Sunday 20 January 2013

The Fiftieth Anniversary

...is still ten months (and three days) away, but the celebrations are already under way. Eoin Colfer writing the first of the children’s author short stories, the Big Finish and AudioGo collaboration Destiny Of The Doctors, the start of a six-issue story in the DWM comics (with quite a cliffhanger, let me tell you)...

So are you gearing up already? What do you have in mind?

It’s a good time for a big adventure, maybe a big crazy one-shot with a large cast and a time-threatening apocalypse to deal with.

A celebration of the show’s heritage seems natural. Something with multiple Doctors, or your game’s Time Lords? Maybe a crossover appearance by the Doctor in a game he normally doesn’t star in? A visit to Coal Hill in 1963, or perhaps the site of your game’s first adventure? Daleks, Cybermen, the Master, Davros, Time Lords, Weeping Angels, all of the above? Or maybe something to do with anniversaries?

For instance, we’ve been back to Effie’s local area in The Door In Time often enough that it wouldn’t feel very special. And the clockwork Romans are cool but not really suited to a return appearance. But celebrating her 63rd birthday (while looking all of 19 - 1963!) could provide an interesting insight into how it feels to be old and young at the same time. Or a trip a few years back in time intrudes on the last anniversary she shared with Ron before he died...

And then the session after that, something completely new.

7 comments:

  1. I want to relaunch my DWAITAS campaign with a new regeneration of our Time Lord, new companions and a new traveling paradigm. I hadn't thought of using the 50th to justify it and to recruit players to the cause, but now I WILL!

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    1. When in doubt, always use available excuses!

      (Please note: This is not actually good advice. ;) )

      So, what kind of travelling paradigm in particular? Looking for something? At someone else's command? Purposely random to avoid someone catching them?

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    2. The Holy Grail of gaming, for my particular group and situation, is a game with wholly optional sessions. I have more players than my ideal group size can withstand, AND most of those players have wildly varying schedules that makes it impossible for them to commit to a "campaign". We wind up playing games that work as one-shots (Dream Park, Hong Kong Action Theater) or use a central base concept where characters may or may not show up from adventure to adventure (as we did with our DC Heroes game), harder to do with a nomadic premise like Doctor Who.

      Our Time Lord is called The Shepherd and his first incarnation did manage to accumulate a large number of followers (to the point some players found it hard to have something to do, which was 4 companions + TARDIS that turns humanoid + a pet). So now my thought is to run with the idea and make the TARDIS a kind of base where people live and work on different projects. They don't necessarily go walkabout each time the TARDIS lands. That would allow for the kind of structure that works best for my players.

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    3. I see, yes, that works. I'd probably hew closer to the show and have temporary PCs for specific adventures.

      And the Shepherd could be in a state of regenerative instability, allowing different players to play different incarnations from one week to the next...

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  2. That is a crazy idea! The closest I've come is thinking I might temporally fracture the TARDIS (our season finale had a time-space explosion that fried the TARDIS' humanoid persona), and characters from different eras of the TARDIS' life could co-exist that way. But there's no real need, since I don't have multiple Time Lord players (at least, no one's stepped up). Still... I'd consider it.

    I've done the temp guest star thing, and it's hooked some players in, so I'll continue to do so above and beyond the TARDIS base idea for players just trying the game out etc.

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    1. I swiped it from Dimensions In Time, to an extent...

      I'm considering using it myself for the 12-hour gaming marathon I'm going to next month, so players can pop in and out.

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    2. Another cool idea. Not Dimensions in Time, the marathon. I never thought of doing a pop-in game.

      A Mary Poppins game, yes though.

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