Now there's something I never thought I'd see: Doctor Who in Magic the Gathering

Let's pause for a moment and consider the fact that there is a Magic: the Gathering card for Peri Brown. This is definitely something I never thought I would see.

As a Doctor Who fan who started watching the show on non-profit public broadcasting in the early 1980s, I never could have imagined the success it currently enjoys. Back then we had to huddle in front of the cathode ray tube TVs of the previous century, crossing our fingers that the seasonal pledge drive for donations would be enough for the local PBS station to buy another year's worth of the Doctor's adventures, and it was rare that you ran into anyone who had even heard of it, let alone was a devoted fan.

But of course, the show's 2005 revival was incredibly successful, to the point that Doctor Who now goes out worldwide on Disney's streaming channel, and Wizards of the Coast considers it enough of a recognizable property that they're willing to devote an installment of their Magic: the Gathering: Universes Beyond product line to it. And they've done a great job.

The cards themselves are amazingly well thought out, with a lot of deep-dives into the show's 60-year history. There are cards for every single Doctor and companion, as well as most (if not all) of the major villains and many memorable guest stars ranging from Madame Vastra to Duggan, the punch-happy detective from 1979's City of Death. The artwork is uniformly spectacular, in many cases giving us what amounts to big-budget versions of scenes that may have been a bit...disappointing on classic Doctor Who's notoriously tiny budget.

Rather than a randomized set of cards that come in blind booster packs and require players to assemble their own decks for play, the Doctor Who Magic set consists of four preconstructed decks for the Commander format. Buying all four Commander decks will get you a complete set of all the cards in their basic, non-foil versions, but if you want to chase after the foils, extended art, and alternate art versions, you'll need to look for Collector Boosters.

Most of the set consists of new cards, but they did do a number of reprints of classic Magic cards with new Doctor Who artwork. Even the basic Land cards (the core building blocks of any Magic deck) got new artwork featuring the TARDIS in a variety of alien landscapes. Also included in each deck is a set of oversized Planechase cards, an optional add-on that introduces different locations to Magic games -- the idea of players moving between different worlds and environments is a natural fit for Doctor Who. 

In theory, having this card set come as preconstructed decks is a great idea, as it gives potential Doctor Who fans who might be new to Magic a way to get playing right away. The Commander format, which asks each player to come to the game with a deck consisting of exactly 100 unique cards, even makes sense as it allows for a wide range of new cards to be featured. However, Commander is also a bit more complicated and cumbersome than a normal game of Magic, so if you're new to the game and want to learn how to play, this might not be the best place to start.

For Doctor Who fans who are also Magic players, the set is fantastic, both in the breadth of Doctor Who characters and storylines that are covered, and also in the attention to detail and just the downright fun of it all. The development team was clearly made up of dedicated fans, or at the very least did some exhaustive research.

Rating: 4 (out of 5) a beautifully designed set of cards for Magic: the Gathering. Non-Magic players might find it all a little baffling, but Peri's card looks great!

• MTG Universes Beyond: Doctor Who official website

First impression: Doctor Who Nemesis

In Doctor Who: Nemesis, players take on the roles of iconic villains from Doctor Who and attempt to win by succeeding at their nefarious schemes before the other players do. Each villain has their own unique victory condition, and while the game is primarily a race to complete a particular combination of plays first, players can also interfere with the other players by playing hero cards designed to slow them down.

It is primarily a card game, with a small board worker placement element. Each player has their own board with four spaces representing different combinations of actions, mainly drawing and/or playing different types of cards, and a worker pawn that must move to a different space each turn. A lot of the game's decision points rest with which space to move to that will allow the player to play the type of cards they need to play that turn.

From the above description, Doctor Who: Nemesis sounds exactly like the Villainous series of games, which comes in Marvel, Star Wars, and classic Disney flavors. So exactly that it seems lucky for the designers of Doctor Who: Nemesis that the common wisdom is that it isn't possible to copyright game mechanisms. At the very least, comparisons between the games are inevitable.

I will concede that the games are extremely similar (with the caveat that I have only played Star Wars Villainous). The overall game structure is identical, but the card play in Doctor Who: Nemesis is quite different -- it reminds me a lot more of classic collectible card games from the 1990s, specifically Decipher's Star Wars and Star Trek CCGs. Cards in the game represent characters, permanent conditions, and temporary advantages. Character cards play to specific locations, and can be used to block your opponents' ability to use the actions on their board effectively, resulting in battles where the value of each player's characters at a location are totaled and compared, with the loser losing their forces but the winner having had to spend time fighting off the invaders instead of working on the scheme they need to play out in order to win. It adds a lot of player interaction that's missing from Villainous, and makes the game seem a lot less like double solitaire.

Where Doctor Who: Nemesis really improves on Villainous is in how the forces of good are included in the game. In Villainous, each character has a separate deck of hero cards that can be drawn and played by opponents in order to slow down that player. It works, but it's a little disjointed, and doesn't allow for any real strategy as you're drawing two cards, immediately playing one, and discarding the other. In Doctor Who: Nemesis, each player is given two randomly chosen Doctors at the start of the game; each of those Doctors comes with 4 cards that are shuffled in to that player's deck. The Doctor cards can be used to slow down the opponent by blocking their action spaces, and some of them offer alternate victory conditions that either player can work towards. It's a much more elegant solution and works well with the game's theme: it's easy to imagine Daleks and Cybermen competing for universal dominance, only to have the Doctor come along and foil everyone's plans.

The game was fairly easy to learn, with a surprisingly well-organized rule book and consistent graphics and reminders on the cards and boards. The only thing we found a little awkward was the turn structure. On your turn, you choose your action space, then play & move your characters and resolve battles, then do the actions on the space you've chosen. We found it to be a little counterintuitive to choose an action, then do something unrelated before resolving that action.

Rating: 4 (out of 5) All in all we enjoyed the game quite a bit. Yes, it borrows a lot from Villainous, but we thought it was a more interesting game.

• Doctor Who: Nemesis official website
• Doctor Who: Nemesis on BoardGameGeek

Predictable results

We've all been there: I was $10 away from free shipping on an online order, so I bought Doctor Who: Dalek Dice on a whim.

Expectations should be low for a $12 dice game, especially one based on a popular licensed property from a publisher with a somewhat spotty track record for this particular IP -- Cubicle 7's Doctor Who role playing game is terrific, but their Doctor Who: the Card Game didn't really utilize the license well, and their Time Clash game died right out of the gate.

On the other hand, Dalek Dice was designed by Marco Maggi and Francesco Nepitello, the team that has done such a great job with other games based on licensed properties such as the epic War of the Ring and the more recent Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. I suppose I was holding out hope that they would come up with something more interesting than the usual press-your-luck dice game.

What they delivered was...the usual press-your-luck dice game. Nothing clever, no unique Doctor Who twist. Just a game that's boring even in comparison to other dice games like Dino Hunt Dice or Age of War. Not too surprising I suppose, but still a little disappointing.

Rating: 1 (out of 5) We will probably never play this game again, especially since we have similar alternatives that are much better games.

• Dalek Dice official website
• Dalek Dice on BoardGameGeek

It's about time...

Doctor Who: Time of the Daleks is essentially a re-themed Elder Sign, but I think I'm okay with that. Thematically, Elder Sign is a game about tweedy academics solving problems intellectually rather than with brute force, and that is absolutely what a Doctor Who game should be about.

Like Elder Sign, the core gameplay in Time of the Daleks involves rolling dice and matching their symbols in order to complete tasks. Each player plays as a particular Doctor, with assistants and gadgets that allow him to manipulate the roll of the dice in order to get the right combination of symbols. Each successfully completed task moves that player closer to winning the game.

Also like Elder Sign, there is a villain at work, essentially trying to outrace the players and prevent them from winning. In this case it's the Daleks, and their presence is felt in the game in several ways. Failing at a task will generally move the Dalek saucer forward on the scoring track, and of course they win if they beat all the players to the end. Additionally, any failure will also result in a Dalek figure being placed on the board, where they reduce the number of dice the players get to roll. Too many Daleks on the board will also lose the game for the players.

There are a few ways in which Time of the Daleks differs from Elder Sign (enough to keep Reiner Knizia's lawyers at bay, anyway). The dice-rolling tasks that players must accomplish are determined by a combination of two different tiles on the board: a location and a dilemma (usually a villain from the TV series' long history). This makes for a great deal of mix-and-match variety, as Silurians may threaten the planet Karn in one game, and the Time Meddler in another.

Combine that with a randomly shuffled deck of companions, and the game can tell a multitude of what if stories as Leela teams up with Sarah Jane Smith and the 11th Doctor to stop the Cybermen from invading Clara's apartment, or the First Doctor and Nardole foil the Master's Trap at the Bank of Karabraxos.

Another way in which it differs from Elder Sign is that it is only partially co-operative. Players are in competition with each other to get to the end of the score track first, but they all lose if the Daleks get there first. If a player is having a tough time solving a dilemma, he can ask one of the other players for help, which they may be inclined to do if it will slow down the Daleks. Additionally, the assisting player shares in the reward for completing the dilemma. It reminds me a lot of the multi-Doctor stories where they fight and bicker but end up cooperating for the greater good.

If you read the online chatter about this game, the main complaint about it seems to be that the announced expansions for the game have not yet materialized, a year after the game's release. Part of this frustration no doubt comes from the fact that the game was originally intended to feature six Doctors rather than four, and was scaled back in order to get the asking price down. The game's coverage of the world of Doctor Who does feel a little thin here and there -- clearly there is room for a lot more content.

Nevertheless, it's a solidly designed game with some beautifully designed components (The Expanse Board Game could learn a lesson here). Most importantly, it feels like Doctor Who, which is something no other board game in the show's 55 year history has quite managed to do.

Rating: 4 (out of 5) A good game that could be a great one. It captures the feel of Doctor Who, but not quite the depth.

• Doctor Who: Time of the Daleks official website
• Doctor Who: Time of the Daleks on BoardGameGeek

Check out my OnTableTop.com project blog about painting the miniatures that come with this game.

Doctor Who on TV isn't really about combat, but...

Daleks vs Sontarans, a clash yet to be seen on TV

Before 2006, most Doctor Who fans of a certain type probably wondered who would come out on top in a clash between the show's two highest profile recurring villains, the Daleks and the Cybermen. Despite appearing in the classic series regularly over it's 26-year run, the Doctor's two most formidable opponents never met, and the show's approach to continuity was very compartmentalized: Dalek stories would often refer to previous Dalek stories, but there wasn't really any sense of a larger, coherent universe. The only classic TV story that featured both the Daleks and the Cybermen was 20th anniversary special The Five Doctors, but they're never seen on screen together.

All that changed in 2006 with the new series episode Army of Ghosts, in which the Daleks and the Cybermen finally met. Doctor Who: Exterminate! from Warlord Games allows players to recreate that clash on the tabletop with "epic scale" 38mm miniatures.

A skirmish game may seem like an odd choice for the Doctor Who license, since the Doctor tends to avoid violence and try to think his way out of problems, which is no doubt why the game emphasizes clashes between the more militant villains of the series such as the Daleks, the Cybermen, and the Sontarans. However, the game's scenarios do each include a sidebar with suggestions for how to involve the Doctor and his companions in the game, giving them objective-based goals to achieve while trying to avoid getting shot at by Daleks.

The game itself uses a simple symbol-based dice mechanic to determine if attacks are successful, with each player also given a hand of "battle cards" that can be used to supplement the dice results. Common miniatures game elements such as range, obstacles and cover are addressed by adjusting the number of dice rolled for attack or defense. Rather than requiring players to keep track of damage to individual miniatures, the game uses a system of different statuses: figures are either fully operational, shocked (temporarily incapacitated) or exterminated on a particularly good roll of the damage dice. It makes losing figures in battle a bit unpredictable, which I think is okay for a game like this where the emphasis is on narrative rather than cold tactics.

One game mechanic I have mixed feelings about is the concept of being "under fire." If a figure is successfully fired upon (even if it doesn't take any damage), that figure is given an "under fire" token, which means it can't return fire on its turn, and has to roll to remove the token at the end of the turn. This can sometimes result in multiple turns where a player can't really do much with their figures, which can be a little frustrating. It also gives characters whose special abilities allow them to ignore "under fire" tokens (such as the Daleks) a huge advantage.

To add additional flavor, the game includes an "Adventure Card" deck with various events and equipment from the show that players can use. We've found that giving the Cyberleader a samurai sword is a particularly winning combination.

Most miniatures game rules systems are really just an excuse to sell the figures, and that's where this game really shines. Right out of the box you get 12 Daleks and 12 Cybermen, requiring some assembly but cast in gold and silver so you can get to playing without taking the time to paint them (although you will probably want to eventually).

A selection of additional figures: an Ice Warrior, a Judoon, a Silent, and a Zygon

The supplemental figures cover a wide range of both the classic and the new TV series, and they are of exceptional quality. The slightly larger scale allows for a lot more detail, and an apparently rigorous approvals process results in miniatures that are very true to their TV counterparts, and a joy to paint.

Rating: 4 (out of 5) Great miniatures with a reasonably good rules set to go with them.

• Doctor Who: Exterminate! official website
• Doctor Who: Exterminate! on BoardGameGeek
• Doctor Who: Exterminate! Facebook group (very active)

Check out my OnTableTop.com project blog about painting the Sontaran miniaures for this game.

Daleks conquer and destroy!

Hasbro has breathed new life (or at least, new sales) into its stable of Parker Brothers classics like Monopoly, Clue and Risk by making them into fill-in-the-blanks licensing vehicles. The first one I can remember seeing was Star Wars Monopoly, although there may have been others before that. I always liked that Marvel Comics Monopoly replaced the properties with important comic book issues.There's no denying that Lord of the Rings Risk was a good fit, and I'm intrigued by the 24 edition of Clue, although I've never had a chance to play it.

Doctor Who Risk seems like an unlikely choice, at least until you get to the subtitle: The Dalek Invasion of Earth. In the 1964 Doctor Who episode of the same name, the villainous Daleks do indeed conquer the Earth (they manage it again in 1972's Day of the Daleks and 2008's The Stolen Earth), and the game draws on that basic idea to justify its existence. The stroke of brilliance is that all the players play as the Daleks, with each player taking command of different warring Dalek factions.

That's all fine and good, but isn't it still just Risk with Dalek figurines? Well, yes, and that's really the point. It's not meant to be a new game, it's meant to allow Doctor Who fans an opportunity to play the classic game, with a theme that might be a bit more relatable than the original Risk's Napoleonic wars. And Doctor Who Risk actually does the game one better, in the way it gets the show's star character into the game.

The fundamental problem with Risk is that the game only ends when one player has knocked all the other players out of the game. Apart from creating a situation where you have eliminated players sitting around waiting for the game to finish, it means that it often takes a really long time to play. In Doctor Who Risk, the Doctor is represented by a time track along the edge of the board. At various random points in the game the Doctor "regenerates," moving the counter down the time track until it eventually reaches the Eleventh Doctor, which ends the game. This creates a much needed time limit, but not an exact one, so players still don't know exactly when the game will end, only roughly.

The game adds a few other elements which cleverly work in more content from the TV series. Mission Cards are dealt out to the players at the start of the game and give them a specific goal with a reward, usually involving defeating a classic Doctor Who monster by taking over a certain area on the board. Power Cards give one-time strategic advantages, but since players only get a few during the game they must be used sparingly. Perhaps the most thematic element is that every round the Doctor appears in a random area on the board, and no combat is allowed between players in that area while he's there.

Weirdly, this re-themed game of armies and world domination is one of the first Doctor Who board games I've come across that seems really true to the spirit of Doctor Who.

Rating: 3 (out of 5) The Doctor Who theme and the addition of mission cards and especially a time limit make Risk a much more interesting, playable game.

Doctor Who Risk official website
Doctor Who Risk on BoardGameGeek.com

Date played: May 27, 2014