--- In whoconcord@..., Nathan Hawks <nhawks@g...>
wrote:
>
> I haven't posted here in a while. I can't speak for everybody
since I'm just a friend, passing through :)

All comments are welcome nathan :-)

> But ... I've read some very detailed timelines of Who-dom. The
events leading to the Doctor's birth and the biggest details of his
homeworld's politics, etc have been changed by past adventures - so
much that, for example, his granddaughter Susan may only be a
rhetorical or genetic relation due to the Doctor maybe-possibly
having been born by looming and not by the natural birthing of the
Gallifreyan nobility.

All very true, although some facts are more fixed than others. It
depends whether you like to know the fictional facts as well as the
historical ones, and whether you might find some particular
resonance or connection between two such facts that might stimulate
a little creative thought.

> Who-history has it both ways, depending on which instance of
history is in effect for your game.

Whoconcord isn't a gaming resource per se. It was set up as
a "lists" project which got linked to both gaming *and* continuity
groups because parts of it will be of value to both audiences. Some
of the lists were inspired by the demands of gamers rather than
continuity-heads.

> Continuity seems to be the vital enemy of all Who writers.

It can also be their friend and muse.

> My Who game takes place in a universe where Earth was destroyed by
the daleks in the late 21st century - in order to give me maximum
creative license. It helps me escape both reality and canon for my
homeworld's flavoring. You might consider something like that, it
allows you to use what material exists, and ignore what doesn't.

In gaming terms being free from canon can be very helpful. You can
base an entire game on an alternate set of events or a different
point of view.

One theory I came across suggested that every Time Lord is, in fact,
the lynchpin around which an entire universe revolves, and that
Gallifrey was the only place where all the Time Lords of all the
different continuities would come together. In this idea its very
rare to meet another Time Lord, but when it happens the universe is
in grave danger and usually involves the interaction between two
different continuities. Obviously, the TV series revolves around the
universe occupied by the Doctor, but in a gaming universe it could
revolve around the PC Time Lord, for whom events unfold very
differently, but with lots of the same "players".

AD