useing the rani as the big bad

[zebaroth]

would like to run a story arc in memory of kate o mara
using the rani is the big bad what would be the best
way to do it would like to is urack the tetarp is her companion/henchman
would give him a shemer

the staring scene a woman is standing at tombstone of her dead husbend. (the rani ) has opened the locket that was giving to her by husband on there wedding day it is the rani's fob.
she used to hide from the time war with the chameleon arc. in fact this guy died
and had no family the chameleon arc used it part of is part of the rani's human life.
urack has been posing as the rani's son by useing a shemer he truns it off
and says it is good to have you back mistress rani

what would be the rani's human name urack has been using his real name
but the last name of the rani's human indentey

what would be the key word for the story arc

also witch doctor be best would like to use 9'10 or 11

[Catsmate]

Aug 26, 2014 17:58:51 GMT zebaroth said:

would like to run a story arc in memory of kate o mara
using the rani is the big bad what would be the best
way to do it would like to is urack the tetarp is her companion/henchman
would give him a shemer

the staring scene a woman is standing at tombstone of her dead husbend. (the rani ) has opened the locket that was giving to her by husband on there wedding day it is the rani's fob.
she used to hide from the time war with the chameleon arc. in fact this guy died
and had no family the chameleon arc used it part of is part of the rani's human life.
urack has been posing as the rani's son by useing a shemer he truns it off
and says it is good to have you back mistress rani

what would be the rani's human name urack has been using his real name
but the last name of the rani's human indentey

what would be the key word for the story arc

also witch doctor be best would like to use 9'10 or 11

Interesting. A couple of points that pop into my mind.

A name for the Rani: well you could simply go with 'Rani' as a first name. It's certainly not without precedent, Rani Chandra was one of Sarah Jane's minions.

• I wonder could there be a connection... A really interesting take would be having her (Rani Chandra) be the Rani. Can a chameleon arch change appearance, or can the Rani control her regenerations? Maybe a decade after her adventures with SJ she opens the locket....
• There was also Rani Ghosh, killed by Suzie Costello while experimenting with the life knife. Maybe he got better...
  
• Also why did she adopt the title? She's generally less egotistical that the other renegade Time Lords, maybe her Gallifreyan name contained "rani".

And a point from the son of the Doctor thread, did the Rani bear children while in human form? Maybe the dead husband actually was hers.

How long do Tetraps live? Maybe Urak was in some form of stasis, and the opening of the locket alerted him. They're pretty big, even with some form of camouflage he'd have a difficult time fitting in (literally) to a human society, and don't seem suited to a technological society.


Also, I'm glad to see someone's getting away from pocket watches as containers for the Time Lord essence.

[zebaroth]

i was thinking that The Rani Experimented On Urak and he is now like Captain Jack
and is immortal as for the Tetraps they did have technology they had exhausted there planet's resources
and had destroyed the environment. have stated up Urak i don't think The Rani would kids
she would more likely clone herself. and having Rani Chandra be the Rani would be cool would
give me a reason to have Sarah Jane and K-9 and Urak could be in stasis in the tardis

also female timelords had more control over there regenerations then the males
the master was one of the few male timelords that could

[Catsmate]

Aug 27, 2014 0:09:42 GMT zebaroth said:

i was thinking that The Rani Experimented On Urak and he is now like Captain Jack
and is immortal

OK, though he'll still have problems fitting in; he's kinda big IIRR. Actually having an immortal, and hopefully loyal (she was good with mind control) watchdog keeping an eye on her frail human body would be a good idea.

Aug 27, 2014 0:09:42 GMT zebaroth said:

as for the Tetraps they did have technology they had exhausted there planet's resources and had destroyed the environment. have stated up Urak i don't think The Rani would kids
she would more likely clone herself. and having Rani Chandra be the Rani would be cool would
give me a reason to have Sarah Jane and K-9 and Urak could be in stasis in the tardis

Yeah the RC think has some possibilities.

Aug 27, 2014 0:09:42 GMT zebaroth said:

also female timelords had more control over there regenerations then the males
the master was one of the few male timelords that could

Well in canon we've only seen two female Time Lords.


Some points to stimulate thought.
Why did the Rani hide? Was it just the Time War? Or was there something else, like a planet of vengeful Tetraps. Or a few survivors of her vengence...

What body did she use? Did she regenerate into a new body before using the chameleon arc (or use one that could change her appearance)?

• And how long does a 'human' Time Lord live? What effect does recovering her Gallifreyan heritage have? She could end up with a rather decrepit body otherwise... Certainly Professor Yana looked frail before he regenerated.
  

Where did she hide? Modern day Earth? Earlier or later? Did she also choose the pre-Great War period?

• I just had a thought, perhaps she became a nurse in Edwardian England and fell for a "teacher"...
  

Perhaps on an early human colony planet, or even later during Imperial era.

What happened while she was human? Specifically children, but did she make notable friends or enemies that might be relevant after she 'de-humanises', such as an analogue of Chantho? Or other family; did she have parents (adoptive I assume), siblings or other relatives?

• If not children were there genetic samples left behind that might show oddities?
  

What did she do while human? Was she a scientist, a teacher or what? Did she solve problems, or cause them? Keep her head down, or become influential?

• Specifically I'm thinking of Linea.
  

The Tetraps and Urak.
What exactly was the resource problem they wanted her to fix? Blood (as in The Rani Reaps the Whirlwind), minerals, energy...

• Blood has some potential for Mad Science experiments and vampires...
  

Did she remedy this or did she escape?
Is Urak under some form of mind control or free-willed?
Is she interested in revenge?
Is she being pursued?
Did she wipe out the Tetraps?

[Marnal]

Here are my RPG notes on the Rani. Some of them were pulled from the Time Traveller's Companion, but most of it is from the TV series, novels, audios, etc...

APPEARANCE:
The Rani appears to be in her mid 40s. Striking appearance, heart-shaped face, high cheek-bones. Chilling blue grey eyes. Long Brunette hair. Moves with cat-like grace. Wears black and grey leather. Ruby nose stud.

MANNER
Haughty demeanor, Sharp tongue. Sarcastic and superior to any who exhibit sentimentality or stupidity. She does respect the life of a Time Lord, and won’t kill one unless absolutely necessary. The Rani is very verbose with lots of Spock like technical descriptions. She believes that all personality and emotions are side effects of enzymes.
Prefers to use, stealth, subtly, and disguise whenever possible. Rani is always making people into slaves. She dislikes overly complex plans.
The Rani is a scientific genius, particularly in the areas of genetics and biochemistry, and she obsessively pursues her various research projects without thought or concern for the moral implications.

MOTIVATIONS
The Rani was obsessed with expanding the consciousness of her aliens. Jungian Individuation? She wanted them to learn to recognize and overcome their emotional unconscious desires so that they could think perfectly rationally. She wants to create a better, smarter, species that can solve the riddles of the universe. Once she has her better, smarter, children she's okay if she dies. She wants to change the order of creation and basically fix all biological life so that it won’t be dependent on the waste of evolution (with its random slowness).
The Rani has no real interest in universal conquest and would like nothing better than to be left alone to pursue her experiments. Unfortunately, her experiments typically involve inflicting horrific atrocities on other sentient beings whom she considers no more worthy of concern than a lab rat or bacterium. And this is what makes her dangerous.

COMMUNICATIONS BRACELET[Special Gadget]
* Made out of mettalo-plastic and worn on left wrist.
* Has a scanner that can tune [via her TARDIS] and visual events anywhere in the timeship’s collection field.
* Can remote control most of her scientific devices, including (via a stattenhiem remote control) summoning her TARDIS to her.
* Has a high frequency signaler that terminates parasite slaves.
* Can generate holograms that will fool even Time Lord senses.
* Functions as a wrist communicator.
* functions as a Sonic Disruptor Pistol when set to full power.
* She has several bio-weapons capsules and explosive capsules stored in the bracelet.
* The Rani occasionally carries an Energy Blaster Pistol (4/9/14) if she’s expecting trouble.
* She has a Ruby ring of power [see rules for in the Hartnell SB]. It gives +4 and Hypnotism.

MIND CONTROL PARASITES [Hypnosis (Special), Special Gadget]
Maggot like Parasites that have been impregnated with a tranquilizer based chemical. They are about 2.5 cm long. The enter through the mouth and lodge in the throat where the release their chemicals into the brain. . The chemical causes the victim to be under the Rani’s control. The subjects eyes will briefly glow green as they are possessed. Works on any humanoid with a Resolve+Will of 6 or lower.
The subject can also receive psionic commands from the Rani. She can remote kill any slaves with the Bracelet by releasing a specific ultra-sonic frequency that kills the parasite and releases toxins into the bloodstream (4/12/18). A large red mark will appear on the victim’s neck.

OTHER BIO-WEAPONS
* The Rani love gas weapons and traps [diff of 18 to spot]
* Rani like Biodata-Conversion Mines and grenades. They instantly bio-convert the victim into some other organism. For the land mines the conversion would be for something that would blend in [thus hiding the existence of the mine field] Silicon based rock lifeforms or vegetable matter. After conversion the victim can roll Awareness+Resolve against a difficulty of 30 to move and react.
* The Rani had chemical explosive pods that boil the flesh off - leaving only a skeleton. (Damage 7/15/23)
* Knockout Stun Gas capsules
* Mustard Gas bombs - Dichlorodiethyl Sulfate (Mustard Gas) - research this.
* Has chemicals that can cause amnesia in Time Lords.

* Poisons and toxins are 2xStr roll against the diff.
No = death (or full effect)
No but = Slow Death (or full effect in stages)
Yes But = Lots of symptoms but can fight it off eventually
Yes = no game effect.
Fantastic = Partial immunity +4 to all future encounters


HISTORY
(all dates given relative to the Doctor’s birth)

-0.5~ Ushas (the Rani) was loomed within a few months of the Doctor. She might have some trouble breathing in moist environments. She was a Patrexian New Blood.

20 Students in the Doctor's class (the Class of '92 or the Class of the 4th Millennium) are: Koschei of the Newblood House of Oakdown (the Master, probably the Magistrate), Drax, Rallonwashatellaraw of the House of Stillhaven (Rallon), Mortimus, Ruathadvorophrenaltid (Ruath), Magnus (the War Chief), Ushas (the Rani), Jelpax, Vansell, and Millennia. Koschei specializes in Cosmic Science. Rallon, Vansell, and Ushas probably started at the Academy a few semesters ahead of the rest of the Deca. The Rani had several teachers including: Prydonian Cardinal Borusa (who teaches telepathy), Cardinal Sendok (who teaches stellar cartography and cosmic science), Cardinal Zass, Arcalian Genniploritreludar (teaches stellar engineering) and Franilla.

94 (near Otherstide) Ushas (the Rani) sends Theta Sigma (the Doctor) a raucous invitation to her 94th Nameday.

The top ten students at the Academy form the Deca. The Deca consists of Rallon, Koschei, Drax, Mortimus, Magnus, Ushas, Jelpax, Vansell, Millennia, and Theta Sigma (the Doctor). Magnus is the leader of the club. Vansell, Ushas and Rallon have already regenerated at least once. Ushas (the Rani) becomes a brilliant Neuro-Chemist and outstanding genetic engineer. Rani is specialist in neuro-bio-data chemistry. She is also amazingly good at almost every other task she sets herself too.

199.99 ‘The Great Citadel Mouse Hunt’ - Ushas (the Rani) develops a way of making lifeforms grow from an embryo to maturity in a matter of minutes. A side effect was that the creatures grew much larger than normal. Some of these genetically engineered mice escape and attack the High Council. The beasts escaped her lab, kill President Drall's CAT (Calculating Animal with a Tail), and wound the President to such a degree that he must regenerate. He is the last President to have a CAT. It took a week and the entire Chancellery Guard to bring the creatures down, but not before they had caused untold damage. The Doctor is probably involved in this incident and he has serious complaints about the morality of her work.

236 The Class of 92 (also known as the Class of the 4th Millennium) graduates. The Doctor and Ruath sabotage the Panoptican Graduation, making it take place in mid-air. Possibly as a going away present, the Rani also arranged to have a giant mouse released at the graduation. There are 26 members of the class of '92 in all. By the time the Doctor was in his 7th incarnation two of these graduates would be dead and three more retired due to injuries.

331 (5 years before the Doctor stole the TARDIS)
Ushas (the Rani) is exiled from Gallifrey by order of the President. This occurs because she is caught experimenting on intelligent beings. She hijacks the TARDIS delivering her to her planet of exile and goes renegade. By this point she is considered to be one of the finest scientists in Gallifrey's modern era.
By the time of Mark of the Rani she will have had several conflicts with the Doctor.
450 The Time Lords invent a Stattenheim Remote Control that doesn't damage a TARDIS's Time Control Unit. This allows a Time Lord to summon his TARDIS to his current location at the push of a button. The Rani will eventually acquire a Stattenheim Remote Control for her TARDIS.

720 Ushas (the Rani) becomes the Rani of Miasamoria Goria, and controls her servants by having them ingest a maggot-like parasite that is infused with a chemical. The Rani tries to use her skills to boosts her subjects' awareness but this has the unfortunate side effect of making them unable to sleep causing chaos. The Rani begins stealing a neurotransmitter from human brains that can be used to calm her workforce on Miasimia Goria. She is known to have visited the Trojan Wars, the Dark Ages, The American War of Independence, the Luddite Riots, and the American Civil War in her search for the neurotranmitter. It would also appear that she (somehow) keeps up the numerous confrontations between the Master and the Doctor and regards the Master's schemes as being mad.

853~ Mark of the Rani: The Doctor's work on the TARDIS continues. The Master attempts to capture and harness a bunch of human geniuses but the Doctor stops him. He also stops the Rani from stealing a neurotransmitter from human brains in this time zone. This neurotransmitter is used calm her workforce on Miasimia Goria. By this point the Doctor claims to have given up using guns. The Rani was probably inspired by the Master's idea to harness geniuses and use it in her Time Manipulator plan.

853~ The Master and Rani form an alliance. The Master appears to learn the Rani's secret for remote TARDIS control. After several failed attempts to alter Sol III history the Rani abandons the Master. The Master is rescued by his Time Lord ally Rozinel (aka Rozinelastorameth).

953 Time and the Rani: The Doctor regenerates for the sixth time by ramming the TARDIS into the Rani's navigational guidance distorter tractor beam. The Doctor stops the Rani from using kidnapped geniuses from creating a Time Manipulator that would give her complete control of Time in the Universe.

999? By this time the Doctor, the Master, and the Rani are legendary (but still living) renegades.

1056 The High Council of the Time Lords orders (one of many) hatching projects that involve creating clones of important Time Lords, like the Master and the Rani.

1146 The High Council of the Time Lords orders the Master inaugurated as Lord President of Gallifrey - War King of the Nine Gallifreys. He begins forming the House Military and continues the tradition of non-communication with the other 8 Homeworlds. The President of the Time Lords brings in many renegade Time Lords for his leadership. Two of these renegades teaches at the Academy. One is male and handles combat training, the other is female and handles studies in Artron energy (probably the Rani).

1191 Father Kreiner of Faction Paradox kills two Time Lords and takes their heads as trophies. One of them appears to the Master (aka the War King) and one appears to be the Rani. The Master’s head is almost certainly a clone, implying that Kreiner must have killed the Rani. Miasimia Goria (the Rani’s planet) was destroyed during the Time War.

[zebaroth]

that is deep man

[Catsmate]

Excellent stuff Marnal. I have some toxins/drugs I worked on for the Evil Doctor stuff that I must dig out and post. They'd do as part of the Rani's arsenal.

I prefer your version of her mines to the version in the Sixth Doctor Handbook, which had them being some sort of nanomachine spray. Given that morphogenetic fields are (sort of) Who canon your explanation seems better to me.

As for the mustard gas in The Mark of the Rani, well as someone who studied chemistry under an expert on chemical weapons that was *bad*. Wrong appearance (dichloroethyl sulphide is a colourless to pale yellow liquid), wrong symptoms (mustard very rarely kills, that's one of it's advantages as a CW agent; the dead consume few resources) and gas masks provide limited protection (it burns the skin).

Plus it seemed out of character; my impression is that she'd have used a sleep gas and interrogated the intruders, before killing them (after harvesting them of any useful bits).

[Marnal]

All of the above was composed BEFORE the 6th Dr Sourcebook was released. I also did my own version of her stats [taking the best bits from the FASA, AiTaS, and Time Lord RPG systems] but figured that posting that might be going a bit far.

[Doctor X]

The name "Rani" is of both Hebrew and Sanskrit origin. In Sanskrit, it means "queen" or "lady." In Hebrew, it means "my joy" or "my song." (Song of the Ood? Just throwing that out there.)

Making The Rani a big bad would be difficult. Her plots follow a somewhat predictable pattern, making her unsuitable for the standard Davies/Moffat "The McGuffin is coming. You will all die" season arc format. ("Someone has been tampering with the genetics and biology of the last five races we've encountered. WHO could it POSSIBLY be?")

What I'd do is either team her up/put her at odds with someone equally as unsubtle, like The Meddling Monk. Either they have cooked up some master plan or their plots are directly conflicting and the PCs are caught in the middle. The Monk's plots, if they DO involve hurting someone, would be in the service of some imagined "greater good." (He's not particularly bright, but he's utterly convinced that he knows what's best for everyone, and that's what can make him more dangerous than Davros.) The Rani's plots are all in the service of science, and she doesn't care if/who she destroys to get her results. I'd suggest having a third party pulling both of their strings, but that would make THEM the big bad. (And, to be honest, it'd probably just end up being The Master again.)

[zebaroth]

in the 50th limted edtion rule book the have two adventure seeds that envolve The rani
you could use them them as starting pont i was thinking along the lines of what you said doctor x Someone has been tampering with the genetics and biology but the doctor dos not know the rani is still alive
he thinks she died in the time war the end of the adventure arc would in involve a machine like
the one the 1st x-men movie that force a mass evolution of life but 50% of all life
exsposed will die from it the blast would go to the edge of the universe and the doctor must stop it

[Catsmate]

Aug 28, 2014 16:35:04 GMT Marnal said:

All of the above was composed BEFORE the 6th Dr Sourcebook was released. I also did my own version of her stats [taking the best bits from the FASA, AiTaS, and Time Lord RPG systems] but figured that posting that might be going a bit far.

A very impressive piece of work.

Aug 28, 2014 21:52:45 GMT Doctor X said:

The name "Rani" is of both Hebrew and Sanskrit origin. In Sanskrit, it means "queen" or "lady." In Hebrew, it means "my joy" or "my song." (Song of the Ood? Just throwing that out there.)

Making The Rani a big bad would be difficult. Her plots follow a somewhat predictable pattern, making her unsuitable for the standard Davies/Moffat "The McGuffin is coming. You will all die" season arc format. ("Someone has been tampering with the genetics and biology of the last five races we've encountered. WHO could it POSSIBLY be?")

True, she's generally too subtle and careful. Look at The Mark of the Rani the Doctor wouldn't have encountered her with the Master's intervention. Without a major personality change I don't see her becoming the "I will rule the universe!!!" type.

However she might unleash something with the potential for major death and destruction. Such as releasing something imprisoned by the Time Lords, or creating some new form of life. Of course it's also possible that the accident was the fault of someone trying to stop her and they now have to team up with her to stop whatever it is.

Aug 28, 2014 21:52:45 GMT Doctor X said:

What I'd do is either team her up/put her at odds with someone equally as unsubtle, like The Meddling Monk. Either they have cooked up some master plan or their plots are directly conflicting and the PCs are caught in the middle. The Monk's plots, if they DO involve hurting someone, would be in the service of some imagined "greater good." (He's not particularly bright, but he's utterly convinced that he knows what's best for everyone, and that's what can make him more dangerous than Davros.) The Rani's plots are all in the service of science, and she doesn't care if/who she destroys to get her results. I'd suggest having a third party pulling both of their strings, but that would make THEM the big bad. (And, to be honest, it'd probably just end up being The Master again.)

I could easily see a Rani/Monk conflict, with him inadvertently frustrating one of her schemes, either directly or by attracting the attention of someone else. Though I could see her using him as cover too...

As for a string-pulling Big Bad, why not resurrect the War Lord? He seems the type and deserves a new outing.
Perhaps he was injured in the conflict with the Security Chief and needs the Rani's help in regenerating again. (Timewyrm - Exodus used a slightly similar plot element with Doctor⁷ scheduled as a body donor).

Alternatively you could have all three of them meddling independently in the same region.
The FASA scenario The Legions of Death (sadly unavailable) had the War Lord manipulating the Romano-British situation in the first century, you could add the Rani (maybe harvesting bits from humans) and have the Monk arrive with a grand, and unsubtle, scheme of his own. Lots of possibilities for fluid alliances and betrayals.

• There was a story in the original Tomorrow People series that had  a time traveller meddling with Romans to create a galactic empire, this might be useful.

If you wanted to have the Rani as a campaign antagonist you'd really need to dangle something worth her while. Perhaps a re-staging of the Key to Time arc, but with her seeking the Key independently of the Black and White Guardians and their champions.

Or maybe something powerful and useful to her, and justifying her efforts to recover it, but less universally dangerous. In my Evil Doctor universe I had an arc where he sought a MacGuffin called the Moiralith, often in conflict with other Time Lords and time active groups.

• 
  
  A masterpiece of tachyonic cybernetics, a computer potentially as full of
  information as the Gallifreyan Matrix and able to forecast the results of
  changes in time as well as transfer information through time
  
  while fitting in a coat pocket.
  
• Short form: something the good guys want to keep out of the bad guys hands, the classic MacGuffin.
• And one that could jump through time and space, evading capture, if it felt it's existence threatened.
• I deny you the Scarabeus
  Moiralith....
  

Alternatively, what happened to her TARDIS while she was hiding? Maybe it's be acquired by another group (the PCs) and she pursues them in a stolen/cobbled-together time craft.

• There are some examples in the TARDIS alternative thread.

Meanwhile the PCs have a TARDIS, but one that may not like them and might have some interesting dangers on board.

[zebaroth]

as for what you said Catsmate about the Tetraps in the 7th doctor's 1st episode Time
And the Rani ( one of my favorites Urak siad that his race had used all of his planets resources
up and he needed The Rani to fix there stupidity. as for The Tetraps they died in the time war
and Urak is the last one ( why the Rani made him immortal )he travles with the Rani out of gratitude
for saving him, but he also hates her for not saving the rest of his race ( especially a Female Tetrap)
he has herd rumors in space ports of Tetrap cloneys that still exist. as for why the hid was she had no interest in the time war and became human to escape from it. here is what have come with
for the beginning after reading the comments Rani Chandra has never felt that she fit in with the other
kids she felt more comfortable talking to her imaginary Friend Urak ( he has been using a perception fiter only the Rani can see him) Urak has keepet her safe he has also told stories about her past self and of the doctor and the master. the 25th of April 2011 at Sarah Jane Smith's funeral every one
has geterd to say good bye members of unit past and prasent even a budhist monk named K'anpo is ther
the doctor is also there with Amy and roey. after the funeral is at the graveyard Rani Chandra says
she never knew her mother and Sarah Jane Smith was like a mother her the only thing i have to remember
mom is this locket of hers. she opens it a red gowling smoke comes out of it she breaths it in
then in flash of red enegry she changes every one except unit and the doctor has no idea what is happening then it is over and standing where Rani Chandra was is woman in mid 40's. at this point
Urak turns off his perception fiter and says Welcome back mistress She smacks him on his snout and says why did
you not do what i told you to do and trun me back after My tardis had stop receiving the signels.
Urak responds rubbing his snout where the rani smacked him I tried mistress you thought i was something called an imaginary Friend that i told you storys. you have a point Urack but it is no
exsucse. the rani urack go over to a oblisk tomb stone that is out of place go inside and it dematerializes. the doctor adjusts his bow tie and say she is back. Everyone says who is back.
The Rani is back he looks at amy and roey and says go with the kids and get them some ice cream with the sprinkles i love sprinkles i have to talk to someone. he walks over to the the unit members
one them asks is it. Doctor Says Yes a 781. Kate Stewart gets out her cellphone makes a call
she says Kate Stewart we have 781 yes he is here with me at Sarah Jane Smith's funeral we will be there soon

[Doctor X]

RTD has said officially that Rani Chandra is NOT The Rani and has nothing to do with her.

[Marnal]

Unfortunately nothing is really official in Dr Who until it appears on screen. And even then its official-ness only lasts about 2-3 seasons.

[zebaroth]

Aug 30, 2014 18:56:14 GMT Marnal said:

Unfortunately nothing is really official in Dr Who until it appears on screen. And even then its official-ness only lasts about 2-3 seasons.

you are right continuity in Doctor Who is pardon the pun Timey wibly wobly
in the old show they retcon stuff all the time look at all the times davros and the daleks died

[zebaroth]

Aug 30, 2014 18:56:14 GMT Marnal said:

Unfortunately nothing is really official in Dr Who until it appears on screen. And even then its official-ness only lasts about 2-3 seasons.

you are right continuity in Doctor Who is pardon the pun Timey wibly wobly
in the old show they retcon stuff all the time look at all the times davros and the daleks died

[jennysfan]

Aug 30, 2014 19:23:25 GMT zebaroth said:

Aug 30, 2014 18:56:14 GMT Marnal said:

Unfortunately nothing is really official in Dr Who until it appears on screen. And even then its official-ness only lasts about 2-3 seasons.

you are right continuity in Doctor Who is pardon the pun Timey wibly wobly
in the old show they retcon stuff all the time look at all the times davros and the daleks died

All of which can be blamed on the Time War. Heck, for all it's issues 'War of the Daleks' says this explicitly.

But back to the Rani, she can make a decent Big Bad if you tread lightly and think carefully about her endgame.
Don't have always tampering with the genetics of the species, vary it up. Use minions and intermediaries.
Create servitor species to harvest chemical components needed for another experiment, and have that be what the group stumble across first.

Have her intervene in cultures by creating plagues and vaccines that create other useful components in a few centuries, add a couple of outliners who react with violence or radical mutation (or both)! And into that deviant future, the TARDIS lands.

An interstellar war provides the Rani with the opportunity to acquire funding and test subjects by selling bioweapons to one side. The Doctor & co land during the height of this war, long after the Rani has gotten what she needed.

These are just little story seeds I've thought up now and in none of them does the Rani make a direct appearance. None of them take advantage of her mastery of chemistry, just biology. None of her former allies, which can of course make appearances as villains in their own right.
The Rani can work as the mastermind for a plot arc, it just takes a certain approach. She may not to rule the universe but she certainly does wish to create 'the ultimate life form'. So did Davros. He thinks he succeeded. Will she?

[misterharry]

I'm afraid I have to say I don't like the idea of having Rani Chandra being the Rani. It does a great disservice to the character from SJA. I would no more do this than reveal that Sarah Jane herself had been the Master all along. Just my opinion of course. If it works for you then great, but it's too jarring for me.

[jennysfan]

I agree with misterharry but if it is to your group's taste then by all means.

Personally I'd have more fun having Ms Chandra show up during the climax adventure (set in the near future, so she's fully grown) investigating the plot. Naturally she's being uncooperative with the companions and avoiding the Doctor (assuming she can recognise him).

A nice red herring and a nod to the fantastic career in journalism/alien investigation that she would no doubt have.

[starkllr]

Here's another thought for using the Rani as a big bad. Think REALLY big. Universe-shaking big.

Idea #1 - she's trying to bring the Time Lords back. Why? Yes, from her point of view, they were fools, and a potential threat and an impediment to her work. But they were also the devil she knew. She understood how they thought, how to avoid trouble from them, etc. Now, after the Time War, you've got Daleks and humans and Time Agents, and Heaven only knows who else mucking about in time, altering history, creating all manner of problems. Creating a huge, illogical mess. To the Rani, that's unacceptable.

Thus, the Time Lords need to be restored. Maybe she's working on creating a new, cloned race of Time Lords from her own bio-data (and maybe new TARDISes from her own). Maybe she's trying to figure out which lower species would be the best one to use as breeding stock to transform them into new Time Lords.

Idea #1a - She's literally trying to bring Gallifrey back. She's attempting to interfere in the Time War. Or, being as smart as she is, she figured out what the Doctor did, and she's looking to retrieve Gallifrey from the pocket universe. Will it restart the Time War? Yes. Does that bother the Rani? Probably not.

Idea #2 - without the Time Lords to interfere with her, and enforce history, the Rani sees an opportunity to try and reshape all of the Universe and history along logical, efficient lines. She doesn't want to rule creation like the Master does; she doesn't want to destroy it as the Daleks do. She just wants it to MAKE SENSE (according to her own ideal of making sense). Maybe this means conducting evolutionary experiments (preventing the destruction of the dinosaurs on Earth to see if intelligent dinosaurs - or the Silurians - would make better and more orderly citizens of the Universe than the humans do, for one example). Maybe it means temporarily allying with the Cybermen because their logic and efficiency is a good base to work from, once you get all that silly steel and gadgetry out of the way and embrace biotechnology instead.

[Hedgewick]

Aug 31, 2014 13:00:59 GMT starkllr said:

Idea #2 - without the Time Lords to interfere with her, and enforce history, the Rani sees an opportunity to try and reshape all of the Universe and history along logical, efficient lines. She doesn't want to rule creation like the Master does; she doesn't want to destroy it as the Daleks do. She just wants it to MAKE SENSE (according to her own ideal of making sense). Maybe this means conducting evolutionary experiments (preventing the destruction of the dinosaurs on Earth to see if intelligent dinosaurs - or the Silurians - would make better and more orderly citizens of the Universe than the humans do, for one example). Maybe it means temporarily allying with the Cybermen because their logic and efficiency is a good base to work from, once you get all that silly steel and gadgetry out of the way and embrace biotechnology instead.

Yes! This is how I see it. There's no reason for the Rani's scientific obsessions to be so narrow as to limit her to genetic experimentation. With the powers of a Time Lord and a TARDIS at her disposal, she'd be experimenting on a much grander scale. Whole sections of the cosmos could serve as her Petri dish! In the most recent adventure we played in our campaign ("The Origin of Evil"), the Rani emerged as the central villain. We've since posted a character sheet for her. As I see it, the Rani would be interested in playing out experiments on a cosmic scale, not just tinkering with the genetics of alien races that she encounters but altering their very evolution, interfering with the history of entire worlds and ecosystems. She would be creating alternate histories in a bid to remodel the universe to suit her needs or to satisfy her curiosities. The destruction she could wreak could be unimaginable, and she could be made central to any number of different story types. This would be my advice in using the Rani as an antagonist. Don't allow her television appearances to establish limits for her as a character. Think big!

[Catsmate]

Aug 30, 2014 3:34:04 GMT Doctor X said:

RTD has said officially that Rani Chandra is NOT The Rani and has nothing to do with her.

I'm glad to see someone else had the idea too.

Aug 30, 2014 18:56:14 GMT Marnal said:

Unfortunately nothing is really official in Dr Who until it appears on screen. And even then its official-ness only lasts about 2-3 seasons.

Too true. And rather annoying.

[Catsmate]

Aug 30, 2014 0:09:06 GMT zebaroth said:

as for what you said Catsmate about the Tetraps in the 7th doctor's 1st episode Time
And the Rani ( one of my favorites Urak siad that his race had used all of his planets resources
up and he needed The Rani to fix there stupidity. as for The Tetraps they died in the time war
and Urak is the last one ( why the Rani made him immortal )he travles with the Rani out of gratitude
for saving him, but he also hates her for not saving the rest of his race ( especially a Female Tetrap)
he has herd rumors in space ports of Tetrap cloneys that still exist. as for why the hid was she had no interest in the time war and became human to escape from it. here is what have come with
for the beginning after reading the comments Rani Chandra has never felt that she fit in with the other
kids she felt more comfortable talking to her imaginary Friend Urak ( he has been using a perception fiter only the Rani can see him) Urak has keepet her safe he has also told stories about her past self and of the doctor and the master. the 25th of April 2011 at Sarah Jane Smith's funeral every one
has geterd to say good bye members of unit past and prasent even a budhist monk named K'anpo is ther
the doctor is also there with Amy and roey. after the funeral is at the graveyard Rani Chandra says
she never knew her mother and Sarah Jane Smith was like a mother her the only thing i have to remember
mom is this locket of hers. she opens it a red gowling smoke comes out of it she breaths it in
then in flash of red enegry she changes every one except unit and the doctor has no idea what is happening then it is over and standing where Rani Chandra was is woman in mid 40's. at this point
Urak turns off his perception fiter and says Welcome back mistress She smacks him on his snout and says why did
you not do what i told you to do and trun me back after My tardis had stop receiving the signels.
Urak responds rubbing his snout where the rani smacked him I tried mistress you thought i was something called an imaginary Friend that i told you storys. you have a point Urack but it is no
exsucse. the rani urack go over to a oblisk tomb stone that is out of place go inside and it dematerializes. the doctor adjusts his bow tie and say she is back. Everyone says who is back.
The Rani is back he looks at amy and roey and says go with the kids and get them some ice cream with the sprinkles i love sprinkles i have to talk to someone. he walks over to the the unit members
one them asks is it. Doctor Says Yes a 781. Kate Stewart gets out her cellphone makes a call
she says Kate Stewart we have 781 yes he is here with me at Sarah Jane Smith's funeral we will be there soon

Interesting. OK some purists would hate the idea, but I rather like it. A good start to a campaign with a couple of climactic changes,
One point, I'd assume that creating a cross-sex clone would be pretty simple for someone with the Rani's skill and equipment.

Also you're going to need a motivation for her to be a major antagonist, unless the party is specifically targeting her operations.

[starkllr]

Another general approach, if you want something smaller scale for the Rani as a major villain. What if she turns her scientific mind to psychology?

Her plans have been ruined at least twice by the Doctor and his human companion. So maybe the Rani decides she needs to make a proper study of the Doctor and his relationship with his companions (or, obviously, your PC Time Lord and his/her non-Time Lord companions). If she can figure out how having someone from a lesser species helps the Time Lord, and if she can define the precise paramaters and stress points of their relationship, she'll be in a better position to design plans that the Doctor can't mess up next time.

So the individual adventures in such a campaign would all be situations set up by the Rani. And each would be designed to test a particular aspect of either Time Lord or human psychology, until she decides she has enough information and she can move on to her real goals (whatever those might be), secure in the knowledge that she is prepared for absolutely anything the Doctor and companion(s) might do to thwart her.

[Catsmate]

Aug 31, 2014 19:45:33 GMT starkllr said:

Another general approach, if you want something smaller scale for the Rani as a major villain. What if she turns her scientific mind to psychology?

Her plans have been ruined at least twice by the Doctor and his human companion. So maybe the Rani decides she needs to make a proper study of the Doctor and his relationship with his companions (or, obviously, your PC Time Lord and his/her non-Time Lord companions). If she can figure out how having someone from a lesser species helps the Time Lord, and if she can define the precise parameters and stress points of their relationship, she'll be in a better position to design plans that the Doctor can't mess up next time.

So the individual adventures in such a campaign would all be situations set up by the Rani. And each would be designed to test a particular aspect of either Time Lord or human psychology, until she decides she has enough information and she can move on to her real goals (whatever those might be), secure in the knowledge that she is prepared for absolutely anything the Doctor and companion(s) might do to thwart her.

Interesting, a sort-of quest campaign in reverse with the Big Reveal being that the whole thing was a set-up. And a good reason to have a series of adventures tuned specifically for each Companion.

[zebaroth]

Aug 28, 2014 22:53:42 GMT zebaroth said:

in the 50th limted edtion rule book the have two adventure seeds that envolve The rani
you could use them them as starting pont i was thinking along the lines of what you said doctor x Someone has been tampering with the genetics and biology but the doctor dos not know the rani is still alive
he thinks she died in the time war the end of the adventure arc would in involve a machine like
the one the 1st x-men movie that force a mass evolution of life but 50% of all life
exsposed will die from it the blast would go to the edge of the universe and the doctor must stop it

if she uses the aforementioned Device half of all life in the universe would die
smoe races would not survive at all

[Doctor X]

I still don't think she makes for a good season Big Bad. Someone who once said of the Master "He'd get dizzy if he tried to walk in a straight line" wouldn't have the patience to do a season's worth of scheming. Both of her schemes in the series follow the same pattern: Something has gone wrong with one of her experiments and now she needs to obtain something to fix it. (Cerebral fluid from humans, the Doctor's knowledge to repair her machinery and then provide a Time Lord's knowledge for her super-brain.)

The only way I can see a season arc with that motif is if the thing she needs is so rare and well-guarded that coercing the players into pulling off a heist for the item is the only way to get it. That arc would then involve her finding some way to force them to pull the job, the season is spent making preparations for the caper, and then the season finale is finally pulling off the heist and putting the plan to double-cross the Rani that they've hopefully been working on since they found out about her into effect.

After doing all of that, the best move would then be to put away DWAITAS and go start up a game of Leverage like you really want to. No judgment here, come on back when you're ready. We'll still be around.

[zebaroth]

Sept 2, 2014 11:21:18 GMT Doctor X said:

I still don't think she makes for a good season Big Bad. Someone who once said of the Master "He'd get dizzy if he tried to walk in a straight line" wouldn't have the patience to do a season's worth of scheming. Both of her schemes in the series follow the same pattern: Something has gone wrong with one of her experiments and now she needs to obtain something to fix it. (Cerebral fluid from humans, the Doctor's knowledge to repair her machinery and then provide a Time Lord's knowledge for her super-brain.)

The only way I can see a season arc with that motif is if the thing she needs is so rare and well-guarded that coercing the players into pulling off a heist for the item is the only way to get it. That arc would then involve her finding some way to force them to pull the job, the season is spent making preparations for the caper, and then the season finale is finally pulling off the heist and putting the plan to double-cross the Rani that they've hopefully been working on since they found out about her into effect.

After doing all of that, the best move would then be to put away DWAITAS and go start up a game of Leverage like you really want to. No judgment here, come on back when you're ready. We'll still be around.

don't own Leverage
it is not my thing. there is lot of good points on here. The way i was thinking
a way that use the rani as a big bad is that story arc games have something
to do with a step in her design of the evolution device and maybe she dose have to steal something for the machine

[Catsmate]

Sept 2, 2014 16:12:51 GMT zebaroth said:

Sept 2, 2014 11:21:18 GMT Doctor X said:

I still don't think she makes for a good season Big Bad. Someone who once said of the Master "He'd get dizzy if he tried to walk in a straight line" wouldn't have the patience to do a season's worth of scheming. Both of her schemes in the series follow the same pattern: Something has gone wrong with one of her experiments and now she needs to obtain something to fix it. (Cerebral fluid from humans, the Doctor's knowledge to repair her machinery and then provide a Time Lord's knowledge for her super-brain.)

The only way I can see a season arc with that motif is if the thing she needs is so rare and well-guarded that coercing the players into pulling off a heist for the item is the only way to get it. That arc would then involve her finding some way to force them to pull the job, the season is spent making preparations for the caper, and then the season finale is finally pulling off the heist and putting the plan to double-cross the Rani that they've hopefully been working on since they found out about her into effect.

After doing all of that, the best move would then be to put away DWAITAS and go start up a game of Leverage like you really want to. No judgment here, come on back when you're ready. We'll still be around.

don't own Leverage
it is not my thing. there is lot of good points on here. The way i was thinking
a way that use the rani as a big bad is that story arc games have something
to do with a step in her design of the evolution device and maybe she dose have to steal something for the machine

Another classic Quest of the 'Gotta Find Them All' type, with plenty of opportunity for betrayals, rivalries and more.

[Doctor X]

Sept 2, 2014 16:12:51 GMT zebaroth said:

it is not my thing. there is lot of good points on here. The way i was thinking
a way that use the rani as a big bad is that story arc games have something
to do with a step in her design of the evolution device and maybe she dose have to steal something for the machine

Sorry, was trying to be funny. Saying that if someone DOES want to play a game where everything involves planning a big heist, Leverage would be a better choice of game.

Ok, altering evolution. Well, first off, I'd say that her alteration would have to somehow involve her creating a paradox and the PCs' goal is to undo the paradox. If they came to 21st century Earth and humanity has, say, prehensile tails, encountering this phenomena becomes part of their timeline. Therefore, unless you want to rewrite history to give everyone who ever lived a tail, there has to be some way for them to both prevent it from happening and make sure that their past selves still see the tail thing to set them on the path they took to undo it. The solution there is that the Rani created the tail paradox in the first place, in which case, a judo-like second paradox needs to be created to correct the first. The story arc could then involve tracing the path of the paradox back to it's source.

Problems I can see with that are 1: If your players have any knowledge of the Rani from the TV show, it's going to be pretty easy to guess who's behind it. ("Someone's traveled back 40 million years and altered human evolution! WHO possibly COULD and WOULD do that?") 2: The Rani might not CARE that she's just altered all of human history, but she's smart enough to realize the consequences of doing so. (Creates a paradox, makes Reavers show up. Or if the Time Lords are still around, this kind of tampering with history would send up a huge red flag to them.)

Combining bits of my first two ideas on this, the Rani DID need something she couldn't get to pull off the experiment, she arranged for the Meddling Monk to get the item, and HE was careless enough to create the paradox in the process.

Another thought: The last time the Rani mentioned any interest in Earth's history, it related to realizing the full potential of the dinosaurs. Perhaps that's what she's done and the damage to the timestream has created anomalies that are sending the dinosaurs to different eras of human history. I bring this up for two reasons: It might be a way to finally make that Doctor Who/Primeval crossover happen, and if it turns out that this is why there's a dinosaur in Victorian London in the first episode of the current season, and who the mystery woman is, I'd like it on record somewhere that I called it.