It's hard to run Dr.Who effectively even with people who ARE familiar with the show.

Quote from: Krimson;1006218Remember, since Torchwood is canon, Doctor Who can range from light hearted science fiction romantic comedy to ultraviolent grimdark.

The Doctor is what makes Dr. Who as an RPG difficult, because he either becomes a GM PC or it doesn't really follow the style of the show. Do you have to have the Doctor for it to be an RPG in the Doctor Who setting? If the players never go to a (or the) dungeon, isn't it still a D&D setting?

You could do a campaign where the Doctor is always recovering from regeneration (like Castrovalva) and the PC companions have only a vague idea how to run the Tardis. Or the player characters are all murderhobos recruited by the Master to crew a second stolen Tardis and to create trouble across all of time and space, to distract the Doctor from the Master's real plan. Are these still the Doctor Who setting, since they don't seem to require a lot of familiarity from the players?

A campaign in which every player plays one of the Doctors, all on the same Tardis together, might work for an RPG (at least short term), but the players would need a Krimson level of familiarity.

Quote from: RPGPundit;1006937It's hard to run Dr.Who effectively even with people who ARE familiar with the show.

I've run Doctor Who with lots of groups. It's one of the easiest games for me to run.

The current Dr Who game includes notes on playing without the Doctor, having players take turns playing the Doctor, and/or playing with other time travelers, or even no time travel at all.

I would say that Dr Who is similar to pendragon, The One Ring, or Castle Falkenstein in that player buy in to the basic style premise of the thing can make a huge difference in play and in how much the rules fight the players.

I'd assume you both are talking about your personal experiences, which means you might both be right:).

Quote from: DavetheLost;1007233The current Dr Who game includes notes on playing without the Doctor, having players take turns playing the Doctor, and/or playing with other time travelers, or even no time travel at all.

I would say that Dr Who is similar to pendragon, The One Ring, or Castle Falkenstein in that player buy in to the basic style premise of the thing can make a huge difference in play and in how much the rules fight the players.

Precisely.

Quote from: DavetheLost;1007233The current Dr Who game includes notes on playing without the Doctor, having players take turns playing the Doctor, and/or playing with other time travelers, or even no time travel at all.

I would say that Dr Who is similar to pendragon, The One Ring, or Castle Falkenstein in that player buy in to the basic style premise of the thing can make a huge difference in play and in how much the rules fight the players.

Which may be true, but it isn't all that complex to manage in practice.

Quote from: TrippyHippy;1007465Which may be true, but it isn't all that complex to manage in practice.

It's not if the players are familiar, or familiarized by the GM, with Doctor Who.  Without at least some of that going on, they'll be likely to take on the tropes of more standard Sci Fi, which are not the same as the ones used by Doctor Who.

Quote from: RPGPundit;1007668It's not if the players are familiar, or familiarized by the GM, with Doctor Who.  Without at least some of that going on, they'll be likely to take on the tropes of more standard Sci Fi, which are not the same as the ones used by Doctor Who.

Doctor Who is what most people brought up on it regard as a staple of science fiction. It may be a British vs American thing, but to say it's not standard sci-fi is like arguing Star Trek isn't standard sci-fi. For many people, as a popular family show, its their first experience of scifi. You could argue that there is an issue about who plays the Doctor (or not), but that is no different to the issue of who plays Gandalf in Middle Earth games. Moreover, almost every Doctor Who plot is basically just a Monster of the Week or some other form of melodramatic plot.

Doctor Who is a game and genre I could run on the fly with almost zero preparation, it already has strong brand and genre recognition from pretty much every player I've ever ran it with and it's easy to run with the mechanics it has. I really don't see what would be difficult. For me, it's primary use is as an intro game for newbies.

Any campaign where canon knowledge is important to the success of the campaign is going to require players having that canon knowledge.

Quote from: Spinachcat;1007675Any campaign where canon knowledge is important to the success of the campaign is going to require players having that canon knowledge.

But this is the point I made before - it really doesn't. The storylines in Doctor Who are pretty generic sci-fi melodrama. Simply come up with a new monster of the week and you've pretty much got a plot at hand.

Quote from: TrippyHippy;1007680But this is the point I made before - it really doesn't. The storylines in Doctor Who are pretty generic sci-fi melodrama. Simply come up with a new monster of the week and you've pretty much got a plot at hand.

If you are just running generic sci-fi melodrama, then your campaign doesn't hinge on canon knowledge and any players with basic interest in sci-fi will do.

If you are running a campaign where players are expected to know various trivia to operate effectively and immerse in the game world, then you need those players who love the trivia of that setting.

AKA, I am a perfect player for generic sci-fi, but I'm not a good player for a campaign where the GM expects players to know the in & outs of the various Doctors, Companions, Locales, and major villains and references them constantly in a way my PC is supposed to respond intelligently.

AKA, the difference between running LotR for people who've only watched the movies vs. a table of JRRT trivia junkies.

Quote from: Spinachcat;1007681If you are just running generic sci-fi melodrama, then your campaign doesn't hinge on canon knowledge and any players with basic interest in sci-fi will do.

If you are running a campaign where players are expected to know various trivia to operate effectively and immerse in the game world, then you need those players who love the trivia of that setting.

AKA, I am a perfect player for generic sci-fi, but I'm not a good player for a campaign where the GM expects players to know the in & outs of the various Doctors, Companions, Locales, and major villains and references them constantly in a way my PC is supposed to respond intelligently.

AKA, the difference between running LotR for people who've only watched the movies vs. a table of JRRT trivia junkies.

If you sat down for a game with Moffat and co, who actually write the shows, I would guarantee you'd be able to get by without knowledge of the canon. Just like the millions of casual viewers who watch the TV show, in fact.

Quote from: TrippyHippy;1007684If you sat down for a game with Moffat and co, who actually write the shows, I would guarantee you'd be able to get by without knowledge of the canon. Just like the millions of casual viewers who watch the TV show, in fact.

Agree but Dr. Who is pretty cult viewing in the US and Canada in my experience. Unless someone caught it when it played on PBS when they were kids even a number of sf fans don't know more than the Daleks and 'Exterminate!' It is a series that I completely missed for example, although I grew up on The Prisoner or The Avengers.

Dr Who has time travel.  Its not standard Sci Fi.  Its standard bullshit.