice is a recorded message from a shuttle crew trying to leave the ship before the crash. They, along with their shuttle, are buried a few hundred miles west of here and 300 ft. down.

Dragonborn and Ophidians are ancient enemies. Their hatred is buried deep in their collective unconsciousnesses.