[This article is in support of my project to design an unofficial (and free) Fudge role-playing game adaptation of Doctor Who (the original show).]
The problem of how to plunge characters into adventure was addressed in FASA’s Doctor Who with the invention of the renegade Celestial Intervention Agency, which kept an eye on Temporal Nexus Point Earth and sent field agents there in stolen TARDIS units to halt the activities of temporal marauders. The idea of an agency of Time Lords who share the Doctor’s ethics and guide the players from one adventure to another is a good one, although I have a different view of the form it would take and I don’t think it ought to be the only method of introducing a scenario. The following is an excerpt of a work in progress:
THE EXCUSE FOR ADVENTURE
Why do characters do what they do? Specifically, how do they manage to
find themselves entangled in difficult situations that may involve the
fate of nations, planets, or even the universe as we know it? In Doctor
Who, the answer is typically a TARDIS misjump due to a faulty mechanism,
a miscalculation, or the effect of a temporal phenomenon. Sometimes the
TARDIS is drawn off course intentionally by a friend or foe intent on
thwarting the Doctor or enlisting his aid. Often the excuse for adventure
is pure coincidence. The Doctor and his Companion are off to this time or
that planet to enjoy its rare attractions when they are unexpectedly
thrust into the middle of one of the Master’s evil plots or an attempt by
the Daleks to enslave or exterminate another species. Although it works
well enough for a television programme, the premise may wear thin for
players when every adventure begins with a holiday outing interrupted by
interstellar conspiracy.
To provide a framework for continuing adventures without straining
credibility too much, an element has been added to the Classic Doctor Who
Universe (thus making it part of the Expanded Classic Doctor Who
Universe): the Temporal Integrity Preservation Society.
The Temporal Integrity Preservation Society (or T.I.P.S.) is a “club” of
independently-minded Time Lords concerned with threats to the timestream.
Operating from a private headquarters on Gallifrey and numerous TARDIS units
throughout time and space, its members monitor the natural and proper flow
of time and actively correct any deviations that are detected. Each
member’s TARDIS is equipped with a special device that enables members to
communicate with and be located by T.I.P.S. Headquarters. In the event
that a temporal deviation is detected, any member’s TARDIS can be
contacted and given the proper coordinates for emergency action. Adventure
can then proceed. Once the deviation has been corrected, Headquarters is
informed and the member returns to standby status.
Occasionally, the players will be the first to detect a disturbance in the
temporal flow, either from the instruments on the TARDIS or from personal
observation whilst visiting a particular time and place. Under those
circumstances, the players would immediately contact T.I.P.S.
Headquarters, investigate the matter, and attempt to correct the situation
(not necessarily always in that order).
It should be noted that not all temporal disturbances are the result of
obvious tampering by time travellers. Temporal anomalies do occur, and
sometimes only the wisdom and conscience of a Tipsy (as T.I.P.S. members
are both fondly and derogatorily referred to) can determine whether
intervention is permissible. Whereas the Doctor may oppose interference
with the Aztec ritual of human sacrifice on the grounds that it would
destroy the timestream, he may actively participate in defending Earth
against a Rutan invasion that, according to his knowledge of Earth’s
history, should not have succeeded in the 1890s. Whether his actions were
the cause of his own knowledge of the events is immaterial. The fact that
he knew that the Rutans must be opposed is proof that their failure to
conquer Earth was the proper result in the time line. The fact that he knew
that the Aztecs practiced human sacrifice until their conquest by the
Spanish is proof that their continuance of the ritual was the proper
result in the time line. One could argue circles around the subject of time
travel indefinitely, but for the purposes of adventure gaming in a light
science fiction setting, it is enough to know that the players ought to
sense when it is right to intervene, and when it is wrong. If they know
something didn’t happen a certain way in history, then they know they
ought to preserve that outcome as members of the Temporal Integrity
Preservation Society. If they don’t know something didn’t happen a
certain way (such as an event in our distant future or on an alien
planet), then they ought to proceed as if it were proper for them to be
there and do the right thing (avert an epidemic, liberate an enslaved
people, rescue the survivors of a crashed spaceship, stop a cult of alien
vampires, etc.). This both captures the tone of Doctor Who and promotes
playability.