The Zero Room - OOC Chat Thread

[Thorn]

Hi! Just wanted to say I haven't forgotten about you guys

[Mr. Handy]

Hi, Thorn! There's still time for you to finish creating your UNIT character for the final part of this adventure. I can introduce her as soon as she's ready. If you have any questions or need any help, just ask. Getting to the endgame is taking longer than I had thought, and it looks like this one will go to five episodes. One player who had been posting infrequently recently made a spate of posts that allowed me to progress his thread pretty far but hasn't posted in a little while.

[Thorn]

OK. Does that mean no TARDIS-crew in episode 5 either?

[Mr. Handy]

Yes, that's right. The TARDIS crew has left this era and will return in the next adventure, which will be called The Brotherhood of Death and will be set in ancient Rome. Once that starts, you'll be playing Brook again.

[BenTheRat]

Oh, the Tardis crew bugged out?? WTF?? I didn't get to interact with them hardly at all. Oh well. Hope I'm not the one holding things up.

[yockenthwaite]

Oh, the Tardis crew bugged out?? WTF?? I didn't get to interact with them hardly at all. Oh well. Hope I'm not the one holding things up.

We didn't leave by choice, but a very bad dice roll We were very sad in character and out that it turned out like that.

[BenTheRat]

Its been so weird, I'm just roleplaying along, and haven't been reading any of the other threads, so I have no idea whats going on. I see other threads so I know people aren't dead. I'm just running around blind. Great fun.

[Mr. Handy]

Thanks, and don't worry, you're not holding things up at all. You've been posting very frequently, and you're well ahead of the others.

Well, it was Story's choice that the TARDIS crew risked leaving. I explained to his player when he was considering attempting a short hop to get the TARDIS out of the caves that it would require a Pilot TARDIS roll, and that failure would send the TARDIS out of this era and on to the next adventure. He decided to risk it anyway, but his Pilot skill is rather low, and he failed the roll. It might have been possible to carry the TARDIS out the back way and go with Chad, Leonek, and Tobias without much difficulty. Of course, then the TARDIS crew would have seen the same thing they had. That makes two adventures in a row where the TARDIS crew have missed the finale, which I find sad too. The locals in the last adventure weren't able to finish the job on their own. Hopefully this lot will have better luck. At least this time there's a way that the players of the TARDIS crew can participate if they wish, even if their main characters cannot.

In classic Doctor Who's earlier stories, there is often a contrived reason why the Doctor and his companions don't simply leave (the TARDIS is inaccessible, the Doctor or a companion is captured, etc.). There are only so many times I can do something like that before it gets old, though it does happen on occasion in this campaign. The TARDIS was stolen early on in this adventure, but the investigators were able to track it down and find it before I had planned for them to do so. I had originally expected the TARDIS crew to help the UNIT team with their original mission and either flee with them or possibly get caught, forcing them to team up with UNIT in the endgame (and retrieve the TARDIS at that time). There is an upcoming adventure in which there's no way it will be possible to hop in the TARDIS and escape, unless you do so at the outset, but I don't want to say more about that to avoid spoilers.

[Vladd]

As to why the Doctor doesn't just get in the TARDIS and leave, in The Pyramids of Mars Sarah Jane Smith said basically that the aliens couldn't win as they had just come from the future and all was well. The Doctor and Sarah got back into the TARDIS and the Doctor took them back to where they had just come from, only now the earth was a wind swept desert. The Doctor explained they were now part of the timeline where the aliens were trying to take earth and if they just left then history would change, and so they went back and defeated the alien plot. So the reason the Doctor doesn't just leave is that he has to stop what ever is happening as he is now part of it. Of course you could argue that the Doctor wouldn't just leave people in trouble but in truth he is just responding to one of the most powerful forces in nature the power of the narrative.

[Mr. Handy]

That wasn't always the case. The first Doctor, played by William Hartnell, was very different in some ways. Many of his stories were pure historicals, where there was no alien threat. In Marco Polo, the only reason they couldn't just get back into the TARDIS and leave when things got dangerous was that Marco Polo had taken possession of the TARDIS, intending to offer it as a gift to Kublai Khan. In The Aztecs, the TARDIS was in the inner chamber of an Aztec tomb, and the stone door which closed behind them when they left the room could not be opened from the outside. The Doctor and his companions spent much of the story trying to find a way back inside, and the Doctor was trying to convince Barbara not to interfere for fear of changing history. In The Reign of Terror, the Doctor and his companions got separated early on and did not reunite until much later. Of course, in The Daleks, the Doctor himself prevented everyone from leaving by deliberately sabotaging the TARDIS because his insatiable curiosity drove him to explore. Later on, the Doctor became more selfless and didn't need any external motivation for not leaving people in danger, though you do see hints of his old ways. In Spearhead from Space, the third Doctor's premiere story, he got into the TARDIS and tried to leave Earth even though he knew of the Nestene threat, but he was foiled because the Time Lords had stranded him.

Welcome to Mozy, who will be playing Evert Jacobs!

[Mr. Handy]

Mozy, I've created an In Character thread for you: A Yank in UNIT. You may post there as your character when ready. Have fun! Also, I've posted your character sheet in the Character Sheets thread, but I still need to know which Martial Art you've studied in order to complete it.

[jaysun81]

The Brotherhood of Death and will be set in ancient Rome.

Nice.

We didn't leave by choice, but a very bad dice roll We were very sad in character and out that it turned out like that.

Indeed.

Well, it was Story's choice that the TARDIS crew risked leaving. I explained to his player when he was considering attempting a short hop to get the TARDIS out of the caves that it would require a Pilot TARDIS roll, and that failure would send the TARDIS out of this era and on to the next adventure. He decided to risk it anyway, but his Pilot skill is rather low, and he failed the roll.

Quite right. My apologies. With the beast lurking about outside I really saw no viable exit without someone in my crew potentially perishing. One final thought...while we are in a version of the "Whoniverse" Story is not the Doctor.

There is an upcoming adventure in which there's no way it will be possible to hop in the TARDIS and escape, unless you do so at the outset, but I don't want to say more about that to avoid spoilers.

That sounds very mysterious and interesting.

[Mr. Handy]

I don't want to give it away, but you'll understand once it happens. It's actually much more mundane than it seems, but no less effective.

Even the Doctor's companions could die on rare occasions. When they do, it is usually a pointless death that resulted from not listening to the Doctor. The Daleks' Master Plan, a twelve-part epic in the third season, saw both the first and the second death of a companion. Granted, there is some debate over whether or not one of them qualifies as a companion, but personally I think so. The other companion had only joined the TARDIS crew at the end of the previous story, The Myth Makers. However, a companion who had been around for some time was killed off in Earthshock. I remember that one stunning me when I saw it for the first time at the age of eight, especially as it was a companion I liked and with whom I identified. The end credits were completely silent and had a special image displayed.

There have been close calls in this campaign, particularly when Elizabeth nearly died late in the first adventure. I'm glad she survived! It was a perfectly reasonable option to take off in the TARDIS and hope for the best.

The campaign has had a fairly low death toll up until now. It's been rare for a PC to die, and when that happens it tends to be towards the end, which is a good thing. Yet there are still plenty of dangerous, thrilling moments. This adventure is also approaching the end, so expect it to get potentially deadly...

[Mr. Handy]

Welcome to TheVaultTech, who will be playing Sergeant Carla Ecarg!

[Mr. Handy]

As I said in the Absence Thread in the Lounge, I'll be away at a convention from tomorrow until Sunday night. I'll have my laptop and Internet access, but I probably won't have time to post.

[BenTheRat]

Going camping till Sunday. So see you guys then. Hoping to see you in game soon.

[Mr. Handy]

Welcome to Xamthos, who will be taking over the character of Leonek Novak!

[Mr. Handy]

Welcome to dustakr, who will be playing Newton Noyes!

[DrPeterson]

Welcome to the game, mate!

[TheVaultTech]

I can't wait for the mission so Srgt Ecarg can wreck them all!
She has a firm disbelief in moderation