Inventions Rules in the Doctor Who Game

The Doctor Who Miniatures Game, published in the dark 2000's, is full of little gems, not the least being the truly British piss-take on it's cult TV classic source material - I'm actually tempted to try and play a game or two sometime.  Be that as it may, a few of the rules are inspired, including "Inventions".


By accessing specific areas (e.g., power plants or laboratories) and expending Actions in one or more turns, Units like The Doctor with the Invent ability can create items/effects during the game to help defeat their enemies.  Inventions need be declared as to effect a specific race or creature, and once completed, there's a random roll on the Invention Result table.

Inventions are resolved in two phases the Breakthrough and Progress.  Breakthroughs require a summed 3d6 result of less than or equal to the inventing model's Intellect (Int) characteristic - Doctor Who's being 10 giving him a base 50% of getting a Breakthrough on his first attempt.  Having multiple inventors nearby buffs the roll by +2 each, to a max of +6.

During Turns subsequent to the Breakthrough, the the inventing model can roll 1d6 and additional nearby Inventors (max of 3) can either add an additional 1d6 each or +1 to be added to the total.  Each Turn the highest d6 plus any bonuses are cumulated to yield Progress - reach 15 and the invention is ready during the following Turn.  So the Doctor working alone could achieve a Breakthrough Turn One, roll a 6 Turn Two, 6 Turn Three (cumulative 12) and a 3+ on Turn Four to complete the requisite Progress to yield an Invention at the commencement of Turn Five.

The results of a successful invention are randomly generated e.g., Weakness (Shooting) translates to a buff when firing upon the enemy.

Invention speed is variable; however throwing more 'Inventors' at the problem accelerates the invention process.  Further, minor and major buffs can be added to the mix in the form of Invention Counters and Artefacts - scattered around the map, they can increase the odds etc of whipping up a "Quick!  Give this a try!!" type moment when needed most.

I've been looking for a way to play a wargame with a Warhammer 40,000 Inquisitor-themed flavour, and it occured to me that this sort of mechanic could be adapted to deliver in that regard...

There are many instances in the Black Library novels of an Inquisitor going up against clearly powerful foes only to overcome them through some ingenuity e.g., rewiring broken equipment, producing a previously only hinted at super weapon, the fortuitous arrival of allies or the springing of a trap.  The difficulty in translating such things into a standard wargame is balance - if you're going to play against someone knowing that the Sword of Killing things is hidden under a crate... well you keep the enemy away from the crate. Boring!

If I was to employ an Invention-style mechanic, the Inquisitor might decide to secure a number of Objectives (Artefacts?) that, combined with foregoing some Offensive play, might enable the development of 'something' that allows for the tables to be turned.

A little while back I had played The Mantle of Time - a small skirmish scenario using Rogue Planet rules, that saw an Inquisitor facing off against a band of Eldar, all of whom were contesting an alien artefact.  During that game, holding the artefact provided the means for a Force to make some potentially decisive attacks against the enemy - but if it was contested, it was nullified.  It worked pretty well in that game.

Using an Invention mechanic might provide a novel way of making the objective 'real' and inject a little bit of the unknown into the mix as well - which can make for a great seed for a plot that's only revealed during the course of the game.

Instead, imagine that Inquisitor Tylo hung back with Yana to work on their 'invention' (devise a new strategy, consult some ancient text, etc) whilst ordering Petrusch to secure the Mantle and Kekar to play interference.  The Mantle might be akin to a Doctor Who Game "Artifact" providing a once only +2 bonus to either the Invention Breakthrough roll or Invention Progress rolls - not to mention keeping it out of the Eldar's hands can only be a good thing.

After half a dozen Turns, Tylo's work might pay off: maybe by reversing the polarity of the warp waves issuing from the Mantle, the Eldar are suddenly disorientated? 

That could manifest itself in a number of ways within the  bounds of the Rogue Planet game mechanics e.g., Rogue Die inclusions on Shoot Attacks, Melee Attacks and/or Defense rolls against the Eldar - suddenly the Imperials become a lot more deadly or resilient.  Also it could have an impact on the Energy Pool e.g., eroding the Eldar's Pool or growing the Imperials.  Also there's the Turn Sequencing that could be impacted, reducing the Eldar's default Actions, always awarding the Imperials the Turn Initiative or even providing the Imperials with a form of Action buff effect.  There's lots of options that could be explored.

One thing that I really like about the above is the avoidance of just giving the Inquisitor a special weapon outright: sure I could give him a (Rogue Planet) Signature Weapon like a Thunder Hammer, but then he'd be using it from Turn One and the Eldar's tactics would take that into account.  Injecting some variability into the mix results in some tension ("Why can't I get this Auspex to work!!!") and surprises ("What, you're suddenly able to go head-to-head with my Assault Specialists! What the?!?") - both of which can turn an otherwise ordinary game into a memorable one.

There were some other Traits mentioned in the Doctor Who Game that I think could make for some interesting effects in other games - what follows is my Rogue Planet-ifying of the same in a very rough manner.  Rogue Planet not only has equipment (e.g., scoped) and unit (e.g., agile) traits, it also employs the Pawn (not Prawn!) mechanic that provides leaders with distinctive things e.g., the Ammo Grunt Pawn increases the Leader's rate of fire by 100%.  Here's some rough thoughts in that regard:

Screamer (Tactician?)

Doctor Who Rules: If a Screamer model is activated and is within 6” of an enemy model roll 1D6. On the roll of 4+ any single friendly model within 6” can immediately take one action, regardless of whether it has already been activated in this turn.

Rogue Planet: a successful Rogue Skill Check with a Tactician grants the Force an additional two Actions for the Turn to a maximum of 6.  A matched Rogue Die grants the Rogue value, again to a maximum of 6.  Failures mean the Action was wasted and the usual Skill Check Failure penalties apply.

Medic

Doctor Who Rules: The model can return a single lost wound to an adjacent model by using a standard action, and rolling 4+ on 1D6, or 5+ if the recipient is another race entirely (this ability cannot be used on Mechanoids). Models brought back to 1 Hit from 0 Hits count as being Stunned.

Rogue Planet: For a single Action Point, the Medic must Move to Engage with an Ally who has been eliminated in the same Turn and can then attempt a resuscitation.  Total Success brings the Model back with all Energy, Partial Success returns the Model with no additional Energy, Failure means the attempt was unsuccessful and Critical Failure also results in a loss of Energy (maybe it was a particularly gruesome death of a much beloved squad mate?).