For the first time in over two years of having this game I ran my first game of Doctor Who: Adventures In Space and Time last night. I ran a one-off adventure (Arrowdown) for a person that had gamed before, but never with me, and his girlfriend who had never role played before.
It was a good night and the adventure fit almost perfectly into the three hours that I had to run the game. I altered it so that it was Doctor Who (the Matt Smith version) and Clara Oswald that ventured into the little town of Arrowdown to find out the secrets of the harbour village.
The adventure is really well built, though there are a few internal inconsistencies that I missed on my couple of read through that I did. Also, I had done a heap of prep in my game book for the game as it was the first time I had run it AND then left it in my bag at home when I went to run the game. I think I got through OK though.
I was pleased with the game as it has given me confidence to run a game online in play by post form for someone that asked if I would be willing. I had rushed at the chance and then I have been a little shy of it because the tools I need to use are new and the game was new. Now I really only need to worry about the tools.
The girl who had not played before works with me and so I went and had a chat with her. She enjoyed the game and is currently suffering from the “But I can’t think fast like everyone else” syndrome which many new players face. During the night she kept looking to the character sheet for answers and I advised her a little of the way through to just think about what she would do in the situation. I have to say that her boyfriend did the same thing with the Doctor though but they will both get it in the longer run.
They are keen to play again every now and again, which is what I like. The game is easy to pick up and run like that and I love Doctor Who. Next time I might see if they want to build their own characters or just stick with what we have – after all, with the Fourth Doctor sourcebook now in my grasp we could recreate the quest for the time key and one of them could play Tom Baker Doctor Who” and the other could play Romana, another Time Lord. I did find that Arrowdown had a larger focus on the Doctor than the companions but it was nice to see Clara beat the Doctor out in a technical task last night.
There you have it, I ran my first game and really enjoyed this romp into Space and Time. It did feel a little awkward but really from here it is onward and upwards. Keep rolling!