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).