Jurassic Pulp II: Rex Stomps Back

[Wirelizard]

Discussing the winter 2011/early 2012 convention season with my brother, and the need to come up with a new scenario, I  hit upon the idea of reviving an idea from a few years back: Jurassic Pulp!

It's a Lost World scenario for .45 Adventures 2nd Edition. With 1920s trucks and cars thrashing along treacherous jungle tracks. Being pursued by dinosaurs. Who are, in turn, being pursued by a T. Rex with a really bad attitude. Mayhem, as they say, should ensue.

This is going to be a slow-burn project; the first of the local cons isn't for months yet (the usual October/November one might not even be held this year...) but I've started adding a few things to the material I made up for the first version of Jurassic Pulp.

Started doing new, simplified cards for the dinosaurs and other critters, for the Event Deck for this game.


Very rough so far, but I do think they're shaping up well. Might have to see about adapting the idea for a full character sheet for 45A, although it will have to be slightly larger and different for that, I think.

The Event Deck will be lightly stacked, a mix of dinosaur/creature/event cards and the tension-building "Nothing Happens - Yet!" cards that increment the T. Rex Test at the end of each round. I might actually make the "Nothing" cards also say "Draw another card" as well, just to increase the number of dinos on the table and the pulpish mayhem. We shall see.

More updates as events warrant!

[fanfavorite]

I like the idea of "drawing another card" card. I had similar thoughts of my own. For added deviousness, there could also be the "shuffle the deck" card, for a possible double dino disaster! In some of the games I've played there is nothing more scary than secret dice rolling, and in a close second- the reshuffle (especially if everything up until that point was going a little, too easy...)

[Shikari Sahib]

Hi Wirelizard,
I was looking at your old post for the Jurassic part I,
unfortunately the links doesn't work, could you resend correct links? I'm strongly interested at your PDF with cards and events.
thanks
Piero

[Wirelizard]

Hi Wirelizard,
I was looking at your old post for the Jurassic part I,
unfortunately the links doesn't work, could you resend correct links? I'm strongly interested at your PDF with cards and events.

I do have all the files from that post, but I've obviously moved them from the original spot on my server. Sorry! I'll try and get those PDFs up on my blog in the next few days; this is complicated by the fact that I don't have a functional internet connection on my home computer right now (long stupid story...) but I'll see what I can do.

[Shikari Sahib]

I do have all the files from that post, but I've obviously moved them from the original spot on my server. Sorry! I'll try and get those PDFs up on my blog in the next few days; this is complicated by the fact that I don't have a functional internet connection on my home computer right now (long stupid story...) but I'll see what I can do.

Thanks 
Piero

[Wirelizard]

The forum software is scolding me for bringing this zombie thread back to life, but what does forum software know? I'm sure it'll be a well behaved undead thread and won't eat any brains...

Right, finishing up details of Jurassic Pulp II for SAturday's game, and in last Sunday's playtest I came up with an interesting twist on the usual 45A2e driving rules that I thought people might like: just like characters are allowed a Dodge check to see if they can jump out of the way before being rammed/run over by a vehicle, give drivers (only of moving vehicles!) a Control/Dodge check as well.

We tried this in last Sunday's playtest, and I think it worked well. It kept the game moving, it added an element of tension beyond "I drive into his car. Crunch!", and it gave the front runners in the race a chance to avoid being rear-ended with extreme prejudice by those following them.

I ruled as GM that if the Dodge was successful, the two cars were put alongside/close to one another in a plausible way, and the car that attempted the ram had to continue moving to their full declared movement.

[Wirelizard]

Ran the game Saturday afternoon at GottaCon, our local gaming convention.

Four players, two of whom had never played 45A before, and a "half player" in the form of one player's daughter, who was incredibly patient while the nominal grownups crashed cars, shot each other, played with toy dinosaurs and generally acted gloriously goofy.


Playing With Dinosaurs by WireLizard, on Flickr

Proper game report in the next day or two, it's 2 AM, I have GM's Throat (ie have talked myself hoarse) and it's well past any sane bedtime.

[oldskoolrebel]

Very Nice!

I'm not a massive fan of lost world scenarios but yours looks like good ole' fashioned pulp mayhem!

What did you use for the dinosaurs? Plastic kid's toys?

Cheers
Andy

[aggro84]

Nice cards. And your board looks very nice. 
I like the cliffs idea. They add height to the table a break up the board.

I need to build myself some cliffs.

[Wirelizard]

Very Nice!

I'm not a massive fan of lost world scenarios but yours looks like good ole' fashioned pulp mayhem!

Well, we had two characters fall off that fragile log bridge to their doom, one eaten by T. Rex, and of the four cars that left the camp, exactly NONE were usable by the end of the game. We had an attempt to blow up the bridge by firing a shotgun into the fuel tank of one car, a carjacking of that same car (with an unloaded shotgun), T. Rex nearly breaking the bridge as he/she stomped over it... oh, and flocks of velociraptors and compys everywhere just to keep people on their toes.

Somebody shot a brontosaurus in the toenail, and it was so offended it stomped off the board. Then T. Rex paused to kill and eat the juvenile brontosaur. Oh, and the winning player's characters were an adventurer and his teenage daughter, so in addition to Hollywood dinosaurs and Hollywood physics, we had a nice Hollywood feelgood family ending. Or something.

Consider that the teenage daughter had been the one to carjack the other player's vehicle, while actually out of ammo for her shotgun.

Two players drove their speeding cars under the brontosaurus's body, between it's front and back legs, early in the game. Later in the game another player stuck three control rolls in a row to get his car between both the front and back legs of the brontosaur, then miss the tail - ie, he drove lengthwise under a brontosaurus...

Oh, and I insisted throughout the game that it was so a damned brontosaurus, not a brachiaosaur, despite what the modern paleontologists might say, because brontosaur is a much cooler name, and these are pulp Hollywood dinosaurs, dammit. Furthermore, I was the GM, therefore it was inconceivable that I was mistaken.

What did you use for the dinosaurs? Plastic kid's toys?

T. Rex, the two brontosaurs and a few of the others are. The velociraptors, compsognathus (compys) and a few others are pewter from HLBS, and very nice models they are, too, the velociraptors in particular. Everyone should have six or a dozen raptors in their collection, they enliven nearly any scenario.

[Mr.Dodo]

Fantastic! I doff my cap to you and your tail dragging Brontosaurus!

[mpennock]

Oh, and I insisted throughout the game that it was so a damned brontosaurus, not a brachiaosaur, despite what the modern paleontologists might say, because brontosaur is a much cooler name, and these are pulp Hollywood dinosaurs, dammit. Furthermore, I was the GM, therefore it was inconceivable that I was mistaken.

Bully for Brontosaurus!

[Burgundavia]

Oh, and I insisted throughout the game that it was so a damned brontosaurus, not a brachiaosaur, despite what the modern paleontologists might say, because brontosaur is a much cooler name, and these are pulp Hollywood dinosaurs, dammit. Furthermore, I was the GM, therefore it was inconceivable that I was mistaken.

My dinosaur and it says brachiasaur on the bottom, ergo it is a brachiasaur. Also, the new term is apatasaur, because some English dude was likely drunk and put the head on the tail.

[Wolf Girl]

one player's daughter, who was incredibly patient while the nominal grownups crashed cars, shot each other, played with toy dinosaurs and generally acted gloriously goofy.

This is how I feel when Dad plays with his friends