Dinosaur Cowboys skirmish game
bosky:
Hey remember me? Well I'm happy to announce that I finalized the core rules of Dinosaur Cowboys in a v1.0 release, woot woot. My self imposed deadline of Halloween is here so the PDF is as well. Thanks to everyone for the various ideas around formatting and mechanics (especially when I started introducing larger sweeping changes). I hope lots of people will take some time and check out the rules and enjoy many hours of laser six-shooters and t-rexes.
Blog release note:
http://dinosaurcowboys.wordpress.com/2011/10/31/dinosaur-cowboys-v1-0-released/
v1.0 PDF:
http://dinosaurcowboys.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/dinosaur-cowboys-rulebook-v1final.pdf
Thriff:
Hey Bosky,
Congrats on reaching your deadline.
You’ve done a good job on both setting and system for Dinosaur Cowboys, this game interests the player-me.
1.) Placing “Game Overview” before “History”.
I want a brief introduction to the game’s system, setting, and session-flow before investing my time and energy in reading about its setting/history. It’s easier for me (as a prospective player) to see how I fit into the game before learning about the game setting’s history.
Your history is cool and the writing is clear (those aren’t my concerns), it’s just an order-of-presentation issue.
2.) Placing “Character Creation” before “Resolution”
Even well-written resolution rules (which yours are) can be difficult to understand until I have a handle on “what” I’ll be playing the game through (i.e. my character). It’s easier to contextualize rules for movement, combat, and items (random examples) when I know how those rules will affect the character I’ve made.
3.) Map
The map is cool (how did you make it?) but the white text is tough to read.
4.) Combat Examples
I like the examples for RMC, they really help to understand the combat. Seriously, I actually began reading the text word-for-word (rather than skimming, as I normally do) because the rules for combat were 1.) simple and 2.) interesting. So good job there!
5.) Setting
Your setting is cool, dinosaurs and tech…? Awesome!
But here’s my confession: I’m not from the US, and placing the story on future-US soil makes it difficult for me to immerse myself in the game. Is this a deal-breaker? No. But hopefully my perspective here will give you a heads-up as to how others may feel.
The root of my problem (I believe) is that I feel like you have too many states for me to be able to readily personify each. Perhaps you, being American (I’ll assume) are familiar with what stereotypes and trends should be associated with each state which then allows you to better anticipate how each state would respond to the events leading up to year 2285. But I don’t have that knowledge, so your 20-30 states are all meaninglessly interchangeable.
This makes it difficult for me to care about the political borders you’ve drawn on your map. (To be fair, I could muster up some idea of what a Californian or Texan acts like … but beyond that the other 20-ish are very foreign to me). What do the members of each state dress like, act like in public/private, do in their spare time? What are the primary import/exports, common vegetation and geography, political structure, history, social hierarchies… of each?
Do you have to change your setting? Of course not. Is this a problem that’s unique to me? Possibly.
But, if you’re interested, I’d suggest this change: consolidate the states into future mini-nations or feuding/allied empires. Instead of 20-30 states have 2-7 mini-nations that arose from the ashes of now-USA (perhaps even immigrants from Canada or Mexico…?). Give each mini-nation defining features and traits that allow the reader (be they American or not) to quickly identify each nation. I think this change will make your setting more interesting and more immersive for players from across the world.
Hope this helps,
T
bosky:
Terrific feedback Thriff, it's much appreciated. Let me respond point by point.
1) Genius, I hadn't thought of that. I kind of get into a routine (rut maybe?) of how I format my game rules, and for the longest time I put the background info for the game before anything else. I'm going to eventually do a v1.1 release and I'll reformat the order for that. Thanks for the idea!
2) Glad to hear you liked the resolution rules, I'm really happy with how they turned out especially since mechanics are a bit part of the gameplay experience to me. I'm a bit less sure on reversing this item though, because I'm of the opposite school of thought: I don't know what's good for a character until I know how that character will be used. Would you tend to have Game Overview -> History -> Character Creation -> The Turn -> Combat? Or put Character Creation in between The Turn and Combat?
3) That was actually made by a fan, so I don't know the details. He was kind of an enigmatic character named Felix. He sent me a bunch of awesome images (the map, some weapons, alternative logos) and then I didn't hear much else from him, or ever get a website to credit him with. Before the radness of full color I had a simpler map I had designed. As you can tell I am rather limited in my graphics abilities but I'll see about changing the text.
4) Glad the examples helped, I really tried to clarify the combat as much as possible since it's hard to know how understandable it is to a fresh set of eyes when I've been so close to the mechanics for so long. I'm definitely proud of how the combat system turned out and that I could still use the less common D12s.
5) Haha I can totally relate. You see it all the time in movies too where the aliens ALWAYS invade/land in the US. I'm actually from Canada though.
Part of the reason for keeping the original states is I want campaign maps to be playable on real world road maps and atlases. Heck that might even be the main reason. I sort of just wiped the coasts off the map, threw a volcano in at Yellowstone National Park, and left it as that.
I guess I might not have been clear enough about the states and borders though in the background, as they don't matter nearly as much as a person would think. It's really more about the Allegiances and the Neotechnoist vs Duster relationship. The states are just a backdrop and are more defined by their climate and how much jungle, desert, or sunken cities they have.
I'm torn on merging states and creating new backgrounds in regards to that as I think it would water down the Allegiances or force me to redo them entirely. Hmm but I do kind of like the splintered nations idea since it's pretty popular in post apocalyptic games. Each coast, the south, the volcano, and a few smaller nations would probably cover most of the areas of interest.
In a standalone game the map doesn't matter at all, and in a campaign game I guess I would hope people would use whatever maps they want (be it Europe, Russia, Australia, etc.)...maybe I just need to put a note in the game mentioning other countries? I do briefly mention Canada and Mexico since they are on the same continent but just blanket cover the outside world as "not able to re-establish contact, not able to cross the seas".
I do agree that the original states kind of seem out of place since so much else has changed. Gonna have to think on this one.
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