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Adventures of the 4th Doctor #18
Doctor Who and the Vortex Crystal: A Solo-Play Adventure Game
The planet did not look inviting... On the fog-shrouded planet Gathwyr, the Doctor and his companions stumble across the keys to a mystery that lead them to plot and counterplot in a struggle that threatens the universe itself.
In this plot-your-own Doctor Who adventure from FASA, the Doctor must use all of his intelligence, charm, and luck to discover what power is eroding the barriers between Time and Space. Somewhere on Gathwyr lie the clues to the puzzle, but as the puzzle comes together, the Doctor learns he still faces his greatest challenge, a confrontation with the dark lord of the enigmatic Vortex Crystal!
Doctor Who plot-your-own adventures are a new concept in interactive fiction, combining the detail and depth of a novel with the fast-paced excitement of a role-playing game. As the intrepid Doctor, you make the decisions that determine the course of an adventure. Each decision leads you, step by step, through an unfolding story-plot, where your skill will make the crucial difference between success and failure.
In this plot-your-own Doctor Who adventure from FASA, the Doctor must use all of his intelligence, charm, and luck to discover what power is eroding the barriers between Time and Space. Somewhere on Gathwyr lie the clues to the puzzle, but as the puzzle comes together, the Doctor learns he still faces his greatest challenge, a confrontation with the dark lord of the enigmatic Vortex Crystal!
Doctor Who plot-your-own adventures are a new concept in interactive fiction, combining the detail and depth of a novel with the fast-paced excitement of a role-playing game. As the intrepid Doctor, you make the decisions that determine the course of an adventure. Each decision leads you, step by step, through an unfolding story-plot, where your skill will make the crucial difference between success and failure.
- GenresDoctor Who
371 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1986
About the author
William H. Keith Jr.
129 books180 followersBill Keith was raised in the mountains of western Pennsylvania, and served in the Navy as a corpsman for many years. In addition to writing fiction and non-fiction works, he is an award-winning illustrator/artist.
He has also published under the psuedonyms:
Ian Douglas (SF series: Heritage, Legacy, Inheritance, Star Carrier, Andromedan Dark)
H. Jay Riker (SEALS:The Warrior Breed series)
Keith Douglass (Carrier and Seal Team 7 series)
Bill Keith
Keith William Andrews (Freedom's Rangers series)
Robert Cain (Cybernarc series)
He has also published under the psuedonyms:
Ian Douglas (SF series: Heritage, Legacy, Inheritance, Star Carrier, Andromedan Dark)
H. Jay Riker (SEALS:The Warrior Breed series)
Keith Douglass (Carrier and Seal Team 7 series)
Bill Keith
Keith William Andrews (Freedom's Rangers series)
Robert Cain (Cybernarc series)
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 9, 2019
This is a mixed book to read. It is a combination of describing how well it did with a story and how it works as a game book. To review this book I will be going from game mechanics to the plot.
First, before you read this you need to understand it is a game book. It is a combination of choose your own adventure with dice rolling. FASA created this book to tie into the Doctor Who RPG. They also allow you to take your own characters and transfer them to this book. From the times you do dice rolling and how that mechanism works, no issues. Straightforward instructions on knowing how to tell if you succeeded or failed at a roll.
You don't need to roll dice at every single decision. There seemed to be a small amount of dice rolling involved. The downside is you can tell how this book tries to push you in a certain direction.
I read this twice for this review. The first was reading and acting similar to how the Doctor would act. I used dice to see what would happen. The second time I read through doing the opposite of the Doctor. Then I did not do any dice rolling. I select failure for every dice roll.
Based on this approach, I noticed the pattern the story took that you would reach similar points in the story, but via different actions. So you are limited to what you can do and you sometimes end up hit the same section. This is not necessary bad, just that the flow of the story seems to be jagged. The descriptions on the paragraph you flip to might not connect 100% to what you just read.
From here I can now go into the plot of the story. Once again the Doctor encounters the Daleks as they seeking a disturbance in the time vortex. For not being published by Target or the BBC, it fits into the Doctor universe. There are even references to other stories. This is nice to see some continuity with the show.
The downside with the plot is in order for this to work as a game book, Harry and Sarah are sideline quickly in the story. Though this makes it interesting as you see the story from only the Doctor's side, so you don't get additional information with the plot due to seeing what the companions find out.
Overall, this is not too bad of a book. I did enjoy it, though due to the nature of it being a game book it tended to be a mismatch at times. Also once you have gone through it once, you can predict where your actions might lead to. Had to give it two stars, as it just barely missed being three starts.
By the way, the results of my game play with it. Acting to how the Doctor would act, I was successful in completing the game. When I did the complete opposite, the Doctor died and regenerated.
First, before you read this you need to understand it is a game book. It is a combination of choose your own adventure with dice rolling. FASA created this book to tie into the Doctor Who RPG. They also allow you to take your own characters and transfer them to this book. From the times you do dice rolling and how that mechanism works, no issues. Straightforward instructions on knowing how to tell if you succeeded or failed at a roll.
You don't need to roll dice at every single decision. There seemed to be a small amount of dice rolling involved. The downside is you can tell how this book tries to push you in a certain direction.
I read this twice for this review. The first was reading and acting similar to how the Doctor would act. I used dice to see what would happen. The second time I read through doing the opposite of the Doctor. Then I did not do any dice rolling. I select failure for every dice roll.
Based on this approach, I noticed the pattern the story took that you would reach similar points in the story, but via different actions. So you are limited to what you can do and you sometimes end up hit the same section. This is not necessary bad, just that the flow of the story seems to be jagged. The descriptions on the paragraph you flip to might not connect 100% to what you just read.
From here I can now go into the plot of the story. Once again the Doctor encounters the Daleks as they seeking a disturbance in the time vortex. For not being published by Target or the BBC, it fits into the Doctor universe. There are even references to other stories. This is nice to see some continuity with the show.
The downside with the plot is in order for this to work as a game book, Harry and Sarah are sideline quickly in the story. Though this makes it interesting as you see the story from only the Doctor's side, so you don't get additional information with the plot due to seeing what the companions find out.
Overall, this is not too bad of a book. I did enjoy it, though due to the nature of it being a game book it tended to be a mismatch at times. Also once you have gone through it once, you can predict where your actions might lead to. Had to give it two stars, as it just barely missed being three starts.
By the way, the results of my game play with it. Acting to how the Doctor would act, I was successful in completing the game. When I did the complete opposite, the Doctor died and regenerated.
September 12, 2015
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2499018.html
Doctor Who and the Vortex Crystal has the Fourth Doctor landing on a planet with Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan, and having to sort out the evil Masters who are oppressing the planet's inhabitants. But the Masters (whose identity is not difficult to work out) have problems of their own, and one crucial forking point in the story requires the reader to correctly work out which pre-Fourth Doctor baddie is likely to be Behind It All. There are some risible bits of running around mazes and exploring networks of corridors; plus the Doctor, as viewpoint character, spends most of the book looking for Sarah and Harry who are therefore are mostly offscene. But it's good fun
Doctor Who and the Vortex Crystal has the Fourth Doctor landing on a planet with Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan, and having to sort out the evil Masters who are oppressing the planet's inhabitants. But the Masters (whose identity is not difficult to work out) have problems of their own, and one crucial forking point in the story requires the reader to correctly work out which pre-Fourth Doctor baddie is likely to be Behind It All. There are some risible bits of running around mazes and exploring networks of corridors; plus the Doctor, as viewpoint character, spends most of the book looking for Sarah and Harry who are therefore are mostly offscene. But it's good fun
October 18, 2012
Almost 3 stars, but they just could have done a lot more with this. I think it might be more interesting if you created your own character instead of using the stats provided in the front, but the big problem is that there's only one main plotline. It doesn't really matter what you do; you're going to end up in the same place no matter what (well, unless you die and fail to regenerate).
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews