Dr. Who by G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T.

The Third Doctor in hand-to-wisk combat with a Dalek. He had invented something that stunned the Daleks and set their Save roll to 2.
The Third Doctor in hand-to-whisk combat with a Dalek. He had invented something that stunned the Daleks and set their Save roll to 2.

In addition to my Captain America GASLIGHT game, I also ran a Dr. Who game at Origins.   WARNING: If you are a Doctor Who purist, you may be offended by this scenario!  I combined many of my favorite characters to create a scenario that was fun, interesting, and exciting.

Other than Christopher Eccelston, my favorite doctor is John Pertwee, the Third Doctor.  My favorite companion is Elizabeth Shaw, a professor and scientist who only grudgingly gets involved with UNIT and the Doctor.  I like her becuase — aside from tremendous legs — she can go toe-to-toe with the doctor and actually contributes to the solution of his dilemmas.  So far, so good, but I also added K-9 and Romana I (from the Fourth Doctor), because I like them.   How dare I?!

Getting started
Getting started
The scenario was based on the Pertwee series, The Green Death, but I used Elizabeth Shaw instead of the largely useless Jo Grant.  In this scenario, Global Chemicals, whose head has been hypnotized by the BOSS (a computer) has created mutant worms through the polution they create from their new process.  As the scenario begins, Global Chemicals guards must keep everyone away from the worms — they are trying to avoid scandal.  The home guard, led by Lieutenant Lethbridge-Stewart is trying to destroy the worms, because they are dangerous.  The Doctor, Romana, and Elizabeth are trying to protect this new life form.  Meanwhile, townspeople are protesting outside the gates of Global Chemicals; so the guards are bludgeoning them, dragging them through the gate, and letting BOSS hypnotize them.  By the end of the game, the BOSS and the Global Chemicals guards had a sizable force of “zombies” that they used as human shields as they blazed away at the home guardsmen.  As the scenario unfolded, however, it was discovered that the worms poop Jethric, which we know from The Ribos Operation, is a very rare and valuable substance.  At that moment, Sontarans and Daleks landed to capture some Jethrick-producting worms.  Objectives changed; now the Doctor and his friends began working with the home guard to destroy the worms, rather than letting them fall into the hands of the evil Sontarans or Daleks.
In this picture you can see the Sontaran drop ships as well as the Global Chemicals compound
In this picture you can see the Sontaran drop ships as well as the Global Chemicals compound.

The changing objectives worked well, because the players didn’t seem to mind.  At this point, Romana, the Doctor, and Liz were busy trying to invent things to help fight off the two sets of invaders.  Lieutent Lethbridge -Stewart mistakenly identified the Sontarans as “Jerry Paratroopers” and led a hell-for-leather assault on them, backed up by a Churchill tank.  By the end of the game, Stewart was unconcious, the tank was knocked out, and most of his men were killed.  There was even a brief exchange between the Daleks and the Sontarans, resulting in half the Sontarns failing morale, dragging a bit of Jethrick into a shuttle, and blasting off for orbit.

 
Romana invented a force field, which was fortunate.  She had been attacked and bitten by one of the radioactive worms and only had a few turns to make it to the TARDIS or she would die.  The force field allowed her to slip past the Daleks and make it to the TARDIS in time to save herself — just in the nick of time.  The Doctor invented a device that reduced the Daleks’ Scuffle number to 2.  This was handy, because Liz invented a device that gave her a Save Roll Modifier of +5 against Daleks.   While K-9 was busy trying to kill worms, the Doctor and Liz teamed up to defeat two Daleks in hand-to-whisk combat.
A wide veiw of the table prior to the action commencing
A wide veiw of the table prior to the action commencing

The game was fun, and the players were fun — particularly the player who controlled Lethbridge-Stewart.  Sometimes players have fun, but they aren’t fun to GM.  For this game, I had a great group who really seemed to enjoy the game.  Interestingly, there was someone in the game (six of six who pre-registered for the game showed up) who wasn’t at all familiar with the stories, but he seemed to have fun as well. 

The fate of those who mix Doctors with the wrong companions in their games
The fate of those who mix Doctors with the wrong companions in their games — Exterminate!  Exterminate!

Both Friday and Saturday nights we went back to our rooms at the end of the nigth and watched a couple of Tom Baker Doctor Who episodes.