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  1. - Top - End - #1
    Pixie in the Playground
     
    Devil

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    Feb 2018

    Default Dinosaur Island Ideas

    I'm planning to run a game called Escape from Dino Island. How can I evocatively introduce challenges for my players, and what kinds of threats would you suggest?
    Escape From Dino Island is all about improvisation, so as usual I'm overthinking it and planning ahead. What I'm hoping to do is collect a list of encounters (carnivores, herbivores, natural effects etc) as inspiration and quick additions. For a motif, think about Jurassic Park or Journey to the Center of the Earth.

  2. - Top - End - #2
    Troll in the Playground
     
    PaladinGuy

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    Default Re: Dinosaur Island Ideas

    Not necessarily a threat or challenge, but I would set the vegetation as from the earlier part of the dinosaurs time rather than the later - so no grass, no flowers (or fruit) and no trees as we recognise them - instead you have tree-sized club mosses and horsetails for the big stuff and smaller horsetails, mosses (and I htink ferns) for the smaller. This could also make finding edible plants very hungry as ther would be nothing the party recognise...

    Current science suggests that the "vocalisations" of a lot of the large dinosaurs would be too low for us to hear (infrasound) - but sometimes we can see its effects, e.g. droplets jumping up from a body of water and the higher notes might be audible as a deep rumble. For the really big dinosaurs having the earth shake as they move is probably valid.

  3. - Top - End - #3
    Bugbear in the Playground
     
    Imbalance's Avatar

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    Default Re: Dinosaur Island Ideas

    “Rule is what lies between what is said and what is understood.”
    ~Raja Rudatha, the Spider Prince
    Golem Arcana

  4. - Top - End - #4
    Bugbear in the Playground
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    Default Re: Dinosaur Island Ideas

    1) the really big carnivores (T-rex and pals) just aren’t interested in the party. The energy expended to nutrition gained just isn’t worth it. Lions don’t hunt mice, so a T-rex isn’t going to hunt a human for food. They will attack if provoked or are defending their young.

    2) Herbivores will see human sized critters as dangerous egg thieves if they get near nests.

    3) At least some if the herbivores will be rhinoceros/cape buffalo style extremely aggressive defenders. Probably more rhino like in being not too bright and short sighted.

    4) Thagomizers are cool and should be referred to as such at any opportunity.
    Last edited by Pauly; 2021-05-31 at 08:50 AM.

  5. - Top - End - #5
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    Flumph

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    Default Re: Dinosaur Island Ideas

    Well you want a lizard theme . dragons , Dinosaurs , troglodytes , lizardmen , kobolds , yaun ti . dire snake , dire crocodile .

    A sweltering jungle is great for swarms of mosquitoes .

    Might i suggest one of the good races , Elves , Dwarfs or Halflings as primitive hostile cavemen . call em cave people and give em barbarian stats .

    Giant Venus flytrap monster .


    A friendly druid trader or advice giver whose animal companion is a giant snake ?


    A nice poison encounter suggestion . Players wake up in the morning to find a few vipers crawled into their sleeping bags during the night , now they need to be careful of risk getting bitten .

    This is great opportunity for some sort of dino rider encounter . Kobolds riding raptors ?
    Last edited by Pugwampy; 2021-06-02 at 06:24 AM.

  6. - Top - End - #6
    Colossus in the Playground
     
    Segev's Avatar

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    Default Re: Dinosaur Island Ideas

    You may find value in Tomb of Annihilation. While it isn't "dinosaur island," the jungles of Chult have dinos in them. That might be a bit of a hefty investment for how much of it you'll actually use, though.

    Savage tribes of pteradon-riding halflings keep coming to mind as I think about "dinosaur island," so maybe have some of those as a common enemy. Or goblins could serve the same purpose as more traditional enemies than halflings. Maybe there's a halfling/goblin war for the skies, with regular raids to steal other tribes' pterodons. Maybe it even is initially presented as a racial war, but later on it turns out that some halfling and goblin tribes are allied, and some tribes of the same race are enemies.

    Use Kobolds as "intelligent dinosaurs" instead of as "dragon underlings," maybe?

    A nasty trick the pterodon-riders may sometimes perform is stealing eggs from particularly dangerous dinos' nests and then dropping the eggs on enemies to sic the enraged dinos on them.

  7. - Top - End - #7
    Bugbear in the Playground
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    Oct 2016

    Default Re: Dinosaur Island Ideas

    For natural obstacles.
    - Tar pits.
    - A valley with some form of volcanic vent that creates a CO2 sink. The area will have dead dinos in it, but only those small enough not to raise their heads above the CO2 blanket. You could make it a more visible/detectable gas if you don’t want to be too mean.

  8. - Top - End - #8
    Ogre in the Playground
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    Default Re: Dinosaur Island Ideas

    I cannot overstate the utility of non-dinosaur prehistoric animals. There is an incredible diversity of flying and marine reptiles, to say nothing of early mammals and assorted invertebrates and fish.
    Lots of pterosaurs have wondrous crests, perfect for marking distinct tribes. If there are people living here, then one tribe flies on Quetzalcoatlus, another on Thalassodromeus, etc. Note that not all of them are large enough to be rideable, plenty can be used as crow-parallels that come in swarms to harass people.

    One that comes to mind is Parapuzosia, a kind of Ammonite that could reach about 2 meters long. Depending on how you want to play it, you could have a selection of invertebrates haunting the comparatively shallow lakes, while massive Shonisaurus and Kronosaurus dominate the deep ocean. Nothosaurs rest along the shoreline, all ready to take a quick meal that dares enter their terrain.

    Meanwhile, the actual island is probably populated by all sorts of Jurassic-Cretaceous beasts with decisively Jurassic flora, so as to make it less recognizable. If there are actual people, they probably raise smaller sauropods like Camarasaurus (~15m) as massive cattle or even walking siege weapons (like taking a really big elephant and turning it into a chariot). That said, actual riding animals would probably be things like ceratopsians, which possess hard frills and horns for self defense and are quite compact. Ankylosaurs have the most protection, but are very much not good fits for being ridden on. Don't even get me started on trying to fit a saddle on a Dacentrurus.

    Note that no dinosaurs are known to have actually used venom, though if you want you can say a given species of stegosaur eats toxic berries which in turn means its spikes contain a thin coating of a deadly neurotoxin or something. That probably doesn't make sense, but whatever.
    Last edited by Squire Doodad; 2021-06-03 at 01:01 PM.
    An explanation of why MitD being any larger than Huge is implausible.

    See my extended signature here! May contain wit, candor, and somewhere from 52 to 8127 walruses.

    Purple is humorous descriptions made up on the fly
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  9. - Top - End - #9
    Dwarf in the Playground
     
    HalflingPirate

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    Default Re: Dinosaur Island Ideas

    Without knowing the game system, it's a little hard to give specifics - is your game going to have tactical segments, or is it going to be focused more on scenes and plot twists?

    Another thing to think about is the dramatic conflicts. Conflicts between the player characters and the environment, might involve finding food, warding off predators and disease, and building shelter/a raft for escape. between the PCs and active antagonists, you might have conflict with intelligent locals (I like the kobold idea someone else mentioned), or poachers, or even particularly persistent distinctive dinosaurs that either want to eat the party or might have other intentions (accidental imprinting; following the party for defense). Changes in the status quo of the island's geography (maybe a volcano is active) might also lead to interesting obstacles and situations - dinosaur herds migrating to avoid the eruption; a lava flow blocking the obvious path off the island).

  10. - Top - End - #10
    Pixie in the Playground
     
    Leonard Robel's Avatar

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    Default Re: Dinosaur Island Ideas

    Have you ever seen the old Land of the Lost? There were some advanced lizard people there called Sleestaks who lived in stone tunnels. They were initially seen as threats but turned out to be allies. It would certainly be a surprise to the players to encounter something like that. Maybe they would hold one means of escape or survival.

  11. - Top - End - #11
    Pixie in the Playground
     
    Devil

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    Default Re: Dinosaur Island Ideas

    Quote Originally Posted by not_a_fish View Post
    Without knowing the game system, it's a little hard to give specifics - is your game going to have tactical segments, or is it going to be focused more on scenes and plot twists?.
    Thanks everyone who's helped so far! The system is Powered by the Apocalypse and player/GM abilities are more focused on storytelling and scenes than on crunchy combat or complex rules.
    I'm not sure yet whether the island is permanently inhabited, but there will definitely be a few people to interact with and some of them might ride dinosaurs. Probably no kobolds or magic... this is meant to be an island that could be hidden in our world.

  12. - Top - End - #12
    Troll in the Playground
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    Default Re: Dinosaur Island Ideas

    Quote Originally Posted by Lestrange View Post
    Thanks everyone who's helped so far! The system is Powered by the Apocalypse and player/GM abilities are more focused on storytelling and scenes than on crunchy combat or complex rules.
    I'm not sure yet whether the island is permanently inhabited, but there will definitely be a few people to interact with and some of them might ride dinosaurs. Probably no kobolds or magic... this is meant to be an island that could be hidden in our world.
    Important thing about Mesozoic settings and modern humanoids: flowering plants did not undergo significant radiation until well into the Cretaceous period and grasses did not evolve until very late in the Cretaceous (and the same thing is true of important invertebrates associated with them, like bees). As such an island full of dinosaurs contains none of the foods people generally eat. This can serve as a driver of conflict since the only food source recognizable to the adventurers may be the dinosaurs themselves.

    Also, the place on Earth with the greatest resemblance to what the Mesozoic world actually looked like - minus the megafauna - is New Caledonia. It's a useful source of inspiration for how different the environment might actually look (a significant portion of Walking with Dinosaurs was filmed there for precisely that reason).
    Now publishing a webnovel travelogue.

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  13. - Top - End - #13
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    BardGuy

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    Default Re: Dinosaur Island Ideas

    It's actually a peninsular
    I love playing in a party with a couple of power-gamers, it frees me up to be Elan!


  14. - Top - End - #14
    Bugbear in the Playground
     
    Composer99's Avatar

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    Default Re: Dinosaur Island Ideas

    Quote Originally Posted by Lestrange View Post
    I'm planning to run a game called Escape from Dino Island. How can I evocatively introduce challenges for my players, and what kinds of threats would you suggest?
    Escape From Dino Island is all about improvisation, so as usual I'm overthinking it and planning ahead. What I'm hoping to do is collect a list of encounters (carnivores, herbivores, natural effects etc) as inspiration and quick additions. For a motif, think about Jurassic Park or Journey to the Center of the Earth.
    Let's see...

    Quote Originally Posted by Pauly View Post
    1) the really big carnivores (T-rex and pals) just aren’t interested in the party. The energy expended to nutrition gained just isn’t worth it. Lions don’t hunt mice, so a T-rex isn’t going to hunt a human for food. They will attack if provoked or are defending their young.

    2) Herbivores will see human sized critters as dangerous egg thieves if they get near nests.

    3) At least some if the herbivores will be rhinoceros/cape buffalo style extremely aggressive defenders. Probably more rhino like in being not too bright and short sighted.

    4) Thagomizers are cool and should be referred to as such at any opportunity.
    Frankly, I would disregard item #1 from this list. That seems like letting realism get a little too much in the way of fun. The rest are great, and item #4 is solid gold.

    Meanwhile, here are a few challenges. (They aren't all necessarily compatible with each other - it depends on what is the Dino Island)
    - The PCs must evade or withstand a stampeding herd of ceratopsians... and then face whatever caused the stampede. A wildfire? Tornado? Predator pack?
    - It's pachycephalosaur mating season, and the rutting males are high-strung. Best not to get in their way.
    - The river is the only way across, but there isn't a ford for miles. Problem is, what could be lurking in those waters?
    - Curious troodon wreck some of the camping supplies and/or get into the rations packs.
    - What sinister agency has barely-trained theropods patrolling the grounds of its facility, and what is it hiding there?
    - An ancient temple is rumoured to hold legendary treasures. You just have to avoid the pack of utahraptors that have taken up residence there. And maybe solve the mystery of who built it.
    - Find the professor and the dark secret they've discovered at the centre of the island before your rival (probably a Belloc-like figure) does.
    ~ Composer99

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  15. - Top - End - #15
    Pixie in the Playground
     
    Aerys's Avatar

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    Default Re: Dinosaur Island Ideas

    My thoughts go to the experimentation angle. If dinosaurs were brought back, maybe someone is also experimenting with hybrids. This could allow for some classic monsters like basilisks or salamanders, or maybe humanoid hybrids. The PCs could even have been experimented on and escaped in an unexpected dinosaur rampage on the facility. These could be overt, like yuan-ti, lizardfolk, or even dragonborn, or they could be hidden abilities that manifest in times of stress -- like combat or running for your life :) It could take another turn where each time they use these abilities they become less human, so it's a race against survival and losing their humanity. That's my two cents OO
    Last edited by Aerys; 2021-06-14 at 07:11 PM.

  16. - Top - End - #16
    Bugbear in the Playground
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    Default Re: Dinosaur Island Ideas

    Quote Originally Posted by Composer99 View Post
    Let's see...

    Frankly, I would disregard item #1 from this list. That seems like letting realism get a little too much in the way of fun. The rest are great, and item #4 is solid gold.
    .
    #1 is there more for subverting expectations.
    DM You see the mighty T-Rex resting in the shadows.
    Player: I try to creep away unseen.
    DM: [rolls dice]. The T-Rex turns his head to you and has definitely seen you.
    Player: I take [ dramatic action to escape]
    DM: The T-rex yawns and settles down for a nap.

  17. - Top - End - #17
    Troll in the Playground
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    Default Re: Dinosaur Island Ideas

    Note that, unless the island is really big there simply won't be a huge number of large predators. Big predators require big home ranges. An 6000 kg adult T-rex (mid-range of estimates), probably required a home range of many thousands of square kilometers. Even an island with a 20,000 sq km area (that's a big island, slightly larger than New Caledonia) is pushing it in order to maintain enough apex predators to sustain a viable population. Unless the party explores exhaustively they'd be unlikely to encounter more than one individual.

    In terms of big, nasty predators likely to threaten the party you probably want to focus on something no more than around 500 kg - slightly under twice he size of a large tiger. Something like Ceratosaurus fits the bill. They would be much more common. Even smaller dinos, perhaps around 100 kg (this is the approximate weight of a lioness), could plausibly operate as pack hunters.
    Now publishing a webnovel travelogue.

    Resvier: a P6 homebrew setting

  18. - Top - End - #18
    Ogre in the Playground
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    Default Re: Dinosaur Island Ideas

    Quote Originally Posted by Aerys View Post
    My thoughts go to the experimentation angle. If dinosaurs were brought back, maybe someone is also experimenting with hybrids. This could allow for some classic monsters like basilisks or salamanders, or maybe humanoid hybrids. The PCs could even have been experimented on and escaped in an unexpected dinosaur rampage on the facility. These could be overt, like yuan-ti, lizardfolk, or even dragonborn, or they could be hidden abilities that manifest in times of stress -- like combat or running for your life :) It could take another turn where each time they use these abilities they become less human, so it's a race against survival and losing their humanity. That's my two cents OO
    In my experience, it'd be better to just have basilisks, fire salamanders, etc just happen to be either past projects or part of a fantastical paleontology. Basilisks, in this world, happen to have fearsome Cretaceous era ancestors that amount to a Dire Basilisk. Things like that.
    An explanation of why MitD being any larger than Huge is implausible.

    See my extended signature here! May contain wit, candor, and somewhere from 52 to 8127 walruses.

    Purple is humorous descriptions made up on the fly
    Green is serious talk about hypothetical
    Blue is irony and sarcasm


    "I think, therefore I am,
    I walk, therefore I stand,
    I sleep, therefore I dream;
    I joke, therefore I meme."
    -Squire Doodad

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