Doctor Who RPG from Cubicle 7

[Legendarius]

I see this description on amazon.com but it doesn't have a product image and it still shows up as a pre-order even though 10/15 has come and gone.

Imagine you could go anywhere. This world or countless others, encountering strange alien races, new cultures or hostile environments. Now imagine you could travel to any time. See the pyramids and the Sphinx (back when she had a nose!), discover who (or what) really built Stonehenge, meet the first Emperor of Japan, or travel into the far future as humanity spreads to the stars. Where would you go? With Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space, the power is in your hands! You can go anywhere or anywhen in the universe. It's not going to be easy. It'll probably be dangerous. The universe is a hostile place, full of Daleks, Slitheen, Krillitane, Sontarans, Plasmavores, Cybermen, Sycorax, Judoon and worse. There will be fear, heartbreak and excitement, but above all, it'll be the trip of a lifetime.

Has anyone seen an early copy of this game, or for that matter the final copy? Did they offer play tests or the like at Gen Con? Is it based on a new game system entirely or is it a tweaked version of an existing engine? The publisher's website is pretty lacking on preview material and information about this game, and really has been for a long time now.

L

[Runfer]

Legendarius wrote:

I see this description on amazon.com but it doesn't have a product image and it still shows up as a pre-order even though 10/15 has come and gone.

Has anyone seen an early copy of this game, or for that matter the final copy? Did they offer play tests or the like at Gen Con? Is it based on a new game system entirely or is it a tweaked version of an existing engine? The publisher's website is pretty lacking on preview material and information about this game, and really has been for a long time now.

L

At the Cubicle 7 website they are saying a release date in November, but more likely December.

When I first learned the game was coming out, it was to be released last year at this time. But I still can't wait to get it either.

M

[modenstein17]

There's a preview pdf here:

http://www.cubicle-7.com/DWPlayersGuidePreview.pdf

and a copy of the character sheet here:

http://www.cubicle-7.com/DWCharSheetpreview.pdf

the publisher's website is here:
http://www.cubicle-7.com/

Hope that helps ;-)

[Legendarius]

It looks like this has finally hit the streets. Any early opinions on the rules engine and how well the systems capture the flavor of Doctor Who? As a fan, I'm sure I'll pick it up at some point after the holidays if I haven't gotten it as a gift but was curious if anyone has read it or even better played it yet.

thanks,
L

[LazarX]

The Players Guide preview gave me absolutely nothing as a handle on how the game itself would execute. The Character sheet itself was all gloss and very little substance.

This game so far is extremely lacking compared to what FASA put out a couple of decades ago and the setting of the new series seems to lack in possibilities to the old. FASA put out a wide variety of alternate Time Lords in a way which encouraged a group to have it's own variant TimeLord member (willing or not) of Gallifrey's CIA. Most of that possibility simply isn't there in the setting of the new series.

[Allensh]

I have the game right here in front of me, was a playtester on the project and ran it this last Friday night. It is a great, fast-moving game, story-oriented with rules that really support the genre. There are complete character creation rules; you can make your own Time Lord and Companions rather than playing The Doctor if you so choose. You can play UNIT, Torchwood, something like the Sarah Jane Adventures where you investigate alien activity on Earth, the field is wide open.

The system is stat + skill + roll of two d6, equal or beat a difficulty number. It doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it does give that car a nice new wax job :)

Characters take damage off their attributes, with damage being determined by how well they made their roll. A sword might do 2, 4 or 6 points, for example.

The game has great rules for non-combat interaction...as you would expect in a game where talking and thinking your way out of trouble is encouraged over gunplay.

While the initial release covers mainly the new series. C7 does have the license for the classic series as well (the Brig is on the cover of a UNIT supplement for April).

Allen

[Chris Mortika]

Allensh, thanks for the report.

The question I raised on another thread: does the game try to address the overall superiority that the Doctor has over all his companions? It might just be stated as a fact, of course. ( LazarX was kind enough to draw my attention to how Ars Magica Magi lead a party with significantly weaker, but still useful Companions.)

[Watcher]

Chris Mortika wrote:

Allensh, thanks for the report.

The question I raised on another thread: does the game try to address the overall superiority that the Doctor has over all his companions? It might just be stated as a fact, of course. ( LazarX was kind enough to draw my attention to how Ars Magica Magi lead a party with significantly weaker, but still useful Companions.)

I also have it in front of me, though I didn't state so in the other thread. (Though when I started to describe the content, it was a big hint)

Yes, it does address that topic.

I suppose I never spoke up when you asked about it, because it doesn't go much beyond simple common sense advice to mke every character important, and give every character a chance to shine, and all of the companions are just as important as the Doctor. There is no hard coded mechanic to enforce it however.

I'm still dissecting the rules. There is an action point system ("Story Points") and I do note that characters with less attributes and skills get significantly more Story Points than the Doctor and Captain Jack specifically.

For example, the Doctor gets 8 Story Points and Captain Jack gets a whopping 4.. whereas Donna and Rose get 15 each.

And story points basically can be used to grant successes and bonuses and save your character.. and so forth.. not unlike Bennies in Savage Worlds or other systems that use an Action Point system.

That is a definite balancing factor.

EDIT:

The baseline for Story Points for Companions is 12.. So this does appear to be a balancing factor against characters who have special and unusual traits like the Doctor and Captain Jack.

Sarah Jane, Martha, Mickey, and K-9 all have 12.. which makes sense because they have a few more skills and traits than Donna and Rose.

Further skimming yields no great amount of text discussing balancing the Doctor against other players. There is a sidebar suggesting everyone should get a chance to play the Doctor once in a while. There is a sentence here and there in the GM book stating that all the characters are important, so don't let the Doctor overshadow them. But literally, the rules just state "Don't do it" in the course of a few sentences.

Actually, I used to own the old Fasa system (Sold it for some dumb reason). This system seems to acknowledge that the Doctor is important and unique, but mechanically he doesn't seem to be raised to the same level of superiority that the FASA system put him at.

[Chris Mortika]

Bless you, Watcher.

You wrote:

everyone should get a chance to play the Doctor once in a while.

That's a fascinating suggestion. It's like everybody taking a turn playing Elric in the boardgame based on the novels.

Hmm. I wonder what the game would be like, if each player had a Companion, and the party as a whole played the Doctor.

[Watcher]

Here is a snippet I typed out...

The Rules wrote:

Character Points: 24

Character Points are used to purchase Attributes and Traits. We recommend you spend 18 points on Attributes, and save 6 for Traits. You’ll gain additional Character Points by taking some Bad Traits. If you have any Character Points left over, you can convert them into Skill Points.

Skill Points: 18
Skill Points are used purely to purchase Skills. You can get extra Skill Points from any leftover Character Points.

Story Points: 12
You don’t spend these during character creation, though purchasing particularly powerful abilities and Traits can reduce this maximum (such as being a Time Lord or having a power like Immortality).

[Watcher]

Actually, the GMs book has a lot of good sections on advice for GMing. Not being a mechanicaly intense system and reallying on cinematic style of play.. there's more emphasis on the role-playing.

The adventure book is pretty cool, there are two short but full fleshed out adventures.. and then dozens of adventure seeds.

Looking at Cubicle 7's site, it looks like each successive product will have an adventure book like this, with a couple fully fleshed out, and lots of seeds..

My wife has asked me to run her through something over Christmas, I'll keep folks posted.

[Runfer]

Sounds great. I hope I get this for Christmas. Been waiting forever to get the game.

[MTKnife]

Sounds an awful lot like Eden's Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG; Attribute + Skill + Dice = Result, and the powerful main characters (Buffy, Angel, The Doctor, Jack) are not as able to break free of fate as the Scoobies/Companions. Not that this is a bad thing, I'm rather fond of the simplicity of the Buffy system.