I gave up on Doctor Who just after Capaldi took over. The writing seemed particularly poor in the episodes I had watched. And feedback from my friend Duncan during his tenure as the Doctor who had stuck with the series did not hint that the writing had improved. It was a shame, they had wasted a great actor as the Doctor.

When Jodi Whittaker was named as the new Doctor. I didn’t care that they had swapped the gender of the Doctor. My concern was would she be let down by the writing as Capaldi had been?

Once again my friend Duncan who was proving to have a high tolerance for the badly written show, confirmed that this new Doctor was also being let down by poor scripts. So I’ve stayed away from the show.

That is until I got sent this tweet by my friend yesterday.

Curiosity got the better of me. I watched the episode.

For the record we are talking about Season 12 Episode 3 – Orphan 55

A brief synopsis of the plot (taken off Google) is as follows:

“The Doctor and her companions discover the luxury resort where they are staying is hiding a number of deadly secrets; they must discover why there are ferocious monsters attacking Tranquillity Spa.” (You can read a more in-depth look at the episode here)

Just to get it out of the system before looking at the reason why my friend got me to watch this episode. Wow the writing is worse than I had imagined.

So how would this novice DM make this work in D&D?

Firstly we are looking at a cross between a mystery and a horror alienesq scenario. In fact I could see this working really well in the new Alien RPG or one of the kids on bikes type RPGs out there like Tales from the Loop.

In my campaign the setting would most likely be a remote mysterious island that the party stumble upon. However in other campaigns I could see this working with a remote village, an outpost of some kind.

Which ever is chosen, the location will appear idillic. A paradise.

I’d then have a body discovered, and have the party get roped in investigating the death.

As the investigation progresses I’d maybe start adding more bodies. With it slowly being revealed that the locals know who or what is doing the murders. I’d have witnesses being cagey, giving partial inaccurate descriptions that conflict with each other. Maybe use this as a little misdirection and make the players suspect one or two of the locals. I’d possibly throw in a chase scene where the party nearly catch the killer in the act.

I’d use the surrounded by creatures idea from the episode. These naturally will be the killers. And it will turn out that the occupants of this location knew they had settled in a dangerous location, and that the odd murder was a price the occupants were prepared to pay. This will be the big reveal.

This is when we switch from the mystery part to a more the end of Aliens, the final stand before being completely over run scene. The odds will be overwhelming. After a heroic stand (using a dice countdown to determine when) one of the surviving locals will show the party a secret way out of the location, that will be run as a group challenge to escape.

I agree with my friend the premise is interesting as a possible adventure for an RPG. I’d need to come up with a credible reason why these people had built in such a dangerous location. Something better than the poor Planet of the Apes reveal that was implemented in the episode of Doctor Who.

Will I use the idea and develop it more? I don’t know. I’ve not run a mystery yet. It would require a lot more effort to prepare, particularly researching how to run a mystery in D&D. But the idea has potential.