C3G Doctor Who Workshop

[MrNobody]

I think we generally base what’s on the cards off of what we as the audience know, not what in-universe characters know. Otherwise you could make an argument that Batman’s Secret Identity shoukd be unknown because most people don’s know who he is.

[Karat]

It's kinda a mix of both really.

[A3n]

Originally Posted by MrNobody

I think we generally base what’s on the cards off of what we as the audience know, not what in-universe characters know. Otherwise you could make an argument that Batman’s Secret Identity shoukd be unknown because most people don’s know who he is.

[MrNobody]

NAME = BEEP THE MEEP
SECRET IDENTITY = BEEP

SPECIES = MEEP
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = CONQUEROR
PERSONALITY = RUTHLESS
SIZE/HEIGHT = SMALL 3

LIFE = 3
MOVE = 4
RANGE = 5
ATTACK = 3
DEFENSE = 3
POINTS = ???

ADORABLE APPEARANCE
If Beep the Meep has not attacked, inflicted a wound on an opponent's figure, or used any other special power on this Army Card yet this game, and is not the only figure you control on the battlefield, he cannot be targeted by an enemy figure for attacks or special powers and will not take any leaving engagement attacks.

BLACK SUN RADIATION
Before moving, you may choose a Unique Hero that is not a Gallifreyan within 3 clear sight spaces of Beep the Meep. Roll the 20-sided die. If you roll an 18, take control of the chosen figure and that figure's Army Card. Remove any Order Markers on this card. If Beep the Meep is destroyed, return control of all figures to whoever controlled them before you used Black Sun Radiation.

HIDDEN ENERGY PISTOL
When attacking for the first time each game with Beep the Meep's normal attack, you may add 3 to his Attack number.

____________________________________________________

Bio - The Meeps were an advanced and peaceful race, until radiation from a Black Sun mutated them into an aggressive, expansionist species who began to mercilessly conquer and subjugate other planets.

The Meeps were finally halted when their armada was destroyed by Wrarth Warriors at the Battle of Yarras, but Beep, the Meeps' ruler, escaped. Beep's ship was pursued and crash landed in the English city of Blackcastle. Beep sought refuge with two schoolchildren, using his fuzzy appearance to masquerade as a hapless, harmless creature being hunted by the ruthless Wrarth. The Fourth Doctor and the schoolchildren protected Beep, unaware of his true nature.

Beep then hypnotised some of Blackcastle's population and some U.N.I.T. Soldiers using a miniaturized black star and had them repair his spaceship, deciding to take off in a hyper-space jump, even though this would destroy Blackpool. The Doctor then aided the Wrarth in apprehending Beep, and he was taken away to face justice.

Another of the more iconic comics characters. He's a megalomaniacal conqueror who uses his cute appearance to manipulate people. Most of his plans involve some sort of mind control or hypnosis, and he had a laser gun he hides away under his fur.

He was also created by John Wagner and Pat Mills, the writer and editor behind creating Judge Dredd.

[Tornado]

Not surprised, very 2000AD.
We have to be careful with these too cute to attack powers. Have to check how this would work with Chucky, I have a design with a similar power.
Fun little design.

[Lazy Orang]

Almost wondering if a reuse of a power on one of my designs that'll be released soon-ish would be a good fit here.

[MrNobody]

Originally Posted by Tornado

Not surprised, very 2000AD.
We have to be careful with these too cute to attack powers. Have to check how this would work with Chucky, I have a design with a similar power.
Fun little design.

Yeah I think the early Doctor Who comics and the 2000AD stuff have a very similar feel, they had a lot of similar talent. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t trying to get your attention specifically with that comment.

I definitely thought about if him and Chucky could be a problem. Neither can really have any effect on the battle without “exposing” themselves, but they can both server as engagement tier-uppers without rolling for LEAs and their opponent could theoretically stalemate the game by refusing to attack at all.

Originally Posted by Lazy Orang

Almost wondering if a reuse of a power on one of my designs that'll be released soon-ish would be a good fit here.

I actually considered it but I think he’s more analogous to Chucky. He’s a crazed killer and once he’s shown his hand people aren’t buying the cutesy act anymore.

[Lazy Orang]

Originally Posted by MrNobody

Yeah I think the early Doctor Who comics and the 2000AD stuff have a very similar feel, they had a lot of similar talent. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t trying to get your attention specifically with that comment.

I definitely thought about if him and Chucky could be a problem. Neither can really have any effect on the battle without “exposing” themselves, but they can both server as engagement tier-uppers without rolling for LEAs and their opponent could theoretically stalemate the game by refusing to attack at all.

Technically, at that stage I think whoever had the most points left would win, and neither Chucky nor this guy look that expensive...
Honestly, though, I'd be tempted to rearrange the wording to all such powers to something more analogous to 'if you control at least one targetable figure on the battlefield' so that such powers could be made whenever fitting without worrying about stacking.

[MrNobody]

Alright it seems like the time to have this talk again; Should our Doctor cards be able to regenerate?

REGENERATE
At the start of the game you may place The Doctor on this card instead of your start zone. If another Doctor you control is destroyed and this Doctor has not yet been placed on the battlefield, before destroying that Doctor you may switch that Doctor with this one.

For anyone not in the know, Regeneration is an ability the Doctor's species has. This process allows a Time Lord to undergo a transformation into a new physical form and a somewhat different personality after instances which would normally result in death. Obviously, it's also a way to allow new actors to come in and play the Doctor and other Time Lord characters.

With my drafts, I've tried to work out a system that allows you to draft multiple of the same Time Lord and then either play them at the same time (time travellers meeting each other) or to have them switch out upon one's death. (1st Doctor dies, is removed from the battlefield, is immediately replaced with 2nd Doctor.) But is that something we actually want on our cards? Here's some pros and cons as I see it.

PROS
-It's a thing Time Lords can do. It's just an established fact of the series that when a Time Lord would die, they instead regenerate, so in Heroscape terms it makes sense that when a Time Lord unit is destroyed it can regenerate as well. On the flip side, you can argue that destruction in the game doesn't always equal death, or that regeneration often puts the Doctor out of commission for a random amount of time, so it make sense he isn't immediately popping back up.
-It's iconic. Ask any random person on the street to name things about Doctor Who and "Regeneration" or "played by different actors" will probably be in the top 5. Almost every single Doctor custom I've seen on this site has a regeneration ability on the card. I do honestly think that if we don't put Regeneration on the card it'll confuse some people.
-Brings something new to the game. Yeah, we've had units that start the game off the battlefield and switch out at some point. (see Jean Grey) But imagine a system where you start the game with 1 unit on the battlefield, and when it's destroyed, you have the choice of 3 other units you can replace it with, depending on what you think will be most effective. Or, starting the game with 2 on the battlefield then being able to decide who they regenerate into. It has some real strategic flexibility that gives you lots of options for how you want to play your Doctor.
-Allows the Doctor to be a long-lasting multi-capable presence on the battlefield. Like any character that's been around this long, the Doctor has been a lot of different things. It's impossible to capture all the things he usually does on a single card. However, we can capture most of it with the different designs for each incarnation. With regeneration, you can field multiple versions in the same game, with the Doctor constantly changing up his tactics and doing different things to defeat enemies. I feel like this will take the Doctor from a series of <200 point designs and make him into a force that can have as much presence on the battlefield as Supes or Spidey.

CONS
-It will be difficult to create a system that consistently works for any future Gallifreyans. Simply put, the current system isn't going to work for every potential Time Lord we might do. The Master doesn't have a really clear order for their bodies, with some incarnations only existing in certain EU medias. Characters like Rassilon and Omega will be lucky to get 1 design, if any. It's unclear if some characters like Susan even can regenerate. And what do you do for potential Un/Commons, like a possible Gallifreyan Soldier/Agent? It's very likely these are questions that will never need answering. But if they do, it would suck to have a regeneration system that wasn't flexible enough to incorporate every Gallifreyan character. Not doing regeneration would side-step that completely.
-Regeneration takes up text space that could be used to make each design interesting. Not much to say here, just that without regeneration, there's more text space to do cool stuff with each incarnation on their own.
-Regeneration out of thematic order. As a necessity, it seems like whatever regeneration system we do will allow an incarnation to turn into any other one. The 4th Doctor can turn into the 11th Doctor can turn into the 8th Doctor and so on. Now personally, this doesn't bother me at all, for several reasons. But I know it does bother some other people so it should probably be mentioned.

Okay that's that. Sorry for the big rambling post but that's just about all of what I think on the subject. It's something I want to have sorted out before the 1st Doctor is designed, which will be sooner rather than later. Anyone else have thoughts?

[Lazy Orang]

You know I have no personal interest in Doctor Who, but from my perspective, the Pros massively outweigh the Cons here. And as to the first Con... for generic characters and characters who've never displayed this, would it really be necessary to be on their cards?

[Yodaking]

I've never been a big fan of card powers that should take days to perform, take place during a hour long battle. It's why Deadpool can be KO'ed in our game, he'll heal up and be back for the next game, but it will take a little time to regrow his legs after Juggernaut rips him in half. I also don't consider every figure that falls in a game to be dead, just no longer able to continue the fight for that one battle.

So I don't see that kind of power as necessary for the Doctors for our game system. If a Doctor falls in battle, it doesn't need to be the end of the Doctor's story and the start of a new one. Even if it is, the new Doctor doesn't have to stand up at that moment and get knocked down all over again by the same guys. That isn't something I've seen happen in a 1 hour episode.

I would think if a Doctor were to fall in battle, he would bide his time and return with with new allies and a new plan on how he is going to win round 2. Seems ripe for scenario rules. Draft Doctor #1 and a XXX point team to fight team YYYY. Win and continue to the next game with a new army vs. new badguys, but using the same doctor. Lose and you have to fight team YYYY again using Doctor #2 and a new team. Play until you defeat 3-4 enemy teams. Run out of doctors and you lose.

[IAmBatman]

I think a string of regenerations would be unthematic. At most, I could see one Doctor regeneration per game.

If that's too hard to implement or too much of a text burden, I'd consider skipping it as a "happens between battles" type of thing like Yodaking is saying.

As long as they all have their subtitles to they're playable together (time shenanigans) I'll be happy.