While time itself may be a non-linier ball of wibbly wobbly timey wimey “stuff,” the Doctor Who limited edition rulebook by Cubicle Seven sorts it all out for us and presents the game, the Doctor, and time travel itself in an entertaining way that appeals to both the new fans and to those who have been around the TARDIS more than a few times during their life.
This hardcover book is just gorgeous! It’s release coincided with the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who and the cover depicts David Tennant, Matt Smith, and John Hurt as they appeared in “The Day of the Doctor.” While the book does tend to favor the more modern series, longtime fans will still be able to see their favorite doctor inside this core book and should they choose, dive even further into the past with sourcebooks dedicated to each of the Doctors various incarnations!
While jumping into such a deep setting as Doctor Who may seem a bit intimidating, the books does a great job easing newcomers in, explaining who The Doctor is, what a Time Lord is and why the TARDIS is more than just a big blue box.
Characters are defined by their Attributes, Skills and Traits. Your Attributes are: Awareness, Coordination, Ingenuity, Presence, Resolve, and Strength. These are ranked from one to seven or more, with three being the average for a human. Skills are ranked from one (novice) and have no upper limit, though at rank five your character is considered an expert. Lastly, Traits are both good and bad qualities that help define your character and grant them various abilities or drawbacks. Traits have three levels; Minor, Major and “Special”; Special traits usually grant some kind of superhuman power such as Telepathy or allow a player to create an alien.
The system itself works on the familiar formula of Attribute+ Skill+ Trait+ Roll against a difficulty number, but the results are more than a simple binary pass/ fail; you can succeed with a benefit, succeed, succeed at a cost. Failure follows a similar result structure; fail but still have some benefit, fail or fail and suffer some additional setback.
Probably the most talked about feature of the game on the various game boards I’ve visited is the Initiative system. There’s no rolling involved, instead, turn order depends on what sort of action you take; those who are going to just talk go first, followed by anyone just moving (or running), then anyone who’s going to be doing something, like fix the broken doohickey and finally anyone who’s going to be fighting. This, in my opinion is just perfect, and accurately reflects the spirit of the show.
The way initiative is handled also reflects the system as a whole, as the game tends to favor traits that showcases your characters personality and intelligence. Even so, the system doesn’t overlook combat and gives us a detailed section on combat and the various types of harm that come from that and other sources.
Of course, when I think about Doctor Who, my first thought goes to how well he and his companions are able to get out of a tight spot using nothing more than their wits, find a clever solution to a complicated problem or come up with a brilliant plan to save themselves and the universe (sometimes all in the same day). The game helps players accomplish these things with Story Points. Story Points allow players to reduce injury to their characters, find a vital clue to solve a mystery, or even pull off some truly game changing stunt or add a major plot detail. Story Points are typically earned through heroic actions and players can even lose them for unheroic acts, such as murder.
Although I’m no stranger to time travel stories, this is the first game I’ve owned that took great care to give so much information on how to use time travel to help tell stories. The section on time travel offers not only just general advise, but also specifics on how it works within the setting, what can go wrong and how the universe reacts when it inevitably does. For those interested in time travel stories and who have never run stories involving players careening through time, this section will be worth the price of admission alone.
The last section gives details and statistics for the fantastic gear and characters featured in the show, including the TARDIS, the Doctor as well as several of his most popular companions. There are also included several story ideas tailored to the various incarnations of the Doctor for those who just want to jump right into telling the types of stories you can only find in Doctor Who. So what are you waiting for? Grab your favorite companion and get ready! All of space and time; everything that has ever happened or ever will, where would you like to go?
Alex Montoya
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