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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No game this week

January 22, 2010 — Dinosaur Cowboy

I haven’t made any progress on a big book of enemies, and haven’t even had a chance to play Dinosaur Cowboys this week. Next week looks quieter, so far, which means I can hopefully get a campaign summary or detailed battle report posted here (with pictures) to give everyone an idea of how the game plays.

But yeah, minor polish here and there on the rules, but things will tend to slow down considering the core structure of the game (and every supporting document besides enemies) is complete.

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Double crossing bandits

January 15, 2010 — Dinosaur Cowboy

Thursday’s Game
My game yesterday was fun. My friend had previously tried to double cross a travelling Neotechnoist merchant and his guard, which resulted in a close call with death-by-hanging thanks to a town sheriff. After some bandits broke in and won the fight against the townsfolk, my friend decided to join up with them. He took his share of the loot and equipment, and then headed south to go to a “Thickskull” nest to get himself a Dinomount.

After getting attacked by an adult Ripper him and another new bandit member were sent to explore the Ripper nest. The entrance caved in during an attack, and him and the bandit groupie continued deeper in the cave. Eventually he swam down an underwater tunnel that surfaced in a vine covered chamber. In a home built amongst the vines was an old man who had been there for 5 years. Some chatter back and forth and eventually it’s shown that the man killed his colleagues and tried to make a staircase from their bones to escape through a hole in the top of a chamber nearby. They fought and my friend killed the double barreled shotgun wielding old man by using grenades.

When he escaped out of the cave he decided to double cross the bandits. I don’t get what his deal is with double crossing everyone, but it makes for a dull game because he can’t do any “canned” missions like “Go here for X dollars, do this for Y dollars”. Instead he’s pretty much on the run all the time for being a jerk to people, and now he had screwed both the law abiding citizens of New Mexico, as well as the menacing bandit element.

He tried to make a run to Albuquerque to catch a 400 mile Flapper ride to Utah, but was caught outside the city by 3 newbie bandits, 2 full bandits, a bandit sergeant, and their Horned Dinomount. After dispatching the newbies he played cat and mouse for a bit, but eventually the combined firepower of the others brought him down and killed him.

His next character idea is someone who starts in Washington, and gathers enough supplies to make it to Canada (British Columbia specifically). Out of all of the USA he has to choose to go north to Canada, ugh.

Rules Thoughts
Anyways the system held up well again, and the Traits added a lot to it. I’m still having some trouble balancing AR vs Attacks, but I think that’s because he never really stopped running long enough to buy better armor with all his money. Having a total AR of 3 basically means you take a lot of damage…a lot a lot. But then again if he had gotten a Dinomount instead of trying to shoot everyone 10 seconds after meeting them, his AR wouldn’t be so awful. Apologies if I sound frustrated, haha.

In terms of the rules I’ve polished and refined them a bit more, and will continue to do so as I do more play testing and real games. Getting pretty close to done now, besides the zillions of enemies I want to make. I also might update the History a bit to include a note about Canada, and maybe how Alaska is considered an untouched paradise or something (sort of like Shell Beach in Dark City or the island lands in Mad Max or flat out land in Waterworld [yeah, I just referenced that movie in a serious context, so what?!]).

Update
I’ve completed the section about Canada and Alaska by adding a simple paragraph to the History section (under the “Eruption Day” header), duplicated below:

To the north Canada was covered in ash and eventually emptied as unprepared citizens escaped the cold by fleeing south. The country remains forsaken and abandoned, covered in blowing snow and choking ash and ruled by dangerous creatures. Rumors persist that Alaska endures untouched by the eruption's devastation; a veritable paradise for those brave enough to explore northwards.
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v0.5…halfway there?

January 12, 2010 — Dinosaur Cowboy

Well here is v0.5 of Dinosaur Cowboys. My version numbers are sort of off considering this beauty might jump right up to v1.0 in no time. Unlike my last release these rules are now feature complete, including all items, weapons, traits, sheets, etc. I still want to playtest them more, do some refining and reformatting as I go, and keep a running document of enemy sheets that can be used. But yeah, in general things are ready to rock.

I have a game coming up on Thursday, and will hopefully have a less busy week soon to sit down and do some more playtesting myself.

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

Rules: ODT | PDF

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

Character Sheet: ODT | PDF

Sidekick / Enemy Sheet: ODT | PDF

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Here be Traits

January 8, 2010 — Dinosaur Cowboy

Well the turn around on removing Damage Tracks and creating Traits was faster than expected. I ended up going for Active, Passive, and Boost Traits.

Active are the ones I talked about yesterday that you use when attacking. Things like Crippling Shot. Each has an Activation Number, and if any of your Attacks are greater than or equal to the number, you get to apply the effect of the Active Trait to your target. I ended up solving the “high attack guns become overpowered” bit by modifying the Activation Number based on your number of attacks.

Passive are once per combat abilities that normally give high temporary boosts (like +5 Movement or something), or special effects (like instantly reloading a weapon). I didn’t get too into custom rules here to keep the game at a light skirmish level, and I also tried to have any temporary bonuses go directly to existing stats, instead of things like “Now you get +2 AR from cover!”.

Boosts are flat, static modifiers to existing stats. Like +1 Movement. Hooray…not much to say about them.

I did rules for “Re-Learning Traits” to allow people to re-skill their choices. Then I filled in info on the 3 categories, dropped the Damage Track section, and off I went. Oh I also redid a bit of the Dinotypes table so that it has a +HP column. Then all the related changes to character / sidekick sheets, etc.

I was mildly tempted to have most of the Traits have witty references to popular culture, or be more Fallout style with cutesy names, but ended up going for basic, descriptive names instead. I didn’t think that pop culture references would age well (already Guild Wars: Nightfall skills are looking a little silly) and fun names are JUST fun, but make it difficult to read the list and decide what you want.

Anyways, 22 Traits which totals 36 if you include the various stages (ie: Toughness I, II, and III). Maybe more to come later (send ideas if you’ve got ’em!), but I’ve pretty much exhausted the most obvious options. I think there is plenty of selection considering you only get 9 Traits by max level.
Here is the current list pulled straight from the rules:

Click for full, unsquished size

I figure I’ll post the updated rules tomorrow, since I’m out of energy to do it right now. Then I plan on some playtesting sometime next week…hopefully (it’s looking pretty busy already), and maybe a game or two with real people to cement more testing.

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Dinomount gallery

January 7, 2010 — Dinosaur Cowboy

Annnnnd I’m back. That ended up being quite a gap, but holidays and busyness tend to do that. Anyways…2010 is here! We don’t have battery powered laser blastin’ six-shooters, but hey, at least 2010 sounds futuristic. Anyways I got a chance to photograph my collection of Dinomounts so far. There have a tag from the company “Papo” on them (except the Crocodile and Runner). Definitely highly detailed and good quality, and I wish the range had a few more types available. It’s kind of nice to get durable plastic toys instead of fragile metal figures, and so far they’ve added a lot to the game (especially in the big bandit raid last game, before the holidays).

I had a great idea for Traits as well, which I’ll talk about below after the gallery (note you should mouse over each for the type of Dinomount shown, and click for a larger [1024×768] picture):

Dinomount Gallery
Ducky Horned
Plated Raptor
Runner Thickskull
Crocodile

Traits Idea
Right, so the Trait breakthrough. First of all, Damage Tracks have been kiboshed. Dinomounts just provide a flat HP bonus to their riders. This really simplifies things, and stops my from feeling like I simply ripped off Silent Death (without actually improving one of their best mechanisms).
To make up for this simplification, and perhaps partially inspired by the Action Skills in the computer game Borderlands, I’ve decided to split Traits into Active and Passive. Passive just provide simple stat bonuses like +X Movement, +X Attacks, and so on. Or they provide generic other bonuses like a bigger inventory or faster overland travel or things of that nature.
The real fun are the Active Traits. Basically each Active Trait has an effect and an Activation Number (still working on the term…). Whenever a To-Hit roll is greater than or equal to the Activation Number, the effect of the Active Trait is applied to the enemy. You can switch your current Active Trait (or not even use one) any time before making an attack in combat.
I’m also considering some sort of re-skill fee that lets you pay Neodollars to erase your current Active Traits and choose new ones. I’m thinking (Level * $20) or something, to make it easier to try different Traits at lower levels, compared to higher levels when you should have a pretty good idea of what works.
So, as an example, let’s say an Active Trait is called “Crippling Shot”, and has an Activation Number of 9. If I’m firing with a standard 100KW Six-Shooter (4 Attacks), any roll of 9+ applies the Crippled effect to the target, which reduces their Movement by -1. Simple and fun and lots of options for hindering your enemy beyond just flat out applying damage.

Problems with this new idea? Well, obviously guns with more Attacks would be “overpowered” compared to those with low Attacks but high Damage. I’m thinking that the Activation Number will be a sort of “base” number, and can be modified and calculated depending on the weapon. For example if you have 1-2 attacks, lower the Activation Number by 1, so it makes up for having less chances to Activate by being easier to activate. I’m still trying to find an elegant solution to this.

So anyways, I’ve got a bit of work with redoing character sheets and enemy sheets (too bad I’ve already printed a ton of them!). I think I’ll just update the Dinotypes table in the Rules to have the +HP bonus right inline, which negates the need for Dinocards (which I mentioned before). I’m going to keep Break Tests (probably just at certain HP thresholds, like 50% and 25%, or maybe under certain effects like if they take 10+ damage in a single turn), but otherwise I can pretty much wipe out the entire Damage Track section. Once all that is done I’ll just have a bunch of enemies to make up, but that’s an ongoing process anyways, so yeah, should be getting close by the end of January!

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First “real” game

December 18, 2009 — Dinosaur Cowboy

Thoughts from Yesterday
Well my first “real” game (ie: not just playtesting alone) went well yesterday. I was the GM and my friend played a Duster who started in New Mexico. He shot up most of the people he met which resulted in him being knocked out and captured by bandits, and then after escaping getting captured AGAIN and almost hung by angry townsfolk and Neotechnoists. Good times.

The game held up very well. It would have been nice to have some Traits done, but even without the added variety and options of those there was plenty to do in combat. I also would have liked some printed enemy sheets, since I sometimes had to fill them in as I went.

I had a bit of a “woa, wait a second” moment when I considered the possibility that Dinomounts don’t actually add anything to the game. Heresy, I know. Well, maybe what I should say is the Damage Tracks on Dinomounts don’t add much to the game. Maybe it would be better to just have Dinomounts add a flat +HP bonus. That sort of makes them just like pieces of equipment you wear to boost stats, instead of a separate entity.
But I worry that the whole reason I put Damage Tracks in was because I loved it so much in Silent Death, which they are based off. The whole degrading movement and armor as you go SEEMS like a fun idea…but is it really in practice?
So if I took out Damage Tracks and did make Dinomounts glorified +MV, +AR, +HP pieces of equipment, where would that leave the feel of the game? Well…almost too simple. Maybe I’d have to add in crouch and prone to make up for it, or something extra to give the player more choice than “move and shoot”.
I guess once I get a few Dinocards done up and integrate them into the game I can see how it plays. I guess I just find the foot combat so much fun already that I don’t know if extra steps and tracking will add much to the game.

Also I might want to change how AR works. Right now people get shot, a lot. With 2 AR as the base and 3 pretty much standard for the first two levels, you’re left taking a lot of hits. But I had to keep AR relatively low in preparation for a person getting a Dinomount (which normally boosts AR). What I might do to solve this problem is make base, unmounted AR higher (ie: 3 default, 4 or 5 common for low levels, which is 6 if you’re in cover which is a nice chance to dodge) and then put a cap on the bonus from Dinomounts. Like they would have “+2 AR max 6” or something, so if you don’t have much armor you still get some bonus from the Dinomount, otherwise not really. Anyways, think of that possible mechanic similar to the max Dex bonus in D&D, or something along those lines.
That is a further reason to just remove Damage Tracks, since why would you care about losing AR from your Dinomount when you’re already at their max cap?
Another possibility with this is to make base AR higher, but start having movement penalties right away, so you can be either heavily armored and slow, or lightly armored and fast. Hmm, that might restrict characters too much though.
Who knew I’d actually have problems with armor though?! Normally that’s an easy thing to solve, but I guess I just set the base too low to begin with.

Anyways…

Radio Silence
Well Christmas is approaching, and I’m taking next week off work, so don’t expect many posts from me. I hope to get Traits done and start filling in some enemy sheets, but yeah I’ll likely get too busy with family obligations to write much here. So if there isn’t a post until the new year, you’ll know why!

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Matching weapons and level…and rambling

December 16, 2009 — Dinosaur Cowboy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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