Worlds Apart (video game)

Stand well clear, Jo!

This article is currently undergoing significant editing. Editors should not use this tag for more than 72 hours. Please do not edit it until you no longer see this message, or until 72 hours have passed from the time this message appeared in the edit history.

Worlds Apart
Key crew
Publisher:	Reality+
Designer:	Sasha Blore, Darren Fitzjohn
Release details
Release date:	December 2021
Format:	Online trading cards game
Official trailer
▶︎ YouTube YouTube might collect personal data. Privacy Policy UnderstoodDismiss
Behind the scenes video
▶︎ YouTube YouTube might collect personal data. Privacy Policy UnderstoodDismiss
Doctor Who card games
← Previous	Top Trumps #10
Next →	Universes Beyond: Doctor Who

Worlds Apart was a Doctor Who-themed digital trading card game made by Reality+. It tied in with the Time Lord Victorious and focused on a highly variable narrative of various beings and entities doing battle with one another as they follow the Doctor's TARDIS through time, passing through four distinct "worlds".

Publisher's summary

THE WHONIVERSE IS IN YOUR HANDS!

Hop aboard! You’ve arrived just in time for an action-packed TARDIS ride through the past, the present and the future.

It’s ever so quick and easy to get the hang of things! Build your own deck of Whovian favourites, outsmart your opponent to win World Clashes and who knows, maybe you’ll succeed in your quest for cosmic glory!

Now, let’s get going…

Gameplay

As the Doctor's TARDISes moves in six stops through the Timeline, which is depicted by the gameboard, various beings and forces clash around it, in two clusters controlled by the two players. The players are attempting to accumulate "power", represented by the score-points gained by appropriating each other's character, species or item cards, and their Worlds. Each player starts off with a customisable deck of twelve cards, and three active cards in your hand. When picking twelve cards for their deck, each player also needs to choose a World (areas which can be anything from an era of Earth's history to a specific ship). At the start of the game, both Players’ Worlds are played to the timeline along with two other randomised Worlds.

Each player can draw another card at the start of every turn, but the maximum number of cards in a hand is seven, such as an attempt to add an eighth to the active hand will result in that card being lost. More than one card can be played to the board per turn, but playing each card "costs" Artron points; noth players receive +1 Artron each turn, so as the game goes on, they can play more cards or higher-cost cards. Cards are played by being slotted into one of the hexagons; they are played at the same time as the opponent and are initially invisible to them, before they are revealed the Power points are awarded to the winner of the round, adding up to four middle rounds depicting stops at specific worlds, while the starting and ending turns depict the TARDIS floating in space.

When the TARDIS rematerialises on a World, it becomes part of the Present, its ability is activated, and a World Clash takes place, which means that Power from all cards in the Present is totalled up for each player, and whoever has more wins the World and wields its Power.

The game ends after six rounds, with the player with the highest Power score being the winner.

Characters

This section's awfully stubby.

Please help by adding some more information.

• 21st Century Cyber-Planner
• Dalek Ambassador
• Ashad
• Avkhan
• Telosian Controller
• Cyberium
• The Cyberwoman/Lisa Hallett
• Davros
• The Doctor
  • Second Doctor
  • Third Doctor
  • Seventh Doctor
  • Tenth Doctor
  • Eleventh Doctor
  • Thirteenth Doctor
• Racnoss Empress
• Jack Harkness
• Ianto Jones
• The Wooden King
• Donna Noble
• Amy Pond
• The Wooden Queen
• Ko Sharmus
• River Song
• Rose Tyler

Worldbuilding

This section's awfully stubby.

Please help by adding some more information.

• The Pirate Sea Devils are a faction of time- and space-travelling Sea Devils.
• The Renegade Daleks are described as a "cult" based on Skaro.
• The Division is described as a secretive organisation associated with the Time Lords, (…) tasked with conducting covert operations, intelligence gathering, and enforcing the will of Gallifrey".
• The Dalek Ambassador is discussed using the singular they.
• Davros is dubbed Davros the Betrayer.
• River Song's diary is also known as "her 'Spoilers' diary".

Notes

Release history

Limited edition packs with five cards began being distributed in October 2020, which, once sold out, were not available for purchase again. As with physical card games, cards come in a variety of rarities and will feature a variety of creatures and characters from the history of the series. Distinct from most games, the developers decided to distinguish between the cosmetic aspects of the item, a card frame, and the actual card itself, and these things are customisable and sold separately. In order to ensure that there were no disputes over who owned what game pieces, Reality Gaming Group decided to implement blockchain technology for use in this game.

After the October wave of releases, players were able to acquire more cards in sets. The game went into early access alpha in December 2021 and open beta in October 2022. Further updates were unveiled in October 2023, with extra-long blurbs for a number of charactrs and elements being previewed in the official Discord server leading up to the 60th anniversary, and later in February 2024. The latter announcement was also accompanied by the release of a mini-episode which used the real-world game interface as a depiction of UNIT's visual interface database, allowing characters to discuss the updates in an in-universe context. The narrative continued to tie in heavily with the Time Lord Victorious multi-media event, even though it had otherwise concluded over a year prior.

Other matters

• A small controversy developed over the game using art for the game developed by another artist without originally crediting or paying them for this work.
• Gizmodo UK noted for their users that while the security of blockchain is often touted as a strength, it's still possible to steal items placed on the blockchain.
• One 2021 post on the official Twitter account claimed that "Some accounts state that the 'Emperor of the Restoration', who led the Daleks after the Civil War, is actually the Dalek Prime. Before it led the Daleks in the Time War, it created the Dalek Time Squad". This information is not reflected within the narrative of Worlds Apart and indeed does not match other Time Lord Victorious material, which consistently portrayed the Emperor of the Restoration as a distinct Emperor who had appropriated the image of his predecessor, rather than being the same individual. The phrase "Some accounts state…" echoes a common writing quirk of our own Wiki, suggesting the aberrant Twitter post may have originated as a misreading of our own Wiki's coverage of these characters.
• Whether the two players are meant to embody two specific characters, or simply to act out a mass of conflicts between the entities depicted in the cards they play, is somewhat unclear. Posts directed at players within the official Worlds Apart Discord server ran the gamut of calling the community "Time Lords", "Companions", "Time Lords & companions", or simply "time-travellers", in a light-hearted fashion which may not necessarily reflect the game's intended narrative.

Continuity

This section's awfully stubby.

Please help by adding some more information.

• The Renegade Daleks, as first seen in TV: Remembrance of the Daleks ^[+]Loading...["Remembrance of the Daleks (TV story)"], are explicitly described as having been loyal to "the Dalek Prime instead of Davros", as per PROSE: War of the Daleks ^[+]Loading...["War of the Daleks (novel)"].
• The living trees from TV: The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe ^[+]Loading...["The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe (TV story)"] are featured, identified as "the Arboreal Migration" or "the Treeborg".
• The "Doctor's Rebels" card, representing the general concept of people inspired to fight for justice by the Doctor's actions, is illustrated with artwork of the guards "deprogrammed" by the Twelfth Doctor from the Monks' hypnotism in TV: The Lie of the Land ^[+]Loading...["The Lie of the Land (TV story)"].
• The Mondasian colony ship from TV: World Enough and Time ^[+]Loading...["World Enough and Time (TV story)"]/The Doctor Falls ^[+]Loading...["The Doctor Falls (TV story)"] is reframed as part of a wider "mass exodus from Mondas" on the part of the early Mondasian Cybermen, comprising a number of "colossal spaceships or arks". Cybermen born on these arks are dubbed Exodus Cybermen, echoing the "Operation Exodus" of the televised two-parter, a name which would recur in WC: Incoming Transmission - February Update Video ^[+]Loading...["Incoming Transmission - February Update Video (webcast)"].
• Ko Sharmus from TV: Ascension of the Cybermen ^[+]Loading...["Ascension of the Cybermen (TV story)"]/The Timeless Children ^[+]Loading...["The Timeless Children (TV story)"] is featured, and revealed to have originally been a Gallifreyan operative of the Division in the "distant past" before questioning their authority and escaping to become a heroic figure. Though the Division was also discussed at some length in The Timeless Children, no connection was made between it and Ko Sharmus in the original serial, with the Cybermen's assumption that Ko Sharmus is human going unquestioned.
• The Mondasian Cybermen as depicted in TV: The Tenth Planet ^[+]Loading...["The Tenth Planet (TV story)"] get a card, whose associated blurb acknowledges their origin on Earth's twin planet Mondas, though it is here claimed that Mondas was Earth's twin "in an alternate universe", strangely echoing the alternative origin of the Cybermen given in TV: Rise of the Cybermen ^[+]Loading...["Rise of the Cybermen (TV story)"] for the Cybermen of Pete's World, who originated on the Earth of a parallel universe.
• The Pigmen Hybrids from TV: Daleks in Manhattan ^[+]Loading...["Daleks in Manhattan (TV story)"]/Evolution of the Daleks ^[+]Loading...["Evolution of the Daleks (TV story)"] are featured.
• The Racnoss Empress is featured, and her showdown with the Tenth Doctor and Donna Noble as seen in TV: The Runaway Bride ^[+]Loading...["The Runaway Bride (TV story)"] is briefly summarised.
• The Telosian Controller from TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen ^[+]Loading...["The Tomb of the Cybermen (TV story)"] is featured, likewise acknowledging his "dramatic confrontation" with the Second Doctor in sparse detial.
• The Silurian Paralyser card depicts a Silurian of the classic design first seen in TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians ^[+]Loading...["Doctor Who and the Silurians (TV story)"], and purports to explain the Silurians' "third eye", here depicted as a technology-based implant.
• The Cyberium's blurb goes over the plots of TV: The Haunting of Villa Diodati ^[+]Loading...["The Haunting of Villa Diodati (TV story)"].
• The Necros Daleks' blurb summarises the premise of TV: Revelation of the Daleks ^[+]Loading...["Revelation of the Daleks (TV story)"], including Davros's scheme at Tranquil Repose.
• The events of TV: Cyberwoman ^[+]Loading...["Cyberwoman (TV story)"] are summarised in the Cyberwoman's blurb.
• The "This Is A Peace Mission!" card depicts the Dalek Time Squad claiming to be on a peace mission, as occurred in AUDIO: The Enemy of My Enemy ^[+]Loading...["The Enemy of My Enemy (audio story)"], although the Emperor of the Restoration was not present for that event.
• The Cardiff Rift, first seen in TV: The Unquiet Dead ^[+]Loading...["The Unquiet Dead (TV story)"], is featured.
• Davros's mechanical hand, introduced in AUDIO: The Juggernauts ^[+]Loading...["The Juggernauts (audio story)"] and prominently seen on television from TV: The Stolen Earth ^[+]Loading...["The Stolen Earth (TV story)"] onwards, is cited as one of his trademark attributes alongside his "eye stalk".
• River Song's original encounter with the Tenth Doctor in TV: Silence in the Library ^[+]Loading...["Silence in the Library (TV story)"] and subsequent encounters with the Eleventh Doctor are referenced. Her character art depicts her battling Silents as she did in TV: Day of the Moon ^[+]Loading...["Day of the Moon (TV story)"].
• The Cyber Module from TV: The Invasion ^[+]Loading...["The Invasion (TV story)"] is featured, referred to as "the 21st Century Cyber-Planner". It had first been referenced as a Cyber-Planner in PROSE: Iceberg ^[+]Loading...["Iceberg (novel)"].
• The British Army squad from TV: Resolution ^[+]Loading...["Resolution (TV story)"] is featured.
• The Archive of Islos from WC: The Archive of Islos ^[+]Loading...["The Archive of Islos (webcast)"] is featured.
• Avkhan, Seeker of Knowledge, the Kotturuh antagonist of AUDIO: The Minds of Magnox ^[+]Loading...["The Minds of Magnox (audio story)"], is featured.
• Rose Tyler seeing the huge Bad Wolf meme graffiti in TV: The Parting of the Ways ^[+]Loading...["The Parting of the Ways (TV story)"] is used to illustrate the concept of a Bootstrap Paradox.

External links

• Official Twitter account
• Official website
• Official TikTok account