Ten Saves Nine

A Stitch in Time is both a campaign for Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition and not a campaign for Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition. It is a campaign in the sense that there is a connected thread that runs through all ten of its episodes, but not a campaign in the sense that there is no overarching plot or threat that the Player Characters will be aware of and must find a way to deal with by the tenth episode. Instead, the series arc is a threat that the Player Characters must deal with in the tenth episode—just as there is in every episode—but they will not be aware of it until the tenth episode and they will not be aware that they have been preparing to face it for the previous nine episodes. So rather than a campaign, what A Stitch in Time actually is, is a complete series that the Game Master can run for her Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game. Although written for use with Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition and thus ostensibly for the Thirteenth Doctor, the ten episodes can easily be run using any of the other Doctors and their Companions, or indeed the Thirteenth Doctor and her companions. Or, of course, it can be run using the players’ own Time Lord and Companions. It could even be run with another team of time travellers, using a means other than a TARDIS to travel through time and space, but although A Stitch in Time does include some advice on the changes needed to make it run without a Time Lord and his TARDIS, it is written with the assumption that the Player Characters include a Time Lord and have a TARDIS. Alternatively, A Stitch in Time could be used as an anthology of scenarios which the Game Master can draw from for her own campaign rather than use as a whole.

A Stitch in Time is published by Cubicle 7 Entertainment and will take the travellers back and forth across time and space, from Earth to outer space, and back again. From an English holiday camp in the here and now, a disused prison complex in the far future, and an animation studio in Burbank, California, 1932 to the Battle of Hastings, a hospital out of time, and a threatened utopia in the twenty-sixth century. On the way, the Player Characters will meet a Dalek, a Silurian, the Nestene Consciousness, a lot of Sontarans and Ice Warriors, a Time Lord, and more. Every episode follows the same format. It has an Introduction, a Call To Adventure—what gets the Player Characters involved, an explanation of What’s Going On, the three Acts of the story, and the Epilogue. The What’s Going On section ends with the ‘Series Arc’ explaining how the episode ties in with the ongoing story. These ties all take the form of objects—objects which all together can be used to defeat the threat in the tenth episode of A Stitch in Time. Effectively, as the Player Characters will eventually learn, they have been on an intergalactic scavenger hunt to defeat a gigantic threat. If the Player Characters have not collected all of the items needed by the tenth episode, then there is a solution. Time travel. Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition is a time travel roleplaying game, so there is scope for the Player Characters to go back and forth through time, although the does warn about the dangers of meeting themselves, which of course, is the Blinovitch Limitation Effect.

A Stitch in Time begins in slightly underwhelming fashion as the Player Characters protect some escaped political intergalactic prisoners who have crash-landed outside an English seaside holiday camp. There is some fun to be had to playing around with the traditional aspects of setting, but some of the nuances may be lost on a non-British audience, whilst a British audience is likely to want to shift the episode from the present day to the nineteen fifties. More so given that the episode is called, ‘Hi-De-Hide’. The action picks with ‘The Most Dangerous Monster’, which is set on a former prison complex, which has been refitted as a tourist destination in which the tourists come to hunt the galaxy’s most dangerous game. No guesses for what that is, but this a nice homage to the Ninth Doctor episode, ‘Dalek’. ‘Silver Screams’ takes place at an animation studio—that is very definitely not Disney—in 1932 in Burbank, California, where for some reason the film stock and the props take on a deadly life of their own. Cue fun with a giant Merry Mallard! In ‘Everything Most Go’, the time travellers find themselves at the biggest shopping complex in the universe and most find out why every customer is being evacuated except the Sontarans and the Ice Warriors. Just what they shopping for? None of them can come armed, so there is an amusing description of the Sontarans having armed themselves via the kitchenware department! In ‘Protect and Survive’, the timeline becomes imperilled when it is revealed what exactly lies beneath the Battle of Hastings and in ‘Emergency Ward 26’, the Player Characters find themselves in a tricky situation in time that makes it the hardest of the ten scenarios in the book for the Game Master to run. Later episodes include a classic museum heist in ‘The Great Sonic Caper’ and a Cyberpunk-style medical mystery in ‘Green for Danger’ before the series comes to a close with ‘Save Nhein’ which rounds off A Stitch in Time. (And yes, we know...)

There is a coda to A Stitch in Time which suggests directions in which the Game Master might take her campaign after completing the series it presents, whilst also wondering how the episodes are connected in ways more than the scavenger hunt it is. Is there someone or something manipulating the Player Characters? Are they being testing? The coda does not present any answers, so this is really prompts for the Game Master to think about where A Stitch in Time fits in her campaign and what it might link to. Perhaps though, Cubicle 7 Entertainment will answer these prompts in a future supplement?

Physically, A Stitch in Time is cleanly, tidily laid out, decently written, and illustrated with the Thirteenth Doctor and her Companions as well as the monsters that the Player Characters will meet in the course of the series. One of the issues with the ten scenarios in A Stitch in Time is that they are presented in narrative fashion. There are no maps or floor plans, and there are no illustrations of any of the NPCs in the scenarios. Which means that the Game Master has to work that much harder to visualise both locations and characters and impart that to her players.

A Stitch in Time is stronger as an anthology of episodes rather than as a traditional roleplaying campaign. It is also a decent series with many of its scenarios making for exciting episodes that you could imagine being made for the television screen rather than for playing around the table. Of the ten, ‘The Most Dangerous Monster’ and ‘Emergency Ward 26’ are classics, whilst there is room aplenty to lean into the comic potential of both ‘Hi-De-Hide’ and ‘Silver Screams’ with the Game Master and her players acknowledging the obvious inspirations for the pair. In whatever way the Game Master decides to use it, A Stitch in Time is solid support for her Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition 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.

Who Take III (Part 2)

It seems that almost as soon as we have a new generation of the Doctor, we have a new printing of Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space – The Roleplaying Game. Not this time though. As the era of the Thirteen Doctor comes to an end, she regenerates and her fam’ leaves the TARDIS, and we await the arrival of the Fourteenth Doctor, publisher Cubicle 7 Entertainment returns with a new edition. Based on the extremely long running television series, Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition arrives in a handsome hardback book with the trade dress of the Thirteenth Doctor and a radically streamlined new version of the Vortex System. The result is a roleplaying game designed for ease of play, to be more character focused, and to make it easier to learn and play. Much of this has already been seen in the Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition – Starter Set, which showcased the new version of the rules and provided a scenario and mini-campaign with ‘The Timeless Library’ and ‘The Echo Chamber’. Of course, there is nothing to stop a group using the rules from Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition to create their own characters and play through the content in Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game – Second Edition – Starter Set.

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.

Delving into Doctor Who

It is clear from the start that a lot of thought has gone into the design of Doctor Who: Roleplaying Game Second Edition – Starter Set. Open the box and underneath the dice is what appears to be a sheet of heavy paper with an image of the TARDIS on it. Pull it out of the box and it is that and more because the front shows the doors to the TARDIS, whilst the back, shows the other side of the TARDIS. Further, the front opens up almost like the doors of the TARDIS to reveal what is in the box. It is, of course, a classic ‘What’s in the box’ sheet, the first thing you should always see when opening a boxed roleplaying game for the first time, but here done as thematically as is possible. Combined with its ‘READ THIS FIRST’ section and what you have is an explanation of what is the box, what exactly the reader has in his hands, and what it is designed to do. It is great start to the Doctor Who: Roleplaying Game Second Edition – Starter Set, but then the publisher, Cubicle Seven Entertainment, has form here, having published the thoroughly excellent and playable Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Starter Set for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Fourth Edition.

Cubicle Seven Entertainment has held the licence for a roleplaying game based on the adventures of the time-travelling Time Lord known as Doctor Who since 2009, being with the publication of Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space. It was intentionally designed to be played by Doctor Who fans new to roleplaying as well as veterans, and over the years has been supported by supplements covered both Classic Who—the first eight generations of the Doctor—and New Who—the later four generations. Only in 2022, did the roleplaying game come up to date to cover the adventures of the thirteenth Doctor with Doctor Who: Roleplaying Game Second Edition, and by then, the Doctor had once again regenerated into the Fourteenth Doctor and will do so again with the Fifteenth. That though, is all to come. What Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space never received as its own starter set, a box containing basic rules, ready-to-play characters, advice for the Game Master, dice, and an adventure or two, all sufficient to provide a good feel for how the game plays and an idea of whether or not the players want to have further adventures. That though, changes for Doctor Who: Roleplaying Game Second Edition, which has its own starter set. The Doctor Who: Roleplaying Game Second Edition – Starter Set is designed to be played out of the box, its play discovered and revealed as the reader delves deeper into the box. So, delving deeper into the box…

Below the ‘READ THIS FIRST’ folder is a sheaf of five character sheets. These use the same gatefold sheet format as the ‘READ THIS FIRST’ folder. On the front is the name of the Player Character, what he does, a thumbnail portrait, some quotes that a player can bring into play, a quick explanation of who he is, what he is like, what he enjoys, and reasons to play that character. It is kept quick, simple, and clear, making the basics of the character easy to understand. On the back, there is an even larger portrait of the character, but just like the ‘READ THIS FIRST’ folder, open up a character sheet and there is much more information. The character and his stats, skills, experiences, equipment, focus, and more are presented in the middle. To the left, a column explains the character concept and various game terms, including Focus, which is the Player Character’s motivation, Tech Level, Short-Term and Long-Term Goals, Attributes, Skills, Distinctions which mean that the Player Character is an alien or has a special skill, and Conditions that the Player Character might suffer. To the right is given the Character Background, a description of what make the Player Character’s heart sing, family, friends, and rivals, elements which the Player Character is encouraged to describe, and an introduction. The sheets all feel complete, and the five include a twenty-first century IT worker who wants to be a baker, a nineteenth century stage performer who wants to be a double act, an augmented human investigator who wants to uncover a conspiracy, a hospitality android from the Luxury Station Phaeton who wants to make a friend, and a Silurian scientist who wants to make a big discovery. Like the ‘READ THIS FIRST’ folder, the characters are done on heavy stock paper, in full colour, and are attractive to look at.

Underneath the character sheets is the first of two books in Doctor Who: Roleplaying Game Second Edition – Starter Set. This is ‘The Timeless Library’ and it has pictures of the Thirteenth Doctor, some Daleks, and a library with flying books on the front. This is both the first adventure in the starter set and the explanation of the rules, and one of the first things it explains is why the Doctor is not an option as a Player Character, which is because she is missing and the Player Characters have to find her as part of the adventure. The adventures in Doctor Who: Roleplaying Game Second Edition – Starter Set are designed to be played by three to five players and ‘The Timeless Library’ to teach the rules step-by-step. It starts with the Player Characters finding their way into the TARDIS, introducing themselves, having an opportunity to explore the TARDIS, and make a few skill rolls in determining quite where they are. Doctor Who: Roleplaying Game Second Edition uses the Vortex System in which if a player wants his character to undertake an action, he rolls two six-sided dice and add the values of an appropriate attribute and skill to beat a Difficulty. A typical Difficulty is twelve. 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. Story Points—each Player Character starts with several—can be used to modify any result. If a Player Character has the Advantage, three dice are rolled and the lowest value discarded whilst the highest result is discarded if at a Disadvantage.

The scenario of ‘The Timeless Library’ takes place in a vast, fabled library, which when the Player Characters arrive, has been recently attacked and instituted security response. Which makes navigating the different sections of the library a challenge, but if the Player Characters can find the head librarian, a Judoon—which should be lots of fun for the Game Master to portray—they can make progress. As they proceed through the library, the players have the opportunity to learn how the Vortex System works, including the core mechanics, how gadgets work, how to get the best use out of Story Points, extended tasks and conflict, there are points where it is suggested that the Game Master can improvise, and there is occasional appearance of the Doctor to throw in, if only to give words of encouragement as a holographic message. When it comes to conflict, the initiative rules are notable in that who goes first depends not a die roll, but on Player Character actions. Talkers go first (or Screamers if a Companion possesses both a set of lungs on her and the Screamer Trait), followed by Doers, then Runners, and last of all Fighters. Meanwhile, the Player Characters can explore the library—or at least examine its shelves, overcome technological barriers, persuade recalcitrant NPCs, and survive an encounter with the Doctor’s greatest enemy—the Daleks, and in the final sequence, get chased up to the highest levels of the library in order to reach the scenario’s McGuffin before the Daleks do. In other words, get to do all of the things that the Doctor and her companions do in an episode.

However, that is not all there is to ‘The Timeless Library’ or indeed in Doctor Who: Roleplaying Game Second Edition – Starter Set. There is advice on how to use the scenario in ‘The Timeless Library’ as a one-shot, but there is trio of adventure hooks for each of the five pre-generated Player Characters as well as ideas for further scenarios once they have played through the events of the campaign in ‘The Echo Chamber’. The adventure in ‘The Timeless Library’ is fun, taking the Player Characters from their first steps into the TARDIS to running around, saving people, and winning the day in a place that is out of this world. Unfortunately, the step-by-step process of learning the rules to the Vortex System through play does not quite work. Initially, the rules are quick and easy to learn, but as the adventure progresses, they do get comparatively more complex. Certainly, when it comes to conflicts and chases, the Game Master will need to prepare those rather than learn on the go.

‘The Echo Chamber’, the second book, picks up where ‘The Timeless Library’ left off. It contains two scenarios, one which is a direct sequel, the eponymously titled ‘The Echo Chamber’. It begins with an investigation in modern London before taking the Player Characters into deep space and an even deeper mystery, until confronting the villain of the piece and rescuing the Doctor on a planet from Classic Who’s past. The middle section is something of a spaceship sandbox—if the spaceship sandbox is also a travelling theatre—which the Player Characters can explore, interact with the crew and the performers, and try and find out more about what is going on. The scenario also provides opportunities for each of the Player Characters to shine, whether that is baking or performing, as part of the investigation, and the Game Master also scenes and nods from Classic Who to portray. If there is an issue with the scenario it is that it could have done with some floorplans for the spaceship to help the Game Master visualise it for her players, and perhaps a few suggestions could have been provided to help the Game Master portray the scenario’s many NPCs. A more open affair, it assumes that by this time the Game Master and her players will have come to understand the rules, and the boxes of information for the Game Master focus on extra content for the scenario rather than Game Master tips. ‘The Echo Chamber’ is an entertaining adventure and brings the events of ‘The Timeless Library’ to a rousing collection.

The second scenario in ‘The Echo Chamber’ is ‘The Hermit’s Lantern’. It is designed to be run as a sequel with the same Player Characters, who if successful, end up with their time travel device, enabling them to continue on their adventures without the Doctor. Stats are provided for the Thirteenth Doctor, should the Game Master want to involve her in the scenario. ‘The Hermit’s Lantern’ is a race to obtain an artefact of the same name, its location a planet only accessible once every fifty years due to severe storms. Means are suggested as to how to get the Player Characters involved other than at the bequest of the Doctor, but once on the planet, they will have a hard journey ahead of them across rough terrain, often stalked by the local fauna. This is a shorter, straightforward, and linear affair, more physical in nature, which does not go out of its way to bring the various aspects of the pre-generated Player Characters into play. Consequently, it is not as interesting to play through ‘The Timeless Library’ and ‘The Echo Chamber’, but it is a decent enough scenario.

In addition to the ‘READ THIS FIRST’ folder, the five character sheets, ‘The Timeless Library’, and ‘The Echo Chamber’, the Doctor Who: Roleplaying Game Second Edition – Starter Set also includes a sheet of Story Point tokens in thick card, and two reference sheets. One has the ‘Attributes and Skills Reference Sheet’ on one side and the ‘Story Points Reference Sheet’ on the other, whilst the second reference sheet has the ‘‘Making a Roll’ Reference Sheet’ on one side and the ‘Success Reference Sheet’ on the other side. ‘Success Reference Sheet’ is also printed on the inside of the lid to the box.

Physically, the Doctor Who: Roleplaying Game Second Edition – Starter Set is very well put together, Everything is bright, breezy, in full colour, and easy to understand, with coloured sections in both books designed to highlight and explain rules, give advice for the Game Master, provide NPC details, and so on. They are only light illustrated, with images taken from the series. One issue however is that the books do need an edit in places as there are several incidences of references to other sections of a book or parts of the starter set are inaccurate, and the authors cannot quite decide what the names of the two books in the starter set are. Unlike ‘The Echo Chamber’, the second book, ‘The Timeless Library’ does not have a card cover, so is more like a magazine and less durable. Another issue is that not all of the NPCs detailed in the three adventures in the Doctor Who: Roleplaying Game Second Edition – Starter Set. Mainly due to a lack of ready photographic sources and the expense of producing full colour art, this however leave the Game Master with pictures for some NPCs and not for others. It feels inconsistent and perhaps something that the Game Master might like to source herself.

An experienced player or Game Master will have no problem opening up the Doctor Who: Roleplaying Game Second Edition – Starter Set and beginning play. If the Game Master has run Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space, the previous incarnation of the roleplaying game, she will have even less of a problem. The rules have changed only slightly, and then only to streamline them very slightly. The rules are far from difficult to play, but a little extra attention is needed to understand how conflicts and extended tasks are handled according to the rules, so that does slow down the learn-by-play, step-by-step process. Nevertheless, a lot of thought has gone into the process of learning the game by drawing both Game Master and her players deeper into the box and the game, and the resulting rules are easier to understand and the scenarios engaging and entertaining.

Of course, if the Game Master already has access to the Doctor Who: Roleplaying Game Second Edition, then the scenarios in the starter set can be run from those rules. However, both ‘The Echo Chamber’ and ‘The Timeless Library’ are designed to be played using the pre-generated Player Characters, so they will need some adjusting to suit other Player Characters.

The Doctor Who: Roleplaying Game Second Edition – Starter Set is a great introduction to the Doctor Who: Roleplaying Game Second Edition. It eases the players and their Game Master into the rules and provides them with some exciting adventures to have in time and space!