In which I yield the floor to SteveD, who has been writing RPGnet's Campaign Toybox for almost two years now, firing off game ideas at a fair old clip.
And inevitably, some of them could make great Doctor Who adventures due to the bigness of its kitchen sink setting. There are two different time travel campaigns in there, for starters, as well as Twenty Six New Ways to Travel In Space.
And going all the way back to the start, 70s cops dealing with a Stargate at Stonehenge. Put poor old underfunded UNIT on the job and that's a Pertwee-era series idea.
Friday, 31 December 2010
I'm not the only one...
MightyGodKing recasts the first seven Doctors
Some interesting alternatives here. I still think Bonneville for Six would be awesome, though.
Some interesting alternatives here. I still think Bonneville for Six would be awesome, though.
Wednesday, 29 December 2010
An extra Christmas present
As pointed out by Kit, The Twelve Doctors Of Christmas in which various clever people talk about the Doctors.
Apparently this is my hundredth post here. Goodness.
Apparently this is my hundredth post here. Goodness.
Where to...?
Currently setting blood boiling on RPGnet is a thread which started innocently enough about the Doctor visiting America. This has lead to arguments about internationalism, Americanisation, parochialism, some deliberately obtuse posts and various other reminders of why I don't go to Outpost Gallifrey. I've held off posting a somewhat grumpy "come back when you give us a Star Trek episode set in Britain" because the thread's ugly enough already.
Now with a currently-less-baity companion thread for where the show might go.
But in an endeavour to be a bit more positive, it got me thinking about how I portray other countries in Who games.
A lot of it has to do with the PCs - when and where they come from inevitably factors in to when and where the game visits.
Now with a currently-less-baity companion thread for where the show might go.
But in an endeavour to be a bit more positive, it got me thinking about how I portray other countries in Who games.
A lot of it has to do with the PCs - when and where they come from inevitably factors in to when and where the game visits.
Sunday, 26 December 2010
Have we met?
In which The Green Ood causes excessive thought...
Putting a hint of a Dalek into the trailer at the end of my Shalkaverse short story, I made the light from the eyestalk blue without really thinking about it. A 2005-2010 Dalek eye. But the Shalkaverse is a parallel world where the show came back via the web in 2002, so nothing from the Davies and Moffat eras is necessarily true, not even the Paul Cornell episodes. So why should Daleks have blue lights? Shalkaverse Daleks could be completely different.
If a monster reappears there's no reason it can't be very different from previous appearances. Even if it was one way a few episodes ago, the next episode could be set centuries apart for the monster.
Of course, the show doesn't generally bring back old versions of monsters who have been revamped - I doubt we'll see the cloth-masked Cybermen again, because they dropped them as soon as they had a bit more money for the effects. Big Finish and the comics (and probably the novels) have featured them, though.
But anyway, you still have free rein to do something leftfield with classic elements, and if it doesn't work (and the players don't like it, or Doctor Who Magazine's lettercol fills with complaints) you can go back to basics next time.
Give some thought to the changes, the reasons behind them as well as the effects of them. This can be as simple as "we have more money" or "I found a really neat Dalek redesign on the web" or as complicated as "this is a story about the end of the Cybermen where they transcend metal and free themselves, making the universe a better place from then on with their millennia of stored knowledge, so the last metallic Cybermen have to be pretty strange" but it deserves thinking about whatever the case.
And revealing a bit of the new look is likely to cause some speculation about it.
... Why is that Ood green?
Putting a hint of a Dalek into the trailer at the end of my Shalkaverse short story, I made the light from the eyestalk blue without really thinking about it. A 2005-2010 Dalek eye. But the Shalkaverse is a parallel world where the show came back via the web in 2002, so nothing from the Davies and Moffat eras is necessarily true, not even the Paul Cornell episodes. So why should Daleks have blue lights? Shalkaverse Daleks could be completely different.
If a monster reappears there's no reason it can't be very different from previous appearances. Even if it was one way a few episodes ago, the next episode could be set centuries apart for the monster.
Of course, the show doesn't generally bring back old versions of monsters who have been revamped - I doubt we'll see the cloth-masked Cybermen again, because they dropped them as soon as they had a bit more money for the effects. Big Finish and the comics (and probably the novels) have featured them, though.
But anyway, you still have free rein to do something leftfield with classic elements, and if it doesn't work (and the players don't like it, or Doctor Who Magazine's lettercol fills with complaints) you can go back to basics next time.
Give some thought to the changes, the reasons behind them as well as the effects of them. This can be as simple as "we have more money" or "I found a really neat Dalek redesign on the web" or as complicated as "this is a story about the end of the Cybermen where they transcend metal and free themselves, making the universe a better place from then on with their millennia of stored knowledge, so the last metallic Cybermen have to be pretty strange" but it deserves thinking about whatever the case.
And revealing a bit of the new look is likely to cause some speculation about it.
... Why is that Ood green?
Saturday, 25 December 2010
A Christmas Carol
All a bit steampunk, innit?
Rory got his name in the credits!
SHARK!
Ahhh, double meaning, clever.
Peculiar. Bit convoluted. But fun.
And then...
Cavaliers!
Nazis!
Utah!
A familiar set!
A green Ood?!
Happy Holidays!
Rory got his name in the credits!
SHARK!
Ahhh, double meaning, clever.
Peculiar. Bit convoluted. But fun.
And then...
Cavaliers!
Nazis!
Utah!
A familiar set!
A green Ood?!
Happy Holidays!
The Only Good Dalek
... is the first original Doctor Who graphic novel from BBC Books.
... is a Base Under Siege, then thanks to escape pods becomes a chase, then another Base Under Siege. It could have done with one less plot twist, and more/any laughs.
(Look away if you want to avoid spoilers, as this refers to the main point of the thing... although I think it’s spelled out on publicity blurb.)
... is a Base Under Siege, then thanks to escape pods becomes a chase, then another Base Under Siege. It could have done with one less plot twist, and more/any laughs.
(Look away if you want to avoid spoilers, as this refers to the main point of the thing... although I think it’s spelled out on publicity blurb.)
Christmas presents, an early roundup
So, as well as the Christmas Special on which no doubt more later, the Beeb also gave us a rousing Christmas carol from some studenty types who I believe may have something to do with the show, a themed short story collection, and a new computer adventure game.
Shadows Of The Vashta Narada is a pretty straightforward Base Under Siege until a late twist, with a really big base (seriously, it’s big) inhabited by three people and a computer, and we get some justifiable motivations adding to the trouble in among the lumbering suited skeletons and alien megasharks.
I also got The Only Good Dalek. I’ll get back to you once I’ve read it. For now, Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.
Shadows Of The Vashta Narada is a pretty straightforward Base Under Siege until a late twist, with a really big base (seriously, it’s big) inhabited by three people and a computer, and we get some justifiable motivations adding to the trouble in among the lumbering suited skeletons and alien megasharks.
I also got The Only Good Dalek. I’ll get back to you once I’ve read it. For now, Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.
Wednesday, 22 December 2010
Classic Who Themes: Knockabout Action And Adventure
Knockabout Action And Adventure is the “default setting” for most Doctor Who adventures. And most roleplaying game sessions. So there isn’t that much that needs to be said here.
--
Example: The Maelstrom
(A Knockabout Action And Adventure Aliens Of London story)
The travellers, a UNIT fast response team and a group of civilians are caught between an alien marshal and an escaped carnivorous monster on a Dorset peninsula cut off by artificially bad weather. Can they find the monster before it kills again, and deal with the marshal before she calls in an orbital bombardment of the area to save the rest of the world?
--
Example: The Maelstrom
(A Knockabout Action And Adventure Aliens Of London story)
The travellers, a UNIT fast response team and a group of civilians are caught between an alien marshal and an escaped carnivorous monster on a Dorset peninsula cut off by artificially bad weather. Can they find the monster before it kills again, and deal with the marshal before she calls in an orbital bombardment of the area to save the rest of the world?
Classic Who Themes: Game For A Laugh
Comedy stands alongside adventure, drama and horror as one of the things Doctor Who contains in many stories and gives pride of place to in a few. This is something that often happens around the gaming table anyway, but more out-of-character than in, and comedy in gaming can feel forced. (I’ve played some great games of Toon, but also some really flat ones.)
Classic Who Themes: The Big Emotional Episode
The Big Emotional Episode is a story of some other kind that happens to hit one of the PCs where it hurts emotionally. This is the sort of thing that should definitely be discussed with the player beforehand, as some players aren't keen on putting their characters through the wringer.
Classic Who Themes: Behind The Sofa
Following “a series-ful of classic Who plots”, some ideas for themes and moods that “flavour” plots rather than defining them. Yes, my Vampire Storyteller hat is sitting by my desk.
I’ll be including an example adventure hook with each of these - all Aliens Of London stories to show how different each theme makes this basic setup.
If Doctor Who is known for one thing, it’s the Fear Factor. Which is interesting since the Doctor is so mighty, but his enemies are so many and so terrible and have a tendency to pick on puny humans.
Because we know the Doctor isn’t always there to stop them. And he’s almost never there in time to save everyone. (The classic series had an on-screen death toll over twelve hundred in a hundred and fifty stories.)
I’ll be including an example adventure hook with each of these - all Aliens Of London stories to show how different each theme makes this basic setup.
If Doctor Who is known for one thing, it’s the Fear Factor. Which is interesting since the Doctor is so mighty, but his enemies are so many and so terrible and have a tendency to pick on puny humans.
Because we know the Doctor isn’t always there to stop them. And he’s almost never there in time to save everyone. (The classic series had an on-screen death toll over twelve hundred in a hundred and fifty stories.)
Tuesday, 21 December 2010
A plug
Paul Cornell's Twelve Blogs of Christmas: Fan Fiction
Tricks Of The Light proves to be one of four Shalka-setup stories, a way behind Faiza Hussain but equal to Bernice Summerfield. There only being one Pulse story rather makes me want to get writing.
Tricks Of The Light proves to be one of four Shalka-setup stories, a way behind Faiza Hussain but equal to Bernice Summerfield. There only being one Pulse story rather makes me want to get writing.
Guest starring the Doctor
So, you don't have the Doctor in your game, you're doing something else in the Whoniverse. But you're thinking of a special episode (a Christmas special, a series opener) and drop hints about bringing the Doctor in for one night only.
Having the PCs work with the Doctor will of course give fannish players a bit of an egoboost, but maybe they find themselves working at cross purposes instead.
But which Doctor, and to what end? Which one can you do well, which would suit the tenor of your game, which would the players geek out over?
The First Doctor would suit mysteries and sense-of-wonder fantasies, the Second would fit romps, the Third dashing space-opera adventures or UNIT stories, the Fourth a mix of comedy and horror, the Fifth dashing adventures again, the Sixth confrontations with authority, the Seventh sinister machinations, the Eighth dashing adventures with a bigger effects budget and theoretically Time War stories, the Ninth quirky romps and gloomy war stories, the Tenth dashing adventures with angst, the Eleventh a bit more comedy and horror again.
Or of course there are other Doctors. The Richard E Grant version(s), the Unbound, DIY versions, here's eleven fan film Doctors, and check out the shot at 2.51... These give you more freedom, but lack the immediate fanjoy response of the televisual ones.
Or if you really want to mess with the players' heads, imagine their first meeting with the Doctor and it's actually the Valeyard. (How? I dunno, wibbly-wobbly...) And maybe away from confrontation with a normal Doctor he's more Doctor-ish, working for the good in his own way, but a bit sinister and Seventh-like. So they have to wonder if they can trust him, which could make for an interesting dynamic.
The main question, after which Doctor to use, is how to give him enough to do without overshadowing everyone else. Let's look at two handy examples: The Wedding Of Sarah Jane Smith and Death Of The Doctor from The Sarah Jane Adventures. In both of these, he only appears around the halfway point (at the cliffhanger of part one of two) so there's plenty of time for the regulars and other guests to interact, investigate and chat. He also spends most of his appearance time split off from some of the group, so they have to carry on without him solving problems on their own. And in both cases he has a hand in saving the day, but he's not the central hero of either.
Having the PCs work with the Doctor will of course give fannish players a bit of an egoboost, but maybe they find themselves working at cross purposes instead.
But which Doctor, and to what end? Which one can you do well, which would suit the tenor of your game, which would the players geek out over?
The First Doctor would suit mysteries and sense-of-wonder fantasies, the Second would fit romps, the Third dashing space-opera adventures or UNIT stories, the Fourth a mix of comedy and horror, the Fifth dashing adventures again, the Sixth confrontations with authority, the Seventh sinister machinations, the Eighth dashing adventures with a bigger effects budget and theoretically Time War stories, the Ninth quirky romps and gloomy war stories, the Tenth dashing adventures with angst, the Eleventh a bit more comedy and horror again.
Or of course there are other Doctors. The Richard E Grant version(s), the Unbound, DIY versions, here's eleven fan film Doctors, and check out the shot at 2.51... These give you more freedom, but lack the immediate fanjoy response of the televisual ones.
Or if you really want to mess with the players' heads, imagine their first meeting with the Doctor and it's actually the Valeyard. (How? I dunno, wibbly-wobbly...) And maybe away from confrontation with a normal Doctor he's more Doctor-ish, working for the good in his own way, but a bit sinister and Seventh-like. So they have to wonder if they can trust him, which could make for an interesting dynamic.
The main question, after which Doctor to use, is how to give him enough to do without overshadowing everyone else. Let's look at two handy examples: The Wedding Of Sarah Jane Smith and Death Of The Doctor from The Sarah Jane Adventures. In both of these, he only appears around the halfway point (at the cliffhanger of part one of two) so there's plenty of time for the regulars and other guests to interact, investigate and chat. He also spends most of his appearance time split off from some of the group, so they have to carry on without him solving problems on their own. And in both cases he has a hand in saving the day, but he's not the central hero of either.
Reading is an adventure...
The Christmas issue of Doctor Who Magazine includes a one-off comic strip called “The Professor, The Bookshop And The Queen”. As well as making my list of Celebrity Historicals for people the Doctor hasn’t met slightly out of date, it presents the TARDIS as a bookshop which can leap into any book it contains. A Land Of Fiction thing, I suppose, but a TARDIS in that form controlled by opening and moving books would be quite appropriate, as Doctor Who has always been a writerly sort of show.
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