Dinosaur Cowboys v2.6 is amazing. I’m super happy with the rules, which is why I haven’t felt the need to touch them for over a year and a half. And I know I’ve been saying it for 5 years (since v1.0), but I’m almost done tweaking the rules. I mean at some point I have to be. And I’m very tempted, like a 50/50 split, on whether I should even do a v2.7. But I have accrued a minor list of changes. No timeline for this, and like I said I’m still on fence on whether it’s even worth doing.
Savage Allegiance: The biggest one (and impetus for a possible release) is around balancing the Savage Allegiance, which if you “zero them” back to Bandit status (of having no stat changes) they actually GIVE you +2 IP. So you could recruit and entire posses of Savages, zero them to normal, and get +10 IP. Like I said, minor…but also very annoying to have. I’m a bit miffed with myself for even missing it this long. Dusters technically have the reverse problem (of resulting in -2 IP to zero), but that’s mostly due to Hitpoints costing 6 IP to increase but only giving 4 IP to reduce.
The fix for Savages is simply to change Speed to cost 10 IP to go from 4″ to 5″, instead of 12 IP. This has the side benefit of bonus movement being cheaper and easier to attain. I always want entities to move further. Heck it’s one of the main reasons the base number of squares someone could go in Life of a Dinosaur Cowboy RPG was a generous EIGHT!
Otherwise a few style tweaks to the rulebook, a bunch of trait adjustments and trivial rewords, and maybe a few new weapons or features. Here’s my entire list:
Other Changes
– Add an image to the footer
— Small dinos, jungle grass (similar to Saloon), cactus in the corner, maybe image wrapping page number, etc.
– Add some “Rain” features?
– Add some alternative weapon names for famous mountain men, like the Jeremiah Blaster or whatever
– “Turtle” trait needs to say “apply Stopped to self _next Activation_” in the same way “Rush” does
– “Try Again” should say “re-roll an entire set of attacks”, as should “Lucky”. Maybe “Attack Roll” to be consistent with things like Hail of Shots?
– Whirlwind should specify Close attack affects all adjacent enemies, since otherwise it sounds like a free/bonus attack. Maybe should be Attack – Whirlwind?
– Shake it Off should be applicable to nearby ally as well. Maybe be 2/all instead of 1/2 negative effects? Also rename to “Shake it Off!” (exclamation mark for shout)
– Attack – Forceful should be buffed to +4″/+6″
– Attack – Punishment should just be +2/+4 damage (lowercase too), not specifically saying _weapon Damage_
– Attack – Headshot should say (instead of 12+) in brackets
– Eagle Eye should be +4″/+6″. Should technically be an Attack – Eagle Eye?
– Rush and Turtle should say “but apply” instead of “and apply”
– Add second tier Racer for +2/+4?
– Add an Attack – Quick Shot that gives a free attack at -4/-2 Dam (min 0)?
Saloon Updates
Of course there are also a few Saloon bugs I’ve run into, or improvements I want to try:
BUG – Selling weapons still show up in inventory?
BUG – Dino selling is not saved to the URL or reloaded at all
IMP – Allow dinosaurs to “buy” Trample and Gore beast attacks
IMP – Add an option to select Variant Rules to apply to a PDF?
IMP – Generate QR codes for The Saloon links?
IMP – Make a mobile version of The Saloon pages?
Dinosaur Cowboys - Tabletop Skirmish Game 