So the question is, what has changed with Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition? First and foremost, the core rules have not changed. Players are still rolling two six-sided dice and adding an Attribute and a Skill to beat a target number, and Story Points can be used to adjust the outcome. What this means is that all of the content and supplements—and there are more than a dozen of the latter—for Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space – The Roleplaying Game are compatible with Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition. Which is great because a lot of those supplements are very good. There is also an appendix at the back of the book so that the Game Master and her players can convert their NPCs and characters, respectively. The good news is that it does not take much effort. But what of the changes? Most notably, Traits have been removed. These defined what and who a character or an alien was and really, formed the building blocks for both. They have been replaced by Concept, Focus, Experiences, and Distinctions. Concept defines who or what a Player Character is, Focus is what motivates or drives him, and Distinctions are what sets him apart—really sets him apart. Then when it comes to skills, Fighting and Marksman have been merged into the one skill, Conflict, and the new skill of Intuition added.
Mechanically, a Player Character’s Focus works as both an advantage, providing a bonus die to an action, and a disadvantage, in which case the Player Character is awarded a Story point. Through play a Focus can be intensified meaning better bonuses as an advantage and more Story Point awards as a disadvantage, but they can be replaced and the Player Character instead have a Focus on something else. An Experience is primarily gained in play when a Player Character does something interesting or amazing. It is tied to an Experience Point award, but until cashed in to gain that Experience Point award, the Experience can be recalled to gain a bonus die, which increases the Experience Point award. Distinctions can be a species such as Sontaran or Silurian or even Time Lord, it can be an ability like Telepathy, Cybernetic, or Immortality. They are the equivalent of Special Traits from Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space – The Roleplaying Game and like Special Traits, they can have negative and positive effects during, but right from the start, they each reduce the number of Story Points a Player Character begins play with.
The biggest change here then is the loss of Traits. The use of Traits helped to define species and characters and creatures exactly, but the problem was that the roleplaying game was always in the need of more Traits as new creatures and species appeared which were not necessarily covered by existing ones. The use of Distinctions means that player and Game Master alike have a freer rein to define them and thus what is really important about a Player Character or NPC, rather than necessarily picking them off a list. It is more challenging though, but with practice and good judgement, the adjustment can be made. That said, a list of them would have been useful, as would suggestions for Concepts and Foci, as after all, there are tables to roll on the Background Experiences. Their inclusion would have least served as inspiration.
A Player Character in Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition has six Attributes—Awareness, Coordination, Ingenuity, Presence, Resolve, and Strength, and twelve skills—Athletics, Conflict, Convince, Craft, Intuition, Knowledge, Medicine, Science, Subterfuge, Technology, and Transport. Both Attributes and Skills are rated between one and six. He also has a Concept, a Focus, and Experiences. These are the last three where Player Character creation begins, defining these, and adding both a Personal Background Experience and a Shared Background Experience with another Player Character. The player then divides eighteen points between his character’s Attributes and another eighteen between skills. Lastly, the player defines two goals for the character, one short term, one long term.
Our sample character is Doreen ‘Dorrie’ Harper, a farmer’s daughter who wanted to become a veterinarian, but following the death of her mother had to stay at home and work the farm with her father. She yearns to do something more with her life, but she loves the animals and caring for them. Her opportunity came when her farm became the site of a series of crop circles and her father disappeared. That was when Dorrie met the Doctor and together they rescued him from an alien invasion force and she got to see more of the world than she ever imagined. She decided she wanted to see more and joined the Doctor in the TARDIS.
Doreen ‘Dorrie’ Harper
Concept: Farmer
Focus: Curious about the world
Personal Background Experience: My father disappeared
Shared Background Experience: The Doctor helped me rescue my father
Story Points: 12
Awareness 3 Coordination 3 Ingenuity 3
Presence 2 Resolve 4 Strength 3
Athletics 2 Conflict 0 Convince 1 Craft 3 Intuition 1 Knowledge 1
Medicine 3 (Animals) Science 1 Subterfuge 0 Technology 3 Transport 3
Mechanically, Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition uses the Vortex System. A player rolls two six-sided dice and adds an appropriate Attribute and a Skill. The aim is to roll equal to, or greater than, a Difficulty Level, for example, twelve for ‘Okay’, fifteen for ‘Tricky’, eighteen for ‘Hard’, and more. Rolls of one on either die indicate that an attempt has failed in some way, even partially, whilst rolls of six indicate that the attempt was not only successful, but a superior success too. If the result is a six on both dice, then that is even better, and a Player Character might even have succeeded if the roll was not actually high enough to do so. Story Points can be spent to increase the Success Level of the roll and extra dice can be added when a Focus comes into play or an Experience is recalled. Story Points can also be spent to gain a nudge along the storyline from the Game Master, to gain an Advantage on a roll, to active a Distinction, to heal injuries, to do something amazing, temporarily modify a Gadget which has its own Story Points, and even use a skill unskilled. They can be gained for being heroic, from a Player Character’s Flaw, and from other players, but can be lost from terrible actions, such as killing—which is, of course, out of character with the television series.
Famously, Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space – The Roleplaying Game has a strict initiative order—‘Talkers’, ‘Movers’, ‘Doers’, and ‘Fighters’. The Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition keeps this. Again, this is in keeping with the series, but it also allows the Player Characters to act before the Daleks open with their incredibly lethal Dalek Rays. Damage is determined by the Success Level of a skill roll, but a great number of the advanced weapons inflict lethal—as in, you are dead—damage. Damage can be physical, mental, and social, and is temporarily lost from the appropriate Attributes. If an Attribute is reduced to zero in the process, a Player Character gains a Condition, which works as a Disadvantage on related rolls. Of course, this being a Doctor Who roleplaying game, there are also rules for chases and gadgets, the latter including the Sonic Screwdriver and Vortex Manipulator. This is the design of gadgets, some of which can have their own Story Points.
Tonally though, the rules for combat do feel like an intrusion in Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition, almost as if the designers did not want to include them, but had to, because, well, they had to. It is not a case of their being a legacy of Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space – The Roleplaying Game, but their presence is actually necessary. Their purpose is not to get the Player Characters involved in combat, so much as highlight how dangerous, even lethal, it is. Of course, procedurally, the Player Characters are going to be talking first anyway, if not running away. That said, there will be campaigns where combat might be involved, for example, one revolving around UNIT, which is staffed by soldiers as well as scientists. Hence, “Chap with the wings, there. Five rounds rapid.”
Not only is the TARDIS described in detail, including the Chameleon Circuit, the Secondary Control Room, and the Pool Room, but so are other forms of time travel, such as Time Corridors and 79b Aickman Road. There are rules too, for the players to create their own TARDIS just like a Player Character with Concept, Focus, Attributes, Distinctions, and Story Points. Stats are given for the Thirteenth Doctor’s TARDIS, but the rules more lend themselves to a campaign with a Time Lord other than the Doctor, whether NPC or Player Character, and other Companions, whilst the discussion of other means of time travel suggest non-traditional campaigns of Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition without a Time Lord. Guidance for time travel and its hazards, including the dread paradoxes, is also given and discussed.
For the Game Master (or Game Missy which the book cheekily suggests as an alternative), there is advice from the start. This includes campaign framework, whether playing as the Doctor and her Companions (or another Doctor and his Companions), the Doctor and new Companions, UNIT Team/Time Agents and more. She does have though, a chapter all of her own, which explores her role and how best to fulfil it. The chapter covers preparation, improvisation, safety tools, developing a concept for her game, and including elements such as history lessons, culture shock, and defying genres. The advice here is to be careful with the history and to respect the cultures and their outlooks, but at the same it does point out that the Game Master is not necessarily going to get this right all of the time. The result is that although the advice is direct, it is not preaching to the reader, but rather accepting that the reader, as the Game Master, will do her best. This is as you would expect for a modern roleplaying game, especially one based on Doctor Who, with episodes for the Thirteenth Doctor such as Rosa and Demons of the Punjab. In addition, the new edition also examines storytelling elements which have come to the fore in more recent series—personal relationships and balancing the demands of work, family, partners versus the desire to travel in time and space. The potential here for roleplaying and storytelling is undeniably enhanced, enabling scenes and storylines which contrast the amazing and wonderful and dangerous journeys aboard the TARDIS with ordinary life and the Player Characters in both. All of which is supported by tables for creating adventures, events, and even a sample campaign outline.
‘A Brief History of Space and Time’, which explores the history of the Doctor Who universe, is given a chapter of its own. It is more than that, providing stats for the various monsters and different species as they appear for the first time in the history. Thus, the Empress of the Racnoss and two types of Silurian appear first, and the Tzim-Sha and Thijarian appear last. The Cybermen, Daleks, and Ice Warriors, as well as the Master, are included too, and there is a decent balance between the monsters of Classic Who and Nu-Who. It is more of a detailed overview than a complete history, and even so, it takes up a fifth of the book. The downside is that perhaps some monsters were included when others were not, and any Game Master hoping for a more expansive listing of the monsters and species that the Doctor has encountered over the years, will be disappointed. Rounding out the book is a set of Player Character sheets for the Thirteenth Doctor, Graham, Yaz, and Ryan.
If there is a single problem with Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition, it lies in the Distinctions. The clear aim of the new edition is streamline and ease play, to allow focus upon the narrative and the roleplaying without getting unnecessarily mired in mechanical detail. This is laudable, and to that end, it leaves details of exactly how certain elements, such as being a Time Lord, work within the game up to the Game Master and her players. For the experienced Game Master and player, this will not be a problem as their combined knowledge of Doctor Who and roleplaying will easily inform a decision. Not so the Game Master with less experience with roleplaying, who will not be as familiar with making agreements or deciding they work. As much as the new edition is streamlined for ease of play, the streamlining of this aspect does not help. Although the Player Characters are not all intended to be running around with Distinctions aplenty, some more examples and stronger advice would have helped.
Physically, Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition is very nicely presented. It is crisp and clean, engagingly illustrated with photographs from the series past and present. The tone is friendly and engaging, the writing capturing the style and energy of the Thirteenth Doctor as a fun way to introduce the setting and roleplaying game in its opening chapter.
There is always a certain sadness when the Doctor regenerates from one incarnation to the next, but also a sense of anticipation and renewal. So it is with the Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition, which loses certain elements, but reinvigorates itself with a slimmed down, more character and narrative-focused set of rules and advice for the Game Master that reflect the development of Doctor Who and its storytelling. And like Doctor Who, it does this whilst still looking back to sixty years of Doctor Who adventures and keeping an eye on the stories and content to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment