Consisting of five more ideas for Doctor Who role-playing games (or simple daydreaming) taking very simple inspiration from the world of cinema.
So I've dropped the TARDIS into 5 SF films, and then into 5 more, and into 5 historical films, and then blogging buddy Craig Oxbrow dropped it into 5 horror flicks. Why? 1) Because it's fun. 2) Because movies make cheap ready-made worlds/adventure scenarios for your Doctor Who role-playing needs. I thought all the appropriate genres had been covered, but I was wrong. The original Doctor Who bible split the adventures into three: Historical stories that took place in the past, SF stories that took place in the future (or during a current day alien incursion, as it turned out), and SIDEWAYS stories that took place... "elsewhere". The first of these was The Edge of Destruction, in which the TARDIS hurdles towards the Big Bang, affecting its crew in disturbing ways. The most recent was, well, The Wedding of River Song! Both of those have a temporal element, but I'll cover the more timey-whimey aspect of such stories next week. In between, the Doctor went to other dimensions, the Land of Fiction, and Amy Pond's dreams. Today, we look at films that take that kind of sideways approach to TARDIS travel.
Dark City. In my opinion, an underrated film, that may prove to be a boon to GameMasters with less cinematically cultured players. Dark City features a noir city controlled by aliens in human guise, a city that reconfigures itself at night. More interestingly still, so do its citizens, with memories and roles being shared by the collective without their knowing. A fun twist on the Doctor Who adventure begins in medias res, with the players waking up as one of the other characters! How would Companion Rory handle being the Time Lord? And the Time Lord has to play the plucky assistant! Can they discover the secret of Dark City and regain their true identities?
The Matrix. Obviously, this is the seminal sideways film. I thought about excluding it as too obvious, but I can't get away from it. In the far future (perhaps on a colony world), the machines have taken over and plugged humanity into a computer-generated reality. Insert TARDIS. I'd have the machines plug in not only the crew, but the TARDIS itself. Hilarity ensues. Remember, the Matrix is actually a Doctor Who idea (from The Deadly Assassin), so the Gallifreyans might have a stake, or their Matrix may start affecting the machines'. Half the fun is allowing the characters to download abilities they never had before, and though the main story is well known, GMs might look to the Animatrix for other ideas (Beyond, with the "haunted" (glitchy) house is a particularly good adventure hook).
Spirited Away. Speaking of anime, here's a shift to another dimension that might fit well into the current series if it had an unlimited budget (as RPGs do). The magical world of Japan's nature spirits would make for an unusual environment that could definitely be explained with bafflegab. If the ancient Egyptians were in contact with alien Osirans, there's nothing that says ancient Japan wasn't visited by creatures from beyond an interdimensional rift. You get the cultural benefits of a historical, with the storybook logic of The Mind Robber.
Inception. Amy's Choice already did Inception, in a way, but your gaming group could use the film's spin on the concept to do something similar, visiting the worlds of THEIR dreams. Inception offers working rules for dream layers that could work really well in a trippy Doctor Who adventure.
Stranger Than Fiction. One morning, a man wakes up and finds he can hear his story's narrator. Tragedy or comedy ensues, depending on what kind of story it is. With all the omniscient beings in the Whoniverse, this premise might be turned into an interesting battle between the TARDIS crew and some Guardian or other. Somehow, they've tapped into fate's narrative thread, and the whole world goes meta. Or perhaps, it's a game or manipulation. What clues can they glean from the words to avoid a fate written in stone? As in the film, the inevitable meeting with their "creator" occurs in Part 4. How's that gonna go?
Set the coordinates for Head Trip, USA! Next week, sideways films that have a temporal element, but for now, I'll ask: What sideways movies would YOU like to see the TARDIS materialize into?
So I've dropped the TARDIS into 5 SF films, and then into 5 more, and into 5 historical films, and then blogging buddy Craig Oxbrow dropped it into 5 horror flicks. Why? 1) Because it's fun. 2) Because movies make cheap ready-made worlds/adventure scenarios for your Doctor Who role-playing needs. I thought all the appropriate genres had been covered, but I was wrong. The original Doctor Who bible split the adventures into three: Historical stories that took place in the past, SF stories that took place in the future (or during a current day alien incursion, as it turned out), and SIDEWAYS stories that took place... "elsewhere". The first of these was The Edge of Destruction, in which the TARDIS hurdles towards the Big Bang, affecting its crew in disturbing ways. The most recent was, well, The Wedding of River Song! Both of those have a temporal element, but I'll cover the more timey-whimey aspect of such stories next week. In between, the Doctor went to other dimensions, the Land of Fiction, and Amy Pond's dreams. Today, we look at films that take that kind of sideways approach to TARDIS travel.
Dark City. In my opinion, an underrated film, that may prove to be a boon to GameMasters with less cinematically cultured players. Dark City features a noir city controlled by aliens in human guise, a city that reconfigures itself at night. More interestingly still, so do its citizens, with memories and roles being shared by the collective without their knowing. A fun twist on the Doctor Who adventure begins in medias res, with the players waking up as one of the other characters! How would Companion Rory handle being the Time Lord? And the Time Lord has to play the plucky assistant! Can they discover the secret of Dark City and regain their true identities?
The Matrix. Obviously, this is the seminal sideways film. I thought about excluding it as too obvious, but I can't get away from it. In the far future (perhaps on a colony world), the machines have taken over and plugged humanity into a computer-generated reality. Insert TARDIS. I'd have the machines plug in not only the crew, but the TARDIS itself. Hilarity ensues. Remember, the Matrix is actually a Doctor Who idea (from The Deadly Assassin), so the Gallifreyans might have a stake, or their Matrix may start affecting the machines'. Half the fun is allowing the characters to download abilities they never had before, and though the main story is well known, GMs might look to the Animatrix for other ideas (Beyond, with the "haunted" (glitchy) house is a particularly good adventure hook).
Spirited Away. Speaking of anime, here's a shift to another dimension that might fit well into the current series if it had an unlimited budget (as RPGs do). The magical world of Japan's nature spirits would make for an unusual environment that could definitely be explained with bafflegab. If the ancient Egyptians were in contact with alien Osirans, there's nothing that says ancient Japan wasn't visited by creatures from beyond an interdimensional rift. You get the cultural benefits of a historical, with the storybook logic of The Mind Robber.
Inception. Amy's Choice already did Inception, in a way, but your gaming group could use the film's spin on the concept to do something similar, visiting the worlds of THEIR dreams. Inception offers working rules for dream layers that could work really well in a trippy Doctor Who adventure.
Stranger Than Fiction. One morning, a man wakes up and finds he can hear his story's narrator. Tragedy or comedy ensues, depending on what kind of story it is. With all the omniscient beings in the Whoniverse, this premise might be turned into an interesting battle between the TARDIS crew and some Guardian or other. Somehow, they've tapped into fate's narrative thread, and the whole world goes meta. Or perhaps, it's a game or manipulation. What clues can they glean from the words to avoid a fate written in stone? As in the film, the inevitable meeting with their "creator" occurs in Part 4. How's that gonna go?Set the coordinates for Head Trip, USA! Next week, sideways films that have a temporal element, but for now, I'll ask: What sideways movies would YOU like to see the TARDIS materialize into?
Comments
For another Ghibli movie, how about The Cat Returns - a potential return for the Sisters of Plenitude.
Another one that comes to mind is Labyrinth
Labyrinth is a lovely idea in the Celestial Toymaker mold (and very much better than that story!).
And 5 more horror films, mind!
"and then Rory Williams was killed."
Rory: "Oh not this again!"