The Twelfth Doctor

Every regeneration ushers in a new era, but the Twelfth Doctor ushers in one of uncertainty and reflection, a last era for the Doctor as he reaches the last of the twelve regenerations that every Time Lord has. Of course, he would be granted more beyond the dozen, but for this incarnation, the Doctor, initially unsure as to who he was, proved himself to be irascible and grumpy, unhappy with the state of the universe, and full of regrets about his failures. If the Eleventh Doctor looked back to the Second Doctor, the Twelfth Doctor looked back to the First Doctor, for he was more prickly grandfather than likeable uncle. This connection would culminate in ‘Twice Upon a Time’, the last episode for the Twelfth Doctor, in which he encounters the First Doctor at the South Pole as both are faced with their regeneration, but refuse to let it happen. The Twelfth Doctor could be funny and joyful, passionate and empathetic, but was always fierce, fearless, and gruff. This would change over time as he softened, but there were still regrets to be addressed and made, perhaps the greatest and most challenging of these being his failure to reform his oldest enemy and best friend, the Master. Sadly, he never would, for his old adversary cannot change his true nature, but in Missy, the most mischievous and malicious of the Master’s incarnations, there was hope. There are regrets of his own as well as the past, often due to his austere demeanour, self-importance, and sometimes dismissive attitude towards those he regarded as beneath him. Too often his companions would suffer for his nature, in turn, Clara Oswald, Danny Pink, and Bill Potts, all either dying or being lost as a result of their adventures with the Twelfth Doctor. Yet the reflections also meant the Doctor would encounter monsters old—Daleks, Cybermen, Zygons, and Ice Warriors—as well as new, whilst his desire to explore would send him and his companions on perhaps his most fantastic adventures yet!

The Twelfth Doctor Sourcebook is part of Cubicle Seven Entertainment’s celebration of Doctor Who’s fiftieth anniversary—celebrated itself with the special episode, ‘The Day of the Doctor’—for the Ennie-award winning Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game. It returns the series to its shorter page count, after the lengthier sourcebooks devoted to the Tenth Doctor and Eleventh Doctor, but actually reduces the number of chapters down to three, consisting of just ‘The Twelfth Doctor And Companions’, ‘Playing in the Twelfth Doctor’s Era’, and ‘The Twelfth Doctor’s Adventures’. What is missing here in comparison to previous sourcebooks is ‘The Twelfth Doctor’s Enemies’ chapter, its absence really pointing to the fact that the Twelfth Doctor’s enemies are not as memorable as those of previous incarnations of the Doctor. In fact, The Twelfth Doctor Sourcebook really treats what would be the most notable of the Twelfth Doctor’s enemies—Missy and Ashildar (Me)—as companions rather than enemies and even notes that there is a deceitfulness to Clara Oswald that the Doctor distrusts. Not since Turlough who travelled with the Fifth Doctor has there been companions that the Doctor cannot wholly trust or being himself to trust. Stats are provided for both the Twelfth Doctor and all of his companions, but like those in the rest of the sourcebook, they are written for use with the first edition of Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game, rather than the second. (That said, adapting them is relatively easy.)

In terms of themes, it presents and examines concepts such as ‘What’s Old is New Again’, ‘Hard Decisions’, ‘Places to See, People to Annoy’ all backed up with suggestions as to how they might be used. As already mentioned, the Twelfth Doctor would meet many of his old foes, but ‘What’s Old is New Again’ means that when he does, they are often radically different. Most notably, Missy rather than the Master, but also a Dalek who hates other Daleks and Zygons who can be persuaded to integrate into Earth society rather than conquer the planet. Similarly, he visits places that ‘Familiar, but Strange’, such as the Orient Express, but in space with a Mummy! The era of the Twelfth Doctor is one of ‘Hard Decisions’, sometimes having to decide who has to die and who has to live, and for how long, often because it up to the Doctor to make them because no-one else is coming to save the day. ‘Places to See, People to Annoy’ examines some of the motifs of the incarnation such as a love of deserted places and locations, though often these hide dark secrets, and perhaps because the Doctor has seen so much and cannot decide where to go, actually setting the TARDIS controls to random, so that nobody knows where they might end up. However, since the TARDIS has telepathic circuits, it can pick up on subconscious desires, and so The Twelfth Doctor Sourcebook suggests that the players and their characters might take it in turns to suggest a destination, adding a collaborative element to play. It also examines the more fantastical nature of the Twelfth Doctor’s stories, typified by ‘Robot of Sherwood’, ‘Kill the Moon’, and ‘In the Forest of the Night’, noting that ultimately a more Science Fictional explanation will prevail.

There is advice for the Game Master too, on different campaign frameworks, such as the companions being left behind when the Doctor runs off an adventure of his own, leaving them to try and cope with a situation where they have to do his job, or more extreme, running a campaign without a Time Lord, with the Player Characters being on equal footing. This is an option that the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game has considered before, but never before has it been brought to fore as in the era of the Twelfth Doctor where he is not always present and his Companions have to emulate him as best that they can. Later, the relationship between the Doctor and Bill Potts lends itself to a campaign where the relationship between Time Lord and companion is that of teacher and student, with each new adventure becoming a learning opportunity, which again is another nod in this era and The Twelfth Doctor Sourcebook between the First Doctor and his companions. Penultimately, the supplement examines the relation between the Doctor and UNIT, standoffish at best, as is that of his relationship with Gallifrey which he engineered the return of, but has also left it to its own devices, with no real government or direction, suggesting that perhaps another Time Lord might need to get involved depending upon how its politics or lack of them play out. Lastly, The Twelfth Doctor Sourcebook details several of the gadgets and associated traits that appear in the era, most notably the Sonic Sunglasses.

The third and final chapter in The Twelfth Doctor Sourcebook is, as with the previous entries in the series, its longest. Again, it takes up some four fifths of the book, detailing all thirty-four of the Twelfth Doctor’s stories, from ‘Deep Breath’ to ‘Twice Upon a Time’. The format is simplified with the removal of the ‘Changing The Desktop Theme’ section—a reference to the changed look of the TARDIS interior after some thirty or so years—which suggested ways in which the story might be reskinned with another threat or enemy, and the like. Instead, all open with a synopsis, including notes on continuity—backwards and forwards to stories past and future, followed by advice on ‘Running the Adventure’. This includes ‘Further Adventures’ that the Game Master can develop enabling the players and their characters to visit its themes and setting.

Thus, for the episode, ‘Mummy on the Orient Express’, the synopsis describes how the Doctor offers Clara one last trip in the TARDIS, this time somewhere special. Once aboard the Orient Express, they discover that a Mummy is killing the passengers, but is actually a cover, not once, but twice. One for ‘The Foretold’, a deadly mythical creature, and one for the whole of train, which it turns out is a travelling laboratory on the train. ‘Continuity’ notes that premium travel in the future looks like premium travel from the past such as ‘Voyage of the Damned’ for the Tenth Doctor, how the Twelfth Doctor is dispensing Jelly Babies in a silver cigarette case, and how he offers Perkins, the engineer aboard the Orient Express, a job as ‘his engineer’! In terms of ‘Running the Adventure’, it suggests that the Orient Express is background and it can be set anywhere and that given that ‘The Foretold’ is an unstoppable killing machine, so the Game Master needs to be careful to have it kill the Player Characters (unless it really matters), and instead kill the NPCs they form attachments to. ‘Further Adventures’ suggests ways in which its elements can be further explored. For example, they could discover the site where ‘The Foretold’ are created and one of the companions is converted and has to be rescued, or the Player Characters suddenly find themselves aboard the Orient Express and have to work out how. There are no stats for ‘The Foretold’, but there are for Perkins.

The Twelfth Doctor Sourcebook adheres to this format throughout, for all of its thirty-four episodes and specials. The write-ups are lengthy, and in the process the Game Master is given detailed background and advice on running an array of great episodes, including ‘Dark Water/Death in Heaven’ which sees the return of Missy, and ‘The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion’ in which a new conflict with the Zygons is being fomented.

Physically, The Twelfth Doctor Sourcebook is well presented in what is very much a tried and tested format. The supplement is richly illustrated with lots of photographs from the series and decently written, all backed up with a good index.

The Twelfth Doctor brought a fractious relationship between the Doctor and his Companions as well as a sense of the fantastic to ‘Nu Who’ and The Twelfth Doctor Sourcebook enables the Game Master to bring these to her campaign for the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game. There are some excellent suggestions as to how these and other themes can be used, as well as adventure hooks throughout the supplement to support the Game Master. That said, the nature of the relationship between the Doctor and his Companions is harder to run than the average Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game, since it brings in elements of mistrust and potentially challenging roleplaying into play. Ultimately, The Twelfth Doctor Sourcebook is a sound guide to the era of the Twelfth Doctor that captures its prickliness, its regrets, and its empathy in bringing the Doctor Who generation sourcebooks to a close.

The Eleventh Doctor

As with previous regenerations of ‘Nu-Who’, the Eleventh Doctor arrives with a bang! Building on the foundations laid down by his predecessors, the Eleventh Doctor continues his adventures throughout time and space, but in a great many ways, charts whole directions for the Time Lord. He is young, full of energy, ready to leap into action, especially when there is a mystery or a puzzle to be solved. And there are a great many mysteries and puzzles to be solved during his incarnation—who is River Song? Who is Clara? Who wants to imprison him and why? Who wants him dead and why? Yet his soul is old, at times weary of the things he has seen and done, of the number of times he has saved the universe, though not afraid to wield the reputation he has gained in doing so when confronting evil and bureaucracy. In his darker moments, he may even use force to resolve problems… Like all of the Doctors, he has his companions, but for the Eleventh Doctor, they are not only very special, but they are also family. None more so than Amy Pond, who the Doctor promised would take her with him when she is seven years old. Together with her partner, Rory, they will journey in the TARDIS far and wide, and when they are at home on Earth, the Doctor will make regular visits such that there is always room for Doctor and the TARDIS in their house. Then there is Clara Oswald, her curiosity about the universe as big as the Doctor’s about who she is. Amy, Rory, and Clara are not the only companions to join the Eleventh Doctor in his TARDIS, or indeed have adventures with him, but they are the most consistent and they have the biggest effect upon his incarnation. However, before the final mystery of ‘Doctor who?’ is revealed at Trenzalore, there is a look back with ‘The Day of the Doctor’ to not only the previous incarnation of the Tenth Doctor, but also an incarnation that they had all forgotten existed—and since the Ninth Doctor—whose actions they had all been running from. In the meantime, the ‘Magic Doctor’ has arrived and “The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall.”

The Eleventh Doctor Sourcebook is part of Cubicle Seven Entertainment’s celebration of Doctor Who’s fiftieth anniversary—celebrated itself with the special episode, ‘The Day of the Doctor’—for the Ennie-award winning Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game. As lengthy as the sourcebook devoted to the Tenth Doctor, it follows the same format of the previous ten entries in the series. Unlike The Tenth Doctor Sourcebook, it is only divided into four chapters rather than five, since it does not have to address the existence and nature of Torchwood. The four chapters are ‘The Eleventh Doctor And Companions’, ‘Playing in the Eleventh Doctor’s Era’, ‘The Eleventh Doctor’s Enemies’, and ‘The Eleventh Doctor’s Adventures’. The first chapter, ‘The Eleventh Doctor And Companions’, first looks at the character of the Doctor and then each of his Companions. Some of those included are whom you would expect—Amy Pond and her partner, Rory Williams, Clara Oswald, and River Song. Others are less expected, such as the members of the Paternoster Gang, Brian Williams—father of Rory. The inclusion of Sexy (or Idris)—from the episode, ‘The Doctor’s Wife’—makes sense, whilst Henry Avery from ‘The Curse Of The Black Spot’ less so. One interesting inclusion here is of the ‘War Doctor’, the incarnation of the Doctor between the Eighth Doctor and the Ninth Doctor. This makes sense in that he appears in the episode, ‘The Day of the Doctor’. Full stats are provided for all of these characters, though the War Doctor might warrant a higher Fighting skill than other generations of Doctors.

In terms of themes, it presents and examines concepts such as ‘Fairy Tales’, ‘Seeing is Powerful’, and ‘Switching Time Zones’ all backed up with suggestions as to how they might be used. The fairy tale quality of the Eleventh Doctor’s stories consist of making them dark and mysterious, adding a dash of magic, and relying upon solutions and outcomes that come from childlike qualities and faith, rather than maturity or science. The senses prove to be a boon and a bane, the infamous Weeping Angels—introduced during the incarnation of the Tenth Doctor—can only be curtailed by staring at them and not blinking, whilst the senses need to be adjusted to see The Silents. ‘Switching Time Zones’ emphasises time travel, often with the Doctor and his companions starting an adventure in one time zone and jumping to another in order to solve a problem or mystery. Numerous characters, including the Doctor and Amy meet alternate versions of themselves and messages pass back and forth across time between the characters, whether that is River Song leaving messages for the Doctor or the Ponds seeing the Doctor turn up in history books. The family feel that runs through this generation sees the Eleventh Doctor visiting the Ponds at home where they have a life away from the TARDIS, as does Clara Oswald, and of course, not only Amy and Rory, but also the Doctor and River Song, get married.

In terms of campaigns, The Eleventh Doctor Sourcebook gives good advice on handling secrets in a game. Whether or not to use them, have them open or closed, and whether or not to have the Game Master maintain secrets about a character without his player knowing. The advice, if including them, is to use them to involve the Player Characters in plotlines and to increase the pressure on all involved, whether they are trying to keep a secret or reveal a secret. There is more advice on building arcs, this time character arcs, rather than the story arcs of The Tenth Doctor Sourcebook. It is longer and better developed here than in the previous supplement. How time works and is played with during the Eleventh Doctor’s era is also different, with the Doctor often bending the laws of time and having it rebound on him, in an attempt to solve the conundrums he faced. There are suggestions on how to utilise foresight—for example, River Song’s TARDIS-themed notebook—can be handled, including ignoring or negating its possibility, to gain some insight from the future and benefit from it for the cost of a Story Point, and foreshadowing or asking a question about the future, again at the cost of a Story Point. None of these should be overused, of course. There is similar advice on having multiple versions of the same character in play at the same time, and the section comes to close with character options. This includes using Regeneration Energy, primarily to heal physical trauma, including right up to bringing someone from the brink of death, as River Song did for the Doctor, at the cost of her future Regenerations. New Traits range from ‘Another Lifetime’, ‘Caregiver’, and ‘Death Habit’ to ‘Scion of Gallifrey’, ‘Talk to Everything’, and ‘True Connection’, as well as New Gadget Traits like ‘Zap’ and new gadgets such as ‘Infrared Sunglasses’ and ‘Superphone’. All of these traits are for the first edition of Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game, rather than Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition, where such traits are not used.

Monsters for the Eleventh Doctor see the return of old foes, often in new forms, along with the new. One of the most notable returning monsters is the Great Intelligence, not come to the Earth since its encounters with the Second Doctor. Whether it is The Church of the 51st century, and Madame Kovarian and her sect within it, and The Silents, originally genetically engineered to collect confessions, but have so much grown beyond that; the new controlling intelligence for the Cybermen, the Cyberiad; or the resurgence of The New Dalek Paradigm; all of the Eleventh Doctor’s foes are given meaty write ups. These include complete stats and adventure hooks too. Of course, they are not the only threats faced by the Eleventh Doctor, but they are the major ones.

The fourth and final chapter in The Eleventh Doctor Sourcebook is, as with the previous entries in the series, its longest. Again, it takes up some four fifths of the book, adding greatly to its length. ‘The Eleventh Doctor’s Adventures’ details all forty-four of the Eleventh Doctor’s stories, from ‘The Eleventh Hour’ to ‘The Time of the Doctor’. The format is simplified with the removal of the ‘Changing The Desktop Theme’ section—a reference to the changed look of the TARDIS interior after some thirty or so years—which suggested ways in which the story might be reskinned with another threat or enemy, and the like. Instead, all open with a synopsis, including notes on continuity—backwards and forwards to stories past and future, followed by advice on ‘Running the Adventure’. Rounding out the writeups are full details of the monsters and NPCs appearing in the episode. Thus, for the episode, ‘Victory of the Daleks, the synopsis describes how the Doctor and Amy arrive late in London at the height of the Blitz in response to a call for help from Winston Churchill, who unveils his new secret weapon, the Ironside Project. These are, of course, Daleks painted khaki and offering cups of tea! The Doctor confronts them and after they confirm his identity, he leaps into the TARDIS and materialises on their saucer ship behind the Moon. The Daleks reveal that they have the means to rebuild their race following their defeat in the Time War and the Doctor’s confirmation of who they are was the means to activate it. Despite the Doctor’s ruse to defeat the new Daleks with just a jammy dodger biscuit—its big gooey centre obviously a bright red button for something!—the New Dalek Paradigm is rolled out and they attempt to blackmail him. London will be destroyed if he does not leave. Using the technology given to the British by the Daleks, Churchill orders an attack on the Dalek saucer ship to stop the threat to London, but the Daleks escalate their threat to one against the whole world and the Doctor calls off the attack. Of course, the Daleks being the Daleks, trigger that threat anyway and by the time it has been neutralised, the New Dalek Paradigm has escaped.

The ‘Continuity’ lists links between the episode and ‘The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End’ episodes for the Tenth Doctor, that the Daleks can again identify the Doctor no matter his regeneration, that the Daleks escape via a time corridor, a technology they have used before, and more. Plus, they will appear again for the episode, ‘Asylum of the Daleks’, the first appearance of Oswin Oswald/Clara Oswin Oswald/Clara Oswald. The ’Running the Adventure’ section highlights how this episode is a trap, beginning with a threat that only the Doctor can see because no-one else has encountered the Daleks before. In calling out the trap, the Daleks get what they want and ultimately, defeat the Doctor here, because as the supplement points out, they get to regenerate—just as the Doctor does—and then escape! In between the springing of the trap and the escape, which sets up more stories for later on, there is plenty of action and bangs and pops. The advice suggests how traps can be used in a campaign, tying them to the Player Characters’ Bad Traits, and how to present impossible situations and difficult choices—being all alone against an army of Daleks and having to choose between eradicating the Daleks or destroying the Earth. Stats are included for Churchill and Professor Edwin Bracewell, the Spitfires modified for space combat, their pilots represented by Danny Boy, and the Progenitor Device containing the pure Dalek DNA.

The Eleventh Doctor Sourcebook adheres to this format throughout, for all of its forty-four episodes and specials. The write-ups are lengthy, and in the process the Game Master is given detailed background and advice on running an array of great episodes, including the return of River Song and the Weeping Angels in ‘The Time Of Angels/Flesh And Stone’, the sad, yet joyous ‘Vincent And The Doctor’, the mystery of ‘The Lodger’ with complete stats and write-up for 79B Aickman Road, the revelations of ‘The Doctor’s Wife’ and ‘Let’s Kill Hitler’, the ultimate sadness of ‘The Angels Take Manhattan’, all the way to the great celebration in ‘The Day Of The Doctor’ and the ending that the Doctor never wanted to face in ‘The Time Of The Doctor’. There are certainly too many stories to choose from in terms of good stories when it comes to the Eleventh Doctor and certainly one of the features throughout many of them are the long running threads, whether that is the connection between the Doctor, Amy Pond, and River Song, the plot to kill the Doctor, and the secret of who Clara Oswald is, the groundwork for which is laid before the Ponds have left the TARDIS forever. This adds both sophistication and complexity in terms of storytelling, but also richness, and in providing the episode synopsis, a lot for the book to keep track of in terms of continuity. Thankfully, The Eleventh Doctor Sourcebook manages this.

Physically, The Eleventh Doctor Sourcebook is well presented in what is very much a tried and tested format. The supplement is richly illustrated with lots of photographs from the series and decently written, all backed up with a good index.

The Eleventh Doctor brought family, big secrets and mysteries, and long running plots like never before to ‘Nu Who’ and The Eleventh Doctor Sourcebook enables the Game Master to bring these to her campaign for the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game. This also brings complexity and sophistication, and in the process more challenge for the Game Master, but there is good advice and adventure hooks throughout the supplement to help and support the Game Master. The Eleventh Doctor Sourcebook is an excellent guide to the era of the Eleventh Doctor and how to bring its energy and mystery to a Game Master’s campaign.

Screen Shot XIV

How do you like your GM Screen?

The GM Screen is a essentially a reference sheet, comprised of several card sheets that fold out and can be stood up to serve another purpose, that is, to hide the GM's notes and dice rolls. On the inside, the side facing the GM are listed all of the tables that the GM might want or need at a glance without the need to have to leaf quickly through the core rulebook. On the outside, facing the players, can be found either more tables for their benefit or representative artwork for the game itself. This is both the basic function and the basic format of the screen, neither of which has changed all that much over the years. Beyond the basic format, much has changed though.

To begin with the general format has split, between portrait and landscape formats. The result of the landscape format is a lower screen, and if not a sturdier screen, than at least one that is less prone to being knocked over. Another change has been in the weight of card used to construct the screen. Exile Studios pioneered a new sturdier and durable screen when its printers took two covers from the Hollow Earth Expedition core rule book and literally turned them into the game’s screen. This marked a change from the earlier and flimsier screens that had been done in too light a cardstock, and several publishers have followed suit.

Once you have decided upon your screen format, the next question is what you have put with it. Do you include a poster or poster map, such as Chaosium, Inc.’s last screen for Call of Cthulhu, Sixth Edition or Margaret Weis Productions’ Serenity and BattleStar Galactica Roleplaying Games? Or a reference work like that included with Chessex Games’ Sholari Reference Pack for SkyRealms of Jorune or the GM Resource Book for Pelgrane Press’ Trail of Cthulhu? Perhaps scenarios such as ‘Blackwater Creek’ and ‘Missed Dues’ from the Call of Cthulhu Keeper Screen for use with Call of Cthulhu, Seventh Edition? Or even better, a book of background and scenarios as well as the screen, maps, and forms, like that of the RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack also published by Chaosium, Inc. In the past, the heavier and sturdier the screen, the more likely it is that the screen will be sold unaccompanied, such as those published by Cubicle Seven Entertainment for the Starblazer Adventures: The Rock & Roll Space Opera Adventure Game and Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space RPG. That though is no longer the case and stronger and sturdier GM Screens are the norm today.

So how do I like my GM Screen?

I like my Screen to come with something. Not a poster or poster map, but a scenario, which is one reason why I like ‘Descent into Darkness’ from the Game Master’s Screen and Adventure for Legends of the Five Rings Fourth Edition and ‘A Bann Too Many’, the scenario that comes in the Dragon Age Game Master's Kit for Green Ronin Publishing’s Dragon Age – Dark Fantasy Roleplaying Set 1: For Characters Level 1 to 5. I also like my screen to come with some reference material, something that adds to the game. Which is why I am fond of both the Sholari Reference Pack for SkyRealms of Jorune as well as the RuneQuest Gamemaster Screen Pack. It is also why I like the The Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game Second Edition, Gamemaster’s Screen published by Cubicle 7 Entertainment for use with The Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game Second Edition, the roleplaying game based on the world’s longest Science Fiction and adventure series made by the BBC.

The Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game Second Edition, Gamemaster’s Screen comes with a three-panel screen and a ‘Gamemaster’s Guide’ for use with Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition. The three-panel screen is in landscape format and boasts a handsome collage on the front, player-facing side of the screen, the eight—bar the most recent Doctor, the Fifteenth Doctor—most recent Doctors, including the last of Doctor of Classic Who, the Eighth Doctor, last to appear in The Night of the Doctor, and also the War Doctor and the Fugitive Doctor, all bookended by flying Daleks! On the back, or inside of the screen there are various tables taken for the rules to help the Game Master run her game. The left-hand panel covers journeys and adventures with ‘Adventures on the Fly!’ enabling the Game Master to create encounters on the go, whilst the ‘Random Journeys’, ‘Vortex Hazards’, and ‘System Damage’ tables all throw the Player Characters—the Time Lord and his Companions—into the dangers of travelling the Vortex through time. At the top of the middle panel is the ‘Chase Tracker’, for which the Game Master will need to provide some clips to keep track of where the chased the chasers are relatively to each other, plus the ‘Difficulty Levels’ and ‘Success Levels’ tables for handling skills. This is the right place to have them as they probably going to be the most used tables in the game. There are also tables for ‘Improving Your Character’ and ‘Technology Levels’. The right-hand panel is devoted to combat, including the ‘Weapon Damage Table’, ‘Where Does It Hurt?’, ‘Armour’, ‘Cover’, and also ‘Conditions’. Necessary, of course, but also to some extent not as important, as The Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game Second Edition is very much a roleplaying game—as in the television series it is based upon—in which violence is always the last answer to any situation.

To be fair, Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition is not a mechanically complex game and tends to be fast-playing and light in its play. So, in some ways, not all of the tables on The Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition, Gamemaster’s Screen are going to be useful, or at least, constantly useful. Certainly, the ‘Improving Your Character’ is not going to be used very often, and similarly, the combat tables on the right-hand panel are not going to be used regularly. This does not mean that they are not useful tables, but rather that they useful to have when the Game master needs them, rather than needing them all of the time. However, one issue is that the none of the tables have page references to their relevant rules and use in the core rulebook. This is an annoying omission. Otherwise, a solid, sturdy screen with all of the tables that the Game Master is going to need.

The ‘Gamemaster’s Guide’ is a short three-guide to being a Gamemaster for Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition. It opens with ‘What Makes a Doctor Who adventure?’. This is a guide to creating adventures and examining the elements typical to a Doctor Who adventure. This includes their episodic nature, the variety of genres from light-hearted romps to dark horror stories and much in between, iconic monsters, and so on. Some of the fundamentals of a Doctor Who episode includes a sense of wonder at the universe, confusion and understanding upon arrival in the TARDIS at any location, multiple factions, the looming threat, and more. It is a solid overview, though ripe for expansion on any one of its various pointers were Cubicle 7 Entertainment to publish a companion volume for the Game Master.

What ‘What Makes a Doctor Who adventure?’ does nicely complement is the ‘Random Adventure Generator’ that follows, which would also work well with the content and tables to be found in Doctor Who: Adventures in Space. Essentially, the set of tables here are designed to inspire the Game Master or help her create a setting, a threat and plot, and an adversary. Beginning with the ‘Setting Table’, the Game Master determines if the adventure is set on Earth, in Space, both, or somewhere special. Subsequent tables expand on each of these options, whilst the ‘Threat/Plot Table’ suggests themes such as Invasion, Societal Disaster, and Caper. The ‘Old Adversary Table’ lists lots of classics, such as Cybermen, Daleks, Sea Devils, Weeping Angels, and more, whilst the there is a set of tables for creating new aliens. It is all very useful and the Game Master can quickly create lots of adventure ideas and elements that she can thread together into something that she can run for her group.

‘Adventure Hooks’ includes four fun adventure hooks, the first of which, ‘Swine and the Rani’, is not only a great play on words, but also developed from the example worked through at the end of the ‘Random Adventure Generator’. The Rani is a fun villainess and here she is in the Classical Greek era up to no good. It opens with the Player Characters landing on a Greek ship in a storm and getting shipwrecked on an island guarded by pig-faced men who serve the Rani in her classical Greek temple which happens to be bigger on the inside. If ‘Swine and the Rani’ feels a little like H. G. Wells’ The Island of Doctor Moreau, then ‘Capture and Release’ feels a bit like The Time Machine with the Eloi and the Morlocks. However, it nicely subverts that relationship and the plot has a very pleasing twist to it. In ‘The Visitors’, the Player Characters get to runaround early sixties London, get caught up in pop mania, and chase down some nasty aliens—including a creepy man in a bowler hat and some popstars! Lastly, in ‘It Takes a Village’, the Player Characters arrive at a seventeenth century tavern to discover the locals discussing the very latest in galactic events! It is a great set-up and dies involve a witchfinder, but the epilogue does leave the Game Master without any suggestions as to how to resolve it, which is disappointing. All four scenario hooks are good and though some require a little more development than others, it is not difficult to imagine them being portrayed on screen.

Physically, The Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition, Gamemaster’s Screen is well presented. The screen itself is sturdy and easy to use, whilst the ‘Gamemaster’s Guide’ is clean and tidy and easy to read. If there is an issue, it is that the Game Master will need a bag in which to store its various parts and not lose them!

The Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition, Gamemaster’s Screen is useful, but not necessarily all of it and not necessarily all of the time. Primarily this is due to the fact that the roleplaying game demphasises combat, so those tables are not always going to be needed. This does not mean that they not useful, just useful when needed. The advice in the ‘Gamemaster’s Guide’ is broad, but nevertheless, also useful, whilst the ‘Random Adventure Generator’ is a very handy tool, and of course, adventure hooks are always useful, and the four adventures in the ‘Gamemaster’s Guide’ are fun. Overall, The Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition, Gamemaster’s Screen is a useful access for Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition.

Spatial Situations

Doctor Who: Adventures in Space is a supplement for the Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition published by Cubicle 7 Entertainment. Doctor Who is all about ‘Adventures in Time and Space’ and as the title suggests, Doctor Who: Adventures in Space, is all about the ‘Space’ of Adventures in Time and Space’. This is a guide to the new worlds, new life, and the ways to get there and what might found there once the travellers do, along with the rules to create all four for the Game Master (or Game Missy) creating his or her own content. That is not all though, for Doctor Who: Adventures in Space includes a traveller’s guide to some of the most interesting planets that the Doctor has visited in the course of thirteen generations, drawn from both Classic Who and NuWho, and all given the same attention to detail. Lastly, there is a complete adventure which is easy to drop into an easy into an ongoing campaign. As with other supplements for Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition, this one is compatible with the first edition, Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space – The Roleplaying Game.

Doctor Who: Adventures in Space begins with a discussion of the whys and wherefores of the Doctor’s travels in time and space, looking at some of the types of stories that have been told in Doctor Who on various types of planets. There is the satire on pollution and traffic congestion on New earth in Gridlock, the fears of joining a Galactic Federation in The Curse of Peladon at a time when Britain was joining the European Common Market, and of bureaucracy and taxation in The Sun Makers. The Doctor is often cast as rebel such as in The Happiness Patrol against a totalitarian regime or a solver of mysteries as in The Ark in Space, the very pointedly titled, Mummy on the Orient Express, or Earth that is actually not Earth, as in The Android Invasion. What is being suggested here is that Game Master look to the real world for themes, they are contemporary or not, but another source of inspiration is fiction. Examples given include The Brain of Morbius and Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein and Paradise Towers and J.G. Ballard’s High Rise. Planets are not the only places to adventure, of course, Doctor Who: Adventures in Space providing a briefer look at space as a location before providing an overview of humanity’s ventures into space from the British Army on Mars in 1881 in Empress of Mars all way to the end of the Earth in The End of the World. Overall, the advice is solid rather than spectacular, along with a good set of pointers and episodes to take inspirations from as classics of their various types.

In terms of new mechanics, Doctor Who: Adventures in Space begins with spaceships. Spaceship design is matter of deciding a concept and focus, and then assigning Attributes and Distinctions—much like Player Character generation. Concept and focus, such as a scout, freighter, command, or ark, will influence the choice of Attributes and Distinctions. Particular ship types favour particular Attributes, like Co-ordination for a scout or racing ship, Presence for luxury liner and command ship. When operating a spaceship, any roll will a combination of the ship’s Attribute and the character’s Skill. Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition is a not a roleplaying game which focuses on combat, favouring ‘Talkers’ followed by ‘Movers’ and ‘Doers’ before it gets to ‘Fighters’. This applies space combat as much as it does personal combat. Distinctions, such as Advanced Sensors or having a Fate, all reduce the spaceship’s own pool of Story Points, whilst the Game Master answers questions such as “Who built the ship?”, “Are there any other ships like it?”, and so on, as finishing touches. The ‘Spaceship Recognition Guide’ in gives the details of various vessels from Doctor Who, including the Cyberships of the Cybermen, the Saucers of the Daleks, a Judoon Enforcer, Sontaran Scout Spheres, and more, all the way up to Ark Ships and Space Stations.

Doctor Who: Adventures in Space then does the same for worlds, starting with a concept and focus, and then assigning an Attribute and Distinctions. The options for focus—meeting place, battlefield, contested ground, place of beauty, and more—provide interesting starting points, and unlike spaceships or alien races, they only have the one attribute. This is a favoured Attribute on the world itself, for example awareness where there are lots of traps or deception, or Ingenuity for a world with lots of puzzles. Planets have few Distinctions, for example, Seasonal Shift or Renowned Structure, essentially to make them stand out, but not overwhelm the setting. Finishing touches include deciding upon many suns or planets there is in the system, what the planetary environment is, and more. There is also a discussion of deadly environments, accompanied by a surprisingly lengthy section on poisons!

Where there are no examples of planets per se, there are several given for various plants and creatures, prior to creating various forms of life—monsters, constructs, aliens, and celestials. Again, this starts with the Focus before moving onto Favoured Attributes—positive and negative, Favoured Skilled, Society, and Distinctions. The Focus, like Informant, Fighter, Mystery, Villain, and Foil, is primarily an individual alien’s role in the story. Overall, the options given for creating aliens of all types are excellent and when combined with the questions asked should spur the Game Master to create some interesting species.

Instead of giving sample planets created using the given rules and guidelines, Doctor Who: Adventures in Space presents ‘A Guide to Known Worlds’. This details twenty-four worlds visited by the Doctor over the course of his adventures, some of them more than once. From Akhaten, Androzani Major and minor, and Argolis to Skaro, Telos, and Trenzalore, these are all given two-page spreads, and list its location, environment, inhabitants, and background. They also include a scenario hook or three as well, so that the Game Master can take her group back to any one of these familiar worlds. There are some great choices included here, such as The Library, Metebellis III, and Karn. There are also some classics such as the aforementioned Skaro, Telos, and Mondas, so that the Player Characters can go back to the home worlds of the Daleks and the Cybermen.

Doctor Who: Adventures in Space comes to close with ‘The Terror of Elbonia-2’. This opens with the Doctor—or Player Characters—receiving a distress signal. A nearby, newly settled colony has suffered a number of disasters and is in danger of failing. Coming to the colony’s aid sets up the traditional scenes of distrust between the Player Characters and the colonists, but once trust is established and the situation begun to be fixed, the scenario shifts to investigating the cause of the accidents and the mysteries of the world. This brings the attention of outside interests and tensions between the colonists and the outside authorities who are surprisingly militaristic for archaeologists! The scenario is nicely detailed and fairly open-ended. It should provide the Game Master and her players with several sessions’ worth of game play. Lastly, Doctor Who: Adventures in Space ends with some fifteen or so adventure hooks that the Game Master can develop into full scenarios.

Physically, Doctor Who: Adventures in Space is another decent book from Cubicle 7 Entertainment. The cover is good, though not necessarily representative of the book’s contents, suggesting its focus is particular characters or species from Doctor Who when it very much not that. That said, the book is well written, pleasing to read, and decently illustrated with images from throughout the series’ sixty-year history.

Doctor Who: Adventures in Space keeps its mechanics simple and easy to use, meaning that they better serve the story rather than getting in the way of it. The descriptions of the various alien planets and spaceships are excellent, adding to the wider setting of Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition, as does the history of mankind’s progress into space. Combine this with good advice on creating planetary or spaceship set adventures, and Doctor Who: Adventures in Space is a solid guide to creating planets, spaceships, and aliens and using them in adventures.

Diamond Doctor II

In 2013, Cubicle 7 Entertainment celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the world’s longest running Science Fiction television series, Doctor Who, with the ambitious launch of a series of sourcebooks for its Ennie-award winning Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game. Beginning with The First Doctor Sourcebook, each of these would detail the complete era of one individual Doctor, his adventures, his companions, his character and outlook, the monsters he faced, and the themes of his incarnation, all supported with content that the Game Master can bring into her own campaign. The result has been a very well done series of sourcebooks that in turn has enabled the Game Master and her players to explore the different eras—all twelve of them to date, though there are more to come—and run adventures set during this period and encounter monsters and threats from this period. Ten years on and in 2023, the sixtieth anniversary of Doctor Who was celebrated. What would the publisher release to celebrate the world’s longest running Science Fiction television series this time around? The answer is Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure.

Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure is a two volume set which together provides an overview of Doctor Who, his Companions and adventures, themes and adversaries, from the First Doctor to the Thirteenth Doctor—and not only that, but the Fugitive Doctor too! Plus, the two volumes include a complete campaign between them, ‘A Lustre of Starlight’, which encompasses every Doctor and more. The two volumes of Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure are divided into Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure Book One and Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure Book Two. Both are, of course, written for use with with Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition, but easily compatible with the first edition. Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game. Each book details a different era of the television series. Thus Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure Book One examines the First Doctor all the way up to the Eighth Doctor, essentially ‘Classic Who’, whilst Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure Book Two details the period of the Ninth Doctor to the Thirteenth Doctor (and the Fugitive Doctor) before acknowledging at least visually, the Fourteenth Doctor, which of course, is all ‘Nu Who’.

Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure Book One introduced both the pair of volumes in the series and to Doctor Who, explaining its origins and history from its inception in 1963 to the beginning of its interregnum following the Doctor Who film in 1996, before explore the eras, companions, and adventures of the First Doctor through to the Eighth Doctor as well presenting the first eight parts of ‘A Lustre of Starlight’, a campaign that ultimately all of the Doctors detailed in the two volumes. Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure Book Two picks up where Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure Book One left off with another introduction. This though, is not of Doctor Who in general as with the first volume, but of what it calls ‘The Revival Era’. This gives an overview of the last—almost—two decades and thirteen series of Doctor Who, including the Fiftieth Anniversary, as well highlighting the differences between the old the new. Not just the budget, of course, and the single story episodes, but with the arrival of the Ninth Doctor and his encounter with Rose Tyler in ‘Rose’, how the stories of Doctor Who were not just about the adventures of man—and with era, woman as well—in a blue box that could travel in time and space, but about his companions too and how they reacted to and were changed by those adventures and their time with the Doctor. In roleplaying terms, what this sets up is a greater role for the Companions. They cannot be the Doctor or even his equal—except under very special circumstances, because there are always circumstances—but they can run alongside him, be the best that they can hope to be, and see the universe and the future and the past all at the same time.

The format for each volume in the Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure set is the same for each Doctor. Every Doctor’s era opens with an introduction, asks who each Doctor is and who his Companions are, what the themes of the era are, gives an overview of his adventures, and details both the Doctor and each of his campions, complete with stats for use with Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition. Each of these sections is given a couple of pages each, with the section dedicated to the adventures typically being double that, though there are exceptions and for very good reason. Rounding out chapter is the next part of ‘A Lustre of Starlight’, the campaign which runs throughout both books.

Thus, for the Tenth Doctor, he is unlike the initially callous and slightly arrogant Ninth Doctor, who carries the burden of his predecessor’s actions and his belief that he destroyed Galifrey to prevent the Daleks from winning the Time War, and so is direct and forceful in manner. He would retain many of these characteristics throughout his Generation, but the presence and influence of Rose enables him to heal and his manner to soften. The Tenth Doctor retains the smile of his predecessor, but otherwise is younger, more energetic, and always, always running. His combination of compassion and pride will see him confront danger after danger, attempt to reason with the madness and the madmen of the universe, but ultimately be his undoing. The themes of the Tenth Doctor revolve around change. There is the change in the place of the Earth in the universe in the twenty-first century, because this is the era when humanity is confronted by the fact that they are not alone in that universe, and there is change in terms of how the earth is protected. First with the founding the Torchwood Institute following the werewolf attack on Queen Victoria in 1879 and then its destruction and collapse following the Battle of Canary Wharf.

The Tenth Doctor’s companions begin with Rose Tyler, who like so many before her must adjust to the radical change in manner and appearance in the Time Lord she had come to know, but they quickly joined by her boyfriend, Mickey Smith, followed by the brave Martha Jones who would go on to work for UNIT, and lastly the brilliantly brash and curious Donna Noble and her reliable grandfather, Wilfred Mott. The run through of all the Tenth Doctor’s adventures has a lot to cover, so does feel slightly underwritten and all too brief, which is an issue the pervades the supplement for all of its Doctors and those of the first volumes. Thankfully, nearly all of the Doctors in this volume have their own supplement which details their adventures, adversaries, and so on in much more detail, beginning with The Tenth Doctor Sourcebook. The chapter comes to a close with the next part of the campaign which runs through both volumes of Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure. This format and level of examination is repeated over and over throughout the book.

There are two chapters that are notable exceptions to this format. This is because of the paucity of information upon which to base a chapter as fulsome as those devoted to the Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, Twelfth, and Thirteenth Doctors, either because the Doctor made only the single extended appearance or a series of quite fleeting appearances. These are chapters devoted to the War Doctor, the unacknowledged Doctor between the Eighth Doctor and the Ninth Doctor and the Fugitive Doctor who appeared very late in the adventures of the Thirteenth Doctor. The inclusion of the War Doctor and the Fugitive Doctor top and tail the chapters in the book, and where the other Doctors have their adventures and companions detailed, neither of them have their adventures so described. After all, there is a dearth of adventures upon which they can draw upon and it is the exact same problem that beset The Eighth Doctor Sourcebook. Where the War Doctor has no companions (though one os suggested for his adventure), the Fugitive Doctor does have one in the form of Karvanista, the Lupari Warrior, who is bound to Dan Lewis, but adventured with the Fugitive Doctor long in the past. Here at both the beginning and the end of the sourcebook is where Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure Book Two is at its most interesting, examining the unexplored possibilities of Doctors whose stories have yet to be, and indeed, may never, be told.

The campaign, ‘A Lustre of Starlight’, begun in Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure Book One, continues exploring the fate of the Taaron Ka, a mysterious diamond—perfect then for what is a treatment of the sixtieth anniversary of Doctor Who—over the course of thousands of years of history. Each part runs to three pages and three acts and is a complete story in itself, the connective thread being the diamond itself. As written, each part is designed to be played using the Doctor and his Companions of that era. For example, in ‘The Dalek Death Diamond’ for The War Doctor must team up with the Rani in a charge up the tower of a Gallifreyan time station in order to prevent the daleks getting hold of a Time Lord weapon of war, whilst for Ninth Doctor, ‘The Diamond Heist’ takes both him and Rose to south-east France towards the end of World War 2 where they team up with photographer Lee Miller to investigate an abandoned town where the Nazis have teamed up with aliens! The Tenth Doctor attends an auction on the dark side of the Moon in ‘Green with Envy’, whilst in ‘Search for the Stars’, the Eleventh Doctor comes to the aid of an Indian Space Agency mission on Mars that tumbles into the Ice Warriors. ‘Debt Repaid’ is set in twenty-first century India which is where Kate Stewart of UNIT sends the Twelfth Doctor where the Taaron Ka diamond was almost stolen and is likely to be stolen again, as is ‘Reparations’ for the Thirteenth Doctor, but in 1950, where the Taaron Ka diamond is being returned to its rightful place despite the objection of outside criminal interests.

Lastly, the secrets of the Taaron Ka diamond begin to be hinted at in ‘Division of Angels’ as the Fugitive Doctor and Karvanista, on the run from the Division and attempting to find something which will give them an advantage when dealing with the Division. This takes them deep into the Earth’s past and deep underground for a much more physical and combative encounter with the Weeping Angels. In general and as written, the episodes that make up the ‘A Lustre of Starlight’ campaign suggest three Player Characters—the Doctor and two Companions—but this does not strictly have to be adhered to. Each part should take no more than one or two sessions play through. Of course, a group is also free to create their own Timelord and set of Companions to play through the campaign, but if played as written, the players should swap roles from episode to episode based on preferences or bring in different Companions as needed.

This though changes with ‘An Unearthly Power’, the last part of the campaign, given in the first of the supplement’s two appendices. The Doctors—at least two, if not more, potentially all fifteen (not counting the Fifteenth, because he is not detailed in this supplement)—arrive, one by one, on a ‘Mystery Murder Cruise’ with a sixties theme on a steamship in the North Sea. This allows the players to go full Doctor, to each play one of the incarnations of the Doctor, their favourites bouncing off each other as personalities and quirks clash. Or possibly to dive deeper into troupe style play so that not only the players roleplaying their favourite Doctors, but their companions too! Where the previous adventures felt all too brief, this is a much more developed affair and so feels more realised and playable as a result. Consequently, this is the best adventure in the whole campaign, and it is a pity that others are each like a précis than fully rounded affairs.

Lastly, the second of the appendices in Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure Book Two looks at an aspect integral to the Doctor and Doctor Who over its sixty years—‘Regeneration’. This is a solid guide to the process and what it involves, drawing from the multiple times that the Doctor has regenerated.

Physically, Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure Book Two is superbly done. The cover is eye-catching and has a lovely tactile feel to it with the combination of lightly embossed text and the contrast between gloss and mat. The book is well written and laid out, but does need a slight edit here and there. There is, though, a nice use of colour and tone throughout. The paintings of each Doctor at the start of their respective chapters are excellent.

One thing that each volume does acknowledge is that the amount of information on the various Doctors is limited and that more information—in fact, much more information of each Doctor can be found in his or her respective sourcebook. This is also aided by the compatibility between the two editions of the roleplaying game. It is also a limitation for each volume, since there is going to be information in those sourcebooks which is not included in either of this set. Of course, neither volume of Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure is intended to be the definitive guide to a particular Doctor, but rather an overview of each era. For that, the reader and the Game Master will need access to the thirteen or so sourcebooks. Instead, each volume of Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure is something else.

As we reach—and pass—the sixtieth anniversary of Doctor Who, both Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure Book One and Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure Book Two are a chance for the Game Master and her players to look back as the series moves forward with first the Fourteenth Doctor and second the Fifteenth Doctor, now newly arrived with his first series. It provides an overview of what has gone before and gives them a chance to visit that past and decide whether they want to explore it in more depth with the other sourcebooks. Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure Book Two continues the examination of what has gone before begun in Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure Book One by looking back at the first two decades (or so) of Doctor Who’s revival in an entertaining and engaging fashion. Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure Book Two completes the pair, giving a solid introduction to roleplaying in the era of ‘Nu Who’ with the knowledge that there is more available.

Of the two, Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure Book One is the more interesting overall, because it is all in the past, and less familiar, but the Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure Book Two has the most interesting content because it does encompass both the War Doctor and the Fugitive Doctor, both incarnations with untapped potential and scope for different stories.

—oOo—

Cubicle 7 Entertainment will be at UK Games Expo which takes place on Friday, May 31st to Sunday June 2nd, 2024.

Diamond Doctor I

In 2013, Cubicle 7 Entertainment celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the world’s longest running Science Fiction television series, Doctor Who, with the ambitious launch of a series of sourcebooks for its Ennie-award winning Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game. Beginning with The First Doctor Sourcebook, each of these would detail the complete era of one individual Doctor, his adventures, his companions, his character and outlook, the monsters he faced, and the themes of his incarnation, all supported with content that the Game Master can bring into her own campaign. The result has been a very well done series of sourcebooks that in turn has enabled the Game Master and her players to explore the different eras—all twelve of them to date, though there are more to come—and run adventures set during this period and encounter monsters and threats from this period. Ten years on and in 2023, the sixtieth anniversary of Doctor Who was celebrated. What would the publisher release to celebrate the world’s longest running Science Fiction television series this time around? The answer is Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure.

Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure is a two volume set which together provides an overview of Doctor Who, his Companions and adventures, themes and adversaries, from the First Doctor to the Thirteenth Doctor—and not only that, but the Fugitive Doctor too! Plus, the two volumes include a complete campaign between them, ‘A Lustre of Starlight’, which encompasses every Doctor and more. The two volumes of Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure are divided into Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure Book One and Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure Book Two. Both are, of course, written for use with with Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition, but easily compatible with the first edition. Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game. Each book details a different era of the television series. Thus Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure Book One examines the First Doctor all the way up to the Eighth Doctor, essentially ‘Classic Who’, whilst Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure Book Two details the period of the Ninth Doctor to the Thirteenth Doctor (and the Fugitive Doctor) before acknowledging at least visually, the Fourteenth Doctor, which of course, is all ‘Nu Who’.

Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure Book One begins with an introduction to Doctor Who, explaining its origins and history from its inception in 1963 to the beginning of its interregnum following the Doctor Who film in 1996. This is an overview of the journey through time, which is to follow, beginning with the First Doctor. The format for each volume in the Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure set is the same for each Doctor. Every Doctor’s era opens with an introduction, asks who each Doctor is and who his Companions are, what the themes of the era are, gives an overview of his adventures, and details both the Doctor and each of his campions, complete with stats for use with Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition. Each of these sections is given a couple of pages each, with the section dedicated to the adventures being double that—even those of the Fourth Doctor, who has more adventures than anyone of ‘Classic Who’. That said, the chapter for the poor old Eighth Doctor is shorter in all regards, but that is not the fault of the authors. After all, there is a dearth of adventures upon which they can draw upon and it is the exact same problem that beset The Eighth Doctor Sourcebook. Rounding out chapter is the next part of ‘A Lustre of Starlight’, the campaign which runs throughout both books.

Thus, for the Second Doctor, he is unlike the irascible and cantankerous First Doctor, more genial and prepared to intervene to thwart evil as a moral crusader. His Companions include the most notably, the Highlander, Jamie McCrimmon, and the brilliant scientist, Zoe Heriot, as well as Ben Jackson and Polly Wright—both holdovers from the First Doctor, and Victoria Waterfield. Themes explored during his incarnation include the need to fight to evil, the revenge of nature, tricky travel through time and space, the growing influence of the computer, the use of mind control, and encountering megalomaniacs. These are neatly detailed in a few paragraphs each, more than enough to get the gist. The run through of the Second Doctor’s adventures is not quite cursory, but as with the descriptions of the adventures of the other seven Doctors in the volume, is all too brief and will likely send the Game Master elsewhere looking for much more detail than is given here. The chapter comes to a close with the next part of the campaign which runs through both volumes of Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure. This format and level of examination is repeated over and over throughout the book. There are some nice touches here too. For example, for the First Doctor, it mentions how he meets the Thirteenth Doctor in ‘Twice Upon a Time’ and has a time to reflect upon who he is and what is to come… It takes advantage, of course, of another ten years of Doctor Who and hindsight. Then there is the inclusion of Henry Gordon Jago and Professor Henry Litefoot as alternate Companions for the Fourth Doctor, in his scenario, which is a delight, and there is at least mention of the more notable Companions for the Eighth Doctor, if not their stats.

Then there is ‘A Lustre of Starlight’. This campaign follows the fate of the Taaron Ka, a mysterious diamond—perfect then for what is a treatment of the sixtieth anniversary of Doctor Who—over the course of thousands of years of history. Each part runs to three pages and three acts and is a complete story in itself, the connective thread being the diamond itself. As written, each part is designed to be played using the Doctor and his Companions of that era. Thus for ‘The Lustre of Starlight’, the first part, it will be for the First Doctor, his granddaughter Susan, and Ian Chesteron and Barbara Wright, then later in the episode for the Fifth Doctor, ‘The Sontaran Stalemate’, he will be joined by Tegan and Turlough. In general and as written, the episodes suggest three Player Characters—the Doctor and two Companions—but this does not strictly have to be adhered to. Each part should take no more than one or two sessions play through. Of course, a group is also free to create their own Timelord and set of Companions to play through the campaign, but if played as written, the players should swap roles from episode to episode based on preferences or bring in different Companions as needed.

‘The Lustre of Starlight’ opens the campaign with a historical adventure and the discovery of the Taaron Ka in a mine in fifth century India before it turns up in the late twenty-first century and a solar power station orbiting Venus and a confrontation with the Cybermen with the Second Doctor in ‘The Cloud of Death’. The Third Doctor’s ‘Invasion of Chronovores’ is the first of several entertaining crossovers, whilst chapters ‘The Sontaran Stalemate’ and ‘The Prize of Peladon’ enable the Doctor to meet enemies encountered elsewhen. Thus in ‘The Sontaran Stalemate’, the Fifth Doctor gets to meet the Rutans, a monster from the Fourth Doctor’s era, whilst the Sixth Doctor travels to Peladon for another diplomatic conference in ‘The Prize of Peladon’ as seen in the adventures of the Third Doctor. These adventures are all entertaining, but they are essentially detailed outlines that the Game Master will adjust as necessary, even more if not run with the actual Doctor in each case.

Physically, Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure Book One is superbly done. The cover is eye-catching and has a lovely tactile feel to it with the combination of lightly embossed text and the contrast between gloss and mat. The book is well written and laid out, but does need a slight edit here and there. There is, though, a nice use of colour and tone throughout, the chapters dedicated to First and Second Doctors done in black and white before blazing into colour with the Third Doctor. The paintings of each Doctor at the start of their respective chapters are excellent.

One thing that each volume does acknowledge is that the amount of information on the various Doctors is limited and that more information—in fact, much more information of each Doctor can be found in his or her respective sourcebook. This is also aided by the compatibility between the two editions of the roleplaying game. It is also a limitation for each volume, since there is going to be information in those sourcebooks which is not included in either of this set. Of course, neither volume of Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure is intended to be the definitive guide to a particular Doctor, but rather an overview of each era. For that, the reader and the Game Master will need access to the thirteen or so sourcebooks. Instead, each volume of Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure is something else.

As we reach the sixtieth anniversary of Doctor Who, both Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure Book One and Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure Book Two are a chance for the Game Master and her players to look back as the series moves forward with first the Fourteenth Doctor and second the Fifteenth Doctor. It provides an overview of what has gone before and gives them a chance to visit that past and decide whether they want to explore it in more depth with the other sourcebooks. Doctor Who: Sixty Years of Adventure Book One is a great start to the pair, an entertaining introduction to roleplaying in the era of ‘Classic Who’ with the knowledge that there is more available.

The Tenth Doctor

As we await the arrival of the Fourteenth Doctor—in just half an hour at the time of this review being posted—it seems appropriate that we return to Cubicle Seven Entertainment’s celebration of Doctor Who’s fiftieth anniversary for the Ennie-award winning Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game by leaping backwards in time to examine the adventures of the Tenth Doctor, the longest incarnation yet of the ‘Nu Who’ era and the one who would cement the modern Doctor in our collective conscious. From the foundations laid done by his predecessor, as detailed in The Ninth Doctor Sourcebook, the Tenth Doctor would run full tilt at life—“Allons-y!”—with new found enthusiasm, proud once again to embrace who he is as both a Time Lord and the last Time Lord, prepared to do what is right and even save the universe. His adventures will see him finding both friends and enemies old and new, even falling in love with more than one of the friends (and they with him), before ultimately, the Tenth Doctor would have to let them go, and face the perils of his pride alone. His adventures though, are big, including big story arcs—story arcs that would grow very big indeed during his next incarnation, The Eleventh Doctor.

The Tenth Doctor Sourcebook follows the same format of the previous nine entries in the series. It is divided into five chapters—‘The Children of Time’, ‘Playing in the Tenth Doctor’s Era’, ‘Torchwood’, ‘The Tenth Doctor’s Enemies’, and ‘The Tenth Doctor’s Adventures’—as opposed to the four chapters of the previous nine volumes. The first chapter, ‘The Children of Time’, opens with a discussion of who the Tenth Doctor is and a guide to playing him, along with his character sheet, before detailing his many companions. First, Rose and Mickey Smith, both carryovers from the Ninth Doctor, and then Martha Jones, Captain Jack Harkness, and Donna Noble, long term companions of the Tenth Doctor. Minor characters are included also, who only travelled for an episode or so, including Wilfred Mott, Astrid Peth aboard the Titanic, Sally Sparrow, Lady Christina De Souza, and more. The longest section here is the most surprising and this is dedicated to Ood and Ood Sigma. Their inclusion here does feel odd, but then they would feel out of place in ‘The Tenth Doctor’s Enemies’ chapter as the Ood are not that. Character sheets are provided for all fourteen of the Tenth Doctor’s companions, as well as his TARDIS.

‘Playing in the Tenth Doctor’s Era’ opens at the same pace as his adventures. Speed, curiosity, and switches in pace from action to emotion and back again, riding on waves of giddy joy and ebbs of introspection. The incarnation would also explore and build a family, looking at the effect of a companion journeying with the Doctor would have on the companion’s family and on having a wider circle of companions within the TARDIS. Another theme is that of the Doctor exploring the Earth of the twenty-first century and with its growing realisation that humanity is not alone in the universe, a range of responses by humanity, from altruism to arrogance (and worse). There is advice too on building story arcs, but this feels a little short at just a page in length, though the episode guides will show this in action. There is one new alien trait added alongside several gadget traits.

The Tenth Doctor’s era saw the return of several of his biggest foes—and more than once. ‘The Tenth Doctor’s Enemies’ focuses on the Cybermen and the Daleks at first, providing an overview of their activities and clashes with the Doctor throughout this era. Thus from the Cyber Contoller of John Lumic’s world to the weird Cybershade of 1851 London and from the Cult of Skaro and Dalek Sec to the Supreme Dalek and Dalek Caan. In-between there is the return of an old foe, the return of old foes being a hallmark of this era. Thus, for the Daleks, the returning figure is their creator, Davros, but for the Doctor himself, his greatest returning foe is the Master, first as Professor Yana (though he does not know it) and then back on Earth as Harold Saxon. The Master gets very full stats as befitting his importance, but much like the era of the Tenth Doctor, the last return is saved for the end. This is the return of the Time Lords whom the Doctor thought destroyed in the Time War and this marked with the inclusion of Rassilon as the Doctor’s last enemy here.

The fifth and final chapter in The Tenth Doctor Sourcebook is, as with the previous entries in the series, its longest. Here, some four fifths of the book, adding greatly to its length. ‘The Tenth Doctor’s Adventures’ details all forty-four of the Tenth Doctor’s stories, from ‘The Christmas Invasion’ to ‘The End of Time’. All open with a synopsis, include notes on continuity—backwards and forwards to stories past and future, followed by advice on ‘Running the Adventure’. ‘Changing The Desktop Theme’—a reference to the changed look of the TARDIS interior after some thirty or so years—suggests ways in which the story can be reskinned with another threat or enemy, and so on. Rounding out the writeups are full details of the monsters and NPCs appearing in the episode. Thus, for the episode, ‘School Reunion’, the synopsis describes how the Doctor and Rose investigate strange goings on at a school and encounter Sarah Jane Smith doing exactly the same. Unsurprisingly, the ‘Continuity’ section has a lot to cover with Sarah Jane’s previous travels and encounters with the first five Doctors, the adoption of her family (as detailed in The Sarah Jane Adventures), her relationship with K-9 and Mickey’s referring to K-9 as a ‘tin dog’ (which would later have his own significance for him), the numerous aliens that she has met (all linked to particular stories in The Third Doctor Sourcebook and The Fourth Doctor Sourcebook), and the mention of the spaceship hovering over London as seen in ‘The Christmas Invasion’ episode. All that and the use of lottery ticket by the Doctor for the first time.

Then, ‘Running the Adventure’ explores how ‘School Reunion’ is both a classic adventure and much more, in that it links back to the classic era of Doctor Who through a former companion. Not only that, it presented a way to tie lose threads left hanging from the companion’s last story and by bringing in a former companion, give the story more emotion and feeling. The writeup suggests that the story could also be used to start a campaign involving the students who have had a strange year with unbeknownst to both them and their parents, aliens in charge, perhaps leading to later involvement with both Torchwood and UNIT. Of course, strange activities at the school could also simply attract the attention of Torchwood. The villains behind the story are also detailed, including Mr. Finch and the Krillitane, along with the effects of Krillitane Oil, and there are stats for them and K-9. Lastly, there is a trio of further adventure ideas.

The Tenth Doctor Sourcebook follows this format again and again, detailing in the process some absolute classic adventures for ‘Nu-Who’. ‘The Girl in the Fireplace’, ‘Blink’, ‘The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords’, ‘Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead’, and ‘The End of Time’ all stand out as great episodes and it a pleasure to see them explored and detailed here, as both a guide to the episodes and the means to make them gameable.

Perhaps the most surprising and unsurprising inclusion in The Tenth Doctor Sourcebook is that of the third chapter, ‘Torchwood’. Founded in 1879 with the episode ‘Tooth & Claw’—Queen Victoria versus werewolves, oh my!—Torchwood has become very much part of Doctor Who, dedicated to protecting the Earth from alien threats, including the Doctor himself! There is, however, no sourcebook for it. The Tenth Doctor Sourcebook, of course, is not the Torchwood sourcebook, but it is the nearest to it that there is with just the five pages in this two-hundred-and-fifty-six-page book. What there is, is good, even at just five pages. It includes a history all the Battle of Canary Wharf, Torchwood 2.0, and beyond, discusses its relations with UNIT, and more. In terms of game support, there is a guide to creating a Torchwood agent with suggested traits and a discussion of the nature of Torchwood team and how to put one together, both before and after the Battle of Canary Wharf, and a handful of plot hooks. These are accompanied by character sheets for Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones, to go along with the one given earlier for Captain Jack Harkness. It is a pity that this is all there is, as there is plenty of gaming potential in Torchwood, but what there is, is a good start.

Physically, The Tenth Doctor Sourcebook is as well presented as the rest of the line and is profusely illustrated with photographs from the series. The volume is well written and enjoyable to read. However, there are missed opportunities, though not really of the sourcebook’s own making, in that Torchwood is only covered slightly and The Sarah Jane Adventures not all. At least there is some detail about Torchwood provided.

Just as the Tenth Doctor expanded ‘Nu Who’ with a wider range of foes—old and new, and a growing family of companions and almost-companions, so The Tenth Doctor Sourcebook expands ‘Nu Who’ for the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game. It is a great continuation of The Ninth Doctor Sourcebook, building on what came before, covering some classic adventures, and showcasing why the Tenth Doctor was so popular.