Back To The Source

Deep7's roleplaying guide to the series is about to arrive.

29 October, 2004

Fans of the original Red Dwarf Roleplaying Game book and its supplements have much to celebrate this month, as the brand-new Series Sourcebook finally arrives. This hefty volume is a remarkable - and remarkably funny - episode-by-episode walk-though of all eight series to date, giving RPG players an opportunity to play versions of the shows featuring their own characters.

In celebration of this excellent addition to the Dwarf merchandise cannon - which will be arriving in the UK and USA online shops, as well as specialist stores, shortly - we have two brand new desktop wallpapers, created by Deep7, available for download.

Writer and company founder Todd Downing explained to reddwarf.co.uk just how this new release picks up where the previous guides left off. "By its very nature, the original rulebook contains all the... uh, rules you need to play the game - how to generate characters and roleplay them effectively, and (if you're the AI) how to horribly scar them psychologically. If you're not interested in incorporating elements of the actual episodes in your game, all you need is the rulebook. The Series Sourcebook doesn't contain rules of play - it's a very focused volume that breaks every episode of the television series down into fully statted and playable bits that you can add into said game. Want to bring in the Despair Squid to terrify your crew? It's there. Curious about wax droid Stan Laurel's hobbies and personal hygiene? He's in there. In fact, the Sourcebook gives you everything you need to play every episode of the show in chronological order - with your own alternate universe spin, of course."

Of course, as a games player himself, Todd has a few favourite inclusions of his own. "I love having so many canon guest characters with NPC (non-player character) stats. I love that Captain Platini of the Enlightenment could be a closet Def Leppard fan. I love that you can bring an actual Pete Tranter's sister in to seduce your horny crewmates. And of course, I think it's very cool to see the skill progression of the main cast over eight series. Good writers and good shtick."

For fans who are having trouble finding a group to play with, or just looking to share ideas, the Deep7 website - available via Links - has some handy downloads, as well as links to their message board and the official Red Dwarf RPG Yahoogroup.

"But when it all boils down," Todd muses, "you're likely not the only Red Dwarf fan in your family or neighbourhood or town, right? You must know other Dwarfers somewhere out there. Get together with them - show them your shiny new game books. 'You know you want to,' you seductively chime. Oh, they'll turn to the dark side. Or at least the Red side. Chances are, if someone is already creative enough to embrace Red Dwarf as a fun and intelligent television phenomenon, they're also creative enough to roleplay a psychotic mechanoid or an evolved gerbil for an evening."

I think we can all agree with that one.

You can link to the Deep7 website - as well as their message board and Yahoogroup - via Links.