(Keeper) help with dr who to scenario

[Chris330]

Hey all,

As a group we do D&D 5e campaign but if someone can’t make it we do one shots. Recently we did CoC edge of madness and the Haunting. My group really liked the change of style and pace. I was looking for another short but I decided to write my own (sort of). 
 

I was thinking of doing the Extremis episode of dr who (s10 e6) with the veridas. I have several ideas to make this work but the one place I’m stumped with is the “numbers” to drive home the point about a fake world. Any ideas?

[Travern]

Since none of your players' characters will be the Doctor, you'll have to make the pseudorandom numbers plot point a whole lot more obvious.  Since noticing repeated numbers doesn't lend itself to Spot Hidden, you've got a choice between calling for multiple Idea rolls or just repeating the same set of numbers at every point you can—dates, times, street addresses, pocket change, ticket stubbs, etc., etc—until the players notice it for themselves.  Once your players have picked up on the repeated pattern, it's up to you to tease the significance (welcome to the wonderful world of Stephen Moffat Plotting).  Maybe a successful Science—Mathematics roll will spell out the improbability of what's happening.  Perhaps the numbers are a code that the players can break with a successful Science—Cryptography roll.

[Chris330]

Very cool idea with the repeating numbers.  
my plan was no Doctor and timeframe is the 20s in Arkham. I’m just stealing the general idea. Instead of computer simulation I was going to make it a dream world and kinda mix in “last Christmas” in there. (They have to wake up aka die) and instead of aliens I was going to pick a mytheos.

[Travern]

Using numbers follows Exremis's plot, that's all.  If you're adapting that episode (and “Last Christmas”) loosely, then you can swap out repeated images, sounds, or whatever pattern works with your preferred skill checks.  The only question is how they should lead the players to the next stage of the investigation or the revelation.

Since you're using a dream world setting, you might consider Kingsport for your location.  Lovecraft's second-favorite town has always had a dreamlike atmosphere to it—see his stories “The Festival” and “The Strange High House in the Mist”.