Image featuring differnt Daleks

The Alien Archive - More Than A Monster

‘Aliens are faking aliens. Why would they do that?’

Depending upon where the characters are in time and space, meeting an alien can range from shocking to mundane. Discovering a Sontaran participating in the English Civil War is jarring; meeting an Ood aboard a 50th century space station doesn’t usually raise an eyebrow. Regardless of how the characters perceive the presence of an alien, whether that alien is friend or foe is another matter entirely.

The entries contained within the Doctors and Daleks: Alien Archive are designed to be compatible with any fifth edition game. For the most part you can simply flip to an alien stat block and use it as you would any monster found in other fifth edition materials. However, there are a few differences that are designed to make the Alien Archive and Doctors and Daleks more suited to the genre and themes of the series. 

Technology Level

Just like the Doctor Who Roleplaying Game Second Edition, Technology Levels help determine which type of technology the aliens are familiar with and what they have access to. This is especially handy if they attempt to use a weapon or device from an era very different to their own. 

New Skills

The fifth edition skills Arcana, Nature, and Religion, have been removed in favour of three new skills.

Civilisation, Engineering, and Science.

New Damage Types

Doctors and Daleks offers two new damage types: emotional and logical.

The power of a passionate, sincere argument, a well placed insult, or heartfelt plea that tugs the heartstrings represents emotional damage.

The power of a pointed, intelligent argument, backed up with salient observations and reasonable conclusions represents logical damage.

More Than Just A Stat Block

In addition to stat blocks for a host of iconic aliens and adversaries from Doctor Who, each entry goes into more detail about the species themselves.

Background

Each entry looks a little at the species’ background, where they are from and any memorable encounters the Doctor has had with them in the past (or future - depending when in history you are while you’re reading this). Need to know the origins of the Daleks, or mysteriously forgotten about the Silence? This section in each entry will fill you in. 

Motives and Agendas

Why are they doing what they’re doing? Are they driven by conquest, a need for a vital resource, or are they simply looking for a new home after their homeworld was destroyed? This section looks at the alien species’ drives and motivations, giving the Gamemaster ideas for why the aliens should appear in their stories.

Encountering the Aliens

The ‘Encountering’ section looks at what happens when the characters encounter the aliens in question. Are they usually hostile, or open to negotiations? This section also looks at some of the alien’s usual tactics, whether this is overt invasion with a dramatic show of force and military might, or a more covert infiltration with duplicates replacing those in power. 

Using the Aliens in Adventures

If the Gamemaster has an idea for an adventure and is unsure how to add the alien antagonists into a situation, this section looks at ideas for how they can be introduced, and why they could be there. 

Adventure Ideas

If you’re desperately in need of an adventure idea in a hurry, each alien entry in the Alien Archive has a handful of adventure ideas that can be expanded in episode-length stories of epic proportions. 

Of course, each section provides the stat blocks for the aliens, and if there are more than one variety of the alien covered then each has a small write-up and description to accompany them. Ideal if you need to know your Dalek Drone from your Dalek Supreme, or your Cyber Leader from a Cyber Controller.

The Doctors and Daleks: Alien Archive is coming soon, and will be available as a PDF or hardcover, or as part of the Doctors and Daleks Collectors Edition which also includes the Player’s Guide, Keys of Scaravore campaign, and Gamemaster’s Screen. 

We’ll look at some of the entries in the Alien Archive in more detail over the coming weeks. 


BBC, DOCTOR WHO, TARDIS, DALEK and CYBERMAN (word marks and logos) are trade marks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and are used under licence. BBC logo © BBC 1996. DOCTOR WHO logo © BBC 1973. Dalek image © BBC/Terry Nation 1963. Cyberman image © BBC/Kit Pedler/Gerry Davis 1966. Licensed by BBC Studios.