Winning a fight without fighting (Spoiler for 'Seeing Eyes')

[echsenkoenig]

Hello everybody (=

As I'm going to GM my first game of the Doctor Who RPG and choose "Seeing Eyes" as the adventure to go, I came to some questions. Sadly, I haven't found an appropriate answer.
In the adventure, there are some encounters with enemys, I can't find a good solution for resolving without fighting. As fighting is never the prioritised way to go for the Doctor, I'm a bit confused. The first encounter with the teacher in the class room is covered by the play example some chapters ahead. The Doctor there uses his Sonic Screwdriver to disable the teacher. This is a very doctorish solution and I really like it, but this can't be the solution every time a fight is going to happen. I see running as an option in Engine Room #1, but the following encounters with the Weeping Angles?
In the corridor with the flickering lights, it seems to me that the PC's have to survive, until the soldiers get them out. Dodging attacks and maybe counter the Angel's ability to let the light flicker.
Later on, when encountering the Clockwork Angel, things getting harder. As from what I read, the Quantum Lock doesn't really affect this angel and as soon as the Time Engine is disabled, there are even 4 more Angels attacking the PCs. From then on, running for the TARDIS or a time window seems valid.

These scenes seem very dangerous and there have things to accomplish, before an escape is possible. I thought about the Initiative for extended Conflicts or even Talking in a simple Conflict, but some enemys can't be talked down...Even if I want to talk someone down in an extended conflict...Can Talkers do "damage" until an enemy is talked down?

I'm very confused about this, even though I read a bit about OSR, where being creative is prefered over clinging to ones stats...

[Stormcrow]

I am not familiar with the adventure in question, but that shouldn't change anything about my response here.

It's up to the players to decide how to respond to a threat, not you. When I run a game of Doctor Who, I frequently have no idea how to resolve a given situation. The players never disappoint; they always come up with something.

Only use the rules for extended conflicts when the action actually is one big, long conflict and you want to focus on the nitty-gritty of what's going on. Save extended conflicts for climactic scenes that you want to last a while for the drama. Most of the time, simple conflicts are enough. For instance, if the player-characters turn a corner and encounter a group of Cybermen, and this isn't the time for a dramatic resistance, just run it as a simple conflict: ask the players what they want to do, decide what the Cybermen want to do, and each side rolls. Whichever side rolls higher gets to do what it wants.


For instance, the player-characters decide to throw a smoke grenade one of them has handy and then run away, while the Cybermen want to order the player-characters to surrender for conversion and take them into custody. The Cybermen roll 15 on Presence+Convince, so that's the player's difficulty number—but he only rolls 12 on Coordination+Marksman, a Failure result. The player is low on Story Points and decides not to spend any here. A Cyberman grabs hold of the thrower before he can get the grenade ready, and the others are intimidated into surrender, but not so intimidated that they don't keep their wits about them. They might get a chance to learn what the Cybermen are planning, and their quick surrender means the Cybermen don't keep them restrained as they lead them away.

Notice there's no bother with initiative or damage in any of the above example. For quick situations, there's no need. It doesn't matter WHAT the players try to do against the monsters; whoever wins the simple conflict gets to do their action and the loser does not.

But if you DO find yourself in an extended conflict and there are talkers who want to try to talk down an enemy, they most certainly can do "damage" until the enemy is talked down. Suppose the player-characters are taking cover behind some metal crates while a trio of Daleks is shooting at them. One character tries to bluff the Daleks that they have sent a strike team to destroy the Daleks' ship, so hadn't they better go deal with that instead of shooting them? This is a contested roll of the player-character's Presence+Convince+Voice of Authority versus the Daleks' Ingenuity+Resolve reaction, +4 for two extra Daleks. The Daleks roll 14, but the player spends a Story Point for two extra dice and manages a total of 20, a Good result. The character has an Ingenuity of 3, which is how much Resolve the Daleks each lose, leaving them with 1 Resolve left. They're not convinced yet, but a bit more persuasion might get them to abandon the fight to stop imaginary forces elsewhere.

So it's all about the creativity of the players. Let THEM come up with ways to deal with existential threats. Encourage them to spend Story Points freely, and remind them to let themselves get captured or to play up their Bad Traits, for which you'll generously reward them with Story Points. And since the game system makes very little distinction between using words, doing clever deeds, and using weapons, words and deeds become very, very effective against weapons.