NJCon 2018, Doctor Who and 7TV

New, Improved, Prettier Board!

Landrover by MiniFigs UK, Soldiers by Crooked Dice

NJCon was held on 8 - 9 June, 2018 at the NJ Expo Center in Edison, NJ.  Attendance was good and certainly seems to be increasing in this, the convention's 10th year.

Two 7TV/Doctor Who games were scheduled - the first failed to launch as 1:00 PM Friday is still a bit early for walk ups, but the 6:00 PM slot had four participants - two, John and James, from previous games.

The new improved board looked a treat - mat by Mats by Mars and security fence (double set) by Crossover Miniatures. 

The Mist from Mars game started along familiar lines - UNIT, Mike Yates and the Doctor were trying to foil the plans of the three Servitors of the Mist and enslaved scientists. A team of possessed RAF airmen under Capt. Gray were assisting the Mist, while Sgt. Benton and a Landrover full of machine gun were supporting UNIT.

RAF Airmen by Copplestone Castings,
Fuel Drums by Pegasus

UNIT and Aliens advanced, while the scientists proceeded to build The Deadly Plot Device, and the Doctor nipped into the nearest lab to do likewise.

The "Longstanding Grudge" card turned up again, and true to tradition, it was assigned to Captains Gray and Mike "That's no Alien, that's my ex-wife" Yates. This meant they would get to re-roll failed hits against each other - "Hell hath no fury" and all that...

I'm considering making this a permanent effect.

Landrover by MiniFigs UK,
Soldiers by Crooked Dice

 Events started to pick up on Turn 2, when Sgt. Benton and his HMG Team arrived via Landrover. Benton conducted a bootlegger turn at the gate and backed into the compound, before going all "Russkie Teaparty" and spraying the Servitors of the Mist with .50 Cal hors d'oeuvres.

The Junior Servitor advance on Capt. Yates and stunned him with a blast of energy, before shortly thereafter going down in a hail of NATO lead.

Captain Gray continued to follow Yates, complaining about missed alimony payments, unreturned phone calls, and generally causing a -1 to all of Yates rolls, due to distraction.  Since the figure hadn't done anything overtly hostile (and nothing a married gamer isn't used to), the UNIT side couldn't shoot at her.

This detente would soon end, as sometime around Turn 4, Capt. Gray charged the Landrover, punched, stunned and pulled Benton from the driver's seat, and, jumping in, proceeded to drive away, with a startled HMG team in the back. (This actually occurred over two turns, the Mist side got lucky and won initiative twice in a row. Hilarious.)

 Driving and weaving like a Bombay Taxi, Capt Gray tried to throw the HMG team from the Landrover. Impressively, they were able to make their Agility checks, twice (with the help of the Audience Appreciation chits) and clung on for dear life (possibly they have family from Mumbai?).
The joyride ended when Capt Gray lost control and hit the security fence. Did she survive?
Tune in next time...

The Doctor Intervenes

 Almost as an afterthought, the Doctor reappeared, having discovered a weakness in the Servitors life supports (+1 melee against a Servitor). The scientists countered, and the game ended.

UNIT/Doctor had scored the most points, with Benton and Gray tied for second, with the main Servitors being wiped out.

Coming soon: The Revenge of Captain Gray.

Post Game Thoughts: Not many. Game still seems tilted in favour of UNIT/The Doctor. I might just give Capt. Gray leadership 1 for future games and have done with it. James, the player who controlled Gray, received post-game points for using her aggressively....Ω

7TV - Doctor Who and the Mist from Mars

Doctor Who©BBC Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Preparing for NJ-Con. We noticed that players can't always spot the game in a large hall, so Megz whipped up a sign placard from elements I grabbed from the web, including art by Andrew Lambert (the three astronauts), an image of Jon Pertwee, and the 7TV logo (adjusted to 1st Ed.)

I should have some nice pics from the new, improved game board - early next week....Ω

Doctor Who and the Mist from Mars

The Mist from Mars...has arrived.

This past Cold Wars, in Lancaster, PA, saw Megz and I run a 7TV 1st ed. game: "Doctor Who and the Mist from Mars", adapted from the Rogues Gallery programme guide by Crooked Dice.

We ran two sessions, Friday and Saturday, in the 1:00 PM time slot. One of the advantages of running at a convention is we usually have a full game, and this year was no exception.

Three weeks had elapsed since the initial playtest and the convention, and I was able to complete the barracks and medical hut, paint the crates, paint the Third Doctor in his plaid/tweed cape, and add additional forces for both sides.


For an additional UNIT player, I added Sgt. Benton and a Heavy Weapons Team (HMG), in a Landrover.

For the additional Mist player, I added three guards  - unfortunate RAF airmen, who have since been assimilated by the Mist. I also added Captain Gray, a human victim/servitor of the Mist who has retained her personality but has gone over to the dark side. The character is reminiscent of Captain Black, agent of the Mysterons, which I like very much.

Another Victim...hypnotised.

There was a great deal of hypnotised victims, captured Doctors, Boffins building insidious alien tech, companions screaming, and players doing their best Donald Gray impressions.

Victory was fickle, once favouring the Mist, and once favouring UNIT.  The Doctor was taken out of the former game - cue an early Tom Baker regen.

Boffins...building.

 An amusing game to referee. Megz has come along quite well as a ref, and was able to run the game herself, with me relegated to fetching the tea and the occasional rules interpretation. Good stuff...Ω

Third Doctor...captured.

Another...angle.

Doctor Who Playtest

Megz and I had the opportunity to playtest my next convention game: Doctor Who and the Mist from Mars.  This is based on the 7TV 1st Edition "the Mist from Mars" as printed in Crooked Dice's 1st Edition resource, Rogues Gallery.

To start, I'd like to apologise for the condition of the scenery - with all the unfinished barracks and black tarmac, it looks like it's waiting for the CGI team to finish. I actually had planned to run the first go at our local club, but thought the game too unfinished for public display.



Without going into the details too deeply, the Villainous Side consisted of three Servitors of the Mist, and three unfortunate human technicians who had been possessed by the Mist.  The Heroic Side consisted of the Third Doctor, Jo Grant, Capt. Mike Yates and four U.N.I.T. soldiers.

Mike Yates is Dominated

On turn one, the lead Servitor approached the Doctor. "You can't be serious," I said to Megz. "The Doctor has four luck - nothing your single servitor can do will hurt him."  Whereupon, the servitor open his visor, revealing himself to be a future incarnation of the Doctor, and hey ho! Swapped his single luck point for the Doctor's four. A well played event card, Megz.

As one might imagine, this dread revelation threw the Doctor for a loop, and it took him a turn to recover his shock.


Then the Servitor approached Mike Yates, and after making an opposed INT roll, hypnotised him into switching sides. Hmm - this is beginning to all look a bit dodgy.

The Doctor fails his
intervention

Meanwhile, the three techs been working on a device to assist them in the fight. Once constructed, it provided extra power for the Servitors Energy Blasts, and UNIT trooped began to drop like poorly paid extras.


After a desperate effort to stun the scientists failed, the Doctor and those few UNIT survivors had the flee the scene. The Mist from Mars had gained a foothold on Earth.


Post-Game Thoughts:  Adding the elements of the Doctor, Jo Grant, Mike Yates and U.N.I.T. added a degree of depth that I felt the scenario, written as-is, was lacking. All of the Rogue's Gallery scenarios are "Kitchen Table" setups, playable in a little over an hour, and intended to be run at conventions in Britain as introductory games between two players.

This last concept doesn't work as well at US cons, where the pitch "bigger is better" and games vie competitively for players. Hence, I usually expand the map and increase the number of forces, and will do so before taking this game to a convention...Ω

The Doctor and Companion attempt to flank

UNIT Rallies, to no avail.

More 7TV Space Madness

Nice long weekend saw some miniatures painted, for our first 7TV foray:

First is some backup for Dr. Lake - Brock Hampson: 50% Scottish, 50% Swedish, 50% Winnebago:

Miniatures from Reaper and Denizen

Miniature is from the Reaper Chronoscope line (50044: Frank Russo, Mercenary Hero). Nice mini - I wasn't mad about having to glue his right arm on, but I got over that. I also had some trouble with the orange-on-red dry brushing on the space suit - for some reason the tint kept darkening instead of lightening. I might try this miniature again, and give him a green-stuff mullet.


Second, playing the part of The Guru, is Roger Delgado's "Master" miniature, from the Black Tree 3rd Doctor Who line. Lovely miniature and captures a lot of the actor's/character's natural charisma.

Miniatures from Black Tree Designs and East Riding Miniatures

Last and most deadly is the Guru's young ward/executioner Kali, from the East Riding Miniatures Corporate Wars/Assassin line (JBA1).  Kali required a bit of modding, and the pistol she had been brandishing was cut away and an easy ivory blow-pipe added. I have a couple of addition ERM25 minis on hand for conversion to Sisters of Kali-style assassins.

Next up will be some additional 'rogue' agents for some added mayhem and variety...Ω

Forgotten Photos: My Sontaran Experiment

These were painted back in 2010 for a Doctor Who game that never materialised. The plan was to have gamed the Sontaran invasion of the planet Gallifrey, as seen in the 1978 series "The Invasion of Time".

Figures by Black Tree Design

The scenario would have included the Fourth Doctor, Leela, K-9, the Citadel Guards, some outcast Timelords vs. Sontarans.  I remember the issue was adding more Time Lords in their robes, as I could only find a model for the Lord President, and finding the right terrain to model the Citadel of Gallifrey.

Figures by Black Tree Design

Basically, Leela and the Guards would need to hold off the Sontarans long enough for the Doctor to build the De-Mat Gun. It would probably have been a rather fun game...Ω

Sarah Jane - Gone But Not Forgotten

She was my favourite companion and Who Fandom's sweetheart.

http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/story/elisabeth-sladen-remembered-by-doctor-who-stars_1214143

End of an Era - The Brig Passes On

Very sad news of the death of Nicholas Courtney - the actor who played Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart in the classic Doctor Who series. He will be greatly missed, especially as he was playing the delightful Detective Lionheart in the Cosmic Hobo audio series - the Scaryfiers. God Speed Ye, Nick!

Doctor Who: Addendum

This week's Friday Pal's Night featured a Doctor Who battle which took a fatalistic turn - our boy Eljay was controlling the Earth Federation crew when he found himself surrounded, with a primed self-destruct mechanism, and being rapidly cut down by Dalek forces.

The result?

SURPRISE!

This brought the game to a surprising and rather abrupt end. Several of the other players were a bit put out, as the Loyalist Daleks were making great progress and had the Doctor and his faction fleeing before them.

Davros had just exterminated the last of the Movellans. We were looking forward to the great Dalek vs. Davros faction fight.

And then Eljay found the jolly, candy-like button and decided on "Boom Today".

I will have to add a scenario rule that the Earth crew must make a morale check before terminating the station and all onboard it.

Post-Game Thought:

In this pic alone there are 15 doors - can you find them all?

The big surprise was the effect 50+ doors have on a firefight. Players would position their figures to open a door, blast away with the rest of the faction, and use another figure to close the door at the end of their activation - cutting off the line-of-sight.  We'll be adopting a rule that a doorway must remain either open or closed for an entire turn.

And we're resolved to keep Eljay away from the Scenario-Eraser button. Ω

Death to Davros!

As previously mentioned, I’ve been painting up 28mm Doctor Who miniatures and having quite a bit of fun with them.

Back in July, I ran a scenario based on the 1984 Doctor Who episode “Resurrection of the Daleks”, where the Daleks rescue their creator, Davros, from an Earth Federation prison-station so that he can help them develop a defence for an anti-Dalek bio-weapon, developed by their android opponents, the Movellans.

Davros Faction

There were four players, including me (not an optimal solution, as I’m needed to referee all of the little “gotchas” that litter the scenario like so many discarded pop bottles) so I had to “NPC” the Earth Federation and the Loyalist Daleks. This was accomplished by playing both factions very straight in their actions and motivations – the Daleks want to capture Davros and the Federation wants to keep him; the rest of the factions must act around these drivers.

Dalek Loyalists

I gave the Davros Faction to "Inferno" Mark, who hadn’t watched the TV show, calculating that this faction was the easiest to game with fairly straightforward motivations (survive). I might have erred slightly in this judgment, as the other factions proceeded to dogpile him, though frankly, if you grew up glued to the TV and NEVER watched Doctor Who, you deserve whatever you get.

Movellan Faction - Stayin Aliiiive!

Two of the other players were familiar with the Doctor Who TV programme: to the evil Dr. Goldwyrm (Mike L.) I gave the Movellan Hottie Hit Squad.. These are the spoiler faction, and he used them to great effect, all events considered. 

To Rich J. (of Rattrap Games) I gave the Doctor Faction, being fairly confidant that Rich would do the Doctor justice, and he did not disappoint.

We were using Graeme Dawson’s Doctor Who Miniature Rules. These are fast playing and use simple ID cards, removing the need for rosters. Most figures are eliminated if they take a wound (hi-tech Zap-O-Tronic rays) with a few of the tougher models taking two or even three hits to eliminate.

The Doctor and Companions

Another neat rule in Graeme’s set is the ability of certain models (Davros, the Doctor, scientists) to “invent” a weapon to use against their foes. This might result in a +1 to hit the enemy or a weapon proficient at wiping out an opposing side’s ordinary, jobbing warriors. This creates a sense of urgency when an opposing side is inventing, and you begin to understand just WHY the Daleks soil their trollies when the Doctor looks at them cross-eyed.

The game itself played well – Davros was immediately put on the spot when the Movellans raced toward his laboratory and the Loyalist Daleks trundled (slowly) in the same direction; attacking the station’s control room in the process.

The Doctor’s faction left the area of the TARDIS and beat the Dalek Troopers to the control room. The Doctor convinced the Earth Federation crew that he was there to help, and a stunningly high roll didn’t hurt either.

While the crew hunkered down behind the control consoles, Dalek Troopers rushed the control room. In the general firefight, a Dalek trooper and a crewman went down. The Doctor took cover, and that is when the Dalek agent, Stien, who had been traveling with the Doctor, decided to break his cover and capture the Doctor (Cue cliffhanger end theme)...

EXTERMINATE!

Meanwhile, the Movellans had been squaring off with two of Davros’ daleks. The Davros player was suitably impressed when a Movellam shugged off a Dalek gunstick blast (not often seen, you know). The Movellan leader, Agella, lobbed a dose of Mad Dalek Disease but the Dalek resisted and moved away from the blast area. A second Dalek was dispatched to deal with the Movellans, and was able to drop both of the sexy androids.

This triggered a Movellan morale test, as they had just taken 50% casualties. Nothing beats a badly rolled die, and the two surviving Movellans, having failed the test, had to withdraw their spandex-clad bottoms to the transmat. 

However, hope springs eternal in the cold, black heart of Dr. Goldwyrm, and he was able to “retreat” past the boot cupboard where Davros was hiding. Dropping the last virus grenade at the base of Davros’ wheelie-bin, they gave the traditional Movellan farewell (“Toodles!”) and fled toward the transmat.

Once again, Fate just can’t stand disco androids - Davros was able to make his saving roll and back away from the virus grenade blast radius, pinning him against the wall. 

Stien Attacks!

In the Control Room, the Dalek Troopers were battling against the crew while Sgt. Stien attacked the Doctor, who was able to fend off the attack using his sonic screwdriver. Stien was naturally caught off guard that the Davison Doctor was using his Sonic Screwdriver, since it was absent from the series between The Visitation and the TV Movie. This confusion in Stien’s mind was critical in breaking the Dalek Mind Conditioning (Thank you, Rev. Nice of FROTHERS…)

As Stien fought against the confusion in his mind, the main Dalek assault force with Commander Lytton burst into the Control Room. By now, the Doctor was coordinating with the Earth Federation crew and adding Turlough and Stien to the mix, was able to mount a serious defence of the control room. A Loyalist Dalek blew up, causing a morale check on the Dalek side.

Where is Davros?

The Loyalist Daleks withdrew, allowing the Doctor and Federation factions to concentrate on recapturing Davros. The companion Tegan was sent forward to add an extra activation at the right moment - certain feminine companions may “scream” which, if successful, allows a nearby friendly figure an additional activation, even if the figure has already moved. This is a handy quality and gives the Doctor’s side an added degree of unpredictability.

So, we meet again, DOCTOR!

With the station crew supporting him, the Doctor was able to cause the Davros Dalek Troopers to fail morale, and using the Doctor’s intrinsic extra activation, was able to burst into Davros’ boot cupboard and capture the evil genius. I ruled the Doctor/Earth Federation had won, with Davros scoring a minor victory (survival, albeit still incarcerated) with a Dalek and Movellan loss. Good dramatic stuff that – the ratings bean-counters will be pleased.

Post Game Thoughts:

I really like the Graeme Dawson rules. The entire game was fought to a satisfactory conclusion in about 2 hours. I do like a game that plays quickly, and Graeme’s rules deliver.

Play can be further sped up using initiative cards, just five will cover all the factions. Excellent idea, and thank you Dr. Goldwyrm.

Each faction should have a “unique” figure/model, to mitigate the dreaded “wiped out” morale check that occurs when a faction reaches 50% casualties. This keeps everyone in the fight and promotes further dramatic action as the sole faction survivor stumbles towards the self-destruct switch. 

We'll be trying this scenario again eventually. It will be interesting to see how these small tweaks affect the overall scenario. Ω