For discussion of new characters and game background.  I'll get some more up here in a bit.

Oh, wow, this was a surprise to pop up on my list.

I already have a character in mind and built. I played her in another game, but it petered out a few weeks ago. I'd love to play her some more. I'll let her introduce herself, but maybe some of have already met her?

'Smoke Alarm is a Blue Kang. Are you a Kang? I'm an eye-spy, an icehot corridor-runner, a hide-and-seeker, crack-shot with an arrowgun, hunter of Cleaners and beasts, and brave and bold as a Kang should be.

Mayhaps we'll how you do later?

Build high for happiness!'

For the unfamiliar or confused, Smoke Alarm is a Kang from "Paradise Towers", the 1987 7th Doctor story.

Shall I PM my sheet? The great thing about DWAITAS is I don't have to keep rebuilding characters. :)

Blue Kangs!  Blue Kangs!  Blue Kangs are best!

I heart Paradise Towers.

I would suggest Smoke Alarm as a companion of a previous incarnation of the Traveller, retrieved to rejoin the crew as the festivities begin.  I'll get you renamed in the game.  You can post details here and / or under your Cast page.

And I am here. Here are some links for Trav info. There's also the threads at RPG.net, but those are locked away from non-members. I left for reasons best not bothered with - but the narrative was awesome and I'd like a way to capture it all.

Hello, everyone. Now I have to watch Paradise Towers!

The Traveller always wears a Fedora, since her entire career started when the 1st Doctor left his cap in Travellandatura's celestiography observarium and she spent 3 episodes trying to get it back to him, in the process helping him to uncover the Sontaran's plot.  While a Time Lord, Travellandatura was originally a celestiographer, a cross between an astronomer, gravitic physicist and historian. The hat can assume any hat or scarf like shape, being a nanotech construct. In Rifts, it had 1 MDC.


1st Traveller, being cosplayed. Facially, Trav looks like a cross between Lara Croft and Belle from Beauty and The Beast. Spoke with an aristocratic New England accent. Notable companions - Herodotus, Al Capone, Wyatt Earp.



Second Traveller, without her hat.  Notable companions - RIck Hunter/Hikaru Ichigho, Lynn Minmay and several other Robotech Heroes, Abraham Lincoln, Barack Obama, and many many others. Had a chaste romance with the 5th Doctor, which made her fall into the form of the Marshall all the more tragic.


Kate Mulgrew, the Marshall. No companions but several lackeys, she commanded armies at various points, and would occasionally assist the Doctor against the likes of the Daleks (who were responsible for her capture, torture and transformation into the Marshall), whom she hated. Her most feared weapon was the Rod, which resembled a riding crop and combined the functions of a sonic screwdriver with a Dalek delta wave gun, as well as several other functions. Mulgrew performed as the Marshall across several seasons of Doctor Who, and credits her experience there with winning her the role of Kathryn Janeway on Star Trek:Voyager. Janeway-As-Marshall memes are still popular on the Internet, especially the one "BORG? PLEASE. OUR CAPTAIN IS A TIME LORD." Appears yearly with Samantha Drake at the annual GALLIFREY ONE convention at the Traveller panel.

Not pictured - Macy Waller, who played Dr Louise Simons. Louise Simons was the Traveller changed by the Chameleon arch into a human. While Waller only played Louise Simons in 2 episodes before regeneration into the Traveller, her impact is felt all the way through Demons of Time. Simons still carried and wore The Doctor's hat, which she regarded as simply a nanotech construct that, along with her sonic screwdriver, were gifted to her by the Megaversal Druid Morhedgreim as simply RIFTS Earths technological artifacts. Louise's family life and children play a major factor in the motivations of the Traveller in the 3 seasons of Demons of Time, which aired alongside of seasons 2, 3 and 4 or Doctor Who.



Samantha Drake, the current (5th) Traveller. This comedic actress grew up as a Robotech fan and fell in love with the 2nd Traveller watching the old episodes on San Diego's local PBS. Also known for serious dramatic work, including two Golden Globe nominations.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:19, Fri 22 Nov 2013.

I captured the RPG.net thread as four big HTML pages for the in-character stuff and one for the OOC.  I'll look into some way of making all that accessible.

Blue Kangs! Blue Kangs! Blue Kangs are best!

How you do, Traveller.

I've posted my description, back-story and personality under my Description. Let me know how I can link to the Traveller and the pre-existing story here. There's some stuff from Smoke's last game, and a link to another DWAITAS character of mine (Samanthra) that I could adapt.

For the moment I have put a ZIP of the archive up on Google Drive here:

https://drive.google.com/folde...JQVU&usp=sharing

There are 6-7 months worth of play there, but the basics are this:

• The Traveller came back from an alternate universe where she was banished while the end of the Time War happened.
• She found that several time-active groups had cropped up with the Time Lords out of the picture.
• In the first adventure where she met Dr. Stanley Newton, they encountered a person who seemed to be a human with Time Lord genes grafted into them.  In fact, they encountered three people who all seemed like they might be aspects of one individual.  Two of them were also in possession of an advanced spacetime manipulation device that physically manifests as a deck of cards.  Investigation of this device showed that it was a Time Lord artifact that survived the war, with a code name derived from "Transformational Archetypes Refactoring Orthogonal Time" (TAROT).
• One iteration of this person joined Trav and Stanley when they left Earth -- and subsequently disappeared on their next adventure.
• That first off-world adventure for Stanley was on the planet Arden, a gas giant that was one State of a star-spanning United States of America.  They uncovered and thwarted a plot to fix that USA's presidential election -- which turned out to be masterminded by another one of the competing time-active groups, called the Splintered Sisterhood.
• Trav formed the idea of replacing the Time Lords' top-down management of the space-time continuum with a league of these different groups, including the future USA they'd helped, present-day UNIT, and other groups that they would seek out and contact.  The term hung on this trans-temporal organization was The Parliament of Time.
• In their most recent adventure, Trav & Stanley helped present-day UNIT investigate a suspected Cyberman incursion in Egypt.  They discovered a Cyberman presence dating back to ancient times, but they found that the Cybermen had actually fought and imprisoned Apep, one of the Osirans.  Apep threatened to break out of his confinement, but Trav & Stanley were able to put a more permanent stop to him.

This message was last edited by the GM at 03:33, Fri 22 Nov 2013.

Hey Gary, if you could reach out to Phillipe's player, this might be an awesome time for him to come back in.

Also, as for character sheets - Gary, you need to check off a box that turns character sheets on. If you do that, we can get access to a large text box we can cut and paste character stats into.

Well, I see you've all been busy. :) Sadly, I've never completed one DWAITAS adventure, except the one I GMed myself.

Well, I did something, but I can't actually tell whether I fixed that or not :)

Hello to you too!

I'll check it out. I am enthusiatic about having PCs be former companions or elsewise linked into what I in my head call Travcanon. See, since I first played Trav in a RIFTS campaign, I linked her to Robotech, because RIFTS (also, I like Macross and Robotech.)

Imaginary franchise history -

Basically, when I first played her in RIFTS, Trav supposedly first appeared in a 1st Doctor episode (lost and yet to be recovered, only available in telesnaps, alas) where she helps the Doctor, Ian and Barbara and Susan thwart an Sontaran invasion of Gallifrey. She decides to follow in the foot steps of the Doctor and steals her own TARDIS - this happens just as Dalekmania hits Britain. 1st Traveller appears in bit roles in various 1st and 2nd Doctor episodes and in many Weekly TV Comics stories, and in some strips in 2000 AD (in Trav Fandom, it's remarked that 1st Trav is like the 8th Doctor, appearing mostly in comics, animation and novels). After an absence of a few years, a 2nd Traveller appears, with no explanation as to how or why she regenerated (played by actress Katie Westmoreland, the most famous Traveller actress, who passed away in the 80s, playing the character for 8 years.)

We don't see The Traveller for several years, but Haruki Mikimoto, who's a fan of Dr Who, convinces his friend Shoji Kawamori and the staff at Artland to do a series of Traveller-Macross 'special episodes', where the 1st Traveller helps Bruno Grobal explore the secrets of the SDF-1. She takes a lethal dose of radiation and regenerates into 2nd Traveller (the longest incarnation in the Trav franchise). The 'Special Episodes' that were co-branded with the BBC (who weren't using the character at the time) These tapes get released to the comic shop trade in Britain and Japan - Americans have no exposure to this until Robotech gets released. As Carl Macek had the rights to the Macross-Traveller special episodes, they were dubbed by Macek. Macek even paid to have new special episodes made for the Southern Cross and Mospeada segments.  As this was 1984 and 2nd Trav was appearing extensively in episodes with Tom Baker and Peter Davidson (indeed, it was the Traveller who was scripted to be in the Key of Time arc, but her actress had obligations, so we got Mary Tamm/Romana instead), the BBC approved it since it was no cost to them.

Then, Katie Westmoreland comes down with cancer and passes on. With the Traveller dead, John Nathan Turner engineers the transformation of the kindly and sweet Traveller into the ruthless and cruel Marshall. It's been rumoured that Turner always hated the Traveller and hated even more how popular she was. Played with relish by Kate Mulgrew, the Marhsall was an evil female Time Lord who combined the worst traits of the Rani and the Master. Much to Turner's surprise, this character was also just as popular as the Traveller, with the Marshall being chased by the 5th, 6th and 7th Doctors (one of the best selling DVD sets for Doctor Who is the 'Fury of the Marshall' set, with Mulgrew in her severe military uniform and bunned hair on the front cover.) The Marshall was successfully captured at the beginning of Sylvester McCoy's run, as Mulgrew went onto US success with Mrs Columbo and General Hospital. Mulgrew also stays active in Dr Who fandom, being a regular panelist at Gallifrey One.

The character disappears for over 13 years, with no mention of her being made in the 1996 Dr Who movie. She is occasionally mentioned in the Big Finish audios and specifically the Faction Paradox novels, as being a fierce enemy of the Faction (the Faction stands for chaos, as opposed to the Marshall with her famous phrase, "I will bring *discipline* and *order*".) Fast forward to 2005.

In preparation for the Rifts - The Demons of Time series, Christopher Eccleston shoots a brief scene with Mulgrew where, as Gallifrey is being destroyed and locked away by the Time Lock, the Doctor tells the Marshall she was always the Traveller and to live a happy, fantastic life. As this was not aired as part of season 1 of Doctor Who, there is debate in the fan commuinity as to whether or not it is canonical. Due to rights uncertainties with Harmony Gold and Tatsunoko, who are blocking certain uses of the Traveller reaching back to the Robotech era, Stephen Moffat has declared that no reference to the Traveller and the Marshall "except obliquely" will be made in the Dr Who 50th Anniversary special, fan petitions not withstanding.

However, the agreement with Harmony Gold and Tatsunoko does not forbid BBC productions with the Traveller as a character outside the Dr Who franchise. Thus, the Traveller appeared in the 2009 Rifts - The Demons of Time. Fans of the Palladium Books franchise were utterly shocked to see the revered Dr Who character appear in the show, appearing besides the Coalition and the RIFTS setting. Here is where comedic actress Samantha Drake first wears the Fedora hat, as she has been for 4 seasons (3 of Rifts, and 1 of Always Time To Travel). This came on the heels of an aborted Traveller reboot that Moffat was also involved in called Doctor Who: Turn of the Universe, which introduced popular characters UNIT analyst Henry Boyd, Sgt Patel and  Zhu Rheng, played by Jet Li.

Now, with a second season of Always Time To Travel confirmed, Moffat says that a resolution of the Tatsunoko/Big West/Harmony Gold rights deal should be coming through "any day now".  Fans begged for the Traveller to appear in Doctor Who since Season 1 (such as with the famous online SAM AND DAVID campaign in 2007, as well as the SAM AND MATT petition in 2009). Moffat has stated that "he's dying" to bring the Traveller into current Dr Who continuity, "but only after the legal problems are solved." Peter Capaldi has stated he adores Samantha Drake's work on Always Time To Travel and "can't wait to work with her and the other cast members of her show."

Always Time To Travel is BBC America's second highest rated show, right after Dr Who, of course.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:28, Fri 22 Nov 2013.

Gary- click Game Menu->edit character sheets and select the 'user editable' box.

Smoke Alarm - While I don't think Trav would have visited Paradise Towers (she was in jail on Gallifrey when The Doctor visited), she could have picked up Smoke Alarm for wacky adventures when the inhabitants of Paradise Towers were brought to civilization. This would be 1st or 2nd Trav, most likely, as 5th Trav has just returned to N-Space.

Traveller: I am amazed and confused. :p Hey, Faction Paradox! :D

I'm a classic and "wilderness years" fan myself. I never did take to the new series, and I've got mixed feelings for "The Day of the Doctor". I plan to watch "The Name of the Doctor" for the first time tonight.

My character sheet works.

No worries, I can slot in Smoke's other adventurers in the gap. My other PC, Sam, discovered the Kangs and studied them in their natural habitat for a bit, before Earth authorities decided to put the lost children in schools and homes (following an unmade sequel to "Paradise Towers"). Smoke was one of those who escaped, stowed away on a space freighter, had a Graske friend who showed her the ropes, before getting her in trouble with some semi-Cybermen. Stuff happened, game died. The Traveller could have rescued her some time after that. But Smoke likely won't accept this new Traveller as the same one she used to know, at least not for a while.

But is it necessary for us to have known each other? We can't meet fresh? I think I might get lost in all the backstory. :)

Actually, I kinda prefer that we meet fresh.

Okay. I usually prefer playing through first impressions, good and bad. :)

And sorry for the data dump - Travcanon and the imaginary franchise are meant to be dense, just like Dr Who can be ;)

If we pick up with the adventure that Trav & Stanley were headed to when we wound up needing to move the game, it's set in a future period that jibes well enough, and I'd already planned that it involved a shipful of refugees running away from some Nasty Folk.  It would work pretty well, if Smoke Alarm was on that ship, and knows nothing about the Traveller.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:40, Fri 22 Nov 2013.

Okay, sounds good.

What future time-period? There's no solid date for "Paradise Towers", but Kroagnon was active in the (late) 21st century, so Smoke Alarm could live in the 22nd century. But, in my other games, I've bumped the Kangs forward to the 26th century to align with other PCs (Paradise Towers having been settled centuries after Kroagnon was forgotten, which made more sense). I've taken to thinking of her as a native of that time (and the New Adventures continuity). with Smoke's family possibly being victims of the Second Dalek War:
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Second_Dalek_War
or the Cyber Wars. But given the other game she was in, some time travel for Smoke wouldn't be unlikely.

I'm a fan of classic and new series; never -really- took to the book series; though do have a preference for the classic.

Still tossing through concepts. Given I don't own the book myself; it might be best if I did something fairly simple.

Don't worry about it, the system is very simple and straightforward, with identical mechanics for everything. You can make a psychic or a cyborg in much the same way as an alien or a regular human (though being a cyborg, robot, or having a gadget layers in extra stuff like the Gadget rules, but they don't really change much). Only Time Lords get a bit more complicated, as they gain more features, plus a Gadget.

Are we allowed to use the expansion books? I realised there's a trait in the UNIT book that would suit Smoke Alarm nicely.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:19, Fri 22 Nov 2013.

Expansion books are OK, just make sure you point me toward the source if it's outside the main book.  I do have the UNIT book, Time Traveller's Companion, and the Doctor books that have been released so far.

On the time period question, I had meant to adjust the "official" time for Paradise Towers to fit what I had in mind.  If your background had a lot of important links to big galactic events it might be different, but relocating it doesn't seem like it would hurt much because of the relative isolation.

Ultimately if you want to use a time-traveling background, that is fine too.

I use the Time Traveller's Companion - I'm a graduate of the Prydonian college (hey, who wouldn't be?) and use that for my TARDIS stats. Yes, TARDIS'es gace stats.

Hello everyone,

Still trying to get the hang of this site. The character sheet area is the "Character Details"-> "Edit description" thing, right?

@The Guardian, what do you want to do about the previous character advancement? Stanley has an extra trait and and area of expertise, compared to a standard character. Do you want me to remove them?

Stan the man with the plan! Good to see you Gareth.

Ready to get into a future kung fu war?

How you do, Stanley.

"Edit Description" will change your publicly visible details, found under "The Cast". That's usually just for descriptions and personality, but you can put a character sheet there if you want.

For your personal character sheet, you click on "Edit Character Sheet".

No, Stanley & Trav should keep extras already added to them.  We'll add corresponding advancements to Smoke Alarm and willvr's character.

Well, I wasn't worried about being a bit behind. I seem to be a newbie to a pre-running game after all.

But I wouldn't complain about that extra trait! :D I was just now looking at how to squeeze a minor good trait in.

All that Trav has is a +1 to Convince (due to her cooking up her cockamamey Parliament of Time) and a chronic lack of Story Points ;)

I'll try to get a concept up tonight or something. Saturdays are a day I run a chat-based game though, so can't right now. I'm really not sure -what- to be; so if someone wants to toss out some suggestions...

Though I always like the Silurians and Draconians.

Going by typical party roles, we have a (medical) doctor for healing, a Time Lord who can usually manage science and technology, and a Kang for scouting/sneaking/surviving. Or Cleric, Wizard, and Ranger/Rogue. :) So, we could use a Fighter.

Or going by typical large TARDIS teams and companion types: Time Lord, an empathic type, a wild child (Smoke is kind of like Ace meets Leela). The fourth person would also be the one who fights on, pushes through, and does the physical action scenes, like Ian (Aztec warrior, Roman gladiator, Greek soldier, etc.), Ben (a sailor), or Jamie (Scots warrior).

I've always liked the idea of a Draconian samurai. There was a cool one in the 80s comics. They have just the right culture for it, and you get to be a giant lizard-man too!

Some kind of disguise gadget would be necessary for modern and historical Earth settings though, but I'm sure it's possible.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:33, Sat 23 Nov 2013.

Let me add some details that might help give you inspiration.

Draconians are directly contemporary with the "future USA" period I referenced up in post 7, and by that time the Silurians are all out of hibernation and are active citizens of a number of Earth nations.

There's no reason why they wouldn't also be around at the period where the first adventure starts, which is up in the 195th century.

The adventure will start on an orbital habitat called "Farhaven" in the Arsuran Regis star system.  The habitat is the locale of a transplanted Shaolin temple (long story) which is currently trying to shelter a population of war refugees.  These refugees are fleeing a military order called the Fists of Thirty Suns.  There are actually multiple habitats orbiting the same world which the Fists have already overrun.  So any character in that setting could originate from the temple, from a refugee ship, or potentially even the Fists.

My only reservation about an obviously nonhuman PC is that it could make going to present-day (or earlier) Earth kind of difficult or hard to make sense of, although there could be such things as technological disguises, never mind the fact that (for example) Vastra and Strax seem to manage Victorian England just fine, somehow.

EDIT: Ha, some of that was ninja-posted by Smoke Alarm while I was writing it. :)
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:49, Sat 23 Nov 2013.

Sorry. :p Though Smoke is the team ninja. :D

195th century! Yep, Smoke definitely time-travelled to get there. Somehow. Maybe that osmic projector time machine broke in her last adventure, hurtling her aeons forward in time rather than teleporting her out. Or... where did that Shaolin monastery come from? Smoke could make a fine monk. :D (My conception of her is as a traceur, a practitioner of parkour.)

In the Doctor Who Magazine comics, Destrii, a fish-person, had a holographic disguise (on a necklace) in time for a visit to modern Earth, making her look human (never mind the time she visited the Wild West in full cow-girl get-up and no disguise, of course). Or there's the shimmers used by the Vinvocci in "The End of Time".

A minor Shapeshift trait applied to a Gadget could do it, for a single-form disguise.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:43, Sun 24 Nov 2013.

OK. I presume everyone in this thread has seen Day of the Doctor here?

So. Many. Possibilities.

And also even more reason for the Marshall not to have been in that control center - obviously, she made the arrangements for the Doctor to gain access to the Arsenal of Omega, and had prepared the Time Lock calculations. And just as Hurt regenerates into Eccleston, he sends her away, because the Tranversal power system will be needed to find Gallifrey. So, the Doctor and the Traveller will now *need* each other.

Nope. We're a bit late down here in Australia, and I didn't care to watch it in the small hours of the morning. Maybe tonight or tomorrow. So, spoiler warnings please.

Maybe Gary can start a Spoilers thread?

Yeah; i know it was simulcast about 6.50am is a bit early even for this diehard fan.

Crisis averted, I've seen it now. I actually liked it too.

Smoke Alarm, I looked up Crack Shot: just go ahead and add that to the character as you posted it.

It's been a distracting weekend, but I finally got to see The Day of the Doctor.  I was amused to notice that the Time Lord group the Doctors were dealing with was directly name-checked as the War Council and distinct from the High Council.  So the TAROT data dump survived non-canonicity! :p

Haven't seen it yet. Hoping to see it tonight.

Any more ideas about a character?

Thanks.

After an ill-timed family reunion on the 23rd, I had a belated celebration last night on the 24th, watching Who with cake and icecream and no interruptions.

I watched... "The Terror of the Vervoids". Not what you'd expect to celebrate Who's 50th Anniversary, but it was next in my Trial of a Time Lord boxset, and I take my Who as it comes. It seemed appropriate. Upon re-watching, I can't think of a more pleasantly average 80s Who story to sum over its history to that point. "Is it to be the Doctor's defence that he improves?" Yes, yes he does.

And "The Day of the Doctor" wasn't bad. It was actually good. I liked it. There were some flaws for me, but not overwhelming ones. I ragequit at "The Day of the Moon", but recently returned to watch Season 7B, and it generally hasn't disappointed me. I'm stunned. For the first time in eight years I have hope for Doctor Who again. :D I'm looking forward to the Capaldi Doctor.

You will find, I hope, that although we originally took the Time War / fall of Gallifrey as our jumping-off point where we started the game, that what I'm aiming to do is not get wrapped up in minutiae of stuff that the new series is worried about, but instead playing in a landscape where the decks have been cleared and new things have room to grow.

Leveraging off a lot of the old series' stuff, of course -- the Osiran / Cybermen adventure I did was sort of a nod to giving some old monsters a proper look in.

I'm thinking a Draconian warrior of some sort.

Series 6 was pretty bad; but I watched through it; and generally liked both parts of series 7. But part of that is they seem to finally be moving away from the 'companion falls for the doctor schtick.

The following is the stat writeup for a vanilla Draconian that they give in the Third Doctor guide; I'm posting it as a basis to start talking about putting a character together.  The basic rule for taking an action is Attribute + Skill + 2d6, with the difficulty for an average task being 12 and going up from there.

Alien Appearance and Code of Conduct as given below are Bad Traits that give you 2 build points apiece, so there is some more room to build with here.  Look at these stats and think about your idea of the character and whether you think it should balance out differently.  (I would probably build a warrior with a better Coordination, as the fighting skills usually key off of it.)

That skill list is the full list for the system, but you can also add Areas of Expertise to skills that give a +2 for 1 skill level in particular areas -- for example if the character was an expert Swordsman but just decent as an unarmed fighter.

Also think about what other qualities or quirks the character would have.  There is a list of Good and Bad Traits that have particular effects, which are probably the toughest thing to convey to someone lacking the book, but getting an idea of how your character might be atypical would help the rest of us come up with some things.  (I have some ideas about things that would be good for a warrior / military type, but I don't want to lead you too much right off the bat.)

All the rest of you, don't be shy about suggestions.

Attributes

Awareness 3
Coordination 2
Ingenuity 3
Presence 4
Resolve 5
Strength 4

Skills

Athletics 2
Convince 2
Craft 0
Fighting 3
Knowledge 2
Marksman 3
Medicine 0
Science 2
Subterfuge 1
Survival 1
Technology 3
Transport 3

Traits

Alien Appearance (-2)
Code of Conduct (Major)- Uphold Draconian Traditions: While the Draconians have a military history, they have strict rules about etiquette and enforcement, which they enforce mercilessly. (-2)

(That Code of Conduct probably says some interesting things about how a character would relate to the Traveller as a female Time Lord.... :) )

In reply to The Guardian (msg # 39):

This has a lot to do with the Traveller since her origin comes directly from the Time War and her role in it. I have to assume that it was the Marshall that allowed the Doctor access to the Arsenal, and basically covered for him while he used The Moment.

Gary, it seems to me that the Time Lock that encompassed the entire period of the Time War and was a actually separate thing from The Moment - the Moment would only have completely worked if it was rendered invulnerable from temporal tampering. I'm thinking that the execution of the Time Lock would have involved the Marshall and a small party making their way to the very Eye of Harmony and freezing the entire Time War from temporal manipulation, and that despite the changes made by the Doctor in Day of the Doctor, that it's still in place, mostly as a means of containing the damage done by the Time War and preserving the universe. Having 3 Doctors appear would have kept the Marshall's subordinates busy, and we all known that Rassilon and the High Council were dealing with the events of The End Of Time.

willvr - welcome. Having a Draconian with us would be awesome, I'm looking forward to meeting your PC IC.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:20, Mon 25 Nov 2013.

Willvr, here's an online character generator:
http://dwcg.eu5.org/
It's rather busy and full of annoying ads, but it works well enough. It doesn't explain what each score represents or the traits do, but you'd get the gist of character creation and what traits are available. Some have mechanical benefits, some affect how you RP.

There's also the list of traits, compiled by misterharry, from the unofficial forums (link http://www.mediafire.com/view/...6_Traits_Summary.pdf); it also includes traits from Rocket Age and Primeval.

Does it include mecha? Because Trav digs giant robots. Although she can't pilot one worth a damn.

Sorry, meant to get to this last night. Ended up watching the Day of the Doctor instead. My bad.

In reply to willvr (msg # 50):

You are forgiven, my son ;)

I can't wait to see what repercussions this has in GaryVerse.

Trav: "Gallirfey is safe. WAIT, GALLIFREY IS SAFE. YOU HID IT IN AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE. AND MY TARDIS CAN TRAVEL IN ALTERNATE UNIVERSES. I DON'T KNOW WHETHER TO KISS YOU OR SHOOT YOU."

Stan & Trav, where do you want to pick up?  We kind of dropped out in the middle of a pivotal conversation a week ago.  I think (wave, presto) I would like to edit Sgt. Patel back out of the story and keep Amanda around, at least at first.

So we can either pick up in the TARDIS with Trav baring her soul, or later on when you land.

I'm working on getting the scene set up for Smoke Alarm and Willvr's character; hopefully when everyone has characters set up, we can hit the ground running.

I'm looking forward to it! I'm eager to play Smoke Alarm again.

Do we need any background information? I think Smoke would be one of the refugees, or at least among them. It suits her background and current situation well.

My plan is that Smoke Alarm and Yet-To-Be-Named-Character will both start on the same spaceship, at a point when it's in considerable trouble.  I'll set out the in-character details of their situation at that point.

Smoke Alarm, I imagine per your background, has been illicitly sneaking onto spaceships and catching rides across the galaxy for a while when things get rolling.

Okay, sounds good.

Gary, I suggest creating seperate IC and OOC threads. Once you establish your IC thread, I'll post in Trav's last RPGnet post from the archive, and we can start from their. How does that sound?

Amanda is a charming NPC, and I don't think it would hurt to keep one NPC around ;)

Okay; I'll need a name but can sort that out later.

Draconian Samurai type; so uses his sword first and foremost. Unlike the typical warrior; has a great respect for science and knowledge; and is somewhat of a student of politics/races from his time period. Maybe even something of a diplomat; though hard with his race.

As for what makes him different - that's harder. A lot of my characters only come together once they're played. (especially freeform, which, as I don't have the book myself, is how I'm constructing this one.)

Name: Here's some examples of known Draconians, mostly in the expanded universe:
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/C...ndividual_Draconians

You've already got some things that might make him different from a typical Draconian warrior, with his intellectual interests and diplomacy.

To get along with Traveller, and especially Smoke Alarm, and meeting NPCs he would have to be more tolerant of and patient with females than Draconians are known for. (Though perhaps not completely, leaving something to spark off.) So he could also be rather softer on the Draconian codes of conduct and honour. Or at least willing to learn, especially if he's a diplomat. Maybe he is something of an outcast or at least on the fringes of Draconian society for holding more moderate views.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:08, Wed 27 Nov 2013.

Some ideas about reshuffling the character:

One suggestion I have related to the tolerance issue, that pops out at me from what you describe is that he might be a sort of consul-at-large for the Draconian Imperial Court (which would automatically make him a noble, incidentally).  Rules-wise this would translate as an Obligation, a "Bad Trait" (disadvantage) giving you 1 or 2 build points, depending on how seriously he treated it.

I would see putting some Expertise areas on him, for Convince (a Leadership expertise), Fighting (Swordsmanship) and Knowledge (Galactic Politics).  Although the last of those would be for your home time period it would be generally applicable as you got the lay of the land in different times and places.

For Good Traits (advantages), I'm thinking that good ones would be Tough (decreases injuries that you take), Brave (helps with Presence and Resolve rolls), and Voice of Authority (helps with Convince rolls).

Don't worry about pinning things down absolutely.  DWAITAS characters are pretty broadly drawn as it is, but if you have a good idea further down the line we can work it in.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:09, Wed 27 Nov 2013.

... I've always wanted to play a noble. He'd take any obligation very seriously; otherwise, why pretend to have an obligation at all?

Exactly how do Expertise areas work? I've run into them in a few different games; and the usual is 'one point lower for general things, but one higher than the original for things relating to specialty' but there are different ways.

I like Brave and Voice of Authority especially; but Brave looks pretty good too.

Should have a name soon.

After you put three points in a skill, you may choose an Area of Expertise in that skill, which costs 1 point. When making a skill check in that area, you gain a +2 bonus.

For example, Smoke put 4 points in the Marksman skill, and because that's at least 3, she put 1 point in Area of Expertise: Crossbows. So, if I shoot someone with a ray gun, I roll 2d6 + Coordination + Marksman. If I shoot someone with a crossbow, it's 2d6 + Coordination + Marksman + 2.

The same with Athletics. Smoke has 4 points in Athletics, and put one point in Jumping. Regular Athletics are rolled normally, but if they involve jumping in any way, Smoke gets a +2 bonus.

Areas of Expertise can be anything, but the book gives a list of suggestions. For example, in the Fighting skill, the suggested AoEs are Unarmed Combat, Parry, Block, Sword, Club. So, they're reasonably general.

They are kind of optional, but I've never seen anyone not use them. They give a bit more fine detail to a character's skills where the system is otherwise fairly coarse. So a physicist (Science AoE: Physics) isn't also an expert in biology.

I once typed up all the rules for a tabletop game that never happened, and do you think I can find them now? No, sorry. :(
This message was last edited by the player at 01:38, Thu 28 Nov 2013.

I should add that the requirement to have three points in the skill to take an area of expertise is something I'm considering optional as a GM.  For one thing, most of the published writeups for series companions break it frequently -- none of those are really built "by the book", but the examples of characters with oddball AoEs on skills make pretty consistent sense to me.

Also, I can muster some pretty damned high Science and Technology skill totals. Although having a Transport (TARDIS) skill would be helpful!

Here is a more refined idea of how I would stat the character up reflecting the comments so far.  Willvr, let me know if you can see any changes you would make based on how the numbers balance.  I'd like the other players to offer any suggestions as well.

Attributes

Awareness 3
Coordination 3
Ingenuity 3
Presence 5
Resolve 4
Strength 4

Attributes: 22 Character Points

Traits

Brave (Minor Good: +2 to Presence / Resolve rolls in situations calling for courage)
Tough (Minor Good: decreases injuries by 2 levels)
Voice of Authority (Minor Good: +2 to appropriate Convince / Presence rolls)

Good Traits: 3 Character Points

Alien Appearance (Major)
Obligation (Major): Noble of Draconia
Code of Conduct (Major)- Uphold Draconian Traditions: While the Draconians have a military history, they have strict rules about etiquette and enforcement, which they enforce mercilessly. (-2)

Bad Traits: -6 Character Points

Special Traits:

Experienced (Cost: 3 Story Points): +2 Character Points, +2 Skill Points

Net Character Points: 24 (base) -21 (Attributes) -3 (Good Traits) +6 (Bad Traits) +2 (Experienced)

Net Skill Points: 18 (base) +2 (Experienced) + 7 (Character Points) = 27

Skills

Athletics 2
Convince 3 (Expertise: Leadership)
Craft 0
Fighting 3 (Expertise: Swordsmanship)
Knowledge 3 (Expertise: Cultures & Politics)
Marksman 3
Medicine 0
Science 3
Subterfuge 1
Survival 1
Technology 3
Transport 2

Skills: 27 points

Possessions:

Family Honor Blade: Adds +4 to Strength when inflicting damage.  This is an heirloom of your house: you have diplomatic sanction to carry it into many situations by virtue of your office, but there are strict customs about letting it be taken from you or handled by those outside the family.

***

Note: I added the special Experienced trait from the rules to give some extra build points reflecting the character's position.  This trait gives you build points but reduces your initial Story Points.

(Story Points are a resource you can spend on important rolls.  The first point you spend on a roll gives you an extra +2d6 and you can spend additional points to a single roll to get +1d6 apiece.  You can gain Story Points through roleplaying over the course of the adventure, or through agreeing to let the GM manipulate events against you.  PCs can also contribute Story Points to each other on actions they're somehow collaborating on.)

Default PCs start with 12 points, but the Experienced trait would reduce it to 9.  s a bonus corresponding to the other PCs' extras I'll give back one of the Story Points, so you start each adventure with 10.

I think the Draconian should also have the Alien trait, for being non-human. That then allows Alien Appearance and other alien traits to be taken. Fortunately, Draconians never got any special powers, strengths, or weaknesses I can recall, keeping it simple and open.

For a thick scaly hide, Tough is a good one, but as an alien, Armour could also apply (reduce injury by 5).

Fear Factor could be fun, if the Draconian shows his face and scares everyone off. :)

I could see the character having Friends, being able to call upon family connections or the Draconian Empire to gain important information. That does depend a lot of time-zone and location though, and the ability to contact them. Similarly, Owed Favour (good) or Owes Favour (bad) could represent political connections and requirements of honour. That depends on character and story, and, like Friends, the situation.

If the Draconian is a particular stickler for his code, he might have Argumentative. That would mean a penalty to hold his tongue at a difficult time.

Would the character also need a Gadget for some kind of disguise? That wouldn't be an issue until we get to modern/historical Earth or the like, so it could be bought later.

Or, you know, ancient Draconia, where we're the freaks instead. :)
This message was last edited by the player at 03:37, Thu 28 Nov 2013.

Historical earth I'll just wear a hood and refused to reveal my face. Worked for Vastra!

Modern earth is actually in this case trickier I think.

Hmm.  (checks)  The Third Doctor Sourcebook writeup for Draconians didn't have it on there.  Bad Cubicle 7!  I think I assumed it was skipped exactly because Draconians didn't get any special alien abilities, but they seem to have done that with their alien writeups across the board.

And yes, I was assuming that no self-respecting Draconian would normally carry gear to disguise their species.  If & when you all go to a pre-contact human culture, the Traveller can probably whip something up to fix that.  Getting the Draconian to use it is an entirely different question. :)

All the aliens in the Gamemaster's Guide and Aliens and Creatures have the Alien trait. I don't have the 3rd Doctor book yet to check.

Maybe Draconians are actually humans in disguise! :o

Maybe he could just wear a hat. :D

In reply to The Guardian (msg # 67):

Trav put a big Uncle Sam head onto Amanda to disguise her once.

In the C21st? "Dude, he's cosplaying. Yeah, that's human Godzilla!"

Busy with the holiday for most of today.  Willvr, are you basically OK with that take for your character (as far as you grok the system)?  I'll get the first IC posts up when you say you are.

My plan was to associate characters into different IC threads by general location, unless anyone is greatly opposed to that.

Is that just for our opening story threads? That sounds fine.

Looks fine to me.

I'll probably be getting the rulebook either for Christmas or just afterwards (depending on if I get it as a present or i need to buy it myself.)

Well, I'm looking forward to it all. And I hope that our US based players have had a great holiday. Let's go - there's always time to travel!

Am I a bad person for saying that in the current show, Trav is being played by Blake Lively?




Trav on Paparazzi IV - ;)


This message was last edited by the player at 04:08, Mon 27 Jan 2014.

Excepts from the Traveller Lore panel at TravCon 10 in Brooklyn, New York -

Series writer Chris Bell talks about The Krayloss, the Travellers most persistent foes from the Classic Trav era

With most of the new TravFans having come in with Rifts:The Shedraya War and and Always Time To Travel, most don't know about Trav's adventures either during classic Doctor Who. Most Americans have had their exposure to classic Trav via the Robotech OVAs. But, we get a lot of requests from fans of Classic Trav about the status of the Krayloss Empire during the Time War.

So, without further ado, here are some capsule descriptions and info on the Traveller's greatest enemies, The Krayloss Empire!

The Krayloss Empire first appears in the Doctor Who story The Time Robbers, which was also the first appearance of the Traveller since her first appearance in The Invasion of Gallifrey, styling what now fandom calls her "Lara Croft" look. While she had her own sonic screwdriver, she didn't have her famous turbo pistols. Those do not appear until The Traveller At The OK Corral.

In the Time Robbers, the 2nd Doctor and his new companion The Traveller investigate historical artifacts disappearing from the time of ancient Greece. It is here that the Doctor, Jamie, Zoe, the Doctor and the Traveller battle baroque soldiers from a steampunk empire that resembles Victoria's england, except that it had it's origins in the Great and Bountiful Human Empire.



The Traveller is shown battling the Krayloss at various points over the years, with most of her encounters with them during her 2nd incarnation. Depicting as an order-obsessed empire that seeks to impose a Victorian ideal of "rationality and glory" across the cosmos, they are ever jealous of the future descendants of Great Britain and the United States, and in later Traveller stories, most especially of the Time Lords, who they regard as "stodgy old fools who should be ruling, not observing." The Krayloss are a statment regarding British and Russian imperialism, although in some Traveller stories, they are sympathetic, such as when the Traveller assists them in resisting the Daleks. But the usual pattern of Krayloss stories was the Krayloss attempting to steal Gallifreyan and other time travelling technology, so as to boot strap themselves into becoming a conquering empire.



Minister Volstarn, the scientific mastermind in service to the Queen of the Krayloss Empire, with whom the Traveller often clashed and debated.

Strangely, we don't see any of the Krayloss during Kate Mulgrew's run as the Marshall during the classic run of Doctor Who. All the we see is a Krayloss Hussar's uniform on a stand when Peter Davidson's Doctor confronts The Marshall in the Home Secretary's office in 1927 in Britain, with The Marshall working to take over a secret British weapons program.

The Krayloss' last appearance in canon was was actually during the 8 minute video (The Marshall's Last Order) released on conjunction with The Night Of The Doctor, when it's revealed that the Marshall is now the Queen of the Krayloss, and uses the Krayloss as her crack troops against the Daleks in the Time War. Captain Tamarin, the last Krayloss Time Hussar, reports to the Marshall in the command center on Gallifrey and reports that the Dalek chronovore virus has been neutralized, at the cost of the entire continuity of the Krayloss culture and it's various chronal empires. He remarks that he is glad to have given service in defending the universe to his queen, and to assist in bring "discipline and order" to the universe. Tamarin remarks that now, the Krayloss exist solely within her timeline, and to be remembered by the great leader who first made them strong as their deadliest enemy and then their greatest queen and general was the most loving thing she could have done. As she dismisses him, the General reports, and remarks that she was more merciful to the Sontarans for refusing to have them involved in the Time War than she was with the Krayloss, and that he admires how ruthlessly she deals with enemies. She dismisses the General, and weeps at her desk. in terms of continuity, this takes place before the scene that was filmed with Christopher Eccleston as part of the RIFTS series and the 7 minute video where Kate Mulgrew's Marshall meets with the War Doctor (The Crime of the Marhsall) and she turns over to him The Moment, and where the The Marshall reveals her plan to enact the Time Lock.

While continuity would seem to indicate that the Krayloss are gone for good, the platoon of knife-armed Krayloss Hussars who help the 11th Doctor defend Christmas from Ruutans has stirred up hopes that the Traveller's steampunk, victoriana foes will reappear in Always Time To Travel


Krayloss Rifleman from the Japanese Traveller Perfect Memory artbook
This message was last edited by the player at 14:59, Mon 19 May 2014.

I'm sticking this here for the benefit of newer players who didn't play in the RPGNet threads.

Here is an image of Trav's sonic -



And here is the original TAROT layout that Fortuna showed Phillipe -



The RPGNet thread can be found <a href=http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?681939-DWAITAS-Always-Time-To-Travel!/page1>here</a>