On the occasion of completing reviews on Doctor Who's 13th 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 Series 13.)
The GM
Years after passing the torch, Russell is back to run some Doctor Who games. It's an anniversary year for the role-playing club, and he wants to please himself by playing a few games with some of his favorite players from the past before starting his new campaign proper. So he plans out four special games, introducing the new Doctor in the third, and then the new companion in the fourth, but he's also inviting special guests to the table, some of whom he's trying to entice into playing a secondary campaign. Looking over Chris' campaign notes, he finds some ideas he likes and passes on to his players, but also finds the tone a little serious for his tastes. He pledges to take a more "anything goes approach" and wants to make the game (and the players at the table) even more diverse than Chris did.
The Players
-David has agreed to come back and play three games, but he doesn't want to play the Tenth Doctor exactly. He does find he falls into old patterns and catch phrases once the action starts, but he's older, his character is "older", so he's playing as more serious, less hyperactive.
-Catherine has also agreed to come back as Donna Noble, and has worked out a backstory for the past 15+ years in the character's life and her family's, including a trans daughter named after a past companion, who Russell weaves into his plans. She's fully ready to play a "reset Donna" who doesn't understand what's happening anymore, but when Russell gives her the chance to restore the character, she dives in, head first.
-As a special guest-star, Bonnie shows up and updates her Mel character sheet at the GM's behest. She's to be attached to UNIT now - she comes up with a quick explanation as to how she might be back on Earth, but doesn't really solidify the details - and will play the third session.
-Speaking of UNIT, Russell is thinking of also launching a UNIT-centric game and he wants to lure a couple players to it. Ruth plays UNIT's spicy scientific adviser Shirley Bingham who, like herself, has spina bifida. She agrees to two sessions. The other is Jemma as UNIT leader Kate Lethbridge-Stewart. Though her character was sometimes played as an NPC, she did originate the character in the previous anniversary games. She's back for a session and seems interested in more down the line.
-And then there's Ncuti and Millie, who are to be the new main players and do get to play in these special games. He wants his Doctor to be great at building gadgets (and can Russell help him out with the gadgetry rules?) and a free spirit mostly untouched by past tragedy. SHE has this idea to create Ruby Sunday, an orphan who was adopted by her foster mother who became a serial foster parent, and who is in a band (and can she play her keyboard and sing at the table, is that allowed?).
Destination: Skaro. After character creation (or character updates), there's some time left, so Russell engineers a quick and silly dalek story that has David's new/old Doctor bootstrap paradox the Daleks' origins. It's just a chance for his core player to get back into the swing of things, nothing serious.
The Star Beast. Back before he ever GMed a session, Russell had seen a monster and idea he liked on the old DWITAS boards, and after talking to Pat, the GM who originated it, he uses it. A creature so cute, the PCs will feel the need to protect it, only to find themselves on the wrong side of history. Beep the Meep is the real monster. Of course, this is all background to restoring Donna's memory so she sticks around for other adventures, but naughty Russell still makes David and Catherine think she'll die from the metacrisis that's the only way out of his scenario. It's a good end, they allow it, but haha, no, she's saved by her daughter (in a manner of speaking). Well, two can play at that game! Catherine makes him think she WON'T go on those adventures, cuz her family needs her and her priorities have changed... Seeing Russell's face, she winks at him and splashes some coffee into the TARDIS console, giving him permission to send it away and strand her aboard.
Attributes: Awareness 3, Coordination 2, Ingenuity 5, Presence 5, Resolve 4, Strength 2
Skills: Convince 5, Fighting 1, Knowledge 3, Marksman 3, Science 3, Subterfuge 4, Technology 3, Transport 2
Traits: Adversary (Major) – Wrarth Warriors, Alien, Alien Appearance, Attractive – Well, very cute anyway, Eccentric (Major) – Homicidal and easily angered, Selfish. Story Points: 10
Home Tech Level: 7 (Equipment: Ray Gun)
Stats by Peter Gilham for the 4th Doctor Expanded Sourcebook
Wild Blue Yonder. Russell sets up a puzzle at the edge of the universe, with weird doppelgangers on an empty space ship, the twist being that after the players have conversations, he THEN reveals, no you were talking to / playing the doppelganger, taking it over as it exposes itself or attacks. After a couple times, the jig is up, of course, but the players really get into it and act all sinister and stuff.
The Giggle. The big UNIT session with three extra players and a special guest-star from campaign's past! Russell also digs into the campaign files and brings back an old villain - the Celestial Toymaker. Three extra players? It was supposed to be four, as Bernard, who once ran an NPC as a guest player was set to play, but sadly passed away before the session. THREE extra players? No, it's really four, as an observer (as the club likes to have) has actually drawn up his own Doctor. As the 14th Doctor is killed, Ncuti gets up, confidently grabs a chair and sits down. But Russell's not done with David. He uses the magical physics enabled by the Toymaker to split the Doctor in two, and has the TWO Doctors end the threat, together. The players keep expecting a merging of some sort, and hint at it, but Russell will have none of it, giving David the chance to retire his character as a happy civilian with his found family instead. David thinks it's pretty naughty to keep him in the loop when he only agreed to three games, but these two they have a finger-wagging smirksome relationship.
The Church on Ruby Road. Over the Christmas break, Russell introduces Millie to Ncuti in their first full adventure together. The GM has here woven a mystery surrounding Ruby's biological parents, and keeps the PCs mostly apart for a good while as Ruby Sunday has all sorts of bad luck and the Doctor investigates these coincidences. Naughty Russell calls Millie's bluff about singing at the table by initiating a musical number for his coincidence-feeding goblin pirates and to his surprise, it's Ncuti who shows his improvisational singing skills first by continuing the song. Millie jumps into it bemusedly. She's fairly new to role-playing, but everything Russell throws at her makes her grin. One story in and they're having a lot of fun already.
Attributes: Awareness 2, Coordination 4, Ingenuity 2, Presence 3, Resolve 4, Strength 3
Skills: Athletics 3, Craft 3 (AoE: Singing), Fighting 3, Knowledge 2, Marksman 2, Science 2 (AoE: The Language of Coincidence), Subterfuge 5, Survival 3, Technology 2 (AoE: The Language of Ropes), Transport 3
Traits: Alien, Alien Appearance, Alien Senses (coincidence), Climbing (Minor), Cutting Edge Technology (their tech is hard to decipher because it appears to be magical), Dependency (Major: their tricks are fuelled by coincidence), Single-Minded, Size: Tiny (Minor), Vortex, Weakness (Major: if the Goblin King is killed, they disappear)
Story Points: 6
Home Tech Level: 7 (Equipment: Blaster, Coms unit)
Russell goes back to planning a full campaign with these players, and perhaps solidifying his plans for a UNIT game too. Heck, maybe it doesn't have to be the only spin-off. You know how it is when you get excited about an RPG...
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