SPOILER FREE

A Stitch in Time is a campaign for Doctor Who the Roleplaying game. If you’re not familiar with the game, please consider taking a few moments to read our reviews of the Core Rulebook and the Second Edition Core Rulebook for a better idea of what’s going on. 

The timing for this review is convenient if you are a fan of Doctor Who.  I mean, if you’re not a Whovian why are you reading this? What? You’re a fan of TheRatHole.ca? Awwwwwwe shucks. Well still, the timing is convenient for fans because we are about to hit Season 2 of the Disney+ era.  (Or the “healing era” as Ncuti Gatwa once described it.) So if you are jonesing for Gallifreyan goodness, you may be limited in where you can find new stories. What better way than to be part of them yourself with The Doctor Who Role Playing Game! What’s better is being part of a whole season worth of games, that all connect and weave themselves into a giant-sized finale.

That’s A Stitch in Time. Nine subtly connected adventures, that lead into a tenth finale. Now, that creates a challenge for me, as a reviewer. I need to be detailed enough that you know what the product is that you are purchasing, without spoiling anything for people who may potentially want to play in these adventures. I promise I’ll do my best to do both, but consider this a spoiler warning. Now! One thing I don’t consider a spoiler is the official description, even though it can be. 

From an alien incursion at a holiday camp in England, to a secret after-hours sale at the galaxy’s largest department store, the Doctor’s adventures can take them to the strangest of places. Sometimes, however, it feels like the TARDIS has a mind of its own, taking the Doctor just where they need to be. Surely these recent adventures cannot be connected, can they?

A Stitch in Time provides Gamemasters with a complete series of their own — ten episodes to play over ten weeks, each building to an epic finale that connects them all. 

The ten adventures provided can be played in any order (except the explosive series finale), each offering potential sequels and continuations for an even more expansive campaign.

Will the characters find everything they need to save the planet Nhein?”

You read that right, ten adventures. That’s more than a season of most modern television shows, including Doctor Who. How’s that for value? The great thing about this campaign is that it doesn’t feel like a traditional RPG campaign. The Vortex System that powers the game doesn’t level characters up the same way many other systems do. That makes it very easy to mix and match the order of things. Characters go through their personal story arcs, and their stats can change as a result, but not every player will start with a retail worker and ten games later be sitting with a Bad Wolf. What that means is not only that you can play 9/10 of these adventures in any order, but you can spread them out and add extra adventures in as you need. Missing a player or two? Take a break and play a different adventure. You, as the overly prepared Gamemaster, don’t even have to mention the change. Just do it. 

Like a good TV season, the locations (and times) for each adventure are wildly different from the next. That helps with any random changes but also keeps things interesting. On top of the ones listed earlier, there’s a film studio in the golden age of Hollywood, a Victorian hospital, and even an alien museum. The stories are equally all over the place in style and tone. You even get to play “the bad guy” and plan a heist! How fun!  All of this is baked right into the game with adventures being structured like a television episode and the campaign like a season. Each episode is broken up into an introduction to the adventure followed by three acts and an epilogue. The book similarly has an introduction and ends with some advice on what to do with your players next.

One of the best and worst thongs about A Stitch in Time (and if I’m completely honest, any DWRPG adventure) is that they are written to be very sandbox-y. Rather than railroad the GM and players down a largely predetermined path, you are given the key beats for each act and otherwise left to your own imagination. 

You can find Cubicle 7 online at www.cubicle7games.com or on Facebook at facebook.com/Cubicle7Entertainment.

The official Doctor Who homepage is www.doctorwho.tv and the official Facebook Page is facebook.com/DoctorWho.