I went out to see Jurassic World a month ago and it was an enjoyable ride. However, when I was watching a scene, I couldn’t be helped but think “this would make a good session for Titan World”. A team of hunters who fight against giant man-eating dinosaurs just makes sense for me to play Titan World with this flavour, and it’s closer to the source material than what I have for Greek Titan World. So while I’m playing Titan World again, I’m playing it with a different coat of paint.
There’s a game called Legend, which is Dungeons and Dragons if the multiclassing was a main, easy to use feature. On the blog, there have been tutorials on how to add new classes to the game by simply changing the flavour text, so your barbarian can become a super soldier or have your ranger be more in touch with nature. I decided to take the advice from those articles for use in Titan World. However, most of the Playbooks are good enough without heavy editing. Just replace all mentions of Titan with Dinosaurs.
Here’s the problem though. How do we translate the Titan Shifter over to Jurassic Park? We certainly didn’t see Chris Pratt bite into his hand to become a T-Rex for that final throw down, now did we? Now, the easy way out would be to have it so that the scientists are like “Hey, we made this chimera dinosaur and cloned dinosaurs from some old DNA that should have been expired, I say making humans transforming into dinosaurs would be easy.” But… I have a better idea:
Change Shifter to Velociraptor. Yes. As in we play as a Velociraptor. The only basic change is that Titan Transformation is changed to Bloodlust. It doesn’t transform the Velociraptor, but instead makes it more crazed and determined to kill. The 7-9 downside is mostly retained, but “body partially forms” is replaced with “you accidentally injure yourself while invoking Bloodlust.”
… Yeah, I’m gonna play a Velociraptor. And I’m gonna stat up her leader too. First, Velociraptor…
- Name: Velma
- Agility: +1
- Execution: +1
- Awareness: 0
- Discipline: -1
- Rage: +2
- Luck: 2
And her leader.
- Name: Fred
- Agility: +1
- Execution: +1
- Awareness: -1
- Discipline: +2
- Rage: 0
- Luck: 2
Alright. We are ready to go! I’m gonna use the Tiny Universal Engine for this, as the engine has a similar mechanic to Apocalypse World. As for what the basic game will be, I think it’ll be “hunt down this dinosaur” and see what comes up. I think I’ll bring up another Driver to help me with this. Perilous Intersections. It’s made by the same person who did the Chapter System, but this works a little differently.
First, I gotta seed, which is rolling some Story Cubes and generating some stuff. Since this will be more safari-themed, I’ll go with Voyages.
[Seeding…]
Alright, so I seeded my adventure and looking at the seeds, I can seriously think that this will lead to a bit of Dinopunk. After reading through Perilous Intersections, I think I’m ready to go. Our opening scene is that Fred has found out that a dinosaur had escaped captivity. A fellow velociraptor who hasn’t been taught the lessons of self-control. His objective is to hunt down the velociraptor before she causes any harm to the people in the theme park.
Part of the game is answering the five Ws and one H. For those who haven’t a clue of what I mean, I mean answering who, what, when, where, why, and how, in no particular order. Well, I have a few questions with ideas:
- Who are we chasing: A velociraptor.
- Where is it going?: ???
And from there, everything else is gonna be guessed. So, I guess our scene begins on our first leg of the journey. We’re exploring in the jungle when an intersection ensures. The game says that we pick one of the nine seeds we made and use that. So in this case, it’s the Cave.
So Fred and Velma enter the caves.
[Q: Do they find anything inside? A: 5.]
No, they don’t, but they found a clue. Discarded bones of giant rats.
[Q: Does Fred know about giant rats? A: 3]
So he has utterly no clue. All he knows is that there are giant rats. This is a good clue that they’re on the right track though. Or are they?
In the game, you can probe questions that can confirm hard facts about the game. For example, I will ask the Intersections if the bones mean that our velociraptor friend is nearby. The question asked has to present a dangerous or inconvenient outcome. However, there’s a catch. You must roll a six sided die and it has to land on a 5 or 6. The die can be modified by what is called a Danger Level, but other than that, it has to be five or more.
So, let’s roll.
[Roll: 5]
Alright, so the velociraptor is close by.
[Q: In this very cave? A: 8]
Yes, but it’s sleeping. Fred will take the time to quietly exit the cave and call for backup. Fred and Velma must roll their Agility to make sure they don’t trip.
[Roll: 6 for Velma, 3 for Fred, who expends his luck to make his a 12]
While Fred makes it out, Velma trips.
[Q: Does it awaken the velociraptor? Odds are advantaged. A: 6]
Not yet, not until Velma makes noise.
[Q: Does Velma make noise? A: 7]
Yes, she does, but, she knows better to keep her mouth shut and tries to be as quiet as she can. Discipline Roll.
[Roll: 2]
She awakens the velociraptor and it rushes to attack her. We end the scene here and answer our question.
- Where is it going?: The Cave
With two questions answered, we move from the Something Amiss phase and into the Rears Its Ugly Head phase. Now we’re in conflict with the antagonist… I think. It might just be that this velociraptor is the prelude to the true antagonist.
Whereas the question we asked for the beginning was something along the lines of what idea intersects the heroes and demands their attention, this time we ask it what idea intersects and directly interferes with the heroes? And using a seed, we get an Amoeba. This won’t end well.
[Scene Roll: 6 and 2. No Twist]
Alright, so let’s begin with five rounds of combat between Velma and the other Velociraptor. Velma’s first round is gonna be spent giving into her Bloodlust.
[Rage Roll: 11]
So she easily does so. Now here comes the OP part. See, Velma’s able to automatically do a Strike To Kill move by spending a Hold that she just got from her Bloodlust move. However, I’ll make it interesting. Velma has to roll a 7-9 to knock out the other Velociraptor. If she goes 10-12, she kills it and if she goes 1-6, it hurts her. However, it’s the Velociraptor’s turn and Velma has to escape her.
[Agility Roll: 11]
She easily dodges. Now she will have to do her Rage check.
[Rage Roll: 13]
OH SNAP! SHE KILLS HER! SHE JUST GRABBED HER BY THE NECK AND TORE THE JUGULAR OUT! Well, mission accomplished, I guess… Well, this is where the seed comes in. See, the velociraptor was actually infected with a virus and now Velma has it.
[Q: Does Fred instantly find out? Adding Awareness to his roll. A: 6]
Not yet, not until Velma starts… What would be a good symptom for her? I guess go berserk. So she’s gonna attack Fred and now he has to dodge her.
[Avoid Harm: 9]
He does so, but sprains a leg, which means he’s at a disadvantage. Now it’s his turn. He’s gonna try to get away from Velma.
[Avoid Harm: 7]
I’m using a GM Move to take advantage of the disadvantage. His leg causes him to trip up. Now he has to do something dreaded: Escape Death. If I botch this roll, Fred’s dead.
[Escape Death: 4… He’s gonna expend his last Luck point to make it a 12]
He gets up and rushes off. Velma is in hot pursuit.
[Avoid Harm: 9]
At this point, I’ll do a GM Move to give Fred a hard choice. He’s never gonna outrun Velma. So he’s gonna be forced to tranq her. He needs to Get Into Position and Strike To Kill.
[Get Into Position: 5]
As he tries to get onto a tree, that’s when Velma attacks Fred.
[Escape Death: 11]
However, Fred manages to escape her grasps yet again and tries to climb the tree.
[Get Into Position: 7]
While he does get on top of the tree, Velma is stopping at nothing to make a tasty meal out of Fred. He has to tranq her.
[Strike To Kill: 6]
He missed!
[Q: Does Velma catch up to Fred? Adding Agility to the roll. A: 6]
Not yet, not until Fred fails again.
[Strike To Kill: 4]
And he does.
[Escape Death: 7]
Fred manages to escape death again, but his leg gets bitten off. Dear God, can he hit her already?
[Strike To Kill: 4]
No! He can’t! So now he has to escape her again!
[Escape Death: 8]
He gets his other leg chomped off!
[Strike To Kill: 7]
He finally manages to knock her out.
[Q: Does he bleed out? A: 7]
Yes he does, but he gets helped up in time. HOLY CRAP! That was a rush. Yeah, the Danger Level’s going up for that. We can safely say that the virus has something to do with this chaos.
- Why did the Velociraptor escape: A virus infected her.
- What infected her?: ???
- How can Velma be cured?: ???
I can’t figure out one for When, so for now, these are the big questions I have to handle. Onto the next scene.
[Scene Roll: 6 + 2, no Scene Interrupt]
Alright, what’s the new seed to ruin their day?
[Seed: Walmart]
… An explanation for this one. The icon on one of the dice has a symbol that’s eerily similar to the Walmart symbol. Don’t believe me? I’ll show you!
Left: Symbol on The Story Cube, Right: The Walmart Symbol
See? So what does this mean? Well, the group that picked Fred and Velma up are members of Wal-Mart. Well, Wal-Mart’s secret elite.
[Q: Does Fred know about this? Rolling at disadvantage. A: 5]
No, he doesn’t, but he does know they’re bad news. Unfortunately, he’s crippled. However, they offer him new robotic legs if he joins their side. No questions, just join them. I’m gonna have him do a discipline check for this one.
[Discipline Move: 7]
While the offer is tempting, Fred begins to have second thoughts. The Wal-Mart Elite leave him there to ponder the offer. Our scene ends. Unfortunately, we don’t have anything answered… but we can probe a question. In this case, what infected the velociraptors?
[Q: Is there anything in the room that Fred can find that connects Wal-Mart to the infected dinosaurs? Modified by +2 from Danger Level. A: 6]
So Fred could see that next to him, on a table he can’t reach due to his lack of legs, is a vial of green liquid. He has no idea what it is, just that it looks alluring. As such, he pieces together the fact.
- Fact: Some people either created or possess a liquid. Whether it’s a disease or a cure is left to be decided.
So we didn’t get any concrete answers. Hopefully next scene will help us.
[Scene Roll: 5 & 5]
We have a scene interrupt!
[Twist: Item hinders the hero]
[Seed: Camera]
So, Fred tries to get the liquid by tipping the table over, only for him to realize too late that there’s a camera. Several Wal-Mart elite barge in and begin to assault Fred. Fred is gonna have to roll Hand-To-Hand to fend them off.
[Execution Roll: 6]
Unfortunately not. He is beaten up and knocked out. Well, he can try to Story Probe again and figure something out.
[Q: Is the green vial the cause of the virus? Modified by +2 from Danger Level. A: 7]
As he is knocked out, he could hear them say stuff like “Damn it! He almost found out!” and “What’s the point? Wouldn’t he be raging?”. So he can most definitely tell this is a virus.
Alright, we got one question down.
- Who are we chasing: A velociraptor.
- Where is it going?: The Cave
- Why did the Velociraptor escape: A virus infected her.
- What infected her?: A mysterious vial
- How can Velma be cured?: ???
One to go. Let’s see what seed to use.
[Gears]
[Scene Roll: 4 and 1, no Twist]
Alright, so I can assume they have outfitted me with the legs, but they enabled a lock on it so that I can’t move unless I agree to their demands. Well, screw it. I’m gonna say I give in and see what they have to offer for now. See if there’s anything I can do to either help this situation or save Velma.
[Q: Do they reveal why they are? A: 9]
Yes they do, but not right now. It’d be too soon if they decide to reveal who they are to me. They’ll take me somewhere before they fully reveal their intent. Scene’s over, next scene. At least some danger has been reduced.
[Seed: Circus Tent]
[Q: What do they want to do with me at the Circus Tent? A: Malice Elements]
Yeah, I’m going nowhere with this so I’ll just lay it out simply: They wanna make dinosaurs a profitable thing again after the mishap at Jurassic World. I’m… not entirely sure what Fred’s stance is on this. So I’m gonna roll on the Tiny Universal Chart.
[Q: Does he want to recreate Jurassic World? A: 11]
Yes and he is more than willing to join Wal-Mart now that they up and said that they just want to make attractions off the side of their shopping centres. They practically just sit him down and showed a power point presentation on how beneficial it would be to have dinosaurs as attractions, provided that they’re controlled. So wait, did I just have Fred join the bad guys? Sweet! It’s been a while since I played a villain!
Though… Things might not be adding up… Like… If they were trying to control the dinosaurs, why the virus? Unless they were trying to control them but the formula went completely wrong. Maybe something went wrong in the formula creation. The dinosaurs have been depicted in Jurassic Park to be smart, smart enough to be trained and commanded like attack dogs. Maybe the vial wasn’t containing a virus like rabies or something else, but rather a formula that… I dunno… regressed the intelligence of the creature back to their savage version Like, something that could drain… the… brain… No.
It all adds up. One of the seeds I have is Fear. We have dinosaurs. We’re in a circus tent. DON’T YOU SEE!? OUR ENEMY WASN’T WAL-MART! IT WAS PROFESSOR SCREWEYES, MASTER OF FEAR!
If you guys automatically get the movie I’m referencing, you get instant cookie points.
So let’s just recap here:
- I’m playing Fred who has a Velociraptor buddy named Velma.
- Our enemy was (initially) Wal-Mart, who was aiming to make dinosaurs a main attraction at their shopping centres.
- But our real enemy is a character from a 90’s animated cartoon about talking dinosaurs.
- And all of this is in an RPG based off a recent movie about dinosaurs that was modified from an RPG based off an anime where teenagers kill giant naked people eaters with box cutters and steampunk hookshots.
Ladies and gentleman, we have truly gone gonzo.
[Q: Are Wal-Mart aware about Screweyes? A: 5]
Nope, but they do have a hint that something’s amiss, since their attempts to make the dinosaurs more sentient have gone backwards. So, I’m gonna combine the Circus and the Fear seeds to make it so that Screweyes ambushes the group right then and there. Everyone has to roll Discipline.
[Discipline Roll: 6]
The Wal-Mart mooks fail it and run off.
[Discipline Roll: 6]
And so does Fred it seems. Guess Screweyes is able to perform Crowstorm. Scene ends with that. Well, I guess the final boss has arrived. But now this opens a whole new can of worms… And we have two seeds left before I have to try and end things. Coincidentally, there are two kinds of scenes we can do before the final battle: a Fightback Scene and a Last Ditch Effort.
Our remaining seeds are a shield and sunset. For our first scene, a Fightback Scene, we’ll make a shield to protect ourselves from the inevitable attack from Velma while a couple of people work on an antidote.
[Scene Roll: 6 and 1, no scene event]
[Q: Do we still have the vial? Advantaged Question: 7]
Yes, we do, but there’s a tiny amount left. If we are to make an antidote, we only have one shot at this.
[Q: Do we make the potion? Modified by Awareness of -1. A: 6]
Not yet, not until sunset. So next scene, a Last Ditch Effort scene.
[Scene Roll: 3 and 6, no Scene Event]
So we finally made the antidote as Velma comes lurking around. They’re gonna send Fred out to give the antidote. He’s gonna have to make a good set of rolls to get advantage and cure Velma.
[Get Into Position: 12]
[Strike To KillCure: 10]
Done! He managed to successfully cure Velma in the last ditch effort. However, they say that the cure is a temporary cure. Velma will attack if they don’t make a real cure soon. Now, we can march right into Screweyes’ hideout and stomp him out. I don’t even care what his motive is. I’m guessing he just wants scary dinosaurs.
Well, he’s gonna get it. Showdown happens now. Before we begin, however, I need to roll a d6, modified by the Danger Level. However, the battle ended up negating all of that (it can only go up to +2 per scene that doesn’t go our way) so now we can roll it unmodified.
[Roll: 4]
And thank God for that. Had the die been modified by the Danger Level, I’d have to change one of the major questions with a new seed to create a twist. But since I didn’t, the final battle can now begin.
[Scene Roll: 5 & 5]
Plot twist happens anyways.
[Scene Twist: 1 & 5]
And funny enough, it’s an NPC changing the goal.
Who’s the NPC?
[Roll: 5 = Screweyes]
Oh crap, he got away. We see him fly off in that 90’s cartoon villain helicopter as he leaves behind a pterosaur for us to face off against. Initiative is as follows: Fred, Velma, Wal-Mart mooks, and then the pterosaur.
Fred’s gonna try to get into position.
[Roll: 7]
His replacement legs end up being suitable rocket boots, however they start becoming low on fuel and he will descend soon. Velma’s gonna do her turn by invoking bloodlust.
[Roll: 13]
So now she’s fully frenzied and has three holds to spend on whatever she wants. However, her turn will wait. Next up is Wal-Mart mooks. They too get into position.
[Roll: 12]
Straight up boxcars! Nice! So now it’s the Pterosaur’s turn. It’s gonna attack Velma since it knows she’s the biggest threat.
[Roll: 5]
He misses. Now everyone will have advantage to strike and kill this guy.
[Fred’s Roll: 8]
[Velma’s Roll: 11]
[Wal-Mart’s Roll: 9]
Both Fred and the mooks of Wal-Mart end up clipping the pterosaur’s wings while Velma goes for the kill. As it flies down, Velma jumps up and chomps the pseudo-bird’s head off. A decisive victory and I can totally see Velma being OP.
Perhaps too OP to even keep alive. We’ve reached the aftermath phase of the game and I need to just figure out two things.
[Scene Roll: 6 & 4. No Twist]
[Q: Have we discovered a cure from the corpse of the Pterosaur? A: 5]
No, we don’t, but the bloodlust that Velma had was just enough to bleed out the disease. … Aaaaw, I wanted to make it a bittersweet ending and have her die Old Yeller style… Ah well. It seems this game is gonna be a cliffhanger. We’ll continue this game some other day. We won’t rest until we stop Screweyes.
However, I will rest. This has been a crazy chain of events for me. September has been a hectic time of the year for me, hence why there was no update on the 31st of August. I’m gonna take some time to rest up my solo rpin’ skills for the upcoming anniversary fan-voted Quarter Quell, as well as the upcoming Solo Gaming Appreciation Month, which I’ll have to figure out what to do that’s out of the norm.
Until then, adios amigos.
Solo RPG Voyages 