Questions about the Dr. Who RPG by a Dr. Who n00b

[daddystabz]

I am a veteran RPG gamer and have recently become interested in Dr. Who due to a friend.  I am wondering though.....what kinds of characters can you play in the RPG? It seems like there is only 1 doctor and not many time lords so what are your character options? Can you play companions or other time lords, etc?

[chickenpaddy]

The books actually give several examples of this. The first group type that one usually would think of is one person playing as the Doctor, and the others playing as his companions. However, that is by no means to only option. The group I commonly run is all the players are companion-esque, usually human or human-like alien, who travel by themselves in a time and space machine. You could also run a game with a party of UNIT personnel or Torchwood agents. Maybe you want to relive the glory days and run an all Time Lord party, though I would not recommend this if you're just starting out with RPGs.

Really, with RPGs the sky's the limit. Just stick to the rules and read the tips on running and playing the game. They explain everything.

Hope that helps.

[da professor]

If it has appeared in the show, and the rules don't specifically prohibit it, you can play it

[Polar Bear]

A Sliders crew, the Time Tunnel pair, a modified Stargate team, etc. Up to you.

[Craig Oxbrow]

The Doctor Who rules cover characters of roughly human scale, with some superhuman abilities available and Story Points allowing anyone to pull off the occasional impossible thing. It encourages something like the show with writeups of monsters and characters from the series and adventures set in various time periods and different planets, and in some of the style encouraged by the rules such as the initiative system that encourages solutions other than combat. (And this can be adjusted for different styles of game, as shown in the Primeval RPG.)

Running games with a deliberately show-like premise (a Time Lord, a slightly unreliable TARDIS and some companions) I've given players free rein to create characters who might join such adventures and they've created modern down-to-Earth "viewpoint character" types, historical humans from pre-Roman Celts to WWII fighter pilots, future humans as well, humanoid aliens and a shapeshifting ooze alien who could pass for human if necessary.

[Polar Bear]

And I see no reason why a slightly up-powered group--say, the bridge crew from the NCC-1701A, complete with Geordie, Data, Troi, and Worf, maybe even Guinan--wouldn't work, too, sans phasers. But the X-Men or JLA? No.

An unexpected thing we've discovered in our first campaign is that doing an original PC, especially a relatively low-powered one, allows the focus to rest on character development, and the GM and player can kind of collaborate on a general direction for the character's arc. That's rather impossible, though, for a well-established companion, and when a PC is too powerful, it sometimes turns into a "roll-playing" game.

[daddystabz]

Since I'm new to DW and to the RPG I had intended to preorder the new hardback 50th. Anniversary Edition. Is this all I need to start playing? I wouldn't think I'd need one of the previous boxed sets if I get the new hardback version.

[xandines]

Since there's no full decsription of the book, we have to guess that it is the same as the player and game master book in one publication. So my answer is, you just need the book; It has all you need to mastering. Except dice, obviously!

[Corone]

I don't want to say too much before any official details.
But I believe the new book will be a stand alone rulebook.
However, obviously, it won't include dice and spare character sheets etc.

[rulandor]

Our group is playing a Stargate: Universe inspired game, albeit with Time Lords in the background, and the characters have been manipulated onto the DESTINY by a Time Lord in order to do something clandestine for him. This "thing" is again inspired by the KEY-TO-TIME-serial of the Fourth Doctor with Romana.

The characters are a UNIT sergeant, a historian, a dentist and a millionaire/comic-nerd, all from the Earth of our time.

Our DESTINY is the remnant of an ancient civilization, swept onto Earth's shores by a wormhole and found by UNIT. That was the reason why a UNIT crew is on board, more scientists and technicians than soldiers, but the ship does her own thing, and nobody on board knows how to steer her.

[Catsmate]

Pretty much anyone, from any genre. The "traditional" group as a central Time Lord, Doctor analogue, and a group of human-ish Companions. It's one of the show's strengths that it can take anyone and dump them in an adventure from any genre.

For example, one of the old FASA RPG scearios had a pregenerated team of nine:
Rollo: the Gallifreyan 'leader'
Volusagashanisam and Verakasdroverka: younger and less experienced Gallifreyans
plus six humans:
Jim Waters (b. 1956) a 20 year old petty criminal
Michael Duncan (b. 1951) a 32 year old physician and surgeon
David Smythe (b. 1782) a 20 year old Napoleonic naval officer
Stephen Reynart (b. 2587) a 15 year old student
Erin Grant (b. 2847) a 28 year old starship navigator
Jody Lockhart (b. 1963) a 22 year old actress

Now that's a large group, perhaps some players would play multiple characters, but a reasonable spread of characters.

Of course there's no reason to have so defined a split between the leader and companions. A less capable leader (one of those younger Gallifreyans, a Time Agent or someone like Jenny) might work better with some player groups.
Likewise your PCs don't necessarily have to have a conventional TARDIS for transport/base, they could have a less capable craft or use some different system such as a Sliders like portal generator or the icosahedral Matrix from Time Lords.

Hope this helps.