Battle Report: Encounter at Bosler, Wyoming

June 7, 2011 — Dinosaur Cowboy

Encounter Overview
This playtest encounter was between the two posses described below, spanning 6 turns and 1 hour of playtime (including taking 50+ photos and logging every action by hand, so actual playtime was probably 20-30 minutes), using version 0.7 of the Dinosaur Cowboys skirmish game.

It took place in a stretch of jungle inside The Wall near Bosler, Wyoming. The Drylands Posse was looking to rest and find work at the town, while Kirk’s Expedition were focused on big game hunting the Ankylosaurus common in the surrounding vegetation. The groups stumbled across each other as the sun was setting, and a firefight ensued.

Note on images, all of them are clickable and will open the image in a new window/tab as a 1280×960 image. You can also view the images on my Flickr set.

Posse: Drylands United Cattle Company – 100 IP, $1,000
Drylands: This rough and tumble gang was meant to represent a pretty standard group of adventurers, mostly Dusters. Their leader, Quidel, was focused on close combat with his trusty Spear and higher than usual hitpoints. Khulan was his loyal companion from years back, and the two had been knocking around the desert for quite some time. This was their tenth excursion inside The Wall, and unfortunately ended in violence much like the previous ventures. He prefers an old fashioned Assault Rifle, even with it’s potential ammo problems. Trista was a recent addition to the group, a Neotechnoist they met on an earlier trip. Her and Khulan get along splendidly, and are quite protective of one another. She’s terrific at picking off distant targets with her high tech lever-action rifle. Trask is a necessary evil of the group, for he helps them get inside The Wall, and insisted on accompanying them this trip. He’s a crude, barbaric fighter using a Club and rusty pistol to get the job done.

The plan was the form a solid firebase with Trista the furthest back and Khulan near the middle. Quidel would wait to counter charge, and Trask would either also wait or would try to charge forward and slow any advancing melee enemies.

Quidel - Duster Leader
MV 3 AR 0 RMC 8 MMC 7 BRV 7 HP 13/6, Berserker
Spear & 80KW Six-Shooter, Whiskey Drop

Khulan - Duster Member
MV 3, AR 1, RMC 7, MMC 8, BRV 6, HP 9/4
Assault Rifle, Whiskey Drop

Trista - Neotechnoist Member
MV 4, AR 0, RMC 6, MMC 8, BRV 6, HP 7/3, Try Again
400KW Lever-Action Rifle, Whiskey Drop

Trask - Bandit Member
MV 5, AR 0, RMC 8, MMC 6, BRV 6, HP 9/4, Sprint
Club & 80KW Six-Shooter, Whiskey Drop

Posse: Kirk Peterson’s Hunting Expedition – 100 IP, $1,000
Hunters: This group of hunters represented a fairly standard Neotechnoist journey into the jungle. Affluent and pompous, Kirk and his fiance Mary hired a mount (Blood Claw) and a Savage guide (Four Feather) to take them on a hunting trip, similar to how the old Victorian-era British colonials would act. Kirk is a fair shot with his father’s high end pistol, and loves exposure to controlled, limited danger that he can talk about with his friends later. Mary decided to come along to support her husband-to-be, although she dislikes the heat and struggle of travel by ground. Four Feather is a silent, grim guide who knows the jungle and it’s inhabitants well. Originally from the southern deserts, he slowly migrated towards the supervolcano, scrounging work and goods along the way. He favors the effective stopping power of a plasma powered Double Barreled Shotgun. Finally there is Blood Claw, a fine Raptor steed from Kirk’s estate. He will act as their mount (both Kirk and Mary can comfortably fit on his saddle harnesses), and also as a type of bloodhound to track any wounded dinosaurs. Able to absorb almost as much damage as the rest of the team combined, he’ll be a survivable threat.

The plan was to keep Kirk and Mary mounted on Blood Claw and move that blob of damage forward. Four Feather was built to match Blood Claw’s Movement statistic (6″), so he can parallel their advance to get his shotgun into range. Once close Kirk and Mary will dismount and find some cover, while Blood Claw continues in and hopefully locks some of the big hitters into melee.

Kirk Peterson - Neotechnoist Leader
MV 4, AR 1, RMC 7, MMC 8, BRV 7, HP 11/5, Get Up!
100KW Six-Shooter

Four Feather - Savage Member
MV 6, AR 1, RMC 8, MMC 8, BRV 6, HP 10/5, Lucky
Double Barrel Shotgun

Mary O'Toole - Neotechnoist Member
MV 4, AR 0, RMC 7, MMC 8, BRV 6, HP 9/4
Light Pistol

Blood Claw - Raptor Dinosaur
MV 6, AR 1, RMC -, MMC 6, BRV 6, HP 16/9, Bonus HP I
Claw

Table Setup
The table was 4 feet long and 3 feet wide, and covered with a variety of terrain to represent the slopes and valleys of the jungle. Both Posses deployed up to 8″ in from their respective table edges, to represent wandering on unsuspecting of the trouble ahead. Then the game began…

Deployment
I rolled randomly for table edges with Drylands getting the north table end (towards my kitchen) and the Hunters to the south (towards my door). I rolled again for deployment and Drylands had to set up first, followed by the Hunters.

Drylands: I had planned to form a solid line of firing, and the terrain lent itself well to this idea. I had a fairly well covered central hill with some open spots on either side to expose any advances. I decided to put Trista to my right (west), down on ground level. She would hop in and out of cover depending on the situation and range needed. Her 400KW Lever-Action Rifle topped out at 21″, and I wanted to start shooting it as soon as possible. The remaining three members I clumped together. Khulan was the farthest west, hopefully eventually ending up on the hilltop. Trask was beside him and would act as a buffer between any melee characters. Quidel hung out on the ground level, ready to counter charge if necessary (especially if Trask got stuck in and needed help).

Hunters: Looks like I get the unfortunate task of rushing pretty superior firepower. I decided heading in from the left (west) would be a solid idea, as I had a hill in between me and the Drylands Posse, and I eventually could use the central fences as cover. I kept Kirk and Mary mounted on Blood Claw so they could benefit from his 6″ move (9″ total if he Runs). Four Feather was off to their flank slightly, out of sight behind a hill. He would parallel their advance, and hopefully get a few shots on Trista once he got closer. Hopefully Blood Claw’s superior HP (16 total) would see me across the board.

Turn 1: Something Rustling Ahead… (Drylands win Initiative)

Drylands: My opening moves were pretty simple, considering pretty much everyone was out of range. First off was to Activate Quidel, then Standard Move him forward, followed by a Run (additional half Movement), so he edged forward a total of 4″.
Hunters: Wanting to get to grips with my longer ranged foe meant a lot of advancing. Four Feather started by Running dead ahead, which put him squarely behind the next hill. Hopping cover to cover seemed to work so far.
Drylands: Four Feather had moved just a tiny bit too close and put him exactly at Trista’s long range of 21″, after she moved up another 4″. She fired and lucked out with a single Critical hit (counts as 2 hits), +4 base damage of her rifle. Four Feather was in Cover which reduced the damage slightly, but he still took a solid 5 damage, leaving him at 5/10 HP. Since this was over half his starting HP in a single attack he needed to make a Bravery Test, which he passed.
Hunters: Getting shot so early wasn’t exactly in my plan. Nothing for it but foot slogging in! Blood Claw went for the full 9″ run towards the central fences, hoping to keep himself and his riders in cover.
Drylands: Khulan crept forward to barely get Blood Claw inside his 16″ range, shooting and hitting Mary for 1 damage. The turn ended with my last Activation, which was to Run Trask forward to eventually get his pistol and club in range.

Turn 2: Let’s Get Crackin’ (Drylands win Initiative)

Drylands: Woot, Initiative again. I figured the closing Raptor and his mounted Neotechnoists were a bigger threat than the shotgun wielding Four Feather, so I changed targets with Trista. She opened up on Mary, hitting for another massive 5 damage. Luckily for me, Mary failed her Bravery Test and fled off Blood Claw! After this I edged Trista back down the hill, since the enemies were well within her range now. Khulan fired next, hitting Kirk for a mere 3 damage and then moving towards the big tall (2″ tall, in fact) hill in the center of the firebase.
Hunters: Really Mary? With the running away? I guess it suits her character to flee like that. Anyways I Activated her and performed the mandatory Standard Move directly away from the nearest enemy, aka 4″ backwards from where she needed to be. Still on Blood Claw, Kirk wheeled around and headed back 2″ and used his Active Trait “Get Up!” to heal Mary for 5 HP (which he can do once per encounter, as per Active Trait rules, but in this case it’s +5 HP to an Ally in 2″, thus why he had to move back). Looks like he was helping out his fiance. He continued his move by swinging back around and heading 4″ towards the front lines, putting him squarely in the fences. Trask was close enough for a long range attack, so Kirk went for it, hitting (including a Critical!) for 4 damage. Trask passed his Bravery Test though…apparently his life of banditry made him braver than soft Mary.
Drylands: Looks like the Hunters are starting to get in range of me. Trask was armed with a slightly weaker pistol than Kirk, but the range was the same, so he started his Activation by firing back at Kirk. Unfortunately he only hit 1 time, and the 80KW Six-Shooter gives no additional bonus, so his damage ended up being negated by Cover (which provides -1 Damage). Figuring I’d have better luck with the Club, I used his “Sprint” Active Trait (to get +3″ Movement once per encounter) and covered the open ground to get right behind the fence.
Hunters: Wow Trask really overextended, perhaps a turn too soon. I wanted to capitalize on this, so I edged Four Feather a little bit more eastward and a little bit more exposed than I would have liked. But it did put Trask inside the 9″ maximum range of his Double Barreled Shotgun. The shotgun only had 2 Attacks, but thankfully one of them hit so I could get the sick +5 Damage from the gun. The total of 6 damage took Trask out of action. First blood!
Drylands: Ouch, down a member. I guess I got a bit eager with the Club. Then again I could see a shady bandit like Trask not thinking his moves through too much…so maybe I can blame it on that. Anyways Quidel moved up the slope and into the trees, not wanting to make the same mistake of exposing his position that Trask did. I tried a long range pistol shot at Kirk, but missed horribly (I spent most of my Improvement Points on his Melee Miss Chance instead of Ranged, so he only had a slim chance to hit).

Turn 3: The Advance Continues (Drylands win Initiative)
Drylands: I really can’t complain with this continued streak of Initiative winning. Anyways Trista was my girl for reaping vengeance on Four Feather for taking Trask out. She moved back up the hill and fired at Four Feather, hitting him once for 5 damage, which cleanly took him out of action. The Hunters player had decided to risk not activating “Lucky” in his turn, which is too bad since it probably would have saved Four Feather’s life (basically it makes one enemy re-roll one entire set of attacks). Now the kill count is tied up.
Hunters: Time to slog Mary forward, although her 4″ Movement is so much more painful compared to Blood Claw’s 6. Anyways she did a full Run forward into the fencing.
Drylands: I was considering opening fire with Khulan, but decided to plan ahead a bit and spend his Action Phase Running up the steep hill. It was Difficult Terrain, and would require 4″ of Movement to get up. Unfortunately he only has 3″, so a Run it was. Hopefully I can use this position to stop Blood Claw from instantly charging him, since the slope will act in my favor in that case. Firing from a higher elevation certainly doesn’t hurt either (+1 Damage).
Hunters: Kirk and his mount continued forward, reaching the last fence before the final stretch to the Drylands hill. He opened fire on the exposed Khulan, hitting him for 3 damage (thanks Critical!). I immediately regretted the shot as I should have focus fired instead, but I was just too tempted by how exposed he was.
Drylands: My last Activation was Quidel, who was finally close enough to hit at medium range. This was really helpful as the long range penalty (+1 Ranged Miss Chance) was hurting his already lackluster abilities. Anyways I rolled really well, hitting 3 of 4 attacks (even at 8+), so Kirk took another 3 damage.

Turn 4: Rip ‘Em to Shreds (Hunters win Initiative)
Hunters: Hooray, finally Initiative for once. Maybe the dice knew I was getting close to melee and favored me. Anyways Mary continued her march through the fence compound, getting into medium range with her Light Pistol. She fired at the exposed silhouette of Khulan, but missed horribly.
Drylands: Okay, time to pour fire into Blood Claw and hope he drops. My remaining three members all targetted the Raptor, who was close enough that they were at medium range. Khulan fired first, hitting for 4 damage. Trista was next, but rolled terribly and missed every shot. I used her “Try Again” Active Trait to get a single re-roll, and it was totally worth it as I hit for 6 damage! Finally Quidel shot, and unfortunately followed Trista’s example and missed with all the attacks. No fancy re-roll for him I’m afraid.
Hunters: Phew, weathered the storm. Time to charge! In hindsight I should have Dismounted Kirk before running Blood Claw forward, but after rushing across the map for 4 turns all I was seeing was red. Kill, kill, kill! Except I was 1 1/2 inches short of reaching Quidel with Blood Claw, so instead of an awesome Charge bonus I had to spend his Action Phase to Run, just to reach Quidel. Awkward. Stupid fence took a bit more than I expected to cross. Oh well, at least I’m finally in melee combat!

Turn 5: Raptor Time! (Hunters win Initiative)
Hunters: Hey look at that, Initiative again. Not that I have any thrilling strategies I need to hide. I do get to bite and claw and stomp with Blood Claw though. I hit Quidel with all my attacks, totalling 6 damage. Too bad he passed his Bravery Test, since I would have loved their leader to flee. Anyways that used up Kirk’s Action Phase as well since he was still mounted. Really feeling stupid for not Dismounting him at the fence a turn ago.
Drylands: I guess on the bright side the Raptor is in melee with my close combat character instead of a softy like Trista. To prove his mettle Quidel used his “Berserker” Active Trait (+2 Attacks) and hit Blood Claw with 4 of his 6 attacks, totalling 7 damage and taking Blood Claw down to 2 HP. Still not enough to force a Bravery Test, but that 9 HP threshold is tough to break. Anyways Khulan turned to face the Raptor from his elevated perch, and held the trigger and turned the dinosaur into a splattered mess. Seriously crazy rolls of 3 Critical hits! 7 total damage took Blood Claw out of the game, huzzah. Last up was Trista who edged forward to medium range on Mary and fired, hitting for 5 damage and taking Mary to 3 HP left. She passed her Bravery Test (this time at least, haha), and would have been dead if it wasn’t for Kirk’s earlier “Get Up!” usage.
Hunters: That was a lot of damage, but at least it was mostly on Blood Claw and not anyone else. My last Activation was having Mary fire back at Trista, hitting once for 4 damage. Trista’s their weakest character with only 7 HP to start (good old Neotechnoists), so this caused a Bravery Test. She passed it though, alas.

Turn 6: It’s All Over (Hunters win Initiative)
Hunters: Not liking my odds now that Blood Claw is down and everyone else is nearly dead. Totally kicking myself for some dumb moves and lack of focus firing. That and having to charge 4 guns, haha. Anyways Mary started my turn by shooting at Trista. I caught some luck and hit for 4 damage which took Trista out of action. Too bad Trista did a ton of damage in all the other turns.
Drylands: Khulan spun and opened up on Mary, furious that she had taken Trista down. He hit two times for 3 total damage which was enough to take Mary out. I bet he felt pretty pleased with that. Quidel was my last Activation, and he speared the hell out of Kirk. My rolling was awesome again with 2 Criticals and 1 normal hit, plus the Spear’s base damage for a whopping 8 total damage. Goodbye Kirk, hello victory!

After Action Report
Well the Drylands United Cattle Company won against Kirk Peterson’s Hunting Expedition. At least it will give Kirk a story to tell back in the safety of his villa. Quidel and Khulan were the only two who remained in the game, with 7 and 6 HP respectively. Some thoughts from the players below:

Drylands: Victory for meeeeeee. I can’t take too much credit as the Hunters really played to my strengths. Trista got to fire basically every turn, and the expensive cost of her 400KW rifle turned into a solid investment. Khulan also did well with his Assault Rifle and didn’t even need a reload. In fact no one needed to reload the whole game, which kept the rate of fire up for sure. Quidel earned his keep by holding the Raptor and Kirk. Trask was a bit of a waste, I guess I shouldn’t have gotten so eager with him. That Double Barrel Shotgun (2 attacks, 5 damage) is one tough customer, and voluntarily moving into it’s range was silly. Still, great game.

Hunters: Alas, defeat. I feel that a couple of different decisions could have really changed things for me. I actually want to revisit my Posse from the ground up, as they are themed great but really feel lacking in terms of equipment. Blood Claw the Raptor was $400 (of my $1,000), and the mandatory two human members were a further $400 ($200 each), so that meant I only had $200 to spend on guns and armor, whereas the Drylands posse had $400 (since their human member was $200 cheaper than my Raptor). It was fun to field a dinosaur though, and that’s what counts. Anyways I really liked the Double Barrel Shotgun kill, and was impressed with how much of a difference a few inches of range makes (like Mary’s pistol compared to Kirk’s). I think using my Improvement Points to boost everyone’s Armor was a good choice, since Neotechnoists are naturally better shots to begin with so they don’t need a ton of improvement there. Definitely felt their low HP values. Good game though!

Complete Turn Log
Turn 1: Drylands win Initiative
– Quidel forward Run
– Four Feather forward Run
– Trista shoots long range vs Four Feather – crit hit, 2+4-1 (cover) = 5 damage. Passes BRV
– Blood Claw forward 9″ Run
– Khulan shoots at Blood Claw, 1 damage vs Mary
– Trask forward Run

Turn 2: Drylands win Initiative again
– Trista hits Mary for 5, fails BRV. Trista finishes by moving back down hill
– Khulan hit Kirk for 3, moves towards tall hill
– Mary flees off Blood Claw
– Kirk drops back 2″, uses “Get Up!” Active Trait to put Mary back to 8 HP, then forward 4″ and shoots Trask at long range. Hit and crit for 4 damage, Trask passes BRV
– Trask shoots long range against Kirk, 1 hit which Cover negates. Moves forward to fence with Sprint
– Four Feather moves up hill and barely in long range to hit Trask. Hits for 1+5, takes Trask out of action
– Quidel moves into trees, shoots long range at Kirk but misses

Turn 3: Drylands win Initiative again
– Trista moves up hill and shoots Four Feather, hits 1+4 and takes him out of action
– Mary runs forward after Blood Claw
– Khulan climbs hill using Run
– Kirk moves behind last fence and shoots Khulan, crit for a total of 3 damage
– Quidel shoots medium range vs Kirk, 3 hits at 8+

Turn 4: Hunters win Initiative for once
– Mary moves into fence compound, shoots medium range at Khulan but misses
– Khulan shoots Blood Claw, hits for 4 at medium range
– Trista shoots Blood Claw, misses all, but uses “Try Again” Active Trait, re-rolls for 2+4 damage
– Quidel shoots Blood Claw, misses all
– Blood Claw forward Run into melee with Quidel after Charge Move fell short

Turn 5: Hunters win Initiative again
– Blood Claw hits Quidel for 2+4 damage, passes BRV
– Quidel uses “Berserker” Active Trait, hits 4 of 6 attacks for 7 damage, Blood Claw down to 2 HP
– Khulan destroys Blood Claw with 3 Criticals, 7 damage total
– Trista moves to medium range, hits Mary for 2+3, passes BRV but at 3 HP
– Mary fires back, hits 1+3, passes BRV

Turn 6: Hunters win Initiative again
– Mary shoots Trista, hits for 4 which takes Trista out of action
– Khulan returns fire, hits 2+1 to kill Mary
– Quidel uses Spear in melee on Kirk for 8 damage, takes him out of action

Playtesting Results
This game was a ton of fun to play through. I learned a few new rule exceptions…funny how often those pop up once a person actually plays the game, even if the rules seem foolproof during writing. I made a few mistakes while playing, namely:

  • Forgot to factor in Movement modifier for shooting. This would have helped the Hunters survive the cross board trek.
  • Forgot to use either leader’s Leadership ability (grants one single re-roll). This might have helped turn a miss or two into a hit, but little else.
  • Made some tactical mistakes, mainly on the Hunters side. Failing to use Four Feather’s “Lucky” trait meant he died. Not Dismounting Kirk before charging Blood Claw in was also dumb. In fact charging Quidel at all, who had a Spear and wanted to get into close combat…I should have probably gone for Trista instead and torn her to pieces. That and a lack of focus firing, but that was on both sides.

Definitely want to give these Posses another go, since I think a few tactical changes could have really changed how it went down. Maybe I’ll level them up and try again soon.

Anyways I hope you enjoyed the report, it was a bit of a hassle to format into this blog. Taking pictures and recording an action-by-action log was interesting though and I think added to the detail and completeness of the battle report. If you like what you read and want to give the game a shot, feel free to download version 0.7 of the rules.

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Version 0.7 available

June 6, 2011 — Dinosaur Cowboy

I’m hoping the upcoming battle report draws in some new visitors, in which case I want to have the latest rules available. So rejoice, version 0.7 is available below. Hooray! Besides some further playtesting (mainly around possible simultaneous resolution and initiative/activation), formatting (I want to put in more pictures!), and the usual last minute editing, it’s feature complete. This is the skirmish focused version of Dinosaur Cowboys, and I really like how the rules are playing.
You can see an example game that used these rules in my Encounter at Bosler, Wyoming – Battle Report post.

Anyways here are the goods, again as OpenDocument or PDF format, or online viewing:

Rules: ODT | PDF | View Online

Items (Weapons, Armor, Equipment): ODT | PDF | View Online

Posse Roster: ODT | PDF | View Online

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Playtesting is fun

June 6, 2011 — Dinosaur Cowboy

I got my first real playtest of the new skirmish focused changes tonight. It was a BLAST. I played my previously mentioned Drylands United Cattle Company against Kirk Peterson’s Hunting Expedition. I’ll get to that battle report soon, including a ton of pictures and a blow by blow account of the fast playing 6 turns.

Anyways I made a list of some of the issues that cropped up. Below is that list, with a bold asterick besides items I’ve already fixed:

  • Add spot for Special Abilities for weapons on Posse sheet? Currently have to know the weapon or cram it into the name.
  • * Fill out all of RMC chart, since Savage might need to go from 9 to 8.
  • * Fleeing while Mounted (free Dismount, then flee backwards, can still do Action Phase, dinosaur can continue as normal)
  • Remove Movement modifier to hit? How does it work if the enemy hasn’t Activated yet and you shoot him? Also makes it really tough to hit on base 8 RMC
  • * Make melee adjacent only, since 1″ away is tough to judge with some dinosaur models
  • * Clarify dismounting during melee (provokes Snap Attack, again if you move away), aka dismount first before melee!
  • * Clarify face changing during melee doesn’t provoke Snap Attack
  • Roll for initiative / activation for every entity, instead of once per turn?
  • Make winning initiative mean going first and last?
  • Simultaneous action? When killed go face down, but can still act (if haven’t already) and remove at end of turn?

My biggest question that arose from this list is the last point: simultaneous action or not. Currently the game plays un-simultaneously, and I tend to want to keep it that way. What this means is that if you shoot an un-Activated enemy and take them out of action, then that person can’t shoot back or act or anything. Simultaneous would mean if you take someone out of action you put them face down, but they can still Activate (if they haven’t that turn already), and then are “killed” (removed from the table) at the end of the turn.
The reason for this is sometimes the activating order with uneven numbers means two or three people can shoot at a single target before it can shoot back.

My other possible change would be around Initiative and Activation. I found uneven numbers make figuring the Activation order really tedious, especially if someone dies mid-turn and you need to figure it out again. An alternative is a D12 rolloff (similar to initiative) for every single Activation, and this continues until nothing is left to Activate and then the turn is over as normal. Basically whoever wins the rolloff Activates someone. This could mean, with luck, you activate 2 or 3 (or even 4+) people in a row. It also adds an element of chaos and uncertainty to the game, since who knows when you’ll get to go next. I think if I did this way I’d probably go to simultaneous action as well.

I didn’t have the rules printed, but I had them up on the laptop. I didn’t really need to use them though. Having the ranged modifiers table handy would have helped though, since I basically played the game without accounting for Movement (+1 RMC)…but this actually wasn’t a big deal. There was already enough movement going on, but that might have been since Kirk’s Posse was mostly melee oriented. The -1 Damage while in Cover sure was great though, since -1 Damage is a pretty big deal in the grand scheme of things.

So yeah, it’s almost like I need more playtesting :) It’s also almost like I need to eat dinner instead of playing another game, hehe.

(PS: I totally add a Blunderbuss, which is like a hobo Bazooka. 1A-5D-1×1 with Explosion)

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Changes shaping up nicely

June 5, 2011 — Dinosaur Cowboy

Until I get to playtest some more I’ve settled for v0.7 as the current, skirmish based release. My most recent changes are completing the Dinosaur section (including stats and costs) and a big reformat and edit of the main rulebook. Now the headers and subheaders and so on should be a bit more consistent in their style, and also I use standardized terms throughout the doc (for example to differentiate between human characters and dinosaurs).

I still need to insert an example Posse Roster and do some line breaks, but after that I’ll be in a state to post the rules. Look for v0.7 sooooon!

For now here is the latest list of Traits and the stats for Dinosaurs (click for the full size):

v0.7 Traits
Traits are always fun since it’s easy to add extra ones later if I brainstorm some up. Right now I covered the basics pretty thoroughly I think, and there aren’t any huge glaring “TAKE ME FIRST!” choices, which is good. I’m happy that I went two 2 categories of Traits (Active and Passive) instead of my original 3 (Active, Boost, Passive).
The original Active basically were like custom Critical Hits in the sense that they activated on a certain attack roll (like 11+) and applied an effect. The downside is it’s lots of book keeping, both in additional rolls and all the extra status effects involved.
Anyways now Active are like Boost, which are just power ups that last for a turn.

Traits list for v0.7

v0.7 Dinosaurs
As part of the Dinosaur section I did some work around Mounting/Dismounting, so basically it’s done in the Action Phase now. And I decided to keep Dinosaurs un-improvable, in the sense that you can’t spend Improvement Points to boost their stats. However you can spend money and buy a Dinosaur with higher HP ($50 per +1 HP).

In terms of the design idea I aimed to have herbivores have a different feel than carnivores. The main distinction was in the Attacks-Damage of each. Carnivores mainly go for one big attack that does a lot of damage (similar to how real world carnivores try to “bite to kill” or break the neck in one blow, etc.). So the big boy Titan is 1A-15D (the added bonus being a single hit can pretty much gobble up an enemy). Herbivores I decided would stomp and smash and use their natural weapons, so they have higher attacks and lower damage. An example would be the Longneck (herbivore equivalent of Titan in terms of size and cost) who is 10A-1D.

My other idea for Dinosaurs was to give them plenty of Hitpoints, since they could end up being a pretty big focus of attacks. Plus it helps distinguish them from plain humans by the sheer volume of attacks they can survive.

I’ve considered doing special equipment for Dinosaurs, and might get to that later. Basically treating Dinosaurs like Vehicles in other games, so then you can get cool upgrades like “Steel Ramplate” that does more damage on a Charge or “Extra Saddle” for more mounting space, etc. This gives more customization, and also an interesting approach of inexpensive “feral” dinosaurs who don’t have equipment, or high tech Dino-Riders style mounts.

Dinosaurs list for v0.7

Other Recent Progress
I’ve been making some great progress of the rules. Here are some highlights, biggest to smallest:

  • Added Improvement Point system for creating characters
  • First draft of Traits list (also removed the old Active category)
  • Huge rework of weapon, armor, and equipment prices (all lowered)
  • Increased Melee weapon damage
  • Fear renamed to Bravery, higher is better
  • Made Elevation apply to Melee as well as Ranged

Brawl!
Another recent change that I enjoyed was adding what I call “Brawl” melee weapons. These are attacks like punches, kicks, and shoves (actually those three exactly). Every human gets them for free, and always has them armed, so yeah, it can be a nice alternative to shooting in close combat. The damage isn’t toooo crazy, but I feel I split them pretty well. Punches are 2A-1D, Kicks are 1A-2D, and a Shove is 1A-0D with Knockback. I could see adding cool other attacks like Trip, Haymaker, Headbutt, etc. Maybe a cost in dollars to represent training that attack. But yeah, it lends a neat bar room brawl or street fighting feel to some of the melee situations.

Facing
I also put in rules that make Facing matter. So each character can only see and fire in the 180 degree arc in front of them. I’m not sold on this idea, so I’ll have to see. On the positive side I think it helps tactical play as you can outflank your enemies and actually see a bonus in that regard. On the downside measuring arcs can cause arguments, and a lot of other skirmish games seem to assume 360 degree vision/arcs. Like I said, we’ll see. I started a discussion on the DakkaDakka forum about facing in skirmish games, so we’ll see where that goes.

Anyways I’ll be posting revised rules soon (probably after finishing the Dinosaur section), so keep an eye out for that. Hopefully next week!

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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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Exploding Dice and Critical Hits

June 2, 2011 — Dinosaur Cowboy

Been a While
First of all, way to (yet again) drop off the face of the earth for a while. I was going to say for a year, but really it was just winter that I went away. Dinosaur Cowboys is often on my mind, and I’m slowly working away at the skirmish changes.

Recent Motivation
As to my current motivation for posting, you have Advanced Heroquest to thank for that. I play D&D Encounters fairly regularly, but wanted a lighter RPG for some of my friends. Advanced Heroquest was actually my first game, and I played it a ton and added a bunch of wild, custom rules way back.

But while browsing through that rulebook today I was reminiscing about Dinosaur Cowboys (this project has been going on for so long that I can reminisce about it!), because who doesn’t love rolling a handful of D12s? I think subconsciously I may have been trying to mirror the AHQ D12 mechanism…that and get away from the rash of D20 style games.

Possible Mechanic
Anyways related to all this (yes, I am getting to a point eventually…I used to be far less likely to ramble on): Exploding Dice. In the case of AHQ, critical hits while wounding Explode. What is Exploding? Well, the basic mechanic is described here.

How would it apply to Dinosaur Cowboys? Instead of a Critical Hit (unmodified roll of 12 on any of your Attacks) counting as 2 Hits, you would instead count it as 1 Hit and re-roll the dice (“explode” it), whereby the second Exploded roll could hit. Plus, in rare cases, that second roll could ALSO Explode, wherein you’d get a THIRD roll.

There are plenty of discussions on whether this mechanic is good or not. Normally it’s used with D6s instead of D12s, so that’s a factor. But in my view, and in the case of this game, it boils down to:

  • Non-Exploding (current mechanic): Faster and guaranteed extra damage from Criticals
  • Exploding: Statistically less likely to do much more on Critical Hits, but every so often it would be terrific

Arguably that was a pointless list, and this post has gone on for far too long for such a simple choice. I might leave the mechanic as is, but maybe have Exploding Dice as a variant, or at least playtest it and see.

Hopeful Playtest
Speaking of playtests, I’d like to print out two blank Posse sheets, pretty much randomly fill them in, and then give the current rules a shot. I did this way back when I was originally designing the game, but since the document is so formatted now it’s harder to make drastic changes like going from an RPG to a skirmish game.

Anyways I do fluctuate in my interest in the genre of this game, but I certainly am always a fan of the rules I’ve done so far, and definitely want to get a finished system around that. The base Attack/Damage/Critical/Reload system is great in my opinion, it’s more just the extra rules around it that take forever (like “How to Create a Posse”, “List of Traits”, etc.).

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What To Read

June 1, 2011 — Dinosaur Cowboy

This post is meant to summarize different points of interest inside the blog so that new readers can skip to the best parts without having to browse post by post and month by month. Also a list of related media (comics, books, video games, etc.) that feature genre mixing of dinosaurs and humans in various forms.

From This Blog

  • Category: Game Sessions and Category: Campaign – Any of the battle reports under these categories are great for giving you an idea of how the game plays. Some use older rules (since I was recording playtests), but there are plenty of pictures and descriptions of an action-by-action look at different Posses fighting. If you want a continuous, connected story look at the Windy River solo test campaign or Battle to Seattle group campaign.
  • Category: Fiction – Various works of fiction written for Dinosaur Cowboys. Mostly created during the National Novel Writing Month initiative.
  • Dinosaur Gallery – This shows my collection of toy dinosaurs, and should help give an idea of how they look on their own. All the toys are highly detailed and from the company Papo.
  • v2.0 Release – Another big celebration for the highly refined release of v2.0 of Dinosaur Cowboys.
  • v1.0 Release – The Halloween celebration for the “finalized” release of v1.0 of Dinosaur Cowboys.
  • Decision to Rewrite as Skirmish – Older post from 2010 wherein I decided to move the game to a 90/10 skirmish/rpg ratio instead of a 50/50 split. This is the basis for the rules you know today.
  • Original 2009 Brainstorm – My first draft of the rules after a big brainstorm of mechanics. I like how the core combat system hasn’t truly changed since then, which is a good sign to me.

Comics

Books

RPGs and Tabletop Games

  • G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T is a skirmish ruleset in the Victorian era intended to be used with sci-fi elements. Dinosaur encounters or safari hunts seem like a common theme.
  • Broncosaurus Rex D20 RPG with great black-and-white artwork in their rulebook.
  • Saurian Safari rules focused on asymmetrical hunting of dinosaurs in an alternate reality, as compared to a more traditional skirmish.
  • GURPS Dinosaurs is a thick tome containing a huge number of detailed stat blocks for various dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures. Great for brainstorming for enemies in campaigns.
  • Adventures in the Lost Lands wargame for use with various human eras mixed with dinosaurs.
  • Dino Wars tabletop game pitting the army against dinosaurs.
  • Jurassic Reich tabletop game featuring Nazis riding dinosaurs, plus some custom figures.
  • Pulp Alley a generic pulp ruleset with support for dinosaurs.
  • Weird West gallery of figures including some great mounted cowboys and indians on various dinosaurs.

Movies and TV

  • The Valley of Gwangi movie about cowboys capturing a dinosaur for a circus.
  • Aztec Rex low budget movie about Aztecs with a dinosaur defending against Cortez.
  • Terra Nova short lived TV series but has some interesting human/dinosaur interactions.
  • Cowboys & Aliens not related to dinosaurs, but has some good brainstorming material for normal wild west cowboys interacting with an overwhelming sci-fi opponent.

Video Games

  • ARK: Survival Evolved upcoming survival game with trainable dinosaurs, crafting tech trees, base building, and much more. Very promising
  • Dinosaur themed games at MobyGames. A great list of older games containing dinosaurs as a central element.
  • Dino D-Day multiplayer first person shooter game with playable dinosaurs and an Axis and Allied team.
  • Primal Carnage multiplayer first person shooter game similar to Team Fortress 2 but with dinosaurs.
  • ORION: Dino Horde (was Dino Beatdown) multiplayer first person shooter game with coop elements and a dinosaur horde, similar to Left 4 Dead.
  • Paraworld video game involving RTS elements and dinosaurs. Not technically reading material, but still in this genre!
  • Dino Storm browser game featuring cowboys on dinosaurs with laser pistols. Sound familiar?

Other

  • Dinosaur Kingdom tourist attraction in Virginia about dinosaurs in the Civil War era.
  • Dinosaur Toys Collectors Guide is a great site with info on the various brands of dinosaur toys available. Good place to start when looking to build a collection for your posses.
  • spohniscool Gallery of a very skilled artist who provided the cover art for the main rulebook and some of the interior art for the Quickdraw rules.
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Preview of skirmish focused updates

November 23, 2010 — Dinosaur Cowboy

Although the following was rather tedious to format from the actual rules doc copy-paste, I figured it was worth it to give a feel for some of the changes. The most obvious change is how simple and small the core rules are, which is a good thing as 1-6 people per side has a way of complexifying (haha ridiculous word) every situation.

Anyways I’ll be working on character / posse generation next, then Dinomounts, some touchups to the History section, then bringing all the items up to speed. A playtest this week is looking less and less plausible (rather busy), but perhaps this weekend (especially Sunday).

The Turn

The passage of time during combat situations is tracked using Turns, each of which contain the 2 Phases of Movement and Action.

Turn Pass: Anyone can pass or skip their Turn as they please.

Phase Order: Each entity can perform their 2 Phases in either order: Movement then Action or Action then Movement.

Movement Phase

During the Movement Phase an entity can maneuver and position around the terrain.

Option 1 – Standard Move: Move any number of inches in any direction up to an entity’s Movement score.

Option 2 – Charge Move: Perform a Standard Move in a straight line directly towards a target. If the target is reached the attacker gains a Charge bonus in melee (see the Combat section below).

Moving Through Entities: An entity can move through friendly entities, but not through hostile entities.

Difficult Terrain: When entering or crossing any terrain but flat plains (such as trees, hills, etc.) an entity must use double their Movement to continue.
For example a player can spend 2″ of Movement crossing flat plains to the edge of a forest (Difficult Terrain). To move through the 6″ forest they would need to spend a further 12″ of Movement. Or a player can spend 4″ of Movement to climb a narrow slope 2″ long.

Action Phase

During the Action Phase an entity may perform a single complex task, such as firing a gun or using an item.

Option 1 – Use a Weapon: Perform an attack either with a ranged weapon or a melee weapon.

Option 2 – Use an Item: Apply an item from your inventory to yourself or another friendly entity (ie: medpack, whiskey drop, etc.).

Option 3 – Reload a Weapon: A weapon is reloaded.

Option 4 – Run: Perform a Standard Move instead of this Action Phase.

Combat

Since the dawn of mankind there has been violence. The re-emergence of dinosaurs has done little to slow the carnage. In fact, if anything, it has accelerated the technology involved in weapons. Battles can be fought at a distance or in hand to hand.
This section will outline the rules for simulating fights between characters and the various creatures and humans who wish them harm.

Ranged Attack: If the attacker can see the target and are within maximum Range of your weapon, you can attack them in the Action Phase with the ranged weapon.

Melee Attack: Two or more combatants are considered in melee combat if they are within 1″ or less of each other. They can attack with a melee weapon in the Action Phase.

General Combat Procedure

Step 1 – Attack Roll
Roll a D12 for each Attack of the ranged or melee weapon.

Step 2 – Determine Hits
Use the Ranged Miss Chance for ranged weapons, and Melee Miss Chance for melee weapons.
Apply any modifiers to the associated Miss Chance. Every Attack Roll greater than or equal to the modified Miss Chance is a hit.

Attack Roll >= (Miss Chance +/- modifiers) = hit

Step 3 – Apply Damage
Add the count of all hits to the weapon Damage. Apply any modifiers to the total. Subtract this number from the target Hitpoints.

Hitpoints – (count of hits + weapon Damage +/- modifiers)

Critical Hit: Every unmodified Attack Roll of 12 is a Critical Hit, and counts as 2 hits.

Surprise Hit: If the target is unaware of an incoming attack each hit is a Critical Hit.

Automatic Hit and Miss: A roll of 12 is always a hit, and a roll of 1 is always a miss, both regardless of Miss Chance and modifiers.

Modifiers: There are four primary modifiers: Armor, Range, Cover, Elevation. See the table below for when and how they apply:

Armor: +AR RMC
Short Range: -1 RMC
Long Range: +1 RMC
Cover: -1 Damage
Elevation: +1 Damage

Ranged Combat Special Cases

Reload Value: Each ranged weapon has a Reload value as part of their statistics, such as 2×1 or 3×1. This number represents how likely and often the weapon will need to be reloaded, but it can also represent jamming or overheating.
If the count of unmodified Attack Roll dice that rolled 1 are greater than or equal to than the Reload value, the weapon needs to be reloaded.

How to Reload: An entity must spend an Action Phase doing nothing but Reloading a gun before it is usable again.
Note that only a single ranged weapon can be reloaded each Action Phase.

Melee Combat Special Cases

Charge Bonus: +1 Attack if the attacker performed a Charge Move to enter melee combat with the target.

Snap Attack: If a target leaves close combat (such as to flee), any attackers in close combat with them can perform a free melee attack.

Firing in (or into) Melee Combat: There is no penalty for using ranged weapons in close combat, or firing into an existing close combat.

Examples

Basic Ranged Example: Firing a 200KW Six-Shooter (4 Attacks, 2 Damage) with 7 Ranged Miss Chance. The target has no Armor, is not in Cover, and is at Medium Range, so no modifiers are needed.
Step 1: Roll 4D12 (because of 4 Attacks) resulting in 9, 6, 12, 3.
Step 2: Need a 7+ to hit (because of 7 Ranged Miss Chance). So the rolls of 9 and 12 hit. A 12 is a Critical Hit so it counts as double hits. In total there are 3 hits.
Step 3: Add base Damage of the weapon (2) to the total hits (3) for 5 total damage. Reduce the target’s Hitpoints by 5.

Complex Ranged Example: Firing a 400KW Lever-Action Rifle (3 Attacks, 4 Damage) with 4 Ranged Miss Chance. The target has 2 Armor and is at Short Range behind a tree (in Cover). The total Miss Chance needed is 5 (4 base + 2 Armor – 1 Short Range).
Step 1: Roll 3D12 resulting in 7, 7, 10.
Step 2: Need a 5+ to hit, so all rolls hit. In total there are 3 hits.
Step 3: Unmodified total damage is 7 (3 hits + 4 Damage). Target is in Cover, so modify the damage by -1, for a total of 6. Reduce the target’s Hitpoints by 6.

Basic Melee Example: Using a melee Long Sword (2 Attacks, 3 Damage) with 9 Melee Miss Chance. The target has no Armor.
Step 1: Roll 2D12 (because of 2 Attacks) resulting in 5 and 11.
Step 2: Need a 9+ to hit (because of 9 Melee Miss Chance). So the roll of 11 hit.
Step 3: Add base Damage of the weapon (3) to the total hits (1) for 4 total damage. Reduce the target’s Hitpoints by 4.

Complex Melee Example: Charge Move with a melee Spear (4 Attacks, 2 Damage) with 5 Melee Miss Chance. The target has 3 Armor. The total Miss Chance needed is 8 (5 base + 3 Armor).
Step 1: Roll 5D12 (4 base Attacks, plus 1 for Charge Bonus) resulting in 5, 1, 11, 7, 9.
Step 2: Need a 9+ to hit. So the rolls of 9 and 11 hit.
Step 3: Add base Damage of the weapon (2) to the total hits (2) for 4 total damage. Reduce the target’s Hitpoints by 4.

Fear Test

A Fear Test represents an entity trying to maintain their will to stand and fight against tremendous and terrifying odds or situations. Failure represents shaking in their boots and cowardly tactics like running away.
This section will explain how and when to take Fear Tests, and the consequences of failing them.

When to Fear Test: If an entity suffers Damage greater than or equal to half their starting Hitpoint value in a single Turn, a Fear Test is immediately required.
For example a character had 12 starting Hitpoints and is now at 10. They suffer 7 Damage from a single attack. The Damage is higher than 6 (half their starting Hitpoints) and therefore they must perform a Fear Test.

Damage >= (starting Hitpoints / 2) = Fear Test

How to Fear Test: Roll a D12 for the Fear Test. If the result is greater than or equal to the tester’s Fear score, they have failed the Fear Test and are Fleeing.

D12 >= Fear score = failed

Fleeing: At the start of the Fleeing entity’s next Turn they must automatically perform a Standard Move directly away from the nearest enemy. They may then perform an Action Phase normally.

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One word away from awesome

November 23, 2010 — Dinosaur Cowboy

If only the upcoming Cowboys and Aliens movie replaced Aliens with Dinosaurs, then we’d really be set!

Cowboys and Aliens Movie

Also I totally didn’t realize Jon Favreau directed Iron Man and a few other things. Hopefully this next movie is good fun, since the idea looks cool and the cast seems solid.

Anyways, back on topic, I’ll be posting some updated rule excerpts in a bit…

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Preliminary “Posse Roster” sheet

November 22, 2010 — Dinosaur Cowboy

I’ve rewritten the Turn and Combat section to be even slimmer and more elegant. The main change was adding a “Ranged Miss Chance” (RMC) and “Melee Miss Chance” (MMC) that are used as a base to-hit number. There are a couple of modifiers to this number, mostly around range, cover, and armor. But basically you need to roll greater than or equal to the final modified RMC/MMC to hit the target, then damage is calculated as before.
I’ll need to rework the armor list, since AR is a plus bonus instead of a flat value. For example a Vectran Vest would be +2 AR, which means a firer with a base RMC of 5 would need a 7+ to hit (5+2 = 7). I like having the Miss Chance where you still need to roll above some number, and also having a lower score makes sense, instead of something like a flat “Ranged Skill” where you need to calculate the to-hit value by doing subtraction (such as Max Ranged Skill – Current Ranged Skill = target number to hit).

I also made the Fear Test rules. Now a Fear Test is taken when an entity suffers damage greater than or equal to half their starting Hitpoint value. So if they had 10 HP, any attack that does >= 5 would trigger a Fear Test. Failing means they Flee away from the closest enemy at the start of their turn.

And I’ve done a preliminary mockup of the Posse Roster sheet, which you can download or view below. Basically 6 shrunken stat blocks combined on a single page. I REALLY like how the grayed out images in the background of each stat turned out, since I think it adds a little variety and spice to an otherwise boring line of stats.

Posse Sheet: ODT | PDF | View Online

Anyways I do have one concern with all these changes. I’m starting to feel like I’m just re-inventing a Games Workshop based game, but with D12s instead of D6s. I guess because of the whole to-hit mechanism being based on some stat (RMC could be Ballistic Skill, and MMC could be Weapon Skill)…but then again that’s a preeeetty common idea in games.

I’m going to try to get a playtest of two Posses this week, so we’ll see how that works. For now I’m going to work with alternating activation rules, so you move a single figure, then the enemy does, and so on. We’ll see if this approach makes it into the final rules.

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Back and looking for a (skirmishy) fight

November 17, 2010 — Dinosaur Cowboy

You know how I’ve said Dinosaur Cowboys is a roleplaying skirmish game? That’s fairly true in the sense that the split is 50/50. What I’m interested in doing though is revamping the game to be 10/90 in favor of skirmish. So rejoice, this blog will get some new life breathed into it as I plug away at some major rule revisions.

If you want to hear some brainstorming details, keep reading…

Know what I like best about Dinosaur Cowboys? The combat rules. I like XD12+Y damage with Zx1 chance to need to reload. It’s a simple and elegant system and translates marvelously to both ranged and melee. I also liked the background information, western / prehistoric theme, and the ol’ questing / travelling split. I waffled on Dinomounts for a while, but I think the end result of adding bonuses is a good approach. I might playtest D6s instead of D12s as a main dice, because if I’m going for a more dedicated skirmish game I think D6s are easier for people to get into. Less options for Armor Rating though.

So how do I want to revamp it all? Well, I’d like to continue to shift the focus along the “hero” and “sidekick” idea. I liked this approach, but found the mass of sheets eventually cumbersome. What I’d prefer to do is have a Mordheim style “roster” warband sheet that represents a 1-6 person “posse”. The main leader, called a “boss”, would have a slightly larger statline (in terms of information available). Using the existing rules consider them to be able to take the Active and Boost Traits, whereas “sidekicks” (everyone else) could only take Passive (to reduce bookkeeping, since Passive just gives straight up bonuses).
Experience and loot would be tracked as a posse, instead of individually. In addition the boss would be the “front man” and would have stats associated with skills and diplomacy, whereas everyone else would be combat oriented. Dinomounts would fit in as another sidekick. They could either fight on their own or be mounted before or during combat. I’m going to keep a similar approach to them of having base melee attacks and their own hitpoints, and then granting a bonus to anyone who is riding them. Then an enemy can continue to shoot at the Dinosaur itself or at the rider.

Allegiances (aka factions) will be another new change…or at least providing stat differences will be the change. There will be Duster, Neotechnoist, Savage, and Bandit. What this allows is your posse to be made up of multiple Allegiances, and each one provides slight benefits and drawbacks to flavor that sidekick. Dusters are tougher (+hitpoints) but slower. Neotechnoists are better with guns (+damage?) but weaker. Savages are faster (+move) but…something…weaker as well maybe? Bandits are generic and have no benefits or shortcomings.

So yeah, 1 boss, 0-4 sidekicks, and 1 Dinosaur. Heck I might just drop the term “Dinomount” entirely. I’ll need to really compress the statlines so that all 6 can fit on a single page, but I think that should be doable. The main concern are weapons, especially multiple weapons per person. I might change ranges to be simpler, for example they just have a single Range stat instead of 3 X-Y values. The given Range is medium (no bonuses or penalties). Half that is Short (+1 Attack) and double that is Long (-1 Attack). Or maybe put weapons onto standardized cards, but that becomes more bookkeeping again.

For “dying” I really like the Stun/Out of Action approach of Mordheim and a similar Flesh Wound approach of Necromunda. I don’t think I want to follow that exactly, so there will still be a specific numbers of hitpoints. Those numbers may just be a bit lower than now. Perhaps low enough to track with markers or tokens instead of pencil, since again – bookkeeping. Ideally a fight could be done in 30 minutes or so, which means 80+ hp monstrosities will be going away in general. But yeah, once a unit is at <= 0hp they are Downed (or whatever term). They can't do anything, but can be helped by a friendly unit who grants them +hp. A unit who was Downed may suffer permanent effects afterwards…or…something. I'm not sure what to do as a penalty. The whole Injury table from Mordheim is a bit too many rolls, especially when the skirmishes and results need to be fast. Each fight shouldn't be as big an event as a Mordheim match. Maybe the Downed person has to take a penalty to some skill for the next fight. Like "Crippled" would be -1 Movement or something.

I think I’ll change Break Tests and that whole mess. I like the idea of the Flee/Stunned (although I’m going to call it “Shaken”), and I think I’ll apply it to people as well as dinosaurs (currently the only affected type). If a model loses half it’s total hitpoints in between their turn, they need to make a Break Test at the start of their turn. If they fail with an odd number, they Flee, otherwise they’re Shaken just for that turn. I’m going to make it so Flee means they can’t move, and Shaken means they can’t shoot…maybe. Or maybe I’ll just have them run away for that turn, instead of the split (aka more complexity). I think this feature will be called Shellshock or Massive Damage or something, and will tend to make opponents focus fire on big targets to try to make them run.

On the "minor changes" front I'm likely going to add a bonus if healing is applied by someone else (the idea being they aren't in shock while wrapping a blood soaked arm). This would facilitate a "medic" style sidekick who would carry the healing and try to boost allies that way.
I’m also going to boost the baseline Armor Rating to lean towards 6. That way an unarmored target has a 50/50 chance to be hit. A “standard” or common AR would probably be 8. This is mainly because the last few times I played the base AR meant getting hit a TON was common…and at that point why even roll the dice ya know?

I am also toying with the idea of moving from defensive rolling to offensive rolling. What that means is instead of rolling >= AR, you would try to roll >= shooter’s skill. There would be a similar skill for melee. The upside of this is people can improve beyond just getting better weapons. However armor would need to be refactored, for which I have four ideas. Either I remove it entirely (plausible since cowboys don’t exactly tool up in bullet proof vests), I make it a saving throw (ala Mordheim, aaaaagain), I make it damage reducing, or I make it modify the enemies to-hit roll. I think playtesting is in order for that, but yeah, I was thinking of more numbers sidekicks could increase (beyond hitpoints) to reflect their growing skill.
The downside of “offensive rolling” is stats can look confusing. For example say you have a Ranged Skill of 7. Well, that sounds pretty good, except that you wouldn’t want to roll >= 7 to hit on a D12. Instead you would need to subtract 7 FROM 12 to get 5, and that’s the target number. Think of that like Ballistic Skill in Warhammer 40k, or THAC0 in older D&D versions. The other approach is to make Ranged Skill 5 to begin with, and need >= 5 to hit. The downside is LOWER Ranged Skill becomes better. Perhaps the solution is in the naming, so instead of Ranged Skill it would be Miss Chance or Ranged Fault Factor or something similar to denote that lower is BETTER.

I'll need to work out a "points system" so that other posses can be matched up against the player. Encounters would probably be similar to how they are now, like you could still fight a solo feral dinosaur or a pair of ruffians, but the option for a straight up 6vs6 match is available. So basically what I started heading into with the "Hired Dusters" idea.

I might also revamp the “you go, I go” approach to combat if 6 characters are involved per side. A more likely approach would be Activation based, so that you activate a single piece, then your opponent does, and so on until none are left. This helps stop really long turns, but adds a bit of tracking to remember who has moved or not.

So yeah, between the skirmishes there still can be RPG elements in terms of getting jobs, travelling, exploring and so on (instead of just one preset skirmish after another). But I think the game really needed to choose a focus, instead of trying to split evenly. The existing big stack of sheets for 6+ people is cumbersome, and doesn't provide many benefits.

I think I'll start by mocking up the Posse Roster and making related changes from there. The core rules should stay pretty similar though, I figure.

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Some nice figurines

July 12, 2010 — Dinosaur Cowboy

From the “Black Scorpion” company these “Tombstone” line of figures could work great (they might be a tiny bit too big though, marketed as 32mm but 29mm visually):

From: http://www.blackscorpionminiatures.com/index.php?cPath=28

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Did an Allosaurus kill and eat me?

July 6, 2010 — Dinosaur Cowboy

Well I ended up being one of “those guys” that gets fired up about an idea, creates a blog, and then lets it stagnate. I’m still alive and still regularly check for comments and views, it’s just that, well, there isn’t much more to finish about the game. This is a problem with the simpler skirmish style rules because I can finish them relatively fast and don’t like to add needless complexity just for the sake of keeping blog posts going.

So if you don’t hear from me again on here, don’t think I’ve abandoned the blog (unless it’s you know, 15 years in the future or something). Still comment and email ideas to me, and if I’m ever struck with some new mechanism I can add to the game without bogging it down I’ll definitely let everyone know.

But otherwise I’d say take version 0.5 as the final set of Dinosaur Cowboys rules. All I really need to do is make a big list of enemies, but the game is fully playable without that. I could also bump up the version number since 0.5 is far far too low for how polished and playtested the game is.

I just thought I’d drop in and at least have the decency to write this post for anyone who wanders in and says “Oh great he hasn’t posted since dinosaurs were FIRST around”. And yes, I do want to end on that cheesy joke!

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Forgot the Dynamite

February 18, 2010 — Dinosaur Cowboy

I don’t know how something so CRITICAL could have escaped me for so long, but I totally forgot to have Dynamite as a grenade type. Sticks of dynamite are classic cowboy after all, considering even Clint Eastwood used them at one point or another.

So I’ve remedied this situation by replicating the stats of the Boom and Kaboom grenade and calling them Stick of Dynamite and Bundle of Dynamite.

Phew!

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Hired Dusters and skirmish ideas

February 17, 2010 — Dinosaur Cowboy

A week of no playing can sure turn into a month of silence easily, especially with a few days of travel here and there thrown in to disrupt my schedule.

Minor Rule Updates
Anyways I did some very minor rule tweaks, but figured I should mention them here before I get to the meat of the post:

  • Swapped the name of Boost and Passive Traits so Passive are static, always applied bonuses while Boost are once per combat abilities.
  • Added a “Deficient Weapon” section detailing damaged guns with reduced stats, such as prefixes like Old, Rusty, Dented. This is useful for keeping enemy weapons consistent.
  • Reduced Machete damage to 3 (from 4) to balance against the Hammer. Raised the price of the Hammer from $100 to $120.
  • Added Trait Strain Weapon II (+4 Damage) instead of just one tier.
  • Dinotype Diet changed from ‘V’ for Vegetarian to ‘H’ for Herbivore, to match ‘C’ for Carnivore. Thrilling!

Like I said, mostly minor!

BGG
The rules got a bit of exposure thanks to the BoardGameGeek forum thread I posted a while back. I figure once I finalize the rules I’ll add my game to their database, since that’d be cool to have and be able to look back on. Plus as I take more gameplay pictures I can put them up there.

Hired Dusters
Now for the main task I just completed. I was motivated to look closer at the game from a skirmish angle (compared to a standard RPG approach) because of the possibility of a one-off game tomorrow. I remembered how smoothly the Bandits vs Town battle went in a previous game, even with a lot of combatants, and thought it might be neat to have a similar one time game.
I thought I could give each player (me and two other people) a set amount of money. They would generate a Level 4 character plus choose a Dinomount (balanced against the other choices, since currently there is no “ranking” to the strength of Dinomounts). Then a separate pool of money would be spent on hirelings, which would be simple NPC Dusters they can move and fight with in a skirmish style scenario.
So yeah, I generated stat sheets for 9 types of level 2 Hired Dusters with a variety of strengths, abilities, and weapons. The final list ended up being: Hired Duelists, Cattleguards, Riflemen, Archers, Hatchetmen, Grenadiers, Berserkers, Sluggers, and Survivors.

Anyways here is the stats document for them, in the usual OpenDocument and PDF format:

I’m kind of excited at this idea, and also how easily the game molds itself to skirmish scenarios. I figure we could try a straight out pitched battle, or perhaps a capture the flag type scenario where teams have to run unhatched dinosaur eggs back to their base or something.

I think I need to add a few clarification notes to the rules, or some kind of “shorthand tricks” section. This would be necessary for stuff like tracking HP with dice beside the figure and just using a single sheet for each batch of NPCs. Or basic gameplay methods I use, but don’t really record anywhere.
Plus I was looking on the USA Library site for old (circa 1900s) images of cowboys and the west that I can insert into the rulebook to make it look a little more professional. I have trouble with advanced layout and styling in general though, so most of my rules end up being plain white documents with masses of paragraphs.

But yeah, even if I don’t get a game in tomorrow (…basically letting my friends choose what they want to play) I’ll still try to do a battle report sometime this weekend (Sunday likely). I think I’ll be more motivated to do that since I now have some definite sheets to choose from.

Easier Viewing of Documents
I don’t know why I didn’t think of this earlier, but I’ve now updated the Latest Rules section with a “View Online” option that opens the PDF right in your browser thanks to Google Docs Viewer. I figure this’ll help for people who want to just glance at the rules without having to download them all. But yeah, going forward all future PDF documents (if there are anymore!) will have a similar link.

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