The Valley of Gwan-gee-three

Yesterday I played in a rather excellent game at the G3's annual Spencer Warner Memorial Games Day. Spence was a very long serving member of the G3 club and was well known to the majority of the club. I spoke to him a few times, but he sadly passed away a year and a half ago, not that long after I joined. In his memory, the club instigated the annual Games Day which I think is a great thing to do. All the proceeds are given over to Macmillan Cancer Support, a very worthy cause, and this year we raised £330!

So, given the fact that this was not a regular club night I thought that George and I should run something a little out of the ordinary and the first thing that leapt to mind was a Wild West dino hunt using Pulp Alley! I've always loved the film Valley of Gwangi and, of course, George said he had everything we would need...! Naturally! :) All I had to do was come up with some extra rules for wrangling those prehistoric dawgies and we were on!

Dino Wrangling and Lasso Rules

• The range that a lasso attempt can be made is equal to the dice quality in inches of the characters' finesse. So a D8 gives you an 8" range.
• A lasso attempt is an opposed roll of your Finesse against the target's Dodge.
• For each lasso already on the target they lose 1 die of Dodge.
• When a lassoed target activates, an it must make an opposed Might roll against the Might of one of the cowboys with a lasso on it (decided amongst the players). The cowboy gets +1D for every other lasso on the target.
• When the target loses the roll  it is subdued and becomes a plot point. Completing the plot point is basically hog-tying it!
• And yes, we had cowboys trying to lasso other cowboys! :)

So, without further ado, the curtain raises to a strange valley, somewhere in New Mexico! Roaming this valley are some very unexpected creatures! Rather than cattle and buffalo...there are DINOSAURS!!! Upon discovery of these ancient reptiles a number of groups immediately set out to capture them. First off is the land owner, Ben Cartwheel and his ranch hands (played by me). Second is a bunch of hired guns, lead by Rooster Hogburn, in the employ of circus owner Philleus Barnum, who wishes to display these wonders. Third is a roving bunch of outlaws, led by The Colonel, who can smell an easy buck to be made...or at the very least they'll be able to eat for weeks!!

The Valley of Gwan-gee-three! The riders arrive to find some dinosaurs milling about. We decided that the reptiles would move randomly, minding their own business, until shot at or lassoed, whereupon they would turn on the nearest character!

Despite being separated by millions of years, the power of Pulp Alley brings the ferocious T-Rex and the powerful Triceratops together!

Some 'raptors are also prowling about. Some of the outlaws spot one and begin moving in for the lasso attempt...

...while the others can't resist the lure of the huge herbivore in the valley.

But Ben Cartwheel leads his ranchers in with guns blazing! "Get offa my land, ya varmints!"

Rooster's hired guns begin rounding up the nearest dinosaur - another Velociraptor.

And Rooster himself is first to it. His expertise with the lasso is there for all to see as he effortlessly loops it over the dino's neck.

And his allies join in to make sure that raptor is going nowhere!

The outlaw's scatter under the fire of the ranchers and Reynolds gets the first lasso on the contested raptor, which is easily subdued in it's confused state.

The other raptor is subdued and Rooster gallops up to truss it's limbs. He does so, narrowly avoiding it's snapping jaws.

Ben's follower, Kid Jebsen, is not so adept, and ends up in the raptor's jaws! That's right, folks! Tying up a live Velociraptor is most certainly a perilous thing to do!

Little Bo and Blue, Cartwheel's sidekick and ally charge up to try and drive the hired guns off. Rooster and his sidekick Dean Mitchum engage in a firefight which sees Blue's mount shot from under him (he's the standing figure at the bottom of the hill). But the delay for the hired guns would prove very...costly!

Ben orders Reynolds to get the raptor secured while he covers him. With an audible gulp he sets about his task, trying not to stand in the bits of Kid Jebsen that are left. But the dinosaur is obviously full and he manages to get it tied up!

All this time, the outlaws have been struggling with the massive brute strength of the Triceratops. Despite three lassos, they simply cannot subdue it and must keep dodging it's attacks, or be severely gored! 

After the raptor was secured, Cartwheel himself gallops over and is the first to lasso the T-Rex. Already enraged by one of the outlaws who fired upon it (specifically to get it's attention to draw it over to the hired guns), the monster bellow out a tremendous roar! Little Bo also gets a lasso on it and Dean Mitchum tries to gallop away, but those mesas are treacherous going and his horse stumbles and he has to control it...

...giving the ferocious carnivore the chance to stampede up the hill and gobble the unfortunate cowboy up! It's taste for blood ignited, it immediately charges Rooster who also ends up following his compadre down it's gullet!

The terror stomps down towards Cartwheel's crew, but Reynolds joins them and the third lasso is enough to bring the prehistoric predator down! Alas, it falls to the side and crushes English Jim, one of the outlaws! (Actually he failed his recovery roll, so we decided that made more sense! You can see him down just past the dino!)

While the carnage is ensuing on the mesa, the outlaws finally get another lasso on the Triceratops and it finally tires out and collapses! Their leader, The Colonel, doesn't waste any time and gets it's legs well and truly tied up! It'll be dino meat and beans for weeks at their camp now!

This was another brilliant game and really shows the versatility of Pulp Alley and I hope that the game was something that Spence would have enjoyed as much as we did.