Companions

A roleplaying game in which players protray the Companions of Doctor Who.

"We used to live in a candycolored age, full of wonder and danger in equal measure. Standing over the balanced Universe were its mighty guardians, the Time Lords. A great war destroyed all but one of them. He was the Earth's defender, protecting it time and again from alien threats. He was a god humbled by death. He was your friend. He was the Doctor. And then he died. Now the Doctor's enemies gather and plot, scheming to claim the Universe for themselves. Only you, his stalwart and learned companions, stand against the encroaching darkness. It's a good thing he trained you so well, isn't it?"

Author(s): 
Game Type: 
Roleplaying Game
Powered by the Apocalypse
Crunch: 
3 - Mildly Crunchy
Players: 
2+
GM?: 
Yes
Free?: 
Yes
Excerpt: 

When you, the Companions, get into dire situations, you do not sustain physical injury. Or, if you do, it is not a downward spiral towards death. This doesn’t really mesh well with the world of Doctor Who -- very few characters get their limbs blown off by Cybermen. This is not to say that the Universe is safe. Quite the contrary; it is full of dangerous beings, technologies and forces that can destroy not only one person, but sometimes entire civilizations. Instead of taking physical harm, Companions exposed to danger move closer to a dark fate. The Fate clock is similar to the familiar Harm clock in Apocalypse World. This does not represent physical damage, but rather running out of luck.
Fate advances when the player decides it does. The Fate hourglass, like the Spark clock, has six values. Whenever you are involved in a dire situation, you make the Tempt Fate move below. You mark off a number of slices equal to the bonus you want on the roll, maximum of 3, then roll +that number. As you spend more slices, your Fate clock advances. The hour of the Fate clock represents how close you are to meeting your doom. You do not die when you reach the end of your Fate clock, only if you miss on the move. Fate is a measure of how many times a Companion has had brushes with death. You can only do that so many times before it catches up with you.