"The right scale for Doctor Who" Topic

What scale should the new Doctor Who miniatures game be?

Under 25mm seems too small to effectively show the characters. However using a smaller scale for game mechanics reasons may be ok.

Think of a 10-15mm Dr Who wargame with a squad of Daleks (5-10) on a base. And the doctor and his companions on a base. It could work rather well. Look at flames of war and you can imagine unit easily enough. Even in show terms, a davros base and a couple of Dalek bases and roboman bases going up against the doctor base the brigadier base and some unit bases. I can see it. Then you have 100 Dalek bases vs 100 sontaron bases and you get to fight things you only ever heard of. Fun.

At the other end 54mm would be appealing. Much more detail. Maybe played like inquisitor? Tom Baker players will need more paper to list all the items in his pockets!

In fact a single company, or two, could do both scales. Or the riles could use both.

A RPG Style skirmish in a ship in 54mm. While entire armies slog it out on the planets surface. Can Jamie stop the Cybermen cannon in time? Will leela escape the Dalek torture chamber? On the other hand will the peladon army push the sontaron forces into a complete retreat?

One scale can impact the other. Characters could transmat from ship/building to surface, turning the tide here or there.

Each 54mm character could come with a generic sprue of grunt troops and a resin Mini me as well.

Just an idea…

Sounds like you've put a lot of thought into this!

If only Warlord had done the same…

I've never really thought Dr. Who lent itself to a game format. Not to drop a floater in your pool, but I just don't see it.

Dr. Who, not unlike the "House" series, posits a problem. The nature of the problem is a mystery, and someone, or some group of someones, are imperiled by it. Everyone struggles to understand the nature of the problem. The Brigadier and his soldiers never solve the problem. They just threaten to make it worse. In the end the danger is averted thru the deus ex machina device of the Doctor's superior insight and wisdom.

Conflict isn't resolved. It's averted. How on earth do you PvP that?

The lord of the rings is a series of books, or films as per the GW game. The Hobbits and Aragon escaped the ring wrathes at weather Top. The fellowship escaped the goblins and the mines of moria. The orcs killed borimir and ran off with the Hobbits a amonhen. So on. (Ignor bad spelling) With that in mind, what's to wargame?

You certainly do not need to abide to the outcome of the story to make a game.

I thought the Union won, the Allied, so on. Why wargame historical at all? Just read a book and you'll learn exactly (you know what I mean) what happened, nothing to wargame when you know who won and how it all played out.

Here's a new one. A kroton kills the doctor while the rest of his dinotropic kin slaughter the draconian army trying to protect him. Problem solved.

More to your point.

I have had the idea of recreating the filming of who episodes in miniature. You can get camera and crew. There are stage floor plans available. Then you play along to an episode while watching it on a tv next to the table. You make all the moves in relation to the footage, moving the cast and crew and cameras through a modeled set. Will Work best for the earlyer doctors where there were few cuts if any.

Some very ambitious ideas there.

On the issue of scale, I am wedded to 28mm or thereabouts for anything involving individual characters, and there's the advantage of being able to draw in other SF or historical figures. Each to their own.

I am more inclined to look at skirmishes based in the Doctor Who universe, not necessarily involving the Doctor. Plenty of scope for that. But I have seen various cunning plans to make the Doctor more of a key player. Its not an easy task when the main character is trying to avoid pitched battles as a solution.

54mm would be very expensive. If however you collected action figures that could be possible-unless you keep them mint in box!

I don't expect there will be a "next Doctor Who miniatures game" because its been tried, both by Warlord recently, and in the past by Harlequin, and neither , after some initial interest, seems to last very long, and the company has to be weighty enough to afford a licence and develop and support the product.

I think where Doctor Who gaming happens at all, there will be a reversion to home grown rules or adaptations of others, or maybe the revival of the free Doctor Who Miniatures Game that had to fade away when Warlord came in.

You could setup a Dalek base, pre-populated with counters. The Doctor and crew enter and try to shut down the base. He moves semi-randomly through the base. The players take on the role a film crews trying to document the action. "Getting the shot" would be rolled up as if they were shooting. With chances of getting disintegrated by the Daleks or having their cameras disabled by a misplaced sonic screwdriver. The crew with the best footage wins.

…Or there is that.

I was talking more a model railway type situation where you are recreating past events, but in real time. No dice rolling. So, not very wargamey except for the models. More simulation.

For that I would use 28mm. Missed that, sorry. Probably black tree and crooked dice.

On the other hand egalemoss would be cool, especially with some conversion for extra numbers, but yes, expensive.

For the wargame ideas I was thinking a complete change of scale may solve sales issues. On the other hand just decent 28mm at an affordable price may work also.

I do 28mm Who. The Whoverse (particularly the old Who) lends itself to battles and skirmishes with and without the Dr.

That's right.

Every WW2 British army didn't need Churchill running about.

Ideally I'd like to see decent 28-35mm plastic grunts. And metal.boxes or blisters for the characters. Like the original LOTR (movie) line.

As much as painting on flat details bothers me, I rally like their one piece Style. 10-12 different poses 2-3 different weapons. I really liked the fellowship range having the plastics, but also the option of metal.

With the Doctor I would say that the scale doesn't matter, but it should be larger on the inside.

Right.

Just a thought, think of a magazine, or book. Now measure it's outer cover and spine. Now measure all the interior pages. The TARDIS isn't science fiction at all.