Where & When
The story is set on an unnamed human colony world in the “far future”. With no other reference points, it’s impossible to say just how far into the future this is, or, for that matter, whether the planet is in our own galaxy or another. A common interpretation among fans is that it is set after the destruction of Earth, perhaps thousands or millions of years after The End of the World, but that’s merely a guess.
Setting
In the animation, the region of the planet the TARDIS arrives in is a desert, featuring sand dunes and rocks, dotted with occasional thornbushes and cacti. However, the surviving stills of the originally broadcast episodes show quite a different environment. Instead of a desert, we see a vegetated habitat with long grass, stands of trees, and plentiful bushes. It’s described later on as “scrubland”, a term which can cover a range of habitats but here seems to fit best with “Mediterranean” vegetation such as would be found in the French maquis or the Californian chaparral.
Although we’re never specifically told that this is a colony world, the inhabitants refer to themselves as human and consider themselves biologically indistinguishable from Steven and Dodo (and the Doctor, since at this point in the show’s history it had yet to be established that he was an alien). This fits with the presence of only one small settled area and their evident knowledge of other inhabited worlds. None of these seem to be close, however, so wherever we are, it is isolated from the rest of interstellar human civilisation by vast distances and/or time.
If we assume that it is a colony, then it follows that this must be one of the most hospitable areas on the planet because the original settlers would hardly have made things difficult for themselves on purpose. This makes more sense for scrubland than desert, and we have to assume that the rest of the planet shows more variety.
An interesting point here is that, because it’s a colony of a very advanced civilisation in the far future, it’s entirely possible that the planet has been terraformed and that we’re not seeing what it originally looked like. All of the plant and animal life may have been imported, as the humans were, so we don’t need native life or oceans to explain the oxygenated, breathable atmosphere. Nonetheless, there must be rain, and possibly underground water reserves, both to water the plants and to provide for the city.
So far as we can tell, the gravity, atmosphere, and day length are all very similar to those of Earth. We don’t see any animals, although the animation includes some bleached skeletons in the desert. However, there are a few reasons why these must exist. For one, there would have to be insects, worms, and so on, for the vegetated ecosystem to work as it does. More significantly, the Savages have weapons, and they don’t use them on the city-dwellers or, so far as we can tell, each other. Which leaves the only explanation that they are for hunting and/or defence against wild animals.
Finally, they are wearing leather clothes, and they must have got the material to make them from somewhere. As to what the animals supplying this material (and, potentially, meat) could be, almost anything is possible. If the world has been terraformed, the animals could even be descended from those on Earth, although they could equally well have been taken from other colony worlds. If the planet had advanced life before it was colonised, we’re even more in the dark as to what that native life might have been like.
The Savages live on a “reserve” divided into sectors, with restrictions on movements between them. The community we see lives in the ‘Valley of the Caves’ beyond the scrubland, but the existence of other sectors implies that there are other groups, and it’s unlikely that there can be enough caves for all of them. Thus, some may live in simple lean-tos made from tree branches or crude leather tents that we never see.
The total population is unclear, but given the setup, it might not be much less than that of the city, which would suggest that the reserve is extensive. The Valley of Caves is at least a few hours from the city, but not so many that you can’t travel there and back in a day. The Savages’ community is tribal, with leadership apparently invested in the oldest individual, although his decisions can be questioned.
The city is, of course, intended as the counterpoint to all this, a haven of high-tech sophistication and peace. It may be worth noting here that the original intent had been to have the Savages be white, and the civilised folk all be people of colour… in the end, only one of the key villains was retained as having African ancestry, which, blackface aside, doesn’t give the same impression.
Neither the city nor its inhabitants are given any name. Since it’s the only one, the original name of the city may well have been the same as the planet, but we don’t know what that is, either. Over the centuries since its founding, with little or no contact with the outside universe, there may have been no point in keeping the names, and they faded from general use.
The vast majority of the inhabitants of the city live a life of leisure, although we only see a couple of examples. We are told that everyone is provided with whatever job they would be best at, which in many cases means becoming an artist of some kind. The society is utopian, with all basic needs provided so that few people need to do anything very practical. It’s unclear how the ruling Elders are selected; it may just be that they are older, but given the rest of the society, there may also be some form of aptitude testing. The Captain of the Guard at least believes that he has the authority to take over the rule of the city in an emergency, although this doesn’t work out well for him, so he may be overstepping.
The city has a domed roof holding an ‘artificial sun’, which presumably powers down at night. The roof keeps rain out and maintains a localised weather system that’s probably warmer than the surrounding countryside. Apart from the Guards, nobody is allowed to leave the city, and few show any desire to – perhaps partly because of what they have been told about the Savages. Egress is through a limited number of doors in the city walls at the base of the dome; these are easy enough to open, but they are kept guarded to prevent anyone from using them.
The city’s energy is probably provided by fusion power or something even more advanced. There must also be substantial reserves of water beneath the city to keep it functioning, and the lack of farmland implies hydroponics or some method for synthesising food from raw stock like a Star Trek replicator. Alternatively, since we are told that the city includes “fertile land”, there might be automated farms of some kind – although it’s more likely that this is intended to refer to parks and recreation areas.
At one point, Dodo is given a diamond-studded mirror. The diamonds are almost certainly artificial, something that should be well within the technological and artistic skills of the inhabitants. The utopian society may exist without money, in a post-scarcity economy, and probably has many remarkable works of art that would be very valuable elsewhere.
Although it’s difficult to tell from the animation, the city is supposed to be built from stone with carved arches and artistic decorations amidst pleasant greenery and a large stadium for public gatherings. From what we see, it’s hard to imagine that it’s an especially large city, but it must be several thousand, and we might want to increase that further for many game settings, adding some kind of futuristic public transport system to get around.
The Guards act as a police force and have the authority to arrest and imprison people, but there is probably little need for this in their contented society. Instead, their primary function is supposed to be keeping the Savages out, and, in reality, collecting them for the vitality storage device. They have an alphanumeric system for designating individual Savages, rather than using their names, likely as part of a psychological method for dehumanising them.
To fit the world into a game setting, we would need to have some idea of where it is. For the society to work, it has to be isolated from the outside universe; the Elders are able to track spacecraft and time machines over great distances, but it’s obvious that they receive few visitors. In Star Trek, for example, we may well be in the Gamma Quadrant.
Although it won’t help if the map is already complete, an alternative to randomly stumbling across the world while out exploring is to have the Elders invite a select group of individuals to visit their planet, perhaps as a prelude to a deal with the Federation/New Republic/etc. This won’t suit a typical group of wandering mercenaries in a beat-up Free Trader/YT Freighter, but it could work as a one-off or in a campaign where the PCs have some official standing. Here, they have every reason to expect the world’s inhabitants to be friendly, and the Elders may well try to keep the existence of the Savages secret for as long as possible, or at least dissuade the PCs from talking to them.
The key feature of the setting, of course, is the machine that drains “life’s vital force” from the Savages, stores it in vats, and then “in-transfers” it to the city dwellers most in need of it. The benefits of this treatment are many and long-lasting, and can probably be tailored to the particular needs of the recipient. The main enhancements seem to be to intellect, wisdom, and artistic talent, although it’s easy enough to imagine other mental attributes also being affected. However, we are told that it can also boost energy, physical strength, and even beauty; the last of these perhaps by improving general health and longevity.
The downside is that this takes away some of these attributes from the Savages being drained. As a result, it’s implied that the Savages are not merely low-tech but actively unintelligent, and they specifically say that they have lost the skill to produce even rudimentary artwork. In the short term, the subject suffers physical weakness and mental confusion, but this passes after a few hours, leaving only the lingering – probably cumulative – effects.
The machine’s operators refer to the subject’s vitality levels by a number that, from context, is probably a percentage of maximal fitness. They usually drain each victim to 25% before releasing them back into the countryside, and we’re told that this is because there is a risk of permanent damage and death if they go any lower. (Although this isn’t a guarantee, since one victim in the story drops to 17% and survives, albeit largely by good luck).
Scenario
The story sees the time travellers arrive on the unnamed planet, where they are initially attacked by the Savages, and then rescued by the city guards. The isolation of the colony from the outside universe, able to observe but unable or unwilling to interact, is a key element of the plot. In most settings, this most likely means that the planet is well away from the usual centres of civilisation, which makes it difficult to fit into well-settled settings like the Spinward Marches, even setting aside the unique nature of the society. Settings with reaches of little-explored space, like Star Trek, are an easier fit, and something like Stargate SG-1 is even more so.
If they’re attacked by spear-wielding Savages, most PCs are going to fight back, and with more effectiveness than the protagonists in the story. Here, the challenge may be to prevent them from just killing their attackers, although a Prime Directive and the ability to set phasers to stun should certainly help. In more typical space opera settings, we could try and make it obvious that the Savages may be hostile, but they’re completely ineffective against the PCs’ armour or equipment, so that they might as well just chase them off. Failing that, the attacking Savages could be a different tribe from the one that lives in the Valley of Caves, perhaps even their rivals, making a later rapprochement more plausible.
The city inhabitants should be presented as advanced and peaceful, happily welcoming the PCs to their city and genuinely giving them every amenity and consideration. In the story, Steven and Dodo get gifts and a guided tour while the Doctor gets to discuss science and technology, and similar things could easily be tailored to fit a party.
Many players, in all honesty, are likely to be suspicious from the get-go, so you’re unlikely to need much encouragement for them to sneak about unsupervised and discover the hidden laboratory and Wylda. In the event that they don’t, it’s possible to drop hints or even have Jano open up and explain the secret behind the city’s success, since he doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with it and may be rather proud. An alternative is to have the Elders decide to separate and capture one of the PCs early on to drain them, especially if they realise that they will otherwise be a problem. If so, they should pick someone with high intelligence, wisdom, or some unique mental trait as their preferred choice or, if nobody fits that bill, whoever looks the most physically fit.
Once they do discover the truth, the plot can be open-ended. Hopefully, the PCs will object to what’s going on, and will want to put a stop to it, but how they go about it is up to them. Certainly, there should be an opportunity to visit the Valley of the Caves, learning about the Savages from their point of view. After this point, it may be trickier to get one of the PCs captured and threatened with draining, but it has to be worth trying; a redshirt or other close associate travelling with the PCs may be an alternative in some games.
Should any visiting character be drained, the effects should be similar to those in the story. The assumption here is that Senta has calibrated his equipment to the locals and is unused to outsiders with stronger willpower; his culture has been doing this for so long that it has ceased to be a problem and they stopped considering it as a possibility. This is a good opportunity if the PC (or whoever) isn’t human, with Jano taking on key mental traits of the species in question; a Vulcan’s logic, an Aslan’s honour, a Jawa’s acquisitiveness, or a Pachekki’s instability.
As described, the draining effect only works on living beings, so androids will be immune, which is bad news for them, since the Elders will have no reason to keep them alive.
The nature of the setting is such that there is little that can be done with it beyond the plot in the serial. While even Vortis, for example, must have all sorts of interesting places away from the Carsinome, the implication here is that, once you get beyond the reservation that the Savages live on, there is nothing but empty wilderness. Possibly set off by some sort of fence to stop the Savages escaping, and maybe very scattered tribes beyond that, if some of them managed it anyway, but otherwise just uninhabited wilds.
One possibility is to set the scenario after the events of the TV serial, dealing with the struggles to reconcile the two societies and build something new. There isn’t necessarily much of a threat here, but perhaps there will be a need to seek out ancient ruins beyond the Reservation and recover some of the world’s lost past. Such ruins could have wild animals in them, dangerous devices, or other hazards. Or maybe the rest of the world isn’t quite so abandoned as the Elders believe it to be.
Otherwise, a way to use the ideas in the serial outside of its plot is to take the draining device and transfer it somewhere else. One could imagine a villain in a futuristic city developing something like this, or discovering it in Goa’uld ruins (etc.) and using it to improve themselves and their followers, preying on the homeless or other hapless victims to fuel it.
The device might also have implications beyond those seen in the serial, especially in a different campaign. In Star Wars, for example, it’s easy to imagine it being some kind of Sith machine, drawing on the dark side of the Force to drain its victims of midichlorians and/or corrupt those it “in-transfers” the power to. Any Jedi getting a hint of that would certainly want to send someone to investigate and put a stop to it.
Rules
The tech level of the city is clearly intended to be high, and as such should almost certainly be above whatever the base tech level of the campaign is, although not necessarily into ‘godlike’ territory. This is TL11 in GURPS, while the ability to track the travel of time machines probably means TL8 in Doctors & Daleks, even if they don’t use time travel themselves. In Traveller, the technology fits at the top end of the standard scale; it’s at least TL14 and probably 15. This assumes that, in that setting, the ability to track ships through jump space from dozens of light-years away isn’t a plot requirement; if it is, then we’re into 16+.
The Savages, of course, are stuck in the Stone Age, at the very bottom of any tech level scale; TL0 in both GURPS and Traveller, and TL1 in Doctors & Daleks.
If we take the scrubland/savannah look of the TV serial over the more arid depiction in the animated reconstruction, it seems likely that the planet has seas and oceans elsewhere to maintain its water cycle. Given the Earthlike gravity and atmosphere, this gives us a Traveller UWP of something like E-86645A-F.
The light guns used by the guards are not easy to describe in most systems because they are so different from typical weapons. On a low setting, they cause pain, which can be reflected as a minor, non-lethal injury and/or something that causes the victim to lose their next action.
That’s straightforward, if a little unusual, but the problem comes with the main setting. Here, the weapon puts the target under the control of its wielder, fixing them in a location and partially paralysing them. More significantly, if the beam is kept on, and the wielder moves, the target moves with them, presumably because the spot they are fixed to remains a set distance from the gun. Thus, it’s used to capture people and transport them (on foot) to a set location. This may be best handled as if it were an entangling net, except that the victim can’t cut their way out.
It’s also capable of knocking somebody out if shone directly into their eyes. In systems that don’t allow such targeted aiming, this would require a better roll than usual to attack. For example, in 5E, the target’s AC could be increased by 5.
The light guns are similar to a submachine gun in size and have an unusually short range for a beam weapon. They can, however, be blocked by thick smoke or similar, which we can describe as reducing their range to one-third of its normal value. Since the guards use them to transport people from the Reservation to the city, they must be able to operate continuously for hours at a time, rather than having a specific number of shots.
5E
Damage Weight Properties
Restrained 10 lb. Range (5/15), 2 hours operation
Savage Worlds
Range Damage AP RoF Shots Min ST Weight
2/4/8 Bound - 1 2 hrs d4 10
GURPS
Damage Acc Range Weight RoF Shots ST Bulk Rcl
Entangled 5 4/8 5.5 1 2 hrs 6 -3 1
BRP
Base Dmg Attk Special Range Hnds HP S/D Mal Ammo Enc
15% Entang. 1 stun 3 1 14 6/6 99-00 2 hrs 2.0
We can also note that the guards are wearing some kind of light armour. It doesn’t give the impression of being anything more than heavy padding or jack armour, and it really only needs to protect against stone spears. However, it could easily be replaced with something more effective if that makes sense.
A larger concern is, of course, the device that forms the core of the story. Fortunately, here we don’t need to concern ourselves with its long-term effects, which are at the root of what the Elders are using it for. It’s unlikely that it’s going to be used in this way in the campaign itself, so we merely need to show its outcome, rather than define how it got there. To do that, we simply design the NPCs to fit the described effects – the Savages with low INT and/or disadvantage on all rolls involving mental abilities, and the city-dwellers with high-level artistic skills or whatever.
However, since it’s likely that somebody, perhaps even a PC, is going to experience its short-term effects, those do need to be defined. From the victim’s point of view, this is a drain on their vitality. Most detailed systems have at least optional rules for Fatigue, which can be applied here to describe the effects; it’s just a massive drain that takes some time to overcome.
Assuming that characters start off with a value of 100 (and this may be less in systems where they may plausibly be fatigued for some other reason before the process starts), we want to arrange things such that a value of 25 is where they cross a threshold into real danger. If the system doesn’t already provide for one when Fatigue gets low enough, some sort of survival roll may be called for, or, alternatively, the machine could start delivering damage instead. In the case of 5E, the exhaustion rules are already a decent fit to what’s described:
- 85-100 No effect
- 70-84 Lvl 1 exhaustion
- 55-69 Lvl 2 exhaustion
- 40-54 Lvl 3 exhaustion
- 25-39 Lvl 4 exhaustion
- 1-24 Lvl 5 exhaustion
- 0 Death
In this light, we will also want to make sure that the process is slow enough that it can be interrupted (hopefully by the PCs) before the victim’s ‘vitality’ reaches that 25 score, which is where the operators would normally stop anyway.
There’s probably less need to quantify the effects of the “in-transference”, since only NPCs are likely to benefit, and beyond taking on part of the personality of outsiders, the immediate effects are not obvious from the serial. In BRP, there may well be a boost to the recipient’s POW, and a concurrent drain in temporary POW (“magic points”) from the victim. In 5E, the recipient might gain a pool of reusable Inspiration, or temporary advantage or proficiency in any skills that the victim had proficiency in. In other systems, temporary skill or ability boosts may be appropriate, especially to mental attributes/abilities, which only become permanent with repeated use.
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