Jenny, Larina and Valerie for Doctor Who Adventures in Time and Space

Time to put it all together now.  Over the course of my reviews of the various Doctor Who RPGs I have looked at some characters with the express purpose of comparing them across different versions. 

Today I want to take three characters and have a go at building them in the 1st Edition of the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space RPG. The three are: 

• Jenny Everywhere, who I have been using as my stand-in for a Time Lord
• Larina Nichols, my Drosophila melanogaster of every RPG experiment and to see if I can build a witch in every game.
• Valerie Beaumont, a Ghosts of Albion character who became one of my playtest characters for the original Doctor Who playtests.

For this group, let's say they are all traveling together. The game gives us a lot of options on "Games without Time Lords," so this would be a good place to test it all out. Either Jenny or Val have a vortex manipulator, but I also like the idea that Jenny can travel in time and space (to a limited degree) all on her own without needing gadgets. 

In all three cases I stuck as close as I could to the point-buy budgets for character creation. Though in all three I did go over. That is not a big deal in my mind since Val has already had some adventures (The Ghost Tower of Inverness, Illinois), and Jenny, well I can use nearly anything to justify her stats. But in all cases I tried to stay close to what I had done in other games.

Jenny Everywhere

Jenny, as I have mentioned in previous posts, is a "shifter" she can shift between realities and times and even interact with her own alternates. She is expressly a public domain character that everyone can use, so for my tests, she is the perfect stand-in for a Time Lord. In previous versions of the Doctor Who RPG, this was a conceit since there were other Time Lords, but in the "new" game, there is only the Doctor.

Here she has some of the qualities/traits of a Time Lord, but not the ability to regenerate as River Song did.

As always, I must include her license:

"The character of Jenny Everywhere is available for use by anyone, with only one condition. This paragraph must be included in any publication involving Jenny Everywhere, in order that others may use this property as they wish. All rights reversed."

Jenny Everywhere

"The Shifter"
Story Points: 12

Attributes
Awareness 4
Coordination 3
Ingenuity 4
Presence 3
Resolve 4
Strength 3

Skills
Athletics 1
Convince 2
Craft 
Fighting 1
Knowledge 4
Marksman 1
Medicine 
Science 3
Subterfuge 2
Survival 1
Technology 3
Transport 1

Traits
Brave, Charming, Lucky, Time Traveller (Minor), Eccentric (-1)

Special Traits

Shifter, Feel the Turn of the Universe

Equipment
Various gadgets

Home Tech Level: 6 (Jenny has some solid tech)

Larina Nichols

Larina of course is my witch that I use everywhere. She is my experiment to see if I can do a witch in any game, Rule as Writen. So far I have come up with some very interesting versions of her. Unlike Jenny she is only vaguely aware of her other selves in different realities, usually images that appear to her in dreams. She knows what they are but she has no control over them.  

In the Doctor Who universe her "magick" appears as advanced psychic powers. Humans in this game have a bit more psychic abilities than assumed in previous games. Indeed in the new series of Doctor Who we have seen actual witches.  Larina though is human and not a Carrionite. Though I am not ruling out that human witches might not have Carrionite blood/DNA in them.

Larina Nichols

"The Witch"
Story Points: 12

Attributes
Awareness 4
Coordination 3
Ingenuity 4
Presence 4
Resolve 6
Strength 3

Skills
Athletics 
Convince 1
Craft 2
Fighting 1
Knowledge 4
Marksman 1
Medicine 2
Science 1
Subterfuge 1
Survival 2
Technology 2
Transport 1

Traits
Attractive, Empathic, Psychic Training, Insatiable Curiosity, Obsession (learn more about magic)

Special Traits
Psychic (Package)

 - Clairvoyant 1

 - Precognition 1

 - Telekinesis 1

 - Telepath 1

Equipment
Book of Shadows (on her phone), Tarot Cards.

Home Tech Level: 5

I have this funny notion that Jenny goes to Larina for a Tarot reading about her and despite all the shuffling all the cards when flipped over are blank. The same thing happens again with Valerie. 

That seems like a fun hook.

Valerie Beaumont

Val is an immortal who was born in England in 1569. She came with a family to the new colonies (America) to be the nanny of Virginia Dare, the first child to be born of European parents in an American colony. Both she and Virginia are immortals and have a Doctor/Master style relationship.

She is not my character per se, she is the character of one of my good friends Greg, though she does appear as an NPC in many of my games.

Valerie Beaumont

"The Immortal"
Story Points: 12

Attributes
Awareness 4
Coordination 5
Ingenuity 5
Presence 5
Resolve 4
Strength 3

Skills
Athletics 2
Convince 1
Craft 
Fighting 3
Knowledge 5
Marksman 2
Medicine 1
Science 1
Subterfuge 2
Survival 3
Technology 1
Transport 

Traits
Attractive, Brave, Quick Reflexes, Tough, Adversary (Virginia Dare), Dark Secret (is Immortal)

Special Traits
Immortal (2), Fast Healing (2)

Equipment
Sword cane

Home Tech Level: 4 (she was born in 1569)

--

In truth I am rather happy with these. I altered some of Valerie's skills from her play test file. 

I can easily see a series of adventures with these three. Likely running into Madam Vastra and Jenny in Victorian times (and whom Valerie has dealt with before), Sherlock Holmes and John Watson in a modern London (gotta figure out how that works!), and of course fellow witches Willow and Tara. 

It's a weird and wonderful universe out there, and this is the game to explore it!

#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 5, Room 26

 The hallway/corridor opens to a larger corridor.  A large room can be seen at that very end. 

The necromantic forces feel stronger here, like they did on previous levels.

As the characters move down the hall, they are attacked by Zombie Ophidians.

There are 1d8+4 zombies of the snake men. They have no weapons and attack with claws and bites. Their poison bite is all used up so they only do 1d4 hp damage per bite.

Reviews: Doctor Who RPG supplements

 A few quick ones now. I grabbed these to review because I wanted some of the Cubicle 7 books I knew would be good in emulating a FASA Doctor Who like game. So more UNIT, more CIA (Celestial Intervention Agency), and more aliens.

In all cases here I am reviewing the PDFs

Doctor Who: Aliens and Creatures

Six PDFs in one ZIP file. 220+ pages total.

From the 10th Doctor era. What grabbed me first about this book was how well it looks with other Doctor Who books from other sources. This is due to the BBC mandated trade dress. While it means every era of Doctor Who will give us a different look (and core book) it also means that the books my kids were buying at school book fairs (wow, that was a long time ago!) will look great on the shelves next the RPG books. 

This package includes:

• 138 page rulebook detailing many of the creatures faced in the Doctor's adventures, including the Cybermen, Cult of Skaro, Davros, the Weeping Angels and the Hath, additional rules for creating your own creatures both as enemies or as playable characters, and a system for creating new worlds for your adventures to take place on
• 32 page Adventure book, featuring a whole new ready-to-play adventure and many ideas for additional stories
• New gadget cards
• Additional Story Point Counters
• Detailed Creature Cards for easy reference

All to work with your 10th Doctor boxed set. The same level of art, design and layout given to the core game is here, making it one of the more attractive games out these days. Perfect for the Doctor Who gamer and the Doctor Who fan alike. And an excellent source of new things to run away from! 

This is a great product, full of all sorts of monsters, aliens, and other creatures primarily from the new version of Doctor Who (but some old favorites are still there). It was nice to have writeups for various Daleks, Cybermen, Catkind, Sontarans, and more. There are even more Traits and pre-built Trait packages given to aliens.  Along with aliens come their worlds, we have more detail on these as well. So you don't have to stick to Earth!

The adventure book (32 pages) has two ready-to-go adventures using these new creatures; and plenty of ideas on how to use the others. 

Some printing will be required for the cards and story point counters, but that is minimal. 

Despite the "trade dress" this can be used with any version of the Doctor Who RPG from Cubicle 7.

Defending the Earth: The UNIT Sourcebook

PDF. 160 pages.

This book comes to us from the Matt Smith/11th Doctor era but it has call back to the 3rd, 4th, 7th, 10th, and more Doctors. Even the cover features UNIT officers from those periods.

Like all the Who books, this one is full color. While it skews more to the new Who series, there is a lot of Classic Who material here including stats for the 3rd Doctor (Jon Pertwee).

The UNIT (United Intelligence Taskforce) is tasked by the UN with protecting the Earth from Alien threats. This book allows you to create UNIT bases, and personal and comes with two sample adventures.

In many ways, a UNIT-based game can be more interesting than a Doctor-based one. In this, everyone can have a nicely defined role. You have field scientists, soldiers of all sorts, and even civilians.

Among the features of this book are the expanded firearms and mass combat rules. The History of UNIT. Personnel includes plenty of new traits for the military, science, and civilians. And two UNIT-based adventures.

This is one of my favorite sourcebooks for DW so far. Not just because of the limitless possibilities, but also because there is more attention paid to the older series than other books (note I am not saying this is a flaw of the other books, but it is a nice feature of this one).

I also see this as one of the more flexible books. You can set up a small UNIT command base and let the wackiness ensue. In fact, my own playtest adventures with DW could easily be converted into a UNIT game. Think back to the 3rd Doctor's adventures; these were mostly Earth based with UNIT. All of those are great ideas for a game. Or even the Sarah Jane Adventures.

As with all books in this line, it is full color, well laid out, and full of stills from the show.

Doctor Who - The Time Traveller's Companion

PDF 242 pages.

Again from the Matt Smtih/11th Doctor Era.

Now here is a book we would have LOVED to have had back in the FASA Doctor Who era. Everything we know about Gallifrey to date (well...to the date of this publication).

This product, like other supplements, is a bit freer with its use of material and image from the Classic series. So while the "trade dress" is the 11th Doctor, all the Doctors are featured here.

This book covers Gallifrey. It's history, it's culture, and of course, the Time Lords. This history by the way is great. We get deep cuts like "The Dark Times" and Morbius. Though only brief mentions of the Racnoss, the Great Vampires and the Carrionites in the Time Lord history. Interesting aside. All these early enemies of the Time Lords; spiders, vampires and witches respectively, all feature into the fears and horror tales of humans. Coincidence? 

There is even a little bit on the Time War here. 

Essentially if there is a Doctor Episode that featured Gallifrey or Time Lords it has representation here.  

We get updates/expansions on Time Lord Character creation. This includes character creation based on which of the great academies the Time Lord comes from. Nice touch. There are even expanded regeneration rules here that predict how the War Doctor would be. 

A brief overview of Time Travel is next. We get a good (ok better) explanations of the Blinovich Limitation Effect, or, "Why You Can't Cross Your Own Time Stream" and the Time Differential. Though the time differential is a good way to help explain how the Doctor never really knows how old he is. 

There is coverage on Vortex Manipulators, Time Corridors, Time Scoops, Time Dams, even "primitive" time travel machines. 

Updated information on TARDISes, including how to build your own in the game. Here things like the "Symbiotic Nuclei " of the Two Doctors episode is explained in 11th-Doctor-era terms and ideas. 

Several TARDIS templates are given from Ancient (Type 1 to 29) to Decommissioned (Type 30 to 59, The Doctor's TARDIS is Type 40), Modern (Type 60 - 89, used by The Rani and the main TARDISes of the Time War), and Advanced (Type 90+).  Like Characters, TARDISes have attributes and traits. 

Lastly, there is a Gamemaster section, divided into four chapters.

This covers not only running a game, but things the GM needs to know that the players should not. These are details like what tyrant the Great Rassilon was, how Omega survived, how Morbius escaped Time Lord justice, the War Chief, and the workings of the CIA. 

There are the hidden files about the weapons of the Time War (the Moment had not been created in the show just yet) and other monstrosities. 

We get some other Time Lord Renegades from the show, Drax, The Monk (separate now), the Rani, Romana, and even the new regeneration cycle of the Master.

More details on travelling in time and how to deal with players being...well, players in this. 

There is even a TARDIS controls diagram that reminds me of the 1980s Doctor Who Technical Manual which also works as a TARDIS character sheet.

--

These books are not required but certainly ad a LOT to your Doctor Who games. If your goal is to build a game that is more akin to what we used to do with the old FASA Doctor Who games, then these are the best places to start.

Review: Doctor Who Roleplaying Game 12th Doctor Hardcover Edition

A new cycle of regenerations, and we get a new Doctor! By now you know that means we get a new Doctor Who RPG book.  This time it is still a hardcover. Much like the Doctor himself, appearances have changed, but what matters on the inside has stayed the same. 

Doctor Who Roleplaying Game 12th Doctor Hardcover Edition

256 pages, full color.

A few things to note about this version of the game.

First, "Adventures in Time and Space" is gone from the title. That is fine; by this point people should know what Doctor Who is all about.

Secondly, this edition/variation is the same as the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space Limited Edition Hardcover Edition I discussed already.  So everything that is true for this is true here save that the artwork is predominantly from the Peter Capaldi era of the 12th Doctor.

The Characters in this one the 12th Doctor, Clara Oswald, Danny Pink, Madame Vastra, Jenny, Strax, Kate Stewart, Osgood, Saibra, Psi, Courtney Woods, Rigsby, Robin Hood, and Journey Blue.  No Bill Pots or Nardole however.  The extra characters come in at the expense of a page or two of ads. No loss.

The Chapter titles are different, but otherwise, this is the same book. 

I did not grab this as a hardcover, but I did get the PDF.

#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 5, Room 25

 Moving down the corridor, there is one last room on the left. Lawful (Good) Clerics (and Paladins if they are being used) can feel a growing aura of evil. Magic-users and witches can sense a growing aura of necromantic magics.

This room is different than the previous ones. There is no furniture, only metal panels with many flickering lights. Moving between these lights, going from panel to panel, is the ghost of an Ophidian.

This creature is a Greater Spectre. It has 8HD and attacks as soon as the characters enter.  

It can be turned as a Vampire.

--

This room is the computer core. The spectre is a high-ranking officer that died in this room. 

Review: Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space Limited Edition Hardcover Edition

The year is 2013 and the place is TNP (oops, sorry wrong RPG) Earth. Doctor Who is celebrating it's 50th anniversary and there is a big to do to be had. We see the 8th Doctor regenerate, not into the 9th Doctor, but the War Doctor. We see the final days of the Time War. We get to see ALL the Doctors (some via archival footage) come back to save Gallifrey. And we even get a special sneak peak at something that has not paid off till now, 10 years later.  In the RPG scene, Cubicle 7 releases a new Doctor Who RPG limited edition printing. This time it is a full-color hardcover rule book. 

Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space Limited Edition Hardcover Edition

Hardcover and PDF. 256 pages, full-color covers and art with color and black & white photographs.

For this review, I am considering my hardcover version and the PDF from DriveThruRPG.

Ok. I want to state outright that the rules in this game are really no different than the previous two boxed sets that I have covered. If you have either or both of those there is not a lot of new you will find here. That is ok. Let me explain why.

Prior to this volume, the rule books were focused mostly on the current Doctor. This is a trend that will continue on to and likely past the Second Edition of the game. This edition, while still using the BBC trade dress for Matt Smith's later (and last) seasons, brings in photos and imagery from all the past Doctors.  This makes this book feel more like a full Doctor Who game, something I have not felt since the FASA books. The content still favors the NuWho series but there is enough here and there to get a real feeling of depth and history. The character sheets are the same 11th Doctor format for example.

Secondly, and just as importantly, this is a hardcover book. It is sturdier than my 10th Doctor softcovers, but of course, no dice, no sheets, and no extras that you get with a boxed set. It does have a solid Basic vs. Advanced feel to it that I like, and one that is formalized for the Second Edition. 

Bigger on the Inside

As I mentioned, the rules here are not unchanged from the previous printings of this game, they are reorganized a bit. There are some edits and as expected things that happened in the series more recently are in the forefront here. 

The obvious strength to this new presentation of the rules is it combines what had been in the Players and Gamemasters sections into one. In the 10th and 11th Doctor's books the Gamemaster's Section repeated some information from the Player's sections. Here they have been integrated into a whole.

Chapter One: The Trip of a Lifetime

This is our introduction to the Doctor, RPGS, and this RPG in particular. Introductions on who the players are and the Gamemaster as well as how to use this book. There is also an example of play. 

Chapter Two: Travellers in the Fourth Dimension

This is our character creation chapter. Here we cover the types of characters that can be played. The assumption is still Time Lord + Human Companions, but other variations are also mentioned, like No Time Lord At All, UNIT Squad/Torchwood team, and others. 

We start with detailing the Attributes of the character, or the qualities of a character that are typically fixed. These are Awareness, Coordination, Ingenuity, Presence, Resolve, and Strength. Similar to the "Basic 6" of many RPGs.  All these are scored from 1 to 6 with 1 being the human minimum, 6 the human maximum, and 3 being the average. Time Lords and other aliens can go beyond these.  These are bought on a point-buy system.

Traits are the qualities of a character, good or ill. There are Minor Traits (Animal Friendship, Attractive), Major Traits (Boffin, Fast Healing), and Special Traits (Alien, Cyborg, Time Lord). Like Attributes, you spend Character Points to buy these. Some can be good or bad traits, and some can be Minor, Major or Special depending on how they are "bought" in character creation. "Friends" can be minor or major depending on the friend in question. "Hypnosis" can be minor, major or special depending on how powerful it is. 

Skills are also purchased with Points. There are only 12 skills, unlike modern D&D and more like Unisystem, skills can be combined with any attribute as appropriate. 

Chapter Three: I Walk in Eternity

This covers running the game and the basic rule(s).

            Attribute + Skill (+Trait) + 2d6 = Result; Compare the result to a Task Difficulty.

That is the guiding principle for the entire game and it works really, really well.  Your average Difficulty is 12 but it can be as low a 3 (super easy) or 30+ (near impossible). Contested rolls are introduced and the all-important Story Points (the little cardboard counters).

It gives us some details on the Task Difficulties; 3 for Really, Really Easy, 12 for Average, and 30 for Nearly Impossible. Additionally, there are thresholds if you roll above or below the set difficulty levels. So, for example, if you score 9 points above the roll needed, something special can happen, like extra damage or something.  Likewise, if you roll poorly, something bad can happen.

The rolls, much like in Unisystem, become easier with practice, and soon you won't need any guides at all. 

Contested rolls, rolls where your character is being prevented from success are also covered. The biggest example of this is combat.  Example situations are given and which skills can or should be used. This is a good way to rule these since Doctor Who is not really about combat. "Combat with words" is more important and can even stop physical combat. Though there are weapons detailed here and how deadly they are.

Chapter Four: A Big Ball of Timey-Wimey Stuff

While the first three chapters can apply to every game, the is the chapter that is quintessentially Doctor Who. This covers not just roleplaying, but roleplaying in Time Travel games. Here we get a lot of advice on how, well, to keep gamers from being gamers and avoiding paradoxes. 

We get some background on Time Lords and TARDISes. Not encyclopedic details mind you, but enough to keep players and gamemasters happy. This covers dealing with damage to Time Lords and regeneration. 

The section on TARDISes is updated, reflecting notions and ideas seen in the show at this point. 

Chapter Five: All the Strange, Strange Creatures

Here we get to all the aliens. While some are certainly foes to be fought (Daleks, Cybermen) there is a lot here that run the spectrum of friend to fiend.  Creatures use the same stats as characters. So it is expected that there are some "Alien Traits" here as well. These work just like Character Traits, but are typically not bought by characters. 

Plenty are covered here, but there is an emphasis on ones that have appeared more recently and ones that have appeared in both the new and classic series. So for example the entry on the Great Intelligence not only covers the "Servers" and eyeless men from the 11th Doctor, but also the Yeti from the 2nd Doctor. There are old and new Ice Warriors. We get the Master in both his John Simms and Anthony Ainley depictions. 

Old and new Autons. Silurians and the Sea Devils. It's not every monster or alien, but it is a good selection of "Greatest Hits." There is also enough information here to make your own. 

Plus it is one of the best places to see all the variations of Cybermen and Daleks all in one place. 

Chapter Six: Hold Tight and Pretend It's a Plan

This covers good roleplaying and how to play in a Doctor Who game. We also get tips on being a good Gamemaster here. 

Chapter Seven: The Song is Ending, But the Story Never Ends..!

This is our Gamemaster chapter. This includes where (and when) to set them and a basic 5-act adventure formula. Other tips and tricks covered are personal story arcs (think Donna or Clara), cliffhangers, two (or three) part stories, and more. 

In this version, we also get some Adventure Seed ideas. These are great since each one focuses on an earlier regeneration of the Doctor.

Appendix: Journal of Impossible Things

Character sheets. We get the 11th, 10th, and War Doctors. Clara, Amy, Rory, River, Rose, Sarah Jane, K-9, the Brigadier, and his daughter Kate.  There are also archetypes, UNIT Soldier, Scientist,  Rock Star, and Adventuring Archaeologist. A blank sheet, and a cheat sheet. 

There is also an index.

While rule-wise there is nothing "new" here this feels like a good solid revision and has been my "go-to" book for Doctor Who for some time now. 

If you are a classic Doctor Who fan and want to play the "new" RPG then this is a great place for you to start. This is true especially of anyone coming to this game from FASA Who. You will need to get some dice, but since the game uses 2d6 exclusively that is not too hard to do. 

#Dungeon23 Tomb of the Vampire Queen, Level 5, Room 24

Continuing on, there is another room on the left. This room appears to be another set of crew quarters.

Inside are two Spectres, former officers.

They cannot move more than 100 feet away from their bodies embedded in the bulkhead on the other side of the room's wall. 

The specters will not speak to the PCs and will attack as soon as they enter the room.  There is a closet with the bones of former victims. 

Due to their age and inability to leave this room, they have double the regular treasure (E x4 for two specters).