[campaign seed] The Second-Last Time Lord

[vargaplant]

I'm a long-time Whovian, but fairly new to the RPG. Here's my quick idea for a campaign:
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Before the Last Time War, it was relatively easy to travel to alternate universes. Years ago (or years from now...), a scientific research team of 6 departs in their TTC, bound for another reality.

On or shortly after arrival, a disaster severely damages the ship and kills all but one of the team. The survivor manages to materialize on a primitive world. Decades pass as he struggles to repair the TARDIS.

At last, he is ready to cross back to our reality and go home to Gallifrey. But the barrier between universes has somehow become impassable! More years pass as he travels, gathering what he needs to breach the wall. At least, he succeeds - and Gallifrey is gone. He finds a dead world orbiting an ancient star. Even worse, the events leading up to this have been time locked, preventing him from reversing the disaster.

Nearly mad with grief and loneliness, he searches through our universe for answers. He finds hints of a great war between Gallifrey and the Daleks.

And then he discovers who is responsible. The renegade Time Lord known as the Doctor did something - exactly what is not clear - to end the war by committing mass genocide!

Enrage, our survivor decides to hunt down the Doctor and hold him to account for his crime. With grim resolve, he guides his TARDIS to one of the war criminal's known haunts - Temporal Nexus Point Earth.
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There. A bit rough, but it's a start. I envision our survivor (perhaps he even calls himself the Survivor!) as an NPC who picks up the PCs as companions. He will tell them stories of the evil, evil Time Lord he hunts. Hilarity ensues!

If anyone has ideas to flesh this out or otherwise make it more interesting, post away!

[Craig Oxbrow]

Welcome aboard! The idea certainly sounds like fun, if perhaps limited by the premise of hunting the Doctor down.

My first question would be how much the (potential) players know in and out of character - it can be difficult to isolate OOC knowledge at times, but players in on the premise might enjoy walking their characters into danger, making bad decisions and generally getting in trouble.

I'd also consider making the Survivor a PC, if there's a keen and suitable player. I'd certainly enjoy ranting about the meddling trickster who destroyed Gallifrey and didn't even manage to wipe out the Daleks properly!

[faure]

A couple thoughts:

1) The Hunt for the Doctor
Just because they know his name, doesn't mean they can easily track him down given his bouncing around through Earth history. Perhaps they must find records (top-secret UNIT records) that indicate his presence at a particular place & time. But they always arrive just after -- just can't quite get the trace down close enough -- so they encounter the aftermath of a Doctor adventure (e.g. Auton cleanup by UNIT, Pompeii destroyed, the Weeping Angels sending them back in time instead, etc.).

2) An alliance against the doctor
Playing the other side of the existing stories such as the Alliance or the Silence. Just who started the Pandorica Alliance? Perhaps the Survivor is involved in this because he/she recognizes the cracks in time? Or perhaps the Survivor encounters the Silence and learns of their prophecy? Will he/she join them? Etc.

[vargaplant]

Thanks for the replies so far. Based on your responses, it sounds like I might have created a villain instead of a campaign seed! I may need to tone down the vengeance angle, as I had intended the game to be more of a classic "knock about solving problems" than "hunt the Doctor to the ends of Creation!". Though finding the Doctor would always be part of the Survivor's motivation, some of his grief and rage would hopefully be lessened by coming into contact with other people again.

I forgot to mention something about the parallel universe. The Time Lords were studying it because, despite having the same initial conditions for the creation of life, no intelligence ever evolved there.

This means that the Survivor was the only thinking being in an entire universe for decades or perhaps centuries. Everything he did to repair his TARDIS was done from scratch, using whatever tools were aboard, plus raw materials from outside.

Specifically, I envision the Survivor as starting out to bring the Doctor to justice, but ending up being sidetracked by the other injustices he encounters on the journey. Actually finding the Doctor, and receiving a full accounting of the Time War, would serve as the campaign climax.

Hmmm. How to rework?

[Stormcrow]

Be careful with naming him that:

"Who are you?"
"I'm the Survivor."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It's complicated."
"But what's your name?"
"The Survivor."
"'The Survivor'? You call yourself 'the Survivor'? That's not actually your name, is it?"
"No, I chose that name for myself."
"But you won't tell me what you survived."
"I survived the Time War by being in a parallel world while it happened."
"What?"
"I told you it was complicated."
"Why won't you tell me your real name?"
"Umm...?"

[vargaplant]

Good point, Stormcrow. "The Survivor" is a provisional name. I want his name to come off as serious, with a tinge of sadness. I'll think about it further.

[faure]

> it sounds like I might have created a villain instead of a campaign seed!

While it could veer off in that direction, a lot would depend on how the Time Lord reacts to what he's found. Starts off thinking that the Doctor, a known Renegade, has destroyed Gallifrey. Traces him to Earth, comes into the aftermath of some Doctor story -- what villainy is the Doctor planning now?

Perhaps discovers UNIT's involvement with the Doctor, but begins to learn of different aspects to the Doctor. Continues to try to trace after him, perhaps still thinking vengeance/justice, though a bit more unsure of who he's after. However, he encounters the Alliance or the Silence. They show him more of the Doctor's heinous crimes and woo the Survivor to their cause -- perhaps using the Survivor as a Lure?

> I envision the Survivor as starting out to bring the Doctor to justice, but ending up being sidetracked by the other injustices he encounters on the journey.

Begins to discover/unravel the plot of the Alliance, the Silence, or whomever. Culmination could tie into the Year that Wasn't or other dire events where he realizes the Doctor really was trying to aid/protect others.