The Fourth Doctor

With the publication of The Fourth Doctor Sourcebook, Cubicle Seven Entertainment’s celebration of Doctor Who’s fiftieth anniversary reaches the most consistently popular Doctor of the Classic Era, the Doctor with the most stories, and the Doctor whose era came to define Doctor Who in the minds of the public at large. Thus The Fourth Doctor Sourcebook  for the Ennie-award winning Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game has a lot of ground to cover, a lot to live up to, and a challenge to overcome. It is certainly no surprise that this is the biggest in the series to date—at some two-hundred-and-fifty-six pages—as it sets out to detail and explore the adventures of the most whimsical and mercurial of Doctors. Adventures that would see him once again return to being a wanderer in time and space, see him go back in time to confront the origins of the greatest threat to the universe, see him face his old enemy again and again, and return home to rescue his people, not once, but twice.

The era of the Fourth Doctor really begins with The Ark in Space—the story Robot really being a swansong for the Third Doctor and a sign of the Fourth Doctor’s disdain for the constraints placed upon him during his exile. Where the Third Doctor and thus The Third Doctor Sourcebook looked backwards, the Fourth Doctor and thus The Fourth Doctor Sourcebook looks very much forward, travelling into the near and far future again and again right up until the mathematical foundations are threatened by the Master in Logopolis. In doing so it would draw upon classic story after classic story for its inspiration, whether that it is the Ruritanian adventure of The Androids of Tara, the adventures of Sherlock Holmes in The Talons of Weng-Chiang, the writings of Agatha Christie in The Robots of Death, and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in The Brain of Morbius. In doing so, the series would draw heavily upon the Gothic and take it the height of its popularity. The other themes present in the Fourth Doctor’s adventures include the revelations about the Time Lords and the eccentricities of his bohemian nature, but its is the Gothic that stands out.

In addition to this reliance upon the Gothic in the Doctor’s wanderings, the era of the Fourth Doctor also brought back the competent and the liberated Companion, something that had been missing for much of the Third Doctor’s adventures. Sarah Jane Smith, Leela, Nyassa, and Adric were all competent in their own way, but no companion was more competent than Romana—both incarnations of her! The Fourth Doctor Sourcebook perhaps concentrates upon her more than any of the Doctor’s companions. Indeed, each incarnation is accorded a full-page character sheet, just as the Doctor is himself, whereas each of his other companions is given just a half page each for their character sheets. So what this introduces is the idea that Time Lords can be played as companions and to support this aspect, several new Traits are given, these include Bio-Rhythmic Control, Cloistered, Sesquipedalian, and Tailored Regeneration. Character sheets are also included for K-9 and Harry Smith, but the inclusion of sheets for Nyssa and Tegan feel like an afterthought given the limited number of journeys they took with the Fourth Doctor in comparison with the Fifth Doctor. The second chapter is rounded out with stats for the Fourth Doctor’s TARDIS, this version being less obstreperous and easier to pilot.

Given the number of stories that The Fourth Doctor Sourcebook has to cover, it is no surprise that some nine tenths of the book are devoted to their detailing. Yet where in the previous entries in the series the stories were organised into a number of chapters, in The Fourth Doctor Sourcebook, all of the Fourth Doctor’s stories are collated into a single chapter—a chapter that takes up some nine tenths of the book. One side effect of this is that the first two chapters—the first devoted to the Fourth Doctor era’s themes and new character Traits, the second to character sheets for the Doctor and his companions—feels all too brief, underwritten perhaps. It does not help that there is no section on recurring villains, but then again, the Fourth Doctor had so few, and instead had lots of new villains, including the Movellans, the Rutans, and the Zygons*, which never appeared again.

*At least not in Classic Who.

Yet what this apparent adverse aspect of The Fourth Doctor Sourcebook does is give room for the individual stories and their elements to shine through. Each is given a synopsis—about a page in length, a guide to running the adventure, a discussion of ideas related to the adventure, and then possible further adventures. Also given are the stats for any relevant gadgets and technologies, NPCs, and monsters. So for example, in Doctor Who’s finest adventure—Genesis of the Daleks—it is suggested that the Time Lords’ meddling here could be the first shot in the Time War and that the Doctor could have been their agent before; the mechanics of the Time Lords’ Time Rings are detailed; and of course, stats are given for the Dalek Prototype (Mark III Travel Machine), Davros, Security Commander Nyder, and Mutos. Other gadgets and technologies detailed under their particular stories include Magnus Greel’s Time Cabinet from The Talons of Weng-Chiang, the outlawed Demat Gun from The Invasion of Time, and the Master’s horrid Tissue Compression Eliminator from The Deadly Assassin. Notable additions include a list of real world myths—Set, dragons, vikings, ghosts, and so on—under Pyramids of Mars and maps them onto a matching time period and matching alien horror. So for example, the myth of dragons is matched with the American ‘Bone Wars’ of the 1880s and a Zygon living war machine. It is a simple yet pleasing table that provides a model for the GM to map other myths and alien horrors onto.

The other big event of the Fourth Doctor’s era is The Key to Time, the first story to tell a big story over multiple stories. In modelling this complete season and storyline, in game terms this broadens the scope of Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game into full campaigns, rather than being just a series of adventures—as in previous series and incarnations of the Doctor. For an event as big as this, the overview of The Key to Time and how to run it feels underwritten, but again, room is given for the individual stories to shine through.

From The Key to Time, The Fourth Doctor Sourcebook winds down through the E-Space Trilogy to Logopolis and the end of the Fourth Doctor’s era. The sourcebook has one final, interesting inclusion—an appendix that details the lost story, Shada. Of course, filming was never completed on this story and this was never broadcast, but it has been given treatment a number of times since, both in Doctor Who and without. Its inclusion here is a pleasing touch, especially as perhaps this is the least familiar story detailed in the supplement.

Physically, The Fourth Doctor Sourcebook is well presented. The writing feels rushed in places and the use of black and white photographs does jar the eye given that everything else is in full colour.

Addressing every element and every story of the Fourth Doctor’s adventures was always going to be a challenging and daunting task. In attempting to cover everything, some things have had to be omitted. For example, the descriptions of both Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan are kept short and the GM referred to The Third Doctor Sourcebook and Defending the Earth, The UNIT Sourcebook for more information. Doubtless, the GM will need to refer to The Fifth Doctor Sourcebook for more detailed discussions of the Doctor’s later companions—Adric, Nyssa, and Tegan, as well as the next incarnation of the Master. Sadly the omission of stats for Henry Gordon Jago and George Litefoot from The Talons of Weng-Chiang is disappointing given their later, though noncanonical, adventures. Still, The Fourth Doctor Sourcebook covers a great deal and does it well, overcoming the challenge of presenting a lot of detail and background. In doing so, The Fourth Doctor Sourcebook brims with ideas, presenting for the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game, the period when Classic Who was at its finest.

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The Third Doctor

With a certain panache and not a little bit of a swagger, Cubicle Seven Entertainment’s celebration of Doctor Who’s fiftieth anniversary leaps into action and full colour with The Third Doctor Sourcebook for Ennie-award winning Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game. Having begun with The First Doctor Sourcebook and continued with The Second Doctor Sourcebook, the third entry in the series takes into the seventies to detail the full colour adventures of the Third Doctor as played by Jon Pertwee.

With arrival of the Third Doctor in the story, Spearhead from Space, the series underwent a radical series of changes whilst still looking back to the previous decade. Two of the Second Doctor’s adventures pre-figure the era of the Third Doctor. The first is Web of Fear, the story that marked Second Doctor’s encounter with the Yeti and the Great Intelligence in the London Underground along with his first with Colonel Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart, which would lead to the establishment of UNIT—United Nations Intelligence Taskforce—to which the Third Doctor would find himself attached to as Scientific Advisor under the command of Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart. The second is his last adventure, The War Games, in which the Time Lords exile the Doctor to Earth, meaning that he would no longer be able to travel in time or space and that his adventures would initially be confined to Earth. Of course, this would change in later series. In game terms, what this means is that two of Cubicle Seven Entertainment’s previous sourcebooks serve as companion volumes to The Third Doctor Sourcebook. The obvious and more essential  one is Defending the Earth: The UNIT Sourcebook as it defines the organisation that the Doctor will be working for, whilst the The Time Traveller’s Companion is of use once the Time Lords begin to manipulate and use the Third Doctor.

Another way in which the Third Doctor looks back to the previous decade is how his adventures model those of the classic ITC adventure serials such as The Persuaders!, The Protectors, Department S, and so on. For the Third Doctor, a much younger incarnation of the Doctor, is a man—or Time Lord—of action. Unlike his forbears, the Third Doctor is prepared to fight for what he believes in, though usually only using his Venusian Aikido, and he gets involved in a vehicle chases in Bessie (his souped up vintage speedster), the Who Mobile, helicopters, hovercraft, and so on, lots and lots of times.

Although the Third Doctor introduced ‘aliens’ that would return in later incarnations—in particular the Silurians, the Sea Devils, and the Nestene Consciousness and the Autons, his stories also introduced a major new villain, one that would plague each of his subsequent incarnations. The Master, a fellow Time Lord, would work plans within plans, ally himself with the Daleks, all to rule the Earth or destroy it, rule the universe or humanity, or simply humiliate the Doctor. He wanted power, and even though he would be captured again and again, he would escape each time to continue his machinations. In some ways, the Master is the nearest that the Third Doctor comes to encountering true evil—barring the Daleks of course!

The Third Doctor Sourcebook takes us from the Third Doctor’s arrival on Earth and his first foiling of an invasion of the Earth whilst working for UNIT in The Spearhead from Space to his final encounter with an invasion attempt in The Planet of the Spiders, an encounter which would lead to his regeneration. Barring The Time Warrior, the Third Doctor’s adventures do not take place in the past. The majority deal with the themes of big authority and scientific hubris, of peace versus war, and of mysteries without real villains. For the most part, The Third Doctor Sourcebook presents an opportunity for the Doctor—or indeed, the player character Time Lord and his Companions to not be so much wanderers in the Fourth Dimension, as protectors of Earth and humanity, to form a family with UNIT, but still be a force for good and for truth.

The book is essentially broken into two parts. The first introduces us to Pertwee’s portrayal and explores his character, his Companions, the difficulties of his travels during this period—mostly the fact that he cannot travel, and the common themes and ideas. In particular that the Third Doctor’s character is rather patrician in nature and he only has the three Companions over the course of his adventures, though he is sometimes joined by members of UNIT. His adventures deal with the dangers of technological progress, diplomacy and attempts to bring about peace—both world and galactic, environmental concerns, and the possibility that a Companion might fall in love whilst travelling with the Doctor or even betray the Doctor.

As well as the stats and write-up for the Third Doctor himself, The Third Doctor Sourcebook includes stats and write-ups for all of his companions. The most notable changes in the Doctor are the addition of his ‘Hotshot’ Trait, to represent how good he is behind the wheel of any vehicle, and his ‘Reverse the Polarity of the Neutron Flow’ Trait which gives him an instinctive understanding of energy fields. Most of the new Traits come from Defending the Earth: The UNIT Sourcebook and The Time Traveller’s Companion. There are also write-ups of the Third Doctor’s notable foes—the Master, the Nestene Consciousness, and the Daleks. Rounding out this half of the book is an excellent discussion about the Third Doctor’s themes and the creation of adventures suited to his era.

As with every entry in the series, the second and longest part of The Third Doctor Sourcebook is further divided into chapters that travel chronologically in order through the Third Doctor’s adventures. For each of these there is a synopsis followed by a guide to running the adventure and a listing of any appropriate characters, aliens, and gadgets. The guide to running each adventure is not a straightforward adaptation, but rather a discussion of themes and ideas inherent to the adventure. So for example, in the discussion of The Claws of Axos, it is suggested that whenever the Doctor instructs Jo to stay where she is whilst he goes off to do something, as soon as he leaves, she should go exploring! Why? Well, because it is interesting and it pushes the story forward. Rounding the entry for each story is a selection of Further Adventures, hooks that could be run as possible sequels.

Physically, The Third Doctor Sourcebook is a slim hard back book, suitably illustrated throughout with photographs—now in colour! The volume feels solidly researched and well written, but if there is a downside to the book, it is that not going to appeal or be of use to everyone, and that is going to be an issue with each of the subsequent volumes in the series. After all, almost everyone has their favourite Doctor and also their least favourite Doctor, and that may be reflected in the Doctor Sourcebooks that they purchase. With The Third Doctor Sourcebook, the adventures presented here are even more dynamic, even more knowing, and even more exciting than those of The First Doctor Sourcebook and The Second Doctor Sourcebook. Yet in comparison with The Second Doctor Sourcebook, there is perhaps less depth to the writing in The Third Doctor Sourcebook, but that is likely down to how straightforward the stories are for the Third Doctor.

The Third Doctor is the first generation to have all of his adventures available to purchase and watch on DVD, but apart from the later stories when he manages to leave Earth, they will feel unfamiliar in terms of style and oddly constrained. That comes down to the Third Doctor’s exile on Earth, and anyway, they lend themselves to a very different style of campaign, one which The Third Doctor Sourcebook should make you feel very at home with (even if that home is Earth!).

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The Second Doctor

The latest supplement for Cubicle Seven Entertainment’s Ennie-award winning Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game is The Second Doctor Sourcebook (though this review appears almost at the same time as The Third Doctor Sourcebook comes to print and The Fourth Doctor Sourcebook is announced). It continues the publisher’s celebration of Doctor Who’s fiftieth anniversary begun by the The First Doctor Sourcebook by delving back into the show’s past to explore perhaps that most pivotal of incarnations of the Doctor. For without the role being recast with Patrick Troughton the series would never have been kept going by the concept of Regeneration. In addition, the second Doctor’s tenure also introduced us to the Sonic Screwdriver plus the Time Lords and the Doctor’s home of Gallifrey as well as pointing towards the creation of UNIT, the agency that will figure so strongly in the adventures of the Third Doctor. Thus The Second Doctor Sourcebook prefigures much to come that is covered in both The Time Traveller’s Companion and Defending the Earth: The UNIT Sourcebook, the previous two sourcebooks from Cubicle Seven Entertainment.

The Second Doctor Sourcebook takes us from the Second Doctor’s first encounter with the Daleks in his first adventure in The Power of the Daleks to his confrontation with the renegade Time Lord known as the War Chief and his subsequent trial by the Time Lords in The War Games. Apart from a visit to the Scottish past in The Highlanders, the Second Doctor’s adventures primarily take place in the near future, the Doctor coming to the aid of mankind as it tries to survive ecological upheaval and numerous invasion attempts. He and his companions face foes again and again, not just the Daleks and the Cybermen, but also the Ice Warriors and the Yeti. The Second Doctor Sourcebook presents an opportunity for the Doctor – or indeed, the player character Time Lord and his Companions not to be mere wanderers in the Fourth Dimension, but to face evil and actively intervene to save others. To visit the Himalayas and get lost in the tunnels of the London Underground while menaced by the Yeti; to discover what the Daleks are doing in 1866 and what they want the Doctor to isolate; and to foil the machinations of Salamander, the Mexican scientist who is the spitting image of the Doctor!

The book is essentially broken into two parts. The first introduces us to Troughton’s portrayal and explores his character, his Companions, the difficulties of his travels during this period, and the common themes and ideas. Most notably these include singular adventures rather than campaigns, adventures set at isolated bases ripe for attack or invasion, the evolution of a world government dealing with the issues of arms control, overpopulation, and ecological catastrophe, and of course, evil that must be fought. In comparison with the First Doctor, the Second Doctor is more aware of the threats that he might face out in the universe and is thus more capable of dealing with the dangers of his tenure. Although the TARDIS remains as cantankerous and as difficult to pilot as ever, the Second Doctor has least access to his 500 Year Diary, his Sonic Screwdriver Mark 1, and of course, his Recorder!

Two notable issues are addressed in dealing with Second Doctor adventures. The first is how run them without muddling up the timeline. The solution given is to run them after the Doctor is found guilty at his trial and before his sentence is carried out by having him work for the Celestial Intervention Agency. This set-up would allow for a good mix of Companions too, whether official or player created. Indeed, such Companions of either type could come from any time period. The second issue is that of the timeline of the Second Doctor’s adventures, many of which take place in the place in the very near future. Of course, this is a future of the 1960s, so already looks odd by the twenty-first century. The solution is to either adjust the stories and feel to our timeline or be authentic as possible.

As well as the stats and write-up for the Second Doctor himself, The Second Doctor Sourcebook includes stats and write-ups for all of his companions. The most notable changes in the Doctor are his pacifism (reflected in his Code of Conduct), though not all of his Companions share this attitude and are handy in a fight – Ben and Jamie in particular. To support the new Companion and the guidelines for creating Time Lord and Companion player characters suitable for the period, The Second Doctor Sourcebook includes a slough of new Traits such as 'Epicurean Tastes' and 'Menacing'. Many of these are taken from The Time Traveller’s Companion and Defending the Earth: The UNIT Sourcebook. These are joined by descriptions and write-ups of the Second Doctor’s major foes – the Cybermen, the Daleks, the Great Intelligence, and the Ice Warriors. One oddity covered in these write-ups is why the Doctor meets the Model 2, Model 3, and Model 4 in the order that he does...

The second and longest part of The Second Doctor Sourcebook is further divided into chapters that travel chronologically in order through each of the Second Doctor’s adventures. For each of these there is a synopsis followed by a guide to running the adventure and a listing of any appropriate characters, aliens, and gadgets. The guide to running each adventure is not a straightforward adaptation, but rather a discussion of themes and ideas inherent to the adventure. So for example, with The Tomb of the Cybermen the author draws parallels with pulp serials and how the Cybermen are looking for suitable successors (almost like an ancient Mummy come back to life!), while with The Abominable Snowmen, the author highlights its Lovecraftian feel. Rounding the entry for each story is a selection of Further Adventures hooks that could be run as possible sequels.

Physically, The Second Doctor Sourcebook is a slim hard back book, suitably illustrated throughout with black and white photographs – though it will be the last to be done in black and white. As fitting the switch to colour of the series, The Third Doctor Sourcebook will also be in colour. The volume feels solidly researched and well written, but if there is a downside to the book, it is that not going to appeal or be of use to everyone, and that is going to be an issue with each of the subsequent volumes in the series. After all, almost everyone has their favourite Doctor and also their least favourite Doctor, and that may be reflected in the Doctor Sourcebooks that they purchase. With The Second Doctor Sourcebook, the adventures presented here are more dynamic, more knowing, and more exciting than those of The First Doctor Sourcebook, and as such foreshadow the style of adventures to come right up to, and including new Who.

As much as many of the Second Doctor’s adventures are unavailable to watch and will thus be unfamiliar to all but the dedicated of fans, there is a familiarity to the style and feel of the adventures detailed in The Second Doctor Sourcebook. That of visiting a place, being mistaken for someone else or intruders before investigating and getting involved in some kind of threat or mystery. What this means is that the contents of The Second Doctor Sourcebook are more accessible and potentially easier to use than those of The First Doctor Sourcebook. That though seems in keeping with the character of the Second Doctor compared to the First Doctor and just serves to show how both are well served by their respective First and Second Doctor Sourcebooks.

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The First Doctor

Both The TimeTraveller’s Companion and Defending the Earth: The UNIT Sourcebook, the last two sourcebooks for Cubicle Seven Entertainment’s Ennie-award winning DoctorWho: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game have looked to the television series’ past as much as they have its present. They have acknowledged the history of both the series and its setting whilst also exploring the most recent developments and involvement of the Doctor with UNIT and time travel and the Time Lords respectively. The third and more recent supplement for the RPG all but ignores the most recent incarnations of the Doctor to delve deep back into his past. Which in the year of Doctor Who’sfiftieth anniversary seems more than appropriate, and to celebrate that anniversary, Cubicle Seven Entertainment is going to do it again and again. The supplement in question is The First Doctor Sourcebook, the inaugural entry in the Doctor Sourcebook series, which means that there are another ten entries in the series to come…

As its title suggests, The First Doctor Sourcebook is wholly devoted to the adventures of the Doctor as portrayed by William Hartnell that take us from an encounter with An Unearthly Child in a  junkyard on Totter’s Lane to the Doctor’s first encounter with the Cybermen on The Tenth Planet. It presents an opportunity for the Doctor – or indeed, the player character Time Lord and his Companions to be wanderers in the Fourth Dimension. To visit Skaro for the first time; to visit the past and travel the Silk Road to far Cathay; to foil the machinations of Mavic Chen; to become the reluctant playthings of the Celestial Toymaker; and more.

The book is essentially broken into two parts. The first introduces us to Hartnell’s portrayal and explores his character, his Companions, the difficulties of his travels during this period, and the common themes and ideas. Most notably these include the scope and length of the First Doctor’s adventures, for rather than a quick visit he and his Companions might stay for months at a time, but then his adventures might also span numerous worlds. Nevertheless, the Doctor of this era likes to take his time to interact with different peoples and alien cultures. Aboard the Doctor’s TARDIS – in some ways as cantankerous and faulty as he is, this is an age of exploration and adventure, for as old as the Doctor appears, his adventures represent his first steps out into the unknown of the universe. Thus he is rarely as forewarned and certainly not as self-aware as later incarnations will be…

The second part of The First Doctor Sourcebook is further divided into chapters that travel chronologically in order through each of the First Doctor’s adventures. For each of these there is a synopsis followed by a guide to running the adventure and a listing of any appropriate characters, aliens, and gadgets. The guide to running each adventure is not a straight forward adaptation, but rather a discussion of themes and ideas inherent to the adventure. So for example, with An Unearthly Adventure the authors examine how Barbara and Ian are brought into the TARDIS and then discuss what lies at the heart of the encounter in the prehistoric – the desire for an object, in the case of An Earthly Child, the object is fire. The nature of the object is irrelevant, but how it can be used to tell a story is and that is the point of the examination. In presenting a fully stated up Stone Age Tribesman, they also discuss the possibility of playing a Companion from a primitive time. Rounding the entry for each story is a selection of Further Adventures hooks that could be run as possible sequels.

Advice and extra information like this continues throughout The First Doctor Sourcebook. So for example, there are stats and write ups for the very version of the Daleks from The Daleks; how to handle long journeys and the theft of the TARDIS as in Marco Polo; on using telepathy in The Sensorites; and how to portray non-human or non-humanoid characters as in the Menoptra, Optra, and Zarbi of The Web Planet. In all of these it does not present extensive write ups of every character to appear in each episode – that would take up a great deal of space and anyway, these are easy enough for the GM to create by himself. The pertinent ones are given though, except for one odd omission, that of the Meddling Monk from The Time Meddler. As a renegade Time Lord, his stats and a fuller write up can be found in The Time Traveller’s Companion. Rounding out The First Doctor Sourcebook is a set of characters for every one of the Companions who accompanied the First Doctor on his travels.

Physically, The First Doctor Sourcebook is a slim hard back book, suitably illustrated throughout with black and white photographs – hopefully by the time Cubicle Seven Entertainment gets to The Third Doctor Sourcebook it will be in colour. The volume feels solidly researched and well written, but if there is a downside to the book, it is that not going to appeal or be of use to everyone, and that is going to be an issue with each of the subsequent volumes in the series. After all, almost everyone has their favourite Doctor and also their least favourite Doctor, and that may be reflected in the Doctor Sourcebooks that they purchase. With The First Doctor Sourcebook, the adventures presented here may not be as dynamic or as knowing or as exciting as those of new Who, but there is nothing to stop the GM from bringing those elements to the Hartnell era or treating the era as a change of pace. Or indeed as a starting point for a campaign that revisits each of the eleven eras of the Doctor.

The First Doctor Sourcebook gets the Doctor Sourcebook series for the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game off to a well-done start. It will be a pleasure to see if the authors can carry it on for The Second Doctor Sourcebook, The Third Doctor Sourcebook, and more…

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United We Stand

Earth has a problem. As good as the Doctor and his companions have proven to be in defending the planet from numerous threats, from the Daleks and the Cybermen to dinosaurs and demons, the travellers aboard the TARDIS cannot always be present. Fortunately, when the good Doctor goes off gallivanting around the universe and back, there is a single agency that stands against all of the aliens that would threaten humanity and has done for the last fifty years and will do so for decades to come – UNIT. Originally the ‘United Nations Intelligence Taskforce’, but since renamed the ‘Unified Intelligence Taskforce’, UNIT is the ultimate in NGOs, an international agency backed by every nation on Earth that commands regular military units, scientific research teams, and investigative teams. Its remit is to locate and identify alien threats; to study their biologies and technologies – and reverse engineer said technologies to further benefit Earth’s defences; and to take command of the militaries of Earth in order to defend the planet. Now you too can be part of UNIT – if you have the best to offer the Earth’s defences then you might be what UNIT is looking for!

Or rather, now you can roleplay a member of UNIT with Defending the Earth: The UNIT Sourcebook, which offers an whole new campaign type to GMs and players of the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game. In keeping with The Time Traveller’s Companion and The First Doctor Sourcebook, the other recent sourcebooks for the game, Defending the Earth: The UNIT Sourcebook comes as a solid hardback, fully illustrated and engagingly written. It presents a complete history of UNIT, rules for creating UNIT characters and facilities, expanded rules for guns and combat, data files on innumerable memorable members of UNIT, and of course two adventures.

The history starts out with UNIT’s pre-history, discussing particular incidents before UNIT’s foundation such as the efforts of the Intrusion Countermeasures Group against the Daleks in 1963 and the Great Intelligence’s occupation of the London Underground in the late 1960s. Once founded, the history canters along touching upon all of the televisual appearances of UNIT, from its countering of The Invasion attempt by the Cybermen to the ‘Year That Never Was’ under the regime of The Master. The book as such does not directly mention particular Doctor Who stories; references are instead made enough that a GM in the know should be able to identify them with ease. It comes up to date with a complete description of the modern UNIT and its facilities, equipment, security clearances and document classifications. Pages are devoted to a description of the Valiant, the aerial aircraft carrier funded by the British government and of course, UNIT HQ UK.

Along with various UNIT developed gadgets and new gadget Traits, the sourcebook allows the GM and his players to create a base of their own. This of course, begins by describing the base’s purpose and description so as to have some idea as to what sort of missions its staff, and thus the player characters, will undertake. Depending upon on the desired size, a base receives a number of points to spend on Good Base Traits, which of course can be added to by giving the base, Bad Base Traits. 

OUTPOST MENDIP-1
Ever since its foundation UNIT has had something of a rivalry with Torchwood, and one area where the two organisations have always clashed is Cardiff, specifically over who got to monitor the Cardiff Rift. In the end, Torchwood stood firm and maintained a base in the city specifically to keep an eye on the space-time rift and anything that came out of it. UNIT though, was still determined to monitor the Cardiff Rift and if it could not do so from within the city itself, it could from one of the points where the ‘end’ of the rift would frequently anchor itself – Glastonbury.

OUTPOST MENDIP-1 is located beneath the offices and warehouses of Esoteric Supplies Direct, a wholesale supplier of all things ‘magical’, from dowsing rods and crystal balls to Tarot decks and wands. Its primary remit is the monitoring of the Cardiff Rift, but also monitors the comings and goings of various inhabitants and visitors to Glastonbury for anything ‘odd’. Given the nature of the things that might come out of the Rift, it was decided that the outpost needed access to UNIT’s database, a laboratory to study whatever it was that came out, and somewhere to hold them. Given the effect that the Cardiff Rift sometimes has on the local power infrastructure, the outpost has its own power supply.

Currently, Commander Wyndham is the chairman of Esoterica Direct Supplies and head of OUTPOST MENDIP-1. It is his first assignment to UNIT and he is finding having to adapt to being both a civilian and a military man something of a challenge, let alone commanding scientists rather than military men and directing the delivery of magical gewgaws rather than Her Majesty’s naval assets. Nevertheless, he believes himself up for the job and this posting a stepping stone to a better role, if not promotion. 

Database Access (Good Base Trait)
Holding Cells (Good Base Trait)
Internal Sensors (Good Base Trait)
Laboratory (Good Base Trait)
Secret (Good Base Trait)
Space-Time Rift (Bad Base Trait)
Reactor (Bad Base Trait)

Fundamental to UNIT are its staff and Defending the Earth: The UNIT Sourcebook gives the data files for a wide array of NPCs. These include typical members, from UNIT Privates and UNIT Privates (Experienced) right up to the Brigadier, the ranking officer in the United Kingdom. These are accompanied by data files for UNIT’s most notable members, starting naturally with Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, the Third Doctor, Liz Shaw, Jo Grant, Sergeant Benton, and Sarah Jane Smith, and coming right up to date with Professor Malcolm Taylor and Captain Erisa Magambo. Guidelines are included that players to create their own characters. These still use the rules from the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game to which are added a selection of new Traits, of which the inclusion of Five Rounds Rapid (Major Good Trait) is obligatory. It enables a character to leap to up the initiative order and attack when ‘Talkers’ or ‘Doers’ act.

Our sample character is Flight Sergeant Brian Beasley, a UNIT veteran who has spent his career shuffling back and forth between assignments with the RAF and UNIT. In over thirty years he has seen everything and faced down numerous alien threats – Daleks, Cybermen, the Slitheen, the Korasterack Incident, and more… Along the way he has lost friends and colleagues, and he now approaches the job with a sense of weary necessity. He has lost his sense of wonder at the universe and what it has to offer, and is really beginning to look forward to a happy retirement. So he was pleased to be assigned to the quiet OUTPOST MENDIP-1 where he could spend his last few years in relative peace – well, relative for UNIT that is… His relatively easy going approach is unfortunately at odds with the more forward thinking attitude of his new commanding officer, Commander Wyndham.

Flight Sergeant Brian Beasley
Awareness 4 Coordination 3 Ingenuity 3
Presence 3 Resolve 4 Strength 3
Athletics 1 Convince 2 Craft 0 Fighting 3
Knowledge 3 (History of UNIT) Marksman 3 Medicine 0 Science 0
Subterfuge 0 Survival 1 Technology 3 Transport 4
Traits: Brave (Minor Good Trait), Five Rounds Rapid (Major Good Trait), Hot Shot (Minor Good Trait), UNIT Veteran (Special Good Trait), Rank (Minor Good Trait), Voice of Authority (Good Minor Trait); Eccentric (Minor Bad Trait), Obligation (UNIT) (Major Bad Trait)
Home Tech Level: 5 Story Points: 8
Motivation: To retire safely!

In comparison to normal games of the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game, a campaign involving UNIT will have a more ‘bullish’ approach to it and this is reflected in the new rules for combat. These expand upon the details for firearms and their use, for explosives, and for handling battles. In comparison with other RPGs, the new rules for firearms are not as detailed, but they do add rules for range and gun types. This being the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game, guns are still deadly, but they are a necessity in a UNIT game. The new Mass Combat rules handle the type large engagements that UNIT is expected to handle in the twenty-first century and as you would expect allows for the involvement of player characters and keeping everything dramatic without overcomplicating things.

One last issue that UNIT has to deal with is that of ‘Public Relations’, or rather covering up the fact that a local Job Centre has been infiltrated and is a front for a Zygon operation. Mechanically, this is about coming up with a good cover story that will counter the various sources of exposure, and in keeping with the game, the rules are kept simple.

As noted earlier, campaigns involving UNIT are more bullish than is standard in the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game. It being a more team based RPG and a military themed RPG means that a UNIT campaign deals with themes of loyalty, bravery, and morality. Several campaign types are suggested, such as exploring off-world, First Contact, artefact recovery, conducting research, and more. These can be built around a single type of character, such as soldier or scientist; around UNIT Freelancers who investigate small incidents, but on a casual basis; or around UNIT CRASH (Critical Response and Special Handling) Teams, that respond to emergencies and secure sites of alien incursion. These ideas are accompanied by scenario seeds in addition to the UNIT Crisis Generator! Rounding out Defending the Earth: The UNIT Sourcebook is a pair of mixed group adventures.

Physically, Defending the Earth: The UNIT Sourcebook is very nicely presented with plenty of photographs taken from the television series. It does need an edit in places, but overall the book has an engaging tone and throughout there are some jolly little touches – the list of UNIT briefing documents is ever so slightly tongue in cheek as is the section on Britishness.

Sooner or later, Cubicle Seven Entertainment had to publish a sourcebook for UNIT for the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game and in Defending the Earth: The UNIT Sourcebook, the ‘sooner’ has been worth it. Although its primary focus is on playing UNIT during its more modern incarnation, the inclusion of stats and write-ups of the Third Doctor and the Brigadier – the latter both for when he was in command of UNIT in the United Kingdom and after he retired – enables a campaign to be set in the past, or at least pay it a visit. This is an engaging sourcebook that does a good job of developing the material presented on the television screen without overdeveloping it whilst presenting a book full of ideas and possibilities. Together these can take a Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game in a whole new direction – the defence of the Earth.

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A Timey-Wimey Bradshaw's

Understandably, the focus of the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game in both its core boxed set and the Aliens & Creatures boxed set has been on the modern series and on the adventures of the ninth, tenth, and eleventh Doctors. To an extent, this has been frustrating since there is more to the Doctor Who universe than the series since its re-launch in 2005 – in fact, there is half a century of history awaiting exploration by the game and its authors. Therefore, it seems appropriate that with the latest releases for the game, Cubicle Seven Entertainment has begun to explore that history in what is Doctor Who’s fiftieth year. These releases include Defending The Earth: The U.N.I.T. Sourcebook and The First Doctor Sourcebook – the latter the beginning of a series of releases that will look at each Doctor in turn, but it is The Time Traveller’s Companion that is the subject of this review.

As its title suggests, The Time Traveller’s Companion explores the idea at the very core of both Doctor Who and the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game – ‘time’ itself. Thus it explores ‘Temporal Mechanics 101’ in detail, including its physics and temporal phenomena – such as Temporal Nexus Points, the Blinovitch Limitation Effect, Chronic Hysteresis, and Time Spurs, but it does not limit itself purely to ‘Timey-wimey’ stuff. Rather it delves deep back into the television series’ history to present a history of Gallifrey and the Time Lords, an expanded set of rules for creating Time Lord characters and handling those all-important Regenerations, temporal devices other than TARDISes, expanded rules for crewing and piloting a TARDIS, creating and customising a TARDIS and giving it a personality, and more… That ‘more’ though is a whole separate section for the GM’s eyes only, presenting as it does the ‘Dark Secrets of the Time Lords’; explores the possibility of campaigns set before, during, and after the infamous Time War; and as a companion to the earlier ‘Temporal Mechanics 101’, gives ‘Advanced Temporal Mechanics’, the game rules for said earlier section.

The book begins – where else? – with the ‘known’ history of Gallifrey and its people, both Gallifreyans and the Time Lords, even offering the ordinary Gallifreyan as a player character option as a suitable Companion to the group’s Time Lord. Of course, a focus on the latter understandably underpins The Time Traveller’s Companion, so that the player who wants to play a Time Lord can the Advanced Time Lord Creation rules to add his character’s Chapter House, choose a TARDIS, and choose from a wider array of Time Lord Traits, both Good and Bad. Thus a Time Lord might possess Bio-Rhythmic Control or a Doctorate, be a Celestial Intervention Agency agent or even an Outsider, one of the Time Lords who has rejected life in the Citadel for the wilds of Gallifrey.  Equally, he could have been Bottom of the Class or be a Wanted Renegade, have a Faulty Heart or suffer from Random Regeneration. The process of Regeneration is greatly expanded upon, covering its difficulties and dangers, as well as providing a set of Regeneration Tables to randomly determine what a Time Lord’s new Regeneration is like. It is possible for a Time Lord to have some control over his Regeneration, but only with a good Regeneration roll.

Similarly, the chapter devoted to time and time travel expands upon that given in the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game. Its focus is twofold. First the dangers involved, most notably the Blinovitch Limitation Effect which limits the ability of anyone wanting to interfere with his own timeline, but then the means of time travel, covering the basics of navigation as well as an array of time travel devices other than the TARDIS such as Time Corridors, Time Scoops, and Time Rings. The TARDIS receives a sizeable chapter all of its own, detailing every aspect of the iconic vehicle like never before. This very easily could have been developed into a ‘TARDIS Manual’ supplement for the RPG, but it makes sense to have this material in The Time Traveller’s Companion. With its detailed descriptions of what a TARDIS can do, its features, components, rooms, and more, most notably allowing players and GMs alike to design their own TARDIS. Not just design their own TARDIS, but actually create just as they would a player character, including Attributes, Skills, and Traits. Of course, a TARDIS has access to its own exclusive Traits, including Fast Healing, Psychic, Run For Your Life!, Argumentative, Haunted, Inexperienced, and so on. A last indicator that these rules turn a TARDIS into a character is that there are rules for TARDIS Growth – essentially a TARDIS now has a chance to have its own Experience Points! In particular, these rules pleasingly model the TARDIS as seen in the new series where the Doctor very much has a special relationship with the ‘old girl’.

For each of the chapters in the first half of The Time Traveller’s Companion there is a counterpart in the GM’s Section. Here are revealed the ‘real’ history of Gallifrey and the Time Lords; full Bio-Data Extracts for the numerous renegades who have plagued the Time Lords and the Doctor in the last fifty years; a discussion on setting campaigns in Gallifrey’s timeline, right up to the Time War and beyond; and a look at the ‘Children  of Gallifrey’, those left behind after the Time War, some whom might be Neo-Time Lords – like River Song. The latter allows for the creation of Time Lord-like characters after the events of the Time War and so gets around the idea that the Doctor is the last of the Time Lords. Also discussed are some of the deadliest devices of the Time War, ones that the GM does not want his players to get a hold of, that is, unless they are being used as especially deadly plot devices! If the GM’s Section has a particular focus, it is on the Time War and the events that led up to it, addressing what is otherwise a very touchy subject in the television series itself. Throughout this section, the GM is given numerous Adventure Seeds, though he should be warned that their titles include some of the worst puns ever put to paper…

Rounding out the GM’s Section are the rules for the earlier chapter in the Player’s Section that discussed the nature of time travel. For all the complexity of the subject matter, these do a very good of keeping things relatively simple and straightforward easily supporting the explanation given in the Player’s Section. It also covers time travel by other technologies, and even without a Time Lord, but one possibly very useful section suggests how the GM curb his players from overusing the TARDIS and its fund of Story Points as a means to solve every little problem. One actual very useful element is saved for the appendix. This already includes all of the Traits, Gadget Traits, and Space-Time Navigation Tables given earlier in the book, but to this it adds TARDIS sheets and Expert Cards. The latter are the very useful element, each an informative hand-out detailing a particular temporal phenomena, such as the Blinovitch Limitation Effect or Chronic Hysteresis, which the GM can give his Time Lord player without a lot of parrot-like repetition. Indeed, the Time Lord player is now free to lecture his companions on the subject as much as he likes…

The book is nicely presented and organised. Both the players’ and the GM’s sections come with their own introductions that explain the following contents. The book is illustrated throughout, primarily drawing from the new series, but where appropriate uses illustrations from the game’s last fifty years. It is a pity though that The Time Traveller’s Companion is one whole book – the split between Player’s and GM’s Sections seem like it was intended to be another boxed set. (That said, it should be pointed out that the Player’s Section of The Time Traveller’s Companion is available for use on tablet devices so that the players can access it during play).

For any group playing the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game wanting to expand upon all things ‘Timey-wimey’, The Time Traveller’s Companion is incredibly useful. The expanded information upon Time Lords, Time Lord Society, and Time Lord history, allows the players to create more varied characters, especially with more than one Time Lord or Lady in a TARDIS and the GM to create interesting adversaries, or indeed bring back old ones such as The War Chief or The Rani. Similarly the expanded history gives the GM a whole timeline to explore. The new rules for the TARDIS enable the GM to bring his group’s TARDIS into play as a character all of its very own and the expanded rules on the nature of Time Travel enable him to make it a bigger and more challenging feature of his game. Ultimately, The Time Traveller’s Companion is not a supplement that changes a GM’s Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space roleplaying game campaign, but one that lets him expand and develop it.

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It's a Corpse Cavalcade II

When the apocalypse comes – and surely it will whether it is tomorrow, next week, or yesterday – and the dead rise to shamble across the Earth, the “lucky” survivors are barely going to have enough time to grab their trusty .45 handguns, first aid kits, complete sets of Elvis Presley on vinyl, iPods and iPhones, and whatnot before the cast of the corpse cortege are upon them. And before they know it, Grandma is down amongst the dead… Only to get back up again and be coming around for a bite out of her late dearest and nearest. Once past their flesh-eating Grandmothers, most survivors are going to looking to the government for help. Then the army. Then anyone. Which is when they discover that their survival is down to them and their decisions. All they can do is hope that their decisions are anything other than stupid, as stupid can get them dead…

So with everyone still occupied with the daily needs for survival and fending off the brain feeding zombies, it will be the rare dreamer or philosopher who has the time or inclination to ask that all important question, “How did this happen?” That might not be a question asked in the zombie apocalypses you might see depicted in books or on television, but when it comes to roleplaying it is a question that not only has to be asked, it has to be answered too. Especially in playing out a zombie apocalypse over the long term. The reason is simple. Whilst in a roleplaying campaign the survival needs have to be addressed, entirely focusing on soon becomes repetitive and quickly lose their drama. Need shelter? Kill zombies. Find shelter. Need fuel? Kill zombies. Find fuel. Need food? Kill zombies. Find food. Need ammunition? Kill zombies. Find ammunition. Wash, rinse, repeat, as necessary. Which is repetitive and dull.

It is an issue addressed and not addressed in War of the Dead: Chapter Two, which as the title suggests is the second release in the series. Published by Daring Entertainment through Cubicle Seven Entertainment, this is a fifty-two part campaign that charts the adventures and travails of a group of survivors in the face of the rise of the dead and the fall of civilisation. Written for use with Pinnacle Entertainment Group’s Savage Worlds, the campaign offers one adventure per week so that a group could play it out over the course of a whole year. Each adventure does not actually represent a week’s worth of game time, but anywhere from a few hours to a few days, essentially enough material that can be played through in a session or two.

The campaign was originally released as a series of fifty-two PDFs, and is now complete. Cubicle Seven Entertainment has divided the campaign into four parts, each collating thirteen episodes. To date, only War of the Dead: Chapter One and War of the Dead: Chapter Two have been released. The campaign began with the player characters – all ordinary men and women – aboard a cruise liner on holiday. It quickly became apparent that the suspected outbreak of an illness aboard the ship was something more, and very quickly the player characters found themselves to be no longer passengers but survivors aboard a vessel of the walking dead. Eventually as War of the Dead: Chapter One drew to a close, the player characters made it ashore only to discover that the infection was not confined to the ship and that everywhere the dead has arisen.

Subtitled “Sanctuary and Loss,” War of the Dead: Chapter Two opens two months into the end of the world. The player characters have been on the road for a month after the events that lead to failure of their first refuge, the town of Dalesbury, as described in the final weeks of War of the Dead: Chapter One. Theirs is a nomadic existence, forced on the road in the search for supplies – food, fuel, and ammunition – that across this Hell on Earth have become increasingly scarce as the cities have become the domain of the Living Dead. As the group makes its way from one desperate situation, it begins to learn of events further afield, including news of where the President went – Colorado, which becomes a much discussed objective as the events of War of the Dead: Chapter Two progress. After all, this is where the government went and it surely must be able to see to the needs of the survivors, right?

In the interim, the group also learns of possible salvation – Sanctuary. A nearby city has been supplying the few outlying communities of survivors with supplies. If the city has been cleared of the Living Dead and is in a position to supply food, could it be the refuge that the player characters have been looking for? Could it be the first signs of government since the characters came ashore? Well, the answer to both questions, is a qualified “yes and no.” Sanctuary is in the hands of UniMed, a pharmaceuticals corporation that has created a safe zone protected by the remnants of a US Army battalion. It is even hinted that the UniMed CEO had information about the Living Dead that the President needed to hear.

Nothing is quite what it seems. Of course it is not. It is true though that Sanctuary offers a degree of respite from the horrors without. Unfortunately, Sanctuary is the focus of new horrors and ultimately, the characters will find themselves on the road again, ready for the events of War of the Dead: Chapter Three.

War of the Dead: Chapter Two wastes no time in getting down to the adventure. There is almost no preamble before the GM and the players are thrown into the difficulty of the apocalypse. It makes a much fuller use of the Savages Worlds rules, in particular the Mass Combat rules, as the battles in War of the Dead: Chapter Two escalate in scale and take a more military feel when compared to the skirmishes of War of the Dead: Chapter One. If there was a lot of combat in War of the Dead: Chapter One, then War of the Dead: Chapter Two ups this, not just in terms of the hardware to hand, but also the foes faced.

Physically, War of the Dead: Chapter Two is somewhat perfunctorily presented. What little art there is, is grim, if sketchy. The writing though, is rough around the edges and it could have done with a closer edit. There is some repetition and inconsistency between sections that the GM will have to adjudicate on. As with the previous chapter, War of the Dead: Chapter Two could do with maps to make it easier for the GM to run.

Similarly, War of the Dead: Chapter Two suffers from many of issues that were a problem in the previous chapter. It is linear in nature and it is heavily scripted in places, and it suffers from repetition in terms of structure and in its encounters. Primarily, it is heavily combative in nature and this becomes both wearisome and grim. Then again, this is a world in which the dead walk the earth… That said, the over arcing plot does introduce several twists to its exploration of the zombie genre and in between the gunfights, there are numerous NPCs to interact with, many of them quite memorable.

At the start of this review, it was stated that War of the Dead: Chapter Twoboth addressed and failed to address the repetitious play of the genre and the question of why the post-apocalypse came about. It addresses the repetition essentially by replacing it with different forms of repetition, but ones that still revolve around the slaughtering of the Living Dead. It addresses the question of “why” only so far, and that is not really a failure upon the author’s part. After all, this is only the second part of the campaign and as such, is far too early to fully answer such questions.  They will only come in War of the Dead: Chapter Three and War of the Dead: Chapter Four. In the meantime, War of the Dead: Chapter Two is as good as the previous chapter, which means more good, but not quite perfect zombie roleplaying fodder.

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An Electronic Elder Sign

If you play board games, owning a good smart phone or a tablet is an excellent device to add to your games collection. Although neither will replace the social aspects of playing a board game nor the pleasure of handling a game’s physical components, a good version of a board game adapted to either device will capture exactly the feel and tactics of its play whilst handling the game’s mechanics. Such a good version should also offer solo play as well as play against other opponents, or if a co-operative game, allow the participants to play together. The version of Rio Grande Games’ Carcassonne adapted by exozet games is excellent example of the former, whilst Elder Sign: Omens is an excellent example of the latter. It is available on the Android and iOS platforms, this review having been done on an Android tablet.

As the title suggests, Elder Sign: Omens is the electronic adaptation of Elder Sign, the third co-operative board game of Lovecraftian investigative horror published by Fantasy Flight Games. Where Elder Sign has up to eight investigators exploring Arkham Museum to prevent the strange goings on that herald the coming of an Ancient One such as Azathoth, Cthulhu, or Yog-Sothoth, Elder Sign: Omens has a team of up to four investigators exploring Arkham Museum to prevent the strange goings on that herald the coming of the Ancient One known as Azathoth.

The game has the intrepid investigators visiting the various parts of the museum, some of which might lead to other dimensions, and casting glyphs that will counter to stop the strange goings on in each location. The investigators will each have their own special ability that will help them in this casting as various spells, items, and clues that in turn enable then investigators to hold onto glyphs between castings, add more glyphs, and re-cast the gylphs. If successful, the investigators can gain more spells, items, and clues as well as the all-important Elder Signs that they need to accumulate in order to prevent the coming of Azathoth. If unsuccessful, the investigators can suffer deleterious effects to their health and sanity; have monsters appear particular locations that need to be dealt with before the tasks there can be attempted; and let Azathoth gain more of the Doom Tokens that mean that the Outer God is closer to Earth.

Elder Sign: Omens begins by asking the players to assemble an investigation team, either by selecting from one of the sixteen available or by taking a random team. Each of the investigators is illustrated and is accompanied by a description of his or her ability. For example, Harvey Walters can alter Terror glyphs to Lore glyphs, whilst Carolyn Fern is a Psychologist who can help restore her own Sanity or that of another investigator. From there, the investigators can proceed to the Museum itself, shown by a map upon which are marked the first of the game’s many bizarre incidents. These can be scrolled through and examined before going there, enabling the players to make a choice as to which ones they tackle.

At each incident, an investigator will be confronted by one or more tasks. Sometimes these have to be done in a certain order, but most can be completed in any order. Either way, only a single task can be completed with a single casting of glyphs. These are cast to match the symbols on each task, the glyphs either being used to match the symbols or re-cast to get the ones needed. Re-casting the glyphs is usually done at the cost of losing a glyph on the next casting. Consistent quickly leads to the investigator failing to deal with the incident and suffering various effects as described above.

The players need to accumulate fourteen Elder Signs if they are to prevent the coming of Azathoth, who only needs to gain twelve Doom Signs. This is not an easy task, especially if monsters appear that make tasks more difficult or even prevent glyphs from being cast until they are dealt with. In addition to the growing number of Doom Tokens, a sense of urgency is built into the game with a clock that regularly strikes midnight and heralds further terrible effects such as more monsters appearing or Azathoth acquiring yet more Doom Tokens. The players’ choice of investigators will ease or hinder this task, with investigators who can re-cast glyphs tending to be easier to use, if not being more useful. With sixteen investigators to choose from, Elder Sign: Omens has the capacity for the players to experiment to get the right combination of investigators that they are happy to explore the museum with.

Physically, Elder Sign: Omens is very well presented. The artwork, much of it seen in previous games of Lovecraftian investigative horror from Fantasy Flight Games, is used to great effect with some of it animated as certain events occur. In fact, on a tablet device, the artwork is better presented than in the actual Elder Sign board game, where the artwork, although very good, is too small to be really appreciated. Elder Sign: Omens also handles the physical mechanics of the game, such as the clock striking midnight and the appearance of new incidents, with a pleasing deftness that makes the game flow uninterrupted. Together, the removal of these mechanical processes away from the players’ gaze and the removal of the clutter of components that can be an issue in Fantasy Flight Games titles, combined with the use of the map to guide the investigators around the museum serve to give Elder Sign: Omens something akin to a narrative flow, which unfortunately, is somewhat lacking in the board game itself.

If anyone has played the Elder Sign board game, they will notice certain differences between it and Elder Sign: Omens. Most obvious is that fact in casting the glyphs to attempt tasks, the players are not actually rolling dice as they are in the board game, but the removal of the dice gives the play of the game much more an immediacy. The other noticeable differences between Elder Sign and Elder Sign: Omens are that only the one Ancient One is ever faced in the current version of Elder Sign: Omens and that it is not possible for the investigators to have Allies in Elder Sign: Omens as they can in Elder Sign. Neither of these should be seen as actual omissions, but rather as a streamlining that eases the flow of the game.

The final major difference is that in Elder Sign it only matters whether the investigators prevented Azathoth from coming to Earth or not, whereas in Elder Sign: Omens, not only does that matter, but so does how well they did. At the end of each game, the performance of the investigators, and thus the players, is scored. The game keeps a record of the scores, so everyone can check to see how well they have done.

For anyone new to the game, Elder Sign: Omens comes complete with a tutorial that guides you through the game with the aid of a nicely ominous voiceover – this voiceover also narrates various events throughout the game. To chilling effect. The tutorial itself needs careful attention to fully grasp how the game is played, and is probably worth watching again after at least one full play through of the game. Fortunately, the tutorials can be reset to watch again. Overall though, anyone who has played Elder Sign will have an easier time in playing Elder Sign: Omens than someone who has not.

As a playing experience, Elder Sign: Omens is an excellent solo experience. It also plays well with two participants, their discussing various courses of action and deciding what each investigator will do and what each will do with their glyphs. With more players, the game slows a little essentially because everyone is sat around a small screen and the decision making process takes a little longer. Nevertheless, having the tablet makes the game feel faster and slicker, as well containing everything needed in one easy to hold package.

Just like the board game it is based on, Elder Sign: Omens offers a pleasing balance between decision making and luck, the latter in the form of the casting of the glyphs. As an adaptation, it is a polished and assured version of Elder Sign, one that every fan of Lovecraftian gaming should enjoy. Is Elder Sign: Omens a sign of things to come that other Fantasy Flight Games titles might be appearing in electronic format?

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