[Doctor Who] Campaign Scenarios Idea Help

[thereviewer]

Hello! I'm new to the whole Doctor Who RPG System, but I had some ideas I'd like to make into adventures, since I'm having an RPG Club next year in college and thought why not do 'Who.' I have the basic ideas down for adventures, but I need help making them into sourcebooks. If anyone is willing to help me make these adventures, please PM me. The adventures are as followed.

THE COLLECTION OF THE CYBERMEN- The Doctor (A Newly-Regenerated Version) lands at the London ExCeL Convention Center during a local comic con. He discovers that The Cybermen are planning to use a new gadget to infect people with a Cybervirus! Unfortunately, he's just lost his memories and it's up to the companions (the players) to get his memories back and help him stop this threat.

DEATH TO THE ANGLES- The Doctor and his companions arrive at a prison planet set to blow up. Unfortunately, The TARDIS goes missing and there's a Weeping Angle on the loose!

RELAXATION OF THE DALEKS- On a resort planet, The Daleks are seen...taking time off?! Something isn't right, and The Doctor must figure out what before it's too late!

REALITY- The Doctor and his companions land on a planet where their lives are a fictional TV show called 'Doctor Who.' (Yeah, I know IDW did this recently, but it seems like a good idea. Plus, the classic Marvel RPG did this, so why not give The Doctor Who one a shot?)

Anyways, that's all I got. PM me back for helping me make these into adventure sourcebooks.

Thanks!

The Reviewer

[Stormcrow]

Dec 28, 2013 16:18:34 GMT thereviewer said:

RELAXATION OF THE DALEKS- On a resort planet, The Daleks are seen...taking time off?! Something isn't right, and The Doctor must figure out what before it's too late!

I love everything about this! Just make sure it doesn't turn out too much like "Victory of the Daleks."

[Craig Oxbrow]

Hello, welcome aboard!

The ideas sound fine to me. How much fleshing out do you want to do? (And how much experience do you have in GMing other games and improvising details at the table?)

I'd consider combining REALITY and THE COLLECTION OF THE CYBERMEN, as the Doctor visiting a comic convention in a different adventure might be a few in-jokes too far. (And the IDW comic story by Paul Cornell does indeed feature Cybermen! I borrowed the first Doctor Who adventure I ever ran from a comic strip, and it worked fine. The only danger there is getting a player who's read it.)

[thereviewer]

Dec 28, 2013 19:24:12 GMT Craig Oxbrow said:

Hello, welcome aboard!
h
Te ideas sound fine to me. How much fleshing out do you want to do? (And how much experience do you have in GMing other games and improvising details at the table?)

I'd consider combining REALITY and THE COLLECTION OF THE CYBERMEN, as the Doctor visiting a comic convention in a different adventure might be a few in-jokes too far. (And the IDW comic story by Paul Cornell does indeed feature Cybermen! I borrowed the first Doctor Who adventure I ever ran from a comic strip, and it worked fine. The only danger there is getting a player who's read it.)Dear Craig, I'm completely new to this DW RPG. I've got the ideas out, but I need to find out how to put it into an Adventure Sourcebook, and if you could also help me convert it (as I have the basic outline for the stories,) that'd be appreciated. I unfortunately, have never GM'd before, but I did once play a Dungeons and Dragons game, though as I stated, I'm new to the DW version, so if you'd be kind as to help me learn the ropes, that'd be great. Thanks!

[thereviewer]

Dear Craig,

I'm completely new to this DW RPG. I've got the ideas out, but I need to find out how to put it into an Adventure Sourcebook, and if you could also help me convert it (as I have the basic outline for the stories,) that'd be appreciated. I unfortunately, have never GM'd before, but I did once play a Dungeons and Dragons game, though as I stated, I'm new to the DW version, so if you'd be kind as to help me learn the ropes, that'd be great. Thanks!

[Stormcrow]

I don't know what an "adventure sourcebook" is, but for heaven's sake don't over-prepare! You don't need to write up something as detailed as a published adventure.

Create some stats for important non-player characters, and only create those stats you'll actually need. If you've got a bartender character, make a note of his Ingenuity and Resolve, give him a Craft score and maybe Knowledge. Possibly a trait if it's important. But he's not going to be fighting, so you don't need combat statistics for him.

In fact, most characters don't need to be statted up at all until you need them. You might just have "Joe the bartender" as a background character. If any characters become important and you didn't make up stats for them, come up with them on the spot. If you can improvise well, your players won't know which characters are planned, important characters and which are background characters you instantly promoted. This is what makes a game world come alive.

Give your characters, especially your villains, motivations, and work out a general idea of what would happen if the player-characters weren't there. Then just let them go with it. You might want to make a few notes about locations the players can go, and possibly draw a map if it's really important (it usually isn't). If there are any complicated gadgets or creatures involved, write them up in advance.

[misterharry]

Welcome aboard! I'd agree with Stormcrow - if these adventures are just for you to run, you don't need to write them out in full detail like published adventures. It's really only if you're intending to make them available for others to use that you need to get them down in full.

But for your own use, you just need to prepare stats for the key characters and creatures that the players are likely to encounter, outline notes on what they will find where or when (either in terms of events, locations or both), maybe a map or two if that'll help (or just have a general idea of layout), and understand what the players need to achieve to "win" and how they might be able to do this.

Sounds like you've got some interesting ideas already, so I'd say just give them a little more thought but don't worry about creating an adventure sourcebook for them in order to be able to run them. You might find it helpful to run one or two of the published DWAITAS adventures first, to get the feel of the game and hopefully a better understanding of the sort of thing you need to bear in mind when creating your own adventures.

[Craig Oxbrow]

Having a lot of prep note can be helpful, especially when starting out, as reminders of what to include. Of course, you can't prepare for everything the players might have their characters do, so some improvisation is going to be essential.

[da professor]

As long as you know what the villains are doing - a rough timeline of what will happen if the PCs don't interfere- and are familiar with the main locations and characters, you've probably got all you need. An idea of how the player characters might foil the villain plan is useful but, trust me on this, there is a good chance that they will come up with something unexpected. Don't be afraid to wing it.

[cigarman]

Dec 28, 2013 22:53:37 GMT thereviewer said:

Dear Craig,

I'm completely new to this DW RPG. I've got the ideas out, but I need to find out how to put it into an Adventure Sourcebook, and if you could also help me convert it (as I have the basic outline for the stories,) that'd be appreciated. I unfortunately, have never GM'd before, but I did once play a Dungeons and Dragons game, though as I stated, I'm new to the DW version, so if you'd be kind as to help me learn the ropes, that'd be great. Thanks!

So you have never GMed before, but played D&D "once"? Am I reading this right?

If this is the case, I'd strongly suggest you spend some more time actually playing RPGs (any RPG will suffice) before jumping to the other side of the GM's screen.

If you are still insistent in jumping into the GM seat, I would suggest reading up on how to be a good Game master. There are plenty of online articles and several good books on the subject.

Here's a good starting point:

gmfoundation.wordpress.com/

[infinitydoctor]

Dec 30, 2013 23:24:43 GMT cigarman said:

If this is the case, I'd strongly suggest you spend some more time actually playing RPGs (any RPG will suffice) before jumping to the other side of the GM's screen.

Good job I never had to follow that rule, our lot would never have discovered gaming!

I worked it out from reading the D&D rulebook which I picked up on a whim from the bookshop, then pestered my (thankfully open minded) mates to play it with me. I'd never gamed before, and you get better as a GM by actually GMing! It did mean though, that I've remained as the GM for 90% of our gaming lives, since everyone loves playing but no-one has the patience to actually do the prep work to run something...

DWAITAS has the advantage that its a pretty simple system, so you don't really need any prior experience. 

I agree with the minimalist approach to adventure notes that the others have suggested, and the online resources that cigarman noted will help too, but I say just try the game, don't stress over it (its supposed to be fun) - you'll get stuff wrong anyway (I did, and still do with new rule systems) so just go with it!

[Stormcrow]

I agree: just jump in! (Dare I say "Geronimo"?) You don't need credentials to run a game. At worst you'll have a bad game, with no harm done.

[Marnal]

Yeah, I'd never even seen what a role-playing game was supposed to look like [which is why FASA's Star Trek and FASA's Dr Who were such bad introductions to the form. I bought both but after reading through both twice and generating characters we still didn't really know what to do - so we generated more characters [which was fun enough at the time!]

Fortunately West End's Star Wars made it very clear what a game was supposed to look and play like and I was running a game withing 4 hours of opening the book for the first time [so yes, before I'd finished reading the core game book].
This was good, since I didn't meet another GM [who I hadn't been trained by me] until I'd been GMing Star Wars every week for 3 years. If I'd waited to find a teacher I would have missed almost a hundred game sessions!

Luckily it seems to me that Cubical 7's AiTaS system seems even easier for a non-rpger to figure out then West Ends's Star Wars. Just grab some characters and a story and go for it.

[thereviewer]

It's okay, actually. I checked a couple of sites, and I think I'm beginning to get the hang of how to play. I think a couple more views, and I'll be all set and ready to roll.

Also, I have an idea for another adventure called 'The Three Dimensions.' It basically a multi-Doctor story only with alternate universe versions of The Same Doctor (In My Case, 11). The story goes than an evil mirror-verse-like Doctor and his companions come into The Normal Doctor's Universe, and The Normal Universe Doctor must join forces with a Gender-Reverse Doctor and her companions. This adventure can actually be played with any Doctor, but I chose Eleven and Clara (plus any other PC's if optional) since we've yet to see what Peter Capaldi is like. I know the appearance of Evil 11 is going to be based off of what Matt Smith's original idea was (something Pirate like,) and the gender-reverse Doctor will be based on an article I saw that gave an alternate history of Doctor Who if the role had always been played by a woman. The Alternate Female 11 in this will be played by Miranda Hart. You can actually check out the article here;
www.scifind.com/features/the-other-11-doctors/.

Anyways, I'll probably need help writing up states for the Alternate Clara's, but just to let you know I'm working on this project now.

[Craig Oxbrow]

Matt Smith's wardrobe tests including the pirate-y look. I'd suggest the black suit and green coat with upturned collar looks more aptly evil. Or maybe swipe an image from his very different current role in American Psycho.

As I noted at the time, I think Jaime Winstone would make a great female 11.

[thereviewer]

Thanks, Craig!

These photos for Alternate 11 are pretty good and I think you've convinced me that Jamie Watson will be the female alternate 11.

Regarding both the Evil Universe Clara and the Gender-Reverse Universe Clara, any ideas for the looks? I know that someone also suggested an alternate reverse-gender Clara could be played by Jason Aaron-Taylor, but I'm curious if you had any other ideas or suggestions.

[thereviewer]

Okay, so I did a search on this website for actor and talent directory, to see if I could find anybody who could look like the reverse gender Clara. These are the candidates I've chosen to base Male Clara's Appearance on;

www.starnow.co.uk/bvj

www.starnow.co.uk/danielnash2

www.starnow.co.uk/brettsmith3

If anybody else has suggestions for Male Clara's appearance or how her alternate evil self should look, I'm still open to it.

Thanks!

[Craig Oxbrow]

Maybe the first one for Male Clara (Clark?)...

Evil Universe Clara could be able to pass for Ordinary Clara - parallel universe doppelgangers imitating or replacing the real characters can give you a lot of plot options - or she might be another of her incarnations, maybe a new one. Borrowing this image from Death Comes To Pemberley, maybe an over-privileged Regency aristocrat Clara?

[thereviewer]

Kay, thanks.

Writing it up now.

[thereviewer]

I'll also probably do a quick drawing of a mock cover for what this adventure would look like and/or some of my concept sketches for some of the characters/events/locations that take place during this game and post them here. Admittedly, I'm no artist, but I find that drawing out some of my stuff helps me in some ways to find out what to do next.