Dr. Who Campaign?

[questionmark693]

So I'm DM'ing a campaign for some friends, and they want it to eventually be Dr. Who themed. Which I'm fine with, but I don't know Dr. Who very well. I'm just starting the series, but I was wondering if anybody could give me some suggestions as to plot ideas for such a campaign? I'm running the standard D&D cosmology.

[Nettlekid]

I find that a plane-hopping campaign works well. I've done two vaguely Doctor Who-ish ones. One was a one-shot, the other was more long lasting and mostly just had nods to Doctor Who. The one-shot was highly improv, where the PCs decided where they wanted to go and I made up the story as we went along. There was the NPC called The Cleric who had an extradimensional cupboard that went from plane to plane, which made for a fun night.

The other one was a more complex campaign with a longer lasting plot involving the PCs trying to meet the gods to reestablish planar connections which had been broken off, not realizing that they were going backwards in time and their meeting with the gods allowed the BBEG to sever the planes in the first place. That one just had a lot of Doctor Who-themed monsters. I had Inevitables being Cybermen (Marut and Kolyarut both work great because Marut has a lightning hand and Kolyarut's Enervation can seem that way), a library encounter with a Shredstorm (MMIII) as Vashta Nerada, Half-Celestial Caryatid Columns (Fiend Folio) as Weeping Angels (though any creature under the effect of a Statue spell works), a Goristro (Fiendish Codex I) with a homebrew "faith scent" (not unlike the Stalker of Kharash's ability to smell evil, but targets divine casters and then anyone with a strong connection to their deity, like most Drow) as the minotaur from The God Complex, Bodaks as the Silence (I had them enter a cave a few times, only to be turned around at the entrance having lost random health and spells expended (I guessed at what made sense) to simulate not remembering a fight), and a heavily reskinned Beholder that they fought in the very beginning who had been severely damaged in the fight, requiring supportive armor and losing all but the Disintegrate eyestalk as a Dalek. It went over quite well.

[Eldan]

The thing about Doctor Who is that, if you don't want to involve some of the more complicated background stuff, you don't have to know the background at all. The Doctor and companions can pop up anywhere, anytime and have just about any kind of adventure. Technology is ridiculous and at least some psionics (mostly telepathy and foresight) are confirmed, so, go wild. There's no reason to ever involve any of the iconic creatures or organisations from the show and the show regularly ignores anything even approaching coherent laws of time travel gleefully.

The basic plot is really simple.

Doctor: "And here we are, on the planet Mobroxicon IV! Home to the..."
Companion: "What is it, Doctor?"
Doctor: "Something is very wrong here, there's..."

And then you have your adventure.

[Togo]

Some central points of Dr Who

The main character is The Doctor. He is not called Dr Who.

The Doctor is never well defined. His background is largely supposition, no one knows his name, his motives are never obvious.

Like most British fiction, the Doctor never wins through superior firepower. US heroes tend to win by proving themselves to be somehow inherently superior to their foe, British heroes win by being smarter to defeat a foe that is their inherent superior in every other way.

Opponents should ideally be stronger, more heavily armed, more numerous, more socially respectable, better regarded, and possibly have claim to be more intelligent. Popular weaknesses include lack of empathy or conscience, self-destructive paranoia, evil that turns upon itself, rigid hierarchical thinking - particularly rigid military-style thinking, ideological blindness, and a tendency to use a technological trick to do something horrible, with terrible consequences for all.

The Doctor doesn't use weapons. He rarely fights at all, and regularly gets captured. The 3rd Doctor used marital arts in a very limited way, but that was unusual. That doesn't mean he's adverse to blowing stuff up, but he will always use an opponent's superweapon/army/incorporeal form/etc. against them, rather than bringing his own.

The TARDIS is supposedly a time machine, but in reality is mainly used to travel from place to place. Time travel plots are not particularly common. Settings that are supposedly in the future, or in the past, are.

The Prime Directive (don't interfere with native culture unless strictly necessary) is the antithesis of Dr Who. Wander in, get emotionally invested in what's going, and then intervene for the betterment of all involved.

Small scale. If you can't fit all the principle actors into a single room, you've got it too big. Vast armies and armadas can be involved, but the principle characters always interact in person.

Space is inhabited by humanoid-looking creatures with few language barriers. No matter who or what it is, you can talk to it. It may not listen, of course.

The Doctor is notably more powerful/capable than his companions in almost every way. I'd strongly suggest leaving him out entirely. Certainly he wouldn't be suitable as a player character.


'Classic' foes include the Cybermen (humans who cannabalised their own bodies to turn themselves into cyborgs in a desperate struggle to survive a global disaster. They regard any human feeling as an unacceptable weakness. Main motives are survival of their species above all else, including the welfare of others. Because of this they are feared and destroyed wherever they are found (cf paranoia and self-defeating evil as weaknesses) Can convert ordinary people into cybermen, which they see as 'freeing them from their weakness'. Allergic to gold powder.

Dialeks are the most famous, xenophobia pepper-pots with two arms - one plunger and one blaster. They are heavily armoured, very destructive, and obsessed with genetic purity. The doctor has, on more than occasion, defeated them by starting a civil war. Very high technology

Saltarans are a race genetically modified to be the perfect soldiers. This seems to involve dome-like heads and no necks. Their solution is always to blow stuff up. Heavily armed, and usually waiting for a vast battle fleet to turn up.

[BWR]

The Doctor is notably more powerful/capable than his companions in almost every way.

Dialeks

Saltarans .

Daleks, Sontarans. Also, the Doctor is not necessarily physically stronger than his companions. The first was notably weaker than most of his companions. All the male companions were stronger and more endurant than he. Ian and Barbara were often as much the source of plot resolution as the Doctor. Leela was a much better hunter and tracker, Romana was his intellectual equal if a bit less experienced, Zoe and to a lesser extent Adric were possibly better than him at math. Four didn't need guns when he had K9 (who also could outperform the Doctor on knowledge and hard sciences sometimes). Seven was more than happy to use Ace's bombs when convenient. Not to mention how nuWho is regularly overshadowed by his companions (Rose, Amy, Clara).

Still, I would agree that having a character like the Doctor in the game is probably a bad move, even if you structure the game to the point where companions are always being seperated from him and make important discoveries and move the plot along on their own. It would end up with one character being not only mechanically superior to the others but also narratively superior, which generally makes for a bad game. If the players are ok with it, fine, but I doubt this will be the case.
You could possibly run such a game where each player has their own version of the Doctor, in different regenerations, and each player has their own set of companions for the various Doctors.
That way everybody has time to shine as the Doctor and their own roles as support.
You might want to dig up some old copies of the various (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Doctor_Who_Role_Playing_Game)Doctor (http://www.cubicle7.co.uk/our-games/doctor-who-aitas/)Who (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Lord_%28role-playing_game%29)RPGs.

And this (http://www.mcdonald.me.uk/who-rpg/)might prove useful.

[Red Fel]

My advice?

The Doctor is known for several things, but two come to mind right now: Regeneration, and Companions.

Regeneration: Instead of dying, the Doctor "regenerates" into a new, different form (actor) with its own quirks and eccentricities, but roughly the same person.

Companions: In order to give us a lens into the world of the Doctor, and to act as the more human foil to his eccentric, alien ways, the Doctor travels with (usually human) companions.

So here's my suggestion. Step one, create a Doctor-figure. If you're not using the Doctor Who canon, but rather making a DW-esque setting, make him some sort of time-and-space-traveling sage. (I will refer to him as the Doctor for convenience.)

Have each player play a Companion. Have them submit a backstory of who their Companion is, how they met the Doctor, and a handful of their adventures. Advise them that their encounter should be like a Christmas episode. (Trivia: Christmas episodes tend to be stand-alone adventures, and often introduce a new character who is rarely used again.) In other words, they met the Doctor, had a brief but wonderful adventure with him, it changed their lives, and they went home. For bonus points, some of your players may collaborate and have been Companions at the same time - the Doctor has been known to take several at once. And because he goes through different Regenerations, it's possible that different Companions traveled with different versions of the Doctor. So discrepancies between backstories are fine.

Now, your plot: the Doctor is missing. The Companions have each, somehow, discovered that the Doctor is missing, and must use their individual skills - along with what they know from their experiences with the Doctor - to find out what happened.

Human or similar would be the preferred race for PCs. Elves and Dwarves are okay, but the more monstrous races should generally be avoided. (The Doctor has traveled with non-humans on occasion, but it is rare.) Non-core races may be encountered, some will be civil, some will be hostile. If a race has encountered the Doctor before, they will remember it, unless there is an explicit reason to have forgotten it. The Doctor tends to have an impact on everyone.

Races to encounter:
- A race of overweight, indolent, high-tech (or -magic) beings who use their advanced tech (or magic) to serve their every need.
- A race of mercantile beings who care almost exclusively about money, and can provide any service or good for the right price.
- At least two militaristic races with visions of racial supremacy - one that is stubborn and hierarchical, but honorable, and one that is violent, demented and nihilistic.
- A race of sagely beings who seem to have a deeper insight into the universe, but will only reveal information to trusted persons, and only when the time is right.
- At least two massively powerful beings bent on annihilation or domination - one that is insane, destructive, and violent, and one that is cunning and misanthropic. Neither is the BBEG.
- At least one villain who is extremely cunning, but not exceptionally powerful or imposing. He is constantly one step ahead of the PCs, and has a personal vendetta against the Doctor. However, he also seems to be searching for the Doctor. He is the obvious choice for BBEG. But it may suddenly be revealed that he isn't. Unless he subsequently proves to be. He's slippery like that.

[Phelix-Mu]

Beware the temptation to use complicated time travel loops and causality stuff as plot points. These are really interesting and mind-blowing to watch in a show, but, from personal experience, I know that playing a character and/or being DM during any kind of complicated time travel plot can be maddening. Where are these time lines that shouldn't be crossed, what kind of history can be rewritten and with what consequence, are there any rules, can I accidentally erase myself from existence, are among the least sticky of the questions that inevitably get raised.

In short, the episodic, isolated Dr Who stuff is fine, and even excellent, fodder for isolated missions. But don't try to use extensive time travel mechanics to link together complicated events that are occurring out of order without having an actual rule set to support how that works. Or, at least don't try it without a large bottle of extra-strength aspirin at the table.

[Red Fel]

Beware the temptation to use complicated time travel loops and causality stuff as plot points. These are really interesting and mind-blowing to watch in a show, but, from personal experience, I know that playing a character and/or being DM during any kind of complicated time travel plot can be maddening. Where are these time lines that shouldn't be crossed, what kind of history can be rewritten and with what consequence, are there any rules, can I accidentally erase myself from existence, are among the least sticky of the questions that inevitably get raised.

In short, the episodic, isolated Dr Who stuff is fine, and even excellent, fodder for isolated missions. But don't try to use extensive time travel mechanics to link together complicated events that are occurring out of order without having an actual rule set to support how that works. Or, at least don't try it without a large bottle of extra-strength aspirin at the table.

Agreeing with this.

But as others have pointed out, a substantial part of the show is less about when they go, and more about where. You can easily give the protagonists the equivalent of a Rope Trick or Magnificent Mansion or something similar (can be opened only by the PCs, bigger on the inside, etc.) that allows them to change the location of the entrance, in effect allowing worldwide (or interplanetary/interplanar) travel. You could even add an element of randomness to it - perhaps the PCs don't know how to operate the controls, and must succeed on a skill check or wind up someplace else. Or perhaps the vehicle/demiplane itself is semi-sentient, and chooses its own destinations, intending the PCs to find, learn, or fix something at each location. (Although that smacks of railroading.)

But yeah. Avoid the time-travel if possible, and work on the regular three Relative Dimensions In Space.

[Petrocorus]

The Doctor is never well defined. His background is largely supposition, only one person in the universe knows his name, his motives are never obvious.


Fixed it for you know who.

[Red Fel]

Fixed it for you know who.

Shh. Spoilers.

[Eldan]

I prefer the later explanation. His given name is of no bloody importance whatsoever.

[Petrocorus]

The Doctor himself is probably an Outsider with slightly above human physical hability, very good charisma and tremendously huge Intelligence.
He probably has Artificer level, but need a focus to use his infusion, namely a sonic srewdiver.
He has two hearts, some time-space related intuition and the aforementionned hability to regerenate.




Now, your plot: the Doctor is missing. The Companions have each, somehow, discovered that the Doctor is missing, and must use their individual skills - along with what they know from their experiences with the Doctor - to find out what happened.


That's good, IMHO.



Human or similar would be the preferred race for PCs. Elves and Dwarves are okay, but the more monstrous races should generally be avoided. (The Doctor has traveled with non-humans on occasion, but it is rare.) Non-core races may be encountered, some will be civil, some will be hostile. If a race has encountered the Doctor before, they will remember it, unless there is an explicit reason to have forgotten it. The Doctor tends to have an impact on everyone.


Actually, any humans variation could fit, they could represent human from distant future, or far space colony. So, Elan, Synads, Skulk, Kalashtar, Changeling, etc...
Same for elves.


Races to encounter:
- A race of sagely beings who seem to have a deeper insight into the universe, but will only reveal information to trusted persons, and only when the time is right.
- At least two massively powerful beings bent on annihilation or domination - one that is insane, destructive, and violent, and one that is cunning and misanthropic. Neither is the BBEG.

I don't get these three? Could you name them?

Magnificent Mansion or something similar (can be opened only by the PCs, bigger on the inside, etc.) that allows them to change the location of the entrance, in effect allowing worldwide (or interplanetary/interplanar) travel. ...... Or perhaps the vehicle/demiplane itself is semi-sentient, and chooses its own destinations, intending the PCs to find, learn, or fix something at each location. (Although that smacks of railroading.)

Totally second this.



But yeah. Avoid the time-travel if possible, and work on the regular three Relative Dimensions In Space.

You mean Three hAbitual Regular Dimension In Space?

[Red Fel]

The Doctor himself is probably an Outsider with slightly above human physical hability, very good charisma and tremendously huge Intelligence.
He probably has Artificer level, but need a focus to use his infusion, namely a sonic srewdiver.
He has two hearts, some time-space related intuition and the aforementionned hability to regerenate.

Factotums. Factotums everywhere.


Actually, any humans variation could fit, they could represent human from distant future, or far space colony. So, Elan, Synads, Skulk, Kalashtar, Changeling, etc...
Same for elves.

Agreed. Point is, PC-races should be very human-like, while NPCs can be anything. Be sure to juxtapose - the more human-like a character appears, the more monstrous they tend to be (a lot of episode villains are, in fact, human) and vice-versa.


I don't get these three? Could you name them?

I was just coming up with random tropes, but technically, a recent example of the sage-race could be the Ood. With regard to powerful baddies who aren't the BBEG, there are always one-offs, like that Black Hole Satan creature thing, or the werewolf-alien, or that guy who was divided into a dozen versions of himself scattered across time, and so forth. Whereas most episodes have taken the form of discovery/investigation/exposure of human failings and human decency, some have taken the form of a race against time, or a powerful entity issuing an ultimatum, and so forth. The thing to remember is that these powerful entities are almost never story arc villains, although there are some exceptions. Fenric, for example, was a major recurring villain and a being of unspeakable power. But usually, the massive powerhouse monstrosities are one-shot villains, and the cunning plotters last longer.


You mean Three hAbitual Regular Dimension In Space?

Yes. Yes forever.

[Petrocorus]

Agreed. Point is, PC-races should be very human-like, while NPCs can be anything. Be sure to juxtapose - the more human-like a character appears, the more monstrous they tend to be (a lot of episode villains are, in fact, human) and vice-versa.


And now i want to play this campaign!

Edit: I forgot the Catfolk. Catfolk everywhere.

[Phelix-Mu]

Also, avoid the adult children of the main character's contemporary friends having time travel and coming back to be love interests of the party members. That will cause some headaches, and no small amount of awkwardness. :smalltongue:

Moreover, the old style series, and to a lesser extent the new stuff, had primarily only the Doctor and his companions being capable of time travel. In the abstract, there are other TARDISes out there, but they rarely entered into the plot, and other forms of time travel were almost non-existent (daleks eventually got the shiny, too).

Things become stupidly complicated in a hurry once two independent individuals or groups can migrate through the time stream independently, and Doctor Who only skirts around the edges of how individual manipulations of the time stream interact or fail to interact (and the show doesn't have a "canon" in the sense of how that stuff works...it's almost always whatever serves the current drama).

So, keep it to one time machine, and give it some trait that will keep enterprising characters from making one for themselves (like Divine Rank zero...which is actually still probably low-balling the powers of the TARDIS).

[Joe the Rat]

Unless they really want to travel with The Doctor, or they are happy with one person playing Artificer//Factotum, while everyone else is stuck with Scouts and Healers and Samurai, you might want to try this without The Doctor at all. You have the various winks and nods, you move around to various plots, and things get all wibbly-wobbly, but you just do it with an eccentric party. In essence, try taking The Doctor, and spreading him out over the party. You need a know-it-all, you need a master of magibabble and reversing the polarity of the anti-magic field, you need a big damn hero, you need a trouble-finder/magnet. You need someone who's lived a long, long time, you need a wacky whimsical dude, you need a major snarker, and an everyman that can cut through the chase. You can make a party with the functional effectiveness of The Doctor + Companions, without putting all the competence on one player - or worse, a DMPC.

Admittedly, this is a bit like taking DW replacing the cast with Torchwood...

If you keep the themes and feel, this should play a bit more like Diplomancers & Daredevils than Dungeons & Dragons. Lots of talky thinky problem solving (with a lot of running) rather than hit point reduction. But I will say that sometimes it can be a hoot to go into a social game with a combat-oriented character. Leela mellowed, but was always ready to knife the problem. A Strax character, with a little moderation, could be quite entertaining. Heh. Laser monkeys.


But as others have pointed out, a substantial part of the show is less about when they go, and more about where. You can easily give the protagonists the equivalent of a Rope Trick or Magnificent Mansion or something similar (can be opened only by the PCs, bigger on the inside, etc.) that allows them to change the location of the entrance, in effect allowing worldwide (or interplanetary/interplanar) travel. You could even add an element of randomness to it - perhaps the PCs don't know how to operate the controls, and must succeed on a skill check or wind up someplace else. Or perhaps the vehicle/demiplane itself is semi-sentient, and chooses its own destinations, intending the PCs to find, learn, or fix something at each location. (Although that smacks of railroading.)

A little more on the TARDIS:
Red Fel has the essence of it. As Time Travel Shenanigans are a rarely used in stories, A Plane-shifting mini Instant Fortress with a dodgy Glamer enchantment and a Magnificent Mansion for the interior would cover almost everything you'd need. It is nigh - but not entirely - indestructible. Possibly an Artifact. Intelligent, empathic, and a massive Ego score. Rather than where you want to go, it takes you to where you need to be.

Languages are a rare issue, as the TARDIS has a Translation Matrix - Comprehend Languages for anyone hanging out with The Doctor. This will save time unless you want to keep the need for language proficiency.

Striking the balance between railroad and plot hook is key here, but they are signing up for getting tossed plot to plot around the multiverse in what looks like a portable gaol. So long as you have a Problem That Needs Solved AND a Way For The PCs To Get In Trouble at each stop, you should be golden.

Sticking to D&D Cosmology, this screams Planescape. That also explains why everyone has one of the British Accents. If you prefer a more cosmos-traveller (and maybe time) approach, then you are looking at something rather Spelljammer like. Hmmm... Anyone want to merge the Spelljammer with the plot of The Beast Below? With four editions of history, you could get the sort of past/future feel by changing eras in published settings. You could easily drop into Krynn (Dragonlance) and nudge the tightly railed storyline one way or another. The modules have little for motivation, but it might make sense to be dropping in, and making sure things Happen As They Should. Also, Raistilin's plot is a classic as far as Doctor Who villains go.

[Phelix-Mu]

You could easily drop into Krynn (Dragonlance) and nudge the tightly railed storyline one way or another.... Also, Raistilin's plot is a classic as far as Doctor Who villains go.

OMG *races everyone to the time machine* We CAN rewrite history! And not in the two-bit hack way that goes down in the "X of the Twins" novels. I mean rescue this awesome Dragonlance setting from descending into a pool of weirdness! I'M A GODDAMN TIME LORD!

:smallwink:

[Red Fel]

OMG *races everyone to the time machine* We CAN rewrite history! And not in the two-bit hack way that goes down in the "X of the Twins" novels. I mean rescue this awesome Dragonlance setting from descending into a pool of weirdness! I'M A GODDAMN TIME LORD!

:smallwink:

Fixed point in time. I'm so, so sorry.

Back on point, Joe's got the right of it. With the exception of one Doctor (Venusian martial arts? Really?) and one, er, sort-of-Doctor, the character has always been about diplomacy and detective work. And while some of his Companions have had a violent or savage bent, that generally doesn't equip an otherwise mundane human (we're not counting Romana) to go sword-to-blaster with an advanced, militaristic alien race. So action sequences tended to revolve around running, not fighting.

Avoid using the Doctor; you'll be railroading the players enough if you stay true to genre.

Even if you don't go extraplanar with this (although Joe is right, Planescape's a nice fit), your characters can easily travel the world, and in style I might add. Consider what you want the exterior of your Magnificent Mansion to look like - something small, humble, but visible.

And oh my goodness Strax. Strax as a Kuo-Toa perhaps?

[Drachasor]

Arguably all of the Doctor's physical stats are over 20, though he's subtle with his physical stats, when they come up it almost always indicates they are beyond human capabilities. His mental stats are going to be pretty insane. In D&D terms I think we're talking a minimum of 30 and more likely in the 40s or 50s or higher.

The Doctor's main MO is getting villains to destroy themselves by messing around with their equipment or doing some other clever trick. This is probably the hardest thing to do in a D&D setting. Magic items, for instance, don't have mechanics to mess around with so that you can have them backfire.

Well, it can also be difficult to model disabling enemies without killing them or using direct attacks. In D&D terms he's almost undoubtedly Epic, but he'd probably require a custom class or stat block.

Assuming you want to avoid the worst aspects of DMPCs, I say it is better to not have the Doctor.

Beyond that, I think you can remodel some existing D&D creatures as Doctor Who-like villains. Beholders as Daleks, for instance.

[Osiris]

Factotums. Factotums everywhere

Perfect! The doctor is a factotum with some regen ability and either UMD (wand of Knock with various other powers) or Item Familiat on the screwdriver.

Give him the quick trait- he runs away a LOT.

Daleks are like man-sized salt-shakers with robot eyes and arms of extermination. They EXXTERRMINAATTEE! It's what they do. They're run by Davros, the creator of the Daleks.

There's other mobs, but there is a doppelganger-like one which is a pusillanimous man-sized red slug which can change form. They're also "surprisingly good kissers." They're seen in that Doctor Who special thingy.

Hope this helps.

[Petrocorus]

Arguably all of the Doctor's physical stats are over 20, though he's subtle with his physical stats, when they come up it almost always indicates they are beyond human capabilities. His mental stats are going to be pretty insane. In D&D terms I think we're talking a minimum of 30 and more likely in the 40s or 50s or higher.

Honestly, when you ear many of the other Time Lords speaking (like in the last Christmas special of Ten), you'd think they have a racial malus to Wis.
The Charisma must be in the high 20
The Int, yes, probably about 50s.
And some kind of Eidetic memory.




Beyond that, I think you can remodel some existing D&D creatures as Doctor Who-like villains. Beholders as Daleks, for instance.

[Phelix-Mu]

Fixed point in time. I'm so, so sorry.


But...but...but, I'm a Time Lord! I can fix this, save Raistlin, save everyone. No one has to die!

*tries to change history, Raistlin commits suicide*

SONUVABITCH....

...wait...

That's why Raistlin died! The Doctor tried to go back and save him even though it was a fixed point in time. Now the plot suddenly makes sense.

[Drachasor]

Honestly, when you ear many of the other Time Lords speaking (like in the last Christmas special of Ten), you'd think they have a racial malus to Wis.
The Charisma must be in the high 20
The Int, yes, probably about 50s.
And some kind of Eidetic memory.

I suppose you could give them something like a +10 or more bonus to Will Saves instead. Time Lords have very formidable minds. I suppose if the Doctor is high enough in level with enough ranks in Spot, Search, and Listen then that would work.

I could see high 20s Charisma if he can use his intelligence for Use Magic Device (assuming we're treating that as jiggery-pokery).

Hmm, I suppose you could model Time Lords as a species that's Divine Rank 0.

[Phelix-Mu]

Hmm, I suppose you could model Time Lords as a species that's Divine Rank 0.

The more interesting stuff is that not all Gallifreyans seem to be Time Lords (this is clearer in the old series, but it seems to have some backing in NuWho as well). More accurately, a certain elite subset of Gallifreyans are put through special training and rituals that seem to imbue them with certain abilities beyond those of the rest of their species. So maybe this process imbues them with a divine ranking.

Even more interesting are a group of Time Lords/Gallifreyans that have forsaken technology and creature comforts and moved into the wild parts of Gallifrey, behavior that is unthinkable to many of the "civilized" Time Lords. (See The Invasion of Time episode, 4th Doctor.)

[Petrocorus]

I suppose you could give them something like a +10 or more bonus to Will Saves instead. Time Lords have very formidable minds. I suppose if the Doctor is high enough in level with enough ranks in Spot, Search, and Listen then that would work.

I could see high 20s Charisma if he can use his intelligence for Use Magic Device (assuming we're treating that as jiggery-pokery).

Hmm, I suppose you could model Time Lords as a species that's Divine Rank 0.

They probably have some kind of timey-whimey racial features that let them use Int for plenty of things. UMD notably. And yes, surely some huge bonus to Will. And some to fort too. And something related to the two heart, helping them not getting tired easily.

[Drachasor]

The more interesting stuff is that not all Gallifreyans seem to be Time Lords (this is clearer in the old series, but it seems to have some backing in NuWho as well). More accurately, a certain elite subset of Gallifreyans are put through special training and rituals that seem to imbue them with certain abilities beyond those of the rest of their species. So maybe this process imbues them with a divine ranking.

Even more interesting are a group of Time Lords/Gallifreyans that have forsaken technology and creature comforts and moved into the wild parts of Gallifrey, behavior that is unthinkable to many of the "civilized" Time Lords. (See The Invasion of Time episode, 4th Doctor.)

True. It gets complicated quickly.

Fast Healing, high wisdom or bonus to will saves, high intelligence, decent charisma, and above average physical scores (probably 20+ constitution at the very least) are obvious enough.

Dealing with the time senses is harder. One could make a good argument that a permanent Foresight for all Time Lords makes sense (perhaps foresight that gives them information on everything around them)*. It's not perfect, but the show isn't perfectly consistent either. Though we'd still need to figure out a way to deal with precise timing (like the Doctor does as a human in Family of Blood**). Temporal senses beyond that are vague enough to not need strict mechanics beyond a line or two commenting on fixed points and so forth.

Then figuring out how to have Time Lords treat magic as technology is a major issue. Some mechanic to change targets, reverse effects, and many similar things is necessary. This is sharply limited by the fact D&D wasn't designed to really treat magic as technology.

*Potentially this Area of Foresight can be blocked or diminished by other Time Lords.

**Complicated by the fact he's a human of course. But it seems this is sort of thing is something Time Lords are good at in general.

[Phelix-Mu]

The best ways to replicate some of their Time Lord schtick without tacking on massive LA is probably to stick to low-level psi-like abilities that provide buffs, like defensive precog and the like. This can be said to deal with seeing in time, but that is largely fluff; any game mechanic that involved actually knowing about future events (aside from events already established by the plot of a campaign) would be rather complicated and involve huge amounts of the DM retconning in stuff when the Time Lord makes Knowledge(history) checks about the future.

There's other stuff that probably should just be ignored wholesale: radiation resistance, energy redistribution, poison immunity, precise cardiovascular control (including partial or total voluntary shut downs), hypnotism, telepathy ritual, and more besides.

[Captnq]

I wrote this up once. Lets see... where is that?

The Dramatic Time Travel System:

Rule 1: Time moves forward at all points in time.
There are several time periods that seems easier to reach then others. From the point of view of the individual observer, they are all moving forward in time. A day spent in the present, generally results in a day in the past. Thus when someone goes back in time to change things, you have time to go back and stop them.

Rule 2: The same being cannot exist in two places at the same time.
You can't go back and meet yourself. If you try, you are shunted forward in time to the point where there would be only one of you. You don't travel through space, only time. Thus if you screw up, it is possible to be shunted forward past the point of your own death. You cannot fool time by transforming yourself into something else, or existing only as thought or energy. Time knows and you are displaced to a point where there is no longer a conflict. For unknown reasons, this doesn't seem to apply if you are reincarnated.

Rule 3: Some things cannot change
Some things simple do not change regardless of what happens in time. Certain individuals are simply fixed and the universe changes around them. Some events simply will always be a certain way. They can only be changed in their relative present time, whenever that might be. Player characters are always fixed and no amount of mucking about in time will ever change them, for good or for bad.
In fact, it is possible to go back, Kill someone who's fixed as a baby, then return to the present to find them still alive. While the rest of the world believes they were dead and continued on as such, in the present, the target is still very much alive. It is only possible to end their lives in their 'present.' Whatever point in time that might be.

Rule 4: Changes happen going forward.
Things from the present that travel into the past as the past changes, are immune to those changes and remain unchanged if they return to the future,

Rule 5: Changes require a breaking point.
Simply going back in time and stepping on a butterfly or bumping someone on the street will almost never have far reaching effects on the flow of time. These minor changes are simply ignored as time flows over them. Before any major change is possible the breaking point must be determined. Stopping a treaty isn't always shooting the king making it, sometimes it's changing an event that happened six years previously that set the chain of events into motion that resulted in the treaty. The treaty itself may be the inescapable conclusion of previous events and thus is highly resistant to change.

Rule 6: Paradoxes resolve themselves.
If time doesn't reach a breaking point, it finds a way to reach the same results. For example, if you travel back in time and kill your grandfather before he meets your grandmother, then return to the future, you will find that you were never born, but someone a lot like you with the same attitude and outlook was born who did all the things you would have done, had you been alive. Usually when this sort of thing happens, your replacement seems to invariably hate you and wish to see you dead. Which brings us to the final rule…

Rule 7: Time doesn't like you.
Attempting to change time and alter events seems to result in random chance and events going against you. Time resists deliberate change. However, accidental or unintentional change seems to be just fine. Traveling between ages without having an agenda seems to lessen the resistance of time. Going somewhere to participate in the age without trying to make the age something it's not seems to allow the traveler more leeway. Someone trying to deliberately kill a king because of the future actions he will take is often thwarted by chance events, even to the point of being randomly shunted to another time. But someone who has no knowledge of future events from another time who tries to kill the same king for his gold, may find it goes rather easily.
For reasons unknown, intent and purpose seems to have far more influence about changes to the timeline then the results.

Why Use Time Travel?

Time travel as defined here is Dramatic Time Travel. DTT differs from regular time travel in that we really don't try to pigeonhole time travel and force DMs to make elaborate and complex maps and charts of the changes that Time Travel causes. We don't want to get caught up in explaining how you can travel through time, adventure, kill a few dozen monsters, and then return to an unchanged future. Time travel should be an adventure, not a lesson in quantum mechanics.

Because we use DTT, we can have multiple different settings all on the same world that the players can interact with and not cause massive headaches when you switch backdrops. With DTT you can have the players adventure in a city for a while, then travel back to become responsible for founding the city. When they try to return, they may find themselves far in the future being hailed as the returning heroes of old.



That's Time Travel in the Dr. Who universe in a nutshell. Paraphrased for d20.

[Joe the Rat]

And oh my goodness Strax. Strax as a Kuo-Toa perhaps?

I was thinking some sort of weird Dwarf variant. Take away the hair, and you're 80% there.

[Drachasor]

The best ways to replicate some of their Time Lord schtick without tacking on massive LA is probably to stick to low-level psi-like abilities that provide buffs, like defensive precog and the like. This can be said to deal with seeing in time, but that is largely fluff; any game mechanic that involved actually knowing about future events (aside from events already established by the plot of a campaign) would be rather complicated and involve huge amounts of the DM retconning in stuff when the Time Lord makes Knowledge(history) checks about the future.

There's other stuff that probably should just be ignored wholesale: radiation resistance, energy redistribution, poison immunity, precise cardiovascular control (including partial or total voluntary shut downs), hypnotism, telepathy ritual, and more besides.

If you really ignore all of that, then you don't have a Time Lord, imho. At the very least, the telepathic powers are a must.

[Phelix-Mu]

If you really ignore all of that, then you don't have a Time Lord, imho. At the very least, the telepathic powers are a must.

But it's clearly not constant-effect telepathy, but more of an ability to communicate complicated past events with people he touches. The low-level telepathic field created by the TARDIS is totally different, and they really do not consistently show Time Lords as having any kind of telepathy as it exists in the game. Maybe 1/day mindlink? But the Doctor's ability is actually not terribly useful from a game standpoint, certainly not as good as standard telepathy.

The problem with the energy redistribution is that it would be very hard to model. Maybe simple resistance 5 against all but sonic. No idea, but several times we see that it is much, much more powerful than this.

He's practically immune to most poisons. The Caves of Andrizani was a special case, as he was already in bad shape, exposed once, and then exposed again at length while suffering from prolonged oxygen deprivation. A simple +5 to saves against poisons is probably sufficient.

Radiation doesn't exist in-game, and probably can just be rolled into the energy redistribution.

Cardiovascular control is hard to pin down. Maybe we just extend his ability to go without air (multiply the normal figure by ten to model exceptional efficiency or something). Feign death as an Ex 1/day, I suppose.

I tried to develop an Ex hypnotism concept a while ago, but it got awfully complicated in a hurry. In some of the earlier generations, he's shown to be almost as good as the Master at hypnotism (which is extremely creepy, as the Master has some mad skillz in this area).

I suppose the energy resistance here is the only thing that really adds LA, but we are already stacking this on top of racial adjustments that are approaching illithid levels of positive adjustment bias. If you can't keep Time Lords under +5LA, they are pretty uncool, which seems counterproductive.

I'd go for modeling more of their stuff with class levels. I don't think any Time Lord portrayed in the show has been anything less than Expert 8-10, and those that figure into the government of Gallifrey probably have much greater powers than that. The exemplars of the race, like Rassilon and Omegar, they have some pretty mad powers at their command; stellar engineering is a pretty insanely powerful thing. Omegar was, if I remember correctly, executed in a Time Lord ritual designed to deny future regeneration, which seemed akin to atomization, and he survived, albeit in a crippled shadow form in a pocket dimension. Same with Morbius. They are quintessentially "hard-to-kill", and a lesser form of that is common to pretty much all Time Lords.

Lol...just remembering the one episode where the Doctor basically shows off an ability similar to a mundane version of schism, or some manner of empty mind, throughout a number of hours, while under close scrutiny by telepathic enemies. Hehe. The Invasion of Time is a great episode, for anyone interested in the old series.