The many posses by “Doom Eagle”

December 14, 2015 — Dinosaur Cowboy

many-peopleBack in October I had a dedicated fan who was getting into the game, and he went wild on creating posses using The Saloon online designer. He authored each one as “Doom Eagle” and has commented here a few times. So in case you aren’t religiously checking The Saloon (you’re not?!) I thought I’d take a moment to link them and share some thoughts. It’s kind of fun trying to read into the story or theme behind each posse.

All the posses use the current version 2.6 of the rules. I get a Warhammer 40,000 vibe from some of these names and ideas, but that’s not surprising as a ton of people played the “big one” before branching out into other wargames (just as I did).

I definitely appreciate this kind of enthusiasm for my game!

  • Red Sisters – A band of roving Savages, like a cliche tribe with bow and arrows, spears, knives, etc.
  • Desert Scourges – Nice mix of weapons, especially the M-2285 rifle (I love the name)
  • Wasteland Brutes – Quantity over quality, with a lineup of tough Dusters with some brutal close combat weapons, and one Neotechnoist to back them up and shoot a gun every now and then
  • The Great King – My kind of themed posse. Built around a T-Rex “King” dinosaur, with two aptly named Savages to rush in and support with swords.
  • Military Patrol – Another posse that seems like something I’d design, themed around a Neotechnoist military patrol outside the wall. Backed by their Triceratops the Korporal and two soldiers have only basic weaponry, but are all terrific shots (RTN 6).
  • ADG Troop – Similar theme to the above posse, but with a less expensive Fin dinosaur. All the extra funds went into weapons it seems, with a pair of 200kW Lever-Action Rifles putting that good RTN to use.
  • Sand Snakes – Bandit gang, probably raiders of some sort. The whole crew can mount the Terror dinosaur and rush in to put their deadly weapons to use. Nice to see the new Lasher melee weapon put to use.
  • Archer Trade Inc – Beefy Defenses on a pair of Bandits sporting dual Lever-Action Rifles. I like the addition of a Fiddle for morale and Energy Sword for pain.
  • Little Brick Town – Small town posse with a Mayor and Sheriff, perfect for an “NPC” type posse who live in a forgotten, dusty village. I like the Mayor having a Cane weapon, one member has Doctor (probably vastly untrained for the work he’s forced to do), and ol’ Pater Orvill with his Broken Bottle.
  • Warjacks – Good posse to demonstrate the flexibility of Dinosaur Cowboys and how you can clearly achieve a theme. Here the posse is designed around Warjacks from the Privateer Press game Warmachine / Hordes. Imagine this guy with a Sledgehammer and Ranch Blaster to match the model. Then we have a pure melee monster with a Staff, and finally the glorious Flamethrower / Scythe combo. All quite beefy, and all quite strong.
  • Watermill – Another posse with a small town vibe, maybe modeled after The Ballad of Cable Hogue. There is a well armed and skilled Savage with the crew who knows how to handle a Biosteel Knife. Maybe she helped defend the town at one point as was taken in?
  • Moonwalkers – Tribal/shaman theme of Savages lead by Tala Moonwhisper. To me though the fourth member Songan the Werewolf is well made as she uses Punch and has the Boxer trait, so she’s clearly meant to be a lycanthrope. Nice to see some genre mixing with a more “weird west” feel.
  • Night Breed – Similar approach to the above posse of “weird west”, as Xorag is clearly an alien come to earth to hunt dinosaurs. The Big Game Hunter trait is a perfect match, and a Blasterbow combined with Winterfrost Grenades feels sci-fi as heck.
  • Ruffnecks – “I’m from Bueno Aires and I say kill ’em all!” Oh…maybe not those Ruffnecks?
  • Los Locos – A gang of banditos with a classic west mix of pistol, shotgun, and rifle. I can just imagine this rowdy crew rolling into a saloon and blasting the place apart.
  • Rusty Rovers – Let’s be honest we’re dealing with a Grenade Launcher in a $1,000 posse…I like it. Some serious heavy hitters in this small, but well armed posse. A Plated dinosaur just fits due to it’s extreme toughness.
  • Alien Breed – Another “weird west” posse, and going with the Warhammer 40,000 visualization I could see these guys as Kroot. If they have ranged weapons I could also go with a Predator vibe. The dual wielding leads me to believe the Variant Rule “Dual Wield” was meant to be used, since a few members have two knives. Also “Alien Crusher” with the stats of a Thickskull dinosaur sounds cool.
  • Stormcasts – Taking a Sledgehammer to the face (when Attack – Puncture is used) is only mildly less intimidating than constant Laserbow fire.
  • Ravenclaws – I really feel like this posse is a reference to something, it’s just something I’m out of touch with (maybe anime?). I do like the combo of a Horned Triceratops that can Push 3″ with Attack – Forceful…especially if he chooses to combine it with a Beast attack like Trample for a total of 7″ Push, haha.
  • Redwater – A nice mix of two bandits and a sniper Neotechnoist (a style I often use). The new Tirador Rifle makes an appearance…tip on naming anything, just use a different language and it sounds cool. In this case Tirador means Rifle in Spanish, so yes, it’s a Rifle Rifle. That’s how you know it’s really good at shooting things.
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Crew of the Serenity from Firefly

September 30, 2013 — Dinosaur Cowboy

First of all can we just take a collective break and realize Firefly came out over 10 years ago? That is INSANE. It feels like yesterday.

Anyway for fun I thought I’d create a Posse based on some of the characters from Firefly. The end result is a 202 IP, $1,935 gang with plenty of thematic weapons and Traits: Crew-of-the-Serenity.pdf Roster.

Malcolm Reynolds
Malcolm-Reynolds-GunI had a couple of tough questions when it came to Captain Mal, mainly “what should his main gun be?”. Looking at Internet Movie Firearm Database told me the base is a Taurus Model 85, which actually shoots a pretty small bullet. In the show the gun sometimes has laser-y sounds. So I went for how it looks in the show, not how it’d function in the real world, and gave him a Handcannon. He also seems like the type of guy to carry a knife in his boot, so I added a Hunting Knife as well.
For stats I figured he’s fairly tough and a fairly good shot, so 6 RTN, 12 HP, okay Speed, and a suit of Cloth Armor should work. With Traits I chose “Underdog Shot” pretty much for the name, since in the majority of their encounters the crew is outnumbered, or outgunned. Even against the Alliance in general they are in a rough spot. And then I gave him “Sniper Shot”, primarily motivated by the Serenity movie scene where he shoots the moving harpoon rope binding Jayne’s leg in place.

Zoe Washburne
Zoe-WashburneGenerally I find Zoe’s character to be a little annoying and one dimensional, but she’s an important part of the crew none the less so I included her. She was also a Duster allegiance since she seems pretty cowboy-esque, fought for the Independence (I always want to say “Rebels”), and could get away wearing a full length jacket.
In terms of weapons I had her “Mare’s Leg” short rifle be a 500kW Lever-Action rifle. She doesn’t hugely use it at long range, but unfortunately the weapons list doesn’t really include sawed off rifles :) She’s carried a pistol in various episodes as well, and since it wasn’t a traditional revolver I went for a Light Pistol instead of a Six-Shooter.
The very first episode of Firefly had Zoe getting shot in the chest during a deal gone sour, and she was wearing some kind of fancy sci-fi chainmail stuff. Since that isn’t exactly an armor option, I went for the next best thing which was Quilted Armor.
In terms of stats she is similar to Mal. Slightly worse shot, slightly fewer HP, but slightly better Bravery than the average person. I figured the knock in stats would make sense since she’s the second in command.
For Traits I figured a motivational “Get Up!” works perfectly, as she tends to keep everyone fighting in rough situations.

Jayne Cobb
Jayne-Cobb-and-VeraWeapons for Jayne was basically trying to narrow down what he WOULDN’T have. For one thing, grenades (“Sure would be nice to have some GRENADES right about now!”). Beyond that, anything could work. He uses a sniper rifle early on. He uses pistols, knives, and various rifles.
The most identifiable is “Vera” (so iconic it was made into a Guild Wars weapon, for example), which is pictured to the right. Obviously the weapon is rapid firing and rugged, so a Heavy Repeater was a natural fit. I filled out his repertoire with a Scattergun and two Light Pistols. His allegiance would be Bandit since he’s basically a jack-of-all-trades mercenary.
For stats I figured out a good way to represent his toughness, and that is having an innate +1 Defense WITHOUT wearing armor. Otherwise he has similar Hitpoints to Mal, since at the end of the day they seem about equal for the amount of punishment they could take. He’s also a good shot, but would tend to run from a fight depending on the odds, how he’s getting paid, etc. so I went with a worse 8 BTN.
The Trait “Back Shot” jumped out right away as something Jayne would do in combat, so that was a natural fit. I’m really pleased so far with how easy the rules translate to various pop culture characters.

Simon Tam
Simon-Tam-Brain-StuffAh the good Doctor. He should be an easy setup! I think he’s only used a gun once or twice in the show, and one of them was a stun type weapon when they were escaping the hospital. So “Stun Gun” it is. Also sort of fits with his non-combat and non-lethal personality.
Allegiance is Neotechnoist, since obviously he’s a core worlds, high-tech kind of guy. The wimpy Hitpoints worked well too in this regard. I bumped up his RTN a tiny bit to 7, worsened his Bravery a bit, and otherwise left his stats pretty much base.
There can be only one Trait for Simon, and that’s “Doctor”. To utilize this ability I gave him a TON of Medical Devices. 2 Large IRPs, 1 Lifesaving IRP, 1 Salve and Bandage, 1 Defibrillator, and a Doctor’s Bag. In the show (off the ship) he only really uses a Doctor’s Bag, but I figured a lot of other devices would would represent the tools he does have access to.

River Tam
River-TamRiver Tam is a rather important storyline character, but she’s also hard to model in this game. There aren’t exactly Psionic rules so her main strength goes out the window. So instead I went for “movie River” from Serenity, where she finally controls and uses her martial combat abilities. In this case with a gory axe and machete looking thing (which I represented as an Axe and Cutlass). Besides that I don’t think she’s carried a weapon. Because of her unbalanced disposition Savage seemed like the best allegiance.
For Traits “Berserker” seemed to make the most sense, since she tends to go a little wild every now and then. Pretty much basic stats, except a very good 6 BTN since I don’t think she’d really run from a fight or scary situation. She’s fast too with 6 Speed, but somewhat frail with 8 Hitpoints. Technically I could have given her +1 base Defense to represent her agility, but decided against it.

Conclusion
So there you have it, a pretty thematic posse built from popular characters from a popular TV show. I think the rules did a good job of representing everyone. Too bad there isn’t a dinosaur that could map across to a spaceship, or I would have included that in the posse.

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Weird Posse build: Max 49 Hitpoint Leader

September 19, 2013 — Dinosaur Cowboy

When I was paging through the rulebook before the v2.0 release I remembered I had put the maximum base Hitpoints at 40. I immediately wondered what a Posse dedicated to reaching that cap would look like. Pretty interesting idea right?
Well the result is the Snake River Cavalry (Saloon link) (PDF link).

little_wars_dinosaur_knight_by_keithburgun-d303pnrI went for the theme of a roving, slightly mad Knight (everyone who wanders around the future seems to be a bit crazy). A knight certainly doesn’t fit the general Dinosaur Cowboys theme, but it’s still fun, haha. Anyway I hired two very basic Members who have given up every single stat they can with Voluntary Weakness to provide as much IP as they can to the Leader.
The Leader himself started as a Duster who got max Hitpoints (40) through huge IP expenditure. Then he greedily took three Passive traits to reach Bonus HP III for a total of 49 Hitpoints! Pretty wild. I wanted him to be survivable instead of just a bullet sponge, so with the left over IP he has +1 DEF and enough for a suit of Dinohide Armor for a total of +4 DEF.
But just having a hard target wasn’t enough, the Knight needed to be able to hit back. Although a Shudder Lance would have been quite thematic, and I might do a variant build with that, I settled instead of the classic Heavy Repeater and a Machete (should have been a Short Sword). Throw on a pair of Large IRPs for easy HP recovery and he’s quite deadly.
Then of course his mount, a Runner of the Plains Breed. Pretty flimsy but super fast, so the Knight should be able to reposition once at least.

Here’s how it all looked in the end:

Posse: Snake River Cavalry by Carlo (1/100 IP, 0/1000 ND, 3/3 Traits)

Knight Alfandor (Duster Leader)
DEF 4, RTN 6, CTN 8, BTN 7, SPD 4, HP 49, Bonus HP, Bonus HP II, Bonus HP III.
Heavy Repeater, Machete, Dinohide Armor, Large IRP, Large IRP.

Squire Peter (Bandit)
DEF 0, RTN 8, CTN 8, BTN 12, SPD 1, HP 1.

Squire Carrie (Bandit)
DEF 0, RTN 8, CTN 8, BTN 12, SPD 1, HP 1.

Jousty (Plains Runner Dinosaur)
DEF 0, DIS 4, CTN 9, PANIC D10, SPD 11, HP 11.

And who would have thought but “knight on dinosaur” is actually a pretty popular image search term! The image above is from keithburgun.

Now I’m rather tempted to pit this wacky build against a normal posse and see who wins. I wonder if lucky hits would slowly whittle the Knight down, and if he could do enough reliable damage with RTN 6 to kill all the enemies. I feel like an enemy posse that had a massive dinosaur to bog the Knight down would help quite a bit.

The more thematic version with a lance and six-shooter would look like this instead:

Knight Alfandor (Duster Leader)
DEF 4, RTN 8, CTN 6, BTN 7, SPD 4, HP 49, Bonus HP, Bonus HP II, Bonus HP III.
Plasma Lance, 300kW Six-Shooter, Dinohide Armor.

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Linux commands to combine PDFs

January 23, 2013 — Dinosaur Cowboy

I haven’t talked about much computer stuff on this blog, but today I found two useful commands on Linux for combining separate PDFs into a single file. The reason I wanted this is I’m going to try to get some additional outside playtesters and I figured the easier I can make the setup process the better. So I wanted to make half a dozen “starter” Posses and combine them into a single “playtesters package” file.

PDFTK
A very handy utility for PDFs, and a very simple command. This worked perfectly for merging a bunch of exported posse rosters from The Saloon into a single file.

pdftk filename1.pdf filename2.pdf cat output combined.pdf

The above command would combine “filename1.pdf” and “filename2.pdf” into combined.pdf.

Ghostscript
This approach actually left some artifacts in the posse rosters, so I ended up not using it. Still worth knowing about:

gs -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOUTPUTFILE=combined.pdf -dBATCH filename1.pdf filename2.pdf

The above command would combine “filename1.pdf” and “filename2.pdf” into combined.pdf.

generic-pdf-logoExample
I exported every single saved posse currently on The Saloon, which ended up being 19 posses. Then using PDFTK I combined them into a single file that you can check out here. This would be perfect for making a printed folder of available posse choices, and is much easier compared to having a bunch of separate files.

Check out 19 sample posses (PDF) combined from separate files.

Pretty neat eh?

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Playtesting Information

December 1, 2012 — Dinosaur Cowboy

This post is meant to introduce potential playtesters to the skirmish game of Dinosaur Cowboys, and to lower the barrier to play by providing some easy support material.

The Files
These files are based around the latest version of the rulebook, as compared to the copy available from the “Download Rulebook” link on this site.

Everything you need in a single file (rulebook and sample posses):

Dinosaur Cowboys Playtest Document (PDF)

Go-WestWhat is this Game
First of all, is this game going to interest you? If the mention of dinosaurs, futuristic cowboys, lasers, twelve sided dice, 28mm miniatures combat, and competing posses doesn’t strike your fancy, this game might not your kind of genre.
Dinosaur Cowboys uses miniature figurines like those from Games Workshop, Reaper Miniatures, Spartan Games, Privateer Press, or numerous other providers. Each player will build (or choose) a “Posse”, which is a gang of 2-5 humans and up to 1 dinosaur. The general structure and play will be familiar to anyone who has tabletop wargame experience.
Once both players have a Posse they will set up a table to play on. Generally this is filled with model terrain (styrofoam hills, fake trees, etc.). The players decide how to deploy their Posse by using the guidelines in the rulebook. They can also choose an objective for the game.
Then the game starts. Each turn players will roll Initiative to see who can activate first. However activation is done on a per-model basis, instead of an entire Posse acting before the opponent can do anything. So playing the game is involved and there isn’t much downtime between getting to do something on the table.
When activating a model they can move and perform an action with it (in either order). Generally the action would be shooting or attacking in melee. All combat is done using twelve sided dice (D12s) and the statistics of the units. There are many examples in the rulebook to help understand how everything fits together.

An idea of how the game looks when it’s being played is below. You can see terrain, various miniature figurines, a dinosaur, some dice, some tokens, etc. This was an actual game in progress, not a staged shot. Click for the full size.

DC-Hills-and-Passes_17
Requirements to Play

  • A first game usually takes 60-90 minutes to play. Subsequent games where you are more familiar with the rules can take from 30-60 minutes.
  • The files above. There is a single rulebook PDF that has everything you need to play the game. If you want to avoid printing the document you can just view it on a laptop while you play.
  • Some posse rosters. The easiest approach is to choose from the provided examples above. Alternatively players can build their own posses (recruit members, upgrade them, equip them, etc.). To expedite this process you can use The Saloon online posse builder (with PDF export capabilities to easily print your creation).
  • Measuring tape, pencils and erasers
  • Miniature figurines, generally 28mm scale. I use a variety of miniature brands. Something to represent a dinosaur might also be necessary, depending on the Posse. I use inexpensive plastic toys (of the Papo brand).
  • A table with some kind of terrain on it, normally 4 feet by 3 feet. Smaller tables favor melee while larger tables favor ranged.
  • Twelve sided dice (D12s), a couple six sided dice (D6s). With certain dinosaurs a D4, D8, and D10 may be necessary, but you can get around this by rerolling a D6/D12 until the proper range comes up.

Overview-Components

Feedback
Both positive and negative feedback is much appreciated and can be done as a comment on this post or by emailing me at dinosaur.cowboys@gmail.com.

I’m generally looking for people to read the rulebook for clarity, grammar, etc. You obviously don’t even need to play the game to do this. Really any additional eyes on the rulebook would be much appreciated!
As for playtesting, actually running through a game (alone or with a friend) would be extremely beneficial and interesting to me. If you could jot down notes of issues or confusion that came up during play that’d be even better.

Posted in Posse, Rules. Tags: , , , , . 2 Comments »

Drastically different posse approaches

March 8, 2012 — Dinosaur Cowboy

So far the posses you’ve seen are built in a fairly standard, natural way. They have a reasonable story behind them, a good variety of weapons and roles and mix of dinosaurs.
But what about if we threw all that to the wind and tried to built super extreme posses that stretch every rule and are so drastically different from the norm?
Well…we’d probably get something like this:

Longneck (or Titan) in a $1,000 ND / 100 IP Posse
The Longneck (MV 5, PMV D6, AR 2, MMC 5, DIS 10, HP 37, 10A-1D) is considered the king of the herbivores. Heck anything that can grab vegetation nine meters off the ground is deserving of that title in my opinion. But in Dinosaur Cowboys it’s normally considered a later game purchase, considering it costs $1,000 and a standard posse begins with exactly that much money.
But with the Leader and first member being free to recruit, a posse could technically have two humans with no weapons and a Longneck. Crazy? Maybe. But it’s exactly what The Herd Mothers do. With plenty of IP to go around each member could be improved to a fairly solid point, with 12 HP a piece, 1 AR, and MV 6. They’ll be focusing on Brawl attacks (Punch, Kick, Shove, Trip), which won’t do a ton of damage but could disrupt enemy forces. For example each member could Trip an enemy to apply Stopped, so then the slightly slower Longneck could get into combat and stomp them into the dirt. Or perform a Shove and use the 2″ Knockback to send enemies into combat.
Another feature to remember is that every human gets a Rope Lasso for free, so someone could mount the Longneck and use the 1-6″ range to apply Stopped to a nearby enemy just in time for the Longneck to barrel into combat. The Leader could be the rider and use his “Get Up!” trait to heal the Longneck when the going gets rough.

Anyways the alternative build is to have a Titan in a $1,000 ND / 100 IP posse. Pretty much the same idea but slightly different traits, and of course, the best carnivore instead of the best herbivore. I call them The Pack Fathers.

Two Super Soldiers
The next posse takes the idea of extremely well trained and well armed members to the extreme. Instead of settling for a few good guns and statistics, this posse dumps all the IP and ND into two members, with the third (mandatory to meet Posse composition minimums) basically being dead weight.
I made the two “super soldiers” as Neotechnoists, as I could see them being from a dark sect inside The Wall that experiment heavily with human improvement, drug stimulants, etc. Perhaps they have even skewed their views into worshiping dinosaurs, and tried to alter their appearance to match with drastic implants and body modifications. Their third member, a Savage weakling, could represent a sacrifice they keep for the dinosaurs.
Anyways I call this posse the Supersoldier Legion, and here’s a quick glance at their basic statistics: MV 5, AR 4, RMC 6, MMC 8, BRV 7, HP 15. The best part of that statline (besides the ridiculously high HP) is the 4 AR, thanks to expensive $300 Mesh Armor. That should hopefully give each super soldier terrific survivability, as we’ve seen with the Armored dinosaur in the past. They are wielding a Light Repeater and Heavy Pistol, which are both good weapons in their own right.
Oh and of course The Sacrifice (the low stat Savage who weakened himself to free up IP for the super soldiers) has this for a laughable statline: MV 1, AR 0, RMC 9, MMC 8, BRV 2, HP 1. Haha.

Veteran 400 IP Posse
I had put a reasonable cap on IP at 400, which corresponds to $4,000 ND and 13 Traits. But I decided to actually build a Posse with those stats and see what kind of awesome weapons and equipment I could come up with. The result is The Deadly Half Dozen who had a Titan dinosaur, the full 5 members rife with Grenade Launchers, 1MW Scoped Rifles, etc. I think this Posse might expose a slight problem where Hitpoints become too low and damage outdistances what each target can absorb. I mean someone with RMC 4 and 1A-10D 27″ range rifle is going to hurt, a lot.
I think in the future I’ll give two 400 IP Posses a shot and see what kind of chaos ensues.

Conclusion
Anyways those were just a few of the extreme and different Posses I could build within the limitations of the rules. Interesting to try to take each concept to the max and see if it breaks the build process.

Posted in Brainstorm, Posse. Tags: , , . 3 Comments »

Merry Christmas!

December 25, 2011 — Dinosaur Cowboy

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to you and yours! It’s been a great year for Dinosaur Cowboys since I got the final rules out, had tons of fan interest, wrote a bit of fiction for the game, and generally really enjoyed making this game.

To add a little Christmas-y feel to your games here is “The Spirit of Christmas” posse lead by Santa himself. They have a bunch of special rules and are meant for a fun, light game. You could match them with a single posse or team up with your friends and try out two vs one.

Posse: The Spirit of Christmas
This posse bends and breaks all kinds of rules, but that’s the fun of customizing! I’ve added and re-themed a bunch of weapons and equipment and fit in a whole slew of Santa’s “reindeer” (Thickskull’s in this case). Think of it as a chance to fight multiple dinosaurs at once!
For matching this posse with standard posses use 200 IP, $2,200, and 6 Traits. If you want to make the fight easier use $2,500 and 8 Traits.

Santa Claus
Leader, MV 5, AR 4, RMC 6, MMC 8, BRV 12*, HP 14, Lucky, Get Up!, Escape. Heavy Repeater, 400kW Six-Shooter, Santa's Suit**, Santa's Bag***

* = Santa never needs to take Bravery Tests.
** = Santa’s Suit is equivalent to Dinohide Armor (+3 AR), and also reduces incoming damage by 1 (to a minimum of 1).
*** = Santa’s Bag is full of surprises. At the start of each Activation roll a D6 and check below to see what Santa grabbed from his bag. On the Activation it was drawn Santa can choose to use each Grenade, if he does they are treated per the standard rules. Santa’s Bag never has to be Reloaded.
1-2: Stun Grenade
3-4: Tangle Grenade
5-6: Boom Grenade

Elf
MV 8*, AR 1, RMC 7, MMC 7, BRV 8, HP 10, Whirlwind, Sneaky**. Candy Cane***

* = Elf likes to hop around with his jingly shoes. Elf ignores all Difficult Terrain, treating everything as flat plains with no Movement penalty. Elf cannot be Slowed or Stopped.
** = Elf can deploy anywhere on the board after everyone else has setup. The only restriction is he cannot start within 8″ of an enemy.
*** = Candy Cane is a 5A-3D Small Melee weapon that causes Slowed on hit.

Rudolph the Red Nose Monoclonius
Horned Dinosaur, Medium size, MV 7, PMV D8, AR 1, MMC 6, DIS 8, HP 18, 4A-2D, Shake it Off, Red Horn*

* = Rudolph’s glowing red horn blinds enemies trying to shoot at him. Treat ranged attacks against Rudolph as In Cover (-1 damage) all the time.

Dasher and Dancer
Thickskull Dinosaur, Small size, MV 7, PMV D8, AR 1, MMC 7, DIS 7, HP 18, 4A-2D, Onslaught, Lifelong Mounts*

* = If Dasher or Dancer are within 8″ of Santa they gain +1 MV and +1 AR.

Scenario: On a Wintery Night
A special posse deserves a special scenario. In this case a gang of citizens have stumbled across Santa as he delivers gifts. For any number of reasons a fight breaks out (perhaps the citizens were greedy and wanted to take the presents, or Santa wanted to remain secret, or his mounts got spooked and confusion ensued, etc.).
If you have access to winter terrain all the better. Otherwise maybe buy some cheap fake snow from a craft’s store and shower your usual table with it. Some small (1cm wide) fake presents would be perfect for some of the objectives.

Setup
– Use a 4′ by 4′ table if possible. Cover it with terrain, including any tacky Christmas ornaments, model houses, snow, etc. you can dig up.
– Place Presents as outlined below. These were dropped by Santa accidentally.
– Deploy The Spirit of Christmas posse first, 8″ from any table corner (not edge).
– Deploy any opposing posses next, 8″ from the table corner opposite The Spirit of Christmas.

Presents
– Get one Present objective per entity facing The Spirit of Christmas posse. For example if I had a leader, two members, and a dinosaur I would have 4 Presents. Randomly place the Presents on the table, most easily achieved by rolling 4D12 for X and Y coordinates (for example if 18 and 4 is rolled place the Present 18″ from the left table edge and 4″ from the top table edge).
Only entities from the non-Santa posse can interact with Presents. To open a Present simply Move adjacent to it and roll a D6 on the table below:

1: Surprise! - The Present explodes! 2" Explosion, 1 Damage.
2: Eggnog - The opener stumbles 6" in a random direction. This does not provoke Snap Attacks and can't move them off the table.
3: Candy Cane - Can be thrown once. 2A-8D, 2" Explosion, 1-18" Medium range.
4: Been a Good Boy - Instantly improve a weapon of the opener's choice by +1D.
5: Gingerbread - Can be used like an IRP. Add +5 MV and -2 RMC and -2 MMC until the end of the Activation it was used on.
6: Warm Cider - Can be used like an IRP. Instantly restores ALL Hitpoints.

Victory
Win by defeating The Spirit of Christmas!

Posted in Images, Posse. Tags: , , , , . 2 Comments »

Posse: Tombstone (1993 movie)

November 28, 2011 — Dinosaur Cowboy


The 1993 movie Tombstone was a fun show full of big name actors, some good jokes, plenty of wild west shootouts, and everything that made 90s cinema great. The movie itself is based around the events that happened in Tombstone, Arizona and involved Wyatt Earp and Curly Bill.
Today I figured I’d make the main good guys and bad guys from the movie into Dinosaur Cowboy posses. There were two challenges: First no one in the movie depiction of the OK Corral fight used much of anything but six-shooters, so it’ll be hard to have some variety to weapons. And second they forgot to have dinosaur mounts, so none of those either.

The Good Guys – View in The Saloon or Download as PDF
3/100 IP, 20/1000 ND, 3 traits, 4 humans: Wyatt Earp, Virgil Earp, Morgan Earp, Doc Holliday
I made everyone but Doc Holliday a Duster, as they are pretty true to the imagery. I figured Doc’s weakened health would be reflected well by the reduction of HP that the Neotechnoist allegiance imposes, and the bonus RMC didn’t hurt either. I wanted Wyatt and Virgil to be tough, so they both have Cloth Armor and +1 AR and 12 HP, so they’re definitely rock solid. In terms of Traits Wyatt got Grit since I couldn’t exactly see him fleeing, Morgan got Back Shot since he kind of surprise shot the one guy he killed at the OK Corral in the head (again, in the movie), and Doc Holliday got Rapid Fire because he went wild with the dual revolvers and generally rocked socks. Weapons were a bit simpler as I had a bunch of money left and didn’t have any expensive heavy weapons to buy. Wyatt got a Heavy Pistol since his revolver seemed a bit more special than a standard rated one. Virgil and Doc Holliday both got 400kW Six-Shooters, and Morgan got a slightly weaker 300kW version. As per the movie Doc Holliday had the double barrel shotgun (well, he fires three times without reloading in the movie, but who knows?).

The Bad Guys – View in The Saloon or Download as PDF
5/100 IP, 35/1000 ND, 3 traits, 4 humans: Curly Bill Brocius, Johnny Ringo, Ike Clanton, Billy Clanton
For the Bad Guys I tried to pick the best known villains from the movie. Aside from Ringo (who was a Bandit) everyone was a Duster again. Curly Bill got the Trait “Get Up!” since I could see him cursing and ordering a wounded red sash cowboy to get up and fight. Ringo got Go For the Eyes since he seemed like the kind of deadly gunfighter who would get a bunch of critical hits. And finally Billy Clanton got Crippling Shot since he shoots Virgil in the leg in the OK Corral fight, so that’s enough of an excuse for me. Equipment was even more of a challenge as they pretty much use pistols the entire movie. I got Curly Bill a 400kW Six-Shooter and a Knife…pretty basic cowboy in fact. Ringo got a Handcannon, mainly for variety but also because a veteran gunfighter might use something with a little more kick. Ike got a Shank and a Light Pistol since he seemed less inclined to ever stand up and fight. And finally Billy got a 300kW Six-Shooter and Derringer, since he would have a trick or two up his sleeve. Ringo and Billy both got a suit of armor, and Ike got a Whiskey Drop since he seemed kind of into the booze. In terms of stats I made pretty basic choices, pushing Ringo and Curly Bill’s RMC to 6, making Ike a coward with 5 BRV, a few increased HP across the board, and so on.

Conclusion
So yeah, there’s a quick mockup of how I think the Tombstone characters would look in Dinosaur Cowboys. Kind of fun to easily put together posses like this, but the lack of variety in guns does help me appreciate being able to build an original posse from the ground up replete with all the wild guns I could want.

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Posse: Ross’ Gangs

October 9, 2011 — Dinosaur Cowboy

Some more great fan work, this time from Ross on the Post Apoc Wargames Forum. I don’t have a lot of details on names or statistics, but I thought I’d share his two Posses he intends to use in some playtest games. Anyways great work on the figures and the toy selection, and I hope to see pictures of them in action soon!

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Posse: Tribe of the Blood Pact and Hope’s Wardens

October 6, 2011 — Dinosaur Cowboy

Two great new Posses today that I will be using in my next playtest (and hopefully battle report depending on how my scheduling goes). These are created using the v0.91 rules, well, almost, since the Pike weapon is a new one that isn’t in there yet.

I thought I’d go a new route with both Posses, so I went for 1 Leader + 2 Members + 1 Dinosaur for both. The Tribe of the Blood Pact ended up very close combat oriented, whereas Hope’s Warden geared out pretty heavily with a solid choice of guns. It’ll either be very messy or very quick.

Anyways unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of the Posses in advance, but I might retroactively edit the entry if I take some photos for the battle report.

Cannons as Artillery
I decided for my next game I’m going to put a slight focus on cannons. This is partly inspired by my recent visit to the San Juan fort, or perhaps my 28mm scaled cannon souvenir. Either way what I want to do is have each Posse get fire support from a row of distant artillery cannons.

How this will be achieved is each player can drop a single “cannonball” once per Turn. To do this they hold a small scrap of paper (circular, 1″ diameter) from 20″ above the table and let it drop over their desired target. A piece of paper that small will drift a lot, and that will represent the cannon fire deviating. Then I’ll just use these rules to represent the impact of the shell:
Cannon Shell: 1A-5D 6" Explosion 2" Knockback
I’m also toying with the idea of having each player choose a different type of shot, like Grapeshot which has a bigger radius, etc.

Posse: Tribe of the Blood Pact
IP 110, ND 1,110
This was my Savage based gang who I planned to use rather medieval and barbaric figures for. I aimed for a fast moving force who were solid in close combat. I also wanted to use a beefier dinosaur so that ended up taking a lot of cash. Luckily melee weapons are cheaper than ranged on the whole, so the cost didn’t impact me as much.

Creating Bloodscar
First up was a Leader, who I would make a Savage to keep the theme. I wanted him to be fast and deadly, so I gave him an additional +1 MV beyond the +1 MV provided by the Savage Allegiance. This cost me a hefty 15 IP though. For survivability I went for +1 AR (10 IP) and +2 HP (12 IP) which meant with his Leader bonuses he’d have 12 HP. Finally I knocked his MMC down by 1 for 10 IP.
I figured this leader was a crude barbarian intent on raiding small villages and outlying towns. After being approached by an Armored dinosaur in the night Bloodscar saw this as a sign. In his mind the sign was to assemble a ragtag Posse and raid the old mill at Mikkalo, Oregon.
Oh and he got my first Trait allocation, in this case Retreat! since the extra 4″ Movement to an ally could really help close the gap at the last second.

47 IP, $70. Savage, MV 6, AR 1, RMC 9, MMV 7, BRV 7, HP 12, Retreat! Pickaxe, 80kW Six-Shooter

Creating Illit’taex
What would a Savage Leader be without a Savage Member to back him up? In this case Bloodscar had hired the violent and deadly Illit’taex. He is a roaming mercenary intent on stirring up trouble, and attacking a mill for plunder and fun is right up his alley. I had a great figure in mind for Illit’taex so I knew I wanted a Spear/Pike for him. Otherwise he is basically a less expensive version than the Leader. I made him Savage Allegiance and gave him +1 AR (10 IP) and -1 MMC (10 IP). I also boosted his HP by 2 (12 IP), and actually did some voluntary weakness in terms of Bravery (-1 to 5 for +2 IP) so that I could squeeze out a few more HP from my IP pool.
Since Bloodscar had the Leader HP bonus and Sendar the Duster HP bonus I needed something to keep Illit’taex equally tough. To that end I gave him Bonus HP I to bring his HP from 10 to 13.

30 IP, $70. Savage, MV 5, AR 1, RMC 9, MMC 7, BRV 5, HP 13, Bonus HP I. Pike, 80kW Six-Shooter

Creating Sendar
I figured that a semi-crazy leader (I seem to make a lot of these; apparently the future is rough!) who is on a vision quest after seeing an Armored dinosaur would totally need an equally unbalanced shaman to whisper plots in his ears. Again my main motivation was the figure I had in mind. She honestly ended up being an even lighter version of Illit’taex in terms of stats. I did manage to equip her with a fairly nice melee weapon though, so the different spread should be interesting. Bloodscar’s Pickaxe is 1A-6D, Illit’taex’s Pike is 4A-3D, and Sendar’s Staff is 3A-4D, so yeah lots of variety.
Anyways like I said pretty light on the spending. I gave her +1 MV for 10 IP so she wouldn’t be left behind. Then +2 HP for 12 IP (thanks to Illit’taex’s -1 BRV sacrifice), and finally -1 MMC for 10 IP.
I also figured she would make a better Duster than a Savage, like perhaps she had worked as a soothsayer in a border town or something. To me she was still more of a gypsy than a pure feral shaman.

32 IP, $70. Duster, MV 4, AR 0, RMC 8, MMV 7, BRV 6, HP 12. Staff, 80kW Six-Shooter

Creating The Crimson Terror
Instead of the standard Ankylosaurus that is the archetype Armored dinosaur I went for a Styracosaurus instead. He still look pretty rough and tumble and it would give me a chance to try out my new Papo toy.
He made sense as a Feral Breed instead of anything else, which gave me -1 DIS and +2 HP. I couldn’t afford any HP improvements, so his stats ended up being pretty simple.
Although he could have everyone mounted at once (3 passengers because he’s Large) I didn’t expect to do that with his slower 4 MV / D4 PMV. To that end I figured he’d be Running each turn, so the Runner Trait was perfect as it gives +1 MV when Running.

$500 Armored. Feral, MV 4, PMV D4, AR 1, MMC 7, DIS 4, HP 28, Runner.

Posse: Hope’s Wardens
IP 110, ND 1,110
I had three matching figures for this group that looked relatively high tech, so I knew I’d aim for a Neotechnoist group of some sort. I figured good equipment would make up for their lack of numbers. All of the characters had names that sounded like they were trying (and failing) to be intimidating, which sort of fit in with the theme of some Neotechnoist do-gooder group. In this case their do-gooding (?) was to help defend the Mikkalo mill from raiders.

Creating Limeskull
You’ll understand the hilariously cheesy name better once you see the figure, since he has lime green armor and a big hand painted skull on the back. Then again I can’t say much since the figure was one of my old ones from the 90s. I think it might actually be for the Warzone tabletop game. Anyways I made Limeskull a Neotechnoist, which isn’t too painful as a Leader because the HP penalty doesn’t hurt as much. Anyways I wanted him to be a bit more mobile than usual, especially since I was arming him with a Light Repeater. So +1 MV for 12 IP it was. Then +2 HP for 12 IP to further help balance the Neotechnoist limitation. Finally +1 AR for 10 IP to help match his high tech looking figure.
No Traits for him as I figured the Light Repeater with 7 RMC would speak for itself. I did give him a Small IRP though to help with healing.

34 IP, $130. Neotechnoist, MV 5, AR 1, RMC 7, MMC 8, BRV 7, HP 10. Light Repeater, S-IRP

Creating Red Dove
As I mentioned I’m going for names that would sound tough to a Neotechnoist snug inside The Wall, but sound patently ridiculous in the real world outside. So Red Dove was born, and I thought even if he doesn’t sound tough he can at least be tough. I gave him a Motor Blade (always wanted to try it) and a solid 100kW Six-Shooter (looking forward to using Fan the Hammer before charging in). I had enough left over cash by the end to afford another Small IRP.
In terms of improvements I went for +1 AR for 10, +1 HP for 6, and -1 RMC and -1 MMC for 10 IP each. Kind of a middle ground trooper but at least he’d be versatile. For his Trait I gave him Whirlwind which will be terrific if I get a chance to use it!

36 IP, $130. Bandit, MV 4, AR 1, RMC 7, MMC 7, BRV 6, HP 9, Whirlwind. Motor Blade, 100kW Six-Shooter, S-IRP

Creating Glowstar
The final member of the crew had a heavy weapon for his figure, so I thought a nice hefty shotgun would work. I went for an Auto Shotgun and tried to get stats to match. Unfortunately his Neotechnoist weakness for HP hurt a bit more than the Leader.
Anyways I paid 15 IP for -1 RMC which brought it down to 6, woot. At these early stages such low RMC really helps since a lot of Posses can’t afford armor yet. Anyways speaking of armor I continued the theme of high tech by giving him +1 AR for 10 IP. Then I balanced out the Neotechnoist penalty by giving him +2 HP for 12 IP.
He got the Neck Shot Trait since I hoped to get a kill shot if I could hit a weakened enemy. It would also be great against Dinosaurs since they aren’t even close to dead after half HP of damage, so I won’t be wasting my shot with it.

37 IP, $150. Neotechnoist, MV 4, AR 1, RMC 6, MMV 8, BRV 6, HP 8, Neck Shot. Auto Shotgun

Creating Nedevan
Finally it was time for their dinosaur. I went for a nice soft Ducky dinosaur, which holds a special place in my heart because it was the first Papo toy I bought. Anyways I figured he’d be well broken in from a lifetime behind The Wall, so a Trained Breed made sense. This gave me +1 DIS but -2 HP, but that’s okay since Ducky’s have an abundance of HP but not a lot of Discipline.
To ensure he could absorb a bunch of fire I gave him the Bonus HP I Trait to bring his HP to 18. Otherwise there wasn’t much to do, so his stats ended up as:

$300 Ducky. Trained, MV 6, PMV D6, AR 0, MMV 7, DIS 4, HP 18, Bonus HP I.

Summary
So there we are, two freshly minted v0.91 Posses just waiting to clash! I don’t know who I’d put my Neodollars on to win. Hope’s Wardens have some withering fire available, but Tribe of the Blood Pact is seriously beefy in a lot of ways. Either way they should provide an interesting playtest to further help me with the new dinosaur rules and other recent changes.

Also note that if I ever finish making an editable Posse Roster I’ll be able to provide PDF lists for any of the Posses I make. Hopefully a future improvement!

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Posse: The Dust Bowl Drifters

September 19, 2011 — Dinosaur Cowboy

I’ve been really lucky again with the interest shown by fans, in this case from Red_Starrise on the DakkaDakka forums who created a posse for use with Dinosaur Cowboys called “The Dust Bowl Drifters”. Below are the figures along with descriptive background text he wrote. Thanks for the effort and great results; it’s always wicked to see more people trying the game!


“The Drifters were formed by outlaw Tyler Blake in Southern Oklahoma. They’re a band of hired guns who are well known & feared for their callous nature. They aren’t really BAD guys, per se, but they sure aren’t the good guys either.”


“Tyler Blake, a former caravan guard & merchant guild soldier, he’s a West Texan with a quick temper & an even quicker draw. Local legend is that he’s gunned down 15 men, including lawmen, bounty hunters, bandits & outlaws. Ask him, he’ll tell you to mind your own damn business. Blake knows of his own dislike for killing, especially cold-blooded murder but that doesn’t stop him taking contracts to do so.”


“Silas Martin, a drifter from where, he won’t say. Martin threw in with Blake a few months back after a situation in a saloon in Odessa involving a card game. He found himself with a gun to his head after a trike drover accused him of cheating. Martin’s bullwhip disarmed the man but also cost the man an eye which wound him up in the local jail. Blake, having seen the whole thing, put up the fines to get him out in exchange for him signing on with the Drifters till his debt was paid off. Martin has an aggressive nature & is very much in it for #1. He’s always itching for a fight & isn’t afraid to shed blood. Many’s the time Blake’s had to tell him to leave the dynamite.”


“Wallaby Jones, hailing from the Land Down Under, he comes from a long line of poachers & bushmen. When the continent of Australia was mostly drowned in the great floods, his great grandfather caught a ship for America hoping to hunt some of the dinosaurs that had begun to roam the lands. He hired on with the Drifters when they passed through California hunting down Tom Mulligan, the man responsible for the Texarkana Christmas Eve Massacre. They passed through Shasta into mountainous terrain, knowing that Mulligan would be holed up in the mountains he offered Blake his skill with a rifle seeing as the Drifters were all pretty much gunslingers.”


“Pablo Ortega, a Mexican outlaw & former gun-runner, Pablo rides with Blake due to owing him his life. A gun deal went sour in Albuquerque with the local drug gang, the Esperanzas. They reneged on the agreement when time came to pay & gunned down his crew. Pablo ran into the desert & stumbled upon the Drifters camp. When the Esperanza enforcers found them & demanded Pablo, Blake told them to go pound sand. A vicious gunfight erupted in which two enforcers lay dead at the cost of Blake’s gunsmith. Pablo volunteered to take his place in repayment for saving his life. The situation earned Blake the enmity of the Esperanzas, making Albuquerque one more place he’s not welcome anymore.”

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Posse: The Utah Water Rustlers

September 13, 2011 — Dinosaur Cowboy

Today is a really special treat, as a forum poster has completed his own Posse using the v0.9 rules. But he went above and beyond doing just that, and actually ordered and painted up a slew of cowboy figures to go with his Ankylosaurus figure. The creator is cody20 from the DakkaDakka forums, and I really have to thank him for his interest in the game and dedication to assembling a terrific looking Posse!

Without further ado (since most of you recent readers are probably coming from the DakkaDakka thread in the first place :)) I give you the Utah Water Rustlers:


I guess this means I really need to get on having a similarly dashing looking force available for my battle reports, instead of the hodge podge of figures I’ve used in the past. Anyways with luck this won’t be the last we hear of from cody20, so hopefully I can post some bonus battle reports from him in the future!

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Posse: Glenbrook’s Desert Triumphateers

September 9, 2011 — Dinosaur Cowboy
Dear Sir Quinton Masglou,

I hope this letter finds you well, with both your health and your prosperity at hunting in the northlands. Cecilia and I are doing most excellent on the ranch, and have but a pair of months before the harvest season begins.

I write to you concerning the most important and wholesome of activities – that of the great dinosaur hunt. Although I have been entertaining myself teaching Cecilia the finer art of pistol shooting, my mind is never far from our fateful encounter when you visited last winter. I’m sure I don’t need to remind you how stormy the night was, or the sound of that terrible roar in my furthest field. I grabbed my bolt action rifle off the mantle and you slung a musket from your pack as we ran to the door. The image of that Tyrannosaurus Rex shall forever be with me.

Although a few hasty shots scared the beast away, I have often wondered from whence it came. As you know the area surrounding Perico in Texas is not known for the larger carnivores, mainly from our horrendous heat and proximity to the dead wastes. But I spent many a day and night restlessly researching local tales and alehouse yarns and I think I have finally discovered the home of the great beast.

To this end I write to implore you to visit me no later then two weeks hence. Bring your finest firearms and equipment and we shall track the Tyrannosaurs Rex to it’s lair and destroy it. I have already taken care of hiring a guide, a strong arm, and pack dinos for the road. I know your matters in the north are of the utmost importance, but if you could but rent a flapper and visit us we shall truly have a hunt worthy of years of campfire tales.

Yours in Arms,
Gordon Glenbrook

Setting up the Posse
So sets the backdrop for the big game hunters who will tackle the custom t-rex I created the other day. When creating this Posse I went for flavor and matching the figures instead of just raw power (which is why you don’t see a bunch of bazookas and burst rifles, haha).

The battle would take place riiiiiight on the edge of the super hot southern desert of the futuristic USA. I decided Gordon Glenbrook’s ranch would be around Perico, Texas, and the lair itself would be further south. The desert is too hot to travel during the day, even with the finest dinomounts, so it’d be a bit of a trudge for the crew.

My main priority was a believable group who would provide a cinematic battle. I opted for a full 5 members, which basically ate up my Neodollars just in recruitment costs. I decided instead to just buy reasonable weapons and equipment and hope they didn’t end up costing too much more than the T-Rex.

When I actually play this game I won’t have the figures pictured below (from Reaper Mini, but they looked perfect for a hunting group. One of these days I’ll get some hobby motivation beyond just writing rules and playing games and actually sit down and paint some cowboys. For now your imagination will have to do.

Now to the details of each member, plus their respective background information to help flesh out the characters:

General Notes
I did a lot of voluntary weakness for Bravery, which had two benefits. The first and most obvious is recovering some bonus IP that could be spent elsewhere. The second subtle benefit is that Fleeing from close combat doesn’t provoke a Snap Attack in v0.9, and against a T-Rex there really isn’t a downside to getting further away. I figured if a member doesn’t get one-hit killed, they will probably Flee next turn which can set up the rest of the team for better shots. I guess the downside is it might move the Fleeing person into perfect Charge range for the T-Rex, but it’s unlikely ANYONE will survive two rounds in melee with the beast.

Gordon Glenbrook
Gordon was once a Neotechnoist but found the adventurous lure of the outside world too much for him. He left the jungle when he was barely an adult, and slowly built up a fortune through trading, leading expeditions, farming, etc. He met Cecilia while driving some triceratops through Colorado, and they were married soon after. Now he’s getting older and a bit slower, and has settled down on a ranch in the one remaining hospitable part of Texas. The t-rex hunt is mainly a chance to relive some of his old glories and feel a little more useful around the ranch.

I wanted Gordon to be the toughest of the bunch, which was easy with his Duster allegiance and Leader benefits to HP. I matched the figure as best I could and opted for a Bolt Action Rifle as his primary weapon. In terms of stats I reduced his Bravery from 6 to 4 for +5 IP for the reasons I stated above. Otherwise the main improvement was RMC, from 8 to 6 for 25 IP (which was really 20 due to the bonus from reducing my Bravery). I figured Armor would be a waste against the T-Rex’s 4 MMC, but I definitely didn’t want to miss a shot. Besides the Bolt Action Rifle I gave him a basic 80kW Six-Shooter and a Small IRP. For a bit of benefit and a bunch of flavor Gordon took the “Big Game Hunter” Passive Trait.

20 IP, $170. MV 3, AR 0, RMC 6, MMC 8, BRV 4, HP 12, Big Game Hunter. Bolt Action Rifle, 80kW Six-Shooter, S-IRP

Cecilia Glenbrook
Cecilia may seem a strange match for Gordon. She was raised in a rich family near the coast, and never really knew hardship. She married Gordon at the height of his power and influence, when he was most attractive as a suitor. Now in his older years she sometimes has doubts about their suitability, especially with how taken Gordon has been with hunting. In the interest of maintaining their marriage she has started to learn to handle a gun, ride, rope, and sleep under the stars.

I went for basically the same build as Gordon for his wife. I dropped her Bravery from 6 to 4 and boosted her RMC from 8 to 6. She didn’t get a Trait, but instead I gave her the SUPER handy Stun Gun, plus a Derringer for backup and flavor. She didn’t quite match the figure (which had a shotgun), but I really like the idea of Gordon helping his wife master the Stun Gun, since it’ll be an important part of keeping the T-Rex from reaching the lines and basically rolling over the team. Anyways she ended up costing 20 IP, just like Gordon.
Plus I gave her a Medpack to try out the slower healing feature compared to an IRP.

20 IP, $225. MV 3, AR 0, RMC 6, MMC 8, BRV 4, HP 10. Stun Gun, Derringer, Medpack

Sir Quinton Masglou
Quinton is much younger than Gordon, and learned about the man while reading historical records inside the Neotechnoist compound. They eventually exchanged letters and met a few times for hunting expeditions. Quinton looks up to Gordon, but also finds him a bit stuffy (mainly because of their age gap). Gordon treats Quinton like the son he never had, and is very eager to entertain the youth and give him the best advantages in life. Quinton was exploring north of Haven and the Neotechnoist jungle, but flew all the way south for the chance to hunt a t-rex and see his old mentor, perhaps for the last time.

For Quinton I knew I couldn’t get his HP too high due to the Neotechnoist weakness, so I opted for a bit of armor instead. It made sense too since he’s a bit younger and bit more unsure of his abilities. Plus the figure just screams “Guy trying to be woodland-ish”. I went for a more barbaric weapon, the Blunderbuss, to try to keep the rustic image he’s been living up north. A Stick of Dynamite was a nice simple touch, and again felt like an “old school” weapon compared to lasers and the like.
For stats I weakened his Bravery from 6 to 4 for +5 IP again. Then I dropped his RMC from 7 to 6 for 15 IP, and finally gave him +1 AR for 10 IP, plus a suit of Padded Armor. I had a few points left over so I ended up giving him +2 HP for 12 IP, which counteracted his Neotechnoist frailty.

32 IP, $320. MV 4, AR 2, RMC 6, MMC 8, BRV 4, HP 8. Blunderbuss, Stick of Dynamite, Padded Armor

Walter Thunder
Walter has seen it all as a guide, and is very worldly as a result. He’s competent with a wide variety of weapons and is terrific at hunting, trapping, tracking, and getting out of trouble. His dashing good looks lead to a brief affair with Cecilia (of which Gordon never found out), so there is a tension between the two as a result. Gordon, blissfully unaware, considers Walter an upstanding young man, and sometimes compares his younger self to the life Walter has lead. Walter puts up with it in good humor because of the solid, steady pay Gordon offers. He feels the t-rex hunt will give him a lot of fame and further his reputation in the south.

Walter was pretty simply to make, and ended up being the least improved of my characters. I made him Bandit Allegiance to kind of simulate the knockabout life he’s lead. For guns the 400kW Six-Shooter seemed to make sense, although I still kind of like the 4-3 of the 300kW compared to 3-4 of the 400kW model. He’d take a Saber, and maybe could sneak in a desperate, heroic charge with it.
All I did for statistics was weakening his Bravery from 6 to 5 for +2 IP (he’s the bravest of the bunch from his travels, I figured), and then RMC from 8 to 7 for 10 IP.
As part of his “guide” image I gave him the Active Trait “Retreat!”, which will let him grant an additional +4″ of Movement to an ally within 8″. I figured this would help him get someone out of trouble a bit, and maybe he can charge in afterwards to cover their escape.

8 IP, $160. MV 4, AR 0, RMC 7, MMC 8, BRV 5, HP 8, Retreat! 400kW Six Shooter, Saber

Allen
Allen is the strong silent type, and has acted as a bodyguard for Gordon in the past. Early in Gordon and Cecilia’s marriage a rival rancher tried to use violence and intimidation to get Gordon to give up some land in the west. Allen cleaned up the problem quickly and quietly, and Cecilia was never the wiser that her husband had hired such a mercenary. Allen does not have the best attitude or morals, but he is extremely competent and a legend in a duel. Gordon has kept in contact through the years for certain difficult situations where a rough hand might be needed. Allen has a strong, yet unspoken sense of loyalty to Gordon which is his main motivation for coming on the hunt.

Finally I had Allen. He’d rock dual pistols, that much I knew. I went for a Handcannon and a Snub Pistol, so a bit of modern tech mixed with old. I made him a Duster since he seemed more like a roaming desert wanderer than a real Bandit, although I think either would have worked. I wanted him to hit a bunch so I boosted his RMC from 8 to 6. Then the usual Bravery drop from 6 to 4. To top off his equipment I gave him Cloth Armor and Tangle Grenades. Those grenades, which apply Stopped on hit, could be a real game changer. With that in mind I actually gave him the Active Trait “Speed Reload” with the intent of throwing a grenade, free reloading, and throwing another, which would keep the T-Rex locked down for 2 whole turns. Plus of everyone he seemed the most likely to fight slightly dirty like that, and also to come overly prepared.

20 IP, $510. MV 3, AR 1, RMC 6, MMC 8, BRV 4, HP 10, Speed Reload. Handcannon, Snub Pistol, Tangle Grenades, Cloth Armor

Final Words
The last step was to name the Posse. I went for “Glenbrook’s Desert Triumphateers” because it had a fun, slightly goofy ring to it, just like most of the members (who are kind of in over their heads). With luck this expedition will be successful for the gang, and won’t just be a giant three turn buffet for the T-Rex.

All in all the Posse came out at exactly 100 IP. Due to recruiting costs of $800 I ended up waaaaaaaay overbudget. The equipment ended up being $1385, so yeah, $2185 in total. I think it’s fine though since I didn’t buy any really crazy weapons, and mostly just went for theme so it should be balanced with the T-Rex.

Anyways I’ll be playing this game through tomorrow afternoon, so expect a battle report sometime next week!

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Posse: The Lost Platoon

June 9, 2011 — Dinosaur Cowboy

Posse: The Lost Platoon
Level 2, IP 130, $1,500

I went for a higher starting Neodollar value for this gang, mainly so I could try out a Thickskull dinosaur ($500 on it’s own).

My theme for this Posse was a Neotechnoist patrol that got lost in the deep jungle near The Wall. Over time the patrol slowly lost men to dinosaurs, hostile savages, and jungle disease. Finally only a few remained, the “Lost Platoon” as it were. The Captain’s sanity dwindled alongside the patrol’s numbers, until they became an unreliable, rag tag mercenary band.

As before I looked in my figure case to get inspiration, and stumbled across an old set of 8 metal Warhammer 40,000 Imperial Guard figures (old enough that you’ll have to excuse my amateur paintjob). I went for a Captain (named Captain Gunfire…certainly a nickname of an insane man) with a fancy jacket and hat, a second-in-command looking fellow with his hand up (loyal, and slightly slow Colonel Higgins), a basic rank and file trooper (uncertain but dedicated Private Jacbos), and a special weapons soldier (The Phoenix, equally insane as Captain Gunfire). Definitely less of a “traditional” wild west gang, but they still have their place as Neotechnoist flavor.
As I mentioned I wanted to try out a Thickskull dinosaur, which I aptly named “The Ram”. The idea was he was harnessed and trained during the patrols long wanderings in the jungle.

For strategy I thought a split between range and close combat would be good. Captain Gunfire and Colonel Higgins would ride The Ram into combat, with Private Jacobs as midline support, and The Phoenix off on his own or back a bit to lay down suppressive fire.

Creating Captain Gunfire
As before I started with my Leader. I didn’t feel that I needed to sink a ton of IP into him, so I settled for -2 MMC (total of 25 IP) to ensure if he did reach combat, he’d have no problem hitting. I also decided to do a global +1 AR for each member, and a further +1 HP for the Captain for that little bit extra survivability. I figured that even if he started as a Neotechnoist, his Allegiance was now Bandit. In fact everyone but The Phoenix would be a Bandit. So his IP purchases were:

10 for -1 MMC
15 for -1 MMC
10 for +1 AR
6 for +1 HP

His finished statistics were: MV 4, AR 1, RMC 8, MMC 6, BRV 7, HP 11

Creating Colonel Higgins
Time for the second in command. He was basically a mini version of the Captain, so I mirrored the Allegiance and most of the improvements:

10 for -1 MMC
15 for -1 MMC
10 for +1 AR
6 for +1 HP

Like I said, basically a slightly weaker (because he lacks the Leader bonuses) version of Captain Gunfire. His finished statistics were: MV 4, AR 1, RMC 8, MMC 6, BRV 6, HP 9.

Creating Private Jacobs
My basic cadet, but someone who had also succumbed to the Bandit Allegiance. I didn’t want to spend a ton of points on him, so I settled for the global +1 AR and a -1 RMC so he’d at least be able to support kind of well. His improvements:

10 for -1 RMC
10 for +1 AR

Poor little Private, only 20 IP spent on him. Anyways his finished statistics were: MV 4, AR 1, RMC 7, MMC 8, BRV 6, HP 8.

Creating The Phoenix
You know all those points I saved on Private Jacobs? Time to blow the rest of them on The Phoenix. I visualized him as a quiet sharpshooter, which is a pretty standard stereotype in movies and books. Anyways since he wouldn’t need to be very mobile, I actually gave him Voluntary Weakness for Movement, so he dropped from 4 to 3 for a +5 IP benefit. I decided he’d stay semi-loyal to the Neotechnoist creed, so he went for that Allegiance instead of flat out Bandit. The IP purchases I made were:

+5 for -1 MV
15 for -1 RMC
10 for +1 AR
6 for +1 HP

A starting RMC of 6 certainly is nice, even if he has the classically weak HP of a Neotechnoist (7 total).

All said and done these choices left me with 2 IP leftover. Hooray?

Creating The Ram
Since dinosaurs can’t be improved using Improvement Points (their HP can be increased by paying though!) he had a standard set of Thickskull statistics:

MV 7, AR 1, RMC -, MMC 7, BRV 7, HP 18.

I certainly am digging that higher Bravery and big HP pool.

To +AR or Not
I’ve been facing the interesting conundrum with my recent Posse creation tests on whether to give members the +1 AR for 10 IP or not. I find money is normally scarce enough that $50 for basic Cloth armor isn’t always an option, whereas IP tend to be fairly abundant (once the obvious choices are out of the way).
Forcing the enemy to take a +1 penalty to hit sure is nice, and turns an average 8+ into a painful sounding 9+. All you need is to move and be at long range and suddenly they’re hitting on 11+. I mean, unless they have a sick 5 RMC like The Phoenix, haha.

Allocating Traits
Since this Posse was starting at Level 2 I got to allocate 4 Traits (3 base plus 1 for the Level Up). There was one obvious choice, and that was “Bonus RMC I” for The Phoenix, which put his RMC at 5! Definitely a nice alternative to paying the increasing IP costs to move from 6 to 5. Anyways after that obvious choice I was kind of stuck on what to do. I went for another Passive, this time “Bonus MV I” for The Ram, since it put him at 8 MV instead of 7. What’s nice about this is a Run action nets him an additional 4″ instead of 3″ (due to rounding), so a 10″ (7+3) run turns into a 12″ (8+4) run, which is a big difference. Anyways I wanted to have someone hit a bit harder, so I went for Strain Weapon with Colonel Higgins. It’s a handy Active Trait that gives him +2 damage, and is versatile enough to be either a ranged or melee weapon. Finally I went for “Go For the Eyes” (blatant Baldur’s Gate 1/2 reference) for The Phoenix, since it allows him to Critical on 10+.

Throwing Some Dough Around
Time to spend some Neodollars! Actually I didn’t have a huge pool of cash available after recruitment costs. My 3 Members totaled $600, and the Thickskull was a further $500, so already I was down to $400. I can’t complain too hard at that though.
Similarly to the creation process, I opted to buy from the top down. It seemed like the clear military patrol chain of command choice after all. The Captain and Colonel got basic 80KW Six-Shooters (still the best $10 money can buy). I gave the Captain a Shudder Lance, it does a respectable 3A-5D, but also has Knockback! The Colonel got a Long Sword (mainly to match his figure, which had a sheathed blade), which was slightly worse at 2A-4D.
Private Jacobs got a Light Pistol which I find is a nice, cheap alternative to a rifle. The high maximum long range (16-17″) certainly helps if I get in a duel with a six-shooter armed foe.
The Phoenix was next, and I sprung for a Light Repeater (I love the name so much). It’s the same stats as a Low Burst Rifle, and similar to the projectile based Assault Rifle (except it barely ever has to reload – 4×1!). Otherwise the stats are what you’d expect, 6A-1D, so a big pool of dice available (which should help get his “Go For the Eyes” Trait going).
I had $40 left over, so I sprung for Small IRPs for everyone. These handy medical packs can heal 1D6hp instantly, so basically a better Whiskey Drop.

The Lost Platoon is Ready
Another Posse all done and ready to dive into the sweltering jungle. Let’s hope I can pit them against a leveled up version of the Drylands United Cattle Company in a playtest soon…

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Posse: Drylands United Cattle Company

June 3, 2011 — Dinosaur Cowboy

Posse Creation Example
As a treat I thought I’d share the creation of a Posse, in this case the “Drylands United Cattle Company”.
Each Posse has 1 Leader, 2-4 Members, and up to 1 Dinosaur. The Leader has some special benefits (stat boosts and abilities), and is kind of what the main character in the old RPG-centric version was. Members are what Sidekicks used to be.
Anyways you start with, currently, $1,000 and 100 Improvement Points (IP) and 3 Traits to distribute. Hiring a Member costs $200, the Leader is free, and I haven’t worked out Dinosaur prices yet.
Improvement Points are used to upgrade the stats of your characters. So for example you could pay 10 IP to improve someone’s Ranged Miss Chance from 8 to 7. Or you could pay 12 IP and upgrade your Movement from 4 to 5. This point buy system is kind of neat as it helps balance out the differing value of each statistic (for example boosting RMC isn’t NEARLY the same as boosting BRV).
Anyways I’ve been typing all these rules up already so I really don’t feel like going in circles over them here. Instead I’ll jump right into the example…

First I looked in my figure case to get some ideas of characters I could have in my Posse. I settled on a cloaked old man with a spear (Quidel), a commoner looking fellow with an AK-47 (Khulan), a military jungle girl (Trista), and a scruffy bandit with a blunderbuss (Trask).
I went for 1 Leader and 3 Members because it seemed to strike a good balance between a tiny few highly skilled and equipped members, or a big crowd of poorly equipped people. I mainly matched weapons with what the figures had, and tried for a general role for each, as well as a strategy overall.
In this case Quidel and Trask would be close combat buddies, Trista would be a sniper, and Khulan would be my midfield gunner.

Creating Quidel
I started with the Leader, Quidel. The base stats for any Human are: MV 4, AR 0, RMC 8, MMC 8, BRV 6, HP 8. Since he’s a Leader he gets +2 HP, +1 BRV, and the Leadership ability (basically allow an ally to re-roll).
I wanted him to be tough and survivable, since losing a Leader means everyone remaining in your Posse has to take a Bravery Test. I figured an Allegiance of Duster would suit, since that gives -1 MV and +2 HP. Then I used the following IP purchases:

10 for -1 MMC
6 for +1 HP

His finished statline is: MV 3, AR 0, RMC 8, MMC 7, BRV 7, HP 13.

Creating Khulan
My midline gunner would need pretty basic stats, but some staying power. I decided on Duster Allegiance since he wouldn’t need tons of Movement speed, and the bonus HP helps. For Khulan I made the following IP purchases:

+4 for -1 HP
10 for -1 RMC
10 for +1 AR

Notice that he sacrificed 1 HP to get some IP back (4 IP in this case). This is called “Voluntary Weakness” and allows you to offload some important stats if you’re really desperate for IP. You can do this with MV, BRV, and HP.

Anyways he ended up a slightly better than average shooter, but fairly well protected with his bonus AR and slightly better HP. Finished statline was MV 3, AR 1, RMC 7, MMC 8, BRV 6, HP 9.

Creating Trista
Time for my sniper. Neotechnoist was an obvious Allegiance choice was the -1 RMC will help a ton, plus the -2 HP penalty won’t hurt as much since I’m assuming she’ll be outside of most ranges. My IP purchases were:

15 for -1 RMC (higher than the base of 10 since I was going from 7 to 6, since she was already better from being a Neotechnoist)
6 for +1 HP

A simple enough character, and I was able to buy the extra HP to slightly offset the Neotechnoist penalty. In total her statline was: MV 4, AR 0, RMC 6, MMC 8, BRV 6, HP 7.

Creating Trask
Last up was my melee man, Trask. I knew I wanted him to be faster and to hit nice and hard. The plan is to move him up ahead of Quidel and lock down a shooter, and then Quidel can Charge in without being shot while he uses his slower movement. I figured Trask’s rough appearance means he should have the Bandit Allegiance, which provides no benefits or penalties. For IP purchases I did:

12 for +1 MV
10 for -1 MMC
15 for -1 MMC (pretty pricey at 25 total for -2, but it should help him hit)
6 for +1 HP

His finished statline looked like a beefy close combat killer: MV 5, AR 0, RMC 8, MMC 6, BRV 6, HP 9.

I had 4 left over Improvement Points, which will be handy when my Posse reaches Level 2. Now upon each Level Up you get 20 IP, 1 additional Trait, and $100. So I’ll have some options there (for example I could use my combined 24 IP to buy +1 Movement for 2 characters).

Traits and the Posse
Next up were the 3 Traits every Posse has to start with. I needed to select and distribute these as I saw fit. I decided to go for an even approach, so Quidel, Trista, and Trask all got an Active Trait.

For Quidel I chose “Berserker” which gives him +2 Melee Attacks. Remember that since it’s an Active Trait (previously called Boost Traits) it can be activated at the start of his turn, and will last until his next activation. So basically one time during combat I can get a few extra dice to attack.
Trista got the handy “Try Again” which provides a complete re-roll of Attacks. I figured this would help if I really needed to hit, or if she got a bad Reload and I wanted to avoid that.
Finally Trask got “Sprint”, which gives +3 Movement once during combat. I’d probably use this either early on or right before a Charge, or maybe just to be certain to grab cover during a really open part of the map.

Equipping the Posse
Now it was time to throw some money around. I had spent $600 of my $1,000 just on recruiting Members, so I had $400 to play with. Part of my recent work involved reducing the price of weapons so that a basic pistol is a mere $10, midrange is $80 to $120, and there are only a few super powerful weapons over $700 (for example the most expensive is the Flamethrower for $1,500).

As with generating I decided to go character by character.

Quidel got a Spear ($80), a nice midrange 4A-3D melee weapon. For ranged I decided to cheap out and just give him the basic 80kw Six-Shooter (4A-0D, but it’s $10). I think he’d probably spend most turns double moving (aka Running).
Khulan I thought I’d try a Projectile weapon instead of just Energy. So I went for the Assault Rifle ($120). It’s cheaper than a Burst Rifle, but tends to need to reload a lot. It’s 6A-1D but the Reload is 2×1, so yeah, could be painful.
Trista needed range, lots of it, so I got her a 400kw Lever-Action Rifle for $120. The range increments are pretty good at 4-10/11-14/15-21, and it is 3A-4D with 3×1 Reload. I had increased the minimum range for these weapons, so she might need to fall back if enemies get too close.
Finally Trask’s blunderbuss (on the figure) became a Club ($40), which is a solid 3A-3D melee weapon. He also got the 80kw Six-Shooter backup gun.

This left me with $20, so I decided to buy 1 Whiskey Drop ($5 each) per character. These handy items restore 2 HP on use, which might be just enough to keep someone from being taken out of action.

Posse is Done
Now we have the Drylands United Cattle Company, 4 members strong, $0 and 4 IP in the bank, and looking for a fight.

As you can see the system looks like it will support a ton of options for customization. I could have done a pure melee band, or a high tech band, or a glass cannon band, or really anything. As I said I need to finish the Dinosaur aspect, mostly around price to hire and some clarification of their rules. Otherwise it’ll probably just be tweaking and formatting. The $1,000 start price is probably too low, but 100 IP seems about right. The weapon prices might need changes, as I still feel that Melee is a bit too high for what you get. I think I’ll just have to try making different Posses and see what’s possible.

Tag Note
I’ve created a new category/tag on this blog called “Posse”. I’m hoping to use it to post complete Posses that you can easily use in your own games. Eventually I might even post the filled in Posse Roster so you can print-and-play if you like what you see.

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