Category Archives: Roleplaying

Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor reading information from off of her sonic screwdriver

Player Throws The Switch

I’m going to talk about It Takes You Away, so in principle, the article contains spoilers if, for some reason, you haven’t watched it yet.

…

So, the Doctor, halfway through, goes into a detailed discussion about the Solitract. She explains that one of her seven grandmas used to tell her stories about it and expands on the genesis of the entity and the situation forced upon it.

As a plotline for a show, this might seems a little strange—it feels like the Doctor makes a bit of a leap in reaching the conclusion that the Solitract could be the source of this problem. However, there have been stranger leaps of faith before… (the combined belief of a planet reversing the aging process of a Timelord, anyone?)

What I found interesting, from the perspective of a Gamemaster, was that this recollection and exposition about the Solitract felt like a “Hang on, I have an idea!” Story Point expenditure in Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space. A big spend. It’s the sort of spend where you make a leap and maybe the player creates something that explains everything and turns the plotline on its head. It feels like maybe even the Gamemaster didn’t have an answer—or if they did, they weren’t committed to it so strongly that they’re unwilling to let the players change it.

On that level, it feels really organic and rather nice.

Cookie Dough

So, you have this mixture. Sweet and tasty, with a generous scattering of chocolate chips. You’re not committed to making small cookies, big cookies, or maybe something else—you just know you have something tasty. And then someone rolls up and suggests cookie dough ice cream or, heck, freeze the dough for another time because they’re got doughnuts fresh from the bakery.

That’s what this feels like… (sort of)

It’s the sort of game where the GM has the start and finish in mind, but hasn’t nailed everything down. A tasty dessert in mind—cookies; and everyone should come away happy.

The start is a spooky house in the woods with a girl inside scared of a monster and certain that it took her father away. The end is the girl and her father being reunited—nothing more than that; that’s the end game here, the reunion. The existence of a specific threat probably has crossed the GM’s mind, but not necessarily the specifics beyond a rough outline.

It could be cookies, but it doesn’t have to be… It could be a crafty alien merchant stealing people out of other dimensions to rob them and feed them to his local predator… Couldn’t it?

Indeed, Ribbon and the interstitial void with the moths feel like they could have been the answer for the disappearances, but later—once the player characters pass through the cave, find the other side and the Solitracts makes an appearance—the GM redefines the role of the void and Ribbon; it almost becomes an afterthought.

(It sort of feels that way in the show, like the writer needed something to sit between the two houses but wasn’t really solid on the idea of what and why.)

Hook. Close. Improvise the Rest.

Sort of. That’s a lot to ask.

Certainly, it works that way with convention games for me. I have a hook, a way to start the game; I also have some actors and a couple of encounters in mind. The rest… Well, we shall see what happens and figure it out on the fly.

It’s why I recommend reading, viewing and listening to more Who, because how the variables arrive and work within the confines of the story can be educational if you break it down.

You have to be comfortable with it—letting the players come up with something totally new and off the wall is a big ask—but, part of the deal should be that everyone contributes to the success of the story. Perhaps, next time, you will need to haggle or bargain the players down because you have an idea that’s really cool and you don’t want to lose it. That’s OK—it should be fun for you too, and that means some of the prep should find a conclusion.

But, if you keep the prep light and fluffy, willing to improvise, it won’t hurt so much when the players derail it all.

The Many

These ravenous aliens are composite monstrosities of mutated insect spliced with the most dangerous features of predators from across a dozen worlds. Massive in scale compared to the common insects of Earth to which they appear most closely related—the common locust—they have the capacity to survive flight through the void of space and on reaching their destination do nothing to restrain their hunger.

They may have a connection to Sutekh, which could explain their first appearance on Earth in Egypt, around 1334 BC. That they exist at all—and what’s more persist—suggests some form of natural or regenerating source, for their defeat by Nefertiti and The Doctor in this first appearance, has not curtailed later reports. In many instances, whole colonies and small worlds have been laid waste, drowned beneath the voracious cloud of The Many.

The sheer numbers make their arrival all too obvious to those on the lookout; they extinguish the light of the sun in their multitude and fill the air with a disturbing murmur that sets teeth on edge and nerves on fire. When they strike, the tools of destruction at their disposal make light work of those ill-prepared to defend themselves—they possess iron-hard teeth and claws, energy-emitting spikes crown their heads, and they spit a highly potent contact poison.

However, as they draw strength in numbers, so too do they find challenge in it—for they swarm with a singular purpose and their base craving can excite near mania. A wily defender might find means to distract them this way or even rig some means to exploit their drive to act as one to expel or eradicate them.

The Many: Destructive Horns, Poisonous Drool, Relentless Hunger, Swarm Mentality

Based on: Details around the disappearance of Nefertiti from The Women Who Lived and referenced in Dinosaurs on a Spaceship.

Hiatus

The news that the Doctor Who wasn’t going to be returning 2019 put a downer on the conclusion of last year’s series. Then again, now it would appear that we might yet get a taster of more Who from Jodie Whittaker and friends toward the end of the year (if not an actual festive episode).

For those who roleplay the adventures of The Doctor (or, at least, a Timelord of some shape or form) that doesn’t mean there’s a lack of inspiration. For one, I always seem to have one book or another from the excellent Cubicle 7 game nearby, wherever I go in my house (there are a lot of books lying around).

On the other hand, it doesn’t have to be RPG reading material necessarily. The Doctor has regular new adventures in fiction, the monthly Doctor Who magazine, on Big Finish audio and in new releases on Blu-Ray or DVD (OK, the last adventures might not be new, but if you’re running games for anyone under of the age of 25, most of the Classic Doctor’s voyages in time and space might as well be considered new material).

Make the most of it—there are very few veins of fictional material so rich in potential background (beyond Star Trek and Star Wars, which themselves have hundreds—if not thousands—of media tie-ins across books, screen, comics, audio and computer games). Take notes—spend what time you can watch or listening to more Who.

Someone asked me how you write an adventure—and there’s probably some science to it if you want to get published. However, for a home campaign, you can be sketchy as heck. Watch a TV procedural drama and make notes of the clues and the scenes—and then make it a bit sci-fi… and throw in an unexpected twist. I mean, if you take the average detective series and replace the murderer with an alien, is it too far off what you need for an evening’s entertainment?

Tune in to any number of other series on TV or online, and you’re certain to find inspiration. I had an idea for an adventure in northern England that involved the Zygons after watching a historical programme about Roman occupation and rituals practiced in honour of their gods. A little reading on Wikipedia, a quick spin in StreetView and a spot of Image searching for ideas found a whole pile of additional twists and turns, including some handy derelict railway tunnels.

Never let the Doctor fade away when you have a glimmer of creative possibility to mine! You can fill the void with your own adventures and keep the flame of Gallifrey burning bright while we wait for 2020 to roll around and more new Who…