Some Freebooter Miniatures

September 10, 2012 — Dinosaur Cowboy

Steampunk-ish Miniatures
I found two really cool Steampunk style figures from a German company called Freebooter Miniatures. There is Doc Taranto who I think is great as a kind of mad scientist Neotechnoist. And then Dixie Dynamite who is a bit unrealistic but still makes a fun swashbuckler style cowboy. Definitely not the usual fair, and a bit more stylized in general, but still pretty cool! Click for the full size.

What I Have Been Up To
Anyway the blog has been silent for the past few weeks, and will continue to be that way until October. I’m busy travelling at the moment so I haven’t been back to the kitchen table for some wargaming or painting. Which is too bad since I wouldn’t mind trying out my new cowboy figures and getting back to rolling some dice.
Otherwise I did a minor fix to The Saloon around remotely loading invalid posses. Previously if you tried to load a posse that came up invalid (such as having less than 0 Improvement Points remaining) the app would just error out and not load the posse. However this became a problem when trying to load some posses created with older versions of the Dinosaur Cowboys rules. For example The Herd Mothers, a neat posse idea, but they have -6 IP under the v1.3 rules.
So the fix is to instead display a popup (should be cross browser compatible, but maybe not) which warns the user that the posse they tried to load is invalid. But then it still loads it. This is great for at least seeing the posse, or maybe trying to change it to be valid against the latest rules.

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Finally painting (actual cowboys) again

August 8, 2012 — Dinosaur Cowboy

Well after far, far too long using my old figures and collecting many unpainted cowboys I finally sat down and cranked out two figures. Both are from the Chronoscope line from Reaper Miniatures. They aren’t “heroic scale” like Games Workshop so all the weapons look realistically sized for once. The Chronoscope line has a TON of great figures and movie parodies and stuff.
The thumbnails are a bit grainy so I recommend clicking for the full size. Also the matte protective spray I use is TERRIBLE. I think it settled too much since my last painting night and now sprays on a fine white fluff sort of like grainy snow. Really annoying and it’s especially noticeable in the solo shots below. I used to have a great protective spray but it ran out, and I’ve been trying various brands ever since. Still no luck recreating that thin, even matte covering.
Anyways here they are:

The cowboy with two machine gun pistols is based off the character Tallahasse in the movie Zombieland. I went with an orange shirt to brighten him up, since I find it’s very easy to fall in a rut of “brown + green + black” for a figure. I tried for a worn look on the jean knees and upper thighs, gave him a cool bowler sporting jacket, and went for subdued black + metal drybrush guns.

Then we have Preacher Pike, who I’ve had mostly painted for a while now, aside from finishing up the stand. Pretty simple look for him and he’d be great as a double in a Cthulhu game. I went for a more ornate bright silver hand shotgun, simple but dashing red shirt, and a worn look to his outstretched book. In hindsight I probably should have painted the facial features, but that’s easy to say when the figure is blown up to large size in the picture.

After these I have a khaki wearing safari explorer, a Victorian era British rifleman, a Clint Eastwood “Man With No Name” imitation, a space sheriff, and a few more good ones just waiting to be used on the table.

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Force Fields and Ropes

August 1, 2012 — Dinosaur Cowboy

Just knocking around some variant ideas.

The first and simplest is additional rules for Ropes and Ladders. Basically if a rope or ladder is by a cliff face then a character doesn’t need to use double movement to climb (much like the “Climber” Trait). This would allow for some fun scenario scenery with ladders, or just bonus special abilities for some purchasable equipment. Hemp Rope and Micro Rope would fit in this case, and could be slung down a cliff from the top by a character in their Action Phase (to help anyone following them). If they have a Grappling Hook then they could throw the rope up from the base of the cliff in their Action Phase.
This gets back to my earlier idea of having equipment with additional special rules. Like instruments that inspire, or drinks/drugs that boost stats, etc.

The second idea is Shields, not in a “buckler on the arm” sense but more like an Force Field. Or Energy Shield, or Force Shield, or Power Field, or any of the other terms I could use. I think I’d stick with Force Field since that’s kind of pulpy sounding. There are two ideas how these would look, either a personal shield generator that surrounds the person in a globe or a thin layer of shielding, or the “modern buckler” idea of a holdable energy shield. Basically either of these (I would have loved to have found better pictures but I didn’t have much luck!):
Holding:

Globe:

The rules would be simple. Force Fields would have a Power and Frequency rating. Power would be a number of D12s to roll, Frequency would be an X+ value. Any Power rolls greater than or equal to the Frequency would negate 1 point of incoming damage. If the number of Critical Hits on the attack exceeds the Power rating the Force Field is overloaded and cannot be used for just that attack.
For example:

Small Force Field: Power 3, Frequency 6+

Peter is equipped with a Small Force Field and is fired at by Hank with an 80kW Six-Shooter. Hank hits for 4 damage. Peter rolls 3D12 for his Power, hoping for 6+. He gets a 10, 8, and 4, so two successes. That means the incoming damage is reduced from 4 to 2.
If Hank instead got lucky and rolled 8, 12, 12, 12, the 3 Criticals would overload the Power rating of 3, so the Force Field would not take effect. Peter would take his 7 damage.

Simple enough. I would make several such items with varying Power and Frequency ratings. A very basic Force Field would probably be Power 1, Frequency 8+. There are a couple of other options too, such as only having Force Fields block weapons with an “Energy” type. Or even Force Fields for each type of damage. Maybe Kinetic Fields for “Projectile” and “Grenade” types. There could be extra Traits to support this, or new weapon types with a “Piercing” or “Forcebreaker” special property that helps reduce the effectiveness of shields.
Although more complex (ie: additional rolling and tracking) I think these are a pretty neat idea. I had mentioned a while back wanting to play a robot/android invasion and I might use these Force Field rules for the invaders.

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Battle Report: Hills and Passes

July 27, 2012 — Dinosaur Cowboy

Encounter Overview
Background: I had two goals when I setup this game: use a lot of hills, and use my new cacti models. So I placed terrain and road sections to make the table look like an abandoned stretch of dusty highway. Think “The Loneliest Road in America” Highway 50 in Nevada as it cuts through a pass.
There were some secondary goals around this game as well. I wanted to try a couple Variant Rules, since normally I play vanilla Dinosaur Cowboys. I also wanted to use higher IP and ND values to make more powerful posses.
The posses I ended up with are a travelling group of performers, artists, and vagabonds named Maudlin Travelling Band. They would be wandering the road scavenging for supplies and looking for towns to entertain. The other posse was the exact opposite, a tough gang of bandits and raiders who generally go to towns to kill and steal. They were called, aptly enough, The Dirty Dogs.
This battle report was using the v1.3 rules, so Neotechnoists got a bit of a buff with their new Allegiance benefit.
Also I’ve tried trimming down the level of detail I go into for each turn. So no more specifics on who rolled what, instead I’ll try to give a general summary of each turn. One of these days I’d really like to get a battle report map going.

Posse Resources: Each posse had 2,000 Neodollars and 200 Improvement Points and 6 Traits to allocate.
Variant Rules: Dual Wield and Last Man Standing.
Special Rules: +1 MV if a move starts on the road. This bonus applies for BOTH Standard Move and Running or Charging, so it’s possible to get +2 MV just by Standard Move + Run on your turn.

Posse: Maudlin Travelling Band: 1/2000 IP, 0/2000 ND, 6/6 Traits
I figured the Maudlin Travelling Band would hail from an imaginary small town called Maudlin, and be lead by a father and daughter. They would be general survivors and drifters so the Bandit allegiance worked best. Along the way they picked up Thurn, a Duster, who is a rougher cattle hand who grew tired of life on the ranch and now is training up his gimmicks and tricks for the road. Markus is another Duster, and happens to be in love with Ozie. Her father Gerg pretends to not notice, but there is definitely friction as a result. The Savage Wildgrass is sort of a novelty item in some smaller, backwater towns, so he completes the troupe. And Tarnation is their Ripper dinosaur, because what travelling act wouldn’t have a dinosaur?!
Now that I had some general background I needed to fill in their stats and equipment. With $2,000 and 200 IP there was plenty of high end gear to go around. Ozie got a Handcannon (terrific short range pistol) and Kaboom Grenades, mainly since I don’t use grenades nearly enough. Gerg was the melee man with a Twin Lance, and he would start the game mounted on Tarnation to complete the “knight in the wild west” image he portrays on stage. Thurn and Markus got a pretty standard set of gear with some pistols and a Light Repeater. It’s hard to not match Wildgrass’ classic Necromunda figure so I had to give him a Double Barrel Shotgun. A Flail completed his gear, and the Savage Allegiance movement boost meant he could try to advance alongside Gerg and Tarnation.
I was aiming for a denied flank setup. Markus would hold down one side of the road alone, since his gun had good range. The other side would have everyone else in a big clump. Ozie and Thurn would try to advance together since their weapons had similar range. Wildgrass would parallel Gerg but also provide some melee support in the middle if needed. He could leverage the road to boost his speed to try to pace Tarnation. And Gerg would go for the long side flank, rushing ahead on Tarnation as fast as possible to shut down any backline shooters.

Ozie Tumaneng (Bandit Leader)
MV 4, AR 0, RMC 5, MMC 8, BRV 7, HP 12, Speed Reload, Bonus RMC. Kaboom Grenades, Handcannon, Small IRP.

Gerg Tumaneng (Bandit)
MV 5, AR 2, RMC 8, MMC 7, BRV 6, HP 12, Inspiring Shot. 80kW Six-Shooter, Twin Lance, Wood Armor.

Thurn (Duster)
MV 3, AR 0, RMC 6, MMC 8, BRV 6, HP 15, Bonus HP. Heavy Pistol, 100kW Six-Shooter.

Markus (Duster)
MV 3, AR 1, RMC 6, MMC 8, BRV 6, HP 12, Go For the Eyes. Light Repeater, Small IRP.

Wildgrass (Savage)
MV 5, AR 2, RMC 8, MMC 7, BRV 6, HP 10, Get Up!. Double Barrel Shotgun, Flail, Wood Armor.

Tarnation (Untrained Ripper Dinosaur)
MV 7, PMV D8, AR 0, MMC 7, DIS 5, HP 12.

Posse: The Dirty Dogs: 3/200 IP, 0/2000 ND, 6/6 Traits
I opted for a big, expensive dinosaur at the core of the posse. Something about the King (T-Rex) dinosaur always seems perfect for a marauding gang of raiders. I can just imagine the fear it would strike into villagers and mere peasants. So yeah, Kalgin the King dinosaur was chosen. A slew of Traits helped ensure he could survive the long trek across the table. I hesitated mounting anyone on him since his towering height makes a rider an easy target.
Anyways in terms of backstory for the human members I went with the tried and true “corrupted Neotechnoists”. Ruger and Ximenez would both be fallen Neotechnoists, perhaps dabbling in drug running and other nefarious pursuits. Two silent henchmen completed the posse, in this case Falcon Hand (sounds like a cheesy 80s super villain) who was a Duster, and The Gray Shadow who was a sniper Bandit.
In terms of gear a crude Assault Rifle seemed perfect for Ruger. It matched the figure very well and I like the juxtaposition (woa getting fancy) of an advanced civilization still using gunpowder based firearms. Ximenez went for a Sawed Off Shotgun to continue the “brutal weapons” trend.
Since one of the Variant Rules we’re using is Dual Wielding (+1A when using 2 small weapons of the same type) and Falcon Hand’s figure had two pistols, I decided he’d naturally have two 200kW Six-Shooters, hitting at 5A-2D. The Gray Shadow got a Twin Rifle for sniping and a simple 80kW Six-Shooter sidearm for enemies inside the minimum range. The “Both Barrels” feature of the Twin Rifle is nice, especially for early shots to make enemies dive for cover. A few Traits and some scraps of armor completed the posse.
My strategy was simple and mostly dictated by the terrain. The road looked to be a death zone of crossfire and no cover, so I’d split my force and advance through the hills on either side. Kalgin, Ximenez, and Falcon Hand would go on one side since they were slightly shorter ranged and could support the dinosaur well. Ruger and The Gray Shadow would be on the other. I figured Ruger might eventually cross the road while The Gray Shadow hung back in support, but we’ll see. Hopefully Kalgin could make it to melee and tear up some foes.

Ruger (Neotechnoist Leader)
MV 4, AR 3, RMC 6, MMC 8, BRV 7, HP 10, Neck Shot. Assault Rifle, Clay Armor, Medium IRP.

Ximenez (Neotechnoist)
MV 4, AR 2, RMC 7, MMC 8, BRV 6, HP 12. Sawed Off Shotgun, 80kW Six-Shooter, Cloth Armor, Medium IRP.

Falcon Hand (Duster)
MV 4, AR 3, RMC 6, MMC 8, BRV 6, HP 10, Inspiring Shot. 200kW Six-Shooter, 200kW Six-Shooter, Bone Armor, Medium IRP.

The Gray Shadow (Bandit)
MV 4, AR 1, RMC 5, MMC 8, BRV 6, HP 10, Try Again. 200kW Twin Rifle, 80kW Six-Shooter.

Kalgin (Feral King Dinosaur)
MV 6, PMV D6, AR 2, MMC 4, DIS 8, HP 27, Bonus HP, Runner, Turtle.

The Table and Deployment

Deployment: Up to 8″ from the narrow table edge. The Dirty Dogs deployed first towards the kitchen (left side of the table) followed by Maudlin Travelling Band on the right.

The Dirty Dogs: Looking from my table edge Kalgin is to the right opposite Markus. Falcon Hand and Ximenez beside, with Ruger and The Gray Shadow to the left.
Maudlin Travelling Band: Looking from my table edge Markus is on the left all alone. Everyone else is piled on the hill to the right. Gerg started mounted on Tarnation.

Turn 1 – Forward, March!
As usual Turn 1 was fairly simple with everyone advancing and re-positioning after the deployment. No guns were in range yet but soon would be. Some folks Ran, some just walked. The only real surprises were Wildgrass moving onto the road behind a pile of rocks and a cactus. Ruger matched him except couldn’t find any cover, and didn’t quite make it to the cracked pavement. Gerg and Tarnation flanked to their right, and Kalgin ran along his right, both trying to stay in the cover of the hills. The road would be faster, but good luck blocking line of sight on that highway of death.

Turn 2 – Open Fire!
Kalgin powered ahead, his long strides and useful Runner trait bringing him closer and closer to Markus. Seeing this Wildgrass continued down across the road and into some rubble to bring some fire (and his flail) onto Kalgin. Ozie dropped from the hill and followed in Wildgrass’ footsteps, basically swinging the Maudlin Travelling Band’s focus from their right flank to their left. Thurn continued up the hilltop, cresting and giving him a commanding view of the upcoming firefight. Gerg also continued his flank, reaching the valley between the hill his friends occupied and the menacing mound manned by The Gray Shadow. Ruger and Ximenez simply marched up the road, confident in the lacking range of their enemies. Falcon Hand started hand-over-hand climbing the towering hill in front of him, hoping to get a shot on Gerg or Tarnation.
With a shouted command and eager pointing, Ruger ordered The Gray Shadow to open fire on Gerg. His Twin Rifle blasted the approaching enemy for 4 damage. Markus’ weapon chattered to life as bolts of energy peppered the T-Rexes hide. Kalgin took 3 damage from the assault and Markus repositioned himself higher up the hill, trying to get out of reach of the incoming dinosaur.

Turn 3 – This Way and That Way
The Dirty Dogs won the first Activation, and immediately rushed Kalgin towards Wildgrass. The mighty dinosaurs fell just short by an inch or so from getting into melee. Markus uses his “Go For the Eyes” trait and unloads point blank onto Kalgin for 8 damage, which adds a Panic token. The fire continues to pour into the dinosaur, this time Ozie with her Handcannon. Her shot goes wide and she has to Reload, but activates Yeehaw! to allow a re-roll. The shot still misses but isn’t a 1, so at least she doesn’t have to Reload anymore.
Across the field The Gray Shadow uses the “Both Barrels” feature of his rifle on Gerg, since the mounted dinosaur is rapidly approaching. The hit is deadly and does 8 damage to Gerg which kills him! The downside of unloading his gun in one massive blast is The Gray Shadow now needs to Reload. Ruger continues up the road, finally getting into range of a foe. He fires at the exposed form of Wildgrass and hits for a measly 2 damage. Wildgrass keeps his attention locked on the T-Rex, and uses “Both Barrels” of his shotgun for a brutal 8 damage. This adds another Panic token, so Kalgin certainly won’t be rushing anywhere soon. The final attack is from Thurn who blasts Ruger through a tree for 4 damage.
Quite the turn!

Turn 4 – Torn to Shreds
Markus starts the turn with another powerful shot at Kalgin, this time hitting for 6 from his mountainous perch. The dinosaur responds by trying to reach Ozie. The Panic Movement roll is 3″, so the T-Rex has to settle for Running to reach Ozie. It activates the Turtle trait which should spare him for another turn.
Ximenez moves directly up the middle of the road, firing shell after shell into Wildgrass as he advances. The Savage is hit for 7 damage but doesn’t Flee. Instead he moves into melee with Kalgin, but his wildly swinging Flail misses the hunkered down dinosaur.
Seeing his sniper pressed by the Ripper, Ruger spins and fires at Tarnation, hitting for 7 damage which adds a Panic token.
Ozie holsters her Handcannon and grabs a Kaboom Grenade. Flipping the switch she hurls the massive bomb at Ximenez. The weapon connects and hits the poor Neotechnoist for 8 damage. The big Explosion (4″ radius) showers the nearby Kalgin with hot shrapnel for an additional 7 damage. A terrific attack since the radius damage didn’t have to roll against Kalgin’s impressive Armor (due to the Turtle Trait). After all this Ximenez fails his Bravery test and is Fleeing, naturally.
Seeing the enemy starting to break Thurn keeps the pressure on. He fires at Ximenez and hits for 6 damage which kills the man just as he is about to run away. Return fire echoes from the distant hill as The Gray Shadow unloads into Tarnation with his revolver, hitting for 4 damage which brings the Ripper down to 1 HP left! The dinosaur slowly chugs forward and almost reaches the devastating sniper.

Turn 5 – Down With Dinosaurs
This turned out to be a deadly turn for any non-humans on the board. Wildgrass started the butchering by smashing Kalgin with his Flail for 5 damage, which killed the limping beast. The Gray Shadow responded in kind by firing his Six-Shooter into Tarnation again, doing 2 damage which killed the Ripper. Unlike the Flail though his revolver needed to Reload after the fusillade of shots. The Gray Shadow was now holding two empty weapons.
The grand shootout in the middle continued, and now without the dinosaurs it had become a straight up street fight. Markus fired at Falcon Hand from the edge of the cliff, hitting for 4 damage. Falcon Hand moved forward and returned fire hitting Markus for 7 damage which caused the upstart to Flee.
Ruger continued pumping shots into Wildgrass until the Savage was dead. Thurn tried to bring down the enemy leader but missed all his shots against Ruger. Ozie had more luck. Using her Speed Reload trait to quickly grab another grenade she lobbed the ticking bomb at Ruger, hitting him for 6 damage which killed the leader. This caused both Falcon Hand and The Gray Shadow to Flee.

At this point with two wounded and Fleeing humans left against three enemies, The Dirty Dogs resigned the field. End of game with a Maudlin Travelling Band victory!

After Action Report
The Dirty Dogs: So like true “dogs” we ran from the fight with our tails between our legs. Losing Kalgin right at the start of Turn 5 really sealed the deal. He didn’t even get to snap anyone in half :( At least their dinosaur was equally futile. Deploying along the narrow table edges so the melee folks have EXTRA far to run sure hurts sometimes. Anyways having both my survivors Flee after Ruger bit the dust soon after really hurt a ton. I maybe could have done some damage with The Gray Shadow as the enemy approached to kill him, but with all the hills and only a few inches of range superiority that advantage wouldn’t have lasted long. Still a terrific game!

Maudlin Travelling Band: Victory through surrender, my favorite kind for my hippie travellin’ gang. The game went pretty well overall, although half of it was just pouring fire into Kalgin, staying out of his reach, and hoping for the best. My flank to The Gray Shadow didn’t work quite as well as I hoped, although it did succeed in locking him down and emptying both his weapons. Some great surviving (aka luck) by Wildgrass in the middle. Ozie was a champ with her Kaboom Grenade trick to start the focus fire that killed Ximenez. All in all no one stood out as too weak or useless to me, aside from maybe Thurn who could have been a bit more focused and a bit less committed to his high ground position.

Complete Turn Log
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What I’ve Been Up To

July 19, 2012 — Dinosaur Cowboy

As you may have noticed I haven’t been posting as much. Generally I’ve been busy with socializing, playing a couple other tabletop games, and plenty of computering. I did get a Dinosaur Cowboys battle in a couple days ago and I hope to have the pictures and report posted soon (Update: battle report posted). I got to use my new model cacti for it and the plastic Litko tokens looked as great as ever (it was only their second outing).

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The Pony Express with Dinosaurs

July 3, 2012 — Dinosaur Cowboy

The Pony Express always evokes the imagination and pioneer spirit, even though it was only around for a year or so and ran a huge deficit. But the idea of lone riders blazing across the plains, scorching deserts, and high alpine peaks sticks with people. Some readers might have heard of the old Pony Express newspaper ad that famously declared “Orphans preferred”.
Well I recently posted a Photoshop request to turn that poster into a Dinosaur Cowboy themed image. I had some great help and here is the finished product!

And some of the raw images used, which are also great even without the thematic poster:

I’m going to see about working the modified poster into the rulebook somewhere, maybe around the overland travel section.

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Scenarios I need to play

June 15, 2012 — Dinosaur Cowboy

I have a gap between work travel coming up, and I am trying to brainstorm some fun ideas for scenarios instead of the standard “setup and kill” game I tend towards. Ideas are welcome for what you’d like to see! With luck I can play a game sometime next week and hopefully post a battle report full of pictures soon after.

– Civil War battle with the same posse on both sides
– Robot invasion with special rules for shields (Armor reduces damage maybe?)
– Rescue mission with patrolling enemies, or stop a hanging of an ally
– Start with half the posse unarmed in a saloon for a bar fight scenario
– Board with high cliffs and a central valley, lots of climbing
– Board with a tunnel sublevel (Space Hulk tiles) representing a mine?
– Board with packed city terrain with rules for jumping roof to roof, and all posses start above the ground

I think I’ll whip up some extra rules for combat at night, since I think that would suit some of the scenarios (Bar Fight and Rescue mainly).

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Some high res Dinotopia art

June 5, 2012 — Dinosaur Cowboy

I’ve mentioned Dinotopia before, and although it’s not cowboy related it certainly has dinosaurs co-existing with humans. The setting is fantastic and really sparks the childhood imagination. I found a couple of high resolution pictures of Dinotopia art so I thought I’d share:

Definitely click on them for full size!

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Futility of renaming Hitpoints

May 30, 2012 — Dinosaur Cowboy

Renaming Hitpoints?
In the interest of making the game terminology more immersive and fitting to the setting, I had considered renaming Hitpoints to Grit. And then I thought back, way back, to some of my games I made in high school. One was called Twilight (cut me some slack this was before the vampire movies) and was about a frozen planet where humanity lived underground and could only survive on the freezing surface by regularly taking stimulants. It was built as an RPG and had a pretty standard approach for the time, including a series of attributes for each character.
Now in my youthful edginess I tried to get away from the standard D&D statline, so I renamed Dexterity to Agility. Similarly the equivalent of Constitution became Endurance. I think I even went as far as daringly renaming Hitpoints to Life.
In theory this was neat as the statline looked more unique. What happened in practice? Everyone just mistakenly called Agility “Dexterity” instead, because that was so ingrained with the people I gamed with. Now you might think this is specific to my gaming group, and it may very well be, but in reality I think a lot of players gravitate to the terminology they are most familiar with. Even if they did eventually call Agility by its proper name, I can imagine they’d describe it as “like Dexterity in D&D”. It’s like players are mentally stuck in a rut and default to something known and comfortable if threatened with new ideas or terms.
So instead of trying to forcefully add unique terms to Dinosaur Cowboys I’ll just stick with what I (and my players) know best. Hitpoints will be Hitpoints, and anyone from console gamers to hardcore pen-and-paper players will be able to understand and relate to them. It makes the game feel more familiar, which helps for teaching and remembering it. Plus I hate the idea of being unique for the sake of being unique.

Fad of Alternatives to Hitpoints
Speaking about Hitpoints, I also want to talk about the current designer fascination with alternatives to Hitpoints. Go ahead and Google it to see what I mean. The main complaint stems from the idea that Hitpoints are too abstract, why can a high level fighter take more damage than a peasant, they don’t reflect damage well, performance doesn’t degrade, it’s a binary state of alive and 100% or dead, waa waa boo hoo.
Now I’ve been guilty of this in the past, so I can’t fault the idea too much.

Generally I think two outcomes happen when people try to move away from Hitpoints. Designers either call Hitpoints something else and abstract the numerical element with “Light, Moderate, Severe” wounds that have their own scaling system. Or they try to do a damage track of sorts that degrades performance as an entity takes damage, and end up with a death spiral (generally “…suffering an initial failure makes the second failure more likely, which makes the third even more likely and so on. There is virtually no escape from a death spiral once it’s begun.”).
Personally I love Hitpoints. They are familiar and easy to track and record in low quantities (like the base of 8 HP in Dinosaur Cowboys). They may confuse players as to what exactly Hitpoints represent, but I’ve never seen a player actually complain about that. Heck Movement/Speed doesn’t do the best job of simulating what a character is doing either, but no one minds that (ie: is the character running that whole time? Is it the distance they cover in what frame of time?)
Anyways Hitpoints certainly aren’t going anywhere in this game, except down as your Neotechnoist exposed in the open has laser fire poured into him.

Ideas About Playtesting
The discussions I’m about to link are old hat to a lot of game designers, but I figured they still provide an interesting read.
First of all a great post about the downsides of playtesting. It’s a bit strongly worded by some folks standards, but I think it targets a big demographic at sites like The Forge, especially the bit about playtesting endlessly. Ben Lehman: Playtesting: Stop.
Next up is a counterpoint that has a terrific quote I want to focus on afterwards. First of all the article. Playtesting & The Designer as Expert.
And the quote:

“Talk to playtesters to find out problems, but ignore their solutions. Talk to other designers to work out solutions, but ignore their problems.”

As a programmer I really related to this comment, but really hadn’t been following the advice. In terms of computer programming you would perform a user test, but you certainly don’t ask the user how to fix a problem that is identified. And yet game designers often do exactly that when getting feedback from playtesters. I’m guilty of this in relation to a lot of my forum posts. The biggest problem I feel it leads to is rules fragmentation, where you take a fix from a player or two that doesn’t fit in with your theme or goals, and before you know it your nice, clean ruleset is a mess. And then people go “Well, I guess I need more playtesting” and it spirals from there.

Anyways interesting stuff that is worth considering, instead of just going with the status quo. Either way the theory and practice of game design sure is a cool topic.

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Space T-Rex Dinosaur!

May 27, 2012 — Dinosaur Cowboy

Dinosaurs in Spaaaaaaaaaaaaace:
(I’d recommend clicking to see the full-size, but I’m sure you have already)

I think it’s safe to count this one another humor break.

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Collection of great conversions

May 23, 2012 — Dinosaur Cowboy

I had mentioned Hexxenhammer way, way, WAY back in a 2009 post (how time flies!) for his great cowboys riding dinosaur conversion. He pointed me to his Flickr set of “Weird West” images, and I thought since they are getting on 2-3 years old I would mirror them here in case the gallery dies. So from his Weird West set here are some great conversions that make me jealous:

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Some late news: 100kW real world laser

May 21, 2012 — Dinosaur Cowboy

Late Laser
Well I never said I’d have much in the way of breaking news related to dinosaurs or cowboys, but heck in this case I’m only behind three years! The exciting news is a group called Northrop Grumman created a 100kW laser (related Wired article).

The basic idea is to combine smaller 15kW modules that look like this:

…into a big apparatus that looks like this (pictured is the 100kW laser):

The importance of this laser is that 100kW is generally considered the lowest “military grade” energy level for directed energy weapons. So it might not be small enough for a revolver yet, but hey that’s what 273 years of development is for (aka until 2285, the start of the playable Dinosaur Cowboys timeline). They are already hard at work with the Firestrike ruggedizing system, so all they need are some high density batteries to use as bullets and we’re set.
The man who started it all was of course Theodore Maiman, since he created the first operational laser back in the 1960s. I think people were still capitalizing LASER and common folk knew what the acronym stood for, before all the “death ray” stuff in sci-fi popularized the idea.
Just a note on the image at the top, which is the official sign for lasers. I’d love to make a little 28mm version for the tabletop, or paint it onto the barrel of a big gun on a figure or something.

Late Weapon
Now if you want a more weaponized look to your sci-fi weapons there is the Personnel Halting and Stimulation Response Rifle, which is a terrible backronym for PHASR. The news around this is even further back as we’re looking at 2005 (a dark time when everyone made “set PHASR to stun” jokes). The PHASR looks like something out of Halo and could maybe be passed off as a High Burst Rifle on the exterior shape alone:

Late Music
And now for a bit of a musical interlude, and also a look into the past (only back to 2006 in this case) here is Knights of Cydonia by Muse, which happens to feature a rocking beat, 1980s style mock movie, robots, and cowboys with laser pistols.

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Rulebook v1.3 Released!

May 18, 2012 — Dinosaur Cowboy

Well here we are again for another point release, in this case v1.3! It feels close on the heels of v1.2 but that’s because I haven’t been posting as much, since it’s actually been two months since a release.
Get the Dinosaur Cowboys Rulebook v1.3 here.

Version 1.3 Rules Changes
The main reason for this new version was to get the Neotechnoist allegiance fixed (as mentioned), and also to fix a Saloon bug around Dusters. There are some other changes so check out the list:

– Added $10 Neotechnoist Wealth Refund on first weapon purchase as a bonus of the Allegiance, to balance with the other three. Also moved the version number up to 1.3 from 1.2
– Removed a lot of items from the table of contents to streamline its size. Might have gone too far though.
– Clarified Snap Attack to ensure it’s obvious that a melee weapon needs to be equipped to make a Snap Attack
– Minor reword around Facing to better clarify that if the attacker isn’t facing their target at the start of their Action Phase, they’d have to spend their Maneuver Phase to turn
– Reordered the combat modifiers table (also on the QRS) to be more readable and easier to follow a process, instead of a hodgepodge of modifiers.
– Another slight touchup of the Charge wording
– More minor editing, especially around the later sections that don’t get as much reading. Discipline, Variant Rules, etc.
– Made the close combat / melee combat writing consistent
– Minor change to remove a note about cauterizing

Version 1.3 Saloon Changes
As with every release The Saloon was updated to use the latest rules, and also had a few bugfixes of its own:

– Factored in the Neotechnoist Wealth Refund for their first weapon purchase, and also remembered it for remote url loading
– Added a Save to Text option that will export the Posse in a consistent plain text format, useful for battle reports or posting directly to forums.
– Fixed three main bugs. First of all a Leader decreasing their BRV from 7 to 6 rewards no IP, as compared to the previous of +6. Also now a Duster costs 10 IP to change from MV 3 to 4, instead of the previous incorrect 5 IP. Finally a remote loaded posse will have their stat flags mirrored so that flags like hasIncreasedArmor will still apply, which stops an AR 1 character from increasing their AR to 2
– Changed the recent posse list to have a scheduled executor that will check the posses.txt file for changes and re-load the recent list in memory. This is necessary in case I want to make changes manually to the file (like deleting a junk posse someone created) but don’t want to have to restart the app. Also we now write the posses.txt file on every new addition, instead of just on shutdown
– Cleaned up the validation of a posse to ensure a name and author are always present both when saving and when loading, and the general logic has been compressed into a single method

Next Up
I still have the general idea of writing a basic campaign for players to try out some linked, story driven battles. I’ll also keep on keepin’ on with my battle reports and post those when I can. As usual more minor editing and fixes are always in my mind. I wouldn’t mind getting someone to update the rulebook formatting to be more professional instead of a plain black-and-white document.

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Three more thematic wallpapers

May 16, 2012 — Dinosaur Cowboy

Some more inspiration for various locations in the Dinosaur Cowboys world:


From:
http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper/details/2936/past_rains.html
http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper/details/2938/skippers_canyon.html
http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper/details/2896/ranch_house.html

For the left image I could imagine the great desert canyon as the southern wastes, perhaps Arizona or New Mexico. The middle image looks like a perfect northern setting for a battle, maybe one of the Dakotas. And the right image with the run down truck and town seems common and global enough to be seen anywhere outside The Wall, albeit lacking a bit of overgrown vegetation.

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Battle Report: Cabin Raid

May 15, 2012 — Dinosaur Cowboy

Encounter Overview
For this game I wanted to build a scenario around the table I setup, which included new barrels, a cabin, and the first use of my new Litko tokens (pictured to the right. They turned out great!). But specifically the focus would be the new wooden cabin I had bought and spraypainted. And of course what better use for a cabin than a raid or siege! I took a note of Ruby Ridge and Waco Texas and specifically the movie Arlington Road which drew heavily from both. To that end I wanted a group of Neotechnoists to assault a Duster farmstead.
Now I just needed a motivation for such a raid. In the Victorian era a popular idea was that of “going native”, where some troops or citizens might discard their duties to join the local population or take part in local traditions. Since the Neotechnoist/Wall idea are slightly influenced by Victorian era Britain I thought I could craft a story around this idea.
To that end Private Verhust was created. He’s a lifelong Neotechnoist sent to check on the possibility of weapon stockpiling by the Macreegin family. He instead finds a warm and welcoming household representing a life he never had (orphan childhood). Instead of completing his duties Verhust decides to stay with the Macreegin family.
After learning he didn’t return from his patrol and assigned weapons confiscation, the local Neotechnoist station at Rexburg, Idaho sends a small scouting party. The scouting party finds Verhust but mistakes his optional stay with the family for confinement. After returning with the incorrect information the 52nd Rexburg Platoon is assembled and sent to the cabin to “rescue” Verhust.
This game was quite fun to play as a bit of backstory and some special rules really added to the excitement and tension of the match. First of all the Posses involved were the 52nd Rexburg Platoon (pdf) and the Macreegin Family (pdf). As you can see I opted for higher IP and ND values for a change of pace.
Unfortunately I must have been out of practice with battle reports because I forgot to take a picture of each assembled posse!
This game session used the v1.2 version of the Dinosaur Cowboys rules.

The Scenario

The table is setup around the central cabin, which is raised on a slight hill and fortified with barrels, sandbags, and barb wire. Private Verhust got wind of the platoons mobilization and warned the family. He also offered to flee, but the Macreegin’s would have nothing of it, and instead dug their heels in to help fight for Verhust.
In the interest of keeping the game from degenerating into a flat out “charge forward assault”, I decided that Papa Jonas (father of the Macreegin family) would be out foraging and hunting on the family dinosaur (named Bluepatch). At the start of each Turn the family would roll a D12, and on a roll of 8+ papa and the dino would return from a random table edge.
The rest of the family would deploy either inside the cabin or on the hill, but not any further out. The platoon would deploy from the south edge (facing the cabin door) and advance along the brick lined walkway and surrounding vegetation.

As a twist I used old Advanced Heroquest game tiles to represent the interior of the cabin (since the roof of the model doesn’t come off), which allows for a new dimension to the game. As you can see from the picture I mirrored the outside of the cabin, so the door and both windows are marked. I didn’t have much interior furniture but I did put a table along the edge as a sort of barricade, and a chest in the corner for flair. The game tile I used is 10 squares by 5 squares, and I played as if each square was 1 inch to help ease managing movement inside the cabin.

Posse: 52nd Rexburg Platoon: 1/150 IP, 0/1500 ND, 4/4 Traits
My general idea for this posse is a high tech, hard hitting, military based unit. I knew I’d be assaulting a cabin, so some of my weapon choices reflected that. I also knew I didn’t want to involve a dinosaur as having characters only would give the posse a unique feel. Plus the savings would give me tons of money for weapons! Everyone would be the Neotechnoist allegiance, of course.
First of all I made my leader, Captain Toma. I based his equipment choices mostly on his figure, and ended up with a 200kW Six-Shooter and Long Sword. A few stat improvements here and there and he is set to go.
Scatterman is my next character, and he is built around the lethal Auto Shotgun. It has pretty good range (for a shotgun) and terrific stopping power with 4A-5D. I figured he’d take some heavy fire so I gave him the “Lucky” trait which would force an enemy to re-roll their attack.
Tenpas Terako is my sniper, so I could keep him at a lower Hitpoint amount. He’d find a hill or tree with a good field of view of the main cabin door and then try to pick anyone off who poked their head up from behind a window. Because he had the Twin Rifle (which can use the “Both Barrels” special ability) I gave him the “Speed Reload” trait to quickly get back in the game.
These first three characters had figures that looked armored, so I gave them all +1 AR at 10 IP each. But I also wanted some “lighter”, conscript style troops. Maybe friends of Private Verhust, or just angry citizens.
So I created Corporal Grove and Homer. Grove choose the solid Heavy Repeater and would be a second wave behind Toma and Scatterman. Homer had two weapons with the Explosion special property; a Blunderbuss and Kaboom Grenades. These can be devastating weapons as anyone within 2″ of the initial hit take the Damage of the weapon (in this case 5 and 7 respectively). In a cramped cabin they seemed like the perfect weapon. With the “Speed Reload” trait Homer would be able to throw two grenades in rapid succession without taking an Action Phase to reload.
My general plan is to move Toma and Scatterman forward on one flank, with Homer on the other. They would hopefully pace each other and reach the cabin at the same time. Grove would hang back a bit behind Homer and could readjust his position to any changes on the battlefield. And Tenpas Terako would sit just at long range and snipe at the cabin’s occupants.

Captain Toma (Neotechnoist Leader)
MV 4, AR 1, RMC 7, MMC 8, BRV 7, HP 13, Bonus HP I. 200kW Six-Shooter, Long Sword.

Scatterman (Neotechnoist)
MV 4, AR 1, RMC 7, MMC 8, BRV 6, HP 10, Lucky. Auto Shotgun, Small IRP.

Tenpas Terako (Neotechnoist)
MV 3, AR 1, RMC 6, MMC 8, BRV 6, HP 8, Speed Reload. 200kW Twin-Rifle.

Corporal Grove (Neotechnoist)
MV 4, AR 0, RMC 6, MMC 8, BRV 5, HP 8. Heavy Repeater, Small IRP.

Homer (Neotechnoist)
MV 4, AR 0, RMC 7, MMC 8, BRV 6, HP 12, Speed Reload. Kaboom Grenades, Blunderbuss, Small IRP.

Posse: Macreegin Family: 1/150 IP, 0/1500 ND, 4/4 Traits
The important idea I needed to keep in mind when building the Macreegin Family is to make them realistic. I wanted a basic nuclear Duster family with pretty simply farmer weapons. They would have a friendly, herbivore dinosaur that is used for heavy lifting around the farm. Besides Private Verhust they would all be the Duster allegiance.
The family is made up of four members: Papa Jonas, Mama Hanna, Sis Shiela, and Brother Jerrid. I tried to think of a distinct personality for each as I find that helps inspire certain playstyles once the game starts.
In this case Papa Jonas is a simple, quiet man. Slow to anger, fine with hard work and long days, but generally not enthused or passionate about anything. He has a 200kW Six-Shooter which was a hand-me-down from his own father. I gave him the “Crippling Shot” trait since it seemed like something a hunter might use to bring down larger game. At time of deploy he’d be off the table on the dinosaur.
Mama Hanna is the definition of a “mama bear”, in the sense that she is fiercely protective of her children and home. To reflect this she has terrific RMC (6) from hours training with the family 400kW Lever-Action Rifle. The rifle comes from Brother Jerrid, and according to him he earned it wrangling Triceratops down south. In truth he stole it in Arizona before running back home to avoid the law. Regardless it is a powerful weapon. Mama Hanna also has a basic 80kW Six-Shooter in case enemies get inside her minimum range. She also has the “Get Up!” trait since I could see her motivating her children to continue the fight.
Sis Shiela is quite the popular lady around town, but isn’t much for guns or fighting, so she has a basic Derringer that seemed like a suitable weapon. She looks up to her Mama a lot and would probably deploy close by.
Brother Jerrid is a hot head with a short temper, and therefore has trouble relating to his Papa. He carries the epitome of farmer weapons: a Double Barrel Shotgun. In his view the world steps all over his family and a person has to take what they want to be successful, so the “Underdog Shot” trait is perfect. Brother Jerrid looks up to Private Verhust, even though they are a similar age, and often corners Verhust and makes him retell stories of inside The Wall.
The last character is Private Verhust, a basic Neotechnoist citizen who has a Light Pistol instead of the traditional Duster revolver. Since he has some training I thought the “Retreat!” trait is perfect, as I could see him taking control of the situation once the lasers start flying.
And finally there is Bluepatch, a Thickskull dinosaur named by Sis Shiela when she was very young. The dinosaur is extremely loyal but has slowed down mentally with age.
My plan is to have Mama Hanna and Sis Shiela inside the cabin, alternating being visible at the window after shooting. Brother Jerrid and Private Verhust would situate themselves outside in cover and hopefully slow the Neotechnoist advance before retreating inside. When Papa Jonas and Bluepatch appear I’ll just have to see what table edge they get and act accordingly. I think “charge into the enemy flank” will be the strategy I end up with for them.

Papa Jonas (Duster Leader)
MV 3, AR 1, RMC 7, MMC 8, BRV 7, HP 14, Crippling Shot. 200kW Six-Shooter.

Mama Hanna (Duster)
MV 3, AR 1, RMC 6, MMC 8, BRV 6, HP 11, Get Up! 400kW Lever-Action Rifle, 80kW Six-Shooter.

Sis Shiela (Duster)
MV 4, AR 0, RMC 7, MMC 8, BRV 6, HP 10. Derringer.

Brother Jerrid (Duster)
MV 4, AR 0, RMC 7, MMC 8, BRV 6, HP 12, Underdog Shot. Double Barrel Shotgun.

Private Verhust (Neotechnoist)
MV 4, AR 1, RMC 7, MMC 8, BRV 6, HP 10, Retreat! Light Pistol.

Bluepatch (Untrained Thickskull Dinosaur)
MV 8, PMV D8, AR 1, MMC 6, DIS 6, HP 21

Deployment
Rexburg: Captain Toma on the right flank with Scatterman directly behind him and Homer to the right across a hill. Tenpas Terako on the left flank in an elevated shooting position with Captain Grove slightly forward on the ground below him.

Family: Mama Hanna and Sis Shiela inside the cabin, with Mama at the left (west) window. Brother Jerrid behind the west bundle of barrels opposite Private Verhust. Papa Jonas and Bluepatch off table foraging and hunting.

Turn 1 – Opening Shots
Macreegin Family deployed first, as per the scenario. Papa Jonas does not roll to appear until Turn 2+.
1a. Family wins Activation
Family: Going first in a new turn is great for getting the drop on enemies. Once targets have started moving around that +1 Miss Chance can add up, plus it’s easier for people to get into cover. Mama Hanna had a few good shots available with her impressive 21″ range, but she settled on trying to bring down Corporal Grove. Firing at long range she hits for 7 damage, which causes Corporal Grove to Flee. Hooray a chance to use my new tokens right off the bat. After her great shot Mama moves out of the window and into the corner of the cabin, which will keep her free from return fire for a turn.
Rexburg: Having a Fleeing character isn’t the best start, but at least it looks like Corporal Grove has enough ground to retreat to that he won’t be Stunned instead. Anyways I won’t waste an early Activation on him regardless. I thought I’d return the sniping favor and use Tenpas against Brother Jerrid. Tenpas had to move to the edge of his cliff to get his target right in long range. With some lucky rolling I hit with 4 Attacks (1 of which was a Critical Hit) for a total of 7 damage. How’s that for tit-for-tat! As an added bonus Brother Jerrid doesn’t Flee so he won’t get a free push back towards the cabin.
1b. Rexburg wins Activation
Rexburg: Nice, right back to me. Those steady Neotechnoists holding onto the initiative like that. I wanted to keep the pressure on the defenders and hopefully drive them into the cabin so I could take my time surrounding it and destroying the occupants. I moved Homer 2″ closer to the cabin to get the traitorous Private Verhust into long range. Homer had hoped to rescue Verhust, but the Private is clearly allied with the Dusters and must be exterminated. Homer fired his Blunderbuss needing a 9+ to hit, but missed Verhust. He’s safe for now…
Family: I could tell Private Verhust was going to be a hot target, so I backed him off from his forward position to try to get a bit of range on the enemy. Drawing a bead with his Light Pistol the Private fired at Captain Toma but misses.
1c. Family wins Activation
Family: Having nearly died Brother Jerrid was in no mood for heroics. Plus Mama Hanna was screaming at him from inside the cabin to get inside. So he Ran towards the cabin door, and nearly made it into the interior but just fell short. At this point I’m wishing Mama Hanna hadn’t Activated already since she could have used “Get Up!” on Brother Jerrid, as that is the only source of HP restoration the Macreegin Family has.
Rexburg: Captain Toma took offense at Private Verhust’s fire, so he stepped forward and blasted his six-shooter back at the man. I edged Captain Toma to his left to get behind the brick wall and shield him a bit from shots from the cabin. Unfortunately he missed the long range shot at Private Verhust.
1d. Rexburg wins Activation
Rexburg: My foe only had one more Activation to go so I had to handle both of my characters this Activation. That meant Scatterman and Corporal Grove. Simple enough though; Scatterman Ran forward to in front of the Captain, and Corporal Grove Fled backwards and then Ran behind the tall hill that Tenpas is on. I wanted to bring Scatterman closer to the cabin to get his deadly shotgun into play. And cowering with Grove was a necessity after that big shot from Mama. I figured I could either ease him around the flank (west side of the hill) or, if the Macreegin’s switch targets, just go back to his original path of advance.
Family: Sis Shiela was still at the east window and had a good view of the advancing Neotechnoists. She decided to fire at the closest one, who is Scatterman. With some lucky rolling Shiela hit once for 4 damage. I thought a bit about ducking her into the cabin corner (similar to what Mama Hanna did) but decided against it. Since we’re at the end of the Turn I might get an early Activation and be able to fire with her and then move out of sight. So Sis Shiela stayed at the window.

Turn 2 – The First Death
Papa Jonas rolled his D12 to try to come back from foraging but failed to get an 8+, so he won’t appear this Turn.
2a. Rexburg wins Activation
Rexburg: I was happy to get the first Activation for this turn as it meant I can try to kill Brother Jerrid before he reaches the inside of the cabin. The best man for the job was Tenpas Terako, as 5A and 6 RMC against an unmoving target was my kind of shot. First I had to have Tenpas climb down his hill to keep Brother Jerrid in range. Then just to be safe I decided to use the “Both Barrels” feature of his Twin Rifle which would give me +2 Attacks. Now I was rolling 7 Attacks at 7+ to hit. The dice weren’t hugely with me and I only hit 2 times (1 was a Critical) for 5 damage. It’s still exactly enough to kill Brother Jerrid though! Tenpas would have to Reload from using the special ability, but that should be easy with his Speed Reload trait.
Family: Hearing her son shot down outside, Mama instantly reacts. She moves back into the window and blazes away at Tenpas. Her shots were a little too wild though and she misses all of them. So much for sweet revenge.

2b. Family wins Activation
Family: Another Activation and another chance to get revenge. Private Verhust had liked Brother Jerrid’s eagerness to hear stories of inside The Wall, so he also wanted revenge. But in his case it was blind revenge, so all he did was shoot at Scatterman. Some bad rolling meant I missed all the shots AND had to Reload. I finished up by moving Private Verhust towards the cabin door, but still right behind the nice tree outside.
Rexburg: Time for Scatterman to show the traitor what real shooting is. I moved Scatterman his full 4″ forward which put Private Verhust into long range. The massive Auto Shotgun barked to life and hit 2 times (1 was a Critical) but also a 1 was rolled so a Reload will be needed. Captain Toma is right by Scatterman though so he uses “Yeehaw!” to let Scatterman re-roll his Reload roll of a 1. The re-roll is still a miss but at least his Auto Shotgun will be ready for next turn. Anyways in total Scatterman did 7 damage (8 – 1 for Cover) to Private Verhust, who is now Fleeing.
After this Homer also moved to put Private Verhust into range, and firing at 10+ on his single Blunderbuss attack. Amazing Homer hits and does 5 damage which kills Private Verhust! The traitor is dead, and although the 52nd Rexburg Platoon are sad to kill one of their own they can’t have soldiers deserting and abandoning their missions. (Note: I’m not sure how Homer got to Activate right after Scatterman did but that’s what my notes say happened, so…yeah)
2c. Family wins Activation
Family: Sis Shiela was still at the window and had survived unscathed, although she saw the withering firepower cut down Private Verhust right before her eyes. She snaps off a shot at Scatterman, hoping to repeat her luck last Turn, but unfortunately misses. The death of Verhust fresh in her mind she eagerly ducks out of sight into the corner of the cabin.
Rexburg: I still have some maneuvering to do, so Captain Toma Ran forward and just reached the edge of the hill the cabin is on. Soon his brutal Long Sword will come to grips with the Duster family inside. Corporal Grove headed east from behind the hill and applied his Small IRP to recover +3 HP, bringing his total back to 6 HP.

Turn 3 – Papa is Back
Papa rolled his D12 and got a 12, so he was back to the homestead with a vengeance. After rolling a random table edge he ended up on the west side, and chooses to line up directly with Tenpas and Corporal Grove.
3a. Family wins Activation
Family: Hooray Papa and Bluepatch are back. They’ll be angry to see what has happened to the family so far. Although I was eager to move them, I thought shooting with Mama was more important, especially since I could move her out of sight afterwards and spare the full fury of the Neotechnoist return fire. So Mama Hanna funneled all her anger at Scatterman and lined up a shot at medium range. She fires and hits for 2, but Scatterman uses the “Lucky” Trait to force a re-roll. The re-roll is even better with 2 hits (but 1 is a Critical, so 3 hits total!) for 7 damage which kills Scatterman! Finally some blood on their side. After this Mama moves out of the window and back into the cabin. Instead of going to the south west (bottom left) corner she heads to the north west (top left) corner, furthest from the door and with a good line of sight at anyone entering the home.
Rexburg: Tenpas heard the roar of the angry Thickskull and quickly spun to see Papa and Bluepatch rustling out of the jungle. Using Speed Reload he quickly pushed new batteries into the Twin Rifle and took aim at Papa Jonas. Tenpas hit 3 times for 6 damage (5 + 1 for Elevation). Due to Papa Jonas’ massive HP pool he didn’t even need to make a Bravery Test for such high damage.
3b. Rexburg wins Activation
Rexburg: My left flank of Tenpas and Corporal Grove would be a good buffer between the raging dinosaur and the main attack on the cabin. I committed to that idea by moving Corporal Grove to the smaller hill below Tenpas and shooting at Papa Jonas. Grove rolled well and hit for 3 damage, which definitely means Papa Jonas is being whittled down.
Family: Time to get Bluepatch into the thick of melee. His impressive 8″ Movement definitely helps! I moved Bluepatch (with Papa Jonas mounted) directly towards Tenpas and Grove, and then I tried to Charge with him into melee. Bluepatch was clearly mad as heck since he rolled a 6 on the D6 Charge distance, which brought him into close combat with BOTH Tenpas and Grove. That’s handy! His fury having run its course, Bluepatch was only able to hit Grove for 2 damage.

3c. Rexburg wins Activation
Rexburg: The appearance of Papa Jonas was inevitable, and I didn’t want it to stall my main advance to the cabin. So Homer didn’t even glance to the left, instead he just blindly Ran forward towards the cabin, reaching the edge of the fence. Captain Toma hesitated a bit more, as I knew the Long Sword would help a lot against the dinosaur. But I could imagine Mama Hanna shooting my Leader to pieces as he marched towards the dinosaur, so instead I kept my eye on the prize of the ol’ cabin. I Ran Captain Toma directly forward and he could reach behind the tree right outside the cabin door. With some good Charge rolling I should be able to reach Sis next turn.
Family: Sis Shiela can hear the heavy footsteps on the porch, and knew that the Neotechnoists were closing in. She took a deep breath and moved back to the window and unloaded on the Captain at short range. Her desperate blaze missed entirely and in fact she even needs to Reload after some extra bad rolling.

Turn 4 – Knock Knock!
4a. Rexburg wins Activation
Rexburg: Getting the first Activation was key since it means I can (hopefully!) get the Captain into melee with Sis Shiela and start avoiding those shots from Mama Hanna. I moved Captain Toma to the cabin door and measured the Charge distance, which was 3″.

I rolled my Charge attempt and made the distance! Captain Toma lunged into the cabin, sped around the corner, and swung his heavy Long Sword at Sis Shiela. I managed to hit 2 times for 6 damage, which was enough pain to cause Shiela to Flee.
Family: Now the bad men really are knockin’ down my door. Mama Hanna saw her daughter embroiled in melee with Captain Toma and was furious. Mama uses her “Get Up!” trait on Sis Shiela to heal +5 HP which brings her daughter back to 9 HP. Then she fires at Captain Toma with her Lever-Action Rifle (still not quite at minimum range) and hits 1 time for 5 damage. Mama Hanna stays where she is in the corner, waiting for more intruders.

4b. Family wins Activation
Family: Time to see what is happening on the outside of the cabin. Papa Jonas was in the middle of close combat with Tenpas and Corporal Grove. I figured that I could empty his gun into one of them and let Bluepatch do the attacking afterwards without bothering to Reload. To that end Papa Jonas uses his “Crippling Shot” trait and also “Fan the Hammer” on his six-shooter. His target is Corporal Grove. I rolled really well and hit 4 times for 6 damage which kills Corporal Grove! Of course I have to mark Papa Jonas with a Reload token since he just fanned his entire cylinder of laser blasts in one go.
Rexburg: After the Captain’s daring charge Homer is lagging behind a bit, but I don’t want to risk lobbing a grenade through the window since it would hit the Captain as well as Sis Shiela. So instead Homer Run’s up the cabin hill with the intention of closing in on Mama Hanna and shutting down her powerful rifle.
4c. Family wins Activation
Family: My last Activation was Sis Shiela, who was Fleeing. This brought up an interesting rules question though, as a direct line backwards from the nearest enemy (Captain Toma) would run her into the cabin wall. She was 2″ from the cabin wall but needed to Flee 4″, and as the rules state for Impossible to Flee: “…or any other situation where Fleeing is impossible…, they are Stunned instead”. So Sis Shiela is Stunned and can’t do anything but move. Of course she doesn’t want to do that an provoke a Snap Attack from the Captain, so she just stays where she is.
Rexburg: Tenpas is in a rough situation. Bluepatch is right in his face and well inside the minimum range of his Twin Rifle. I don’t have a secondary weapon for Tenpas, and as much fun as punching the dinosaur seems I think I’ll move him instead. I move Tenpas out of melee with Bluepatch which means the dinosaur can make a Snap Attack. He does and hits 4 times (2 of which were Criticals!) for 7 damage. Ouch, that was unexpected. Tenpas doesn’t Flee at least, and he is now outside of the minimum range and can shoot normally. With Corporal Grove dead I don’t expect Tenpas to be in the game much longer, so I use “Both Barrels” while I can against Papa Jonas. I hit 2 times (1 was a Critical) for 5 damage which kills Papa Jonas! Now to face down a Thickskull dinosaur alone. Oh and everyone managed to pass their Bravery Tests for having a Leader die. Alas.

Turn 5 – Mess in the Cabin
5a. Rexburg wins Activation
Rexburg: Although Captain Toma is in melee, he also isn’t that great with his Long Sword (8 MMC) compared to just shooting (7 MMC + 1 for In Melee penalty). So I figured he’d sheathe the sword and unload his pistol from the hip. Captain Toma uses “Fan the Hammer” against Sis Shiela and hits 2 times (1 was a Critical) for 5 damage, which makes Sis Shiela Flee again!
Note: I forgot the 2″ Knockback on Fan the Hammer (again!) which would have knocked Shiela out of melee.
Family: Mama Hanna is still eagerly trying to kill the Captain that is hurting her daughter, so she fires again at an 8+ to hit. Her 1 hit was a Critical which totals 6 damage. Captain Toma grits his teeth and doesn’t Flee though.
5b. Family wins Activation
Family: Bluepatch wants to hurt the man who killed his rider and master, so the dinosaur hungrily moves up the hill and back into melee with Tenpas. I didn’t want to risk a Charge at this point so I just settled for flat out moving in to combat. Anyways Bluepatch bit and rammed well and hit 3 times for 4 damage which kills Tenpas. Now only the Captain and Homer remain.
I had to finish my other Activation which was Sis Shiela. She’s again in a rough situation where Fleeing is impossible so she is Stunned again and chooses to stay where she is.
Rexburg: Time to get some grenades going! Homer moves closer to the cabin door and into line of sight with Mama Hanna and chucks a Kaboom Grenade at her. The grenade bounces around inside but fails to hit the intended target. Homer has to Reload the Kaboom Grenades (aka grab another one from his vest), but that should be easily achieved with his Speed Reload Trait next turn.

Turn 6 – Cat and Mouse in the Cabin
6a. Rexburg wins Activation
Rexburg: My first priority is killing Sis Shiela and getting Captain Toma into melee with Mama Hanna. He holsters the drained and empty pistol and draws his Long Sword to swing at Sis Shiela. Captain Toma manages to hit 1 time for 5 damage which finally kills the youngest Macreegin. After this I moved the Captain directly behind the table that separates him from Mama Hanna. Most importantly he is now inside the minimum range of her rifle, so she’ll have to use the less powerful revolver.

Family: Mama Hanna is blind with rage after seeing the crumpled body of her daughter drop to the floor. She draws her 80kW Six-Shooter (too bad it isn’t more wattage so I could Fan the Hammer with it!) and fires at Captain Toma at short range, hitting him 2 times for 2 damage which kills the Captain! The last survivor of the Neotechnoists (Homer) passes his Bravery Test for having a dead Leader.
6b. Rexburg wins Activation
Rexburg: I want to avoid the dinosaur as much as possible, so I move Homer into the cabin. I plop him down behind the table (woo hoo cover) and use Speed Reload to get his Kaboom Grenades ready to throw again. I fail to hit Mama Hanna again though!
Family: With all his enemies taken out of action outside, Bluepatch Runs towards the cabin and the remaining commotion in the house.

Turn 7 – Quick and the Dead
7a. Rexburg wins Activation
Rexburg: Simple turn this time. Homer shoots his Blunderbuss at Mama Hanna at short range and finally hits for 6 damage. Mama Hanna doesn’t Flee though. Then I move Homer to the opposite edge of the cabins table, just inside minimum range for Mama Hanna.
Family: Back to the six-shooter it seems. Mama Hanna fires at Homer with the pistol and hits for 1 damage, but the Cover of the table negates the damage. Bluepatch continues his Run towards the cabin door.

Turn 8 – Behind You!
8a. Family wins Activation
Family: Mama Hanna sees an opportunity to get the drop on her opponent. Homer is busy facing the corner, but she sprints past him and snaps off a shot at his back! Because Mama Hanna is behind Homer she gets the Surprise Hit rules, which means a Critical Hit happens on 10+ instead of 12+. And this is exactly what she needed as her 1 hit was a roll of 10, which totals 2 damage. Unfortunately her other rolls had a 1 in it so she needs to Reload. Outside Bluepatch gets to the door but can’t fit inside. He starts slamming his thick skull against the frame though.
Rexburg: Yelping at the pain in his back Homer spins and unleashes the Blunderbuss on Mama Hanna, but fails to hit.

Turn 9 – Something is Outside…
9a. Family wins Activation
Family: Mama Hanna continued her move away from Homer and is able to get outside the minimum range of her rifle. Just in time too since her pistol is empty! I rolled terribly though and missed with all my attacks. Bluepatch continued his assault of the cabin doorframe, hoping to snap enough timbers to widen an entry.
Rexburg: Jamming another handful of shrapnel into his Blunderbuss, Homer fires the crude weapon at Mama Hanna. The shot blasts through her torso for 6 damage which kills the mother of the Macreegin family.

At this point the game concluded. We hadn’t decided on rules for dinosaurs getting into the cabin, so we weren’t sure if Bluepatch would be able to reach Homer. I think that Homer would likely throw a grenade and it would scare of Bluepatch, since no humans were around to direct the dinosaur. All in all both players decided it was a draw.

After Action Report
Well the game was a draw, but only thanks to the cabin walls keeping Homer safe from Bluepatch. In a straight up fight, at their remaining Hitpoints and armament, I think everyone agreed Bluepatch would probably win. But the safety of the cabin certainly is a factor, as is the fact that the Thickskull dinosaur was on his own and may have been easily frightened away by the grenades.
The Litko tokens I had made were really great and lent a very professional feel to the game. I do have one regret and that was making a set with the text “Move & Acted” on it instead of “Moved & Acted” (both past tense). Minor grammatical error but now that I’m noticed it I can’t unsee it, haha. But yeah the different colors and shapes worked well for easily seeing status on a character, and upgraded the game from the real homebrew feel my old wooden tokens gave.
Anyways a bit from each player:

Rexburg: I think I played that about as well as I could have hoped. Assaulting a dug in, fortified enemy is never easy. Having Papa Jonas and the dinosaur deployed later in the game was both a blessing and a curse. One the one hand I didn’t have to worry about him right away, but also couldn’t start to whittle down the bigger dinosaur Hitpoint pool. Plus he sure deployed a lot closer compared to having to march across the whole field…I mean getting into melee with two of my troops in his first Activation was impressive. Also my mistake for keeping Tenpas and Grove so close together.
Captain Toma was my MVP I think. He survived the march up to the cabin, he tore inside and caused havoc, and generally did exactly what I hoped he would. Homer was a bit of a let down due to constant misses with his grenades and Blunderbuss, but he redeemed himself by killing Mama at the end. And being the only surviving member of the posse, of course.

Family: Well I guess this is my punishment for housing a Neotechnoist soldier who should still be on active duty. I had a rough start with the early loss of Brother Jerrid and Private Verhust, but I think I was able to get some momentum back, and the later game appearance of Papa sure helped. My weapons felt a little futile compared to the Neotechnoist raiders, but then again I had a full posse WITH a dinosaur whereas they just had humans and a bunch of fancy equipment.
Having Sis Shiela stuck in combat like that was a bit frustrating, but I didn’t want to risk a Snap Attack by breaking free. Either way Captain Toma died, but it took a lot more firepower than I would have liked. An enclosed space like that is tough for Fleeing though, but also pretty fun to bust out the old Advanced Heroquest tiles.
When Private Verhust recovers I might have to kick him out of the Macreegin homestead though…

Rule Questions
A couple of questions came up during the game around v1.2 of the rules. Here is a Q/A approach to those issues as well as the changes that have been taken in the upcoming v1.3 to fix or clarify them:
Q: Can Snap Attacks be performed in melee with a ranged weapon?
A: No. The rules have been clarified to say “…any opponent with a melee weapon…”

Q: Can an entity change Facing after winning a melee? If not what Facing should it have?
A: No, an entity must keep their current Facing. The rules don’t explicitly say what to do, but the Facing section does say it can only be changed in the Maneuver Phase and once decided it remains set. So completing a melee (Action Phase) would keep the same Facing until the next Manuever Phase when the entity could change their Facing as desired.

Q: Also on the topic of Facing can an entity that just Activated shoot a way it isn’t Facing and then move, or does it have to move/change Facing first?
A: The entity must use their Manuever Phase to change Facing (and do any movement they like) before shooting, since otherwise the target isn’t in their arc.

Q: Fleeing when inside the cabin where the Fleeing entity only has 2″ of space but needs to move 4″ backward. What happens?
A: This is covered under the “Impossible to Flee” section of the rulebook, which states “…or any other situation where Fleeing is impossible…, they are Stunned instead…”. So the entity would be Stunned if they can’t Flee normally.

Complete Turn Log
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