Unlike most RPGs, the rules featured in new editions of the game remain largely unchanged.

The first edition core rules box set was released to critical acclaim in the fall of 2009.

A second edition, featuring significant changes to the ruleset, was released digitally by Cubicle 7 on 30 July 2021.

He also noted that "The acquisition of the Doctor Who licence was part of a clever plan whereby Angus Abranson and Dominic McDowall-Thomas would take Cubicle 7's existing success and multiply it many times.

[3] In October 2012 Cubicle 7 released the Eleventh Doctor Edition of the game, focusing on the Matt Smith era of the show.

In the previous example, the least degree of failure might merely result in the guard telling the character to go back and get their identification.

Or a Story Point could be spent to achieve some small change to the game world, such as keys being left in a car or a Cyberman's gun jamming for a moment.

Story Points are awarded by the gamesmaster for cleverness, good role-playing, heroism and for deliberate failure.

For example, if the players allowed their characters to be captured, the gamesmaster might award them each a few Story Points for making the game more interesting.

The gamesmaster is at liberty to spend these points on the NPCs behalf and they act as a gauge to determine how much adjusting of the world should be permitted for the NPC.

The most obvious method by which this is achieved is the Initiative system in which characters proceed according to the type of action they wish to take.

Whilst Story Points act as a buffer helping prevent the actual deaths of a character, combat in the Doctor Who game tends to be swift and brutal, with many alien weapons simply doing "Lethal" damage, rather than a damage number.

Finally, the premise of Doctor Who makes many problems simply unsolvable by personal scale violence.

The first edition core rules box set was released to critical acclaim in the fall of 2009.