My Doctor Who Adventures: Torchwood + more

[Eli.]

Recently I have been GMing a few Doctor Who adventures.  The first ones are set during the Time War. I'll provide more details on what happened in each at a later time but below is the previews I gave for each adventure.  

The Time War: Fragile Alliances:
1.1 Knight of the Comet
The adventure begins with the player characters arriving at a festival at Tintagel. A new excavation at the site has gained a lot of media coverage by unearthing a strange bracelet that has historians baffled. Many believe it to be a hoax to gain publicity for the tiny museum that has the article on show. Either way the artifact is a mystery worth solving.



1.2 The Deadliest Game
Cybermen are the ultimate warriors - so they believe - and the Time War the ultimate conflict. Denied victory by Skaro and Gallifrey alike, The Cyber Controller of First Temporal Cyber-Fleet employs a dangerous strategy to draw both sides to the planet Elcorth and prove its forces worthy…
Meanwhile, the Oracle,Markus, and newcomer the Witness are trapped on Elcorth as the battle begins.  The Time Lords don’t expect the Cybermen to be so fearsome a foe, until they uncover the deadly secret of the Cyber Controller.  

Now as of 8/26/18 we will be doing a four part Torchwood series.  As a big fan if Big Finish's audio adventures I am attempting to mimic their set up in my campaigns. 
Here is a preview of of Torchwood Five:

Torchwood Five- Something's happened. Something's twisted its way into Manchester. Something old. Something which should have been forgotten, wiped, abandoned. Something which has been waiting. The twenty-first century is when everything changes. And you've got to be ready.



Torchwood Five: Agents of Humanity
1.1 The New Order

Earth. The 21st century. Across the world, the mobile phone’s popularity grows as the digital age enters a new era. But for the residents of Manchester the new Astral IV smartphone offers a glimpse of the future, but it has a troubling cost.

When Torchwood gets word, they find themselves in the middle of a mystery. Sometimes the past comes back to haunt you. And sometimes the future does as well.

If you have any questions or comments feel free to comment below! I will try and remember to update 


 

[garethl]

The Torchwood adventure sounds really interesting. I'd love to hear how you, as the GM, handled giving the players information from the future. Were the predictions always right or could the future be changed?

[Eli.]

Aug 31, 2018 8:15:26 GMT garethl said:

The Torchwood adventure sounds really interesting. I'd love to hear how you, as the GM, handled giving the players information from the future. Were the predictions always right or could the future be changed?

The first session had to be edited a bit to account for two of my players being unable to arrive. With one player I was able to do the basic plot and he was great with all the pressure on him. About the future knowledge; he didn't get to much before he shot the villain(an extremely weakened Great Intelligence). It did mention reinforcements and a "Coalition". I'll give a full account of the session in the next few posts!

[Eli.]

Torchwood Five: Agents of Humanity
1.1 The New Order

Earth. The 21st century. Across the world, the mobile phone’s popularity grows as the digital age enters a new era. But for the residents of Manchester the new Astral IV smartphone offers a glimpse of the future, but it has a troubling cost.

When Torchwood gets word, they find themselves in the middle of a mystery. Sometimes the past comes back to haunt you. And sometimes the future does as well.

Torchwood Five, based of of St. Ann's Church in Manchester. They are tasked with protecting the Manchester Space-Time Rift and stop whatever comes through.
One week ago the Astral Corporation gave out the most advanced phone ever created for free. The phone is the Astral IV, it is the fasted most reliable phone in the world. The technology is futuristic nearly 15 years beyond its competitors. Torchwood Five's Scientists have been analyzing the phones all week. Oliver Smith(PC),Reece Riley(NPC), and Amber Walsh(NPC) makes up the main science team. When Oliver Smith comes into work seven days after the phones were given out he finds Reece attempting to dismantle his phone. Reece is a master technician and engineer but he isn't a people person. Oliver takes over to give Reece a break from work and works with the computers expert Amber. Amber, who is always willing to help, works with Oliver and they find the power source of the phone: A Green Crystal. The two of them work out that the crystal is extraterrestrial.
A few minutes later Oliver is called up to the Captain's office. Captain Alexander Cranston is American, tough, and quick to anger; but he is also a great boss who cares about everyone on his team. Oliver arrives at his office and is given a folder and a promotion. He is told that he is being promoted to feild agent and his first case is today. Oliver has always worked in the labs and the player RPed this perfectly and is terifyed.
He heads back downstairs and heads to the SUV but encounters Evan O'Neil(NPC) & Jill Bishop(NPC) who are both field agents. They wish him luck and O'Neil gives Oliver the SUV keys. The case is a string of murders where the victims have been beaten to death. The main links besides the wounds is the fact that all the victims have had their phones smashed, all the phones are the Astral IVs, and they have all happened in the last week. Oliver nervously examines the crime scene and is given a perfectly intact Astral IV, the victims. Oliver races back to HQ where he starts examining the phone. He hears a buzzing sound coming from the phone and puts it up to his ear and blacks out.
Suddenly he finds himself beating a man to death. Snapping out of it he realizes that the murders are done through hypnosis and leaves. Fast forwarding through some investigations stuff the team inform the Captain who orders the team to infiltrate the Astral Corporation HQ. Reece and Oliver are to go in disguised and figure out whats going on while Amber is to stay in the SUV to and hack in the Corporations systems. Claiming to be from Unit on a surprise inspection, the duo manage to get into the building.
While striking up talk with his tour guide, Oliver notices Reece had gone to investigate the floors. Reece manages to find a large collection of the green alien crystals in the basement and tons of pulsing cables heading upwards to what he assumes is the roof. Alerting Oliver they both manage to to get to the top floor and find the main office of Adrian Baldwin the CEO and Owner of the Astral Corporation. They continue their bluffing and manage to get the location of the roof access ladder on this floor. The assistant who gave them this information does inform them that she has to call her boss to confirm their presence but Reece attempted to charm her. He failed horribly but Oliver who was turned and was walking to the rooftop access area have Reece some story points in the form of a pick up line. This somehow wins her over and Oliver is free to head up to the next stage.
Instead of arriving on the roof he found himself in a pitch black room with pulsing red cables leading to a center pillar which was a mess of wires and tentacles. Then he heard Mr. Baldwin behind him and the man started to talk. The mentioned how Reece was being dealt with and that he was going to die as well. That's when the tentacles started talking and Oliver ran for his life to another ladder. This one led to the roof where a giant satellite dish was located right over the pillar in the room below. The CEO continued to follow our hero as he found himself with is back against the satellite dish and the armed CEO in front of him. The tentacles attempted to hypnosis him but Oliver spent his story point and broke free just in time to see Amber appear with a gun and together they turned the tables. Amber disarmed the CEO while Oliver went downstairs and started to head towards the central pillar. While advancing he hears the monster call for reinforcements and as Oliver fires every round he can at him; The alien states that the Coalition will not fail. The rest of the session wraps up rather well as Reece is found in an empty office with the Assistant and everyone at the company is given Recton. The Captain alerts all of Torchwood Five that the Coalition will appear again and Torchwood has to be ready.

Promo:
1.2 Flight of the Angels
The SkySpear is the first non-stop round-planet flight. But Stanley King's visionary project has gone horribly wrong - the plane was also carrying a pair of antique statues and now there seems no way to stop them.
Torchwood believed the flight would be sabotaged. The only problem is... they’re on board.

[Eli.]

It has been a bit since the finale and our four part adventure has come to the end. Here are quick summaries of the final three sessions

1.2 Flight of the Angels
The Torchwood Five Team are sent on board the first ever nonstop round world flight on the luxurious SkySpear. Captain Alexander Cranston believes that the flight is going to be sabotaged based from information gathered by the mysterious head of Torchwood, Mr. Pierce. The team being sent was the three PCs Lieutenant Jeffries,Oliver Smith, and Miles McCopper. Amber Walsh tags along as her technical expertise may be needed. The flight takes off as normal after Stanley King's brilliant speech. Lieutenant Jeffries and Miles McCopper grow tired of Oliver Smith's constant questions and whining so they hit the bar on the second floor. Meanwhile Oliver dices to take a look into the cargo hold after sneaking past the airline staff. He finds a big black box taking up a large amount of the cargo space. Almost ten feet by ten feet it also had a keypad on the front of it. Oliver called for advice but the drunk veterans told him to open it. Amber told him not to open yet but Oliver deiced to go for it. Inside was a pedestal with two clock pieces of alien design and two stone statues. Oliver looked away for a second and noticed when he looked back, the angel had moved. Grabbing the clock pieces he made run out of the box and ran right into the Air Marshal. Oliver ran past him at full speed just in time to hear the mans screams behind him.

The Angels were loose and after many brave sacrifices by famous passengers such as Miley Cyrus, Neil Patrick Harris, Brad Pitt, and Justin Bieber the situation was getting under control. However, they didn't notice that pictures of the Angels taken by the celebrities had angels crawling out of them. Now with even more Angels around; the plane started falling out of the sky. Amber and Miles managed to keep the plane from crashing while staring down an angel who was crawling on the nose of the plane. Amber failed to resist being infected by the angel(this will be important later, while bonding with Miles over their impending doom.
Jeffires and Miles manage to stop the rampaging angels while Miles landed the plan safely. Unit and Torchwood officials greeted them when they landed but the mood wasn't happy.

A few celebrities posted pictures of the Weeping Angels on their social media accounts. The world was full of weeping angels. Cranston orders the team to return to base with the clock pieces as Mr. Pierce believes that it will fit in the alien clock held at base.

[Eli.]

1.3 Planet of the Angels
While Torchwood struggles to contain a terrible war, an even greater threat to the human race is about to arrive.
Torchwood needs the Doctor's help. The whole planet Earth needs his help. But he is nowhere to be seen.
Will the Weeping Angels assault be the end of human life on Earth? Or will Earth become the planet of the Angels.

[Eli.]

Due to Oliver Smith and Lieutenant Jeffries both not showing up to the next sessions, the plot of the next two sessions really follows Miles McCopper's character growth as he sheds his cold persona and learns to love and believe in others. Now! Planet of the Angels:

His comrades staying behind in Italy to help with cleanup from the Skyspear mess; Miles McCopper and Amber Walsh head back to Manchester to return the two clock pieces to their superiors. Along the way the two agents continue to bond and a real friendship is born, even if Amber refuses to agree. However she starts counting down. First ten then Nine and lastly eight before they landed. They took an Uber to HQ meanwhile Amber counted seven and six. Back at HQ Evan O'neil and Jill Bishop were out helping with the weeping angels while Reece was going mad studding a captured weeping angel. It had been 17 hours since the Angels attacked through social media and Reece hadn't slept in 36 hours. Meanwhile Lily Sharp was in the medical room. The duo meet with Mr. Pierce and the Captain as Mr. Pierce puts the two pieces into the unfinished clock before revealing he held the last piece all along. He claimed that the device would stop the angels by leaking tons of time energy. It was a lie. The nine pieces activate and the Doomsday Chronometer. The countdown to the end of the universe had begun and nobody knew it.

At this point Amber collapsed after counting down to three. Mr. Pierce put the Doomsday Chronometer back in the vault and walked out. While the Captain and Miles helped the infected Amber. Miles helped Lily with attempting to cure Amber but to no avail. When Miles goes to help Reece they find that the Astral Corporation had organized to put the box on the flight two months in advanced. Miles went to check on Amber when he found Harvey Lynch, the second Medical Officer, in the room and no Lily. Harvey updated Miles on Amber's condition. They could slow the infection down but they couldn't save her. Miles asked for Lily's opinion but Harvey had no idea who she was. Freaking out Miles asked Reece if he knew Lily Sharp but the scientist had no idea who she was. Fearing the worse Miles did as much research on the Weeping Angels as he could to find a weakness that could stop them for good. He only found one: The Doctor

Miles realized he had to call the Doctor. So he spent time building a signaling device that the TARDIS could latch on to. After some time he got it working and went outside. The city was in chaos. A 1970s police car zoomed down the street while people from the 1920s walked on confused. Time was shattering. The deice worked and within seconds the TARDIS materialized behind him. Miles knocked on the door and Peter Capaldi's Doctor answered and told him to go away... After a few seconds the Doctor opened the door again and smiled in recognition. "Grumpy!" was his first words as the Doctor hugged Miles and the Time Lord asked where Milky(Oliver) and Soldiery(Jefferies) were. Miles was super confused and it seems like the Doctor had met their future selves as he mentioned Miles having a wife and daughter.

After explain what was going on; the Doctor and Miles attempted to figure out whats going on. The Doctor went to investigate the Doomsday Chronometer while Miles and Harvey found Reece dead by Weeping Angels, and decided to get Amber out of Torchwood Five. It was after several close calls when Miles,Half-Stone Amber, and Harvey were in the emergency stairs when Miles noticed Harvey wasn't Harvey anymore. After asking who she was, the woman in Harvey's place revealed her name was Willow and that they had worked together for years. Miles was heart broken as Harvey and Miles had become friends during the session so far.

Meeting up with the Doctor they got in the TARDIS and went to gather the rest of the party for next session. The universe was going to end in 70 hours. So the Doctor created a plan. Travel a few hours before the end of the universe: drop off Torchwood and then travel 3 hours into the future and fly into the Anti-Matter death beam to delay it. Meanwhile Torchwood would infiltrate the enemy base and destroy the doomsday device that would destroy the universe. Overall a good plan.

[Eli.]

1.4 The Eternity Engine
The date has been set. Events are in motion. The end of the universe is at hand and the Doctor along with Torchwood have to save all of time. Starting now.

[Eli.]

1.4 The Eternity Engine The date has been set. Events are in motion. The end of the universe is at hand and the Doctor along with Torchwood have to save all of time. Starting now:
The TARDIS arrives at the last known location the rest of team. However those left in Italy are missing and were most likely killed by the Angels on-board the Skyspear. Making the swift decision to risk going undermanned, The Doctor, Amber, Willow, and Miles head a few hour before the The Eternity Engine’s activation. Dropping Miles and Willow off and giving them his Anti-gravity motorbike to help.
What nobody realized was that the Doctor had left them other side of the city from Torchwood Five’s HQ. Thus an epic journey began. Using the Anti-gravity motorbike they traversed the ruins of the angel infested Manchester. Partway through their journey they encountered the Captain and Evan O'neil still battling against the angels even though it had been close to 70 hours since Miles and Willow had left. They manage to break a path through the Angels for our duo but sacrifice their lives doing so. Not long later Harvey appears in the passenger car. He doesn’t realize that he had been erased from the timeline.
To summarize the rest of the journey to the HQ: I think Willow died at some point. I can’t remember clearly how though. Harvey detached the sidecar after an Angel grabbed onto it. They were riding up a building and Harvey fell to his death but the weight that was released allowed Miles to dodge more Angels. When Miles arrived at the HQ he found the would building surrounded by hundreds of Weeping Angels. At this point Willow or possibly Lily stayed behind to watch the Angels so Miles could make his way to the building.
Once inside the HQ Miles encountered the corpses of Harvey and Reece who were possessed by the Angels. He was clever and managed to escape deeper into the base. Once he reached the command room he heard voices. He stealthed his way closer to hear better and he saw Mr. Pierce talking over a communication device to an unknown party. Thirteen different voices could be heard on the other side yet Miles could tell that they seemed to be the same man. Peirce called the man: The Thirteen. In response the Thirteen called Mr. Pierce The Great Intelligence. Miles had discovered the Coalition. The Thirteen referred to each of his voices by a number. One seemed to be wise yet calculating while Nine seemed to just want to loot the Torchwood HQ. Eight seemed to be a nice guy and was begging for them to stop.
The ending was quite simple as Miles managed to take down The Great Intelligence but couldn’t figure out how to shutdown the machine. With the The Eternity Engine activated the TARDIS flies into the path of the beam and attempts to restrict the anti-matter energy. Miles grabs a pipe from the ground and swings down upon the center emitter of the beam. It works but the pipe and his arms are reduced to nothingness. While he passes out from the pain he sees the beam dissipate.
Miles wakes up in a hospital with Amber watching over him and she explains that the antimatter cured the Angel infection as well as stopped the Weeping Angels. She further explains that the Doctor was attempting to put things right and that he managed to create artificial arms for Miles to wear. It is revealed that many of Torchwood Five’s staff have survived due to the timeline correcting itself but the operation would be shut down for good. Miles agrees that it probably would be for the best and seems set on moving forward.
Fin.
I had a lot of fun with this Torchwood campaign. While it wasn’t good that for 3 of the 4 session I had 1 player instead of the 4 I recruited. I was happy how it turned out. Though I was somewhat disappointed that the villains weren’t really recognized. The Thirteen was an obvious future incarnation of the Eleven while the Great Intelligence was himself. That was partly my fault as I wanted to connect the series to the Eighth Doctor series: the Doom Coalition. I learned a lot about 1 on 1 GMing and one day I would like to do some adventures starring the Doctor.