Dinosaur Cowboys skirmish game

[bosky]

The more reviews the merrier, as I'd really like a bunch more feedback before I finalize at v1.0, since it's kind of awkward if I release v1.0 and then v1.1 a day later because I missed a bunch of glaring issues If anyone gets a chance the latest version to checkout would be v0.91: http://dinosaurcowboys.wordpress.com/20 ... -of-v0-91/

Looking forward to hearing any ideas or criticisms you guys have! Now that I'm back from holidays I'll be busy playtesting and moving towards that big stable release.

[Onix]

I'm looking to do a playtest. . . one of these days. I'll let you know how it goes.

[bosky]

Well I had self imposed the end of October as the deadline for v1.0. So Happy Halloween and enjoy the finalized core rules for Dinosaur Cowboys:

http://dinosaurcowboys.wordpress.com/20 ... -released/

Phew now I can take a bit of a break from constant playtesting and tweaking, and instead switch gears into writing some fiction about the game world.

[bosky]

Hey guys some more news about the game. It's been a busy month of programming for me as I've been working away on an online posse designer for Dinosaur Cowboys, and now it's at a stable point that I wanted to release to the public.

The designer is called The Saloon, and you can access it here:
It's built using Java and JSF and is running on my home server (so don't expect the connection to be insanely fast, unfortunately). You can go through the entire process of building a posse from recruiting a leader, members, and a dinosaur, to choosing traits, equipment, and statistics for them. My favorite part is you can export your posse to a PDF! For example here is how the look as a PDF.
If you run into any bugs or have any suggestions let me know here please!

Here is a screenshot to give you an idea of how it looks:


Also the designer supports remote URL loading, which means you can save your creations to a link that can easily be shared on forums and the like. For example here are some posses I created in the app:

[vulpinoid]

I wish I'd seen this topic earlier. I obviously need to check in a bit more often.

I've been going over these rules quite a bit lately in my search for a dinosaur miniatures game.

[Evil Scientist]

I was discussing various skirmish games with a friend yesterday and remebered your game, so found it, downloaded the new version (1.1), noticed the Posse creator - it's great you put so much effort into this game! So I've decided to give this thread a bump.

The rule for Facing states: "Entities see 180 degrees in front of them. Use the direction of the figurine's weapon to
decide which way is forward," shouldn't it depend on position of legs or maybe face? I always had problems determining this, in all games.

[bosky]

Awesome, I'm glad it crossed your mind. The Posse creator was especially fun since now I don't have to listen to my friends say "But I don't know hoooooow to make a posse, can't yoooou make it for usssss?", haha.

And yeah Facing normally ends up being personal preference. Some people do where the model is looking, others go by feet, and others use the gun. I was thinking most people would be using traditional cowboy figures (even if I don't, yet) that tend to have their revolvers forward. But yeah, change at your discretion, as long as some clear marking is evident.

[Evil Scientist]

By the way, if you have Facing, you can add some rules for backstabbing! And sneaking, for special scenarios (on a second thought, who needs that when you can have DINOSAURS AND LASER SIX-SHOOTERS).

Have you considered flying dinosaurs? A Pterodactyl, for example, would be one hell of a mount!
(Haha, came across when googling pterodactyl rider. Also, an experimental rock band goes by this name)

[bosky]

Actually there is something akin to backstab, it's just called "Surprise Hit", on page 15:
Surprise Hit: Any ranged attack against a target's back (180 degree arc opposite their front 
Facing) will be treated as a Critical Hit on 10+. This does not apply to target's in melee.
I definitely did want to reward flanking that far behind an enemy.

Facing isn't used in melee so there isn't really a "neck break" you can do to unsuspecting guards or the like, but it would be pretty easy to implement on the fly.

Currently flying units are considered too skittish for combat, so they are relegated to transporting people long distances (see the "Flapper" on page 36 about Overland Travel). They would be cool to use in combat, I'd probably either have them be "dogfighters" that just ignore terrain while flying and can shoot Small weapons only (due to weight). Then "bombers" which can only use Grenades and attack in a straight line across the entire battlefield once a turn.

[bosky]

Well since we were just talking about the game I thought I'd mention that I just posted another . It was a fun game since I had a big open stretch of road splitting the table in half, so there was a lot of give and take as the different posses members tried to charge across it.

A couple of pictures from the full report: