GM-less Doctor Who Reboot Dogs in the Vineyard Variant
Get together with some friends.
Decide who will be the Doctor.
This is a reboot of Doctor Who. It keeps the premise of the original series, but the details are up for grabs. For example, there may or may not be Daleks, and they might be different from the TV series. The Doctor is (probably) a Timelord, but this might mean something different in your game than in the series.
Everyone takes a sheet of paper and makes up a character. The character may be a human, alien, companion, friend, or monster. Each person writes down a bunch of Dogs traits for their character. You can use the dice amounts listed in the DitV rules if you want. If you do, the Doctor gets +4d8.
The Doctor should have a trait that describes his clothes and one that mentions a sonic screwdriver.
Anyone who wants to can hold onto their character and make it their PC for this session. If they don’t they put it in the middle of the table.
Someone comes up with an episode title.
Each player takes a turn leading scene setting in collaboration with everyone at the table.
Play out the scene. Players without a character in the scene pick up an NPC to run.
When there’s a conflict, someone has to decide what sort of conflict it is and what the die size of the fallout is.
Examples:
- Just talking: d4
- Fighting: d8
- Nuclear war: d4
- Guilt: d10
If the Doctor is in the scene, he/she decides one of these two things. The person who set the scene decides the other.
When someone escalates, they get to say what sort of conflict it is now and state a new die size (this must be bigger than the previous die size).
If the Doctor dies, write up a new (regenerated) Doctor.
When you’re done, re-write the characters. This is a group activity, not an individual one.
Next time you play, the same person or someone else may play The Doctor. It doesn’t matter who.
Settle everything else as if it were a social contract issue, writing down any good rules you come up with.