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simon cogan
United Kingdom
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Well, here we go into 2012 and since it's the time for New Year's resolutions, why don't I give everyone a resolution right here and now and set out what's going to happen to the game through the year?
My mission statement is, as it's always been, to make a Doctor Who game that truly feels like you're involved in an episode on TV. It lets players explore locations from the TV series and fight against old enemies and yet also allows new adventures with new foes to fight. It also gives players choices to make and a whole 'sandbox' world to build with a background of storytelling and roleplaying. Finally, the rules should give you just enough guidance and depth to allow players to build their adventures without too much constriction and be modular in approach so that new mechanics and sytems can be added for players who want more.
From the generous feedback I've received, it seems this is what the players want too. Certainly, feedback gives me huge guidance in developing the game so if you,as the players, want to see the game going in certain directions, then you only have to ask. If it's a popular choice with other players then that's what we'll get. Building a community around DWSSG was one of the best things I've done with it!
So the schedule for 2012...
Feb - 'Silence Will Fall' - a double expansion featuring all the stories of last season, upto and including 'The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe'.
April - New Dimensions (Season 1) - a weekly series of 13 episodes featuring all new content in each episode from a pool of talented writers and players. Join the adventures and share your own with the community. I can tell you we have new (old) enemies, new places to visit (Feudal Japan anyone...) some celebrity historicals and a brand new Companion to share them with. 'The TARDIS and Jane' premieres the first saturday of April!
June - 'The Time Lords' - the next Classic release allows players to visit Gallifrey and encounter old Enemies such as Omega, the Valeyard and the decayed Master.
July - all New Dimensions material will be collated and released as an expansion
August - 'Storylines II' - a sequel to a very popular epansion, this time featuring all the adventures of the Specials and the Eleventh Doctor.
October - 'The Companion II' - another sequel, and more varied rules and systems to add to games
December - 'Dreams and Fantasies' - the second Classic release of the year with adventures and Enemies featured in the more outlandish Tv episodes - fight the Celestial Toymaker, race for Enlightenemnt, free the Tharils from enslavement, or get trapped in the Land of Fiction.
And between those will be more playaids and cards for more Enemies, Allies and Adventure Locations
Whew!!
And I'm committed, at this time, to doing another year into 2013 and the 50th anniversary.
But enough of the euphoria...this week I've been listening to the Big Finish 'lost story' 'Mission to Magnus' that features the sixth Doctor, Peri, Sil and the Ice Warriors.
And it's crap - I mean, really bad! the niceset thing I can say about it is that it is authentic and would fit into the period neatly with all the other dross from Season 22 and Season 23.
I don't know where to begin to say what's wrong with it. The plotting is silly beyond belief (planet of the dominant women), the dialogue is trite and overly descriptive so that it's like lead on your ears ('look over there, behind the machine in the big cave...', the characters are paper thin and the acting is rubbish from most too - particularly bad is a child actor who has the emotional range of a plank.
I really don't know what Philip Martin was thinking of when he wrote this rubbish. We are meant to believe that a nuclear explosion would blow a planet from orbit, that Sil is there to make a killing on 'woolly jumpers', that you can walk to polar regions of a temperate planet in less than an hour and that another nuclear explosion puts the planet back on it's original orbit so everything is okay. Pardon??Anyone heard of nuclear radiation...?
Episode 1 is virtually an exercise in padding with a Time Lord school bully (an appalling ham actor too!!) and nothing of value happens until the Ice Warriors turn up in Episode 2. This is slightly better, and I have to say that Nick Briggs is quite good value as Ice Lord Vedikael. But not enough...
I really like the Ice Warriors as an enemy which is why I'm giving the story an extra point, making it a grand...2.5/10. Avoid!
Anyone else heard this travesty...? And what do people think of my 2012 plans...?
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