''The Daleks'' is a supplement published by

FASA Fasa ( fa, فسا, Fasā, also Romanized as Fassa) is a city and capital of Fasa County, Fars Province, Iran. At the 2016 census, its population was 110,825, in 33,379 families. Fasa is the fourth most populous city of the province. The city date ...

in 1985 for ''

The Doctor Who Role Playing Game ''The Doctor Who Role Playing Game'' is a '' Doctor Who'' roleplaying game published by FASA in 1985. The game allows players to assume similar roles to the Doctor and his companions or as agents of the Celestial Intervention Agency. Set ...

'', which is based on the long-running BBC science fiction television series ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...

''.

''The Daleks'' contains information about Doctor Who's longest running adversary, the

Daleks The Daleks ( ) are a fictional extraterrestrials in fiction, extraterrestrial race of mutants principally portrayed in the British science fiction on television, science fiction television programme ''Doctor Who''. They were conceived by write ...

. The supplement is divided into two books: a 40-page

gamemaster A gamemaster (GM; also known as game master, game manager, game moderator, referee, or storyteller) is a person who acts as an organizer, officiant for regarding rules, arbitrator, and moderator for a multiplayer role-playing game. They are m ...

's booklet with truthful background information about the Daleks, including society, history, tactics, and physiology; and a 24-page booklet with information for players titled "The Dalek Problem – A Symposium", supposedly written by the

Celestial Intervention Agency Celestial may refer to: Science * Objects or events seen in the sky and the following astronomical terms: ** Astronomical object, a naturally occurring physical entity, association, or structure that exists in the observable universe ** Celes ...

. The information in the player's book may or may not be accurate. As reviewer Barry Bailey noted, "the players' booklet is carefully compiled as a mixture of truth, inaccuracies, lies,damn lies and statistics." Although these two booklets were originally sold together, they are usually found separately on the used book market. Since there have been more players than gamemasters, the player's booklet is rarer than the gamemaster's book.

Publication history

FASA published ''The Doctor Who Roleplaying Game'' in 1985, and quickly released two adventures, ''

The Lords of Destiny ''The Lords of Destiny'' is an adventure published by FASA in 1985 for ''The Doctor Who Role Playing Game''. Plot summary The Companions are sent aboard an enormous 10,000 km long World-Ship that is moving through space at near-light spee ...

'', and ''

The Iytean Menace ''The Iytean Menace'' is an adventure published by FASA in 1985 for '' The Doctor Who Role Playing Game''. Plot summary The player characters are assumed to be members of the Celestial Intervention Agency, and are sent to London in 1885 to inve ...

'', as well as several supplements about foes of The Doctor, including '' The Master'' and this one, ''The Daleks''. ''The Daleks'' was designed by the staff writers of Fantasimulation Associates, Guy McLimore Jr., Greg Poehlein, and David F. Tepool. Interior art was by Dana Andrews, Jane K. Bigos, James Holloway, David J. Hutchins, Todd F. Marsh, Jordan Weisman, and James Holloway; Holloway also provided the cover art for the gamemaster's book.

Reception

In the May 1986 edition of ''

White Dwarf A white dwarf is a stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very dense: its mass is comparable to the Sun's, while its volume is comparable to the Earth's. A white dwarf's faint luminosity comes fro ...

'' (Issue #77), Barry Bailey reviewed both ''The Daleks'' and '' The Master'', which had been released simultaneously. Bailey complimented FASA for including updated rules on the Daleks that made them much harder to damage in combat, but criticized FASA for the necessity of including this information in a supplement rather than the original rules, saying, "I wonder, however, why it was necessary to do this in a supplement? FASA should have got it right first time - anything else deserves the strongest criticism." Although Bailey was not pleased by the introduction of many new rules, which required integration with the original ''Doctor Who'' game rules, he was impressed by the "Dalek Combat Flowchart". Bailey was ambivalent about the usefulness of either ''The Daleks'' or ''The Master'', and gave them both an average overall rating of 7 out of 10, saying, "If you intend using either of the two villains regularly, and don't feel you know enough from the series to be able to handle them, then you should use these supplements. Otherwise you'd probably be better trusting to your own judgement."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Daleks Role-playing game supplements introduced in 1985 Science fiction role-playing game supplements The Doctor Who Role Playing Game

Contents

Publication history

Reception

References