Timeshare Timelords

[Eternally Lost Zeppo]

I was at the Nationals this weekend, and one of the GMs running the Doctor Who category had an interesting way of handling the 'who gets to play the Doctor?' conundrum.

Basically, the Doctor's sheet was placed in the middle of the table. Everyone was given a countdown timer and were allocated 5 minutes of 'Doctor Time' in the morning, and another 5 in the afternoon. Whenever we wanted to do something as the Doctor, we started our clock, and stopped it when we were finished. When the Doctor wasn't being held by a player, he was run as an NPC by the GM. It this was a pretty fun way of avoiding people fighting over the Doctor's character sheet, and worked really well.

I'm definitely going to try it myself, but I'm wondering if this is just a nice gimmick for a one-shot game, or if it's something that could be adapted for a campaign.

Here are some thoughts I've had so far about how to implement it:
- People get 5 minutes per game session. (Assuming that, like me, you only really run 3-4 hour sessions in the evening.)
- People can spend story points to get extra Doctor Time. Maybe one point for 15-30 seconds of additional time?
- As an alternative or fun addition to the above, my own idea about sharing the role of the Doctor between players involved passing around a sonic screwdriver prop as a 'talking stick', and this would be passed on to another player when the rest of the group felt it was time for someone else to have a go.

So, any thoughts on this idea, and what potential there is for using it in a campaign?

[zebaroth]

it could work very well. but what about consistency of the doctor you are using person B will play him differently then person A dose

[Siskoid]

Though that might work within the Doctor's eccentricities, no? One minute he's a child, the next he's a dark presence, and so on.

Of course, this means the Doctor (or other Time Lord) isn't the main character of the story.

[garethl]

Player 1, takes control of the Doctor and tells the aliens that the party comes in peace and wants to negotiate.
Player 2, takes control of the Doctor immediately after player 1 and tells the aliens to run, run and don't look back.

Yeah, I can see a few problems, but that might be more of a player problem than something wrong with the idea. If your players agree, and all wanted to play the Doctor, then it might work.

[korith]

Apr 21, 2012 10:49:32 GMT garethl said:

Player 1, takes control of the Doctor and tells the aliens that the party comes in peace and wants to negotiate.
Player 2, takes control of the Doctor immediately after player 1 and tells the aliens to run, run and don't look back.

Yeah, I can see a few problems, but that might be more of a player problem than something wrong with the idea. If your players agree, and all wanted to play the Doctor, then it might work.

Emphasis mine

It largely depends on the group dynamic. Doctor Who is well tailored to a group that wants to tell a story and have some fun in the process. This methodology is well tailored to that sort of objective.

For more competitive or individualistic groups where most of the players want their story ideas and/or character to be front and centre, there may be more of an issue here. Of course, the Doctor does lie...

[zebaroth]

Apr 24, 2012 17:56:51 GMT korith said:

Apr 21, 2012 10:49:32 GMT garethl said:

Player 1, takes control of the Doctor and tells the aliens that the party comes in peace and wants to negotiate.
Player 2, takes control of the Doctor immediately after player 1 and tells the aliens to run, run and don't look back.

Yeah, I can see a few problems, but that might be more of a player problem than something wrong with the idea. If your players agree, and all wanted to play the Doctor, then it might work.

Emphasis mine

It largely depends on the group dynamic. Doctor Who is well tailored to a group that wants to tell a story and have some fun in the process. This methodology is well tailored to that sort of objective.

For more competitive or individualistic groups where most of the players want their story ideas and/or character to be front and centre, there may be more of an issue here. Of course, the Doctor does lie...

that was one things I was thinking that could go wrong.

[ugavine]

Not a bad idea, though I'd probably give more than 5 miniutes in a regualr game, maybe each session a new person runs The Doctor.

I believe FATE has a system where players can exert control over NPCs. I thought of doing something similar where The Doctor would be an NPC but the group gets to vote on any decisons. You could allow Story Points to be used to get an extra vote.