Dino-Pirates of Ninja Island

In the words of the founding genius, JPL:

Ninjas, pirates, and dinosaurs. A fantasy Asia, filled with warring island nations. Samurai mounted on domesticated raptors. Bigger dinosaurs hunted by quasi-Polynesian tribesmen. Dueling factions of shadow warriors. Privateers and bucaneers battling the servants of the Imperial Navy. Fallen kingdoms deep in forgotten jungles. And I call it...

DINOPIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND!

Scratch Factory is your as-official-as-this-sort-of-thing-allows home for all things DINO-PIRATE. The first product, an introductory adventure (complete with sample PCs, all ready to go) has already been released: THE SLAVE QUEEN OF THE RUINED CITY. This adventure showcases many of the key themes and ideas of this fantastic pulp adventure setting, including all the basics of any DINO-PIRATES adventure:

  • Dinosaurs
  • Pirates
  • Ninjas
  • Monkeys
  • Robots

It's all there, we promise! And we assure all customers that we will hold to this list of essential ingredients, and that every DINO-PIRATES adventure ever published by us will include every single one. That's a promise, kids, and you don't get many of those you can count on in this world.

 

Latest Notes

Some commentary on gaming we've posted recently:

Everybody Loves Orcs (Except Me)

They do.

Orcs are so handy. I mean, as a concept. One of the more offensive aspects of D&D-style fantasy is how races all get assigned particular personalities and natures. It really just sort of supports the whole notion of ethnic profiling, only this is even worse -- whole species getting branded with a single character.

But virtually every fantasy RPG has "orcs" of some fashion or other, mainly in order to provide bad guys that nobody needs to feel bad about killing a lot. D&D of course has a dozen or so variations on the "orc" theme, all twisted and evil in different ways, but all needing killing. A lot. Hobogblins, gnolls, mongrelmen, whatever you call them, they're just human beings who have no right to live, and so delivering them to death is what good guys do.

Personally, I find it boring. Why would any sentient race NOT develop the breadth of personalities and philosophies that human beings do? Most of these races are described in such a pathetically narrow way that it's really impossible to imagine. Hobgoblins like order and discipline. Goblins are impish and savage. And so on. There cannot be thoughtful gnolls, orcs are never swayed by appeals to compassion or long-term interest. These races are thin, amateurish cartoons of human beings -- which can work in some games, to be sure (Kobolds Ate My Baby, for one (by the way, Kobolds Ate My Baby is, like, the greatest game EVER, if you don't know)).

I like what Joshua has done with his last few campaigns -- the "monstrous" humanoids are just other races and everyone more or less kinda sorta gets along. Works best without elves, of course, but then so much does. Let's not discuss elves.

Anyway, the monstrous races are almost always used as this cheap way to have thrills without cost. Like the demons in Buffy the Vampire Slayer -- technically, right, they're demons, so Buffster can just murder them right left and center and never feel a twinge of guilt, but... A lot of the demons that start turning up seem awfully... not so terrible. Just kind of plain folks, really, who have a line or three and then get Buffercized. And then there seem to be some demons that don't ever get killed, and just hang out with everyone else. I don't get it, but more to the point, I don't LIKE it (I guess that's coming clear), since it sucks all the actual human drama out of the situation. All the killing ceases to matter, ceases to be exciting on anything other than the most trivial of levels.

Which, again, is fine in a cartoon where kobolds are running around stealing babies. But for a game I'm going to invest the time to run a campaign in, insufficient.

Which is why DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND doesn't have any races other than people. People are good. You have people, you have everything.

All that aside, Claudio did a pretty awesome job on this half-orc picture. That guy looks MEAN.

DINO-PIRATES at GryphCon!

DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND games are popping up all over the place. In a few weeks, we'll be running yet another edition of MONKEY WARRIORS OF THE WALKING SWORD at this year's GryphCon event up in Guelph.

You can sign up for the event online. Our kick-off time is 7:00pm, Saturday, March 27.

We had a great session at last month's SpellStorm convention, and are really looking forward to hanging out with the good folks in Guelph for a weekend of gaming fun.

Hope to see you there! Tell your friends!

Keeping it Small

So I only recently came across this concept, but it's just so awesome:

The One-Page Dungeon



So amazingly awesome. Apparently it originated with this character David Bowman ("Dave? What are you doing, Dave?"), and this year's version of the contest is being run by a gentleman name of Alex Schroeder.

It's such a fantastic idea. I love everything about this. Constraints are essential to creativity, but so often, the only constraint on a GM is time. You've got a game on Saturday, you gotta get things ready, so there's your constraint. But something more formal, even if it's as ad-hoc as "you have to fit everything on one page", really strikes a chord with me. I find it so much harder to be creative if I don't put some constraints on my thinking. Inspiration so often comes out of limitations.

Now, you can take the whole idea a little further than I would, but it's still a brilliantly useful tool.

So brilliant, that we're pleased to announce that Scratch Factory Productions will be donating a copy of SLAVE QUEEN OF THE RUINED CITY as a prize for the contest winners. So break out the pencils, or the Photoshop, or whatever, and put down a page. On the left I've done up one of my own -- Flintwater's Lair, a secret grotto where the dread pirate Flintwater keeps his sloop of war, his hearty crew, and his booty. Yar. I've added Flintwater's lair to the burgeoning DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND setting wiki, which hasn't been announced yet but is gonna be soon, 'cause it's awesome.

What other creative constraints strike you as useful for DMs looking for inspiration?

DINO-PIRATES in T.O.!

DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND will be one of the games taking place at next weekend's SpellStorm convention here in Toronto. I'll be running MONKEY WARRIORS OF THE WALKING SWORD for up to seven fortunate souls on Saturday, Feb 20. This will be the first time running this adventure in Toronto, so this is a great chance to come see what DINO-PIRATES is all about.

You can sign up online: it's only $5 to register for the game.

About SpellStorm: SpellStorm is back for its second year! Once again at Oakham House, Ryerson University, Spellstorm is the only Toronto area convention that puts gaming first. Come join us February 19-20 for 5 slots of tabletop gaming fun.
Powered by Feed Informer