A Time to Change
It seems like only yesterday that the Doctor and Selene were stepping out of the TARDIS and onto the beach at Arrowdown, ready to face an uncertain future and terrors untold. That was “Ghost Town,” the inaugural module in our ongoing campaign based on the Doctor Who Roleplaying Game from Cubicle 7. It launched an unforgettable run of adventures that has taken our players from the battlefields of Roman Britain to the flowering jungles of Vortis to the depths of the Atlantic Ocean in the belly of the Titanic. The Doctor and his companions—the robot Master, Selene, Mohana, and Alison—have toppled madmen and undead gods and alien killing machines. The Daleks and the Divinity came closest to ending their journey, but with carefully chosen traits and a few well-played story points, our heroes triumphed over evil time and again. The Doctor and the TARDIS are eternal. On television and at the gaming table, their story will never end.
That’s important to remember, as change is coming. The Dark Dimension is about to be renewed. The incarnation of the Doctor brought so memorably to life by Richard E Grant in “Scream of the Shalka,” star of our campaign, has dark days ahead as our game narrative is jumping forward to depict his defiant last stand. The time has come for an historic first in our campaign, the first regeneration—and the moment has been prepared for. Players and game masters will be switching roles, and there will be a shake-up in the status quo.
A regeneration is imminent, but that doesn’t mean we’re done telling stories with the Nth Doctor. Though we’ll be introducing the Doctor’s next incarnation and a new take on the ongoing story arc, there will be plenty of opportunities to play out the untold stories of the Nth Doctor’s era in the future. Going forward, the Dark Dimension will feature twice the Doctors. This will expand our ongoing original narrative and add some variety to the proceedings. Ultimately, each player in the campaign will have the opportunity to create their own Doctor. It’s been great fun developing an original take on the mythology of Doctor Who using “Scream of the Shalka” as a starting point. That mythology is going to take on a greater richness and vibrancy as our cast of Doctors begins to expand.
Who is the companion destined to board the TARDIS during its time of peril? Will the Doctor at last break free of the oppressive control of the Time Lords? Can the Master resist his hideous true nature? What is to be the Doctor’s final fate, and what sort of man will emerge from the ashes of his regeneration? Time, and a roll of the 2D6, will tell.
“Ghost Town”
“Ghost Town” (1ND01)
by Alasdair Stuart
Game Master: Adam Player: Brian
Game Date: 23 November 2013
Characters: The Doctor, Selene
Adversaries: The Autons, The Nestene Consciousness
Allies: UNIT Special Operations
Time: 23 November 2013 CE
Space: Norfolk, United Kingdom, Earth
Continuity: The first adventure featuring the Nth Doctor and Selene and the premiere of the campaign.
Available: IN PDF
Synopsis: When the TARDIS unexpectedly lands on England’s coast, Selene is delighted to have the opportunity to walk by the sea and visit an old-fashioned funfair. There may be something to Doctor’s instant disdain for this seedy place, however. The town is deserted, funfair rides have taken on a life of their own, and the beach is soon bustling with ghosts of the past! Something insidious is stirring beneath the bay and the Doctor cannot allow the tragic history of the seaside resort of Arrowdown to fester any longer.
THE VORTEX brought him peace. Selene had observed this ever since she had first stepped inside his astonishing box. He would inevitably find discontent planetside—some quibble or niggle would swell into a lecture on the inelegance of the local architecture or alien cuisine—and ventures into deep space always left him mournfully lamenting the cruel inevitability of entropy and death. In transit, however, there was a freedom that transformed the Doctor and left him blissfully unburdened. With La Traviata echoing throughout the vast chamber of the control room, his voice joining with the tenor’s for the arias, no one could deny it. The familiar wheezing of the central column that had been providing such surprisingly harmonious accompaniment ceased unexpectedly, however, punctuated by an abrupt and unceremonious thwump quite at odds with the Doctor’s playlist.
The Dark Dimension 