T&C Adventures

[John Wick]

Quick: off the top of your head. With everything you know about the game right now, what would you do with it?

I mean, what kind of adventures do you see playing in Tooth & Claw?

Looking forward to your responses,
John

[Mytholder]

Eh. Dinos have never done much for me. Still, I'm an adventure design junkie.

Hunter's Hunted. A fairly standard gauntlet scenario, where the PCs are chased by a bigger, nastier carnivore in a remote region. They've got to work together and come up with a plan to defeat the monster.

Stolen Eggs. The PCs' eggs are stolen by another dinosaur, who basically holds them to ransom and forces them to perform some task for him. If they refuse, he'll crush the eggs. While they're off on the quest, though, the eggs hatch...hmm. Depending on the tone of the game, the baby dinos are either eaten alive or else we've got a cute disneyesque scene where they bond with their kidnapper, who feels the reforming power of love...cue custody battle.

The Prophecy of the Lost World. Characters discover that a giant meteor is going to wipe out all the dinos in a few years...but there's one remote plateau where they can survive. The problem is getting there...and do they tell others about the future, or the plateau, or both...?

[Gordon C. Landis]

On 2001-07-09 19:17, John Wick wrote:
Quick: off the top of your head. With everything you know about the game right now, what would you do with it?

Let's see, what DO I know about the game right now?

"Tooth & Claw is the roleplaying game of dinosaurs in a savage world of prehistoric fact and fantasy."  Dinosaurs, savage, fact & fantasy.  Savage = Dino Fights!  Gotta be an adventure whose main objective is to pit dino vs. dino in glorious stop-motion combat!  Fact = "Meet the Dinos", an adventure that introduces the various species of Pangea.  Fantasy = (don't ask me why) Time Travel, "The coming of the Not-Rats", in which a group of Dinos must prevent a group of cavemen who "slipped out of time" from establishing themselves on Pangea.  At first it seemed easy, but these Not-Rats control some strange magic (NOT technology) of their own.

"The game system is both easy-to-learn and sophisticated, designed for gamers of all ages.  Character creation is simple and fun for both dinosaur fans and players who know nothing about saurians and their kin."  Uhh. . . no offense, this bit's mostly pure hype.  All Ages = "Meet the Dinos" as a kid-education opportunity, I suppose.

"Tooth & Claw also includes information on the fantastic world of Pangea, how to create adventures with dinosaur families and tribes and their mysterious magic."  World of Pangea = "Where the Land Bleeds", a Dino-quest to where Pangea is beginning to break apart.  Soon, the Blood of the Land will sever the migration patch that has brought 2 families together every 10 years for generations.  Now, the PCs must make the journey out of season and convince the other family to join theirs NOW, or risk being seperated forever . . .  Dinosaur Families = "Bonding Time", wherein the males and females of one family must raid another to get their mates.  Failure means your new family will pick a mate for you - success, you have gained status in your family.  And Tribes = hmm, is this a tribe of multiple species of Dino?  "Lord of the Megaflies", in which the PCs return from a hunting expedition to discover their tribe has turned cannibal!  The tribe seer has lost it, and begun instructing the Rexes to farm and harvest their own Brontos!  Mysterious Magic = "Quest for the Manyteeth", in which our land-based Dino-heroes must use the Elder Magic and enter the Great Shallow Sea of Pangea, to slay one of those HUGE megasharks and bring it's jaws to their hunting grounds, which have been mysteriously sparse of late.  Of course, the megasharks own magic is somehow behind the depopulation, and it runs the risk of spreading and begining a regional Extinction Event.

"It's everything you knew about dinosaurs...and everything you never knew! "

OK, unrelated to that, one more thought - adventure begins with a "scene" represented by the fossilized remains discovered by an archaeolgist (at the bottom of a tar pit, mixed with several species, signs of a struggle, causght in flood - pick some details).  The PCs then begin to tell the "true" tale of how those fossils happened to end up where they did, in the state they are in.

Hmm. . . this may not be what you were looking for - I guess I ran with the "off the top of your head" thing.  Hope it helps.

Gordon C. Landis

[Zak Arntson]

I hate to say this, but I'd probably wind up introducing a few humans and play in the original Turok Son of Stone comic world (you know, the REAL one from the 60's or whenever).

Nothing cooler than a pair of civilized (Native American) guys firing poison arrows at honkers and dealing with the water-loving Beaver Men, finding the abandoned medieval castle (seeing mirrors and wondering who these vain people are), and avoiding caveman politics.

If I couldn't introduce people, I can think of:

a) Tribal politics between raptor-like intelligent groups.  Only instead of raptors I'd use Deinonychus, hands down the coolest and best illustrated dinos ever (see The Dinosaurs art book by William Stout).

b) Adventure into Lovecraftian stuff, since the Old Ones (and others like the snakey Yith people) were supposed to be active then.

c) Anything that doesn't involve a generic "Searching for the Lost Land of Milk & Dino Honey" as per any dino movie in the theaters.

_________________
Zak
http://mailto:zak@mimir.net">zak@mimir.net
http://zaknet.tripod.com/hmouse">Harlekin Maus Games

[ This Message was edited by: Zak Arntson on 2001-07-10 00:53 ]

[Dav]

For some reason, I thought a nice and simple one-shot would involve a sweeping fire coming through the fields during summer.  Our dinos, not experienced in the light that kills, must find out how to stop it.  Of course, many may forsee a quest to find where the great devouring light comes from, but we all know nothing is really at the end of the rainbow.

Um, as for others, I would have to wait to see the level of social interaction and society within the dino-world itself.  Do they "talk" to each other?  On more than a superficial "I-peed-here-don't-go" level?

Anyway, that is my initial thought.  Don't know why, just is.

Dav

[Damocles]

I am thinking adventures that focus on personal relationships and emnities. Something Jungle Books-like. (the original Kipling stories, not the Disney movie). The T-Rex ate mom and he's going to pay. Quarrells between brothers. Wars against other herds about hunting grounds.
Stuff that focuses on really basic emotions in very direct, unsubtle way. Also, stories that are about matters of survival: Food, water, shelter. In short, simple straightforward stories. You are here and want to go there because there's more food and water, and there's stuff in the way. There is this guy who wants to kill you because he hates you because you did something which harmed him.
For some reason I'm also thinking about animal fables. Fox, rabbit and bear and thinks like that.