You know the deal.

I seriously considered running a Time War campaign, but ultimately didn't want to be bound to one, nor to be stuck in the past. The standard model of the TV series allows the flexibility to visit any other campaign model, and I had a number of ideas that wouldn't really fit the war concept.

This year, I have read, Doctor Who–wise:
* Benny New Adventure / Faction Paradox: Dead Romance by Lawrence Miles. Just brilliant.
* Doctor Who New Adventure: Timewyrm: Genesys by John Peel. When I was 10, I thought this was terribly mature. When I was in my 20s, I was it was terribly immature. Now I'm in my 30s, it seems about right. Better than I remembered, but still a bit crappy. This commenced my re-read of all NAs, in order this time.
* New Series novel: Engines of War by George Mann. Not as good as it should have been, it doesn't really do anything interesting with the "time war" concept.
* Novelisation: Slipback by Eric Saward. As an author, Saward is like Douglas Adams with the humour removed. The rambling digressions are fine, but the actual story is a drag. Not as good as I remembered. This is wrapping up my re-read of all novelisations, which I began, I don't know, maybe fifteen years ago.
* Comics: the Endgame collection of Eighth Doctor comics from Doctor Who Magazine. Awesome. This is my era of Doctor Who.
I also rewatched "The Creature from the Pit" and a Victorian-themed combo of "Ghost Light" and "Deep Breath". All great stories.

I should post more of my Doctor Who reading and viewing as I go.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:14, Thu 12 Mar 2015.

I have received several good applications, so I'm now closing to RTJs. I'll make final decisions in the new few days. To everyone else, better luck next time. :)

My apologies to all applicants, this week I was swamped with work, family, injury, and game activity, and it's just been a struggle to get on top of it all while also trying to pick through a lot of good applicants. Can I run a DWAITAS game with half-a-dozen players? I'll try to start contacting applicants.

And now we have players! I ended up picking almost everyone after all. Time will tell if I can a DWAITAS with six or seven PCs, though I'm used to it in D&D.

So, please feel to introduce yourselves, your characters, and any key roles and abilities they may have. You may find that if another character is all over one role, you don't have to concentrate on it so much on your own.

Given the player make-up, with two Time Lords, I expect a Gallifrey- and Time War–centric campaign after all, so we may go back to my old plans to some extent, but we won't be welded to the Time War.

BTW, we won't be using the common Aliens skill house rule. I just don't feel it's necessary, and will try to use the standard rules to cover it. I've updated the character creation thread to mention this.

Currently reading:
* Timewyrm: Exodus by Terrance Dicks. A classic, great adventure.
* The Glorious Dead comics collection
* And still working my way through Ahistory by Lance Parkin & Lars Pearson
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:28, Sat 21 Mar 2015.

Guess I'm the first, lucky me :-)

Trace is a young engineer, born on board a starship that's been wandering time and space due to faulty experimental hyperdrives. Given that, all he's really used to is life aboard a ship where your role is determined at birth. Its a very regimented, ordered society with little or no "social mobility". If you're born a deck rat, there is little or no chance of you ever becoming an officer. Consequently social graces are a thing he lacks.

Bluetooth is a youthful Rakshasa (tiger-folk) with all the foibles of youth still, not having selected his life path yet, with one blue tooth, hence his name. He’s outgoing and friendly, but also curious about gizmos. His normal form is a 6-foot tall tiger-like humanoid with orange fur with black stripes and green eyes that walks upright and wears a khaki vest full of pockets. When necessary, though, he has a holopticon that projects an image around him of a non-descript human male with black hair wearing a brown tweed suit.

Tarysevanemila, known as Tarys for convenience, is a Time Lord operative displaced from the heart of the Last Great Time War.  Her broken relationship to time has left her with a slightly skewed ability to relate to other people, and her reserved -- albeit beguiling -- personality goes along with that.  But it also affords her glimpses beyond the here and now to augment her formidable psychic gifts, her knowledge of many times and places, and her skills as a covert agent.

Tarys is tall and striking, with an athletic build and dark hair, and favors close-fitting clothing in black, gray, and violet.  Her manner can come off as haunting or unnerving to others -- and her tendency to take comfort from handling an ornate knife that she claims is a powerful Time Lord artifact certainly does little to soften that impression.

Despite that, Tarys is dedicated to the task of protecting or aiding those she finds in danger.  Whether or not her war is still in progress on some branch of the continuum, she knows that her training and knowledge were given her to be used in the cause of right.

Additionally: when we have a complete writeup, I'm assuming we should tag that to the Character Details page on our Cast List entry.  I'm still working on that myself, but it should be done in a day or so.

Hi! Sorry for the late response, but I've been busy all day. Went to my first ever wedding, and just got back. Very exciting!

Axander, or Xander to some, was a student at the Time Lord Academy on Gallifrey during the outbreak of the Last Great Time War. He was rescued and hidden on Earth, and so doesn't know the events of the War beyond that. He's a book lover, deeply interested in literature and the cultures of various species. His specialty is knowing the history and lore of the amazing life forms throughout time and space, and he tries to collect rare books when he can.

He's still young for any species, let alone a Time Lord. While he's technically no different from any other Time Lord from a biological standpoint, he never actually graduated from the Academy and so doesn't consider himself one.

Put what you feel is appropriate in your Character Descriptions: your appearance, the descriptions of gadgets, clothes, and items, and any personality details people might notice. You don't have to make your biographies and other details public, especially if you have secrets to keep. ;)

Hello everyone, I will be playing Major Farren Zander, a veteran Earth Agent of the Space Security Service.

He is dedicated to maintaining Earth's security and "keeping the peace" in general.  He had some previous brief encounters with time travel/Time Lords, though he is far from being an experienced "time traveller".

Since the enemies of the Time Lords are often also the enemies of Earth, Farren views working with the Time Lords as typically being beneficial to the "best interests" of Earth (and to some degree Farren's superiors in the SSS agree).

Although he bears a military rank of major (the SSS tends to utilize a military rank structure), he is really more of an "intelligence agent" rather than a soldier and his approach to problems typically reflects this (he is not a "kick the door in and start blasting" type as some of his fellow humans tend to be).

*grumble* The stupid potato-heads get a picture. But does my, far more noble and civilised race? Of course not.

Heyla all. Please put up with the portrait for now - it's not really very much like an Ice Warrior; but it is all in armor so it kinda works.

I think that's everyone?

And that's everyone!

I've sent you all a new PM thread. Please use that to contact me for general game matters. It's a bit easier and more obvious which character I'm talking to than the RTJs.

We have two spy types and other overlaps in the party, with some similar features but different enough that I think it will work. A Doctor Who game assumes you'll split up sooner or later anyway.

So, get to building your characters and compiling your write-ups and send them to me when you're done.

I have an opening adventure and campaign in mind, and be warned, I plan to abuse the format to its limits. ;) I just need to tweak things and know you all a bit better to fit you in. That you're all time travellers or from "the future" makes things a bit easier. I'll suggest links between you as necessary, but feel free to come up with your own.

How do you feel about in medias res, that is, starting in the middle of the story and then finding out we got there? A lot of games drag at first and get bogged down in getting the team together. I want to start with a bang and mess around with nonlinear storytelling.

BTW, due to work and babysitting, I may not make much of a response for the next two days or so.

I'm sure I'm from the past!

No problems starting in the middle. Some of the best DW stories pretty much start in the middle with the Doctor blundering in anyway.... (Pretty much any from the first four doctors for starters; or many from the 11th if you're looking more recently.)

Yes, the main thing that I'd think would be necessary to that approach is some OOC negotiation as to what the connections between PCs look like and how we've been relating to each other.

Characterwise, I'm mostly done with the the mechanical foundations. Still got a few CP to spend to round thins our or fill some gaps. But the base mechanical stuff is (mostly) down. Some prettying up to do as well. The character sheet (as it is so far) is up on the CHaracter Details bit.

Plotwise, starting in the the middle is alway a good option to get the action going.

Actually, I don't think this can be done with OOC negotiations; unless everyone knows the other players very well; or everyone is using PCs they've tried before in dead games. I don't usually know how my character will interact with another until I actually play them. What can be done is a dry statement of facts telling what our characters can actually -do-.

I've never played this character before. I've never played a character even remotely like this, except I guess that he has a very strong sense of honor in his race and himself.

Okay. I would tell you any necessary details of skills and personalities, and you can play it rather fast-and-loose until you really do get to know one another. Your relationships could change later. You wouldn't be total best buds, of course, but people who've been doing stuff together for a bit.

If it's a matter of getting into character (and I know that need), I can start something set in the background to run concurrently.

BTW, there's a character building website that may help you along.
http://dwcg.eu5.org/
I'd seen it before, but thanks Farren for pointing it out. I think it's a bit too busy with the title sequence in the background, and it only uses the core sourcebook.

The problem with that site is not so much the business, but it saves something on to your computer. So I can't -really- utilise it at work.

So I'll try to get things sorted tomorrow night as it's getting a bit late to do that now tonight. I have most of it basically figured out; just a few things related to his race to figure out.

In Bluetooth's case, it's about how he got off his home planet. If he's hitchhiking on the TARDIS, no problem.

As far as Tarys goes, you just pick another character that you want to have a connection with, and deal with it in a PM. That's how you work out the interaction. Remember, you don't have to LIKE the other character, just develop a working relationship.

So one thing that might need to be clarified is, with 2 Time Lord PCs, which one is taking the role of "The Doctor"?

Meaning, which Time Lord "owns"/"drives" the TARDIS the PCs are using?

I would assume Tarys only because she seems the more experienced Time Lord (Axander mentioned that he doesn't really consider himself a Time Lord since he did not complete the Academy).

The reason knowing who "The Doctor" is in the context of the PCs is important is that most of the PCs would have some sort of connection/relationship to the Time Lord (thus explaining their "tagging along" through time & space as Companions).

I just started a PM thread with Stirix to establish a connection, if he's interested, but while I was writing that message, an idea occurred to me.

What if BCM uses the TARDIS as an NPC that's gathering up potential Companions and/or Doctors.

Unless someone is writing up his/her character with a built-in TARDIS, this offers a way around that. Perhaps the TARDIS's Doctor is missing and we have to go find him (preliminary adventure or whatever).

Anyway, just thought I'd toss in my two cents.

Don't feel compelled to work out connections between yourselves, how you met, etc. I hope to have the introductory adventure (which is like the second) put you all together. You could all have valid, independent reasons to be there, and meet up then.

So write your backstories up to the point you feel comfortable with, where your character is at when the campaign starts (second adventure, yeah). Don't assume you're already a TARDIS companion (unless that seems essential).

Only Farren necessarily comes from the 40th century or thereabouts. Bluetooth, Stirix, Trace, do you mind if I set you to that time? (Which I imagine should be fine for Stirix and Trace.) How do all you feel about working on a spaceship on a scientific expedition? There'd be jobs for all of you.

The TARDIS is still to be decided. Axander actually has one in his backstory and statted up previous games I've seen him in. So I might go with that, I might decide on an NPC TARDIS. (War TARDIS? Type-103 humanoid? How do you get inside her anyway?)

So, yeah, I realise this may be weird, complicated, and confusing. I may be the Moffat of GMs here. I so love my idea though, and hope you'll get a kick out of it.


BTW, six of you, six pilots of a TARDIS, it all works out.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:01, Mon 23 Mar 2015.

PS: I guess the best way to draw connections at this stage would be to consider how you relate to one another. Could they be buddies, is someone taking young Trace as a protégé, how would the two Time Lords get on? That sort of thing. It can be revised later if things don't pan out that way though.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:10, Mon 23 Mar 2015.

Gah, every time we get some awesome conversation like this going, I'm in the process of being kidnapped for an unknown amount of time.

I do have a Time Travel Capsule in my background (Academy instructors disapprove of the term "Tardis"). If we use that, then I'm in my second regeneration. If not, then I absolutely need a connection to someone else to have removed me from 2005 Scotland. Also, if we left it behind, that means there's a dead TTC there.

I'll try to get more fluff stuff up very soon. I don't have my character sheet written up yet mostly because that takes time, and I've been getting minutes at a time to sit at my computer. Was expecting to have time today, but that's not looking like the way things are going.

Speaking for myself I'm okay with this.

I would be fine with this idea.  Farren could be an overt SSS security agent assigned to the ship or he could be on an undercover assignment aboard the ship.

Well if you want to be from the "future", I believe the Ice Warriors were (became) a part of the Galatic Federation (which replaced the earlier Earth Empire) at some point during the 40th Century: http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Ice_Warrior

Just an idea.

Hmm.

Most recently from the 40th century is fine; but part of his history does suggest he's from a way back. Now if he's awoken, thawed out, whatever in the 40th century that works fine.

The Ice Warriors did become a part of the Galactic Federation - which is not a replacement for the Earth Empire FWIW; Earth is just one of many planets to be part of it - but part of his background requires a time substantially before then.

Well I'm not an expert regarding the canon Doctor Who timeline, but according to the TARDIS Data Core wiki, the Earth Empire formed around the 25th Century and fell around the 30th or 31st Century: http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Earth_Empire

Oddly enought, something called the Earth Alliance was formed before the Earth Empire and lasted after the fall of the Earth Empire.  Similarly something called the Terran Federation existed around the same time.  However, I think both the Earth Alliance and the Terran Federation are mainly (solely?) from books & audio-plays rather than the TV series.

The TARDIS Data Core wiki indicates (perhaps incorrectly) that the Galatric Federation was the political entity that succeeded the Earth Empire.  Though, as you say, Earth (and Humans) are only one of several Members: http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Galactic_Federation

Eventually by the 42nd Century, the "Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire" (what a "modest" name!) was spreading across multiple galaxies: http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/S...untiful_Human_Empire
This message was last edited by the player at 23:21, Mon 23 Mar 2015.

Tarys is theoretically capable of piloting a TARDIS, but it was never her specialty, so I suspect that in the war she usually either operated as a specialist on a team, traveled to missions via Time Ring, or was dropped / retrieved from her missions by other Time Lords.  I'm pretty confident she wouldn't have a TARDIS of her own.

It may have succeeded the Earth empire; but it was not a replacement for such. It was closer to a galactic version of the UN to anything.

The fact that they were a member played a significant role in two TV serials; both involving the third doctor; including the third doctor's substantial bias against them in the first serial.

I really only use the TARDIS Wiki when it comes to stuff from the books and audios. When it comes to the TV series, especially the classic series, I trust my own knowledge more.

So, in the interests of disclosure, for Trace I've gone with a high Ingenuity and above average Coordination. Because of his age, I've dropped Strength to below average. He's Brave and Lucky, which is handy because he's dangerously Curious about things. Trace is a Technically Adept engineer/mechanich, highly skilled at using and repairing Technology. Having spent all his life aboard a starship, he's well versed in using various modes of Transport. The Pockets on his clothing come in very handy when he needs the right part at the right time, and the Scanner Gauntlet he wears also comes in useful whenever he needs to study broken machine, an unusual piece of technology, Scan an alien lifeform, Transmit a message or just play music. He's not very good at Fighting, but he's better at it than shooting. Mostly, figures when the bullets, blades and beams start flying, he should just Run for his Life!

I had some time on my hands :-)

I'm not going for -full- disclosure; and I'm still working on my sheet. (I'm at work so can't really get stuck into it for a few hours...), but I will state he's going to have quite a good ingenuity; but will act as a scientist and more importantly... medic. Though being Ice Warrior and all that entails; he probably won't be so anti-violence as you might expect of a doctor.

Yes, the Earth Empire (the earliest) rose around the 25th/26th centuries, became an unholy fusion of Judge Dredd and Warhammer 40K by the 30th (in the New Adventures novels), then collapsed (the background to the 3rd Doctor story "The Mutants).

The Galactic Federation arose afterwards, initially by alien powers like the Alpha Centauri and others, with recovering humans and Earth invited to join later (outlined in novels). Think Star Trek's Federation but less human-dominated. This is where we get the Peladon stories and "Dalek's Masterplan". Ice Warriors are certainly active in that. Humans eventually came to dominate matters, as they do. Things like an Earth Alliance or Terran Federation would be parts of the empire ("Earth Empire" might just be a name) and later members of the Federation.

Obviously I'm going with a novels-based structure for the future history, since they're perhaps the only range to present a coherent time-line, which is thus the basis for Ahistory. Since the new series went further into the future, they don't contradict too much. I won't tie the date down too tightly to keep it flexible, but around the 40th should allow a lot of crossover without bending history too much. I'll read up on it.


Trace, you might consider Inexperienced too, considering your age, though he also may have been through a lot.


I'll check sheets later in the week. Work just keeps shovelled at me.

I've managed to put up most of my sheet, though I need to go through the books more carefully to count point costs. I think I have a spare CP. Also, my Description now has the appearance, background, and personal goal sections filled! Woo!

I've started checking your character sheets and discussing problems and making suggestions. It's proved to be more confusing than expected. So, I'll get through all of you eventually.

Bear in mind, I may be completely wrong when it comes to points spend and gained on traits and packages.
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:16, Sat 28 Mar 2015.

I'm just about there. The Ice Warrior part causing headaches - well, that and I've been struggling with sleep all week.

I can send what I have so far if you like.

Sure.

I'm afraid I don't have official stats for an Ice Warrior/Martian. I'd happily buy the Second Doctor Sourcebook or the Third Doctor Sourcebook to get them however.

I've got official Ice Warrior stats! :D

DWAITAS, Limited Edition, page 157. For those who don't have it, here are the crunchy bits of the writeup.

---

Awareness 2, Coordination 1, Ingenuity 2, Presence 2, Resolve 3, Strength 7

Skills
Fighting 4, Marksman 3, Survival 3

Traits
Alien
Alien Appearance: Ice Warriors appear to be reptilian humanoids.
Armour (Major): Ice Warriors wear a bioarmour that resembles a carapace or shell. This armour reduces damage taken by 10. It also slows their coordination; in their native atmosphere an Ice Warrior has his Coordination lowered by 1. In Earth-like atmospheres his Coordination is lowered by 2 (the Attribute score already takes
an Earth-like atmosphere into account).
Cyborg
Natural Weapon (Sonic Gun): Ice Warriors have a sonic gun attached to their forearms that form part of their armour (4/L/L).
Slow (Minor): An Ice Warrior’s speed is halved in Earth-like environments.
Weakness (Major): An Ice Warrior prefers cold weather and can’t stand intense heat. An Ice Warrior gets a -2 penalty to all actions when the temperature rises to 32°C and takes 4 levels of damage as the temperature gets closer to 100°C.
Tech Level: 6
Story Points: 3-4

I'll try to get Farren's public/visible character description up this weekend if I get the opportunity to do so.

I'm gonna have to take a few days. I need to make an important decision about my job.

Good luck!

I've been checking sheets, some of you are done, some needed fixes or revisions. I've been busy today and will be tomorrow. I'll get back to you afterward, Thursday I hope, and hope to start the game later this week.

And there, at last, the game is started.

Right in the deep end. ;)

I've been working on it all afternoon and night, I hope I got all the necessary details in, but it's late now. If there's a problem or something not explained, let me know.

Some of you are still building your characters or revising them, but don't worry. You can use currents for your rolls before changing them. If you need to roll, but don't have stats yet, then I'll estimate, roll, and decide the outcome.

I'm running a heavily modified version of the "Doom of the Daleks" campaign arc from the Eighth Doctor Sourcebook. So no peaking! The Doctor's actions are a sequel/aftermath to the novel Engines of War:
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Engines_of_War
I patched the two together because they were so similar, but that you can peak at.

So, no pressure then :-)

I'm at work at the moment so I'll give it a proper read through tonight.

Woo! Our adventure has begun! :D

No pressure. ;) You really only need to save the Doctor, the rest just follows on from that. :)

.... no pressure. Pffft.

Gah, brain failure. I've forgotten the base mechanic and I'm at work with no access to the books. Is it 2d6+stat+skill. Greater than or equal to difficulty to succeed?

Edit: Never mind, I found my copy of the Primeval PDF on my Google Drive.
This message was last edited by the player at 10:40, Sat 04 Apr 2015.

Ah, okay. I've always operated on the assumption that Time Lords always exist relative to each other, much like you can't time travel to different points of Gallifrey's history. I mean, barring shenanigans involving Time Scoops and the like.

With that in mind, I kinda thought the Doctor was already doomed, and our time limit was simply how long it takes for the Exterminator to completely remove him from history. I am totally good with other bizarreness, since a) it all has precedent and b) it's fun. :D

That's true, barring shenanigans, but you haven't really had contact with the Doctor yet, only the hypercube message from the relative future, and don't expect to meet him in this. So, Gallifreyan Mean-Time is safe. For now...

It does mean we're retconning the ending of Engines of War, which is okay, because that was kind of meh.



Fun fact, I've never Harry Potter and only seen the first two or three movies. So, I have no idea.



Daleks are second greatest? Who's the first?

Oooooh! I thought it was from the relative present! Got it. Confusion mostly over. :P

Well that's obvious... the Time Lords of course!  ;)


On a different note, I'm guessing that for Team Power Generator, likely either Tarys or Farren should take the lead (since we're "spy trained)... unless Trace is trained in stealth?

You've probably been together long enough to say that Farren is just a bit better at the Subterfuge thing than Tarys. So Farren will probably take the lead.
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:52, Sun 05 Apr 2015.

I'm around; but having problems in finishing my sheet; due to these above issues.

Oh, Stirix! With my assisting him, Bluetooth is 1 point short of a success. If you assist his Stealth roll as well, that automatically adds +2 to his result, regardless of your own skills. So it's a thing you can do even while fiddling with your sheet. :D

Sorry, I got busy with other games to GM this week. But I'd like to hear from Tarys and Stirix before I resolve your exploration efforts, to give you a better chance before things start going downhill. :)

Huh, cooperation bonuses don't require any rolls. So, no matter how bad your advice or clumsy your efforts, it's still useful. Though you still need some skill in the area.)

No worries on the sheet. Just tell me what you'd intend to do, and I'll take a guess estimate an appropriate score and roll for you.

The skills; should be about right; as should the abilities; it's the traits I'm not sure on.

Well I have no skill in stealth so don't think I can assist.

Okay.

I didn't realize a supporting action was being asked from everyone, as Farren seemed to have matters in hand.</quote>

I mainly wanted to confirm that everyone had checked in and had nothing planned. Especially since your group was on the border between a Success and a Good result.


Whew. That was a big update, I had some story and background to get through. Writing Dalek voices is a chore and a half.

I've set the dice-roller to default to 2d6, with both dice recorded.

Also, I'm using the Dalek stats from the original Gamemaster's Guide, as they're apparently the Time War–era Daleks. If you think a lesser Dalek would be more appropriate, I'll hear it.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:37, Wed 15 Apr 2015.

It will take Bluetooth a couple of minutes to make a Gadget here in the labs. A 15 will get you a Minor Gadget; you'll have to spend a Story Point as well. Major or Special Gadgets will require higher rolls and more story points. You can enlist the help of PCs or NPC scientists to build a better gadget.

Did you have any particular traits in mind for your gadget? Disable from The UNIT Sourcebook might be a good fit; Minor will disable a particular sort of device in an area, while Major will disable everything in an area, for a time. Alternatively, there's the Zap or Weapon traits to make it a weapon of some sort. The Stun trait from The Time Traveller's Companion could also do what you want, stunning a target for a number of rounds (Minor) or hours (Major). It can have bad traits like One-Shot, Hungry, or Bulky to pay for higher powers.

In fact, there's a Special gadget suggested in the module that will do just what you want and more if you want to try for it?

Sorry for the silence, busy week in RL.  Trace, I have an idea for Farren vis-a-vis the remaining Dalek but I need to work out the details.  I hope to post IC very soon.

I plan on getting a post in later today, but had a busy day yesterday and about an hour of sleep. Wanna put up something really good, and am very much not at my best right now.

BTW, I haven't memorised all your traits yet, and there are a lot of them. So do feel free to remind me of all relevant traits as they might come up in a situation.

Oops, I missed this OOC to Bluetooth. But, yeah, I knew it'd take a few minutes. Just not sure how you were tracking it.

If there's a device in the module that will do what I want, then let's go for that!

I had no idea Bluetooth was a boffin. I thought that'd be Stirix doin' the gadget stuff. Very cool. :D
This message was last edited by the player at 04:01, Sat 25 Apr 2015.

Stirix is no boffin. He's a medic yeah; but not nothing like that.

The catch is that Bluetooth isn't very good at it yet. But he tries...

Time seems pretty soft in this system. There's no hard rounds of any sort, just matters of second, minutes, hours, or days, and finished right before you need it.

Okay, if working in collaboration with the scientists, Bluetooth can make the Inverse Electron Pulse-Spin Generator (yeah). That's a special gadget, which we can say is a special function of your own minor gadget.

By May 15 I should know where I stand. Either I'll be right back up to speed; or posting better but still a bit slower.

For clarity: does Bluetooth's gadget need to be taken somewhere special to be plugged in and fired, or can he do that from here? Also, did we want to prepare a special moment to use that gadget, rather than firing it off without a plan and without warning the others?

Sorry for the delay, Tuesdays and Wednesdays are my busy period, with Thursdays for catching up.

Yes, as I said, it needs to be plugged in at the power generators to have the base-wide effect (i.e., you can't just do it anywhere). Specifically, the book says it needs the full output of the power generators. Maybe Bluetooth (who sounds like he could do something wirelessly...) could plug it in at a local power point, but I think it should only affect the room and require a Technology check.

And yeah, activating it now in any case would cause absolute havoc in the laboratories. Think EMP bomb.

And yeah, you're kind of in the wrong place to use it. ;)

Let's say, just for the sake of argument, that instead of spending another story point to avoid being blown out into vacuum (because that is basically save-or-die, and there's no way I will trust that to getting 8+ out of the die roller) I wanted to try using the Possible Knife to close the window.  Since I know there's an adjacent universe where the window is unbroken.

I suspect that would be Ingenuity + Craft (and I also suspect I should have put more points into Craft) unless you have some idea of a roll that would be more advantageous to me.  What difficulty would you set that at?
This message was last edited by the player at 13:18, Sat 09 May 2015.

Hey, I started at the end of the adventure. Death is only the beginning. ;) Failing the roll's not so bad. Time Lord powers notwithstanding, the sliding scale of success means that if you don't roll too low, you always get another chance. Something else to grab, shields and shutters come down, etc.

That would be an adjacent universe where you got shot by a Dalek, by the way. :p That would be the side-effect if the Possible Knife goes funky.

I wish this system gave more guidelines on difficulties and attribute/skill combos for actions. Like using a knife to instantly reassemble a shattered window while flying at it in gale-force winds. :o

Let's say Coordination (it's a matter of reflex and aim) + Fighting (the reverse of attacking it, and, well, it's a knife) + AoE: Knife. Let's say the same Difficulty, 15, for the sake of keeping it even.


By the way, I'm not yet certain of many things like difficulties to pick or number of story points to award or take. So, if any player thinks I'm pitching the level wrong, or making some other error, let me know.

Looking at both Lucky and Unlucky and the +2d6 Story Point application, in both books in both editions, and on the forums and the Temporal Toybox PDF... I'm not sure.

To quibble on wording, Lucky says "re-roll both dice", so only two dice. I believe that the trait should only apply to any given pair of dice (whether the regular roll or the story point roll), and only those dice should be rerolled. I don't see a case in which it wouldn't apply at all.

I'm not really disagreeing there, and I'm no expert on probability, but it does seem that it makes it more likely when using a story point that you'll be unlucky.

I'm not sure that I think that should be the case. I think at the very least, it would need to be the initial two dice, and I'm not really sure it should even apply then - but as long as it applies equally the lucky trait I guess.

I'll get my character sorted out this weekend at the latest. Some rather crucial news coming in on May 15 at the absolute latest.

True, maybe it shouldn't apply to Story Point dice, as they're a different mechanic.

Stirix, if you like, I could write you out and reinsert you at a later, or indeed, earlier point, when you can be more active.

That might be an idea.

So, DriveThruRPG has a sale on Doctor Who sourcebooks. Any recommendations? Either for something your character might need or just in general. It's a choice of the First, Second, Third, Fifth, and Sixth Doctor Sourcebooks.

Oops... sorry Trace, I didn't actually think the Psychic Mutants would "obey" Farren.  Then again, I expected them to attack Trace without any "encouragement".

Oh dear... the best laid plans and all that.  ;(

The First book is probably the best one in the sense of tuning a game to the sensibilities of its era.  The Sixth book is particularly rich in the gonzo alt-scenarios that these books all contain to a greater or lesser degree, as it has the fewest canon stories to recap (well, barring the Eighth Doctor book, but you obviously have that one.)  Including a pile of funky Valeyard theories.

Dunno if that helps.

In reply to Farren (msg # 82):

Don't worry, assuming I survive, I shall be magnanimous and forgiving :-)

I'll try to post again IC later today (when RL calms down).  Perhaps if they mutants listened to Farren the 1st time, they'll listen to him again a 2nd time?  ;)  I'll see if Farren can come up with a convincing way to "call off the attack dogs".  ;)

They'd have attacked Trace anyway, being Daleks, but Farren ordering them to was too much to resist. :)

And I don't even need to check Unlucky for the timing of locking Tarys out while you interrogate Trace. ;)

Seriously, is Farren even on our side? :p


I've written Stirix out temporarily – quite literally, in fact. ;) It's a clue. But don't worry, he can come back.


Thanks, Tarys.

In reply to GM BadCatMan (msg # 86):

Well Tarys can always try to communicate with Farren to get the door open.  ;)

And at least I got the mutants to pause in their attack on Trace.

Is it my fault that Farren's style of "method acting" forces him to truly embrace his character... which in this case just happens to be a Dalek?  ;)

Sorry for the long quiet. I was trying to think of things to type, and stuff kept coming up. But these last few posts sparked my brain perfectly. Hope you like what popped out. :D

Oh good. I'll be doing those for things you may not necessarily know about and the dice say you don't. It tends to spoil things when you ask PCs for rolls for no apparent reason. :) I'm still judging the degree of success for them.

Does anyone know it there are any guidelines for Feel the Turn of the Universe difficulties? It's hard to judge if sensing someone's disappeared from the time-lines is Tricky or not. :)

I'm also using secret lines for things one player may see but the rest do not.

My dad's been running D&D since the 70s, and one of the bits of advice he gave me was to have players roll notice checks and saving throws of various types (usually Save vs Death, his favorite) for absolutely no reason, then nod and record the results ominously. Kept his players properly paranoid, especially when they /failed/ and he said not to worry about it yet. Absolutely devious.

And I think the Feel roll was supposed to average a 15 difficulty, modified by how drastic the change was (much lower for "we just summoned the Reapers", much higher for "wasn't that dress supposed to be blue?"), but can't quite recall and don't have my book on hand at the moment. Sounds like good guidelines to me, though.

I've played all editions of DnD, and a smattering of other systems, and I've found asking for rolls without a reason doesn't actually help if you're trying to build paranoia.

My favorite trick for that, is to roll dice behind the screen a lot. Unfortunately, this tactic doesn't work so well in PbP.

Does Bluetooth even have a tail? If not, I'll change.


On rolling, I think it depends if you want players to be suspicious or surprised/ignorant. Make rolls if you want them jumpy, hide the rolls if you want them entirely unwitting. It's easier to keep secrets in PbP.




I got them both, thanks. The 1DS should give some stuff about the SSS for Farren, though I'm still looking through.

... everytime I read 'rakshasa' I wonder if a Dalek gun is equivalent to a blessed crossbow bolt.

Sorry about the silence, holiday weekend (and RL family) kept we away from my computer.  I will try to get an IC post up for Farren when I get home from work tomorrow.

I'm not ignoring the game particularly, but it seems that my telepathy hasn't had the hoped-for effect.  And I don't think I'm getting through that door on my own.  Awaiting events, I guess.

I wasn't quite sure of your purpose. It seemed to be to get the power brains' attention. That worked, but came alongside Farren and Trace negotiating permission to approach, so it was kind of moot. Still, they'll be distracted when Trace does something to them. :)

I'm also just waiting on PCs.

In reply to GM BadCatMan (msg # 96):

Well at the moment Farren is just trying to "provide cover" for Trace to work his "technical magic".

I've posted stats for the Dalek Decimator gadget. You can bump it up to Major Stun, stunning the Dalek for a matter of minutes, with a Bad Trait. Pick one or I'll find something fun. ;)



Pity you didn't, a Dalek dome with eyestalk would have made a nice wok.

Question: What is the current status of the Psychic Mutant Dalek Brains?  Did the power outage affect their life-support systems (i.e are they in "trouble") or are they still very alive & active (and dangerous/hostile)?

Trace didn't say he was trying to destroy them specifically, so they're still alive. I presume they can generate enough power to keep themselves alive, and the shutdown of power is slow yet progressive.

So, they're alive and kicking, but not hostile. Trace is still allegedly doing work and hasn't triggered the defenses.

Basically, they're machines with a built-in defense system, but they are organic and psychic rather than technological and electric.

So, fortuitously excellent timing with both parties achieving what they set out to do, simultaneously. If you have no more plans, I can move things forward, get the groups back together, and bump you along to the Temporal Exterminator.

I'm ready and excited. Part of the idea is to send the prisoners to the bits of the Temporal Exterminator they know about and work together to sabotage the thing, and I'm not sure if that's what's already happening or if that requires more rolling, but once they've been sent on their way, we should definitely be able to regroup with the others with no further delay. :D

Also, I am completely loving that emergency door. "In Case Of Emergency, Kill Everyone"

I'm cool with moving forward.  I imagine Trace did a "bang up job" on the power generators sufficient that repairing them is either not plausible or would take too much time?

That's right. The power is down for the foreseeable.

Some of the qualified prisoners will follow you to the Temporal Exterminator to perform sabotage. However, to avoid them being exterminated on sight, you'll need to make some kind of distraction or misdirection or find a way of getting them into position. That's what was outlined from Axander's post in #66.

I figured that realistically all doors could well lock up to stop prisoner escapes, loss of atmosphere, etc. Then I realised these were Daleks and safety and common sense weren't a priority. :)

And there you go, right to the finale. You may recall we started at the end of the campaign too. ;)

I find the way that the number of scientists goes from six, to five, to four in post #133 without any fuss rather disquieting. :)

... Not half as disquieting as having to use anything which is '#66' as a point of reference.

I have issued Post 66. Soon we shall eliminate the Jedi Daleks. Once this battle station Temporal Exterminator is operational, Skywalker's fall to the Dark Side the Doctor's rescue will be complete. <s>I have</i> Tarys has foreseen it. Eh heheheh...

And here we are at last, what we've been waiting for, the climax of the finale! :)

You may want to remind yourselves of your answers to my questions in the RTJ. :) Writing all that was a chore.

Sorry for the delay, got caught up with some RL issues.  I will post IC tomorrow when I get home from work.

Who here has played the old Robots/Daleks BSD game? :)

So, one hell of a cliffhanger coming up. ;) You get one post and one action before you're erased from time. Make it count. :p

Now would probably be a good time to point out that you can spend Story Points to prevent having been hit at all. Each StP spent reduces the degree of failure. Bluetooth was hit for a "Bad" result, for instance, and one Story Point can bump that to a "Success", meaning he doesn't take any damage at all. Not sure if it's necessary to cover just 2 damage, but bearing in mind that one more point against him would have been Lethal damage instead of 4, it's a good investment of points.

Thinking of something to do. Might be able to dump story points for a flashy last action, but not sure what, and not sure if it would be useful. Ideas?

Guys, don't fret about it. I do not believe we've been put into a "Figure out exactly the right thing to do, or everyone dies!" scenario.

Yes, think carefully about that 'last' action; but don't burn all your story points or anything just to do it.

Um.  I feel like "a dark doorway" isn't much detail to make a post about.

Okay, I hope my temporal shenanigans won't be too confusing or frustrating for all of you. If they are,  I apologise.

Obviously, we started at the end of the campaign, and I said before we started that we'd go back and find out how you got here. It'll make sense soon, I promise. I have some ideas as to how you can get out of this, and that's largely going to be campaign setup. I'm just leaving this opportunity for you to either work it out yourselves or come up with something different I can work in. This is an epic, big, end of the universe, time war type of problem,  so a solution will be of the same magnitude, costing lots of story points. Consider your character's powers and gadgets, particularly Time Lords. But if you're stumped,  that's fine, just give your character's reactions and we'll move on.

A dark doorway (or other thing you're seeing) isn't much to go on,  no. The aim is to go inside.

Bluetooth, you jumped the gun in your previous post. I only asked for intentions for the round,  because the round itself was stolen by the Exterminator. I needed the Dalek Commander alive for the story,  so spent his SPs to avoid your attack. I forgot you could have used SPs to evade or ignore the Dalek's own attack. But it's a good indicator of what happened, so the Daleks will spend SPs to keep it.

In the next adventure, you'll be awarded SPs for this moment being a bit of a railroad.

... It's a Doctor Who game.

In my view; it's seeming like a Moffatt-era (who likes to use Time Travel as a plot hook, rather than just a means of getting there) or possibly Key to Time season. It's working.

Hm. End of campaign, and we're probably gonna circle back to the beginning of the campaign before we understand what's going to happen, and we have the opportunity to set up a big finale.

Would it be a stretch to do something dramatic-looking, drop all of our Story Points at once, and come back to it when we finally finish off the whole thing?

Or something like that? I'm basically suggesting we all get our Gadgets ready and march into the darkness together, burning all of our Story Points as one mighty pool. Then go back to the beginning of the story, chronologically speaking, and not find out what happens until we get back here. Which doesn't sound like any more of a clarification than when I first said it. Dang.



Heh. The way I see it, getting hit with a Dalek weapon flat out kills you. It's never left a mark before, it just makes things flash negative for a second and you're dead. The book describes the "Bad" result, taking 4 damage, as managing to evade the shot but getting hurt or worn down in the process somehow. Which means, since the GM flat out described that Bluetooth /got hit/ and is /still alive/, anyone who noticed should be thoroughly freaked out because the laws of time and reality have hiccuped, and that's a huge flashing neon sign. Oh my goodness, that one description can be totally run with right now. :D

Dalek guns have injured before. If they were that good (which is a problem I have with RTD's love of Daleks), the Dalek Wars should have been over before they began. Ian, from memory, got injured by one in a Hartnell story.

I'll grant that the Daleks were severely upgraded with the relaunch; but... back in the day (gods I feel old), it was not the Dalek superior weaponry that made them a scarier prospect than, say, Cybermen. (Who scared me much more than Daleks ever did, especially in Tomb of the Cybermen). It was their ambition, their ruthlessness, and their intelligence. And that you couldn't anticipate exactly what they would do at any point, usually.

I'll stop now before I start comparing various Dalek stories.

Hm. Only time I've seen Dalek guns not kill a target was one really weird Tennant story and their first appearance, when they specifically used stun settings. Unfortunately, I haven't seen all the old series stories. I've also never seen them miss until the new series, so it didn't seem like that much of a power increase to me, as much as a change in special effect.

Also the new series has the Doctor describe them in some way and then say "and that makes them more dangerous than evah!" Every time. Up until very recently, anyway. Still. Always more dangerous than ever. Can't we just accept that they're always dangerous?

I won't go into specifics right now; because people will get bored, but there definitely was a dramatic increase in power.

Yeah, my issues with the 11th-Doctor Moffat era have nothing to do with his use of temporal paradoxes and non-linear storytelling (I refuse to say the T-W word.) ;) It's extremely difficult to do that in an RPG, where I can't control the main character's actions or chance. So, I'm using this point of campaign set-up to have a go.

But I'm not going to engineer a TPK right out of the gate. We won't end if you do nothing. Failure is always an option. :)

Axander: Yes, you don't have to complete it now, or even reveal the plan. In fact, you'll probably need the intervening campaign to consider it and learn more about what else is going on (the odd things missed or overlooked in the current adventure). If anyone has a specific idea, run it by me privately so I can work it in or prepare it. Otherwise, just do something dramatic: stand and looked shocked, fight the Daleks, dive into the Exterminator...

BTW, you noticed the decreasing number of scientists and Stirix's disappearance and reappearance in a different capacity. It shows that you already would have been (temporal grammar) struck by the Temporal Exterminator, and that the broken time-line fluctuates. (My original plan was to remove any PC who disappeared in this way. One RTJ was abandoned at the proposal stage, so you've already lost one fellow time-traveller... ;) )


The Dalek guns do 4/L/L and both Tarys and Bluetooth got the 4 damage. To see what that could be, I checked the wiki at:
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Dalek_gun
"The Daleks' Masterplan" apparently makes it like being struck by lightning, leaving electrical burns and charring. The other information from later stories seems to support that. It seems that if a Dalek gun doesn't kill outright, it leaves a typical energy weapon or electric burn. So that's what I described when Tarys was hit, and I repeated that with Bluetooth. Plus, I was going with a 60s Dalek aesthetic. :)

Of course, a lost story from the 60s isn't at the forefront of many a fan's mind. :)

Ian's legs were paralysed in "The Daleks", but that could have been a stun setting.

Well, in that case, Bluetooth didn't jump the gun, he just... hiccupped.

... maybe the reason for the lost stories is they were the first adventures affected by the temporal exterminator.

That was the plan. :)

Not meaning to leave you hanging too long, I'll try to get the next posts up for the first proper adventure soon.

And finally done and ready!

So, we've gone back to the start of the campaign. :) A different start to what I summarised in the start to the last adventure, but your time-lines are taking a different track this time around, snaking a bit as they are slowly eaten away by the Temporal Exterminator. This time, you'll have to save yourselves. :)

That's not to say the last adventure was all a vision or never happened – it did, just not in this time-line. Okay, that's a cheat, sorry. But Tarys will remember (though not every detail) and you'll be able to use what you learned the first time around when you come again to the Eternity Citadel. When the time comes, we can either play the adventure out again, or just make some changes and skip forward to the confrontation or after Tarys's action, stronger and wiser and better armed

You can take this opportunity to make changes to your characters, if you like. They can be adjustments to personality, concept, or history, or mechanical changes to your stats and traits, if something didn't work for you in the starter adventure. That is, your characters can literally change in the new time-line.

I'm starting you off divided you into two groups: Time Lords and the archaeological expedition. I'm PMed Bluetooth, Farren, Stirix, and Trace with ideas for getting them involved in the expedition. You'll all be meeting each other for the first time again, though those on the ship may already know each other.

There are a couple other Doctor Who RPGs floating around out there. One of them is called Time Lord, designed for Play-by-Email games, and one of the skills in that game is called Benchthumper. Exactly what you just did. It's my favorite thing about that system.

I call it "Percussive Maintenance," though. :P
This message was last edited by the player at 03:40, Sat 27 June 2015.

That's actually a trait in the DWAITAS RPG. :)

I've heard an explanation that any complex system is a balance of processes in stable and meta-stable states, so that only a small perturbation can be required to shift it from an undesired state to a desired state – a technical, scientifically accurate of why hitting something makes it work. :)

.... oh that's just beautiful GM.

I'll work on a post tomorrow. I had a Chat-game today; so my brain is still in Pathfinder-mode; rather than the comparatively simpler system...

Which bit exactly was beautiful? :)

"a technical, scientifically accurate of why hitting something makes it work."

That's beautiful. I'll use that on my father next time he tells me hitting something doesn't make it work. (Actually I don't usually hit something to make it work; a lifetime of lectures from my father who worked for various computer companies stopped that. But the concept is nice!)

I heard that from a university physicist too, but can't find a source online.

In more basic terms, there's this:
http://blogs.unimelb.edu.au/sc...ive-it-a-good-whack/

The art is in hitting the right component. People who bash their keyboards at computer trouble only break their keyboards, because the keyboard is usually innocent.

I used to help manage computers and scoring systems at a Tae Kwon Do tournament. Once the system froze up in the middle of a match. I could have screwed up everything by stopping the match to diagnose and fix it properly. Instead, I picked the device up and slapped it, and everything worked again. In view of an entire hall full of people. Great tech support there. :)

That's probably the key. You probably know the right spot to hit it.

If you want fast-typing, I can do that. But know nada about what actually makes a computer work.

My goodness, you do not miss a moment. I'm gonna hold off and respond to Tarys's next post. Super excited. :D

You two got ahead of the soundtrack, so I had to catch up.

And I really couldn't start without a Kang involved. :D
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Kang

oh gods. Not Kang...

Kangs!

BTW, liblarva's new Doctor Who game is running the "The Doom of the Daleks" campaign series of modules from the Eighth Doctor Sourcebook – which I'm also running here, albeit with modifications to the structure and not covering all the adventures. So, fair warning, if you apply to that, you might see spoilers or risk metagaming.

You realise this is all your fault Farren. I bet the possibility of rat burger and rat pie didn't even exist until you mentioned it :-)

Actually, it was my plan all along... :)

On the contrary... I think you severely underestimate the resourcefulness of the GM, especially when it comes to Kangs.  ;)

... rat burgers are rather a common trope to be fair.

As for Kangs... that's why the Daleks became as bad as they were. They ran into Kangs...

(I don't care that that goes so against Dalek continuity it's not funny. Try unravelling the Dalek timeline..)

Of course, not being familiar with OldWho, when you say Kang I see...



and...



and lastly...


(even if that's technically kRang)

Given I can never quite bring myself to watch Paradise Towers (Mel really bugs me); I'm not overly familiar with Kangs in general.

I have seen a rather awesomely played one though; so may have to submit to Mel for a story.

Do it! Do it! It's a classic Mel story, really, showcasing every one of her flaws. It's not a great, well-done serial, but it's a fun and clever story, and the first for a long time in the 80s not to rehash something from the past and not to be spiteful and mean, so it's a real blast of fresh air. I have a special soft spot for it, as it was the first I owned on VHS. And I have so much fun playing Kangs.

Red Kangs, Red Kangs, Red Kangs are best! :D

Just think of colour-coded, crossbow-wielding teenage girl gangs living in a world of urban decay with a culture and language born of distorted children's playground games and architectural features, endlessly competing against each other in games and surviving against semi-competent, semi-fascist caretakers; homicidal cleaner robots in service to the disembodied brain of the Great Architect in the basement; and cannibalistic old folks, and you've really got something.

For me, "Paradise Towers" is the most classically, quintessentially Doctor Who story that doesn't have Tom Baker. Killer robots, running down corridors, strange rebels, weird story, kinda rubbish but fun. :)

Unfortunately, my computer has come down with a bad case of a failed power supply. So, I'm going to be busy getting that fixed and catching up, and will be slower while working on another computer, so my posting will slow for a while.

Understandable GM.

Androgums! Just about the best new alien introduced by the Colin Baker era.

(I'm like the opposite of Trace. I can usually spot references to anything from Old-Who; but though I watch the new series; very few of the stories stick in my mind after they've aired. The Moffatt ones whilst RTD was Showrunner an exception.)

Don't worry, boss, we're patient!

And I'd like to say the same, Stirix, but as much as I keep thinking I've seen a bunch from Old-Who, it always turns out I've barely seen any. Hours and hours and hours of stories, but that ended up being just four or five serials from each era. Much less from Hartnell and Troughton. Only two from Baker, though at the very least the Androgums were one of them.  :D

It's pretty hard to get Troughton and Hartnell; especially Troughton.

-bleah- I can't stand Colin Baker's stories. I recognise the references; but have barely spent any time watching them. As opposed to, say, Troughton, Pertwee and Tom Baker.

a) I was introduced to Colin Baker with the Twin Dilemma. It was so bad even my dad, who's been spending years collecting VHSs and DVDs of as much of the series as he can and watching all of them, actually turned it off about twenty minutes into the first episode. It was so bad. I can't understand how they let that happen.

b) So I've spent way too long studying things like TARDIS technical manuals (ridiculous, I know) and the Time Travel Companion. Kinda make some spout a lot of shenanigans about how things work, when that isn't necessarily a good thing. Not sure if it's been bad so far, or if it's been good. In that line of thinking, Axander's next step is to imprint on the briode nebulizer to create the symbiotic link between him and the ship. Kinda don't wanna get into that on-camera, but thought I'd mention that's what he meant by "get us ready".

I like to get all technical, and then handwave actually doing the stuff. Lookit me go. :P

I've got the TTC and I've read almost all of it, and I'd like to play around with the TARDIS crunch, so I'm happy for you to use it. Feel free to do it on camera, as it's a big, important event.

I'm just busy fixing my own machine right now.

The only issue I have with doing that onscreen is...I don't actually know what the symbiotic linking consists of. It was only mentioned (far as I know) in the Two Doctors, and I missed the bits before the explanation, so I dunno if he did stuff on camera. Still, I can wing it.

From what I remember; nothing as really specified as to what it was, except hints about the Rassilon Imprimatur - which is what makes a TARDIS go. He also used it as a trap for... oh crud, not Lynx. Other one. No the other other one!

He then... err... I'll shut up now.

Stike. I looked it up. :p Nothing happened on camera in "The Two Doctors", and it was largely a ruse. Basically, he stepped inside a cabinet and stole the briode nebulizer component (which is really just a part of the Kartz–Reimer module, and has no known connection to TARDISes).

Basically, you're looking at what's mentioned here and whatever's in the TTC:
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Rassilon_Imprimatur
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Symbiotic_nucleus
The information seems pretty scarce, though I'm not looking back through Interference, Book One for clues. So, you can play it how you like.

Well, good news, I found a much better replacement PSU in a junker PC and spent the day reassembling computers. I'm back in full working order, though I'm still catching up on everything.

BTW, I've added Axander's TARDIS stats to Elona's description for everyone to reference. We can customise them when we get the crew together.

OOC: No, he's better overall. And a correction: the -1 applies to the Difficulty (making it easier) not to Axander's roll (unless she's really that bad she sabotages his efforts?).


Yes. :) It's a little brief drama, a little stalling while I finish up the thread for the other PCs, and me practising TARDIS navigation rules.

Plus, I actually need some other way of getting you two to find the plot.

Okay, the module has you use the locator to find temporal traces that lead you to the Dalek's Eternity Citadel. But I changed all that, the traces are no longer there to be found. Instead, my aim was for you to use clues learned in Tarys's premonition to track down the Eternity Citadel another way: names heard, worlds connected to the Citadel, creatures that have visited and gotten away. Time being on your side and all.

But Tarys wasn't present for the clues, and seems to be ignoring the premonition anyway.

So I'm trying to engineer a TARDIS accident. :) I recommend the telepathic circuits, btw.

I'm not such a bad pilot myself! Wait, wrong fandom.

Yeah, Axander's a decent operator (Technology 3, TTC AoE for +2), he's just nervous, excited, and not exactly confident. But even with my terrible roll, still got it! (Assuming Tarys is helping operate, of course, otherwise the GM gets to roll on the Misjump Table, which could be exciting.)

There're lots more 'time' songs out there if you need references... getting kind of tired of hearing the same one over and over and over and over and...

Even the Rolling Stones had The Last Time and Out of Time.

"It's about time, it's about space,
About two people in a far off place..."

That's my favorite, followed by...

"Let's do
The Time
Warp again!"

Words Tarys lives by.

I kind of think that's the point though.

I dunno if you've ever seen the Denzel Washington movie "Fallen", but lemme tell ya, every time I hear "Time is On My Side", I get chills. Good stuff. Though not, I think, the intended reaction in this particular instance.

I have, once or twice. That's where I got the idea to use "Time is on my Side". :) Though "Sympathy for the Devil" may have been a better choice of theme song.

I'm not a fan of story arcs (he says, making our first Who campaign a story arc) and especially arc words and the kind of portentousness that propelled the RTD era. But I do like events and NPCs being heralded by music, which I pinched from "The Wanderer" in Lost Girl and the "Time" song in the TV movie.

Thanks for the suggestions, but "Time is on my Side" just fitted everything perfectly. ;)

Though while we're quoting: "If you're lost you can look, and you will find me / Time after time".

BTW, I've renamed the game to reflect the current campaign. With after (failed) efforts to run The Doom of the Daleks here recently, I thought it wise to stake my territory.

That's pretty much all I need to do in both threads. My next update should take us all to the planet in a new thread and get both groups together, so the adventure proper can start. You can keep RP amongst yourselves in the Chapter 1 and 2 threads as you like.

And there we go!

Archaeologist (Farren, Stirix) and Crew (Bluetooth, Trace) teams can pick what task they like to look busy on, according to your skills, etc. Feel free to wing the technical matters, or ask me for some appropriate background. Make some rolls to see how well you do, but failure won't be disastrous at this stage.

With familiarity in mucking about with liquid nitrogen, I can even make this educational. :)

I'm still slowly trying to catch up on the Ortega Expedition thread. I always read threads I'm not involved with so very slowly. So much good stuff, though, and I really like our mix of characters. :D

Gonna be out for the weekend, but I'll be back Sunday sometime. Possibly asleep by then, though.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and ask: would finding a room with cold weather gear require an Ingenuity+Resolve roll, due to the Shifting Rooms trait on Elona? Or would it be easier to find because accomplishing the task moves the story forward?

I presume that Shifting Structure  applies mostly to specific rooms rather than finding items. Feel free to roll if you'd like,  but it's not necessary. It doesn't affect the storyline,  but the story can't proceed without it. Or it's just too simple to bother rolling for.

I'll update tomorrow.

I'll assume we can get what we need based on Overprotective, then. It's a bit more important than finding just any old thing, so Elona's probably making more of an effort to help. I was just thinking it would be akin to finding the specific "wardrobe room" looking for warm clothes or such. Makes sense this way.

Yeah, Overprotective should lower the difficulty as a circumstance bonus. I rolled anywhere for curiosity/practice, and gave some minor extras.

Ironically, if it weren't for Overprotective, this wouldn't be a problem. ;)

Err yeah, so GM, can we see whether they're wearing armor? I'd figure we might be able to tell if they were wearing something like Ice Warrior armor, or some other really heavy stuff, otherwise not with all the snow and distance.

Also, I can't remember right now, but did we have a radio or something to contact the others, or does one of us have to trudge back to base? (That seems really insane for an archaeological expedition to do, but you never know...)

Nothing that looks obviously like armour, more some fancy semi-metallic coats and cowls you can safely assumed are some form of arctic survival gear.

Mobile phones are ubiquitous now, so I imagine there'd some form of walkie-talkie system. Ortega had a wrist-communicator in the last thread, Trace had one now, so I imagine you all have something similar. I believe Ice Warriors have communicators built into their helmets.



Sorry, yes, all your Story Points have reset for the current adventure.

Furthermore, as I had promised, you all get 5 bonus Story Points, in reward for the GM-plotting/railroadiness of the opening adventure and set-up. Plus, this adventure could be a bit hard.


After some private discussion, I feel I should give you some notes on my GMing style.

I cut my RPG teeth on D&D 3.5, and that's really the only other system I run; the other is someone else's homebrew and is almost free-form. I manage the Realms of Adventure community here on RPoL, and I've been DMing there for almost ten years. I've seen some stuff. A few of my players are rules-lawyers and power-builders, so I've had to be a stickler for rules to negotiate. Generally, I get it right.

I don't consider myself an adversarial GM, I don't play against the PCs. Instead, I try to keep things dramatic and interesting, and still try to tell the storylines I've developed. I don't make notes on the campaign/adventure though, as I keep forgetting to look at them. It's all in my head, carried around for years. It keeps me flexible when circumstances change. I'm not good at encounter design; my players tend to run rampant over them. My last battle took seven months to play out. But I often do detailed battle-maps when needed. If a party is a very strong, I try to thrash them, but generally I'm pretty lenient, even too lenient. The only time I've killed PCs was when there was something to resurrect them immediately, and it became part of the plot. I'll go with player requests and plans on almost everything. My players do love my NPCs: they all have personalities, stories, motivations, and plans of their own.

Now, I'm fairly inexperienced with the DWAITAS system. I ran the first game on RPOL when it first came out, it lasted a year, but I really only skimmed the GMG and missed a few things. The players just dwindled away and I didn't have time to pursue them while I finished my degree. That was years ago, and I'm coming to it fresh again now.

This system doesn't offer much guidance on picking difficulties for rolls, let alone set specific levels; almost everything seems to be GM's guess. A lot of the system comes down to GM interpretation. I don't view damage to an attribute as an injury; it could be a minor impediment and easily healed later. Not everything needs a Story Point to be made into a success; problems are more interesting when played out until they can be dealt with in-universe.

I tend to just roll the dice to see what happens, to use the results as a guideline for description, whether the results are important or not, and to practice the mechanics. Just because I call for checks doesn't mean it's important.

So, if you think I've made a mistake, I'm misunderstanding some aspect of the rules, or I'm setting things too hard, please feel free to query it. You can do it here in the OOC so we can all discuss. I'm not shy or afraid to admit when I'm wrong.

There are six of you, and I can't remember all your traits all the time. If you have something relevant in a situation, if you have something that could give you information, if you are playing something up for a story point, or wish to invoke some negative, then please nudge me to let me know and discuss it. Otherwise, I'll tend to forget these more often than not.

Finally, I feel Doctor Who is something that covers a lot of different genres, and I intend to cover a few. This module is SF horror, and I've been playing that up as you should see. I'll be doing comedies later. :)

Well with the RPoL roller; I'd use up all my story points pretty fast if everything needed to be a success. I don't usually do that myself, unless it's a "if we don't succeed the game stalls" kinda thing. I prefer to use them before if it's that kind of situation anyway.

I like games like this, and the Eden studios cinematic unisystem games; because they encourage RP more; and encourage a more 'working -with- the GM' aspect; whilst DnD, especially 3.5/Pathfinder I've found, promotes a 'player vs GM' feel. Also, powergaming feels more self-defeating in it; whilst in DnD (as an example) it feels that a certain amount of powergaming is necessary.

Thanks for the notes though. I haven't noted any issues myself, but if others have I'll freely give my opinion on it.

-melts into a pile of mush-

You just made my day with the reference to Blinovitz. Before there were timelocks; we had the Blinovitz Limitation Effect. We never knew what that actually -was-, but we had it!

Thanks to the Time Travel Companion, we now know what it is and how to use it. And it's magnificent. :D

I always felt reasonably confident on the BLE in the past, but then, I read a lot more novels. :)


BTW, a note: This being the early 41st century, 4031, the closest TV story to our era is Dalek's Masterplan, in the year 4000. Obviously, the technology in the game is much more advanced than what we saw there. Heck, technology in 2015 is more advanced than what we saw there. Same with fashion. But it's a lost serial anyway. Though I do research, I'm not going to try to mimic one lost 60s serial. A lot can happen in 30 years. So, technology is sufficiently advanced, what you'd expect of modern far-future-set SF with galactic travel. The Tech Level is 7: "Advanced Interstellar – Far Future Earth, no Time Travel, Transmat".

Insanely sick. Off work until Thursday, maybe not back to posting till the weekend.

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!

So, the Dalek's erase the Doctor from existence. Talk about grandfather paradox :-)

Hardly a spoiler, we've already covered that in the game. :)

Since I know Stirix hasn't the newest episode yet, please hide your spoilers.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Besides, the Doctor could be erasing the Daleks.

---

Are we taking a break

Still here. Still confused. But still willing to game on!

Last I saw, we were waiting for Ortega's reply to Trace's Blinding With Science maneuver. :P

Sorry, I was waiting for some more responses. Then stuff came up and I forgot there were already posts to respond to. I'll try to update later.

Regrettably, Farren has had to bow out of the game, due to an increasing RL workload. He said "I wish all the best for you, your game and the other players." I wish him good luck and good gaming.

The Temporal Exterminator has claimed its first victim.

While unfortunate, RL does come first. Hopefully he'll end up with more time to relax and be able to make a triumphant return. :D

I love games where players inform people they're going to leave.

And when the GM works that into the story, even better.

Sorry for the wait. I always wait for more PC reactions, and it looks like we all had a slow month.

We're building up to holiday season, where this is gonna get pretty common. Real Life does stuff, with no regard for the fantastic games we have going.

EDIT: Aaaaand as you can see from these timestamps, I am not among those people who has a life. XD
This message was last edited by the player at 07:51, Thu 19 Nov 2015.

Oh shoot. Wish I could claim that it was the holiday season; but I have no such excuse. I'll umm, post in a bit.

I'm afraid I'm going to be a bit shy on the facts for a while. It's not a spoiler; the aliens aren't known from Who lore, they're unique to this module. But for plot reasons, it's better to find out about them later. Plus, I want to play up the research and investigation aspect, to suit the archaeological expedition concept and the creeping Lovecraftian horror style I was going for.

So, this will be more about working things out than simply looking them up.

I'm also a believer in the original aim of Doctor Who being educational. :)

Oh I'm completely fine with that. From an in-universe perspective, Axander is certain that whoever this is /must/ have been known by somebody, and therefore be in the encyclopedia. It's just a matter of plugging in data until it can be narrowed down. More or less like how the Doctor and Rose worked to find out the origin of the Slitheen being Raxicoricofallipatorious. It's simply there are so many possible species, and the number's bigger than it had been during that Who episode because they aren't right there, right now, but could be from anytime in the past. That's a massive pool of species. This is simply Axander's method of investigation: cross-reference all available data until it gets narrowed down appropriately.

And it's working! I haven't got the identity of them yet, but getting more and more information as time goes on. S'all I ask. :D

Merry Christmas!

Well, I finally got the Doctor Who Lego set! :D

Huzzah!

Merry Christmas e'rybody! My celebrations are already done, we do Eve instead of Day. There was so much tasty food, and now I get to eat the cheesecake I forgot to bring. So boo, but also bwahaha. Hope you guys are all having as good a holiday season. :D

And now I know why my posting has been kinda lame of late. I went a year without watching Doctor Who. It's okay everybody, I just caught up. On the whole season. Today. My brain is feeling so much better. :D

My people! Do we live? I can try to transfer some artron energy through the telepathic circuit and induce regeneration if need be.

Yeah, I think that helped. I had quite a busy period over the break, so I had a lot of catch-up. I was waiting for more action here, then forgot that Trace and Bluetooth had posted.

I've moved on the computer core crew. Stirix and Tarys, do you have any plans in the Shelter?

Oh umm yeah. Hang on, give me a day to catch up and remind myself where we're at.

Players? Hello?

I'm sorry, I was kidnapped and taken on a number of RL adventures, and then had to recover. Currently in a recovery type phase, but gonna take tomorrow to get a post in once I wake up. Did not intend to be away from the action for so long. @_@

EDIT: Or I will do it now! No time like the present.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:37, Mon 08 Feb 2016.

Aaaand now I'm sick. Can't do much braining, which makes playing Axander tough, as that's kind of what he does. (Think I should be a little snootier about it, though. :P) I'll return as soon as I can.

We've slowed to a crawl, and have had no response in over two weeks. Is there a problem I should know about? If you have nothing to add, I'd appreciate a post to that effect.

I didn't see anything I could add, and I was hoping someone would post something I could respond to so I was planning on waiting a few days. Then work got hectic, and the pace on a couple of my other games picked up and I just plain forgot.

I've been meaning to put in a reply about Axander very carefully avoiding saying squat and just listening to what Ortega was talking about, but then I forgot that I hadn't already posted it and fell into a funk. That happens to me sometimes. Ironically, posting in this game sooner would have gotten me out of that. XD

But yeah, Axander's being super passive and trying really hard to play things close to the chest around fearless leader. ...And "fearless" isn't sarcastic, the guy seriously needs to develop some Nope before something terrible happens. (I know, that doesn't happen. :P)

Okay, that's fine. I hope this slow-boil horror approach isn't too slow-boil.

Trace has hit the nail on the head, that Ortega is blatantly ignoring dangers in search of the big find. Because there's always one in this sort of story. :)

Sorry, I've been feeling fairly sick lately. Only just starting to get back to normalcy enough to even be up to an OOC post.

It seemed time to move on, but you can continue any conversations or whatever in retrospect.

Yo! It strikes me now that I maybe should have asked the GM or made a Feel the Turn of the Universe roll before my post, but PbP is a slow format, we've gone weeks without a post, and Bluetooth provided a fantastic opportunity. Hope that's okay. :D

Thanks for moving us along. I was waiting for PCs, and other matters took over.

I think I already established that Tarys's vision included all the PCs. Since my campaign concepts depends on the two Time Lords remembering the last iteration of the campaign and getting it done quicker and better, I think all FtTotU checks are automatic successes. :)

BTW, the bodies found in the Shelter were actually alien centipedes, or specifically decipedes – ten legged.

Stirix: You can still spend a Story Point after the fact to turn your roll into a basic success. :D

I know; and I'm torn. If it was purely for me, I'd just let the dice fall as they did.

But it's Trace that's going to cop it for the failure.

How are you extracting the poison? Sucking it out of the wound? D: Too late for that, anyway, it's already through Trace's system.

Anyway, unless someone assists with some professional knowledge, Stirix's roll is a "No, but" Failure. Maybe Stirix gives Trace something to mitigate the effects of the poison/drug. The penalty Trace is suffering can be reduced to −2.

I've got the Medicine skill at 1. If I can act as an assistant even after the roll goes off, then as I recall cooperation adds +2 to a roll. That'll be enough to take him to Yes, But. Would that be alright?

Pass me the... no the other one!

Medicine is one of those skills we should probably always have an assist if we can when it comes to treatments.

Yes, that would do it.

On it! I've been meaning to make a post anyway, but haven't been sure on quite what I wanted to do just yet. Now I got it. :D

Hmm. I think that's rather tenuous or unnecessary, Bluetooth. The first roll needs a skill, Medicine. Since Stirix already discovered the poison, you can keep the Story Point. The Survival check seems unnecessary, as you're not doing any survival-oriented activity. Instead, knowing of a possible treatment is more part of your background knowledge (Medicine or Knowledge).

Resourceful Pockets works a bit oddly: either you spend a SP or you roll 2d6 and if you get a double, you find something useful or needed. So, you can spend a SP and produce a weed or something that helps treat Trace. But since you can assume you have basic first-aid supplies (fully equipped archaeological dig-site), the party wasn't in need of a treatment, so Resourceful Pockets wasn't necessary.

You could just say you're using your Medicine 1 to assist, and produce a weed to chew on, without spending a SP.

Since Stirix and Axander already brought it to a Success, Bluetooth doesn't change the outcome any.

Oh that one's beautiful. XD

So once again, Bluetooth is... useless. Is this, by any chance, Dr. Who meets Cthulhu? At least that way, I could just go mad... Mad, I say! MAAAAAAAAAAAD! (He's goes running down the hall screaming...). :-)

Once again? When have any of the characters been useless before? So far there hasn't been a whole lot of call for high action, and Bluetooth did manage to make a Gadget that allowed us to interface with the military station's computer core. I'd say that qualifies as pretty useful.

In this instance, there was just nothing for Bluetooth to do to help Trace. Assistance provides a +2 bonus, and you'd have needed to provide +4 to bump up that action to a medium result. And you and Trace are still kind of the focal point of the Time Lords' attention, what with both being victims of alien attacks that, if successful, may unravel the universe. :P

I think that was the other Bluetooth... the one before the time waffling...

Still the last time any of us had any opportunity to be useful before Trace was poisoned! Actually, I think that's the last thing that /happened/.

Just imagine a tiger singing Dylan...

"The line, it is drawn; the curse, it is cast
The slow one now will later be fast
The present now will later be past

The order is rapidly fadin'
And the first one now will later be last
For the times they are a-changin' "

Bobcat Dylan? :D

Well, yes. :) The slow-boil horror of Lovecraft and modern sci-fi horror like Alien was kind of what I was going for in this current adventure.

I wouldn't say Bluetooth is useless. He was very useful in the first half-adventure, everyone was, in fact, temporal shenanigans notwithstanding. In this adventure, we've just started, so no-one's really had a chance to shine yet. And generally we haven't heard much from Bluetooth recently, as you were away.

Unfortunately, slow-boil horror has just become slow. We've slowed down a lot, which is making it harder to push on. I never know if you're all ready for X or if I should stall. Sickness and extra work on my end have made that harder recently.

Axander is considering dropping the "Time War" bombshell like right now, unless Tarys gets there first. And probably more succinctly. He does tend to ramble, as he is kind of a little bit terrified.

That oughta push things a bit. Unless you aren't ready for that, in which case I can totally hold off.

It's a heck of a bombshell to even begin to start dropping.

My vague plan was to save it for a point where we had established some clear credibility, preferably about ineffable time weirdness.  Thus far, this has not gone swimmingly.

Well, I was only kidding about being useless. Admittedly I was stretching things for him to be helpful with Trace... but he has so few skills, it's hard to contribute anything useful most of the time.

Anyway, as you can probably tell, we're all here for the long haul... even if RL sometimes throws us a curve.

I think the Time War story is something that would come up later in the episode. Mentioning it at this point would just make you sound crazy. "You're being erased from time, so you have to come with us." :p We're in the 41st century anyway, well before the heyday of human time-travel in the, what, 52nd century or later. Maybe you could wait until after the temporal anomaly is excavated or otherwise is revealed.

Okay, I'll let you talk for a bit, then do a time-jump and move the monster's timetable forward. ;)

Well, there was some time travel around the 30-somethingth Century, but the Time Agency was a firmly established thing operating out of the 51st Century. But yeah, I do see your point. :P

Sorry for the wait, but I tend to wait for PCs. More posting would keep this on my list, hint hint.

I was more waiting for PCs, myself. I can get a post going after some sleep and such, though. Had a busy day.

I wasn't sure what I could really contribute whilst pinned under a boulder!

Constructive advice? :)
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:52, Thu 25 Aug 2016.

Is that not mathematically impossible on 2d6+7? :-)
This message was last edited by the player at 08:59, Thu 25 Aug 2016.

In reply to Trace (msg # 230):

.... there's always the option of using story points. In fact, I'd argue this is the perfect time to use them.

Well, it determines the difference between being merely shaken, running in panic, or peeing your pants. :)

Actually, since it's not actively trying to scare you (again...?) it shouldn't get its Fear Factor bonus, so make that 16.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the GM at 09:14, Thu 25 Aug 2016.

That is the most horrible portrait I've seen on RPoL ever. Is like a Teddy Roosevelt cockroach tree successfully intimidating a long beetle of some kind. Stuff of nightmares, that. Perfect for a DW game.

It's a D&D monster, a spirit centipede from Oriental Adventures, and it is so much worse in full:
http://archive.wizards.com/dnd...Spirit_centipede.jpg
I only went looking for a centipede image, expecting just an animal portrait, and picked that provisionally. But, with a humanish face, it's great for Who. :) I can imagine the actor's head on top and a multi-legged costumed from neck to toe, like something out of "The Web Planet". :D

o_o

Well. I thought I was getting to sleep tonight. I stand corrected. That is the worst thing. Aaaaand it's talking to us.

It's not even the worst thing in that book. It goes from D&D versions of weird Asian monsters to utter nightmare fuel so quickly. Mostly because of the original Asian mythology.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:54, Sat 27 Aug 2016.

Sorry I've been kind of unresponsive in these parts.  I'm not clear on whether I'm at all aware that anything is going on out where the other PCs are at.

Tarys is inside the Archive building. I'll let you know if you hear anything from outside. Explosions or screams or such.

Just a reminder, I don't think Bluetooth has any connection with a TARDIS just yet. Only ones with that are Axander and Tarys, and they haven't come clean about being Time Lords yet. (Almost a Time Lord in Axander's case.) So yeah, that's what everyone's hearing. :P Sounds like it's figured out English words, but not had enough time for syntax.

...Actually, when the Tenth Doctor woke up during the incident with the Sycorax, even people who'd never been in the Tardis started hearing English. Hm. Maybe it is working. Still, no one's told Bluetooth about it. Unless he came back with information from the future when he vanished! O_O

Grrrr. I keep forgetting that he doesn't KNOW anything... yet.

The PCs are retroactively considered TARDIS crew (though Elona knows that ;) ). So we can chalk Bluetooth's slip as being a kind of future echo. :)

The TARDIS has been discreetly providing translations under the guise of the translator you built, making it work somewhat better or more smoothly. I reasoned that speech (with thought behind it) and computer text (with data) translate better than written text (no thought or data behind it). Besides, it's easier to describe pictures than write out the history.

However, my idea was that Toz Raz spent the night examining the translation device you left behind, the archaeologists' computers, and such, and rigged up a reverse translator for itself. Which doesn't work perfectly, as you see (represented as reversed sentences).

I was sorta waiting for a more official representative of the expedition to answer the alien's question, which would be either Bluetooth or Stirix. Not sure if I should go ahead and post, or if we're having trouble keeping steam going or what.

... you think that Stirix is going to be answering questions whilst he's still got boulders pressing down on him?

Having said that, never wait on posting, just because your PC isn't an 'official' member of something. Firstly, being unofficial can cause RP, but I think that people waiting for someone else is just as big a game-killer as people vanishing does. Just post.

K, soon as I'm up to it. Something wrong with my head today.

Sorry, the lack of response here and at the other games I run has been really discouraging me.

People waiting on each other is one of the biggest game-killers in my experience. Everyone waits on each other, so no-one posts, then they forget and the game dies. All my games have died because players just won't post. It's very frustrating.

Stirix, only your leg is trapped. You have two good arms and a mouth to use. :p

But without a leg I can't impress with my awesome martial arts skills.

Blind him with science? :D

Actually, I think he was blinding him with silence...


Yeah, I have the same problem with a lot of my games... confusion on who is posting next, etc. Just when I think a game is dead, and I put up a post to see if anyone wants to continue, I get responses and the game plods along until the next lull.

I like to think of the gaps as just the game going on hiatus for a bit, or maybe it's a commercial break.

I, for one, have been having some RL issues. May have finally turned the corner Saturday.

I feel shame at the sheer amount and quality of laughter I had at that. Dunno if it was good, but I liked it. XD

EDIT:



You left me more or less alone with the not-yet-trusted alien that may have threatened to kill Trace and has both me and Stirix totally at its mercy? O_O When we all make it back to Elona and she matter-constructs some delicious cookies, Bluetooth is totally not getting one. :P
This message was last edited by the player at 08:33, Tue 25 Oct 2016.

No commercial breaks. It's on ABC!

Sorry, after all that wait, I've been unable to post. I should update later this week.

Bluetooth can have a Story Point for Impulsive though. :p

Hi, I am very here, just been trying to write a post and nothing sounds good just yet.

Sorry, my fault this time, I've been out of action with chores, babysitting, and minimal sleep. I'll try to update later this week.

No worries, take your time. RL does that thing.

An attack roll should be done with Strength and Fighting. All checks should be made with an attribute and a skill, unless absolutely no skill is applicable or it's an unskilled action. That's how I understand the basic rule anyway.

Your minor natural attack (claws) only adds +2 to your damage, not to your attack.

Your AoE: Unarmed Combat would apply to this, however. Actually, I'm not sure if having natural weapons counts as being unarmed, but I'm thinking of the situation in D&D 3.5/d20. You could always say AoE: Claws anyway, so same difference. So, there is a +2 to attack.

So your attack roll is reduced to a respectable 18.

Bluetooth, the Fight phase comes last, so your attack is moot after Toz's retreat and Tarys's action. Feel free to change your action.

I'd like to start keeping these extended conflicts organised for the sake of rules and plot clarity. So I'll list the phases at the bottoms of my updates. The current phase(s) will be coloured green (I'll try to cover two at once to keep this moving). Please make your action in the current phase or make a brief claim for an action in a future phase. For example, "OOC: Bluetooth will attack in the Fight phase." You can make a reaction in any phase.


For Gadgets, the Gadget's Story Points are used for unusual/remarkable applications. For generic applications of the Gadget's abilities, Story Points shouldn't be required.

Sure.  The point there was to get the extra 2D6 for a roll, if there was a roll, because this was the point where I finally bust out a for-real Time Lord superpower in front of everyone, therefore, I kind of want it to work.

In what phase do I get an interpretation of what you just said?  :-)

He means the decipede acted before you did and moved away to the Armoury, so he's too far away for you to attack by the time your turn comes around. Boss, doesn't that mean Bluetooth could just choose to chase him? Like some sort of big cat? :P

Question - timelord was mentioned; I believe Ice Lords have heard of them; but they're not time sensitive, so they may -no longer- have heard of them. My brain hurts.

I'm not doing anything else obviously, but I just want to know how to interrogate Axander after this is over...

But it was always a pile of little ice rocks. The team were trying to dig Stirix out. No need to lever a single large boulder off him at all... ;) Okay, I don't know if the changes wrought by the Possible Knife are apparent to non-time-sensitives, but PCs are increasingly time-sensitive anyway.


Yes, Toz wasn't going to stick around for a stand-up fight after Bluetooth's assault, so he moved (PCs aren't the only ones expected to run from the bad guys). This naturally occurs in the Move phase, before another attack from Bluetooth in the Fight phase, so your action unhappened (blame it on the failing timelines). The acid spit isn't a regular weapon either, so provoking another use was going to be difficult. Furthermore, Tarys broke the boulder in the Do phase, so trying to get Toz to spit acid at it was no longer necessary. It was a good idea though, so keep it in mind for later.


PCs can only take one action in a round, so pursuing in the Move phase is it for Bluetooth. You can make multiple reactions, that is, responses to another's action, however.


I think while some Martians might know of Time Lords, it's not certain any random Martian (i.e., Stirix) would. Some humans do, after all, but not all. Roll some kind of relevant knowledge check to see if and how much Stirix knows about Time Lords.

Obviously Toz Raz knows of them...

Bluetooth, when you add your Area of Expertise to a roll, it just adds +2. So Athletics 3 with an AoE: Running would be a +5 total, rather than +3 and +5. So basically just drop your result by 3 and you're good. :D

Ah. Okay. Got it. I just had the total listed for each AoE--Running, Climbing and Jumping.

Ingenuity + knowledge seems the way to go.


12:56, Today: Stirix rolled 16 using 2d6+7 with rolls of 5,4.  Ingenuity (5) + Knowledge (2).

FWIW, I would imagine that uses like this are more in the manner of "How the heck did that happen?" rather than retconning bits of the timeline.  The particular discombobulation of the boulder was just highly unlikely.

I think an Infinite Improbability Knife is a much more expensive Gadget. :D

Yeah, I imagine the result is something theoretically could happen, even if extremely unlikely. Sticking a knife in the boulder might just hit a weak fissure or crystalline plane that causes it to split apart. That Tarys can do it nine times out of ten will be the unusual thing. :)


Chases: The rules seem silent on what happens when you actually catch someone at the end of a chase, and what's to stop them just running again in the Move phase. So I imagine that, once a Chase has reach 0 areas and is over, a Move action to escape is invalid the next round. So Bluetooth has moved in front of Toz Raz and is preventing the bug from using a Move action to flee, until something else happens. Sound fair?


It's hard to say what anyone knows of the Time Lords (not just the Doctor) as it's always been highly variable as to whether they're a mystery or known reality. Anyway, I did some research and PMed a result to Stirix.

I was thinking of it more like a Finite Improbability Knife. Splitting the rock was always a possibility if done right, and it made sure that out of every timeline in which Tarys stabbed it, the timeline we existed in was the one in which she managed to split it properly. (Splitting it at all, and making sure the alleged volatile gasses didn't kill us all in an explosion afterward.)

But yeah, any amount of technobabble is totally suitable for Who. Also I have had a heck of a weekend and will post sometime very soon.

Heh. My mother was a science teacher; and she heard me once quoting the third Doctor "reverse the polarity of the neutron flow". I wasn't even in high school yet; but she had hysterics about it.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Happy New Year, and I certainly hope this next one is a bit easier to bear. Say, anyone other than me want to reply next? I would, but I just went before Toz Raz and would feel bad.

I'll take it.  One bad cop, coming up.

Ah, so that's your Time Lord–Time Lord dynamic. :)

Happy New Year!

I probably didn't make this clear enough, or at all.

In the first iteration of the timeline (Tarys's vision, the Prologue), you were looking for "temporal traces" left by the Doctor's passing, deeds, or things he used (or rather, these are scars in time left by his erasure). In the second iteration, you are looking for either the Doctor's temporal traces or direct clues (specifically, points of story continuity) between these locations and the location of the Dalek's Eternity Citadel and the Temporal Exterminator, or both if you like. That gives you more options, since the macguffin in each module can be rather cryptic and getting the trace anticlimactic. In-universe, thanks to Tarys's vision, Tarys and Axander now have an idea of the endpoint, and only need to find continuity leading them there, which theoretically allows them to get there faster and give them a second chance to save the universe before their timelines completely decay. Or a third chance; who knows how many times you've tried and failed already?

Confused? You should be. :)

Those with Feel the Turn of the Universe Trait will get a feeling when they get close to a trace. Obviously going close to something you suspect the Doctor had a hand in (the Memento Mori?) will give you a shot at that. You can also use the Temporal Trace Locator gadget's Scan trait to home in on a trace, with an Ingenuity + Technology check.

Otherwise, you want to keep an eye out for whatever links the Daleks and their Temporal Exterminator to something here. That's more a matter of investigation and finding things that don't fit.

Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?

Goodness. I couldn't really think of what to do, and was the last player to post so was hoping someone else would. I'm still trying to piece together what info I have into a decent answer to his question.

Also, did we ever actually get Toz Raz's name? I don't think we know what to call him in character. Need to do proper introductions once we aren't in the middle of assuming he's going to come after us again.

Of course if I know my Doctor Who script guidelines, as soon as we trust him he needs to die in some horrible way.

Anyhoo, could Tarys or Bluetooth do a thing? I am not thing doey at the moment.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:37, Thu 16 Feb 2017.

No, as soon as we trust him it'll turn out that he's the big baddie all along. He's like Glitz.

Feel free to ask him his name, or assume it's already come up. It's surprising how many movies and series skip over bringing up character's names. I used to think I was just bad with names (well, I suppose I am).

We keep coming to a crashing halt and I'm not sure why. It used to be usually my fault, but lately I'm just waiting on PCs. Since it keeps happening in my games, it must still be my fault somehow. But I don't know what more I can do.

Since I've already got the option of erasing ex-PCs from time, temporarily or permanently, I should start assuming that if you stop posting, your characters vanish, and the world continues without you. :p

Heh. I wouldn't say it's your fault in this game, either. It just feels like a thing happening with RPoL over the last few years. I've had over twelve games I've been in come to similar jumps and stops, whether they were waiting on me or each other or someone said "I'll post tomorrow" and was never heard from again, things like that. It's frustrating, but I think a regular level of poking may simply be the only solution.

I often think of doing pokes, but then decide against it for reasons.

Well, I sometimes feel like I don't know what to do But that could be I'm playing the wrong character. Maybe I should have gone for a timelord.

In my experience, with a few exceptions, long games are that way usually due to a fair bit of player turnover at first; until you settle down to a group that you mesh well with.

I had a 3.5 game that lasted a while; but there was a lot of player turnover until I got a group that worked well together.

Don't know why I missed posting this here... did in (almost) all my other games, but RL knocked me down (but I get up again...).


Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch.

Two weeks ago, Sunday night Jan 29, just after dinner, I suddenly developed a severe stomach pain--level 7. While I struggled with it for half an hour, figured it was probably food poisoning. It wasn't like any other stomach pain I'd ever experienced before. Then I wound up throwing up 4-5 times, though afterwards the pain level was only 5. An hour later, I threw up 2-3 more times and the pain level dropped to 3. And there it stayed. No more throwing up, and it didn't go away. I couldn't find any position where the pain was lesser, and it was too high to let me sleep. Finally called the EMTs about 1 a.m. and off to the ER I went.

A dose of femital (or something) dropped the pain to 1, and eventually it went completely away. However, the hospital continued to run its tests to try and determine the cause. I'm not convinced that they ever did. One doctor concurred that it might have been food poisoning, but the other doctor concluded that it was a problem with my gallbladder and recommended I have it removed. He scheduled laparoscopy surgery for Wednesday. If it went well, I'd be hope by Friday. Turned out it was in bad shape and required full abdominal surgery to remove it.

Let me tell you... in all those movies/shows when they talk about a painful wound to your abdomen, they aren't kidding! Every muscle in your chest and abdomen, and a few in your arms and legs, are all tied in together. So every deep breath, every burp, every hiccup, every yawn, every laugh, every cough causes excruciating pain! This is on top of the pain meds!

Every movement... sitting up, standing up, sitting down, laying down, stretching, reaching, bending... causes pain. One such movement at a time is usually okay, but then requires an hour of sitting still and getting over it.

Alas, the hospital's discharge procedure was rather inept on Sunday, and I wound up having to make a dozen such movements so that I could get my meds from the pharmacy before it closed. So after I got home and settled in, it took around 8 hours for the pain to subside.

It's slowly getting better, but will probably take another 3-4 weeks for the surgery to completely heal and the pain to completely go away.

Still around. Not sure how much posting I'll get to... have to reorganize the house a bit as I'm mostly fending for myself.

And while the pain is now mostly gone, so is my energy. Every little effort, including sitting in my desk chair (to type posts), requires about an hour of recovery. Mental energies have also been low, so I was having a hard time thinking about things in this game.

Anyway, I apologize for the absence and lack of word.


I've discovered over the years that even those who profess to like puzzle-solving in their RPGs are seldom able to actually solve them, no matter how 'simple' it seems to the GM.

For that reason, I try to include an NPC in the mix to feed the PCs (intravenously, if necessary) relevant clues. In this game, I'm particularly in the dark because I'm just not as steeped in Who lore as the rest of you seem. I have no trouble connecting one dot to another, but with Dr. Who, it always seems like there are 20 or 30 dots that have to be connected all at once. Afterwards, I maybe get half of them, and admire the cleverness, but I'm not Drax--lots of things go over my head.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:55, Thu 16 Feb 2017.

Take your time; get better soon.

As for your comments on who-lore - I don't think it's been an issue. I... know who-lore better than most, and the only thing who-loreish I've really noted was that the decipedes were almost certainly killed by Daleks. Toz Raz has similarities to some aliens, but I don't think his race is something that has been mentioned before.

Hokey smokes, that's terrible! Yeah, do the recovering thing. We're a patient bunch here.

Tarys and I have gotten a PM with some special information based on a background element we have, but I feel like Axander would need another but of information to figure out how to put it to use. I'm pretty confident in my lore, and I'm pretty sure that isn't the issue here. Might just be missing snippets, or else the module was written assuming players are as good at solving mysteries as the show's writers. :P

.... I argue the point that the show's writers are good at solving mysteries. Moffatt himself is reasonable; though it shows up more in Sherlock than Doctor Who; but I digress.

Point is, they /wrote/ both the mysteries and the characters, so the characters have a much easier time solving them. RPGs do not have that same thing going for the players.

There isn't so much a puzzle here, more past events to uncover the truth of. It's less problem-solving, more investigation. With a little investigation, you can discover what's really going on and the plot-tokens needed to move on. Unfortunately, this module has a literal drip-feed of information: you have to wait for various buildings to defrost in order to explore them and discover something new before you can advance. Plus, a slow pace makes it hard for players and even GMs to remember plot-details.

As a reminder, you have the following areas to investigate:

• Shelter (pyramid; all dead?): 0/5 (explored)
• Computer Core (dome; a military command centre): 0/5 (explored)
• Archive (ziggurat): 0/5 (half-explored)
• "Not-Enemies Nest" (angular quarter): 2/7 (unexplored)
• Weapons Depot (ziggurat): 0/7 (explored)
• "Rocket Shaft" (deep well or pit): 0/10 (unexplored)
• Temporal anomaly (not on the aliens' map): 3/10 (unexplored)

The so-called rocket shaft is open but no-one's noticed in the recent fuss. You might do more investigation of the Archive, where Tarys left the archaeologists. Tarys and Axander might guess that any weapon a Time Lord sent is bound to register as a temporal anomaly, so it could still be in there.


These decipedes, the Yag Haz, are a wholly new species created for this module. They've been tied in to the events of the Time War, obviously. Even in the Whoniverse, you can consider them to be very obscure.

Man, this adventure woulda been Classic Who slow around a tabletop. No wonder it's hard to keep track of everything going on here on RPoL. Don't worry, boss. We'll get through it eventually. :D

(Seriously, I spent five years looking for a chance to play this character for longer than a scene. I am totally not dropping out on you until you delete this game. And then I may or may not badger you about opening it back up or something similar. I am determined.)

EDIT: Speaking of, I can't remember. Actually haven't for a while now, but now's a good chance to ask. Are we in our normal clothes, or heavy cold gear such as space parkas, or something hermetically sealed like spacesuits or something? I can't remember how we're dressed at all.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:10, Fri 17 Feb 2017.

Err, okay now.

I have a major, major, major interview on Friday, so don't expect any meaningful posts before then.

How major? 12 month contract; with a bank. Anyone who has had -anything- to do with data entry can tell you that financial institutions are pretty much where it's at for data entry and permanent work. I don't however have experience; but they don't care about banking experience for this job. But that means that though it's only for one year, in 12 months; if I can get this job; means I get to add to my CV '12 months working for one of the big 4 banks in Australia'.

That's fantastic! I hope it works out for you. We'll try not to have something immediately come up that requires Stirix's attention, of course. Doctor Who is an adventure series, not a sitcom. :P

I've never abandoned a game short of total loss of players, so don't worry about me giving up.

You're wearing heavy cold gear, basically space-age self-warming, insulated parkas, boots, trousers, beanies.

And good luck again with the interview. I imagine Stirix has disappeared into one of those gaps in time again. :)

Hm. Any chance Axander could try Tarys's roll, using his encyclopedia as a bonus?

You may roll for yourself, yes.

I forgot to mention I was gone here, too. >_<

I was away for the weekend, and I am back now. I'll have a post up tomorrow. Not feeling up to it at the moment.

So umm, apparently Telosian Cybermen will be in the next series. But dang.

Oh and I'm back.

I'm still her but I've lost track of where i am and both my laptop and tablet are in the shop for repairs at the moment.

Hey, better your laptop and tablet than you! My computer died back at the end of 2015; had to get a new one. It's not as good, but gets the job done, since mostly all I use it for is gaming.

Now we're getting some answers. :)

Stirix and Trace are waiting outside. If you'd like to join either Tarys or Axander and Bluetooth, just insert yourselves in the scene. If you have something else you'd like to try, just let me know.

Sorry; flat-out with study at the moment. I should be able to do something after the weekend, and more fully back next month.

Hey boss, I plan on turning the room's danger against our friend, and was wondering if there would be a story point cost to that. In more used to doing that sort of thing in Fate, where I'd just invoke the room as an aspect. The idea is to keep him from firing too much because of... I believe the technical term is "explodey fiery things". Wanna hide behind big kaboomy toys.

Good idea. I think this comes under the "doing something remarkable" application of Story Points, less in terms of bending the plot/reality and more in thinking of something the GM didn't and in the PC taking control. It's an obvious conclusion, so make it 1 Story Point.

Sorry for the wait, I was away and didn't get a chance to update.

Who currently has the Temporal Trace Locator?

Pretty sure Tarys has it, unless she was using her spooky knife to detect the anomaly a few scenes ago. In that case I might have it. No idea. :D

Ah, Tarys was the last to have it in the game thread, so I imagine she still has it.

It seemed like you weren't keeping the whole Time Lord thing secret any longer. :)

I only mentioned N-Forms for background. It's a thing from a New Adventures novel, Damaged Goods (by Russell T Davies, an exploration of late-80s gay culture set against the backdrop of a London council housing estate and the incursion of a horrific Time Lord weapon something like the ending of Akira, featuring a Tyler family and a bunch of other things he'd reuse later), where I got the idea for Patrex artistic weapons from. It's not actually relevant to this.



Hey, it's your superweapon. You're probably safe. ;)

Davies was the one who invented N-forms? My goodness, no wonder he wrote about a Time War. He'd already had horrifying ideas for the kinds of weapons Time Lords would employ. o_o

Nah, the Time War was ripped off of the War arc in the Eighth Doctor Adventures, devised by Lawrence "Mad Larry" Miles (they called him mad, before he was actually diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia...), and the series has been retreading it since. Twenty years on, and Doctor Who is still in the shadow of Alien Bodies.

Davies used to be a much angrier writer, Damaged Gods is an "everybody dies (except the gays)" kind of story.

Yeeeaaaah, I did kinda see the cover of the book and immediately noped right out. That was pretty gruesome. Half a corpse dragging itself out of the grave by its robo-tentacles. Does not exactly feel like a happy story.

I never really felt the two Time Wars were similar enough to really consider the new one a rehash of the old one. Just had similar names, really. (And the new one is much less freaky. Granted, we got to see way too much of it for there to be any real horror left, but that was super recent.)

I'm completely lost...

Lemme see if I can help unpack this.

The Yag Haz were picked on by other species until eventually being able to fight back. They ended up mad at the universe. They hooked up with the Daleks, who suggested "hey, that's a nice planet ya got there, it'd be the opposite of a shame if somebody were to...turn it into a starship and fly it into another planet." They thought it was a great idea, turned it into a starship, and tried to fly it into Gallifrey during the Time War. Gallifrey responded with one of the Time War's mind-shattering horrors, the Memento Mori, a Type 103 (or higher) Time Travel Capsule that had essentially been turned into a murderous zombie monster. Everyone died but Toz Raz, then we showed up and started thawing things out. The planet, also, is back on its collision course with Gallifrey.

Now Toz Raz wants to kill us, but can't because we're more or less badassish, and we are accidentally unleashing something that could literally erase the universe from reality. We need to figure out a way to stop the Memento Mori before it does something horrible, stop the planet from going all Final Fantasy VII on the Time Lords, stop Toz Raz from killing us, stop Professor Ortega from betraying us all for his mad ambition (I've seen enough Doctor Who to know where he's going, plotwise), try really hard to prevent any of the cool NPCs from needing to sacrifice themselves to save the day (also seen enough Doctor Who to know this one, and I like all of these NPCs, no sacrifice for them! They took Osgood from me, you leave Hali alone!), and also ensure the Time Lords present don't overshadow the Not Time Lords present, because the system was intended for you guys to be awesome even in the face of overwhelming exposition.

Did I get that all right, boss?

That's... actually completely correct. :D

Okay, there's more to come, but that's a start. ;)

And don't forget the longer-term aim of preventing the Doctor and now yourselves from being erased from time, again, by either collecting the temporal traces or the points of continuity (actual campaign-specific continuity references between adventures) that could lead you to the Daleks' secret base sooner. (Tarys already has one. ;) )

Though you may be overselling the threat of the Memento Mori. Certainly it could kill all of you... But erasing the universe isn't in the Time Lords' best interests. (At least until "The End of Time", but the less said, the better.)
This message had punctuation tweaked by the GM at 07:29, Sat 10 June 2017.

If it's a TTC, then I am totally not overselling it's capabilities. If it decided that was necessary, it totally could. The Doctor's Tardis totally could, if someone accidentally flipped two wrong switches, and that's an old model with fewer capabilities. Granted, this thing probably doesn't want to do that, which is good for us. Unless we really piss it off, which player characters are the best at. :P

But, uh. Yeah, I am down for someone coming up with an awesome plan before the time machine Terminator Crow zombie wakes up. :D

EDIT: Fortunately, Axander's trousers comes in brown already.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:17, Sat 10 June 2017.

I knew about half of that...

Unless pulling a rabbit out my hat can 'save the day', I have no idea what Bluetooth can do to help the situation.

Like I may have said before, I'm like Captain Janeway--temporal mechanics give me a headache!

Well, the non-Time Lords in the party do have a ton more Story Points than we do, and you can spend them to get flashes of insight from the GM. So yes, pulling a rabbit out of your hat is absolutely written in the rules, and you're the ones expected to be doing that most often. :D

Short of other plot-based events and NPC actions going on around you, at this point, what you do and how you solve the problem is all up to you PCs. Whatever ideas you have, no matter how crazy, are on the table.

For more basic actions, you could explore the Computer Core (command centre) some more, particularly checking the flight path. Is the planet still going to hit Gallifrey, and when?

The "Rocket Shaft" is now free of ice, so you might check that out. Since you know the Daleks motorised the planet, it's the same as the shaft to the centre of the Earth in "The Dalek's Masterplan".

You can also get back to work on escaping this place through the ice-fall.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the GM at 12:01, Wed 12 July 2017.

I'm not sure if all of us have the exposition that the planet is a rocket, or that there were Daleks here. Tarys learned a bunch of stuff that hasn't had an opportunity to be shared yet, what with the discovery of the creepy monster man.

My current deal is hoping the not-Time Lords can get a chance to do something, since we've been getting quite a lot of screentime as exposition fairies. Don't want people to feel like Tarys and I are the only ones who can play, and kinda feeling like people are feeling like that. <_<

Can I please have a hands-up on who's still here and playing, and who's disappeared into a hole in time? The waiting hurts the game for everyone.



I've been busy for a bit and I still need to think of something appropriate. But what kind of nudge were you looking for? Would you like an idea on what to do next, or a plan for defeating the Memento Mori monster?

I gave some simple things you could do next up in post #314. Or do you want something more definite?

Otherwise, I could give a sudden realisation for some of the clues and information that have been overlooked.

And as I said, you're overselling/overestimating the threat of the Memento Mori, which is making it harder to deal with. :p

The DWAITAS modules tend not to lead parties by the nose, but rather present a set of events and locations and expect the PCs to pull something out of the arses to solve the problem, while giving a few possible ideas for what to do. If you're up for defeating the Memento Mori, then what's your preferred approach? Blowing it up, technobabble it, shut it down, peaceful resolution, run like hell, something else?

Still here, ish.

Same

I'm still here! Though I suppose...that's pretty obvious. Hi! :D



You did, and I totally forgot you did because that was a month ago. Should be able to do some of those things at the very least, but I was indeed looking for some GM-nudged ideas on ways to deal with the monster that sound like they'd work. Speaking of...



Yeah, I recall that. I really should have asked for some input on what it is we're looking at. And not just that it's a super scary advanced time machine Terminator zombie monster, but what can it do?

My expectations were as follows:

The Doctor's Type-40 TTC is an old, wimpy, outdated model, and is fully capable of wounding or even destroying the Time Vortex, destroying stars, creating entire planets within it (seriously, it once recreated Gallifrey inside it when an evil Time Lord from the future, which is impossible but happens all the time, stole it to destroy the Doctor). The Type-40 is incredibly dangerous in the wrong hands.

The humanoid TTCs are super advanced models, and I expect they're more powerful rather than less. Then again, it doesn't seem like Compassion did anything too outside the bounds of what the Tardis did, except be humanoid.

My assumptions are that the Memento Mori can be at least as destructive as the Tardis, but we should probably dial down our expectations so the GM doesn't feel obligated to destroy half the galaxy when that ice melts. So what should we expect from the monster, boss?

Myself, I'm trying to think of something, but it feels like so much of the site is still frozen away from us that there are probably all sorts of interesting resources we haven't seen yet.

I feel like the fact that whatever else it's capable of, the Memento Mori is predisposed to kill, and probably to backfire on whoever is trying to pick something different for it to kill (as that might be an otherwise good solution to the Yag Haz, to get rid of whatever originally set them down a xenophobic spiral) is immensely tricky to think one's way around.

I think it's fair to say the Doctor's Type-40 TTC is "more than just another TARDIS". :) It has a history of doing things regular TARDISes can't. Meanwhile, the Memento Mori is a zombie TARDIS, and zombies tend not to do all that much, but shuffle and groan and kill things. :)

And erasing from history/existence isn't a common threat nor something that can easily be weaponised. The De-mat Gun and Rassilon's Gauntlet are unique and special artifacts of the Time Lords, and the Dalek's Temporal Cannon/Temporal Exterminator (I've mashed the nigh-identical superweapons from Engines of War and the Doom of the Daleks module into one here) is still prototypical, having just had its first test firing on your future selves.

Okay, I've wound up giving a whole bunch of nudges. Probably much more than is proper for one Story Point, but it gets us moving. Mostly these are clarifications or expectations of the threat and things you might have deduced in time. There are three main ways of dealing with the Memento Mori, and I've suggested some ways you might attempt them. Remember this is Doctor Who, you get to work inside and outside the box, and anything is on the table.

We have new blood! A new player has taken over Vax Kent, the NPC. Bid him welcome!

Hello, hello!

I'm Ramis, I've been looking forward to playing DWAITAS for a while, and am also starting up my own game elsewhere on Rpol. Been a Doctor Who fan for a few years.  I've watched all of New Who of course, and am working my way through Classic Who as well at the moment. Looking forward to playing with you guys!

Welcome to the insanity :-)

Welcome, Vax! :D

Not sure when I can get an IC post in. Life has suddenly become much busier than I'm used to. Gonna post soon as I can, though!

I'm still around, too, just floundering as usual.

As much as I like and enjoy Dr. Who, all that wibbly-wobbly, timey-whimey stuff confuses the hell out of me. Just when I think I understand something, it takes a left turn into the Twilight Zone!

If you have any questions, I might be able to help clarify things. I've watched a whole lot of Doctor Who and Star Trek. :P

No, and that's the point--I don't even know what questions to ask!

Don't feel bad.  Even after all that I'm mired pretty badly in analysis paralysis myself.

I'm fairly certain the Doctor Whoiest solution to all this would be to figure out how to talk the monster into sacrificing itself by jumping down the Rocket Shaft to destroy the planet and save Gallifrey. I'm also fairly certain that trick won't work until it's threat level has built to the highest possible point.

Okay, sorry for the delay again. I was busy with RL stuff and other games and waiting for more discussion in-character. It also looks like we lost the new player who adopted Vax Kent.

TBH, I'm a bit stuck on how to proceed, and I suspect you all are too. The module's random defrost rates for the sites and plot events means we're in a "wait and hurry-up" stage – nothing can really happen until the Memento Mori is released or you PCs do one or two things, which you haven't done.

So, shall I time-jump forward to the next defrosting or have an NPC throw some spanners around? Or can someone give me a clear course of action for the PCs?

I say we nuke the site from orbit, its the only way to be sure.

Unfortunately we lack nukes. So with that in mind, either we do what Axander said in last post or when timeskip to the next event. We've done enough analysing.

I'm gonna be more or less out of commission for the next ten days or so. Road trip. Pretty sure I suggested something IC earlier, but don't have time to read what I wrote right now and also am not entirely comfortable with Axander taking charge so soon in his career as a main character.

Too bad about the Vax Kent player. It happens when there's nothing going on, and the players don't move it along.

Try sending him a PM.

It's an odd adventure in that it doesn't seem as if any of the characters have any ability to make progress.

Anyway, as I understand it, this weekend is GenCon, so don't expect much activity till Monday (recovery) or Tuesday.