Herewith a collection of aliens and creatures to meet, outwit and... well, do everything apart from hiding from them behind the sofa! For with these materials and the core game, you can recreate stories from the TV show and pursue your own adventures in time and space. Again this a boxed set (with PDF customers getting ALL the components although they'll need to print and cut out counters and cards for full effect), comprising the main book of Aliens and Creatures, an Adventure Book with two full-blown adventures and several adventure seeds, ready-reference 'Creature Cards' and more Gadget Cards and Story Point tokens.
The Aliens and Creatures book opens with an introductory chapter 'But they're so... alien!" This explores, in the main, technical issues such as terminology and presentation of information; although there is a note about other sources of Doctor Who information such as novelisations (a statement of intent to stick to creatures that have appeared in post-2005 TV episodes as far as published material for this game is concerned). Such matters dealt with, on to Chapter 2: Category - Non-Human, which contains an alphabetic catalogue of aliens encountered by the Doctor during post-2005 TV adventures, including expanded notes on significant individuals as well as material on the race in general. Naturally some of them featured in the earlier series, but all illustrations and examples are post-2005. Plenty of background and history is provided, much of which is usful in formulating your own adventures. This is by far the main part of the book, and it is followed by Chapter 3: Creatures of Metal, Fire and Blood, which explores the possibilities of creating your own aliens within this ruleset - whither as adversaries, allied NPCs or as player-characters. A useful feature is the concept of designing your alien according to their purpose and role within the story in which you intend to use them. An Appendix looks at the creation of new worlds on which to have those adventures, along with a few sample worlds built using the semi-random system presented here.
The Adventure Book, as mentioned earlier, contains two complete adventures and some further ideas for you to develop into your own storylines. The first - 'The Next World' by Steve Lyons - utilises Cybermen in an innovative way, providing a situation which should prove interesting and entertaining to figure out and resolve. The adventure is well constructed and presented - and, in true Doctor Who style, whatever solution the characters choose has its consequences. The other complete adventure is 'The Rosetta Plague' by Alasdair Stuart, involves a visit to a Torchwood spaceship and the urgent need to solve a problem that has arisen aboard; this indeed is a good adventure for groups who like solving problems even more than defeating foes! At every point there are various options and suggestions for the gamemaster on how to use them to best effect depending on the style of game desired. The adventure seeds are all in similar vein: an intriguing situation with a few options and ideas of how it might be developed.
This is a good addition to the game line, and jam-packed with resources that will be useful in planning and playing adventures.
Return to Aliens and Creatures page.
Reviewed: 27 July 2010
