The TIME LORD Companion: Express Edition

THE TIME LORD COMPANION: EXPRESS EDITION
Third Edition ©2002 Steven J. Ege. All rights reserved.

Introduction
This, the third edition of this booklet, was designed as a set of rules to allow published adventures from FASA Corporation's Doctor Who Role Playing Game to be used in the TIME LORD environment. To do this, the GM controlled characters and pre-generated Player Characters (PC's for short) need to be converted over to the TIME LORD game system. This booklet provides the rules, tables, and guidelines to do this. Included in the booklet are statistics for the Eighth Doctor, presented in May 1996 in a made-for-TV movie shown simultaneously in the United States and the United Kingdom.

The third edition streamlines the rules and corrects the vast majority of errors in the Second Edition. This edition replaces all previous editions. For sake of brevity, the character creation rules created by Ian Marsh and Allen Shock which form the basis of this document do not appear here. They are available on the Internet at the Doctor Who Resource Page and Mailing List link on the Miscellaneous Links page on this site.

Doctor Who Role-Playing Game ©1986 FASA Corporation. All rights reserved.
TIME LORD: The Doctor Who Role-Playing Game ©1991 Ian Marsh & Peter Darvill-Evans. All rights reserved.
"Doctor Who" television series ©1963, 1991 British Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.

Attributes
The Doctor Who RPG attributes are created using a point scale from 1 to 30, with 1 being the worst and 30 the maximum. After this number is generated a performance level represented by a Roman numeral masks it. To convert these statistics, find the TIME LORD rating for each Doctor Who Performance level (Table 1A). Write this number down next to the appropriate TIME LORD attribute (Table 1B). If the converted skill level is higher than the "racial maximum" or lower than the "racial minimum" (see Table 2B in part II) reduce the score to the "racial maximum" or raise the score to the "racial minimum".

Table 1A: Attribute Performance Levels
Table 1B: Attribute Comparison Chart
Table 1C: Action Point Levels

Example: John is converting The Professor to TIME LORD (The Professor is the main PC in the Doctor Who RPG module The Lords of Destiny) and needs to convert the DEX attribute to TIME LORD. Looking at Table 1A and the Attribute Performance Level of the Professor's DEX, John sees that The Professor has a skill level of IV. Looking at table 1A and reading across the IV column, John finds the equivalent TIME LORD rating, which is a 4. John then looks at Table 1B and reads the chart until he finds Dexterity on the Doctor Who column. Reading across he notes that Dexterity is equivalent to TIME LORD's Control ability. John writes down a 4 on the TIME LORD character sheet on the Control portion of the sheet.

Awareness and Size have no Doctor Who RPG equivalent. Awareness is determined for Doctor Who Role Playing Game characters by finding the TIME LORD Ratings for Mentality and Intuition, converting them as defined in Table 1A, then dividing the entire result by 3. Size is selected depending upon the character being converted. The average TIME LORD or humanoid will be either Size 3 or Size 4. The Game Master on a case-by-case basis may determine exceptions to the Size restrictions. Remember that if the score is higher than the racial maximum or lower than the racial minimum you must raise or lower the score to the minimum or maximum as appropriate.

Doctor Who RPG Action Points do not use Table 1A in conversion to TIME LORD's Move. Instead, convert the Action Points to TIME LORD Move using Table 1C and record the result on the TIME LORD Character Sheet. In TIME LORD, the maximum possible Move for Humans and Gallifreyans is 4.

Special Abilities
In TIME LORD, special abilities are based off of a controlling ability and modify the controlling ability by the special ability's score. The Doctor Who RPG skill system is identical to the system used for character statistics, and as a result, the Doctor Who Role-Playing Game skills can be converted using Table 1A. After each conversion, divide the result by two to reflect the inherently lower scores of the TIME LORD system. Multiple Doctor Who Role Playing Game skills are based off of the same TIME LORD Special Ability. Should this occur, find the highest score of the Doctor Who Role Playing Game skills that use that TIME LORD special attribute and using that score, divide by two and record the score on the TIME LORD character sheet.

After converting the skills in the Doctor Who RPG over to TIME LORD, find each skill on Table 1D and match it up with its equivalent TIME LORD special ability. Write down that special ability and its level on the TIME LORD Character sheet. Any Doctor Who RPG skill that lists one or more TIME LORD Special abilities as an equivalent will allow the player to select any one of the special abilities in the list for that skill. The choice of Special Ability to use is entirely dependant on the weapon in the case of weapon skills or what type of art in the case of some artistic skills.

Environmental Suit Operation is the only Doctor Who skill that does not have a TIME LORD equivalent. As a result, use the Environmental Suit Operation skill from the Doctor Who Role Playing Game and base it off of the TIME LORD Knowledge Attribute. The listing will read as below:

Environmental Suit Operation [Knowledge]
This is essential for any character who can be expected to perform tasks in hostile environments, including extreme heat and cold, poisonous atmospheres, vacuum, and underwater. Instruction is given in the suit's functions and in emergency repairs, and guided practice is given in which trainees are expected to perform normal work.

Central to the Gallifreyan Character are the set of skills listed below. If a particular special ability in the list below does not exist on the converted Doctor Who RPG character's TIME LORD character sheet, add the special ability to the sheet and then roll a six sided die. If the result is odd then the skill is level is 1. If the roll is even then the skill level is 2. If one of these "central" special abilities is already on the sheet due to a previous skill conversion, do not change what is already on the sheet. For example, if the Doctor Who RPG skill General Medicine is on a character due to be converted, that conversion will turn General Medicine into First Aid. Since First Aid is a "central" Gallifreyan special ability in TIME LORD, it cannot be duplicated or further changed.

Non-replaceable Gallifreyan Special Abilities*
Strength: Cheat Death, Iron Constitution, Regenerative Powers
Control: Bench Thumping, Sleight of Hand, Stealth
Move: Running
Knowledge: Electronics, First Aid, MacGuffin, Medicine, Pseudoscience, Science, TARDIS
Determination: Indomitable Will
Awareness: Striking Appearance
*This list is reprinted later in the Character Generation section.

Miscellaneous Items
Weapons and Armor in the Doctor Who RPG are very specific in terms of their damage or absorption potential. In the game, weapons are broken down into contact weapons and ranged weapons. Defining what skill will provide the bonus for which weapon will make a further distinction. However, other than this, little distinction is given as to the nature of weapons. The TIME LORD system breaks down handheld weapons a bit differently, sorting them by hard weapons, soft weapons, blunt weapons or edged weapons. Firearms get their own chart. Where the rules are simpler is in the attributes used for weapons. Only the Control attribute is used for ability tests, as the weapon skills are concentrated there. The weapons lists are very close to each other. As a result, it is simpler to use TIME LORD's complete rules for Weapons and Armor. The only thing recommended is to use the Safe Combat rules at the end of the main rulebook.

Recovery and Healing in the TIME LORD rules provide for three levels of injury, slightly wounded (little more than a graze), seriously wounded (needing medical help), and dead. The rules state that the First Aid skill can only be used once per character per injury. So any character should fear death, even a Gallifreyan! The Doctor Who RPG healing system is a little more complex than this. Since this booklet concerns converting Doctor Who RPG characters over to TIME LORD, use the rules provided in TIME LORD. However, the rules provided in TIME LORD do not apparently provide for the Gallifreyan ability to regenerate. This seems to be a glaring oversight on the part of the authors until it is remembered that the original rule book had no provision for creating Gallifreyan characters. Part II of this document however provides a usable set of rules for TIME LORD regeneration along with character creation rules.

Overview
The impetus for the second edition of this work was the downloading of two documents on TIME LORD character creation from the Internet. The first document, written by Ian Marsh, one of the designers of TIME LORD is a clarification of the companion creation rules presented in TIME LORD. The second, written by Allen Shock, is a far better character creation system than what I was able to come up with before. Each of these systems can be found in the appendices, but these systems are too good not to use. To those who look carefully, portions of each character creation system will be seen in this work, especially Mr. Shock's character generation system, which provides for the creation of Gallifreyan PC's that Mr. Marsh's lacks. Mr. Marsh's starting equipment and experience systems were found to be very useful and were incorporated into this work.

Characters
Players create characters by purchasing abilities, special abilities, and equipment (if desired). If the character to be created is a companion, that character receives a total of 170 points to spend as desired. If the character is a Gallifreyan, then that character receives 235 points to spend as desired. The abilities are purchased according to Table 2A below; with Abilities being purchased first, Special Abilities second, and equipment last.

Restrictions
PC's can only purchase the Cheat Death special ability if they have Strength of 4 or less, and the total Ability (Strength + Cheat Death) cannot exceed 5. Certain Special Abilities (Regenerative Powers, for example) may be prohibited to characters at the GM's discretion. The GM has the final say on which Abilities can be purchased and these restrictions can also apply to Gallifreyans as well.

Equipment
Characters start with a set of clothing and nothing else. To acquire equipment, characters purchase them in a manner similar to abilities. Characters can also spend points to purchase status, such as rank within an organization such as UNIT. These organizations may also require that the character purchase other items like passes.

1-point ability: Common everyday items. Examples: Golden star of mathematical excellence, Bag of Jelly Babies, Penknife.
2-point ability: A useful item of some worth. Examples: Hunting knife, Binoculars, Radio.
3-point ability: An item of notable worth or a low position of authority. Examples: Melee weapons such as a sword, Projectile weapons like a bow, rank of sergeant.
4-point ability: A valuable item or a position of moderate responsibility. Examples: Security pass for UNIT, reliable guns, rank of captain.
5-point ability: An exceptionally valuable item or a position of power. Examples: Item like the sonic screwdriver, national head of UNIT, presidency.

Unused Abilities
A character need not be generated using all his abilities; some may be held unspent to gain an appropriate skill when the player needs. This helps reflect an inherent talent for a subject that the character has never tackled before.

Experience
TIME LORD characters should advance their skills only slowly as gaining even one point in ability represents a great leap in skill. To this end, at the end of each adventure, a player may make one roll of the dice to increase one of his character's special abilities by one point. If the player chooses not to roll the dice at the end of one adventure, it increases his chance of learning at the end of a subsequent adventure.

The basic object is to beat the difference between the number of adventures a character has gone without making an experience roll and the desired total ability. After a player makes an experience roll, regardless of whether it succeeds or fails, the number of adventures resets to 0. Each time a character successfully makes an experience roll, the difficulty to make the next roll increases by 1. This penalty is cumulative.

Example: Patrick has Knowledge 4 and wishes to learn Cybernetics 1 after a close call with the Cybermen in his first adventure. He must beat a difference of 4 to learn the ability (desired total ability is 5). If he waited until the end of his second adventure, he would need to beat a difference of 3.

At all times, the GM decides when an adventure concludes and experience rolls can be made. One special ability of the player's choice may be improved or acquired in this manner. Common abilities may never be increased in this manner. If the experience roll is for an ability, which is not appropriate to the adventure, the GM should increase the difficulty of succeeding at the experience roll.

Gallifreyan Regeneration
In the TIME LORD game, Regenerative Powers is probably the most important ability for Gallifreyans. The rules, although providing for the ability of regeneration, do not provide a satisfactory resolution to the success of the Regenerative Powers test.

After regeneration, the Gallifreyan character will be somewhat weak from the regeneration process. Roll the dice and find the difference on Table 2C below and reduce the common abilities of the TIME LORD character by the amount shown on the table. This decrease is temporary. Beat a difference of 3 once per adventure to restore the abilities to their normal levels. If the roll is failed, decrease the difference by one each adventure until the roll is made.

Occasionally, a Gallifreyan's skills will disappear and new ones will appear with the change in personality of a Gallifreyan. To achieve this, roll the dice. The difference is the number of skills that disappear to be replaced by new ones. There are certain skills that are central to a TIME LORD and cannot disappear from the character's sheet. These skills are listed below.

The player chooses new skills to replace the old ones. These skills may not appear on the previous version of the Gallifreyan character (the one that just regenerated). If they have appeared on older versions of the same character, they can be used on the new version. Assign the values from the old abilities to the new abilities chosen by the player.

Non-replaceable Gallifreyan Special Abilities
Strength: Cheat Death, Iron Constitution, Regenerative Powers*
Control: Bench Thumping, Sleight of Hand, Stealth
Move: Running Knowledge: Electronics, First Aid, MacGuffin, Medicine, Pseudoscience, Science, TARDIS
Determination: Indomitable Will
Awareness: Striking Appearance
*Can be replaced with Absorb Form. See below.

A Gallifreyan may regenerate a maximum of twelve times in this manner. If a thirteenth regeneration is attempted, the Gallifreyan dies. The sole exception to this is the special ability Absorb Form, originally available only to The Master. This ability is available to unscrupulous Gallifreyans only after attaining the twelfth and final regeneration and only if the Gallifreyan can track down The Master, something which should be a VERY high difficulty task. If a Gallifreyan character can manage to persuade The Master to teach him Absorb Form, that character will lose the Regenerative Powers special ability and replace it with Absorb Form at level 1. Once per adventure, the Gallifreyan with Absorb Form must beat a difference of 1 to retain the body he inhabits or else he must attempt a transfer to another body using Absorb Form. Failure of the transfer will kill the character. Also note that the newest incarnation of The Master (in the Doctor Who movie) suffered from this same problem and this rule should apply to all incarnations of this character.

Creatures Not In The TIME LORD Rule Book
The GM will create aliens by using the rules presented earlier in this section. Aliens get 200 points by which they can purchase abilities and special abilities. Sometimes (often) the alien will have natural weaponry (claws, spines, etc.). Natural weapons have an equipment cost of 2 points per weapon, compared to 4 for reliable weapons such as blasters (which some aliens have in addition to their natural weapons). Any other weapons cost the amounts given in the Equipment paragraph of the Character Creation rules. Play balance is a must, so these creatures should be play tested before being used in a campaign.

Character: Eighth Doctor
Player:
Apparent Age: Mid 30's
Species: Human/Gallifreyan Hybrid
Equipment: Bag of Jelly Babies, Sonic Screwdriver, Pocket Watch, TARDIS Key

Abilities and Special Abilities
Strength: 4. Cheat Death 2, Iron Constitution 2, Regenerative Powers 1
Control: 4. Bench Thumping 1, Leaping 1, Sleight of Hand 2, Stealth 2
Size: 3
Weight: 4
Move: 3. Running 1
Knowledge: 7. Computing 1, Detective Powers 1, Electronics 2, First Aid 1, MacGuffin 2, Medicine 2, Pseudoscience 2, Science 2, TARDIS 2, Temporal Science 2
Determination: 6. Indomitable Will 1, Strong Passion 2 (Grace Holloway)
Awareness: 5. Intuition 1, Striking Appearance 1

Description: The eighth Doctor borrows a lot of personality traits from the fourth Doctor with a dash of the sixth Doctor thrown in. Dressed in a dark coat with brown pants and black shoes, this incarnation of the Doctor is of a serious mind when performing a task but when necessary, can affect a disarming personality similar to the fourth incarnation, including the Jelly Babies.

Unlike the other incarnations, the eighth Doctor is apparently half human. Upon exiting the TARDIS on New Year's Eve of 1999, the seventh Doctor was shot, taken to a hospital to be worked on by doctors and, subsequently, died there. When this incarnation died, a microscopic camera was left within the body. In the morgue, the seventh Doctor's body underwent regeneration. As the Doctor remarked later, the anesthesia almost inhibited the regeneration process. The presence of a Human ancestor in the Doctor's biological makeup altered the regeneration process enough to change the Doctor's body from a full Gallifreyan to a Human/Gallifreyan hybrid. In addition, the regeneration process has brought to the surface the Doctor's romantic side. Rather than being protective of his companions, he might become personally involved with them instead of maintaining a protector/charge relationship like his other selves.

Character: Grace Holloway
Player:
Apparent Age: Mid 30's
Species: Human
Equipment: Medical Kit, Cellular Telephone

Abilities and Special Abilities
Strength: 3. Cheat Death 2
Control: 4. Dancing 1
Size: 3
Weight: 3
Move: 3. Running 1, Driving 2
Knowledge: 5. First Aid 2, Medicine 2, Poisons 1, Science 2, Computing 1, Law 1
Determination: 3. Indomitable Will 1
Awareness: 5. Intuition 2, Con 1, Eloquence 1, Musicianship 1 (Piano), Bureaucracy 1

Description: Grace Holloway was the surgeon working on the Doctor when he died. A few days later, the Doctor, in his new incarnation, found her and talked with her about the Master. After seeing the effects of the Master's handiwork on Earth, she agreed to help him on his quest to stop the Master.

As a surgeon, Grace has very good medical capability and can readily handle herself in just about any situation, no matter how outlandish. Most of her skills are geared towards medical pursuits as she has spent a lot of time as a surgeon. Most of her other skills were enhanced by her adventures with the doctor.

Grace normally appears wearing a beige blouse and pants with gray shoes. She also wears a brown coat.