Got some more cool fanart today, this time from cody20 who has been a big proponent of the game. Always great to see works like this! Traditionally “fast” travel in Dinosaur Cowboys is done via Flappers (Pterosauria) and Swimmers (Nothosaurus), but USA 2285 is a big place so old fashion steam boats and blimps would be perfect for the cowboy feel!
From the great DakkaDakka thread brimming with cool dinosaur/cowboy related figures.
A new rule for your reading pleasure today. The basic idea is if you can draw a line between two allies and there is a target in between they are “caught in a Crossfire” and both allies get +2 bonus Attacks. That bonus is pretty high, but that helps act as a motivator to maneuver and position Posse members on the battlefield. This one will require some testing before it makes it into v1.0, but it should be a fun improvement if it works out okay. My main motivator was Flanking in Dungeons and Dragons and all the player focus around achieving a flank. I think rewarding tactical play (already done with Surprise Hit where a bonus is given for attacks from behind) is a good method for ensuring the match doesn’t turn into a slug fest of entrenched characters.
Crossfire
Dedicated readers might remember that back in 2009 I had the spark of inspiration to make something with dinosaurs and cowboys in it. That spark was thanks to National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo), which is a great initiative where you try to write 50,000 words in the month of November. That’s 1,667 words a day. The genre and format can be anything, although normally a book is preferred.
So with November almost here I thought what better topic than Dinosaur Cowboys? But instead of one long winded story I’m going to create various fictional short stories that help flesh out the background and history of the game. I’ll be uploading the fresh-off-the-presses (aka full of typos and grammatical errors) short stories as I go once November is here, so check back to the Fiction category often.
Anyways for now I have a few ideas for short stories, but some plot ideas, characters, or locations would be a great help:
I could basically keep typing story ideas forever because there is so much to do with the world. I think this initiative will be fun (because Nanowrimo always is, even if it’s a bunch of effort too!) and will help flesh out the background and give players and fans a better idea for their own campaigns or standalone games.
PS: Totally missed my self imposed October 10th deadline for releasing v1.0. Turns out Thanksgiving weekend is more about socializing instead of last minute playtesting. Look for v1.0 before November though, since I want to be able to focus on writing fiction not rules for that month.
Two great new Posses today that I will be using in my next playtest (and hopefully battle report depending on how my scheduling goes). These are created using the v0.91 rules, well, almost, since the Pike weapon is a new one that isn’t in there yet.
I thought I’d go a new route with both Posses, so I went for 1 Leader + 2 Members + 1 Dinosaur for both. The Tribe of the Blood Pact ended up very close combat oriented, whereas Hope’s Warden geared out pretty heavily with a solid choice of guns. It’ll either be very messy or very quick.
Anyways unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of the Posses in advance, but I might retroactively edit the entry if I take some photos for the battle report.
Cannons as Artillery
I decided for my next game I’m going to put a slight focus on cannons. This is partly inspired by my recent visit to the San Juan fort, or perhaps my 28mm scaled cannon souvenir. Either way what I want to do is have each Posse get fire support from a row of distant artillery cannons.
How this will be achieved is each player can drop a single “cannonball” once per Turn. To do this they hold a small scrap of paper (circular, 1″ diameter) from 20″ above the table and let it drop over their desired target. A piece of paper that small will drift a lot, and that will represent the cannon fire deviating. Then I’ll just use these rules to represent the impact of the shell:
Cannon Shell: 1A-5D 6" Explosion 2" Knockback
I’m also toying with the idea of having each player choose a different type of shot, like Grapeshot which has a bigger radius, etc.
Creating Bloodscar
First up was a Leader, who I would make a Savage to keep the theme. I wanted him to be fast and deadly, so I gave him an additional +1 MV beyond the +1 MV provided by the Savage Allegiance. This cost me a hefty 15 IP though. For survivability I went for +1 AR (10 IP) and +2 HP (12 IP) which meant with his Leader bonuses he’d have 12 HP. Finally I knocked his MMC down by 1 for 10 IP.
I figured this leader was a crude barbarian intent on raiding small villages and outlying towns. After being approached by an Armored dinosaur in the night Bloodscar saw this as a sign. In his mind the sign was to assemble a ragtag Posse and raid the old mill at Mikkalo, Oregon.
Oh and he got my first Trait allocation, in this case Retreat! since the extra 4″ Movement to an ally could really help close the gap at the last second.
47 IP, $70. Savage, MV 6, AR 1, RMC 9, MMV 7, BRV 7, HP 12, Retreat! Pickaxe, 80kW Six-Shooter
Creating Illit’taex
What would a Savage Leader be without a Savage Member to back him up? In this case Bloodscar had hired the violent and deadly Illit’taex. He is a roaming mercenary intent on stirring up trouble, and attacking a mill for plunder and fun is right up his alley. I had a great figure in mind for Illit’taex so I knew I wanted a Spear/Pike for him. Otherwise he is basically a less expensive version than the Leader. I made him Savage Allegiance and gave him +1 AR (10 IP) and -1 MMC (10 IP). I also boosted his HP by 2 (12 IP), and actually did some voluntary weakness in terms of Bravery (-1 to 5 for +2 IP) so that I could squeeze out a few more HP from my IP pool.
Since Bloodscar had the Leader HP bonus and Sendar the Duster HP bonus I needed something to keep Illit’taex equally tough. To that end I gave him Bonus HP I to bring his HP from 10 to 13.
30 IP, $70. Savage, MV 5, AR 1, RMC 9, MMC 7, BRV 5, HP 13, Bonus HP I. Pike, 80kW Six-Shooter
Creating Sendar
I figured that a semi-crazy leader (I seem to make a lot of these; apparently the future is rough!) who is on a vision quest after seeing an Armored dinosaur would totally need an equally unbalanced shaman to whisper plots in his ears. Again my main motivation was the figure I had in mind. She honestly ended up being an even lighter version of Illit’taex in terms of stats. I did manage to equip her with a fairly nice melee weapon though, so the different spread should be interesting. Bloodscar’s Pickaxe is 1A-6D, Illit’taex’s Pike is 4A-3D, and Sendar’s Staff is 3A-4D, so yeah lots of variety.
Anyways like I said pretty light on the spending. I gave her +1 MV for 10 IP so she wouldn’t be left behind. Then +2 HP for 12 IP (thanks to Illit’taex’s -1 BRV sacrifice), and finally -1 MMC for 10 IP.
I also figured she would make a better Duster than a Savage, like perhaps she had worked as a soothsayer in a border town or something. To me she was still more of a gypsy than a pure feral shaman.
32 IP, $70. Duster, MV 4, AR 0, RMC 8, MMV 7, BRV 6, HP 12. Staff, 80kW Six-Shooter
Creating The Crimson Terror
Instead of the standard Ankylosaurus that is the archetype Armored dinosaur I went for a Styracosaurus instead. He still look pretty rough and tumble and it would give me a chance to try out my new Papo toy.
He made sense as a Feral Breed instead of anything else, which gave me -1 DIS and +2 HP. I couldn’t afford any HP improvements, so his stats ended up being pretty simple.
Although he could have everyone mounted at once (3 passengers because he’s Large) I didn’t expect to do that with his slower 4 MV / D4 PMV. To that end I figured he’d be Running each turn, so the Runner Trait was perfect as it gives +1 MV when Running.
$500 Armored. Feral, MV 4, PMV D4, AR 1, MMC 7, DIS 4, HP 28, Runner.
Creating Limeskull
You’ll understand the hilariously cheesy name better once you see the figure, since he has lime green armor and a big hand painted skull on the back. Then again I can’t say much since the figure was one of my old ones from the 90s. I think it might actually be for the Warzone tabletop game. Anyways I made Limeskull a Neotechnoist, which isn’t too painful as a Leader because the HP penalty doesn’t hurt as much. Anyways I wanted him to be a bit more mobile than usual, especially since I was arming him with a Light Repeater. So +1 MV for 12 IP it was. Then +2 HP for 12 IP to further help balance the Neotechnoist limitation. Finally +1 AR for 10 IP to help match his high tech looking figure.
No Traits for him as I figured the Light Repeater with 7 RMC would speak for itself. I did give him a Small IRP though to help with healing.
34 IP, $130. Neotechnoist, MV 5, AR 1, RMC 7, MMC 8, BRV 7, HP 10. Light Repeater, S-IRP
Creating Red Dove
As I mentioned I’m going for names that would sound tough to a Neotechnoist snug inside The Wall, but sound patently ridiculous in the real world outside. So Red Dove was born, and I thought even if he doesn’t sound tough he can at least be tough. I gave him a Motor Blade (always wanted to try it) and a solid 100kW Six-Shooter (looking forward to using Fan the Hammer before charging in). I had enough left over cash by the end to afford another Small IRP.
In terms of improvements I went for +1 AR for 10, +1 HP for 6, and -1 RMC and -1 MMC for 10 IP each. Kind of a middle ground trooper but at least he’d be versatile. For his Trait I gave him Whirlwind which will be terrific if I get a chance to use it!
36 IP, $130. Bandit, MV 4, AR 1, RMC 7, MMC 7, BRV 6, HP 9, Whirlwind. Motor Blade, 100kW Six-Shooter, S-IRP
Creating Glowstar
The final member of the crew had a heavy weapon for his figure, so I thought a nice hefty shotgun would work. I went for an Auto Shotgun and tried to get stats to match. Unfortunately his Neotechnoist weakness for HP hurt a bit more than the Leader.
Anyways I paid 15 IP for -1 RMC which brought it down to 6, woot. At these early stages such low RMC really helps since a lot of Posses can’t afford armor yet. Anyways speaking of armor I continued the theme of high tech by giving him +1 AR for 10 IP. Then I balanced out the Neotechnoist penalty by giving him +2 HP for 12 IP.
He got the Neck Shot Trait since I hoped to get a kill shot if I could hit a weakened enemy. It would also be great against Dinosaurs since they aren’t even close to dead after half HP of damage, so I won’t be wasting my shot with it.
37 IP, $150. Neotechnoist, MV 4, AR 1, RMC 6, MMV 8, BRV 6, HP 8, Neck Shot. Auto Shotgun
Creating Nedevan
Finally it was time for their dinosaur. I went for a nice soft Ducky dinosaur, which holds a special place in my heart because it was the first Papo toy I bought. Anyways I figured he’d be well broken in from a lifetime behind The Wall, so a Trained Breed made sense. This gave me +1 DIS but -2 HP, but that’s okay since Ducky’s have an abundance of HP but not a lot of Discipline.
To ensure he could absorb a bunch of fire I gave him the Bonus HP I Trait to bring his HP to 18. Otherwise there wasn’t much to do, so his stats ended up as:
$300 Ducky. Trained, MV 6, PMV D6, AR 0, MMV 7, DIS 4, HP 18, Bonus HP I.
Also note that if I ever finish making an editable Posse Roster I’ll be able to provide PDF lists for any of the Posses I make. Hopefully a future improvement!
Making Posse Selection Easier For New Players While Not Overwhelming Them With Long Blog Post Titles
You may think the complex graph to the right is rather complex, but when introducing a new player the idea of building or choosing a Posse is equally overwhelming. IP and ND are great measurements of the power/skill of a Posse, but it’s hard for a new player to look at a roster and go “Okay these guys are mostly geared for close combat”.
To alleviate this I recommend a simple system of adding up all the statistics for a Posse to give an idea of where they differ. For example if the total Movement of the entire 5 man Posse is 35 we’ll know they are much faster than normal, since an average 5 man Posse would have 5*4=20 MV. By doing this for every statistic you can help new players see trends when evaluating a bunch of pre-built Posses.
So first of all add together the MV for all members of the Posse and record it somewhere on the sheet. Do the same for AR, BRV, and HP. For MMC and RMC you will have to do this a bit differently since lower is better, so subtract the MMC and RMC from 12 (for example 4 RMC would count as 8 [12-4]). By the end you’ll have a big set of numbers for each statistic. These can be compared to the default, min, and max stats for the number of characters in the Posse. Here is the chart that you can compare to:
For example if you had a Leader + 3 Members who were ALL Dusters, then their MV would be 3 MV * 4 char = 12. You could then look at the Default MV column for Leader + 3 on the chart above to see 16, meaning that the Posse you’re evaluating is slower than average. This helps evaluate at a glance without having to explain “What is a Duster” to a player who might already be overwhelmed with the idea of rolling D12s :)
Pre-Built Posses and Characters
Why do I mention pre-built Posses? Well, when you’re just starting or just trying to introduce someone to the game you want to make it as easy as possible to join in. As part of that the most veteran player would likely create some pre-built Posses that other newer players can choose from. This is a lot easier than a player who doesn’t know the system trying to build their own characters. Simply describing the Posse can help, like “This is a close combat Posse, but they have a sniper here” or so forth, but having some numerical comparisons from the system above doesn’t hurt.
Another option is to have pre-built characters that can be combined into a Posse, which is a good second step for players who aren’t fully ready to make their own Posse. For example you could have a “Sniper” character with related stats, traits, and weapons with an IP and ND total, and a player could simply hire that built character instead of customizing one of their own. Once they have 100 IP and $1,000 in hirings their Posse is done.
I eventually want to help with this idea on the blog by giving simple pre-built characters that can be thrown together into a Posse, so stay tuned for that. It relates back to the early days of Dinosaur Cowboys when I created generic “Hirelings” with preset stats and equipment. I might also include some generic enemies for the campaign/RPG side, like Sabertooth Cats, bandits, and non-recruitable dinosaurs. If I complete The Saloon (my idea for web based Posse creation software) I’ll be able to pump out these characters even faster.
Well I’m back in the saddle after my week vacation. I’m still hoping to get a final stable release out for October 10th, but that might get pushed back because I have a friend’s wedding to go to this weekend.
Anyways as I mentioned in my post about the v0.91 preview I integrated my sepia images into the rulebook. I’m still not entirely sold on the idea because it has the downside of bloating the PDF file and maybe doesn’t even add much in terms of style. The image to the right gives you an idea of how these have been integrated.
I’m hoping to get a playtest in this week and over the weekend and then be in a position to release v1.0 on Monday. Although I would like to do a full battle report for it I might skip the photos and writeup this time because it takes significantly more time, and my focus in this case is testing the latest rule changes as compared to showcasing the game. I’m sure once I get v1.0 done I’ll have plenty of battle reports coming for that.
Not much other news on the Dinosaur Cowboy front. I migrated my previous RPGGeek item to BoardGameGeek instead (link) after some discussion on where it belonged. With luck I’ll get some user contributions in the form of images and session reports and so forth.
A reader pointed me to Paraworld, a semi-cheesy 2006 RTS computer game that involves dinosaurs. I’ll have to find a copy and give it a shot, since any rare supporting material I can find for the genre is worth checking out.
I was pointed to this on DakkaDakka, but it’s from Studio McVey. Although it’s not a recognizable dinosaur, the slightly sci-fi feel to the cowgirl takes it to the next level. I remember Mike McVey’s awesome Warhammer Quest diorama from White Dwarf way back in the day, so it’s great to see he’s still sculpting and producing fine works.
(Note: Scheduled vacation post. Back October 4th)
The zombification doesn’t hugely interest me, but the concept art of cowboys and dinosaurs is, of course, great. This is from a canceled video game called Dinosaurs vs Alamo (of which there are but a few scant details around).
(Note: Scheduled vacation post. Back October 4th)
NOTE: v1.0 was released on October 31st, 2011, so use that version instead.
Since I’ll be working hard on getting a final release out by October 10th I thought I’d show folks how the rulebook has been shaping up since v0.91.
There a bunch of minor changes and editing, but the biggest two changes are: Dinosaur rules have been hugely updated (Discipline, Breeds, new roster layout, etc.) and I tried putting in my historical sepia images. Here are some other highlights:
Anyways I’d like some feedback on the image integration (does it look good, does it print well, how do you feel about the increased file size, etc.) and the new Dinosaur rules (does Discipline work over Bravery, is Panic Movement fun or tedious, etc.). If all the rules make sense and continue to playtest well this is probably what v1.0 will look like. I mean I’ll have some more eye-for-detail editing and dozens of re-reads to make sure everything makes sense and flows well, but yeah, getting close!
Download the Dinosaur Cowboys Rulebook v0.91 Preview and let me know what you think!
(Note: Scheduled vacation post. Back October 4th)
After mulling over the idea of Grit for a while, I realized something: Given a long enough timeline I’m going to prod this game to death (thus the dino-prod image to the right). What I mean is if I keep looking for stuff to change or improve or edit I’m going to find it…or fabricate it. Hitpoints worked perfectly well (as Red_Starrise pointed out yesterday), and yet here I am coming up with a different mechanic for them. Sure it’s a neat mechanic, but it’s also more complex (both to learn and to use), and that gets away from my original goals for the core rulebook.
So what does this mean for Dinosaur Cowboys? It means that I need to just say (in a western accent) “These here rules be done!”, release v1.0, and bask in the glory of completing a project. Otherwise I’ll keep coming up with new ideas and new mechanics that I’ll try to shoehorn into this game just because it’s my current project. Normally I’m so incredibly ready to be done with a game, but with Dinosaur Cowboys it’s different because I’ve really enjoyed the process, still like the setting, and generally think it’s one of the most solid rulesets I’ve come up with. But my brain keeps churning up new ideas, and forcing them into a nearly-finished project is probably not the best strategy.
I was aiming to release v1.0 by the end of Christmas, but instead I think I’ll try to wrangle ‘er up before the end of October. Maybe even by Canadian Thanksgiving (it’s kind of western…) which is October 10th. Having a deadline is a good idea since otherwise I could see floundering around, making small tweaks and needless changes and so forth until the year 2285.
The downside to finishing the rules is it’s hard to maintain outside interest and fans of the game without continually releasing or updating something. A game that never changes is kinda hard to get psyched about, I guess. Maybe that’s why splatbooks were so common for D&D and the like. I think this blog will be less active after v1.0, and probably more focused on battle reports and the like. We’ll see how that all pans out when I get there.
So what I’m saying is v1.0 of Dinosaur Cowboys will be available October 10th, 2011. Set your sun dials, boys and girls.
OCTOBER 11th EDIT: Whoops that was a lie. End of October instead!
Vacation
And on that note I’m going on vacation, since nothing is as productive as not working, haha. I’ll be out next week, but have scheduled two image based posts for September 26th and 29th. Until then, cowboy…
Brainstormin’ on HP
Recently I’ve gotten a few discussions going around the web about alternatives to Hitpoints in games, specifically in this game. So I figured why not have one more discussion in the form of this post…
RPGs have an easier time of it because they can afford more complex rules (like the mess of addition the Green Ronin ‘Toughness save’ is). For skirmish I see a too-light version where a model can die pretty easily, such as the Knocked Down / Stunned / Out of Action approach of Mordheim or the Flesh Wound of Necromunda. I wanted to have SOME survivability to models, so I went for lower levels of Hitpoints. Now however I’m reconsidering that.
Variant Rule: Grit
Instead of Hitpoints each character has a new Grit statistic. This statistic would be a die type, with lower being worse, such as D4, D6, D8, D10, D12. When they take damage they make a “Grit Save” which succeeds if they roll their Grit die greater than or equal to the incoming damage. If the save succeeds nothing negative happens. If it fails or the damage exceeds their Grit die they need to mark a location as Hit. There are 4 locations: Legs, Left/Right Arm, Torso that correspond to a statistic on the roster, specifically: MV, RMC, MMC, AR. Tracking which location is hit would be done through checkboxes put underneath the statistic on the roster. When checked that location is damaged and they suffer a corresponding penalty of -1 MV, +1 RMC/MMC, or -1 AR. When all 4 locations are hit they are dead.
For Example: Peggy is hit for 5 damage and has D8 Grit. She rolls the D8 and gets a 7, which is successful (7 > 5). If she had rolled a 4 or less or had D4 Grit (too low to save) it would have failed. Upon failure she might choose to mark her Movement (Legs) as hit, which would make her have -1 MV for the rest of the game.
Analyzing the Rule
This might make people TOO hard to kill, since with a high enough Grit (for example D12) and crappy enough damage from the enemy you wouldn’t even be hit ever. I think balancing Grit and possible weapon damage would be the hardest part. High Armor was balanced by imposing Movement penalties, and high HP costs a ton of IP or Traits, and even still you can’t get a massive amount right away. But with Grit you could maybe power up to D12 early on by making huge sacrifices, but then they’d be invincible basically. Well I guess there is still the chance they roll poorly on the save itself.
I also don’t like the system because it’s one more roll. One of my biggest complaints with Warhammer 40k is how much WORK it is to shoot something. I don’t want DC to become like that too.
In all honesty I think I just really like this mechanic, so maybe I’ll use it in another game in the future instead of trying to force it into this game at such a late date. Either that or edit up and paste the above block into the rulebook as a variant, which is the most likely case.
In Other News…
I played through the The Great T-Rex Hunt I outlined a while ago. It was pretty fun and had a different feel to it, but was more a numbers game of whittling down the t-rex before he could one-hit-kill the entire Posse. I’ll be posting those pictures and write up soon, and hopefully getting a more traditional game in with the new Dinosaur Discipline / Breed rules. Ideally I’ll play and report on at least one DC game per month. If everything works for the latest revisions I think I might be almost at v1.0 too, woot (or “yeehaw!” if we’re going for flavor).
I’ve always been a fan of the website Board Game Geek. They certainly are Eurogame-centric (as most boardgamers are) but they still have great resources and communities for smaller, older, or out of print games. Plus it’s fun to read up on a game someone told you about and see what the buzz is around it.
So it’s with great pleasure I announce that Dinosaur Cowboys got added to the BGG database. That’s right, all approved and added and official looking. Feel free to see and contribute to the new Dinosaur Cowboys BGG item.
I’ve been asked a couple of times about possibly setting up forums somewhere for discussion. I try to get discussions going at half a dozen websites, so that’s definitely a valid request. To that end I’m making the BGG forum for Dinosaur Cowboys the de-facto place to discuss ideas, traits, adventures, game sessions, etc. The link is available at the above page or in the sidebar of this blog, or you can go directly to the official Dinosaur Cowboys Forum. Hopefully we can get some lively chatter going on in there.
You would have though v0.9 would be late in the game to change any rules significantly, and yet here we are! I just did some pretty major revisions around the rules for Dinosaurs.
This all started when I considered having dinosaurs ignore difficult terrain last week. I realized that they have some unique characteristics to differentiate a dinosaur from a human cowboy…but not really enough cool things about them. They were basically bulky melee fighters who had a lot of HP and could transport people.
With this in mind I changed two main features of Dinosaurs: Discipline and Breed. Before I get into those let me dazzle you with the new Dinosaur Type List from the updated rules:
Dinosaur Discipline
Bravery didn’t make a ton of sense with Dinosaurs because they hardly ever took over half damage from a single attack (like in the case of a 30+HP monster). I still wanted a way to show how controlled and trained a Dinosaur was, so I added the “Discipline” stat as a replacement. Instead of duplicating a description of this stat I’ll just paste an excerpt from the rulebook:
How to use Discipline
If a dinosaur suffers damage greater than or equal to their Discipline value from a single ranged or melee attack they will panic.
Mark them with a “Panic” token. Multiple Panic tokens can be placed on each dinosaur.
For example a Horned Dinosaur has a Discipline of 8. They are hit by a Rotary Rifle for 11 damage and are therefore marked with a Panic token. During the next Activation they are hit by a Bundle of Dynamite for a further 8 damage, so another Panic token is added.
Effect of Panic
When marked with one or more Panic token dinosaurs will use their Panic Movement, as recorded on the Posse Roster.
For example a Runner Dinosaur has a Movement statistic of 10 and a Panic Movement of D10. If they were marked with a Panic token they would have to roll D10 to decide how far they can Standard Move, instead of using the static 10 value.
Recovering from Panic
At the end of the dinosaur’s Activation remove 1 Panic token.
If the dinosaur is mounted remove an additional 1 Panic token.
For example a King Dinosaur (with two passengers) has 3 Panic tokens at the start of the turn. Eventually it Activates, rolls D6 for it’s Panic Movement with a result of 2. The King performs a 2″ Standard Move and then a rider fires. The King’s Activation is done, so 2 Panic tokens are removed (1 default with a bonus 1 removed because the King is mounted).
What this means is if a dinosaur takes damage >= Discipline they use Panic Movement instead, which is a random amount similar to their maximum static Movement (so a MV 6 dino gets D6 Panic MV). Nice and simple, and the idea of stacking multiple Panic tokens is fun because it really rewards pouring fire into a dinosaur. Plus it’s an elegant way to have an easy benefit if there is a rider present (as compared to having to manually modify the Discipline stat).
To support this I had originally aimed for Trained/Untrained as a choice you could make when buying a Dinosaur. Trained would give +1 DIS, -2 HP and Untrained would be -1 DIS, +2 HP. But then Kyles Games on The Forge forums pointed out that having a version that doesn’t modify stats at all would be nice. I instantly thought of the Bandit Allegiance for humans, and then I thought “Hey why not have Allegiances for dinosaurs!” After I had completed a preliminary sketch of those rules I changed the name from Allegiance to Breed, to once again distinguish dinosaurs that little bit more.
Dinosaur Breed
Again an excerpt from the rulebook is probably easiest for this:
Trained
Trained dinosaurs are born in captivity or raised in a human environment soon after birth and make ideal companions. They are disciplined mounts well versed in accepting a rider and carrying them safely through battle. However they are slightly gentler after having their primal instincts suppressed.
Effect: +1 DIS, -2 HP
Untrained
Untrained dinosaurs have some exposure to humans but not enough to be fully broken into a saddle and harness. This majority of dinosaurs are this type of breed, and such an upbringing has no positive or negative effect on their performance.
Effect: None
Feral
Feral dinosaurs are wild and free and hunt through the jungles and deserts of the world. They tend to be tougher and less disciplined and think more with their stomachs than brains.
Effect: -1 DIS, +2 HP
Plains
Plains dinosaurs roam across the flat scrub land, desert, and dust bowls outside the volcanic jungle. As a result they are exceptionally fast and agile, but are less competent in a fight because of their tendency to outrun foes instead.
Effect: +1 MV, +1 MMC
After all these changes I also hugely cleaned up and edited the Dinosaur section in general to be clearer. I also had to update the Dinosaur Type List table to include Panic MV, Discipline, etc. as you saw above. And then of course the Posse Roster needed to be changed to handle all this new dinosaur info, which worked out great because it makes the Dinosaur section at the bottom just a tiny bit different looking…I’m going to laugh if later I go “Ugh these rules are ALMOST the same why don’t I just merge them?” and basically undo all my work.
But anyways here’s an example of the Dinosaur statline on the Posse Roster:
Now I’ll just playtest these rules and then you might see a v0.91 or v0.95 coming to a download near you :)
You know this project has been going on for quite a while now, basically since the first egg of an idea in November 2009. Now this blog has recently received it’s 3,000th view, which is big news for a small fries rules designer like me.
So I thought I’d take a moment and reflect on the Dinosaur Cowboy roots. The pictures below are from the first game I played of Dinosaur Cowboys, basically with some early sheets and scrap paper for rules ideas. In this case I pitted two totally made up characters against each other. Originally the game was meant to be an RPG, which is why the sheets you see are so much more detailed than the simple and elegant statline on the modern roster. I like it too because you can see a bunch of old weapons, the original damage track idea (a mechanic I love from Silent Death), and so forth. You can also see similarities though, like the weapon statline which is fairly similar to what is used today.
Anyways interesting and fun either way!
Horizon Games (main blog)
Dinosaur Cowboys - Tabletop Skirmish Game 