Quote from: AsenRG;1005603The problem isn't with Dr. Who, IMO, but with players who don't like playing pacifists;).

Didn't the Doctor contemplate smashing a cave man's head with a rock in the very first episode?In Day of the Daleks he kills an Ogron, with a gun. Doctor's 5 and 6 both killed Cybermen with their own weapons, and I recall 6 pushing someone into a vat of chemical something. Doctor 7 once made a magic baseball bat so Ace could whack Daleks with it. He was also known to have said something along the lines of, "Give me some of that Nitro Nine you're not carrying." I met Sylvester McCoy at a convention and even asked him about Nitro Nine and Ace and one of the things he mentioned was that he was adamant that the Ace character be a stand in for when the Doctor needed to do something violent. He said something along the lines of, "In this scene it says The Doctor fires a bazooka and I said to them, 'No, ACE fires the bazooka.' " More recently, The Doctor Conspired against himself and let several incarnations believe that he had committed genocide to his entire species.

Without even naming Leela and River Song, a hunter and a psychopath, as well as the aformentioned Ace, there's many examples of companions resorting to physical force. And he allies himself with UNIT despite their trigger happiness.

The idea which is embedded in the initiative system of the Cubicle7 game is that quick thinking lowers the body count. Doctor Who has never been about stopping the body count, it's about minimizing it. Saving as many people as possible. The Doctor spends a lot of time saving people because he doesn't like to see them die. But remember, if you push his buttons, he will do shit to you that will make you wish he just used a gun.

So certainly you can run a game in the Doctor Who universe without the players knowing anything about that universe. That's the whole reason companions exist, so they can be the viewer's eye to this greater universe, only in an RPG you are cutting out the middle man. Of course players might not be companions. The Universe is big and not everyone solves problems the nice way. For instance, every single episode of Torchwood. You don't even need Timelords or The Doctor. You could have any assortment of characters get together for whatever reason.

In a game like that, yes there is the potential for violence to be the common solution. Lt Rasczak from Starship Troopers is probably right about that. Just ask the Carthaginians. If you have players that would rather find alternative solutions then you should be using a system which reflects that, like DWAITAS. Mostly though, it's The Doctor himself who doesn't like to solve things with violence, and he has supernatural ability to simultaneously impress, flatter, awe, intimidate, frighten and confuse his foes. This is a guy whose stared down Gods. Also, he doesn't want to kill his enemies. He wants them to be better. To act with conscience. Even if he knows he'll fail, because people who can stare down Godlike beings are like that, capable of great acts of compassion.

But the good thing about Doctor Who is, if you don't like compassion you can run a game in that universe just fine without it. You don't have to go around saving people, running around in gravel quarries. You can shoot people. Or swindle them. Or just travel around. Pick an Antagonist. I was able to freak out an entire group of adventurers with one Dalek. Of course it was something like the 1970s, and The Dalek was discovered in a sunken U-boat off the coast of a town in Wales, which mysteriously was not full of water. The PCs were wallking around inside said U-boat. Good times.

I'm sure you could also run a game playing all Canon characters or even multiple Doctors. I've never had problems running games set in the Whoniverse. If you have problems figuring out tone, you can emulate a Scooby-Doo episode and get a similar effect, only Mr Jenkins was actually an alien all along instead of the other way around.

Well, Krimson, you have obviously considered the show much more than me. I know better than to argue with experts;)!

Quote from: AsenRG;1005784Well, Krimson, you have obviously considered the show much more than me. I know better than to argue with experts;)!

It was my main purpose in life during childhood until I discovered D&D. FASA Who was the first non D&D RPG product I ever bought which I never played but did use as source material, usually in AD&D because we put everything in that kitchen sink. I will never have trouble running Doctor Who games. DWAITAS pretty much runs out of the box. If your group doesn't like the initiative system, use something else. I think I own the PDF to Primeval, I should see how they do it since the game uses the same engine.

All of them.

The thing is, our cultural background noise includes enough familiarity with a whole bunch of shit to play a game based on them.

But if somebody had never even heard of the Middle Ages, or fantasy at all, even a simple D&D dungeon crawl would be a baffling mystery.

My first D&D session included my two cousins who were experienced players, myself who was new but an avid fantasy fan, and my mother who was quite bewildered by the whole thing.

There was a time when "orc" was a foreign word for most people. These days I begin conversations about RPGs with "it's like D&D..." even most people who have never played D&D have some idea of what it is.

Good points Dave and Gronan, I think LotR was the big turning point and GoT sealed the deal.

The One Ring--the setting is Tolkien Middle Earth, not reskinned hack and slash battle bros pillage. It is not intended to be a tactical set piece combat emulation and players looking to play the game in a (shudde) Hobbit movie style will be sorely disappointed.

Torchbearer--you are scabs on the poxie underside of humanity, no one likes you, no one wants you and you have managed to fail your way into grubbing around in graveyards and cave diving into nasty subterranean lairs. You will not "win," you will not get the girl, you will not found a kingdom or retire in leisure and comfort to smoke your pipe Rakasa (sp?) style. Life is shit and it is going to get shittier, then you die.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;1005947All of them.

The thing is, our cultural background noise includes enough familiarity with a whole bunch of shit to play a game based on them.

But if somebody had never even heard of the Middle Ages, or fantasy at all, even a simple D&D dungeon crawl would be a baffling mystery.

What do dungeon crawls have to do with the Middle Ages?

Quote from: Dumarest;1005968What do dungeon crawls have to do with the Middle Ages?

"Rules for Medieval Fantastic Wargames Campaigns."  You wear armor and have swords.

I'm talking about somebody who somehow has no idea of even what a "sword" or "dagger" or "shield" is.

The person running this website is a racist who publicly advocates genocidal practices.

I am deleting my content.

I recommend you do the same.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;1005969"Rules for Medieval Fantastic Wargames Campaigns."  You wear armor and have swords.

I'm talking about somebody who somehow has no idea of even what a "sword" or "dagger" or "shield" is.

So: nothing.

Quote from: Ted;1005962Torchbearer--you are scabs on the poxie underside of humanity, no one likes you, no one wants you and you have managed to fail your way into grubbing around in graveyards and cave diving into nasty subterranean lairs. You will not "win," you will not get the girl, you will not found a kingdom or retire in leisure and comfort to smoke your pipe Rakasa (sp?) style. Life is shit and it is going to get shittier, then you die.

Setting familiarity?  There is no setting.  You just have to be a pathetic hipster who wants to ironically mock the unwashed masses who play "gamist" games while pretending because the game has resource rules so ridiculous it's almost Pythonesque that your game is "about something".

About setting familiarity and non-violent solutions.  

I'm all for that.  But my lateral thinking is going to be different from the module writers lateral thinking and the DMs.  I get really tired of guessing games.  Lately I just reach for a bigger gun and shoot 'em again.

Oh you won't talk eh? Ok well I guess your no good to me then.  Too late shit head.  I'm not playing that game. Blam.

Again, I'll repeat myself, I say MOST licensed settings require the players to have some buy-in before they can play.  It's why I pick genres or settings my players know.

Quote from: Headless;1006029About setting familiarity and non-violent solutions.  

I'm all for that.  But my lateral thinking is going to be different from the module writers lateral thinking and the DMs.  I get really tired of guessing games.  Lately I just reach for a bigger gun and shoot 'em again.

Oh you won't talk eh? Ok well I guess your no good to me then.  Too late shit head.  I'm not playing that game. Blam.

In most of my games, that would make you "the guy who screwed the whole party".