The Doctor Who Role Playing Game (1985) Review

[@EricP1970]

I ran this briefly in the 80s and had apparently blocked all memory of the game mechanics for my mentral health.

[@etexpatriate]

There are two subsequent Dr Who rpg's, the current one from Cubicle 7, and a 90's one called "Time Lord." FASA Who is what happens when a publisher hitherto only familiar with wargames fundamentally fails to understand the tone of the source. Pretty much the same problem with FASA Trek.

[@zigmenthotep]

Yeah I've look into both of those, as I said I'm considering reviewing the Cubicle7 one. Unfortunately, Time Lord isn't quite as easily accessible is it's complete form.

[@WulfCorbett]

The fact that RPG evolved from wargames really doesn't excuse the fact that so many of them still read like wargames (and I say that as a wargamer from the mid-70s onwards).

[@rossnelson1016]

FASA didn't exactly put a lot of effort into this, and just altered their Star Trek RPG for the Doctor Who property (or so the rumor goes).

[@Tracks777]

amazing stuff

[@WulfCorbett]

The idea of one player playing a Time Lord and the others being Companions reminds me of the Buffy RPg. But with bigger numbers. By the way, if you don't like number crunching games, avoid FGU, especially Space Opera (just generally avoid that) and Other Suns (a furry RPG designed for Runequest that Chaosium didn't want so it went to FGU who rammed as many numbers in as it could, including the only case I know of of a CUBE ROOT in character generation...) We actually played this game at the time, all the player characters were humans plucked out of time at the moment of their deaths. Mine was an Australian Centurion tank gunner from the Korean War (historical note - in reality they never went there...)

[@zigmenthotep]

Well, I just don't like playing mechanics-heavy games, I find them endlessly fascinating from a historical and academic perspective.

[@WulfCorbett]

@@zigmenthotep Oh, in that case you want Avalon Hill's Powers & Perils... The most Celtic-flavoured RPG I know of, but the slowest to play!

[@zigmenthotep]

Well, that's certainly worth a look.

[@WulfCorbett]

@@zigmenthotep Remember, Avalon Hill, the people who brought you Advanced Squad Leader, one of, if not THE, heaviest wargames around... Celtic monsters though. Lots of them.

[@walsallmatt]

Hot damn that voice *chills*

[@zigmenthotep]

Um... thank you?

[@JoeL-yq1iv]

The Operating Endurance and other secondary attributes are pretty much exactly the same as FASA's Star Trek. It works there, sort of... It doesn't work here. I much prefer the Cubicle 7 version.

[@zigmenthotep]

Well I guess I'll find out when I finally get around to reviewing the FASA Star Trek. And I'll probably be looking at the Cubicle 7 game next season.

[@cyngaethlestan8859]

Thank you for the review. I would be interested in the other two as well but don't think I could ever bring myself to buy the latest one as it has that ruddy awful woman on the cover and I'd be constantly reminded how good Dr. Who WAS. (She is actually a blooming good actress but she and Chibnil ruined the programme for me and I've been watching almost from the beginning.)

[@bloodrunsclear]

Time Lords specifically are genetically modified super soldiers so they’d probably have different stats to a human…

[@zigmenthotep]

Yes, and the superior strength of Time Lords had been well established in the show by this point.

[@thegenderisfluid]

I've been running the more recent Cubicle 7 Doctor Who TTRPG, it definitely was a lot easier to pick up than the 1985 system looks. I definitely would recommend that over this one