[Adventure/Campaign Seed] Lost in Space and Time

[Archr]

Hi there. Had a thought on an adventure seed that could lead to a full campaign.

Alien abduction stories are common in sci-fi, so why not have a group kidnapped from Earth and kept on some ship or station. Alien race is up to you (or me as the case may be). An escape is engineered, and with some of the other prisoners, they steal a ship of some sort and go off into the great unknown.

I am a fan of Farscape, and that seems a fun idea for a DW campaign, especially since you have the added fun of traveling in time as well as space.

It is rather bare bones, but as I only got the books Saturday, and joined here yesterday, it felt like a good idea to share while i had it.

Enjoy.

[Craig Oxbrow]

Welcome aboard! That's a good starting place for a series, so thanks for sharing and have some Karma.

The Farscape resemblance of Doctor Who in its 2005-2009 logo and TARDIS interior certainly fit the revived show, a 45-minute headlong charge of mad ideas, comedy, horror, love, death and a tiny band of misfits facing huge space armadas. So, yes, the influence wouldn't go amiss.

I'd be tempted to include options for non-human or non-modern player characters rather than have all the PCs coming from modern Earth. I'd certainly have some useful-ish NPCs from different times and places, possibly someone from the abductor group forced by circumstance or ethics into helping the escapees.

I'd include an abductor ship following them and turning up occasionally, like Crais's, whose crew gets a fair bit of detail so they can work as recurring Big Bads that sometimes have different plans, whose views on the group change and so on. For that, the PCs, or their ship, or both, should do or have something that makes them important enough to chase across time and space. (This doesn't have to be something they can use, or something that would seem all that important to them - the Daleks started hunting the first Doctor in The Chase because he'd annoyed them so much previously.)

And maybe I'd use a through-line about why the abductors took them. Are they especially important, or are they planning something for humanity (and the other affected species) in general? Perhaps, like Crichton, the PCs will be able to save the Earth even if they can never get back to it.

For an interesting example, author (and Doctor Who writer!) Stephen Gallagher's original pitch for the series that evolved into Farscape:
Space Chase.

[Rel Fexive]

I had an idea to mix Doctor Who with Farscape, Blake's 7, Quantum Leap and Stargate Universe (of which I only know the basic premise).

The PCs (somehow) end up as the 'crew' of a living timeship they can't really control (or not at all) that takes them through the Vortex to combat dangerous changes to Time... the defusing of which just happens to release the energy it needs to feed. Who made it? Is it natural? Why did it pick them? Who's in control of it? Will they ever get home?

[Archr]

Glad you liked the concept. I have been working on expanding the concept and have come a good long way with it. However, it will need a bit of backstory.

During the Time War, the Valeyard came to the notice of Rassilon. The Valeyard was kept hidden from the other Time Lords, especially the Doctor. The Valeyard was a black operations coordinator for Rassilon as well as a gatherer of technology and information during the War.

When the War ended, the Valeyard escaped into the Void, taking with him Space Station Zenobia (setting for trial of a Time Lord) as that was his base of operation, along with a great deal of ancient and fobidden knowledge and technology from Rassilon himself. When the cracks in time and space opened from the Reality Bomb incident, the Valeyard took his station out into realspace, in an unspecified time and place.

Seeing the state of the universe at this time, the Valeyard decided to go ahead with a plan to gain control of all time and space. With the technology of the Time Lords behind him, and the extra regenerations that technology gave him, he had all the time in creation to do this.

(note, with the advent of the Time War, the Valeyard became an anachronism, as events had changed to prevent the Doctor becoming the Valeyard, so he was in effect a creation of an alternate timeline)

First, the Valeyard crafted suitable identities to build the power bases necessary for his plans. First, a force of Order. He took the identity of 'The Coordinator' and founded the Time Agency, with the purpose of preventing crimes of time and space. He developed the Vortex Manipulators for the Agency to use to patrol the timestream.

Second, he would begin gathering forces for his Dark Alliegence, under the identity of 'The Collector', a force for chaos and war, gathering powerful technology and individuals who could assist in raiding the time lines and working against the Agency. It was this group that captured the PCs.

The PCs were captured for the sole reason that the Valeyard had detected that these individuals could be great threats, great assets and/or both. They also would be tests of his two factions, and possibly be a catalyst for more in the future (or the past).

With the escape, aided by a mysterious individual referred to as 'The Seeker' (yes, a third identity for the Valeyard), the PCs steal a timeship held in one of the storage bays of the detention center. it is a battered type 51 TARDIS in need of a great deal of repair. It has manuals, it has supplies, but it has no Time Lord operator. The PCs will have to figure out how to read the languages, how to operate the controls and repair the ship. The Seeker aids them with supplies and information as the time passes, but only when there is no other choice to keep them moving.

The Agency was raiding the detention center of the Dark Alliegence which allowed the PCs to escape. They are chasing the PCs as the TARDIS would be an asset to their organization as well as the threat of the PCs tampering with time.

The Hunter Teams of the Dark Alliegence chase after the PCs for the recovery of the timeship as well as the PCs themselves, as the Collector has ordered.

Some of the PCs might have problems in their home timezones from before they left, or caused by their disappearance.

This is the concept I have so far, and as I have yet to have players, there is a lot I cannot fill in.

Hope you guys like it.

[da professor]

Revenge of the Boatyard! ;D

[Craig Oxbrow]

That seems like a big enough plan to run a game for about a year.

The Valeyard might lose impact when confronted by heroes other than the Doctor - "I am the evil future side of... someone who isn't here!" - but he'd certainly be capable of pulling off a Xanatos Gambit like that, and unlike the Emperor in the Star Wars prequels his different identities would actually look different.

Of course, that might be his downfall. Because they're all fragments of himself... and of the Doctor. It would be quite possible for his different sides to get a bit too caught up in the conflict and start genuinely working against each other - and one of them (maybe the Seeker) starts to have doubts about this ultimate plan to bring peace to the universe by conquering it, and could be persuaded to switch sides and become more Doctorish...

I'd throw in a fourth side that isn't lead by him, because the situation is always going to get a bit more complicated.

[Archr]

Sorry if I was not understood.

The different identities are not different regenerations or fragments of the Valeyard, it simply is the man playing the different roles, like The Emperor did in the Clone Wars, in Star Wars.

There will be other factions in the story, depending on how things go during the adventure. Who the PCs make friends with and make enemies with.

Most of the events are up in the air, as I do not have a group to game with as yet. Once I have some players with created characters, more of their future will be determined by the pasts and in-game actions of the characters.

There will be a reveal sometime in the game that possibly one is their link to the person behind the mess, but it will take a while for them to get the full picture.

The Doctor would be a guest star once or twice, to help or hinder as the situation demands.

Like I said, it is still being made, the campaign idea is only a few days old.

Thanks for the comments.

[Craig Oxbrow]

Righto. That simplifies the plan. (I do rather like the idea of each identity actually being a different identity though, it's a very Time Lord trick...)

Let us know how the game unfolds.

[Archr]

Yes, it would be a good Time Lord Trick, but it also gets into the Bill & Ted Time Game there.

Working on the TARDIS layout, how damaged it is, and what they can do with what they have. (Also trying to figure out what they have)

Considering using Ogrons for the muscle in the Detention Center, just need t figure out who is running the show there.

Anyone have any stats for Ogrons yet? Any suggestions (besides Daleks) for controlling individuals?

-EDIT-
Found them in the Aliens section of Write Ups. Thanks btw.

[Craig Oxbrow]

Just about any bunch of gits from space could abduct humans and others for their nefarious purposes.

You could make it a meta-commentary joke and use a race that looks like the classic Alien Abduction types.

Doctor Who already did this with the Greys in Dreamland.

Or the slightly-less-classic "Nordic" aliens could be future humans or pretty humanoids, even the Thals. Although I suspect they've been Exterminated by now, so the Valeyard would hae to be really screwing with time to use them... although it gives the abductions a purpose, as a way of opposing the Daleks...

The Ice Warriors or Draconians would be the obvious choices for "Reptoid" abductors.

--

Equally, you could do anything else. Leaning towards creatures with a tendency for warfare and chaos, the Sontarans have previous form in kidnapping and experimenting.

I'd probably make up a new species, so the PCs can have a starting Big Bad of their own.