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THE NEVER-ENDING SCRIPT
HOW TO BE A REFEREE (click here to view Tables 5A through 5H)
No role-playing game really ticks without the presence of a referee. He is the person that gives players the initial push into an adventure, adjusts to their whims and actions, and even offers them help when they get stuck. It is important to realize that the referee is not against the players: he is as likely to help them as he is to set perplexing puzzles. In some ways the referee is also part of the group, because he controls characters that players can befriend and who help defeat the villains: it is difficult to be against someone who helps attain an objective!
The referee's part in a role-playing game is to maintain play balance and adjudicate players' actions to get results that are consistent in the context of the DOCTOR WHO universe. TIME LORD is just one of his tools: it provides a set of physical laws as well as background information that is consistent with those laws. His other tools are imagination, flexibility and storytelling. Ideally, the referee uses all these tools to become transparent to the action: in effect, he is the means by which players enter another universe. Players depend on him for scene-setting information in the same way as they might absorb such details from a film or the computer-generated graphics of a virtual reality; if they do something within the world that the referee has described, it is the referee who reacts to their actions and maintains the feeling of suspension of disbelief.
Imaginary worlds, however, are difficult to maintain, and it takes time for a novice referee to develop all the skills that will ensure his players feel they are entering a different time and space. For a start, a referee has to absorb a vast amount of information about the DOCTOR WHO universe as well as the rules that make the game possible. He also has to learn how to describe scenes and people graphically so that they come alive. And he also needs to keep track of the fate and actions of everyone on an adventure, necessitating clear-thinking as well as bookkeeping skills. The referee, therefore, is the one person in a game of TIME LORD who should read this book thoroughly at some time so he has a clear idea of the scope of the rules and how they work.
Who Should Be Referee?
The referee is commonly chosen by default whenever anyone plays a new role-playing game: he is usually the owner of the rule book. He is the person who believes it would be entertaining to run a game using a particular set of rules, and it is usually his enthusiasm that encourages other people to play in his games. It is suggested, therefore, that in a group of novices, whoever owns the copy of TIME LORD should be the referee.
Until the players themselves obtain copies of the TIME LORD, it makes sense for the owner of the rules to be the referee. He, after all, will have had the greatest opportunity to study the rules and should have a good grasp of the basic mechanics. Experienced role-players also often choose their referee this way, for the person who buys a new set of rules is the one most likely to want to get a game started.
After one or two adventures, one of the players may want to take a turn at being referee, because he has an idea for an adventure. Any referee should encourage this: it adds to the variety of the game and gives the referee a chance to play a character! Even within the same group, however, referees have different styles; what one deems suitable for his players may be too tame or too excessive for another referee. It is suggested that a different incarnation of the Doctor and other companions to the ones played under the control of the first referee be used to retain continuity in each referee's universe.
Rules, Reality and Realism
TIME LORD is simply a set of rules that have been designed to give an effect: they aim to simulate the reality of the DOCTOR WHO television series. Although the physical laws of the DOCTOR WHO universe are broadly similar to those of our own world, the nature of alien intelligences, time paradoxes and natural phenomena as well as the demands of television magic mean that not everything in the game may behave exactly as expected on twentieth century Earth. DOCTOR WHO is a setting in which elite soldiers can fire at point blank range and miss; in which rivers of fluid ice course through the cores of planets; and in which villains who certainly died in a previous adventure resurface to menace characters again. It is the realm where science fiction becomes science fact.
While running the game, therefore, do not expect results to be realistic but consistent with the general laws of the DOCTOR WHO universe. Realism is a tool that to a degree can be dispensed with, although it is vital at times to make players believe or have faith in an adventure or the referee. Players feel comfortable when reality behaves as expected; when it does not, they are likely to become disoriented and argumentative. Any effect that is deliberately intended to make players feel uncomfortable should be carefully considered and handled.
The rules, too, can be broken. If something does not seem right, as referee you have the right to change it. TIME LORD is designed to be generally consistent with the background, but it cannot simulate every effect simply because the background contradicts itself. The Cybermen detailed in Part Four, for example, are those from the time of The Moonbase and Tomb of the Cybermen: if you want wimpy Cybermen, lower their Armour; if you feel they are too weak, increase their Strength. Tweaking abilities, however, is a minor form of rule-changing: you may need to invent rules to cover special situations or bend ones to simulate a different effect. Whatever you do, always use the principle of beat the difference when rolling the dice.
One rule that cannot be broken is that the referee's word is law. No matter how much a player whines or argues, the referee has the final say. If a player ups and leaves, fine, you are probably better off without him: players often do not know the full story when they perceive a referee's ruling as unfair; they are certainly not privy to the scheming or skills of their opponents. A mature player will accept, although he may not agree with, a referee's decision.
Getting Organized
There is no set way of playing a role-playing game. Some groups split up around a room and slump in armchairs; others prefer to sit round a table. The first method encourages a relaxed atmosphere, the second concentrates the players' minds on the game. Which one is best is a matter of personal preference. Either way, the referee should sit slightly apart from the players, ideally with a table for his own use. Here he can organize the running of the game: table space is needed for the rule book, dice, scrap paper as well as notes on characters and the adventure in progress. Notes that the players should not see can be kept handy yet away from their eyes.
The referee's table is like the backstage area of a play: events and referee characters are waiting in the wings for their cue, and behind-the- scenes action controlled by the referee takes place there without the main players' knowledge. Dice rolls that players should not know the results of should be made here, using the rule book or a cupped hand to obscure the dice from the players' view.
There should also be somewhere, such as a separate room, that the referee can take players who are away from the main action or whose actions need to be carried out in secret. It is inevitable that characters will become separated during the course of an adventure, and their players should not know what the others are up to or what happened until everyone meets up again. If characters do become separated, remember to deal with all the players equally: it can be boring and frustrating for players to be left on their own for long. Exceptionally good role-players can be trusted to observe events they are not involved in because they will not use such information to advantage.
Bringing The Game Alive
How much the referee puts into an adventure to an extent affects how much the players get out of it. By drawing on storytelling skills and powers of description, the referee can make the TIME LORD universe come alive. If players enter a new environment _ whether it is a spaceship, a planet or even just another room in a complex _ it is the referee's description that they rely on for information before they act.
By giving players comparative descriptions to similar sights, sounds and smells on Earth, it is possible to create a picture of an alien environment. If the TARDIS lands on a beach at the foot of a cliff, for example, describe the mood of the sea and the effect the two suns, or whatever, have on the water's surface. Tell the players how they feel as they breathe in fresh, salt-laden air, and let them know it burns their throats if it contains hints of acid. Give them an idea of the steepness and climbability of the cliff, the nature of the rock and its colours. If there are sea birds or other forms of life, let the players know, and tell them any observer might normally take for granted; if it is eerily silent, convey this information too. Players will use this information to imagine what the alien world they have landed on looks like; it will also help them role-play their characters through the suspension of disbelief.
Referee Characters
Characters controlled by the referee both provide information for the player characters and give the referee the chance to role-play. Referee characters that are role-played well develop personalities and become believable, which helps to increase the players' involvement in the game: instead of feeling that they are dealing with the referee, players will feel their characters are dealing with other people.
It does not take much acting talent to make a referee character more than two-dimensional, just effort on the part of the referee. When such characters are created, or when they are used in an adventure, try to give each one a different personality. By the bare statistics that are the character's abilities, put a few notes about their behaviour and quirks of personality. Those characters that take a dominant role should be more thoroughly detailed so that they can be played consistently from game session to game session.
Referee characters for an adventure are easy to create: just give them the values that are appropriate for each ability. The referee's sense of game balance is important here: appropriate values are relative to the player characters' abilities. A villain who cannot be swayed from the path of injustice should have Determination two or three points higher than the average player character's ability. His weak abilities should be equal to or less than the corresponding abilities of player characters. Look at the abilities given to villains and aliens in Part Four for guidelines on the level of abilities.
Running Adventures
The simplest way to run an adventure is to set the scene and let the players get on with it: as referee, you merely react to what they do and tell them what they find or what happens to them. You are there to oversee what the players do to solve the mystery you have set them. Ideally, you should not impose your wishes on the players: they should feel free, as characters, to go their own way without being channelled in a particular direction by the referee. Only when it becomes apparent that the players are genuinely stuck should it be necessary to intervene, and then it is best done through the actions of friendly or hostile referee characters.
Sometimes, however, the nature of a plot forces the referee to intervene. If the Daleks, for example, are working to a schedule to explode a neutron bomb at the centre of the Earth, the referee uses the number of research turns that have passed to determine when the Daleks' next move will be made. The result is quite independent of the players' actions unless they are trying to abort the explosion. The entire adventure turns into a race against time, which adds an edge of excitement to proceedings, and the referee often has to interrupt what the players are doing with other events. Of course, if the players are in the wrong place at the wrong time, much of what happens will pass unnoticed until it is almost too late!
Keep all your notes at hand, and you should be able to run an adventure smoothly and with the minimum intrusion of the mechanics into the story line. It will enable you to develop your role as a responsive storyteller.
Difficulties
Picking the right difficulty for a character to beat is one of the keys to a successful game of TIME LORD. If you make an adventure too easy, the players will feel that they have had too little of a challenge; make it too hard, and they may be deterred from ever playing again. TIME LORD deliberately allows characters that are good enough to succeed at what they attempt so each player has a feeling that his character is competent. Rolling the dice creates a feeling of tension, and it is when some or all of the characters have a chance of failure that the game system generates excitement: players sometimes will the dice to produce the right numbers!
Difficulties should be chosen so that the dice are rolled at tense moments, or at times where tension can be generated to good effect. The game system is intended to remove mundane rolls so they do not intrude on an adventure.
Abilities automatically generate corresponding difficulties: Strength is used, for example, to overcome an object's Strength to break it, and to overcome its Weight to lift it. The object's Strength or Weight provide the difficulties that a character's Strength must overcome to affect it. The Difficulties And Abilities Tables give descriptions and examples of the numeric values of each ability: these tables, along with the principle of beat the difference, form the backbone of the rules system.
Novice referees can also resort to a default difficulty, to be used when the tables seem confusing or have no immediately obvious equivalent to whatever is being attempted. The default is a difficulty of 5. This ensures that most characters, whose abilities typically range from 3 to 5, will have to roll the dice to succeed.
Whenever more than one ability seems appropriate to a task, use the one that is most relevant to the stated actions. A one-area wide chasm, for example, counts as terrain of difficulty 3, and to move across it into an area of flat ground counts as a total difficulty of 4. A player can elect to use Move to cross it in one action turn and keep moving, or leap across it, using Control and the Leaping special ability, as his action for the turn.
Modifiers (click here to view Table 6A and 6B)
At best, the difficulty tables can give only an approximate value given the different circumstances in which the players can find themselves. The way a player may want his character to achieve something might sound cack-handed or be a brilliantly elegant solution; if it sounds wrong his action should be penalized with a higher difficulty, if it sounds right, the difficulty should be lower. General modifiers are listed in the Modifiers Table _ in effect they can increase or decrease a difficulty by 1 to 3, largely based on the referee's gut feeling.
It is quite possible for a referee to run a game using only the default difficulty of 5, adjusting it as he sees fit using the general modifiers. These modifiers are particularly relevant to negotiations and arguments between characters and referee characters; a character's resistance to persuasion should be increased if he disagrees with another person's opinion.
Other modifiers reflect special situations. A character leaping from concealment to attack an enemy should get a bonus for taking his opponent by surprise; similarly, a character partly blinded by mist should receive a penalty. Most special modifiers affect combat, although those that affect vision, for example, also affect other situations.
Research Turns (click here to view Table 7)
Tasks such as building or repairing equipment, machinery or MacGuffins, preparing traps, shifting rubble, researching viruses and so on are assigned difficulties appropriate to the length of time needed for completion. A rockfall consisting of six tonnes of rubble, for example, cannot be moved in one action turn: it takes many research turns of effort to clear.
The difficulty, however, can be assigned according to the difficulty tables. Knowledge gives appropriate difficulties for technology, so a difficulty of 4 would be appropriate to build a 20th century Earth radio; a jet engine would be difficulty 5. And the six tonne rockfall has a difficulty of 7 to shift based purely on Weight.
These values can also be adjusted using the general modifiers: if the rockfall consisted of heavy boulders, the difficulty might increase by 2 because no lifting gear is available; if it consisted of gravel, the difficulty might increase by 1 because no scoops or shovels were to hand. And particularly advanced or an unfamiliar jet engine might warrant an increase in difficulty of 1 or 2.
The time in research turns required to complete a task depends on the scale of the project. Repairs to electronic circuits might take anything from 1 to 20 research turns; building circuits from scratch might take 20 to 100 research turns. A rough guide to the number of research turns needed to complete a task is given in the Research Table along with some example difficulties.
The Doctor needs to modify a 20th century transistor radio to transmit an SOS. The difficulty is 4, obtained from the Knowledge required to understand the technology, and the referee decides it will take 12 research turns (3 hours) to find the parts and make the adjustments.
Hurried research (click here to view Table 8)
Time is often of the essence when trying to defeat an alien menace or finding cures for diseases or viruses, and characters may need to complete a task in less time than the basic amount. They can try to complete these tasks in less time but at a higher difficulty. Players may well choose to do so if their characters are clearly capable of accomplishing a task within the normal limits _ their abilities are higher than the difficulty.
Because the Doctor has Knowledge 6 and Electronics 2, a total ability of 8, the player knows he can easily modify the radio in 12 turns and be certain of success. The Doctor urgently needs to send his distress signal, so the player opts to modify the radio in less time at a greater difficulty.
The Hurried Research Table shows the increases to the difficulty according to the amount of time spent on a task. Conversely, a character can make a task easier by spending more time on a project these difficulties are also given. In effect, however, every 10% reduction or increase in the time spent respectively adds one to or subtracts one from the difficulty.
The Doctor decides he can complete modifications to the radio in 50% of the time, increasing the difficulty by 5 to 9. He now needs to beat a difference of 1 to modify the radio in 6 turns.
Whether a character hurries research turn activities or not, the dice are rolled only after the required number of research turns has passed. In the examples, if the Doctor hurried his work the dice would be rolled only after six turns had passed.
Failure
Inevitably characters will fail at some research turn tasks, and for this reason it is best if the dice are rolled by the player but the result seen by only the referee. That way the player does not know whether his character has succeeded or failed until he uses equipment: the result of failed manual labour, however, will be apparent. Although it is possible to test electronic components, MacGuffins cannot be tested: they either work or they don't and the only way to find out is to use them against their intended targets.
Bench-thumping is the one ability that can be used to compensate for failure, but if that too fails to work, the character must start again. The time required, however, will have changed as the character has made some headway. This is reflected by reducing the difficulty using the general modifiers but keeping the same base time; players can again opt to hurry.
Incredibly, the Doctor fails to modify the radio, and instead picks up the sounds of wonderful Big L. He starts again, but the referee lowers the difficulty by 2 to 2; the time required stays at 12 turns. The Doctor again chooses to cut the time required by 50%, making a total difficulty of 7, which he will certainly beat.
As referee you should make a feature out of failure. Electronic circuits that have been built incorrectly have probably fused in sparks and a puff of smoke, and failure provides a chance to increase tension and develop atmosphere. It doesn't really matter if the players' hopes rested on building a MacGuffin that would stop an invasion fleet of Cybermen: if it cannot be built in time they must improvise!
Cutting Tools (click here to view Tables 9 and 10)
Few classic chases in DOCTOR WHO are complete without the Doctor fusing or locking a door, forcing his pursuers to use cutting equipment to continue the chase while the Doctor makes good his escape _ or at least stumbles freely into a carefully prepared trap. How the pursuers deal with obstacles depends on the value of nearby equipment: cutting tools are slower but safer than explosives. Humanoids, too, need not always cut a hole big enough for an entire body to walk through; it may be sufficient to cut a small hole big enough for a arm to poke through and reactivate a locking mechanism or turn a key.
Any material's resistance to cutting tools is given by its Strength: typical Strengths are given in the Materials Resistance Table. The resistance is the difficulty that must be beaten to cut a 10 centimetres long, 1 centimetre wide and 1 centimetre deep hole in that material _ a volume of 10 cubic centimetres. In essence, however, it is based on the difficulty of making a 10 centimetre cut through a typical metal door in a futuristic city.
There are three basic specialized cutting tools: cutting torches, thermic lances and mechanical cutters. In addition, blasters that use heat or sonic energy, such as those carried by Sea Devils or Ice Warriors, can be used to a greater or lesser extent as cutting tools. Species such as the Daleks and Cybermen, however, need dedicated cutters and cannot use their blasters as cutting tools, although the Daleks can replace their guns with cutting torches.
The capabilities of each type of cutting tool are detailed in the Cutting Tools Table. Each one inflicts its Cutting Power on an object in much the same way that weapons inflict Wounds in combat, but this value is used to overcome the resistance of the material. If the cutting tool beats the difference between its cutting ability and the Strength of the material, the cutter advances 10 cubic centimetres through it.
A Dalek cutting torch, Wounds 6, would usually be able to progress at 10 centimetres an action turn through a typical 1 centimetre thick hard metal door (difficulty 6) of a Dalek city. Each turn the referee would roll to beat a difference of 0; if he succeeded, the Dalek would cut a further 10 centimetres through the door. To cut a Dalek-shaped hole from the base of the door along three sides would require about 350 centimetres to be cut, taking about 35 action turns.
Because cutting is such a slow process it can be treated like a research turn activity. Instead of rolling each turn to determine the cutter's progress, divide the volume to be cut by 10 to get the number of action turns needed to complete the task; the difficulty remains that of the material, such as difficulty 6 for a hard metal door. The cutters can opt to hurry or prolong the cutting time to respectively increase or decrease the difficulty: use the modifiers given in the Hurried Research Table.
Instead of rolling the dice each action turn during the 35 turns needed to cut through the door, the referee elects to roll the dice only after 35 turns of cutting have passed: the cutting tool inflicts 6 Wounds against the material's Strength of 6 and would cut through the door after this time if the referee rolls the dice and beats a difference of 0.
While the player characters are on the other side of a door which is slowly being cut through, remember to remind them of their pursuer's progress while they work out their next move. And by hurrying the cutting procedure, the uncertainty is increased about the amount of time the players have to plan or escape.
Failure
Daleks, Cybermen and other ruthlessly efficient, calculating alien species do not permit failure and will usually work to safe cutting schedules that ensure success. More fallible species may rush a job or just be incompetent.
Like failure on research turn tasks failure cutting through obstacles should be made a feature of the game. Failure means the cutting tool has run out of fuel or energy; in the case of a mechanical tool it has been blunted or has broken. Or perhaps the material has proved particularly resistant and progress has been slower than expected.
A further attempt can be made to cut through after the cause of failure has been established. The difficulty is reduced to allow for any headway made during previous attempts: if it is the second attempt, reduce the difficulty by 1; if it is the third attempt, reduce the difficulty by 2. The difficulty, however, cannot be reduced below 1.
Explosives (click here to view Tables 11 and 12)
Small charges of explosives are effective both at blowing up objects and blowing up people. They are area weapons with potentially enormous destructive power, but which need careful handling. In the course of a TIME LORD adventure, only the Doctor and his companion Ace are ever likely to want to use explosives: most of the times that referee characters use them, the referee can simply rule whether a charge has been placed accurately and whether it does what it is supposed to do.
An explosive charge must be placed well to have maximum effect. The difficulty of placing a charge is 5, modified according to any weak points. A totally smooth object with no defects would increase the difficulty by 2 because there is no obvious spot to put the charge _ it counts as an almost impossible task on the general modifiers table. In contrast, a craggy object riddled with faults or crevices would be easy to place a charge on, counting as almost certain and decreasing the difficulty by 2. Small charges of explosives can be placed in one action turn; large charges take 1 to 8 research turns. Different types of explosives are listed in the Explosives Table.
Explosives inflict Wounds on objects in the same way that weapons inflict Wounds on characters. Materials resist explosives using their Strength, as given in the Materials Resistance Table; this value is the resistance of one area of that material to explosives. If the Wounds inflicted by the explosives overcome a material's resistance, that area is damaged; if a number of Wounds greater than twice the material's Strength are inflicted, that object is destroyed.
All explosives have a primary zone of effect and a secondary zone of effect, given in the Explosives Ranges Table. In the primary zone of effect, full Wounds are inflicted on any object or person in that zone; half Wounds, rounded up, are inflicted on any person or object in the secondary zone of effect. The zones are the range over which an explosive has effect.
A primary zone of 0 and a secondary zone of 1 means the explosive detonates at full effect in its area and a half effect 1 area away. Similarly a primary zone of 0--1 and a secondary zone of 2--3 means the explosive has full effect up to one area away from the centre of explosion and half effect from 2 to 3 areas away.
The Wounds inflicted by explosives can be increased by increasing the explosive charge. Doubling the amount of explosive increases the Wounds inflicted by 1; similarly, halving the amount of explosive reduces the Wounds inflicted by 1.
Ace decides that one can of nitro-nine, Wounds 7, might not be enough to blow open a Dalek, protected by Armour 9. She bundles four cans together with sticky tape, sneaks up behind the Dalek and tapes the charge to its shell. The four cans of nitro-nine will inflict 9 Wounds, and are virtually guaranteed of blowing up the Dalek. If she used only two or three cans, the nitro-nine would inflict 8 Wounds.
Failure
If a character fails to place a charge accurately, it will go off prematurely, not go off at all, or go off in the wrong place and fail to destroy the object. Whichever result is most dramatically appropriate should be used so that failure forces the players to reappraise their situation and perhaps try another route.
Hypnotism And Negotiation
Changing someone's opinion by force or by persuasion is not as simply as making a straightforward dice roll to beat the difference, especially if it takes place between two player characters. Rather than use the dice to determine the outcome of arguments or oratory between player characters, allow the players to play their roles in an attempt to bring an opponent round to their way of thinking. The dice, however, should be used to determine the outcome of oratory and arguments which involve referee characters. They should also be used to determine the outcome of any attempt at hypnotism.
There is a subtle distinction between Awareness and Determination in negotiations. Awareness is the skill of persuasion by oratory and clever negotiation; Determination is the imposition of ideas by force of will. Similarly, Awareness is used to resist persuasion and smooth- talking; Determination is used to resist orders, hypnotism and the like. Special abilities such as Bargaining, Indomitable Will and Independent Spirit increase a character's ability to argue or resist domination or persuasion.
Any attempt at negotiation or hypnotism should take into account the general difficulty modifiers, adjusting a character's resistance according to whether he is opposed to or largely in accord with the arguments used against him. The modifiers should also be used for hypnotism: someone who is set against the Master's will is more able to resist him. Jo Grant, for example, after the Master initially succeeded in hypnotizing her managed to resist further attempts.
Anyone with fixed views, however, is unlikely to have them radically changed by argument. It would be difficult, for example, to convince a conservative businessman of the merits of communism, although he might agree for convenience to follow some of its tenets.
Arguments are not always one-way attempts to change someone's views: the other person may respond with counter arguments, in which case both roll the dice to determine whether they succeed in adjusting the other's viewpoint. If both characters succeed, each should adjust his argument towards the other's. If only one succeeds, the other should adjust his opinion or is convinced of the merits of the argument. And if both fail, no change results: either character should offer something fresh for negotiations to continue. Further attempts may reduce the difficulty or end up with one person's viewpoint clearly established as the right course of action.
HOW TO INVENT ADVENTURES
Once you have played The Curse of the Cyclops, the adventure at the end of this part of TIME LORD, you will need to create your own adventures. This is not as daunting as it may sound: an involving and interesting TIME LORD adventure needs only the rudiments of an exciting plot; if you cannot think of one, there are plenty to be adapted from DOCTOR WHO novelizations or even unrelated films and books on subjects as diverse as science fiction and Shakespeare. DOCTOR WHO is a universe where space opera mingles with horror, comedy, thrillers and historical drama: all these styles and more can be used as the basis for adventures.
Your own imagination is by far the best source of a plot because the story line will be unique. Plots adapted from books or films have a disadvantage in that one or more of the players may recognize the initial source and be wise to the outcome. For this reason it is best never to follow an existing story too closely: change the plot devices, the motives of some of the characters, and even add or remove scenes. Even combine elements of plots so that one or more plots run alongside the main story line, some of which may continue well into the next adventure or provide the springboard for it.
A rough idea of the plot can be sufficient to run a game. As long as you know who is doing what, when they are doing it and why they are doing it, many situations can be improvised. The less you write, the more flexible the adventure can be, and the more able it is to adjust to the players' approach and desires.
Many themes recur throughout DOCTOR WHO, yet most times they are reworked with new aliens or settings to make them unique. In italics after each of the themes that follows are examples of stories that use the theme: by referring to the novelization or programme you can see how the idea was used.
Recurrent Themes
Alien menace
Tentacled, blobby green creatures from the near side of beyond infinity terrorize Earth. A stock source of UNIT stories. (Spearhead from Space, The Claws of Axos.)
Altering history
Whether as a malicious action or prank, time travellers attempt to alter history for the better, bringing technological advances many centuries earlier than they would have ordinarily have been discovered. (The Meddling Monk, The Time Warrior.)
Ancient powers
Accidentally or deliberately, forces from the dawn of time are released or unleashed by innocents or the Doctor's enemies. Destruction of the planet, galaxy or universe will result if they are not contained. (The Daemons, Planet of Evil.)
Archenemy
One of the Doctor's enemies, typically the Master or the Rani, is up to no good and has laid a trap for the Doctor to stumble into. Or the archenemy is manipulating the resources of a planet or its people to gain power. (Time and the Rani, Logopolis.)
A world gone mad
Reality is overturned and nothing is as it seems. The Doctor must live by his wits to survive and to find out the source of the irregularity. (The Mind Robber, The Edge of Destruction.)
Beauty and the beast
Foul is fair and fair is foul -- the Doctor must determine whether things are as they seem. (Galaxy Four, The Mutants.)
Chase
Either the Doctor or someone he encounters is pursued by a deadly enemy who seeks to capture or kill his foe. (Delta and the Bannermen, The Chase.)
Environmental action
Negligence of the environment through careless disposal of chemicals creates man's nemesis. (The Green Death, The Curse of Fenric.)
Historic adventure
The Doctor and companions take part in historic events knowing that they can observe and advise, but not change the course of history as they know it. (The Reign of Terror, The Crusade.)
Intrigue
Caught in a struggle for power between two or more factions, the Doctor and his companions must choose who is right and who deserves help. And if no one faction is better than the other, the Doctor must fight a battle of wits to evade the wrath of everyone. Intrigue can be the main element of a game or provide just part of it in the form of power struggles between dominant referee characters. (The Monster of Peladon, Planet of Fire.)
Invasion
Calculating, intelligent species invade a planet to colonize it or to strip it of its resources. (The Dalek Invasion of Earth, The Invasion.)
Mad scientists
Morally superior scientists attempt to dominate humanity or create a better world, whether through mistaken ideals or contempt for lesser mortals. (Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Robot.)
Mistaken identity
The Doctor arrives on a planet and is mistaken for an ambassador or a spy. He plays out the charade until it suits his purpose to reveal the truth -- which is sometimes never! (The Curse of Peladon, The Romans.)
Parallel universe
Everything is the seemingly the same as the characters' universe but is somehow different. Roles are reversed and what may happen in one universe may or may not happen in its parallel one. (Inferno.)
Quest
Parts of an artefact are scattered across a planet or solar system and must be reunited to forestall an enemy or prevent a catastrophe. (The Keys of Marinus, The Key to Time.)
Rightful rulers
Species dispossessed of their rightful planet seek to regain it, even at the cost of genocide. (The Silurians, The Web Planet.)
Survival
A species or race reduced to its last numbers fights desperately for survival in a hostile environment. Science becomes the work of the gods, is shunned or is enshrined as law or procedure. (Frontios, The Face of Evil.)
Technology gone wrong
Advanced computers or robots begin to think for themselves and decide man is dispensable. They must be stopped before mankind is destroyed or forever enslaved. (The War Machines, The Robots of Death.)
Temporal paradox
Companions and the Doctors meet themselves, inexperienced time travellers attempt to break the first and second laws of time and reverse history. (Day of the Daleks, City of Death.)
Things from another dimension
Also known as things that man was not meant to know yet have none the less deigned to knock on the doors of human knowledge, these are creatures that have crossed or been brought across the dimensional barriers of the universe. As alien intelligences or long dormant forces, they dominate species and seek to take over their worlds. (The Abominable Snowmen, The Image of the Fendahl, The Web Planet.)
Traitor
A seemingly dependable ally is in fact working for the enemy and reveals himself as a traitor by turning a weapon on the Doctor just as the Time Lord appears to have triumphed. (Resurrection of the Daleks, Earthshock.)
Whom gods destroy
Once powerful beings try to escape imprisonment and restore themselves to true power and recognition in the eyes of their former equals. (The Pyramids of Mars, The Three Doctors, Dragonfire.)
Recurrent themes can form some or all of an adventure; several can be used at once to great effect. They help to provide the bones of a TIME LORD adventure, to which details of people, places, creatures and events can be added. Morals can be built in as well to deliver a message: DOCTOR WHO stories have attacked environmental negligence, big business, racism and bureaucracy among other subjects.
Villains And Friends
Once you have decided the rough nature of an adventure, you need to decide which of the aliens or villains is responsible -- it may even be more than one working in an uneasy alliance. Also make a note of potential friends and neutrals, detailing them by writing down their names and appropriate abilities and notes on personality.
Now is also the time to work out the factions involved: you need to have a clear idea of who is against who as well as who might be persuaded to team up with one faction to overcome another. It is also a good idea to include a few double agents or traitors, with the aim of both leaking information and throwing suspicion on the Doctor or his companions.
Most of the time strong villains will have one or two efficient, deadly henchmen and hordes of inefficient extras with low abilities and a tendency to die at the hands of the Doctor's capable allies. Similarly, the Doctor's weak allies frequently tend to die from the blaster fire of Daleks, Cybermen, Autons and the like. The Doctor also has a few referee characters who accompany and help him, even surviving in time to say goodbye when the Doctor leaves.
Scope
Until you have a strong grasp of TIME LORD's mechanics and have run a few basic adventures, it is easiest to keep adventures on a small scale. The Templar Throne deliberately restricts the action to a limited area, in this case a shopping centre, and limits the number of antagonists. Early adventures should take place in the confines of spaceships, environmental domes or within a small geographic area -- one of the earliest DOCTOR WHO stories, The Edge of Destruction, restricted the action to the control room and sick bay of the TARDIS. Limiting the area over which play can take place makes it easier to prepare maps and details of places, and restricts what the characters can do.
As you become more familiar with the way adventures work, the scope of adventures can be broadened. From simple adventures over a limited area, they can become complicated political intrigues with much travelling between locations in the TARDIS or more primitive means of transport. As the number of factions and areas to explore increase, so the odds of the characters going their own ways grows. It takes experience to handle several small groups of players while keeping each one occupied.
Maps And Drawings
Even a scrappy map or drawing can help players envisage a location or object more clearly than a spoken description. Before play you should draw sketch maps of key locations, such as buildings, laboratories, the bridge, hold and cells of spaceships, and even the TARDIS control room. Roughly draw a network of areas over each location so that each one can be laid out quickly when the characters reach it and action has to take place. It can be worth drawing objects on the square notelets used to form areas to save time in play.
Super-detailed plans of location are not essential. You might like to draw the entire plan of a spaceship, castle or scientific complex just for reference, but so little of it will actually be used in play. Think of the limits of a DOCTOR WHO television set before sitting down to draw any maps. The set has only a few key locations in which all the action takes place; if there is a chase, the characters run through a maze of similar-looking corridors or passageways. By noting and detailing the key locations and assigning difficulties (against Awareness) for travelling along any links without getting lost, it is possible to avoid drawing too many maps. A referee should aim to simplify his bookkeeping, not complicate it!
Time Lines
Along with a plot, many villains work to a definite schedule in the execution of their plans. Daleks planning the invasion of a planet will have spent weeks organizing their attack, right down to the timing of the first landing and the arrival of the main force. They will work to their schedule, bypassing any difficulties and choosing different course of action where necessary, usually after the Doctor has intervened.
Similarly, some TIME LORD adventures need to have time lines worked out in advance. A time line is simply a schedule of events, starting from the villain's first moves, through to the arrival of the Doctor, and then theoretically outlining the progress of the adventure. If the Cybermen had placed a bomb deep within the core of a planet with a set detonation time, the detonation time would be a point on that time line; the Doctor would need to prevent the bomb exploding by taking appropriate action beforehand. The number of research turns he has to do this is limited by the time line.
Time lines can cover periods of a few action turns, several hours, days or even weeks. In effect they are a countdown to action: if nothing happens to prevent it, the next event on the time line takes place, and so on until the villain succeeds or is thwarted.
Putting It All Together
It is very tempting to take all the elements of an adventure and predetermine the parts the player characters are going to play. But to do so is a mistake. Players are unpredictable and will come up with all sorts of solutions the referee could never have envisaged while inventing an adventure. They will spot inconsistencies in the plot, steamrolling their way through shallow artifices. And they will resent being channelled along the way the referee has prepared for them. When assembling all the elements of an adventure, it is important to build in flexibility, and that means being able to improvise.
While an adventure should include tasks that make use of certain characters' special abilities, it should not depend on a character succeeding. If the referee has envisaged that the Doctor should build a MacGuffin to defeat an alien intelligence, there should be a way of overcoming the menace if the Doctor fails to build one or if the player believes there is a better solution.
Time lines, too, should be flexible. Minor events can go ahead regardless, but potentially devastating events can be adjusted so that players have a chance to do something about them if they've been particularly slow or roundabout in their approach to the scenario.
You, as referee, are there to make TIME LORD an enjoyable experience for yourself and your players. If that means bending your rules or those of the game, then do it.
