[Scenario Idea] Base Under Seige

[sutekh]

I'm interested in developing a 'base under seige' adventure of the type that dominated the Troughton era and was wondering if anybody has any ideas on how to run this type of story. At the moment, I'm trying to work what makes this type of classic Doctor Who plot archetype tick...

The basic premise is to run an adventure set in an isolated location that is under threat from a malevolent alien force. The location where the adventure takes place should be enclosed and self-contained. This helps to impose a sense of claustrophobia and impending menace.

This formula was used to great effect in a number of early Doctor Who stories - notably the Tenth Planet, The Moonbase, Wheel in Space, The Ice Warriors, Fury From the Deep, et al. The basic formula was revived with stories such as Ark in Space, Revenge of the Cybermen, Warriors of the Deep et al. Curiously, the new series has not really used this archetypal Doctor Who plot structure - possibly because the hour-long episode format does not lend itself as well to the slow build of tension required for an effective story of this type. The closest that they have come so far is probably Waters of Mars, with mixed success. The 'base under seige' formula seems to demand development of the incidental characters in order to build the audience's sympathy with their plight. A single hour-long episode simply doesn't provide enough space to do this effectively. However, I'm fairly certain that this approach will work well in an RPG.

Some of the settings that the classic Doctor Who television story have used for this type of story include:

• An antarctic base (The Tenth Planet and arguably the first episode of Seeds of Doom)
  
• A lunar colony (The Moonbase)
  
• A space station (Wheel in Space, Ark in Space, Revenge of the Cybermen).
  
• An oil refinery that services offshore drilling rigs located in the North Sea (Fury From the Deep)
  
• A doomed archaeological expedition on a frontier planet (Tomb of the Cybermen).
  
• An underwater base (Warriors of the Deep)
  

There seem to be a couple of plot elements that often feature in this type of story:

• The presence of the alien menace is not obvious at first and is forshadowed either by sabotage (eg Ark in Space), or a mysterious outbreak of disease that places the base under quarantine (The Moonbase, Revenge of the Cybermen).
  
• The Doctor and his companions are seperated from the TARDIS early in the story and it remains inaccessible until the final scene, ensuring that the protagonists have no easy means of escape from their predicament.
  
• The Doctor and his companions are initially treated with great suspicion by the inhabitants of the isolated base, who hold them responsible for the crisis until they demonstrate their intention to help fight the alien menace.
  
• The option of evacuating the base is briefly discussed but dismissed as either impractical or impossible.
  
• At some point, the invaders jam the base's communications - preventing the inhabitants from summoning help. If the base has a TRANSMAT device, it is either sabotaged or rendered inoperable.
  
• One of the humans in the base is either in league with the invaders or is under their mental influence. The insidious presence of an enemy within helps to drive the plot forward. See Klieg and Kaftan in Tomb of the Cybermen or Professor Kellman in Revenge of the Cybermen
  
• In most of these stories, the alien invaders want something located at the base that will give them a overwhelming strategic advantage of some kind. For example, in The Moonbase the cybermen want control of the Gravitron. In the Seeds of Death, the Ice Warriors want control of the TRANSMAT network. In Warriors from the Deep the Silurians and Sea Devils intend to use the missiles in the Sea Base 4 to trigger a nuclear war.
  
• Alternatively, the inhabitants of the base may inadvertantly awaken an ancient evil that threatens them. This approach is used in The Ice Warriors, Tomb of the Cybermen, and the first episode of the fourth doctor story The Seeds of Doom[/].
  
• Sometimes this type of story features a game of 'ten little indians' where minor characters are slowly picked off one by one in order to heighten tension. The most extreme example of this is in Warriors of the Deep where the Doctor and his companions are the only survivors.
  
• Often one of the incidental characters sacrifices himself to end the alien threat or to buy the Doctor the time that he needs to counter the alien threat.
  

I'm wondering if I've missed any tropes that should be included in an adventure of this nature?

[rsaintjohn]

Great topic and thoughts, but quick question first: you don't consider The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit to be a Base Under Siege story? That's one of the reasons I love it so much! As you said:

"Alternatively, the inhabitants of the base may inadvertantly awaken an ancient evil that threatens them."

[sutekh]

Hmmm....I forgot about The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit. How embarassing. I suppose that it does qualify.

At the moment, I'm trying to work out a couple of classic Doctor Who plotlines that I can use to launch a new campaign with a bunch of players who are a mixture of experienced roleplayers and Doctor Who fans. I intend to revive a number of characters that my previous gaming group used with the old FASA Doctor Who rpg back in the day. My goal is to develop a complete season of stories that combine those elements that I like from both the classic series and the new series. I figure that for the first season (which should contain 10-12 adventures) I will play it fairly safe, sticking as close as possible to archetypal Doctor Who plot structures and themes. Which is why I've started analyzing various classic episodes, looking for commonalities that I can pilfer...

As an aside, one thing that I miss from the new RPG is much advice on how to build a story with a strong Doctor Who feel. The advice on recurrent themes from pp223-224 of the old Time Lord rulebook springs to mind. If we're lucky, perhaps we might see a book of advice for GMs at some point in the future...

[giftedmunchkin]

Oh, you beat me to it! I was actually going to put an adventure seed like this up on my blog in a few days, called "Atlantis Emergency".

Basically, an alien ship crash landed underwater a few centuries back, with the alien inside in hibernation. Coral and rocks piled up on top, so that it never got detected by human scans. Then, they started building the first underwater colony, Atlantis. The heat and activity from Atlantis began to wake the monster, but it was only fully awakened when one of the scientists went out to collect some coral for examination. He made contact with the ship… and it awoke.

So now the monster is attacking the sea base, and the Doctor and his companion(s) have to either stop the monster or get everyone out before the walls crack and the water pours in.

Not terribly original, I know, but I mainly wrote it for this scene that I came up with for the intro text:

"Wait a minute," said Donna, stopping the Doctor as he started to run out the door. "Naming an undersea colony after Atlantis? Doesn't that seem like a bit of a bad idea?"

"I was on a spaceship named Titanic once, and it ended up perfectly fine." He ran out the door, then a moment later stuck his head in again. "Well, I say fine, I mean okay. Well, I say okay, I mean three or four people lived." He grinned again. "But I'm sure this will be nothing like that here. Come on, then!"

[sutekh]

Jan 2, 2010 9:08:12 GMT giftedmunchkin said:

Oh, you beat me to it! I was actually going to put an adventure seed like this up on my blog in a few days, called "Atlantis Emergency".

I look forward to seeing the final product!

Jan 2, 2010 9:08:12 GMT giftedmunchkin said:

Basically, an alien ship crash landed underwater a few centuries back, with the alien inside in hibernation. Coral and rocks piled up on top, so that it never got detected by human scans. Then, they started building the first underwater colony, Atlantis. The heat and activity from Atlantis began to wake the monster, but it was only fully awakened when one of the scientists went out to collect some coral for examination. He made contact with the ship… and it awoke.

What is the nature of the creature? And what does it want? Perhaps there is something in the base that it can use to repair its ship? Or perhaps it was a scout for an invasion force who was supposed to collect information about humans.

If you want to use a monster from the classic series, there are a couple of possibilities. A Rutan would work well if you want a story where an insidious alien menace infiltrates the base and methodically murders the crew one by one. Alternatively, a Zygon scout ship might work - especially if the monster that awakens is an immature Skarasen that can't easily be controlled. I'm sure there are plenty of other options.

Jan 2, 2010 9:08:12 GMT giftedmunchkin said:

So now the monster is attacking the sea base, and the Doctor and his companion(s) have to either stop the monster or get everyone out before the walls crack and the water pours in.

Personally, I'd think about some complications to make this part of the adventure more interesting. For example, think of the reaction of the human crew to the crisis and come up with a couple of thingas they can do to make the situation worse.

Jan 2, 2010 9:08:12 GMT giftedmunchkin said:

"Wait a minute," said Donna, stopping the Doctor as he started to run out the door. "Naming an undersea colony after Atlantis? Doesn't that seem like a bit of a bad idea?"

"I was on a spaceship named Titanic once, and it ended up perfectly fine." He ran out the door, then a moment later stuck his head in again. "Well, I say fine, I mean okay. Well, I say okay, I mean three or four people lived." He grinned again. "But I'm sure this will be nothing like that here. Come on, then!"

I love this quote - it captures the essence of the characters very well!

[sutekh]

Jan 2, 2010 6:50:54 GMT rsaintjohn said:

Great topic and thoughts, but quick question first: you don't consider The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit to be a Base Under Siege story? That's one of the reasons I love it so much! As you said:

"Alternatively, the inhabitants of the base may inadvertantly awaken an ancient evil that threatens them."

I'm starting to think the adventures where an ancient evil is awakened have their own set of genre conventions. Examples of this type of story includes The Daemons, The Pyramids of Mars, and The Image of the Fendahl. It can be argued that The Abominable Snowmen also falls into this category.

I might make some rough notes about the tropes that appear in this type of story tonight and post the in the morning.

[giftedmunchkin]

Jan 2, 2010 13:51:13 GMT sutekh said:

What is the nature of the creature? And what does it want? Perhaps there is something in the base that it can use to repair its ship? Or perhaps it was a scout for an invasion force who was supposed to collect information about humans.

If you want to use a monster from the classic series, there are a couple of possibilities. A Rutan would work well if you want a story where an insidious alien menace infiltrates the base and methodically murders the crew one by one. Alternatively, a Zygon scout ship might work - especially if the monster that awakens is an immature Skarasen that can't easily be controlled. I'm sure there are plenty of other options.

To be honest, I was just going to be lazy and say it was a generic alien from another planet. It was attacking because it was scared and didn't know where it was, and there were strange creatures trying to steal its ship (in truth, just trying to get some coral), so it was just lashing out. I may have to revise that idea.

I love this quote - it captures the essence of the characters very well!

Oh man, I got a little carried away with the intro paragraph here. Those were the lines that I wrote the entire adventure around, but for some reason I spent a lot of time building up to those two lines.

Thanks for your comments! You made me think about the adventure a bit and I revised the blog post. it's going up on allgeektout.com on… Tuesday, the 5th, so you can keep an eye for it there.

[Curufea]

Jan 2, 2010 8:13:24 GMT sutekh said:

As an aside, one thing that I miss from the new RPG is much advice on how to build a story with a strong Doctor Who feel. The advice on recurrent themes from pp223-224 of the old Time Lord rulebook springs to mind. If we're lucky, perhaps we might see a book of advice for GMs at some point in the future...

I suggest having a look at the TV tropes wiki - I may infact use that information for the Matrix site for plot advice.

tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DoctorWho

Specifically the Trope Namer and Tropes section

[sutekh]

Jan 2, 2010 20:45:13 GMT Curufea said:

I suggest having a look at the TV tropes wiki

I'm a big fan of TV Tropes - it's a great place to waste a few hours. However, I'm not certain that it provides the kind of thing that I am after - it describes the common dramatic tropes that appear in Doctor Who at a very high level. I'm really thinking of something a bit more specific - a detailed discussion of the storytelling techniques used by the series with hints on how to reproduce them in a roleplaying game.

[Curufea]

Good idea - may need a separate thread for that though.

First thing that leaps to mind is the necessity for the Doctor to be captured in order to confront the bad guy, insult their intelligence or morals, get locked up and escape at a moment timed to most distract the villain.

[sutekh]

Jan 4, 2010 12:08:57 GMT Curufea said:

First thing that leaps to mind is the necessity for the Doctor to be captured in order to confront the bad guy, insult their intelligence or morals, get locked up and escape at a moment timed to most distract the villain.

I've think that the GM should be fairly generous when handing out Story Points to players who embrace the genre conventions. In most roleplaying games, players hate being captured by the bad guys - but in Doctor Who its an important part of the genre.

In many cases, I'd allow the characters to roll against Ingenuity + Convince to compel the major villain to waste time gloating, possibly revealing important information about his or her goals. In the classic TV series, this tactic even works against supposedly emotionless creatures such as Cybermen!

I'd also use Story Points as a reward for characters who play along with other common Doctor Who tropes, such as companions who fall under mind control or are imprisoned in a deathtrap. I'd even consider handing out a Story Point to companions who wander off and get into trouble once they've been advised to stay put - it runs counter to the advice that you shouldn't split the party, but it's definitely in the spirit of the TV show!

I'm toying with the idea of some kind of reward for players who let me place their characters in a seemingly impossible situation in order to end the game session on a cliffhanger!

[Curufea]

Oh yes - ending sessions with cliff hangers - that's a good one!

[Craig Oxbrow]

Maybe a Story Point payoff next session, which can be used to escape the inescapable situation.

[sutekh]

Jan 4, 2010 22:38:58 GMT Craig Oxbrow said:

Maybe a Story Point payoff next session, which can be used to escape the inescapable situation.

That's an excellent suggestion. Have some karma!

[Craig Oxbrow]

Woohoo!

[giftedmunchkin]

Okay, time to unashamedly self-promote. Here's my "Atlantis Emergency" adventure seed, with WAY too much intro text:

www.allgeektout.com/?p=2696

It's a Base Under Siege adventure, like I mentioned earlier.