Doctor Who: Solitaire Story Game (Third Edition)

After playing to the end of a game, which is a variable number of adventures based mostly on how successful you are in those adventures, I have to say that overall, I am enjoying this more than the prior editions. It's possible that it is the novelty of a new version, but ultimately I don't think so. There are a couple major changes to the game, which I feel serve as answers to the worst parts of the Second Edition specifically:

• The TARDIS Playmat (and Character cards). A flavourful board to keep track of what stage in both the specific adventure and game overall you are in. While you have to provide your own counters for Luck and Victory Points, the board feels like a TARDIS control panel and creates a designated space for record-keeping that is part of the game instead of just being notes that are changed multiple times per turn. The Character cards do similar for your TARDIS Crew and Friends - if you make changes, it's a single line of note that will only change once per adventure at most.
• Quality vs Quality conflicts. A major streamline in the way combat works, this also expands the combat rules to any opposed Quality roll, even if each side uses a different stat. By reducing this to a single roll, the potential of an extended dice roll session of no progress is removed and even the fastest conflict's time is reduced by about half (with one exception: if you have a 5+ difference in total quality, you now have to roll because there are auto-win and auto-losses).
• Idea Cards. The last issue was the amount of additional rules and special notes that apply by Doctor. With the addition of an Idea deck that you can, and are expected to, build and make use of, these additional options can be selected and swapped around at the player's desire. In addition, by choosing cards specific to your Doctor, the game can take on a feel more like their adventures. As the Playmat and Character cards could be done with extra note-taking, this is the one that makes the game less portable than before - while you could pull it off, these are the one thing I would say really needs to be printed out and thus needs additional space.

While I enjoy some of the weirder things that were possible and seem to have been lost, the ease of play and streamlined nature of the game more than make up for it. I would definitely suggest this to someone looking for a solo game who has an interest in Doctor Who and possibly even if they are just neutral on the show but are looking for a storytelling game.

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This game is delightful. A perfect amount of adventure, tension, and mitigation. The cards are an excellent addition. I can’t wait for more!!

Initial rating after a handful of adventures, which comprise one full game. There's a fair number of rules details that need to be second nature before getting into a good groove here. Despite that, I could already feel the great story emerging within my first few turns of my first adventure.

Fab - nice updating of the rules!

A new edition, the same (improved) jewel. The second edition is fully functional, it was a new edition that simplifies and alters the way of playing. It's not a facelift, things change. Functional things. Core things.

Fun to get back to this. Better than the previous versions, and looking forward to more content on it.