TIME LORD (all caps – it says so in the rules) is a free 165-page PDF of the Doctor Who RPG first published in 1996. The first chapter offers a history of the show, not so much a history of the setting but an actual production history of the show from its first airing in the 1960s up to the cancellation of its original run in 1989. This is interesting from a fan-trivia perspective, but not so useful as a game aid. The next section is a detailed history of roleplaying games. The section on the actual universe of Doctor Who is far shorter than either of these and hits only basic points like what a TARDIS is. This whole first part of the book gives me the impression that the person who wrote TIME LORD wasn’t a really big gamer and spend a lot of time researching the wrong sorts of things.
Before it really gets into the rules, there’s a sample solo adventure offers. This does offer one of the best bits of advice I’ve seen in a game. It suggests playing the adventure twice, with different sample characters, to see how it plays differently when you have different abilities. Sadly we have now reached the high point of the game.
Each character has eight Abilities: Strength, Control (which is more like Dexterity), Size, Weight, Move, Knowledge, Determination and Awareness. These are rated 1 to 6. Special Abilities are Skills, are rated 1 to 3, and add to Abilities as appropriate. Your Ability helps determine the target number: the gamemaster assigns a difficulty, and the target is difference. For example, if the character’s Ability (and Special Ability) total is 5, and the Difficulty is 3, the player has to roll and beat a 2. All die rolls are 2d6, one subtracted from another to give a result of 0 to 5. So, for example, a roll of 4 and 6 would be a 2. It’s a whacked-out, convoluted system that really doesn’t seem to serve any sort of purpose other than to avoid making things straight die rolls. The names of the abilities seem more like an exercise in avoiding the obvious, something quite a few late 80s- early 90s games seemed to suffer from.
There are dozens of pages of crunchy combat rules. Ah, the era when all roleplaying games had to have lots and lots of crunchy combat rules, even for a setting like Doctor Who where combat simply is as far from the point as possible. Blargh. i didn’t read it all. It seemed pretty pointless.
Useful bits: Every Doctor up to the 7th is statted out, as are major companions, recurring characters like the Brigadier, and all of the significant aliens and villains such as Daleks and Cybermen. If one put together some sort of conversion chart to adapt these statistics into their system of choice, this could be useful.
Summary: If this game were ever good, and that’s really giving it the benefit of the doubt, it’s now hopelessly dated. The mechanics are clunky and pointless, and there’s really no good underlying advice that would help you run a good Doctor Who game. I continue to look forward to the new Doctor Who RPG that’s due out this year, and hope that it gets things right.
Savage Worlds Conversion
This is quick and rough, meant to be more of a guideline than a hard rule.
Buy Savage Worlds Explorers Edition (S2P10010)
First, convert abilities to Traits. Control = Agility, Knowledge = Smarts, Determination = Spirit, Strength = Strength, Strength (again) = Vigor
Translate the rating in to die types. Feel free to tweak as you see fit. 1-2 =d4, 3-4 = d6, 5 = d8, 6 = d10
This gives the 4th Doctor Agility d8, Smarts d10, Spirit d10, Strength d8, Vigor d8. Not exactly how I’d have done it, but close enough. Strength seems a bit high, I’d knock it down to a d6.
Special Abilities were meant to add to Abilities. To convert these to skills, I’d say a 2 equals the same die type as the linked Trait, 1 is a die type down, and 3 a die type up. so if the Trait is a d8, a 1 = d6, 2 = d8, 3 = d10. Below is a guide on converting the overly-long TIME LORD Special Abilities to Savage Worlds skills. It’s not perfect (many would be better represented by SW Edges, and I leave that up to you) but it retains the flavor and intent of TIME LORD’s rules.
Acting = Persuasion
Acute Hearing = Notice
Animal Empathy = Persuasion
Animal Handling = Persuasion
Archery = Shooting
Astrogation = Knowledge
Bargaining = Persuasion
Bench-thumping = Repair
Blunt Weapons = Fighting
Brawling = Fighting
Bureaucracy = Knowledge
Cheat Death = Guts
Command = Persuasion
Computing = = Knowledge
Con = Persuasion
Contortionism = Stealth
Cryptanalyis = Knowledge
Cybernetics Artist = Repair
Dancing = Persuasion
Detective Powers = Investigation
Disguise = Persuasion
Driving = Driving
Edged Weapons = Fighting
Electronics = Repair
Eloquence = Persuasion
Engineering = Knowledge
Escapology = Lockpicking
Explosives = Knowledge
Fast Reactions = Stealth
First Aid = Healing
Fisticuffs = Fighting
Gambling = Gambling
Gloating = Taunt
Gymnastics = Stealth
History = Knowledge
Hypnotism = Persuasion
Independent Spirit = Guts
Indomitable Will = Guts
Intuition = Notice
Iron Constitution = Guts
Juggling = Throwing
Keen Sight = Notice
Law = Knowledge
Leaping = Stealth
Linguistics = Knowledge
Lockpicking and Safecracking = Lockpicking
MacGuffin = Repair
Marksmanship = Shooting
Martial Arts = Fighting
Mathematics = Knowledge
Mechanics = Repair
Medicine = Healing
Mountaineering = Climbing
Musicianship = Persuasion
Navigation = Piloting
Occultism = Knowledge
Pain Resistance = Guts
Photographic Memory = Knowledge
Piloting = Piloting
Poisons = Knowledge
Precision = Knowledge
Pseudoscience = Knowledge
Quick Recovery = Guts
Refined Palate = Knowledge
Regenerative Powers = Guts
Resourceful Pockets = Survival
Riding = Riding
Robotics = Knowledge
Running = Stealth
Sailing = Boating
Science Tracking = Tracking
Screaming = Persuasion
Sense of Balance = Stealth
Sensitive Nose = Notice
Serendipity = Survival
Singing = Persuasion
Sleight of Hand = Lockpicking
Sports Tracking = Tracking
Stealth = Stealth
Striking Appearance = Persuasion
Strong Passion = Guts
Swimming = Swimming
TARDIS = Piloting
Temporal Science Tracking = Tracking
Thrown Weapons = Throwing
Tracking = Tracking
Transmat = Piloting
Ventriloquism = Persuasion
Wilderness Lore = Survival
When given the same skill multiple times via this conversion, you may choose to increase it by a die type.
Using the 4th Doctor as the litmus test, we end up with a block stat (less Hindrances and Edges) that looks like this:
THE FOURTH DOCTOR
Traits: Agility d8, Smarts d10, Spirit d10, Strength d8, Vigor d8
Skills: Boating d6, Driving d6, Fighting d8, Guts d10, Healing d12, Lockpicking d6, Notice d12, Persuasion d8, Piloting d12, Repair d12, Shooting d6, Stealth d10, Throwing d8
Equipment: Bag of jelly babies, sonic screwdriver, ultrasonic dog whistle, long scarf, TARDIS key
NEW EDGES
Five new Edges for Savage Time Lords and their Companions
Arcane Background (Time Lord)
Requirements: Wild Card
This Edge allows the character to take other Time Lord Edges without the other requirements. This also duplicates thee effects of Arcane Power (Weird Science) and Arcane Power (Psionics) for the purposes of the character taking Powers.
TARDIS Operation
Requirements: Seasoned, Wild Card, Smarts d8, Piloting d6, Repair d6
Because the TARDIS is such a unique and specialized object, this Edge must be taken to operate it.
Sonic Screwdriver Use
Requirements: Seasoned, Wild Card, Smarts d10, Lockpicking d6, Repair d6
As with the TARDIS, this piece of equipment can only be operated with this Edge. With it, the character can use their Lockpicking skill to open door remotely with a +2 bonus. The Repair skill can be used, also with a +2 bonus, to fix, operate or sabotage any sort of electronic equipment.
Companion
Requirements: Novice, Wild Card
A Companion gets access to the Time Lord’s equipment and special abilities. This generally includes a key to the TARDIS, the TARDIS’s ability to automatically translate languages, and immunity to illusions of slightly psychic paper.
Screaming
Requirements: Novice, Wild Card, Companion
On a successful Spirit check, the character can scream with such intensity that other characters can hear them across great distances and through barriers such as wall, floors, and even the vacuum of space. Credit to Lon Sarver for putting this idea in my head, based on the TIME LORD skill.
NEW HINDRANCE
One new Hindrance, inspired by a TIME LORD skill for villains.
Gloating (Major)
If a villain with this Hindrance has captured the heroes, he must brag about it. The captured characters can make Spirit or Persuasion checks to keep the vilain talking, which will buy them the additional time needed to slip their bonds and plot their escape. Credit to Lon Sarver for putting this idea in my head, based on the TIME LORD skill.
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