Dinosaur Cowboys – Tabletop Skirmish Game

Levels and Guns
My playtesting character is now at level 3. I’ve been running a mini campaign with him where he darts around North and South Dakota, and just from a few fights here and there he’s reached 20 Kills.

The problem with this? He is still using his original 100KW Six-Shooter, his AR is 4, and he only has ~$120.

Part of the blame is on me, as I tend to not give out enough loot. But I also think that the amount to level up might be a biiiiiiit too little. I think there is a definite possibility that you level two or three times during a single job, and yet don’t have time (or money) to stop and upgrade your equipment. I guess there aren’t a ton of benefits to each level, especially since the Traits aren’t done yet, but yeah, the bonus HPs do let you take on more of the same opponents, so that’s fun.

I guess it’s just a difficult balance, and not one I had really expected. I think I can clarify some of the rules to help prevent this, but a lot of it will fall to each individual GM.

Although, a 100KW Six-Shooter isn’t exactly trash. I guess in D&D equipment didn’t fly up and up and up at a comparable rate to level gain, but then again you had magical loot you could buy too.

Skill Checks
Anyways I changed how Skills work, after some more play testing. Originally your Skill was a value you had to <= to succeed on a check. Okay idea in theory, less than okay idea in practice (considering you start at 2 Skill…and are rolling a D12). So instead I changed Skill to be a bonus like Courage, and you need to roll above a set Challenge Rating (CR). The default is 6, but tougher more complex tasks can be higher. I think this is better and gives a bit of difference in skill checks, instead of it totally being based on your current level.

Break Tests
In addition I changed the Fleeing result for Break Tests. Thanks playtesting! I realized the “edge of the board” is pretty freaking close most of the time, so if you get that result you are pretty much out of combat. Instead I changed it so you run for one turn, but recover after. Almost like Stunned, except that you move away from the enemy. I might just bite the bullet and combine the two in the future, but we’ll see.

Running…Overpowered?
Unbelievable, but maybe true. The ability for a Dinomount moving 7″ to hop across the board at 14″ is pretty powerful, especially for monsters that normally move faster than the players and tend to be nasty in close combat. But I don’t know what else I can do for running…I could take the 40k approach and say Move+D6″, but I never liked the random aspect (I think it removes tactical strategy as you can never totally depend on where a troop will be and when). Maybe a second score, a Run score, that would be something like 6″ if you have 4″. This might be fun, since then I could make creatures that are really fast at running, but slow to walk. Hmm I just thought of this idea, and already I kind of like it. Sure it’d be one more stat, and I sort of have 20+ mini-sheets printed already with only a single MV value…but yeah…we’ll see.
Maybe I just need to play on bigger boards.

Ready for Tomorrow
I printed off the remaining rules today and put them into a binder. Plus I put a bunch of enemy mini-sheets in a second binder, and can slowly fill those out and order them and so on. I wonder if there is a way with a spreadsheet to create a “template” and just fill in values, that way I don’t have to go through 300+ enemies if I want to change the formatting or something. Hmm maybe I should make the mini-sheet out of HTML or something instead.
Anyways, back on track. I have a few state level maps to play across, and a bunch of neat ideas rambling around for simple jobs and tasks. I’m excited to try the game with someone else, as normally a second set of eyes immediately notices blatant errors or mistakes I’ve been ignoring since I look at the rules every day.

So anyways, sort of a rambling post, but there are some thoughts as I come closer to finalizing a v1.0 of the rules.