On the occasion of completing reviews on the Sarah Jane Adventures' 5th Series, I should like to re-imagine it as a role-playing game campaign using Cubicle 7's Doctor Who RPG. (Go back one, to Doctor Who Series 6.)
The GM
Phil plans a full season for the RPG club's foremost junior group, but he'll never get a chance to run the second half. After the first few sessions, he puts the campaign on hiatus because Lis falls ill. She never recovers and passes away. The grieving group will eventually decide to leave the campaign there, as a sign of respect for their group's matriarch. Before this happened, the campaign looked like it would never end. Knowing Anjli and Daniel might one day move on (to university, possibly), he had recruited their youngest player yet, Sinead, to keep the group going, and introduced new NPCs and subplots he wanted to follow up on later.
The Players
-Lis' illness took everyone by surprise, as her last sessions showed no waning of her energy, warmth and wisdom. She looked forward to exploring the relationship between Sarah Jane and the newest player's character.
-Anjli and Daniel still haven't decided to make Rani and Clyde an item - though occasional player Tommy likes to call them "Clani" as if they were - but not doing so opened up opportunities for Clyde at least.
-Sinead is only 12 years old, the youngest player yet introduced to the campaign, and she creates a girl her age called Sky, grown by the Fleshkind as a weapon (to be disarmed by the team so she can be adopted by Sarah Jane), and who, like Luke, would have no real knowledge of the world and amazing abilities (though hers would be electric).
-Tommy returns for a single story, which coincidentally turns out to be the group's last.
Sky. Sinead observes the first sessions (where her character is present as a baby), and gets to play from the second on. The GM introduces the war between Fleshkind and Metalkind, with every intention of having these beings return to plague Sky at some point. And he plans to reveal the baby was left at Sarah's door by the Trickster, but never gets to play that out.
METALKIND
Attributes: Awareness 2, Coordination 4, Ingenuity 3, Presence 3, Resolve 3, Strength 6
Skills: Athletics 2, Fighting 3, Knowledge 1, Marksman 3, Subterfuge 3
Traits: Adversary (Fleshkind), Alien, Alien Appearance, Armor [10], Invisible (Major). Story Points: 2-4
Home Tech Level: 6 (Equipment: Blaster L[3/5/8])
The Curse of Clyde Langer. A Native American totem curses Clyde's name so that anyone who hears it or sees it immediately hates and rejects him, even other PCs. Sky is the only one immune because of her alien nature and she eventually helps the group break the spell. But for Daniel's character, it means going on the run and sleeping rough. The GM supplies a guide to life on the streets in the form of Ellie, a homeless teen for the past two years. If this role-playing group has always been about educating young players in the best way to develop characters and work together, it's also been an opportunity to teach them about real world issues. In this case, Phil tries to play homelessness absolutely straight. Ellie's disappearance at the end of the adventure is ambiguous and might have been developed into a sequel, but alas...
The Man Who Never Was. Tommy returns as Luke, but doesn't go too hard on his new "sister". Nevertheless, he teases her with sibling rivalry, and she responds in kind. The scenario is really about a holographic man selling subpar computers with hypno-power, and it takes the entire group working as a team to defeat the evil man who's enslaved the aliens controlling the hologram. If it all had to end, at least it ended on a module like this where everyone had a big role to play.
With sadness, the campaign is retired. Phil had planned to bring back the Trickster and to make the computer Mr. Smith human for a day, but he'd have to repurpose his plots in another game if he wanted to use them. He'd continue running games for younger players, though his Wizards vs Aliens campaign has nothing to do with the Whoniverse.
The GM
The Players
-Lis' illness took everyone by surprise, as her last sessions showed no waning of her energy, warmth and wisdom. She looked forward to exploring the relationship between Sarah Jane and the newest player's character.
-Anjli and Daniel still haven't decided to make Rani and Clyde an item - though occasional player Tommy likes to call them "Clani" as if they were - but not doing so opened up opportunities for Clyde at least.
-Sinead is only 12 years old, the youngest player yet introduced to the campaign, and she creates a girl her age called Sky, grown by the Fleshkind as a weapon (to be disarmed by the team so she can be adopted by Sarah Jane), and who, like Luke, would have no real knowledge of the world and amazing abilities (though hers would be electric).
-Tommy returns for a single story, which coincidentally turns out to be the group's last.
Sky. Sinead observes the first sessions (where her character is present as a baby), and gets to play from the second on. The GM introduces the war between Fleshkind and Metalkind, with every intention of having these beings return to plague Sky at some point. And he plans to reveal the baby was left at Sarah's door by the Trickster, but never gets to play that out.
Attributes: Awareness 2, Coordination 4, Ingenuity 3, Presence 3, Resolve 3, Strength 6
Skills: Athletics 2, Fighting 3, Knowledge 1, Marksman 3, Subterfuge 3
Traits: Adversary (Fleshkind), Alien, Alien Appearance, Armor [10], Invisible (Major). Story Points: 2-4
Home Tech Level: 6 (Equipment: Blaster L[3/5/8])
The Curse of Clyde Langer. A Native American totem curses Clyde's name so that anyone who hears it or sees it immediately hates and rejects him, even other PCs. Sky is the only one immune because of her alien nature and she eventually helps the group break the spell. But for Daniel's character, it means going on the run and sleeping rough. The GM supplies a guide to life on the streets in the form of Ellie, a homeless teen for the past two years. If this role-playing group has always been about educating young players in the best way to develop characters and work together, it's also been an opportunity to teach them about real world issues. In this case, Phil tries to play homelessness absolutely straight. Ellie's disappearance at the end of the adventure is ambiguous and might have been developed into a sequel, but alas...
The Man Who Never Was. Tommy returns as Luke, but doesn't go too hard on his new "sister". Nevertheless, he teases her with sibling rivalry, and she responds in kind. The scenario is really about a holographic man selling subpar computers with hypno-power, and it takes the entire group working as a team to defeat the evil man who's enslaved the aliens controlling the hologram. If it all had to end, at least it ended on a module like this where everyone had a big role to play.
With sadness, the campaign is retired. Phil had planned to bring back the Trickster and to make the computer Mr. Smith human for a day, but he'd have to repurpose his plots in another game if he wanted to use them. He'd continue running games for younger players, though his Wizards vs Aliens campaign has nothing to do with the Whoniverse.
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