The Roleplaying Game: Second Edition
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Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game - Second Edition is a revised edition of the the award-winning roleplaying game by Cubicle 7. It was released in PDF format on 30 July 2021, with a physical release planned for "Q2 2022". In addition to this, a Collector's Edition of the book with a specially-designed slipcase was also announced.
Built upon the Vortex System, originally created for the First Edition of the game, it made several significant changes and modifications to the rules while remaining backwards-compatible with sourcebooks from the previous edition.
The cover was designed by Lee Binding.
Publisher summary
The award-winning Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game has regenerated into a new Second Edition that is faster, easier, and even more exciting. This book presents all the rules and background you need to voyage across space and time with the Doctor, or as new characters experiencing brand new epic adventures.
This core rulebook includes:
- Complete character creation rules to allow you to bring to life a new time travelling adventurer to explore space and time aboard the TARDIS. They could be companions to the Doctor, or a new Time Lord of your own creation, Time Agents, or investigators and defenders of planet Earth.
The complete revised rules for playing Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game. The new and updated version of the popular Vortex system is completely
- compatible with the First Edition of the game. Second Edition makes gameplay faster, easier, and quicker to learn, while keeping all of the dramatic action you’d expect from an episode of Doctor Who.
- Advice for Gamemasters, new and old, on how to make the experience of Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game feel like you’re living an episode of the TV series, as well as how to create exciting storylines and continuing campaigns.
- Revised rules for creating your group’s own TARDIS, or other time travel device to allow them to adventure from the dawn of history to the very ends of the Universe.
- An expansive look at the history of the Universe, detailing many of the aliens and creatures the Doctor has encountered across space and time.
- Pregenerated character sheets for the Doctor and her companions, ready to play straight away!
Game mechanics
Like the the previous edition, a group of players took the role of characters while a single player, the Gamemaster, described the scenario and the consequences of the players' actions. Success or failure of a player's declared task is determined by combining scores from the player's character sheet with the roll of two six-sided dice.
Changes from the previous edition
Significant changes were made to the mechanics compared to those of the previous edition, including an overall of character stats, changes to the way successes and failures were handled, and the introduction of a system for gaining Experience Points which could be used to purchase upgrades for your character.
Two of the character skills - Fighting and Marksman - were merged into one skill, Combat. A new Skill, Intuition, was added, described by the core rulebook as "[covering] the trained ability to spot things, notice those discrepancies that reveal the hidden, and the body language that betrays a lie." Functionally, Intuition was similar to the Insight skill in Dungeons & Dragons.
The design of the character sheet was simplified, allowing more room for character background such as short- and long-term goals, notable experiences from the character's history, and a space for conditions, described by the rulebook as "a negative status that the character gains that has an impact on how well they can do things in future."
In addition to the rule changes, the second edition contained instructions for how to convert characters from the first edition of the game into the second, allowing existing games and campaigns to continue without having to rebuild characters from scratch. The same instructions can be used to convert materials from sourcebooks released for the first edition of the game.
Additional material and sourcebooks
Since the initial release of The Roleplaying Game: Second Edition, Cubicle 7 have continued to support the game with additional content. The first release was a free adventure, The Einstein Engine, which was released as a downloadable PDF on 12 August, 2021. Later releases have included module books, a GM screen (the first since the original GM screen released for the First Edition over a decade earlier), and a sourcebook covering the Thirteenth Doctor's era.
Beginning with the adventure book A Stitch in Time, material for Second Edition features the new 2023 version of the Diamond Logo, as opposed to the logo for the Chibnall/Whittaker era.
Released materials
| Title | Adventures / content | PDF release date | Physical release date |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Einstein Engine | The Einstein Engine | 12 August 2021 | N/A - Free PDF |
| Second Edition Starter Set | The Timeless Library The Echo Chamber |
17 November 2021 | Q2 2022 |
| Secrets of Scaravore | Paradise Lost A Kind of Magic Westward Bound The Mandala of Scaravore |
14 June 2022 | Q1 2023 |
| Gamemaster’s Screen | GM screen Additional content booklet |
14 June 2022 | Q1 2023 |
| Adventures in Space | Alien, spaceship and planet creation rules Settings for planets including Skaro, Trenzalore, Karn and Akhaten |
2022 | Q2 2023 |
| A Stitch in Time | First release since the Eighth Doctor Sourcebook to include a complete "series" of linked adventures | 2023 | Q3 2023 |
| The Thirteenth Doctor Sourcebook | Stat blocks and information for all TV stories during the Thirteenth Doctor's era, as well as series 1 of Doctor Who: Redacted | 2023 | Q4 2023 |
External links
- Official Doctor Who Roleplaying Game page at Cubicle7games.com
- Release announcement at Cubicle7games.com
- Cubicle7games.com
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