Day Eleven: Doctor Who

dum-di-dum, dum-di-dum, dum-di-dum... OOO-EE-OOO!

Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space is inspired by the wonderful long-running television show. You can be the canon Doctors and companions, or you can tell the adventures of a future incarnation of the Doctor and create your own adventures, or do anything else you want really. There's lots of different editions due to licensing: I have the original David Tennant boxed set and the 50th Anniversary rulebook; there's also Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi editions, and recently a Second Edition with Jodie Whittaker.

It's a very rules-light game that really emphasizes the ideas behind Doctor Who. Combat is generally a terrible choice, because so many of the monsters have insta-kill weapons (do NOT get into a fight with Daleks!) Also, the initiative system is based on what you do - so talking always goes first, then moving, then doing something, and then fighters go last. So you'll always have the opportunity to negotiate or run away or use a gadget before the monsters get to attack you. The second key element is the use of Story Points. Lots of games have these, but Doctor Who gives you a bundle, inversely proportional to how skilled your character is, and makes it easy to earn them (surrendering and getting captured is a very genre-appropriate way to build up some story points). You can spend them to get bonuses to your rolls - this is how you avoid dying when a Dalek shoots at you - or to activate cool moves like absorbing the heart of the TARDIS to become the Bad Wolf, for instance. This means there's a nice balance between the players being Time Lords, who have very high skills but very few story points, and the companions, who are less capable but better equipped to solve scenarios in a fantastical way.

Character Creation: My favourite Doctor Who episodes are the historical ones, so I decided to create a fun historical figure who would enjoy having an adventure with the Doctor. I studied Ancient History at University, and my favourite ancient figure was Herodotus of Halicarnassus, the first historian: his book is full of ethnographic studies and tall stories. One gets the impression of someone who's really interested in all the wonderful weirdness and variety that the world wants to offer. So here's Herodotus of Halicarnassus!

Doctor Who uses a points-buy system for character creation. I have 24 points for Attributes and any which I don't use roll over into my 18 points for Skills. I started by giving Herodotus a 3 for his Attributes, the human average. I decided that, since this would be an older Herodotus, his Coordination and Strength would be a bit lower, while his Presence and Resolve would be a bit higher - he'd need to be quite personable to get everyone to talk to him, and it would take a bit of grit to travel around so much. I thought about giving him more Ingenuity as well but decided against it: he's more of a storyteller. 

Next I gave him some Traits. There are Positive and Negative Traits, and they're worth either 1 point or 2 points, based on whether they're Minor or Major. This is how you can create alien characters. I decided to just take a few: he's Empathic, has lots of Friends, and is Lucky; his negative trait is his Insatiable Curiosity. 

Finally I chose his Skills. I decided that Herodotus, since he was quite widely travelled, would probably be a jack-of-all-trades' and gave him a few points in just about everything. I gave him a very high Knowledge score with the History specialty, and I gave him the Orate specialty for his Convince score. Finally I filled in his Story Points (12) and Tech Level (2) and Herodotus is ready to go!

Final Thoughts: I really like Doctor Who, and I really like Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space. I have played this one and it works like a charm. I even wrote a scenario based on L. Frank Baum and The Wizard of Oz for a convention and won a prize for best original scenario with it! (I should probably confess that there were only two adventures submitted, and the other one was by my wife, who helped me write my one and played an awesome Joanna Lumley inspired Doctor during the convention!) Great game, lots of fun, would love to play it again.