Save the Dinos!

During this whole pandemic scenario, there have been two resources that I have under-used to keep my gaming sanity.   My daughters Maja (11) and Millie (9), and my next store neighbor, James, who is more of a CCG and party game type player.  By the time school finally finished, the worst was over in our area, and the social circles expanded enough that the kids were kept active in the neighborhood while I remained shackled to my home office.  James got furloughed for the first five or six weeks and has been working on a construction site two hours away since then.  We've gotten a few games of Apples to Apples, Unstable Unicorns, and Pass the Pandas in, but not much else. 

But let's add a new resource to my gaming agenda.  James (and his wife Amy's) kids. 

Little Miles and Hallie are 5 and 3, respectively, and while much of what they do falls into the "Yep, I've seen it with my own kids," one potential area that excites me is revisiting "Toddler Gaming"  after years of experiments with my own kids. 

Getting permission from the parents for a quick "babysitting" lesson, I packed up the dinosaurs, unearthed all the palm trees I need to touch up anyway, and headed next door to introduce the kids to Mr Eric's rules. 

Concept:  Everybody's figure helped discovered a Lost World of Dinosaurs and other giant creatures.  Unfortunately, a volcano is about to erupt and destroy the Lost World, so it's up to the heroes to wrangle as many dinosaurs before it explodes (aka both kids get tired of the game).

Players:  Hallie, Miles, with Maja and Millie playing/helping.  And of course, Dad (James) wanted in on the action.

Rules:  Another version of my Toddler Interactive Adventure Resolution... Adventura (TIARA).  After years of trying to use different cool types of six-sided dice, I left the rules simple. 

• Only dice they stay on the table count
• Initiative - Playing Cards.  Everyone had one number, with the other three in the deck.  Sometimes you got lots of turns, sometimes you had to wait.  Teaching patience (even with the big and bigger kids).
• 5-6 Good, 1-2 Bad
• Full Ruler - run, but can't convince the dinosaurs to leave
• Half Ruler - walk, and talk to dinosaurs (or anything else they thought of) 

 Characters: 

• Quesadilla Bill 
• Mr Jumaji
• Rose the Big-Game Hunter
• A Kitty Made Out of Stone
• Lego Nightwing (pretty freakin' sweet!)

The first wave of dinos make it to the river.

In application, the game ran nearly perfect.   Players needed to move their figures to a dinosaur/creature and make a roll to convince them to follow them back to the river.  Success and once the dino touched the river they were safe.  Failure and a number of things could happen (more dice rolls!), including getting trampled on. 

Quesadilla Bill tries to talk to a T-Rex

Right before the first wave of dinosaurs reached the river, Hallie bailed on us, for a couple reasons, but Miles kept on till the very end. 

And the T-Rex was nice enough to carry Bill to the river...

 In the last round, there was a great push to get everyone off the board, but a giant butterfly had landed on an ankylosaurus and it was up to Nightwing to save them.   

Mr Jumaji rode his dino to safety. 

Using the power of the magic stone he had brought to the Lost World, he was allowed to roll four dice (all Good!) and the Butterfly picked him and the dinosaur up into the air.  

That flight stand is a mason jar full of bones from some dissection project the kids did.  

Trying to control the butterfly was too much and the dino landed back-first on top of the volcano, stopping the eruption! 

Not scientifically correct, but great for 5-year story.    And technically, Millie's character Rose was trampled by an angry dino during the game, so the threat of death is there... if you're 9 or older.

Within an hour and fifteen minutes I had set up, played through the initiative deck twice, and had cleaned up in record time.  Next time, we might try something a bit more directly cooperative, but the race to see who could rescue the most dinos looks like a winner. 

Pulp Figures Releases a Terrifying Pterodactyl

Pulp Figures has a new, surprising release, the Terrifying Pterodactyl 

Resin model with a metal base in 28mm.  Price is $17.50

(Kickstarter) Dinosaur 1944 by Petersen Games

Sandy Petersen and Petersen Games is at it again with another boardgame, Dinosaur 1944!

I like the concept of a cooperative boardgame involving what are effectively well-sculpted green army guys in some pretty dynamic poses, fighting against some viscous dinos. I can even dig the $79 (+$22 shipping for the US).

What I'd like to see is some progress on some of the Kickstarters (especially one whose status isn't mentioned in the campaign). And perhaps I've been spoiled from the last few campaigns (all of which have been foreign.)  But nearly two years from pledge to delivery is not something I can actively tolerate anymore.  Sorry, it's cool, but I'll stick with Dino Wars from Dragon Magazine and my horde of Green Army Guys and toy dinos. 

(Pulp Alley) #3.8 An Unorthodox Egg Hunt

As COVID, mandatory work from home, and the cancellation of the kids' extracariculars has allowed me a bit more time to paint, it's getting through the backlog of games I've wanted to play since late Summer 2019 that's proving trying.  

• Mousling Game?  Got it set up and run beautifully.
• Easter Game?  Together, but haven't gotten the kids to the table.
• Medieval Games with Maja and while everything is out...
• Medieval Zombies using Last Days
• The Maja Millie Pulp Egypt Game?  With the cliffhanger last episode, I'm still finalizing the details for 3.8.

So, to kill two birds with one stone, the Easter Game with become Episode #3.8 of the Pulp Game, as we attempt a Lost Worlds version of an Easter Egg Hunt, using Pulp Alley again!

Maja and Millie made up two new "leagues" earlier in the month (Cultists vs Explorers), and we put them aside until we finally had a chance to play.  Some of the figures got misplaced somewhere in the dining, so we've adapted and overcome.

Set-Up:  Six Potential plot points were set up on the board as potential dinosaur nests.  Each figure could pass a challenge to search, but eggs were only found on a 4+ on d6 on a subsequent roll.  Only one egg per location, and only three eggs could be found.   Hills with Easter Island heads were Perilous Terrain to move into, as well as the monolithic stones and the nearby volcano.

Turn One: The girls gingerly moved most of the figures.

Cult Leader Bartholomew was the first to encounter (and pass) a terrain peril.

Prehistoric allergies?  Not this guy!

"The Cheetah" from the explorers dashed madly into the fray, reaching the nearest egg nest, but being unable to search yet.

Turn Two:

But he did find an egg.

The cultists tried a different technique,.  Starting with their second-in-command, Cap'n Snake, they all risked the perilous hill with the strange heads.

And in a bucket brigade style, kept handing off the egg to the next cultist. ..

They were walking, and everyone walked up and passed their peril checks, so I allowed it.

Rose, leader of the explorers, passed two peril checks to scale a volcano for a better view/shot.

In the first round, the dinosaurs paid little attention to the small mammals scurrying around, but when they started stealing eggs, all the reptiles got worried.

This might be a problem.

Lady Meow-Meow of the Explores (not pictured) was caught unaware by a Brontosaurus and luckily only got knocked around for one hit.

Turn Three:  Deciding that Cheetah could use his speediness to get to another nest, Bob Franks dashed over to him, and like a halfback taking a hand-off from the quarterback, took the egg.

In the background, Doc Bush spotted the Cult Leader and fired, to no effect, and then realized he was stranded in the open ground.  The Cult Leader lowered his staff and with a mighty *ZOT*, Doc was a charred corpse.

The other cultists had conducted their egg brigade perfectly.  The last cultist narrowly avoided one of the heads falling on top of him (Millie played a Fortune card requiring yet another Peril.  These cultists are good, even the minions).

The dinosaurs were fooled for a moment by the egg handoff, but Bob had bigger issues.  He could hear the cracking in his arms!!! Moments later, he was holding an adorable baby dinosaur!

.... and the adult dinos went berserk!

Turn Four: Deciding one egg was enough for their nefarious plans, the cultists retreated.  This left the explorers with some free time to search nests unmolested (by humans at least).

Bob exited the board with the baby dino.

Turn Five:  Cheetah had reached another nest, but failed the initial test before he could search for anything... and those dinos' roars sounded like they were getting closer.

Turn Six:  Lady Meow-Meow had failed at her first attempt to search and had finally reached a second location.  Unfortunately the next around the deadly Wafflesaurus was treacherous, and she was injured... ultimately succumbing to her wounds.

RIP Lady Meow-Meow

With Millie's lucky egg roll, the bady dino netted the explorers enough points to win the scenario, only losing two teammates in the process.

When Episode #3.9 is finally run, I'll be running it with Savage Showdown/Worlds.   Everything that Showdown is missing, Pulp has in spades, but I prefer the Showdown base mechanics, initiative, die rolls, bennies.  Perhaps everyone just rolled well, but even the minions had no problems with the challenges and perils.  They succeeded even easier than the Savage Showdown characters. After two games now, I see the appeal, and I think after we finally complete this season of the Pulp campaign, I can see going into Season 4 running Perilous Island, Adventures in Lemuria, or Tomb of the Serpent.

This was inspired by "Egg Hunt" from Thoughts of a Depressive Diplomatist.. Outside of thinking up dinosaur stats on the fly, it was great resource.