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The post Video of the Day – Children In Need, 2023 appeared first on Blogtor Who.

Sometimes when you bring together random games as a bundle, you find some stuff that really interests you. Then, you see it has a Powered by the Apocalypse title and you cringe ;) That just happened to me with the Cornucopia 2023 Bundle over at Bundle of Holding.

I'm actually interested in most everything in this bundle aside from World Wide Wrestling. There, I said it. I hate wrestling and I detest the Apoc Engine with a passion. 

Adventurer! In time for the American Thanksgiving holiday, we present this all-new Cornucopia 2023 Bundle, our eleventh annual offer of top-quality tabletop roleplaying game ebooks. For just US$14.95 you get all four complete rulebooks in our Starter Collection (retail value $68) as DRM-free ebooks, including the swinging superspy dimension-hopping RPG Agents of Concordia; Apollo 47 Technical Handbook by Tim (Thousand Year Old Vampire) Hutchings; The Design Mechanism's Casting the Runes, a GUMSHOE game based on the ghost stories of M.R. James; and Scratchpad Publishing's create-your-own-world superhero RPG Spectaculars.

And if you pay more than the threshold price of $30.35, you'll level up and also get our entire Bonus Collection with four more hit games worth an additional $84, including the cinematic action-hero extravaganza Outgunned from Two Little Mice (Broken Compass); Chris McDowall's newly revised Into the Odd - Remastered from Free League Publishing; Unbound, the universal system from Rowan, Rook & Decard (Spire); and the 2022 Second Edition of World Wide Wrestling, the Apocalypse Engine game from Nathan Paoletta.

 

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

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The post Video of the Day – Doctor Who: Vengeance on Varos, 1985 appeared first on Blogtor Who.

There are zines, and there are ZINES! KNOCK! is a ZINE!

KNOCK! issue 4 is ready to go to press, just waiting for you to pledge. You know the formula: no theme, all mean. Once again, we've cobbled together a bric-à-brac of game design insight, random tables, rules suggestions, monsters, classes, maps, adventures… the lot. We've also added a short series (12 pages) aimed at post-WotC meltdown 5E refugees (or just your friends who you’d like to bring over to the adventure gaming side of the divide). 

The book is 212 pages (A5 format:  5.9’ x 8.25’, slightly bigger than digest size) in beautiful full colour, printed on quality paper (coated 130 gr, with a cover on coated 300 gr) by Olivier's neighbours in the South Basque country.

The KNOCK! Issue 4 Kickstarter is about 17 bucks in PDF and 29 bucks in Print plus PDF.

I gotta admit, I love my KNOCK!s.

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Anchor, YouTube,  or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar  

Doctor Who is back for Christmas day, and the 15th Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) arrives and meets his new companion – Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson). Not a creature was stirring except for mythical and mysterious goblins.

Doctor Who Christmas Special 2023, Goblins, BBC Studios 2023

This Christmas, we meet Ruby Sunday for the first time.  Little is known about the Doctor’s newest companion.   She was abandoned on Christmas Eve as a baby and now lives with her mum, Carla and grandmother, Cherry.   But her world is about to be turned upside down as she is about to meet the Doctor…

Doctor Who Christmas Special 2023, Picture Shows: Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson), BBC Studios 2023

Also guest starring in the episode is Davina McCall, who will be playing herself. Millie’s mum, Carla,  is portrayed by Michelle Greenidge and Angela Wynter is Ruby’s grandmother Cherry. Also included in the cast is  Anita Dobson as Mrs Flood.

Davina said:  “It is beyond an honour to be asked to appear in not only Doctor Who but also Ncuti’s first episode as the new Doctor. It was such an extraordinary experience, and Russell has written you all a Christmas delight! Now I  just can’t wait for everyone to see it!”

Doctor Who Christmas Special 2023: Davina McCall, BBC Studios 2023

Russell T Davies, Showrunner adds, “From Day One in this job, I wanted Doctor Who back on Christmas Day! And with Ncuti, Millie, Davina and the Goblin King, I hope it’s a feast for all the family!”

Episode Summary – The Church on Ruby Road

Long ago, on Christmas Eve, a baby was abandoned in the snow. Today, Ruby Sunday meets the Doctor, stolen babies, goblins and perhaps the secret of her birth.

Doctor Who Christmas Special 2023,The Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson),BBC Studios 2023,Photo by Lara Corne

Doctor Who returns this Saturday at 1830 on BBC One and iPlayer with Special Two: Wild Blue Yonder featuring David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor and Catherine Tate as Donna Noble.

The post PIX & DETAILS as Doctor Who Lands at The Church on Ruby Road for Christmas Day appeared first on Blogtor Who.

  The Black Parade

“In THE BLACK PARADE you play the character of Hume, a hardened

criminal who was sent into exile as a punishment for his crimes.

The year is 833. You are now back in The City, a sprawling metro-

polis of soot-caked brick, greasy fumes and noisy machinery, with

many a sinister conspiracy whispered behind closed doors. Lost and

without a penny to your name, you are back to your life of thievery

and must find your old associate Dahlquist. Shadows and silence are

your allies. Light is your enemy. Stealth and cunning are your tools.

... And the riches of others are yours for the taking.”

 Regular readers of the blog may know I am a Thief: The Dark Project fan – indeed, it is my favourite computer game of all time, and one I have made a handful of fan missions for. Thief, today 25 years old, is a rich, complex and challenging stealth game that combines tight gameplay with excellent level design and top-notch mood. It is also a game which holds a lot of interest for old-school gaming: its roots lie in trying to simulate an AD&D-style thief on the computer, and there is much you can learn about dungeon design, open-ended scenarios, and even city adventures by playing it. A small but active level design community exists around the game (AD&D adventure designer Anthony Huso was one of the early greats in the scene), and there has been a steady flow of user-made fan missions over the years, from very simple thieving scenarios to full mission packs. However, not since T2X: Shadows of the Metal Age (2005) has a campaign approaching the scope and quality of the original Dark Project been attempted, let alone completed. (Your truly had tried and failed with The Crucible of Omens, a never-ever for The Dark Mod, a Doom3-based Thief spinoff.)

Until now.

Dark Mysteries

The Black Parade is a new, full, ten-mission campaign that has been released for the game’s 25th anniversary, built over seven years by some of the best level designers in the scene, and made freely available for download. Set slightly before the events of The Dark Project, TBP focuses on the adventures of Hume, a former convict, as he becomes entangled in a dark plot concocted by forces beyond his control, and must use stealth and guile to survive and come out alive from the ordeal. The dark depths of Thief’s nameless City, a corrupt industrial metropolis, serve as the story’s locations: dimly lit streets, crumbling mansions inhabited by the idle rich, haunted crypts and thieves’ dens populated by the dregs of society. I had the privilege of beta-testing the pack (there were several rounds of testing by both old hands and new players), and I can report it is very much worth the trip.

Skullduggery and DeceitThe Black Parade spares no expense in constructing this world: the ten missions you will play through are sprawling, complex, and rich with detail. These are all open-ended, exploration-heavy missions offering multiple ways of achieving your objectives, built by a team who get Thief’s gameplay loop, but also know how to make missions that, while difficult, are never unfair or needlessly obscure. (They are a step up from TDP, but that is to be expected.) They are rich in navigation-oriented challenges (verticality, waterways, obscure entrances and hidden byways), tense stealth situations (from dodging patrols and sometimes security systems to shadowing a lone figure through the City’s streets), and careful decision-making between stealth and exposure. The missions, although connected by a joint plot and a dedication to superb quality, are very varied in theme and approach: the hands of multiple authors with different design styles are visible, but so is the refinement that comes from teamwork. These are all interesting, high-quality missions, and there are two in the lineup I rank among the very best ever made.

Corrupted Splendour

But the excellence of The Black Parade goes beyond level design (although that is the most important element). The campaign comes with well-animated cutscenes between missions; numerous new voice lines, textures and objects; new AI types (including some once considered impossible) and game mechanics. Many previous fan missions have done one or a few of these; but very rarely all, and never at this level of quality. In all cases, the updates to The Dark Project extend the original game while remaining entirely faithful to its mood and style: at no point does something stick out like a sore thumb. Thief has always been heavy on the mood, and this campaign pack returns to that level of quality, while taking advantage of the technical advances which allow a 1999 game to transcend the limits of its antediluvian engine and quirky level editor (as the quote from one of the original devs, goes, “Once upon a time, not only would DromEd crash, but it would go out and kill your family afterwards”). In its consciously low-poly architecture and grainy textures – no ill-advised attempt has been to make this look like a mid-2000s experience – The Black Parade builds scenes of labyrinthine complexity and deep SOVL.

A Labyrinthine Plot

This is also one of those rare mods that takes writing seriously: the main story was meticulously plotted before the levels entered the building phase, and the levels were then filled with fragments of readable texts, environmental storytelling, AI conversations and the evolving objectives Hume will face during the course of the missions. Although the writing quality tends to be high in the Thief level design community, this is a standout even by those standards. While the cutscenes convey the main plot, much in gameplay is information you need to piece together on your own – from clues that will help you reach your objectives, avoid deadly hazards or find carefully hidden loot; to pieces which reveal more about the surrounding world in an unobtrusive way.

Strange Perspectives

There is much more that could be written about The Black Parade, and I suspect it will be widely discussed in the following weeks and months. For now, though, this introduction should suffice. You can download the campaign here. A trailer, and a handful of screenshots by yours truly, follow.

Lost in the Catacombs
Back in a Smoke-Shrouded City
Venturing to Locales Long Forgotten
Pursued by Merciless Enemies

The post Video of the Day – The Heritage Channel, 2003 appeared first on Blogtor Who.

I remember seeing Dragon Warriors advertised in Dragon Magazine in the mid 80's, and damn but if it didn't look good. I could never find it here in the States, and then I found Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, which consumed me for a while and satiated my desire for a British Fantasy RPG.

I never did forget Dragon Warriors, though, and purchased the PDF a number of years ago on DTRPG. I never gave it the proper read-through, but the core rules are now PWYW and there is a free solo adventure for it, Hunt on the Borderlands (which was released today) (edit - did I mention the solo is hyperlinked? Well it is). I snagged the hard-cover Print copy of Dragon Warriors for 20 bucks plus shipping. Not bad at all!

Enter a world of magic, folklore and danger. Here, superstition covers peoples' lives like autumn mists cover the moors, and terrifying monsters with bizarre powers lurk in the shadows. The king is a weakling, barons scheme against each other, and lordless knights, back from the Crusades without the honour or riches they were promised, roam the countryside in search of adventure - or prey.

Ruined castles and barrows are the lairs of the supernatural, or newer, more sinister masters. Labyrinthine underworlds lie forgotten below ancient temples and city cellars. The dark places of the world hold riches for those who would search for them, and the keys to great power, and death.

These are the Lands of Legend, and they need heroes. Brave knights, courageous barbarians, cunning sorcerers, mystics trained in the powers of mind and body, sword-wielding warlocks, elementalists who command the fabric of reality itself, and assassins trained to bring death to the deserving. All these will be your comrades on the path to glory - and perhaps your enemies too.

Will you accept the challenge of Dragon Warriors?

Dragon Warriors is a classic fantasy roleplaying game, originally released in 1985-6 by Corgi Books, relaunched in 2008 by Magnum Opus Press, and now published by Serpent King. This rulebook contains full details for creating characters and all that players need to adventure in the Lands of Legend. It also holds information on over 110 different monstrous species, 192 spells from four different schools of magic, and more than 80 unique magic items, artifacts and relics, as well as sections on jousts, crime and punishment, disease and madness. There's advice for novice Games Masters and players, suggestions for building your own game-world tailored to your tastes, an introductory scenario to begin your adventures in Dragon Warriors, and much more.

 

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

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The Doctor Who 60th Anniversary specials will be out on DVD, Blu-ray and Steebook only days after finishing on TV

 

Following the Fourteenth Doctor’s TV specials to celebrate Doctor Who’s 60th Anniversary, all three episodes will be available for fans to add to their home entertainment collection in December 2023. The release will feature all three anniversary special episodes: The Star Beast, Wild Blue Yonder and The Giggle.

The three-disc release will be available for fans to own on Steelbook, Blu-ray and DVD from 11th December with pre-orders available today. It will include additional material from across the behind-the-scenes extras airing in parallel to the main show, as well as extras exclusive to these home video releases.

As well as David Tennant starring as the Fourteenth Doctor and companion Catherine Tate returning as fan-favourite Donna Noble, other guest stars include Neil Patrick Harris, Yasmin Finney, Miriam Margolyes, Jemma Redgrave and many more.

Fans can pre-order the 60th anniversary DVD, Steelbook and Blu-ray through most online retailers.

 

Doctor Who: 60th Anniversary Steelbook (c) BBC Studios Additional content
Exclusive to the 60th Anniversary specials release:

• Rachel Talalay’s Scene Breakdown
• Chanya Button’s Scene Breakdown
• Tom Kingsley’s Scene Breakdown

Special Features:

• The Fourteenth Doctor Reveal
• David and Catherine’s Flashbacks
• Behind The Scenes Fun with David and Catherine
• Designing the Fourteenth Doctor
• Video Diary with David Tennant’s Stand-in
• TARDIS Set Tour with David Tennant and Phil Sims
• The Star Beast – Behind The Scenes Trailer
• The Star Beast Behind The Scenes
• The Star Beast In-vision Commentary
• Yasmin Finney Introduces Rose Noble
• Set Tour with Yasmin Finney
• Ruth Madeley Introduces Shirley Bingham
• Wild Blue Yonder – Behind The Scenes Trailer
• Wild Blue Yonder Behind The Scenes
• The Cast Introduce the Villains in Wild Blue Yonder
• The Giggle – Behind The Scenes Trailer
• The Giggle Behind The Scenes
• The Giggle In-vision Commentary
• Neil Patrick Harris Introduces the Toymaker
• Becoming the Toymaker
• 60th Specials Recap with David Tennant

 

Doctor Who: 60th Anniversary DVD. Cover by Lee Binding (c) BBC Studios Doctor Who: 60th Anniversary Specials

Get set for three epic adventures where the Doctor and Donna will come face to face after all these years but just how, and why, is about to be revealed.

 

The post Doctor Who: 60th Anniversary Blu-ray Covers and Details appeared first on Blogtor Who.

The Star Beast provides Doctor Who with the UK’s biggest drama launch of the year! All hail the Meep!

 

The Star Beast has landed! Doctor Who’s return proved to be one of the highlights of the year, while also giving insight into how much the ratings landscape has changed since the last time David Tennant was in the TARDIS. The initial overnight viewing figure for first of the three 60th Anniversary specials is 5.08m. That’s up 1.04m (25.7%) from previous episode The Power of the Doctor. As these specials form a loose mini-series, it’s probably also worth comparing to the last series premiere. It’s up 0.65m (14.7%) from Flux: The Halloween Apocalypse’s 4.43m. Indeed, it’s the biggest overnight audience for Doctor Who since the 5.15m for 2019 New Year’s Special, Resolution.

This makes Doctor Who already one of the big hits of 2023 so far. In fact, it’s the biggest drama launch of the year in the UK, with no scripted drama beating that overnight on any channel. It also beat last night’s I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, with 4.83m. This meant it was second for the night overall, behind BBC One’s other landmark Saturday night show, Strictly Come Dancing, with 7.67m.

On top of all that, the episode, which introduced Donna Noble’s daughter Rose in an adaptation of Doctor Who Weekly comic strip The Star Beast, achieved an Audience Appreciation Index (AI) of 85 – the highest since World Enough and Time’s score of 85 in 2017. Viewers are clearly loving the resurrection of the Doctor-Donna. With such strong word of mouth we can probably expect an equally impressive catch up in the +7 results.

 

The Doctor (David Tennant) in The Star Beast BBC Studios / Bad Wolf / Disney Plus – 2023 Photo by Alistair Heap The fact that Doctor Who is one of the biggest shows of the year at half Tennant’s former audience underlines the importance of its new international streaming deals

The result’s a lesson, however, in just how much things have changed since, by Donna’s reckoning, David Tennant could legitimately wear a suit that tight. The Star Beast’s 5.08m overnight is down 5.32m (51%) on Tennant’s last regular episode, The End of Time Part 2. It’s also down 3.12m (38.0%) on the previous unveiling of a new Doctor in Jodie Whittaker’s The Woman Who Fell to Earth. In fact, overall, it’s the lowest overnight viewing figure for the launch of a ‘new’ Doctor in the 21st century, lower than Peter Capaldi’s 6.8m by some margin, and a far cry from Christopher Eccleston’s record setting 9.94m. Most notable, perhaps, is that first time around, David Tennant’s Christmas Invasion debut scored an overnight of 9.4m.

The fact that both things can be true at once – Doctor Who is one of the biggest shows of the year and its overnight audience is a little over half what it was at its height speaks to the brave new media world we’re living in. Throughout the Whittaker era viewing figures steadily declined, but crucially they did so at a significantly slower rate than the rest of British television around it. The Star Beast’s performance, especially relative to the competition, largely validates that observation.

Arguably, it also validates the BBC’s new approach to the show, teaming with Bad Wolf and Disney. With traditional television audiences falling, this British television giant may well be wise to begin embracing an international audience, and the world of online streaming, with more gusto than ever before.

 

Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Specials,Wild Blue Yonder, Episode 2,The Doctor (DAVID TENNANT), Donna Noble (CATHERINE TATE) ,BBC STUDIOS 2023 ,Zoe McConnell and Alistair Heap Doctor Who continues on Saturday with Wild Blue Yonder at 6.30pm GMT on BBC One in the UK and Ireland, and at simultaneously on Disney+ worldwide

 

The post Doctor Who Viewing Figures: Star Beast Lands 2023’s Biggest Drama Launch appeared first on Blogtor Who.

 During tonight's game we ran straight into the arms of undead bandits. And it wasn't pretty but a fortunate fireball from one of our wizards saved our hides. We're geting close to the Vampire queen's castle and the undead are getting worse. Hanging Coffins of The Vampire Queen is available from Dark Wizard Games here.  And all of this kicked off from a week or so ago's Castles & Crusade's Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

The post Video of the Day – Doctor Who: The Three Doctors, 1972 appeared first on Blogtor Who.

A starting adventure in the old-school style. Written for OSRIC or your favorite OSR game system - with a 5e compatible version too!

I'm always interested in peeking at new publishers of old-school material. You just never know if one is going to strike lightning in a bottle.

ToD1 Lair of the Silver Rings Kickstarter looks interesting. Priced at 5 bucks in PDF, and 15 bucks in Print plus PDF (with 5 bucks shipping in the US), I would say this adventure is competitively priced.

This adventure takes the characters through a series of encounters into a dungeon complex and on to a corrupt noble's manor. Both areas are fully detailed in old school style blue/monochrome maps with more detailed colored versions available in the 5e version.

The module is designed to be easily inserted into an existing setting. It takes place in a city which can be any city you decide. However, proper names are given for them under the full story Appendix where the details of the full campaign are provided. 

While the intended hook and direction of the module has the two locales set in a city, you could feasibly drop them anywhere. They could even be used separately as different one-shot adventures.

The module layout is designed to emulate the old school style and is setup for ease of use. The encounters and overall flow of the dungeons are in the same vein as the old school modules with the encounters having been tested but not always balanced. Although, the 5e conversion is tweaked with more balanced encounters.

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. The Tavern DOES NOT do "Paid For" Articles and discloses personal connections to products and creators written about when applicable.

DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat cast on Anchor, YouTube,  or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar  

Doctor Who’s Matt Smith stars as Bunny Munro in Sky’s adaptation of Nick Cave’s tragi-comic novel of failure and grief

Sky announced today that BAFTA and Emmy-nominated former Doctor Who Matt Smith  will star in and executive produce a Sky Original adaptation of Nick Cave’s darkly comic novel The Death of Bunny Munro in the titular role. Somewhere Boy’s Peter Jackson has adapted the six-part series while  Isabella Eklöf (Industry, Holiday) directs. Cave also serves as Executive Producer.

Following his wife Libby’s suicide, sex addict, door-to-door beauty product salesman and self-professed lothario Bunny Munro finds himself saddled with a young son and only a loose concept of parenting. Together with nine-year-old Bunny Junior he embarks on an epic and increasingly out-of-control road trip across Southern England. Over the course of the journey, the two struggle to contain their grief in very different ways.

Bunny bounces from one sales pitch to the next, trying to seduce any woman he meets. Meanwhile Bunny Jr kills time talking to the ghost of his mother. He also deals with the dawning realisation that his dad isn’t just fallible, he’s an absolute mess. As Bunny Sr starts to unravel, he realises he must do something to rescue his son from his own outdated notions of what it is to be a man. The Death of Bunny Munro is a darkly comic and unflinching modern-day parable. But it’s also a tender portrait of the relationship between father and son.

 

Former Doctor Who Matt Smith (c) BBC Radio Matt Smith calls Bunny Munro “a brilliant exploration of love, grief, and chaos”

The search for an actor to play the young Bunny Junior is already underway, with the hope of uncovering an exciting new talent.

Blogtor Who readers will naturally best know Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor. Since then he’s starred as Prince Philip in The Crown, and most recently in the folk horror film Starve Acre with Morfydd Clark. He’s also currently Prince Daemon Targaryen in HBO’s hugely successful House of the Dragon. It’s as Daemon that he received a Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series Critics Choice Award nomination, along with the show winning a Golden Globe for Best Television Series.

Matt Smith said: “To work alongside Nick Cave on The Death of Bunny Munro feels like a great honour. It’s a brilliant exploration of love, grief, and chaos. At its heart a deep, difficult, and tender story about a father and son, coping with loss and change. Clerkenwell Films and Sky feels like the perfect home to make such a bold story and Pete has delivered such wonderful scripts, both funny and heart breaking in equal measure. I can’t wait to collaborate with Isabella and begin the journey with everyone at Clerkenwell.”

 

Nick Cave at a reading of The Death of Bunny Munro Photographer: David Shankbone Nick Cave says he “can think of nobody better than Matt Smith to play” Bunny

The author himself was quick to praise Smith’s casting. “Finally, someone with the courage to take on this unholy tale,” he said. “I am thrilled that Sky and Clerkenwell Films are bringing Bunny to life, in all his flawed glory, and I can think of nobody better than Matt Smith to play him.”

Petra Fried, Managing Director, Clerkenwell Films said: “We’re so excited to be working with Pete, Matt, Nick, Isabella and Sky on The Death of Bunny Munro, a timely tale about masculinity, dark and twisted but also full of humour and humanity. Pete’s scripts brilliantly capture Nick’s creation, and we can’t wait to see Matt bring this singular anti-hero to life.”

The Death of Bunny Munro is produced by Clerkenwell Films, who are wholly owned by BBC Studios, in association with Sky Studios. Commissioning Editor, Manpreet Dosanjh, is Executive Producer for Sky Studios. Petra Fried, Ed Macdonald and Emily Harrison are Executive Producers for Clerkenwell Films. Matt Smith, Nick Cave, Pete Jackson and Isabella Eklöf also serve as Executive Producers. The Producer is Matthew Mulot (Ghosts).

The series will begin filming in Spring 2024 across the south of England and will be available on Sky Atlantic and streaming service NOW in the UK. NBCUniversal Global Distribution handle international sales of the series on behalf of Sky Studios.

The post Doctor Who’s Matt Smith Starring in Nick Cave’s The Death of Bunny Munro appeared first on Blogtor Who.

Between them a Making of documentary, a podcast, and a commentary mean that this year Doctor Who behind the scenes coverage really is Unleashed

Back in the very early days of planning for this brand new Doctor Who era, Russell T Davies promised “lots of content,” and he certainly wasn’t lying. Each episode is now accompanied by Doctor Who Unleashed. It’s a brand new series in the vein of the old Confidentials. Hurrah! But there’s more! There’s also the Official Doctor Who Podcast where Davies spills some of his secrets about the writing of the episodes. And there’s even an in-vision commentary, available the same night. There, David Tennant and the producers share their memories and thoughts as they watch along with us. Blogtor Who has watched them all, and selected some of the best, most interesting tidbits for you. If you’re an international viewer without access to iPlayer, or just want the TLDR, this is the place to be to find out what’s up behind the cameras on The Star Beast.

 

Cristel Dee, Juno Dawson, and Tyrell Charles present the Official Doctor Who Podcast after every episode (c) BBC The Official Doctor Who Podcast debated questions posed by Russell T Davies himself as he gave insight into earlier drafts

Possibly the most fun revelation came via the Doctor Who Podcast hosted by Cristel Dee, Juno Dawson, and Tyrell Charles. Russell T Davies revealed to them that in early drafts the Meep’s evil wasn’t a secret from the audience. Rather, in the style of House of Cards, the Meep would regularly turn to camera to pronounce things like “Soon I shall feast of the blood of these human fools!” before innocently trilling “Meep! Meep!” when Rose asked if the Meep had said something. The change came about after he received notes suggesting to keep the secret going for as long as possible so that the audience find out with the characters.

Of course the Meep is a glorious creation, both as a character and a no doubt very expensive piece of equipment. So much so, it’s hard not to guess we might yet get to see that approach in a future sequel.

 

Crew help get Cecilia Fay ready for another take as the Meep ,BBC Studios,Sally Mais Doctor Who Unleashed looked under the cutesy exterior to discover just what an astonishing achievement the Meep is

Speaking of how wonderful the Meep is, Unleashed reveals some astonishing details into how it was brought to life. Although it’s lightly augmented with CGI to add dilating pupils and the occasional ear twitch, it’s almost entirely a practical effect. Yes, in the grand tradition of Cybermen, Ood, and even Godzilla, the Meep uses the Man-in-Suit approach. Or rather, woman in suit.

Because the woman in this furry suit is Cecily Fay (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Prometheus). It’s an extraordinary performance from the trained ballet dancer, whose body language, through a costume that makes her almost entirely blind and deaf, is a core part of what makes the whole creature work. She’s teamed with puppeteer Brian Herring who operated the animatronic head. Herring also lip synced the two heads (one sweet, one sour) to his live vocal performance. That voice track then acted as a guide to Miriam Margoyles’ ADR work as the Meep. The Unleashed team captured the moment the Meep was reunited with its original comic strip creators, Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons, and it’s astonishingly lifelike, even without any CGI enhancements at all.

Plus, let’s give a shout out to familiar face Paul Kasey. Well, maybe not actually a familiar face as he’s usually buried behind the masks of Cybermen, Judoon, and, way back to the very beginning, Autons. This time he was on hand to help Fay work through her movements and navigate her surroundings blind. What a pleasure to see Kasey still on set all these years later!

 

Sound recording on The Star Beast BBC Studios,James Pardon Thanks to host Steffan Powell, Unleashed quickly established its own identity as it investigated some key crew roles

We also got a taste this week of exactly how Doctor Who Unleashed would differ from the old Confidential. And the format is rejigged quite a bit with the new incarnation. It’s understandable too. After all, filming technology may have come a long way in the decade or so since Confidential ended, but at the end of the day there’s only so many ways to hold a boom mike. So it enlivens things considerably to have new host Steffan Powell getting involved directly. It looks like part of each episode will see him joining in to help out a different department like a work experience hire.

So this week when we get an insight into the sound team, it’s through Powell having a go at it himself. He winds up scoring a solid 4/10 at holding a boom mike. Powell’s turn  comes during the final scene of the new Doctor and Donna heading into the TARDIS. Fortunately he manages to avoid recreating one of classic Who’s most common foes – the boom mike slipping into shot.

He also learns the best way to practice at home (hold two tins of beans above your head all day) and that code “10-1” means someone needs a wee and code “10-2” means… well, you can guess.

 

Doctor Who – In-Vision Commentary – Star Beast – Phil Collinson (Producer), David Tennant, Vicki Delow (Producer) – BBC Studios / Bright Branch Media David Tennant himself led a discussion of The Star Beast as the producers had as good a time watching it as we did

Thanks to the in-vision commentary we also learn that that departure scene features the family of series producer Vicki Delow as supporting artists. The commentary came from Delow, fellow producer Phil Collinson and the man himself, David Tennant. They also confirmed that the new TARDIS set would remain into Ncuti Gatwa’s era. Though we could have guessed that purely from how expensive it must have been to put together, it’s nice to have confirmation.

Which circles us back to the Podcast and Davies explaining his inspiration for the new console room. Since his last time on the show, he’d rather fallen in love with the use of the classic Hartnell console replica introduced in An Adventure in Space and Time. Since then different takes on the traditional gleaming white console room had appeared. From Me’s TARDIS in Hell Bent, to a reimaging of the original in Twice Upon a Time, the Fugitive Doctor’s and more. Upon his return to the show, Davies began to ponder if it was pure nostalgia that made them appealing. Could an updated version of the white room work in 2023?

 

Steffan Powell,watching filming of The Star Beast,BBC Studios,Sally Mais Wild Blue Yonder is Doctor Who’s most mysterious episode in years. So what on Earth went on behind the cameras?

There will be more insights and fun facts to come, as Unleashed, the Doctor Who Podcast, and the in-vision commentary continue next week!

 

 

Doctor Who Unleashed continues on Saturday, the 2nd of December at 7.30pm GMT on BBC Three. The Official Doctor Who Podcast can be found the same time wherever you get your podcasts. And the commentary will be exclusive to iPlayer.

The post Doctor Who: The Star Beast – What We Learned Behind the Scenes appeared first on Blogtor Who.

The latest D&D Studio update on the 2024 core rule books should have excited me, but it just made me apprehensive.

Fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons started as a game with a strong foundation, strong enough that when I imagined the changes that would best improve the game, I just wished for replacements for the annoying spells, overpowered feats, and toothless monsters—the game’s features atop the foundation.

So far, the playtest and design team’s reports excited me, because the preview showed that the team understood the pain points in the 2014 game and sought ways to relieve them. But now I’m concerned.

Until now, only one change struck me as a bad idea: The design team chose to strengthen 1st-level characters in the worst way. Instead of making new characters more durable by giving them a few extra hit points, the designers opted to make new characters more complicated by adding an extra feat.

To welcome new players, 1st-level characters need to become a bit more durable—just another 5 hp or so. This boost would spare them from starting as fragile as soap bubbles. D&D should not prove deadliest at 1st level. Sure, some of us love the challenge of 1st level, but to a new player who invested time creating a character often with a personality and backstory, a quick death just feels like a major loss. Such failures push players away from the game. We all know the problem. To avoid such disappointments, the D&D team seems to love the now worn trope of starting characters safely at a fair or carnival. I typically contrive a way for characters to gain the benefit of an aid spell as reward for a good deed.

At conventions and game stores, I’ve introduced hundreds of players to D&D and a key lesson stands out: Simpler characters work better. The 2014 design team made a winning choice when they kept new characters streamlined, but the 2024 redesign adds complexity by giving new characters another feat to choose and to play. For new players, the addition risks making the game feel overwhelming. Maybe that’s fine. New players confronted with a pre-generated character always find it overwhelming, but at the end of the session, they typically feel comfortable with the basics.

Surely, lead designer Jeremy Crawford can point to Unearthed Arcana surveys that show the sort of super-invested D&D players who spent an hour completing the playtest surveys love the extra feat, but that just proves players who mastered the game enjoy characters sweetened with more power. Candy isn’t always good for us or the game.

D&D fans already knew about the extra feat and I accept that not every aspect of D&D will suit me. However, another reveal from the studio update leads me to worry. Jeremy Crawford says, “We’re making sure that every major piece of class design does appear in Unearthed Arcana at least once, but there are going to be some brand new spells that people won’t see until the book is out. There are a bunch of monsters people won’t see until the books are out. There are magic items people won’t see until the books are out.”

Apparently the team feels that class features deserve the scrutiny of the D&D public, but spells don’t. Apparently the team failed to learn from the public playtest leading to the 2014 core books.

In D&D, if you play a spellcaster, your spell list forms the bulk of your abilities. So every wizard tends to prepare the same powerful spells on the list. Spells deserve the same scrutiny as class features. In 2016, when I looked at the most annoying spells in the D&D game, I learned that none of the problem spells appeared in the public playtest documents. Back then, the design team figured their in-house playtesting would suffice for these spells. That proved wrong. Thanks to the power of certain annoying spells, the spells weighed on just about every session with a character able to cast one.

Now the team seems to be falling victim to the same overconfidence. Perhaps the team would say they’ve learned from 10 years of experience and can better evaluate new game elements. Surely that’s true, but still they recently released twilight domain clerics and silvery barbs, so I see a some hubris behind touting all the new surprises in the new books.

I don’t want all new surprises. I want a game polished to perfection because it benefits from 10 years of play.

Related: The One D&D Playtest: Big and Small Surprises and Why I Like the Controversial Critical Hit Rule

 

Doctor Who is off to a great start with this latest reboot. Star Beast was a sensational success, with 5.08 million UK viewers tuning in live to watch the programming.

We are now onto the next special – Wild Blue Yonder. We have almost no information for this show. Even the three guest stars are noted as REDACTED, REDACTED and REDACTED. We can say that the episode was written by Russell T Davies and directed by Tom Kingsley.

The Official Synopsis

There is a glimmer of information in the trailers and the synopsis.

Wild Blue Yonder: The TARDIS takes The Doctor(David Tennant) and Donna ( on a journey to a faraway, mysterious place and then abandons them in the middle of Hostile Action.

Doctor Who Magazine provides a little more on how the Doctor and Donna lost the TARDIS with an episode quote that expands on the main trailer. The scene will likely be included in a preview clip later in the week.

DOCTOR … There’s one hope. A mechanism on board the TARDIS called the HADS, Hostile Action Displacement. If the TARDIS is in danger, it goes away.

DONNA: Goes where?

DOCTOR: Anywhere.  And it only comes back when the danger is gone. I turned it off years ago. I mean, I’d never land anywhere. Once spent three years in orbit. I thought, oh, turn off the HADS. But if the TARDIS is rebuilding itself, maybe it clicked back on.

DONNA: But that means we’ve landed in Hostile Action.

DOCTOR: Yeah.

DONNA: There’s something so bad the TARDIS ran away?

DOCTOR: Yes

DONNA: Then we go kick its arse!

Donna is definitely back!!

New Photos

There are some stellar photos provided by the BBC but little information other than they are rather stunning. Indeed, more money is being spent on the programme.

Doctor and Donna

Presumably, the aftermath of the coffee fire. Coffee is terrible for your health.

Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Specials – Wild Blue Yonder, Episode 2, The Doctor (David Tennant), BBC Studios/Bad Wolf/Disney+ Photo by James Pardon Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Specials – Wild Blue Yonder, Episode 2, Donna Noble (Catherine Tate), BBC Studios/Bad Wolf/Disney+ Photo by James Pardon

The Doctor 

A real screwdriver? What happened to the fancy one?

Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Specials – Wild Blue Yonder, Episode 2, The Doctor (David Tennant), BBC Studios/Bad Wolf/Disney+ Photo by James Pardon Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Specials – Wild Blue Yonder, Episode 2, The Doctor (David Tennant), BBC Studios/Bad Wolf/Disney+ Photo by James Pardon

The Doctor

Lost in Space

Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Specials – Wild Blue Yonder, Episode 2, The Doctor (David Tennant), BBC Studios/Bad Wolf/Disney+ Photo by James Pardon Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Specials – Wild Blue Yonder, Episode 2, The Doctor (David Tennant), BBC Studios/Bad Wolf/Disney+ Photo by James Pardon Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Specials – Wild Blue Yonder, Episode 2, The Doctor (David Tennant), BBC Studios/Bad Wolf/Disney+ Photo by James Pardon

The Doctor and Donna

We are presuming this is the “don’t worry, I will get you back” speech.

Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Specials – Wild Blue Yonder, Episode 2, The Doctor (David Tennant) and Donna Noble (Catherine Tate), BBC Studios/Bad Wolf/Disney+ Photo by James Pardon

The Doctor and Donna

Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Specials – Wild Blue Yonder, Episode 2, The Doctor (David Tennant) and Donna Noble (Catherine Tate), BBC Studios/Bad Wolf/Disney+ Photo by James Pardon Air Time

The second of the three Doctor Who 60th anniversary specials will air on 2nd December at 6.30pm GMT on BBC One in the UK and Ireland.   For the rest of the world, the episode will be released simultaneously on the streaming channel Disney+.   The North American time is 1:30 pm EST / 10:30 am PST.

 

The post NEW PIX: Doctor Who: Wild Blue Yonder – Synopsis, Photos and Air Time appeared first on Blogtor Who.

The post Video of the Day – The Graham Norton Show, 2023 appeared first on Blogtor Who.

 

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The post BlogtorWho reviews Doctor Who: The Star Beast appeared first on Blogtor Who.