Dinosaur Cowboys – Tabletop Skirmish Game

Well I’ve started on the actual Rules document, and so far the progress is going pretty well, since so far it’s more or less converting the brainstorm notes to “rulebook format”.

One issue I’m realizing is there isn’t a whole lot to character creation. I guess once I create Trait trees (think skill trees in Diablo 2 or Titan Quest, or Perks in Fallout 1-3) a player will have more choices. At the same time the instructions are sort of like “Fill in these values. Play the game”. I guess that’s a good thing if I’m tending towards a skirmish style game as compared to a full blown RPG…maybe I just need to get used to it.

Anyways I figured out what a Level Up would look like, and even put a cap on it (normally I don’t bother). So you can get to Level 14, which would be 130 Kills (the XP system, although the GM could award Kills for quests / jobs). Basically it looks like this:

+1 Skill / 3 Levels
+1 Courage / 3 Levels
+1 Movement / 4 Levels
+D4 Hitpoints / Level (with a bonus +10 at max Level 14)
+1 Trait per 2 Levels (with a bonus Trait at Level 14)
And you also get either +1 Skill, +1 Courage, or +1 Movement (choose between the three) at Level 14.

I sort of like the idea of extra extra bonuses at the max Level.

Anyways, hmm, what else have I written so far. Well, the Movement section is done, with all it’s exciting options of “Standard, Run, Charge”. I might consider adding stances (like Crouch and Prone) but I think that might take the focus on fighting on Dinomounts.

I still need to translate the Combat section over, but since the rules aren’t too complex I don’t foresee a problem there. What I’m happiest about getting a preliminary version of is the types / categories of Dinomounts. I got a big ol’ Dinosaur book out from the library that has 400+ types of dinosaurs (and other cool prehistoric beasts like cave bears). I narrowed down all those hard-to-pronounce names into broad categories that share similar traits. The idea here is that you choose a type you like, and the GM can vary some stats based on a specific subtype. For example why have a tedious table with both a T-Rex AND an Allosaurus, when technically they are both large bipedal carnivores.
Plus I wanted to take the Xenozoic Tales approach of nicknaming dinosaurs easy to remember names. I’ve also worked up some preliminary stats in preparation for making “Dinocards” (which have a picture of the archetype dinosaur plus his stats, so that you can buy the mount and apply it directly to your character sheet). I tried to go for strengths and weaknesses to each dinosaurs, but I’ll have to playtest them all before getting a final feel. I’ll try to post what each nickname is later (since I had the list at home and I’m at work right now, but basically the Horned nickname would be a Triceratops, Raptor would be any variant of Velociraptor, etc.) Anyways, here is the table:

The other two sections I’m excited about completing are the Break Tests and Overland Travel parts.

Straight from the rules, here’s the downlow on Break Tests: A Break Test represents a character trying to keep their Dinomount under control. This may be necessary when the Dinomount is extremely hurt or wounded and just wants to run away, or if the character is trying to force the Dinomount into dangerous situations like jumping chasms or flowing rivers of lava.
Basically a chance for your dinosaur to run away (Flee) or sit there like a dummy (Stunned). This is handy for representing sharp, crafty predators compared to powerful (but defensive and vegetarian) creatures like Ankylosaurus.

And the Overland Travel is fun because I add a “Flapper” (Pterosauria clade) and “Swimmer” (Nothosaur clade) that allow you to travel between cities or across rivers, respectively. With the Flapper you can’t bring Dinomounts with you (well, except for a single Small size one) but it’s handy for going city to city quickly, since you can go 400 miles in a day (at $1/mile). Normal ground travel is your Movement score times 6 (for 6 hours of travel) converted to miles. So if you move 4″ and your Dinomount moves 8″ (total 12″) you could go 120 miles in a day. The maximum you could go would be 160 miles in a day (since 8″ is the maximum Movement at level 14, after you take Movement as your last bonus, and the fastest Dinomount is 8″). That seems pretty good for getting around the map, without the tedious “are we there yet” that I find common in most overland travel.

Anyways, I guess instead of just talking about all of this I could have posted the early rules document. I’ll do that now anyways (and I also updated the Latest Rules page). As before, OpenDocument or PDF format:

• ODT file
• PDF file

I’ll try to get the remaining sections done over the weekend, and then I can try to get a playtesting schedule done as I revise the content (since some of it was sort of off the cuff and needs a bit of work). I also have the tedious task of creating weapon, armor, equipment, Dinomount, and enemy lists. Always the least thrilling part of game design, imho.

Finally I started brainstorming on the history of the DC world (more below), and came up with a rough map of the USA. Um, in short, it looks awesome. So hooray let me post that! (Thanks to Google Maps for the basic image of the USA)

Now, how exactly am I going to make Dinosaur Cowboys relatively believable? Sure I could just say “A volcano erupted long ago, somehow we ended up with dinosaurs!”, ala the Mad Max approach of “Two great ‘tribes’ nuked the hell out of each other…begin movie!”. But I find a semi-realistic scenario, or just a slightly tweaked real world danger, makes for more believable play. It’s like how most fantasy games are still based in reality, so you don’t have to relearn what gravity is, ya know? Ah the joys of designing games.

The most plausible idea involves the active volcano that vents out via Old Faithful geyser in north-eastern Wyoming. When a supervolcano erupts the most likely outcome is a ton of dust being thrown into the air, giving you a “volcanic winter” (similar to the hypothesized “nuclear winter” from a big enough bomb). But! The other option is a stew of gases spills out and creates a “runaway greenhouse effect”. Ding ding ding we have a winner!

Okay, so the supervolcano erupts (called Eruption Day) in the year 2037. But there is only a thin layer of lava that ACTUALLY causes the eruption. Dust is thrown into the air, but not a ton, and mostly gasses are released. The temperature of the Earth heats up as a result, which causes the ice caps to melt and water to spill into the US. As you can see from the map, everything east of the Mississippi River is basically underwater. The west coast gets hit, but not as hard. The rising temperature makes everything a desert, more or less. South of the brown line is basically unlivable, with Mexico and beyond too hot to stand. Right near the line (ie: southern Arizona, etc.) is hot, but not lethally so.

Now, for the dinosaur part. The big caldera (basically dent in the ground…PS Man do I ever link to Wikipedia a lot!) that makes up Yellowstone Park hints at a previous eruption. Calderas are formed when the volcanic chambers empty out, leaving a big open air room, which then collapses from the weight of the crust and turf above it.

But what if it didn’t collapse, and what if some dinosaurs and seeds found their way into the chamber? Then a thin layer of lava flowed over top of the room, cooling and reforming slowly to make the current surface of the Earth. The next time the volcano erupts it only spits out this thin layer of lava, but also cracks and explodes the top of the empty chamber outwards.

The result is stored seeds and plant life are thrown around along with the dirt, which lands in a big radius relatively equivalent to the greenish circle on the map. The dinosaurs emerge from the chamber and by the time mankind goes to explore the wreckage they find the beasts. Naturally everyone was gravitating towards the vegetation and milder, tropical temperatures. So with the resources of dinosaurs and vegetation, the center around the empty volcano becomes the Neotechnoist civilization, while the rough desert outskirts becomes Duster territory.

Neat!

Flaws with this idea? How did the plants survive underground without sunlight is the main one. I can visualize the chamber as sort of a mini-ecosystem that is self contained and fully supportive of dinosaur life. Then humanity is trying to recover for so long that they don’t have a chance to go back to the volcano for a while, and by the time they do dinosaur life has been established. The dinosaurs eventually roam away from the volcano to try to escape the encroachment of humanity, so then the whole US ends up populated by them.

Seems all believable(ish), considering the starting year is sometime around 2285, so there would be time for vegetation to grow and generations of humans to pass.

The game isn’t meant to be post apocalyptic, so the cities around the volcano will still be advanced and as modern as now. Electricity will be common (from an effort of the Neotechnoists to bring the light of modern living to the “savage” outskirts), etc. Life will be tough, as it was in the bread bowl of the US during the “Wild West” years, but not as apocalyptic as people desperately searching stores for canned food while fighting off roving gangs. It’s a fine line to walk, but I think it will be possible based on the quests and enemies I throw the characters against.

There are plenty of options for exploration and variety. The burning hot southern desert, said to contain untouched riches of the Old World. The submerged cities to the east, ripe for the picking by also naturally dangerous. The main story will still be in the area surrounding the volcano / jungle.

Psyched though! I’ll just have to refine, or blur (from the passage of time) the history of DC a bit, but the whole focus on Yellowstone and the ecosystem chamber seem cool enough to work. Yep yep!