Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Armchair Review: The Time Traveller's Companion

If there's one sourcebook you should get for your Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space (DWAITAS for short) RPG to really play in the mythology of the Whoniverse, it's DWAITAS: The Time Traveller's Companion.

The title might mislead you into thinking it's about companions -- no, it's really about being a time traveller in the universe of Doctor Who.

It tackles the history of the universe from the point of view of the Gallifreyans, sheds some light on how the Daleks first resolved to take out their planet and race in a Time War, explains the social and political classes of the Time Lord world, and why they initially came up with their non-intervention stance.

Rassilon -- who created the Rassilon Imprimatur -- facing down the
Doctor as he tries to break Gallifrey out of the time lock.
The book also gives a lot of options in playing people from Gallifrey beyond a single racial package -- there are options based on caste, and role in society. There's also a section on the different types of TARDISes available to renegade Time Lords who may or may not be working for the Celestial Intervention Agency (CIA), a shadowy organization that is historically significant to both the Doctor, and to all of Gallifrey.

There's a great amount of explanation and recapping of the temporal mechanics that have arisen in the course of the 50 year old TV series, and a respectable set of adventure ideas that arise out of those mind-twisting possibilities. There are weapons, gear, and feared artifacts from the luminaries of Gallifrey, and a joyous celebration of the many NPCs from that planet that have appeared in the show.

To top it all off, there's a TARDIS sheet that will help you understand how to craft your own TARDIS, and pilot it based on the control panel -- and what happens when key items are damaged or destroyed while travelling!

Pick it up if you're serious about a time & space romp campaign!

4 comments:

  1. I need.to jump on this Dr. Who stuff.

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  2. What part of it draws you in? There's a lot of material out there (canon, apocryphal) on a lot of media (TV, audio, books, comics). And some of it really seems to come from that baroque SF feel.

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  3. I really liked this product, and am enjoying the releases for the commemorative RPG sourcebooks on the successive Doctors. Eagerly awaiting the Pertwee book! We're also a fan of the Missing Adventures, New Adventures, and NA novels published from the 90s until the new series began. All the brand and canon management police were on holiday when those books came out.

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  4. The Pertwee book is out already! I did a review on it before.

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That's my side of things. Let me know what you think, my friend.