Cowboys & Dinosaurs: Session 3 Recap

 And realized my blog titles are not always consistent. However, as neither am I, I suppose it merely reflects myself.

We brought in a new player and character. The player had been out of communication most of the summer at his job, but was ready to jump in. Fortunately, we could work him into the game from the start of the session.

As we last left our heroes, there was a stampeding herd of parasaurolophus was stampeding towards them, harassed by raptors! Utahraptors, that is. I believe only one character managed to notice that the stampede, being herded by the utahraptors who themselves being herded by four horsemen. Up the road a bit, a man yelled at them from behind some large fallen trees that may work as a shelter from the stampede. They made good time, though Jack & Millie were a bit slower: first failed the action check, then failed the save roll. Using the grit point Jack and Millie just managed to get behind the crude shelter. Meanwhile, Hambone managed to get Puddin to move the timber to provide a better protection. It was one of the tricks the dino used, so we managed to use some of the mechanics for the dino rider class!

The herd went stampeding past the group huddled behind the trees. I wish I had thought to say just how loud and noisy the stampeding, bellowing and screaming dinosaurs were, as they managed to get to meet Lee Suong, a martial artist who was actually trying to find them. His uncle (more or less an elder rather than a blood relative) Chang Heng-di, recommended he find the people he rode in with yesterday. They would provide the young Chinese man more adventure and training to be a soldier than hanging out with an old Buddhist monk. Though I do have plans for that old Buddhist monk and the Chinese workers at the BB Grapler RR).

Of the 6 raptors chasing after the parasaurolophus herd, only one hopped up on the logs, and looked at the dinners hiding behind the barricade. While the raptor cocked his head and looked down at them, Lee swung with his staff. And somehow managed to miss. Raptor did not take this well - I rolled a really bad reaction roll. The raptor attacks Lee in retaliation, slashing the man across the chest. Jack has his 30-30 and manages to hit the raptor. Molly, standing on Puddin, tries to shoot and drops her gun (a 1 - critical failure). Hambone manages to catch the falling rifle, so we did not have to check for it breaking if it hit the ground. Lee swings again and manages to whack the dino on the head. Wounded, the raptor misses Lee, and Molly shoots again. And misses again. Hambone meanwhile had turned Puddin around, and a swing of that wrecking ball of a tail takes out the raptor.

The immediate threat taken care of, they start to regroup and bandage up Lee a bit (Hambone's barber skill allows for 1d4 +1 for wound binding, the normal is just 1d4).  Then they hear the horses. Jack reloads and shoots, knocking one off of his horse. Molly manages to shoot and hit one without dropping her rifle, while Lee, master of martial arts, and his gun packed up on Pachy (his dino), decides to charge the horsemen. Hambone follows "that crazy Chinaman", sawed off shotgun in hand. All four of the horsemen manage to miss our heroes, bark chips flying from the trees. Next round, Jack's next shot takes out the same man he shot before, and Molly hits again. By this time, Lee has rushed the 3rd horseman and knocks him off his horse, and Hambone kills him with shotgun blast to the face. 

With one bandit flat on his back and not moving, one starting to sit up, the 3rd dead, the last bandit shoots and manages to miss again (my bad die rolls really work out well for the players when I run a game!)  Lee charges him & knocks him off his horse as well, and (I think - I did not write down all that happened) Hambone kills that varmint as well. The bandit getting back on his feet decides it may be better to run away (failing a moral check) and gets back on his horse to run away. I think Jack missed him, but Molly gets on Volgol and gives chase. She tried a stunt to knock him on the back of his head with her gun, but missed, and almost caused Volgol to crash. Pretty sure she then took a shot and managed to kill him (he did not have much HP left after Jack's gunshot). The horse kept galloping along a bit, dragging the dead man whose foot was caught in the stirrup. Switching mounts to the bandit's horse and sending Volgol back aloft, Molly returns to the group, dragging the dead man behind her.

There were 2 bandits still barely alive. Lee is busy digging a hole and burying one, and Hambone and Jack have words with the other. They eventually find out that they are part of the Bad Company Gang. Six Gun Sal (why yes, I was listening to 70s songs while working on this) was hired by John Chisum to take out Jack Looking Horse. They also find that Six Gun is in a box canyon a few miles south-west of Auroa and have a small hand-drawn map. Then they kill off the remaining two bandits, and some rather violent acts so they will have proof for the reward the sheriff is offering for them. 

They cook up the raptor, and smoke some of the meat for supplies, and over the campfire Lee Suong tells his story. And this we ended that session, which took us about 3 hours to run and covered all of one day.

I managed a few things I think here. First, I brought in a 2nd player's "big bad" (yeas, each player has their own big bad I am thinking). Second, the club strike of Puddin was something the player had been wanting to do (and I had not realized it) so was very happy to get that action piece in. Finally, I think I managed to bring in our 4th player without changing much of anything. He did send me his info and background, but I've yet to read it. He too should have a big bad, but we're already at 2 and I think Jack Slade may be coming to town very soon. I also managed to use some of the players abilities and class things. I need to re-read the character sheets as well so that all the players get a chance to use their abilities. Though it is only implied that Jack (who is a feral child) does well in the wilderness, I feel I need to make sure the other players know that Jack is doing a lot more than looking grumpy.

I also got a pretty long list of possible things to throw in from the player who really loves Western games. I added it to my "potential plot points" and fortunately, there was at least some overlap! 

Jack after killing the bandits

I'll read over the new player's background, re-read the other players' backgrounds, and work out some ideas for the next session. And I am indeed fortunate that this group is heavy on the role playing. I gave 750 XP for the session from the bandits killed and the role playing. I am not great at the whole XP thing, but this is close enough. They may manage to level up in another session or two.

While westerns really are not my thing, I think they are having a lot of fun. I know I am, and I am slowly relaxing a bit more. This last session was not particularly planned out, but I need to do that for the next. Getting back to town gives a lot more NPC interaction and a lot more paths that they can take.