Advanced Tardis as a Companion?

[tampahawke]

was reading a Fanfiction (Brother of Kastorborius) ie dr who /harry potter hybrid ((where harry gets raised on Galifrey as a student at the TimeLord acdemey instead of earth))--and the "character" Marie (a type/form 103 tardis) made me wonder about the concept of an Advanced Tardis itself (the 103's and 104's being Homid shaped Tardis's (tardi?) taking a slot as the or a companion to the Timelord or Scion of Gallifrey operator.

Thoughts?  comments? suggestions?
thanks in advance 

[misterharry]

There is of course the example of Compassion from the EDA novels (from which Marie also originates).

As for having one as a companion in a game, I think it would be incredibly powerful for a player character. Apart from the time travel ability, block transfer computation makes a TARDIS's external shell pretty much invulnerable to standard damage. The chameleon circuit enables them to take on any shape, not just humanoid, and not just human-sized. Anyone inside the TARDIS would be at its absolute mercy, and it could materialise around somebody to capture them. The Doctor's Wife gives you an idea of how modifying the internal environment can easily kill its occupants - change heat to bake or freeze, adjust gravity so that a corridor becomes a bottomless shaft or just crushes people flat, air becomes poisonous or non-existent, etc.

Under first edition rules, it would be impossible to create an effective TARDIS on starting points; with second edition, with Distinctions instead of Traits, it would be much easier. But I'd restrict them to being NPCs.

[grinch]

Yeah, much like misterharry said they’d be better off as NPCs. Would also make for one hell of a campaign villain as well though.

Say a group of TARDISes who lost their pilots and now reside in an almost nomadic existence away from the rest of creation in some uncharted part of the Time Vortex. When your PCs accidentally stumble across them and thus bring their existence to the attention of the rest of the universe, they might lash out and considering they have the entirety of Time and Space at their disposal cause a hell of a lot of damage in the process. To the point, where it might even threaten their own existence!

[Catsmate]

I toyed with the idea of a campaign (to be called 'Lords of the Storm') for a gamer friend (back from the days of Timelords¹), very loosely derived from the published scenario Stormrise (12D Ed).
It had a group of three modern-day humans who acquire/befriend a sentient, damaged, TARDIS-analogue from the tail end of the Great Time War. Audra (the TARDIS) has a rather non-standard Real World Interface (it was cobbled together by a trio of desperate, involuntary, conscripts attempting to desert the war) which manifested as a metal disc. It could teleport the 'crew' into the TARDIS pocket universe and manifest an avatar.

Never went anywhere as a campaign; she got interested in When Worlds Collide², realised that, despite the good ideas, the system was unworkable and developed a homebrew variant that used some of the ideas.

However the 'Riders on the Storm' have appeared in both of my current AITAS campaigns as slightly-odd, time-travelling NPCs.
But them we have at least twenty such...












1.Not the Virgin Doctor Who game, the BTRC one.

2. Review. Publisher's site. Interesting concepts.

[tampahawke]

I like the concept of the sentient homid Tardis being a "bystander"/ Avatar type member of the group. not using her/his ((the later "100's" could be either gender))- powers per se, but able to use it/his/her sensors and act as a 3d "avatar" interface with the party when the party is outside the tardis--and as a "voice above"/holographic Avatar while within the tardis. kind of like a self mobile (but not able to enter the vortex without it's operateor "on board" sentient Tesalacta--

[Catsmate]

Jan 16, 2022 4:21:41 GMT tampahawke said:

I like the concept of the sentient homid Tardis being a "bystander"/ Avatar type member of the group. not using her/his ((the later "100's" could be either gender))- powers per se, but able to use it/his/her sensors and act as a 3d "avatar" interface with the party when the party is outside the tardis--and as a "voice above"/holographic Avatar while within the tardis. kind of like a self mobile (but not able to enter the vortex without it's operateor "on board" sentient Tesalacta--

That was what I was aiming for, an aide to provide the 'background knowledge' but mostly leaving the PCs on their own.

[tampahawke]

yes exactly, and as mr harry and grinch correctly stated (npc) status.- i should have been more specific about that element on my part- but to have the Homid tardis as a member (npc) of the party and be one of the companions (or The companion (npc) to a player timelord/scion.

[grinch]

Jan 19, 2022 6:24:33 GMT tampahawke said:

yes exactly, and as mr harry and grinch correctly stated (npc) status.- i should have been more specific about that element on my part- but to have the Homid tardis as a member (npc) of the party and be one of the companions (or The companion (npc) to a player timelord/scion.

You could always have it where the NPC doesn’t know it’s a TARDIS and as such doesn’t have access to all its Traits. 

But you could leave subtle hints as to its true nature. It never seems to age, knows minor historical facts and when asked how it knows such things it will admit it doesn’t know and perhaps despite its mild mannered personality is measured to have a genius level intellect.

If you do it correctly other PCs or NPCs might just presume it’s an amnesiac alien or merely a highly advanced robot or something to that effect.

[tampahawke]

lol untill a Tardis is needed- and then everyone (including the homid tardis companion) are in for a bit of shock /grin

[grinch]

Jan 19, 2022 23:19:13 GMT tampahawke said:

lol untill a Tardis is needed- and then everyone (including the homid tardis companion) are in for a bit of shock /grin

Maybe the TARDIS Hominid can occasionally complain about having stomach problems which everyone attributes to just being a symptom of travel sickness.

When in actuality, it’s his interior dimensions constantly adjusting themselves.

[tampahawke]

as per the Tardis bad trait "shifting interior" -Literally? oooohhhh ideas. does her/his tummy hurt because something is in desprate need of over Due maintence??? /grin

[grinch]

Jan 21, 2022 9:09:38 GMT tampahawke said:

as per the Tardis bad trait "shifting interior" -Literally? oooohhhh ideas. does her/his tummy hurt because something is in desprate need of over Due maintence??? /grin

Very possibly. Then again, it could also be because although it does possess a Chameleon Circuit maintaining a humanoid form over a long period of time is not exactly in keeping with a TARDIS’s function and it’s struggling to keep the form up.

This would of course lead to a clash of personalities, of course. Your Hominid who doubt has already established its own personality and the actual TARDIS itself.