I hear at one point Crooked Dice approached the BBC to inquire about obtaining a license for Doctor Who in order to sell officially sanctioned rules and minis based on the show. The “Beeb” came back with a monetary amount which I suppose was well outside the budget of the miniatures company so the idea of selling the rules and figures went up in smoke. Yet, the media giant tossed out an interesting caveat: as long as the rules were made available at no charge Crooked Dice was welcome to develop the system (which I think actually stems from their first edition 7TV rules) as long as it stayed true to the show. Of course this still meant licensed Doctor Who minis weren’t going to be produced although it seems, at least to me, that the BBC is rather lax in going after companies which make miniatures that look a lot like they come from the series. I suppose it’s alright if the sculpts weren’t too spot on and no mention of Doctor Who was made but that may change after Warlord Games entered into a Doctor Who license this past summer.
On a side note, I seem to recall official Doctor Who miniatures back in the 1980’s or so but I don’t believe I thought they were all that great and the detail on the figures was pretty soft. I don’t remember who released them, off the top of my head, but I’m sure someone much more knowledgeable than I will help jog my memory.
Back to the case in point, Crooked Dice did release the rules online and up through 2013 there were still more free supplements being added to the download pages of the website. There’s even a Yahoo group dedicated to the rules.
Now I’m certainly not here to steal any of Warlord’s thunder since I’ve really liked the Bolt Action releases I had the opportunity to review and I’m sure it’s a pretty penny (or I guess I should say pound) to secure the rights to such a huge property as Doctor Who. Plus I’m sure Warlord will do a smash up job with the miniatures as I’ve already seen the really rocking Zygon mockup earlier this month. Granted, I’ve never painted up any Warlond minis but the company does have an excellent reputation and their prices aren’t insane.
Yet I can’t help but share the links to the Crooked Dice Doctor Who rules. They’re professionally presented, look like they’d be loads of fun to play, and you could probably even just make cardstock standees (or use counters) to have a blast. It certainly doesn’t hurt that the rules are absolutely free either!
So head on over to check out some mighty interesting Doctor Who miniature rules while you can; I have a sneaking suspicion once the Warlord Games system hits the market you might need a Tardis to go back in time and check out the Crooked Dice set…
