Is there a Good Game with Dinosaurs?

[Black Jester]

So... my nephew is quickly arriving in the RPG-capable age and his parents have asked me if I would run a game for him and his friends in the near future. Now, one of the things the kid and I have in common is a certain fascination with dinosaurs.
Now, I had the idea to combine this and run a game for the kids where they can either tame dinosaurs and ride or befriend them or, alternatively, be able to play sentient dinosaurs as PCs.
Obviously, the game is targeted at kids (between 10 and 11 years old) and they are bright, nice students. I already played a few board games with them, including more complex ones so I know that they have the discipline for a longer game and are capable to grasp more complex rules upto a certain level, So rules complexity is not that much of an issue as it might seem. The games don't have to be ultra lightweight but a game like Gurps or D&D 3.5 would probably too complex for this particular group.

It is more important though that the dinosaurs in the game are halfway accurate to contemporary research. My nephew told me with all the ernesty a nine year old can muster that he hates Jurassic Parc because the Raptors don't have feathers and that whoever said that a T-Rex can only see moving targets must be an idiot who doesn't know anything about dinosaurs. He is a bit obssessive/obnoxious that way.

Something like the old Dinotopia books but as an RPG would be great.
So... does anyone have a recommendation for me?

[Mr Beer]

You could use GURPS, just stick mostly to GURPS-lite.

- You do all the work of creating the character and dinosaur templates.
- Create a list of a dozen or so bang skills e.g. Fight! Throw! Ride! etc.
- Throw away the speed/range table.
- Simplify the death spiral part of combat e.g. no stunning or knockdown, 0HP is out of the fight, -1xHP is out and badly injured.

That leaves a 3d6 roll for any skill check including hitting someone and defending, some d6s for damage and a 3d6 reaction roll.

Pretty sure there are some GURPS works out there with dino-stats already done as well. Also as usual this site is a great resource for creatures: http://panoptesv.com/RPGs/animalia/animalia.html

Unless you're going to buy a dinosaur RPG, you're probably going to have to do some system design work up front anyway.

[Mr Beer]

Also, I found this thread which seems to be on topic for your question: https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php...eplaying-games

[JeenLeen]

D&D 5th edition is a bit mechanically simpler than 3.5, especially if you play non-casters. I don't know how many dinosaurs (if any) are in the Monster Manual, but if you don't see them it probably wouldn't be too hard to find homebrew or port 3.5 over to 5e. Alternatively, use stats for large animals and just refluff them as dinosaurs.

For the scientific/authentic angle... that would probably require you (for this & most any system) to do some research on your own and modify the descriptions of the dinosaurs as needed. I reckon most monster manuals (or equivalent) go with the view of dinosaurs from a couple decades back. BUT if you only use a dozen or so different dinosaurs, that shouldn't be too much work on your end.

[PhantasyPen]

I'm gonna toss FATE Core or Accelerated out into the ring. Both are simple to understand, and have a very large amount of free content, either from their SRD, or free PDF's from the publisher's website.

[comk59]

D&D 5th edition is a bit mechanically simpler than 3.5, especially if you play non-casters. I don't know how many dinosaurs (if any) are in the Monster Manual, but if you don't see them it probably wouldn't be too hard to find homebrew or port 3.5 over to 5e. Alternatively, use stats for large animals and just refluff them as dinosaurs.

For the scientific/authentic angle... that would probably require you (for this & most any system) to do some research on your own and modify the descriptions of the dinosaurs as needed. I reckon most monster manuals (or equivalent) go with the view of dinosaurs from a couple decades back. BUT if you only use a dozen or so different dinosaurs, that shouldn't be too much work on your end.

Plus you can play as a Lizardfolk, which is basically a dinosaur.

[Mechalich]

Plus you can play as a Lizardfolk, which is basically a dinosaur.

Lizards are lepidosaurs, dinosaurs are archosaurs. The last common ancestor of the two groups was somewhere in the early Permian. They are not closely related.

Now, I had the idea to combine this and run a game for the kids where they can either tame dinosaurs and ride or befriend them or, alternatively, be able to play sentient dinosaurs as PCs.

These are two very different things and are not compatible in the same setting. The first is something like ARK: tabletop edition, while the second is much more complicated. If you intend to allow dinosaur PCs then I strongly suggest you go very rules-lite, since it's going to be weird and the capabilities of different dinosaur species will vary immensely.

Humans in a fantasy Mesozoic mash-up world is easier and can be done with a variety of systems. D&D is not a bad system for this and 5th Edition is probably the best currently available edition for younger players. While there are probably not a lot of dinosaur stats produced by WotC, OGL compliant resources do exist that would save you time - and you don't need that many examples, just like with extant animals the RPG stats for animals of roughly the same size and ecological niche don't vary much. D&D allows characters to have dinosaur animal companions and mounts for many classes which should fulfill the primary desire of having dinosaurs around.

[Black Jester]

I have actually found a pretty decent looking game for my purposes: Primeval. Admittedly, I have never seen the series the game is based on, but the game uses the same rules as the Dr. Who RPG, and those are pretty good/simple to grasp and allows for some interesting crossovers down the line. The kids will definetly gain a pseudo-Tardis Airship/Time Machine as a home base/ travellinng vehicle (with a snarky droid pilot as DMPC to fly the damn thing and gice them advice without stepping on their ability to actually perform as adventurers in the Dino Jungles).

[Lvl 2 Expert]

I have actually found a pretty decent looking game for my purposes: Primeval. Admittedly, I have never seen the series the game is based on,

I didn't know there was an RPG for that. That series was pretty awesome, if you're into the Jurassic Park genre.

If the game strictly follows the episodes one thing you may find is that it doesn't actually contain that many different dinosaurs. It took them until season 2 to even feature one species. You get raptors though, and giganotosaurus and tyrannosaurus, several non-dinosaurs that fit the time period (2 types of pterosaur) and a bunch of other creatures you can base more dinosaurs on (scutosaurus, Columbian mammoth, terror birds etc) or that could work in their own right (sabertooth tiger, giant scorpion). The Canadian season (New World) featured more dinosaurs, but it doesn't look like that's included.

[Rhedyn]

Well Savage Worlds with the sci-fi race builder can allow you to make dinosaur races if you uncap size increase limitation.

I would suggest using that to make dinosaurs and then give weaker dinosaur players advancements (levels) to make up the difference.

Then have them interact with other dinosaurs. T-Rex is in the core rule book.

Savage Worlds is mid-crunch. Not as nearly crunchy as GURPS but not a truly rules light system either.

But if you are running for kids, then the Low Life fantasy setting could amuse them greatly. (Check it out yourself to see if it's appropriate by your standards)