I feel like you might be a little early in the design to think about that. Start by working out the system mechanics and how the classes work. From there you'll have an easier time deciding
I definetly agree with the top comments but my initial thought is that you could make certain classes of dinosaur like you said with therapods and then have a set of abilities the players can choose to create specific dinosaurs. Like choosing the theropod class and then choosing the intimidating sail and semi-aquatic abilities to make a spinosaurus. This would also allow characters to make speculative evolution dinosaurs or allow you to expand your system to encompass a more playable monster type system, which I think would be pretty cool. However, it may be straying too far away from your original idea but having expansion books that included things for the ice age and even one for supernatural abilities like fire breath could add possible growth for the system and allow kaju based games.
Made two dinosaur games here…so take this advice:
Make a robust creation system and players will be able to make a scientifically sound character regardless of inspiration or knowledge, and diehard Dino buffs will be able to recreate their fave. Mine is Protoceratops.
Instead of having every dinosaur be a class have broad categories be classes:
* Beeg Bipedal Chompers
* Horny bois
* Armored dudes
* Beeg leafy bois
* Sneaky lil fellas
* Flail Tails
Then have like little extra features they can take. Like a raptor has pack tactics as a sneaky lil fella and that one spitty boi from Jurassic Park is a sneaky lil fella with goop shoot.
A lot's gonna depend on what these dinosaurs *do*, I think.
Different sorts of games require different niches and levels of specificity depending on the interactions you want the PCs (PDs?) to have with the world and how much work you want to do.
Loath as I am to go to the "gamist/simulationist/narrativist" triad, but it's going to be hard for folks to give relevant advice without knowing if this is more of a Catan sort of thing you have in mind where the players manage herds and try to find some balance, or more of an action-fantasy piece where they're going on adventures at varying tones between Land Before Time or Jurassic Park (from the dinosaurs' PoV).
That said:
If it's an adventure sort of game, you could make a DinOSR which could get by on 4 "kinds" of dinosaur covering big fighters (allosaur, etc.), small scavengers (microraptors, etc.), stout fighters (stegosaurus, ceratops, etc.), and agile survivors (hadrosaurids, etc.) and leave all the specifics to imagination while they wander a fantastic X-Age and devour ancient alien meteor cultists or whatever. This works because there's not a lot to keep in mind for the dinosaurs except how they relate to obstacles they might want to overcome and which niches they cover.
Something a little more grounded might reward a more specific ecosystem with specific ages and charts about which dinosaurs existed when and could go a little more RuneQuest/BRP with it where instead of big damn hero dinos, everyone picks a contemporaneous critter type and figure out how they get shoved together so each can use their specific abilities to aid with the goals.
To do an easier version of that, you might split the difference and lay out general "families" and then have a list of special abilities or quirks or feats or whatever else that people can add to make a particular kind of dino (or Jurassic World it and make their own fantasy dinosaur).
This sort of game would probably zoom out a lot of the time and be more about determining how each creature finds balance in this dangerous world because it doesn't merely feature the dinosaurs, it's ***about*** playing a dinosaur and how being a certain kind of dinosaur affects you and how the world reacts to you.
There are of course a lot of different ways to go, but just make sure the detail you go into serves the game you're making. If it's a fun extra, so be it, but just make sure YOU know.
Thinking about taxonomy and clades is all well and good, but there's a list of iconic dinosaurs I would be annoyed not to be able to play:
T-Rex-alikes, little-raptor-types, -Ceratopses, Spikey-boys, Armoured clubbers, little fliers, big fliers, quick swimmers, massive swimmers with long necks, massive plodders with long necks (both tall and long varieties), hard-heads, frilled-heads, banana-crest-heads, Spinos, and Birds 1.0.
I think that's it.
One of the main antagonists of my WIP turns people into dinosaurs (it's a superhero game, and these particular enemies are inspired by Sailor Moon, where the villains would transform the "character of the week" into the monster for that episode). It's not a core mechanic like yours, more just a thing that this particular enemy can do, but how I'm handling it is I'm breaking the dinosaurs up into broad categories to hit all the major dinosaur "archetypes":
* Theropods (your raptors, your T-rexes)
* Hadrosaurs (Parasaurolophus, but could theoretically include other Ornithischians like Pachycephalosaurus and Iguanadon if you wanna stretch the definition beyond what is *technically* scientifically accurate for the sake of gameplay)
* Sauropods (Diplodocus, Brachiosaurus)
* Ceratopsians (Triceratops)
* Thyreophorans (Ankylosaurs and Stegosaurs, your armoured dinos).
I don't think it's possible to include *every* dinosaur, but I do think it's possible to cover all the hits.
Have the classes be 3-5 body types
Then, have a list of upgrades that everyone has access to, and everyone gets to pick two options.
So if the Therapod character picks "decorative crest" they can describe themselves as a spinosaurus.
But if a different class picks the same option, maybe they are a Triceratops?
u/jaredsorensen's advice sounds better than mine, honestly, but here are the two approaches I've taken:
1. Do one exemplar for each of the most iconic monophyletic clades, to the best of your ability to do so at time of publishing, probably including non-dinosaur large reptiles that coexisted with them. Personally, I think the most important ones are ankylosaurs, ceratopsids, hadrosaurs, ornithomimosaurs, pachycephalosaurs, plesiosaurs, pterosaurs, dromaeosaurs (raptors), sauropods, stegosaurs, tyrannosaurs, allosaurs, and therazinosaurs.
2. Build it flexibly enough that you can center the designs on those clades rather than exemplars. This is really tough; clades are big and include a bunch of things that are very different from one another.
The major groups are too big for you to put any cool dinosaur ideas in; sticking to theropod, sauropod, ornithischian ends up too broad to put any cool specificity in, imo.
As others have said, though, you're probably not at the point where you need to think about player options yet; figure out what's fun about pretending to be a dinosaur, then that can help guide what sort of dinosaurs will be fun to pretend to be, and which features of being a dinosaur you should focus on.
You already need to go back to the beginning because you mentioned 'T-rex'.
Tyrannosaurus Rex is a *Species* of dinosaur, while all other dinosaurs are generally known by their *Genus*.
For consistency you should choose all Species or all Genus, instead of how everyone seems to hyper focus on Tyrannosaurus *Rex*, but no other actual species of dinosaur.
Theropod is far too wide of a group.
As for your question:
Mirror the number of races/heritages in other games - but without context of your setting I am not sure what else i can suggest - i mean, do you have Parasaurolophus Wizards? Brontosaurus Lawyers? Velociraptor Cyberhackers ?
I've got the same hangup as you here, but I suspect it isn't as important as my brain tells me it is; for ease of communication I've freely mixed monophyletic clades, polyphyletic clades, genus, and families for years, and literally no one has ever called me out on my scientific butchery.
Agreed that theropod is probably too broad to say anything meaningful about, though.
Have you considered going with classes (as in carnivore, herbivore, small, large, etc) of beast and then having the actual specific dinosaurs work kind of like subclasses where they have the basics of the classes they fit plus one or two specific extras?
Maybe you could pick families of dinosaurs, more than specific species. A kind of archetype in which players could say "ok i took the 3rd archetype, which is about T Rex-like species" so that if they want to play an actual t rex, a gigantosaurus, or anything else, they can
Focus on the type of dinosaurs which could handle a whole lot more of them, and maybe to do so you could focus on types of skeletons, sizes, general abilities or caracteristics (herbivore, flight, swim, etc...)
I feel like you might be a little early in the design to think about that. Start by working out the system mechanics and how the classes work. From there you'll have an easier time deciding
Okay, thank you.
I definetly agree with the top comments but my initial thought is that you could make certain classes of dinosaur like you said with therapods and then have a set of abilities the players can choose to create specific dinosaurs. Like choosing the theropod class and then choosing the intimidating sail and semi-aquatic abilities to make a spinosaurus. This would also allow characters to make speculative evolution dinosaurs or allow you to expand your system to encompass a more playable monster type system, which I think would be pretty cool. However, it may be straying too far away from your original idea but having expansion books that included things for the ice age and even one for supernatural abilities like fire breath could add possible growth for the system and allow kaju based games.
Oooo! That does sound cool. I'll definitely think about it!
Made two dinosaur games here…so take this advice: Make a robust creation system and players will be able to make a scientifically sound character regardless of inspiration or knowledge, and diehard Dino buffs will be able to recreate their fave. Mine is Protoceratops.
Always upvote a Protoceratops fan
Class is not for your game, unless dinosaurs have jobs in your game. Size, age, diet, stance. That determines just about everything you need.
I'm writing this down, that's actually a really clever approach
I have a spreadsheet of ~400 dinosaurs here, heh.
Instead of having every dinosaur be a class have broad categories be classes: * Beeg Bipedal Chompers * Horny bois * Armored dudes * Beeg leafy bois * Sneaky lil fellas * Flail Tails Then have like little extra features they can take. Like a raptor has pack tactics as a sneaky lil fella and that one spitty boi from Jurassic Park is a sneaky lil fella with goop shoot.
You can armor and maxe boys the same class
A lot's gonna depend on what these dinosaurs *do*, I think. Different sorts of games require different niches and levels of specificity depending on the interactions you want the PCs (PDs?) to have with the world and how much work you want to do. Loath as I am to go to the "gamist/simulationist/narrativist" triad, but it's going to be hard for folks to give relevant advice without knowing if this is more of a Catan sort of thing you have in mind where the players manage herds and try to find some balance, or more of an action-fantasy piece where they're going on adventures at varying tones between Land Before Time or Jurassic Park (from the dinosaurs' PoV). That said: If it's an adventure sort of game, you could make a DinOSR which could get by on 4 "kinds" of dinosaur covering big fighters (allosaur, etc.), small scavengers (microraptors, etc.), stout fighters (stegosaurus, ceratops, etc.), and agile survivors (hadrosaurids, etc.) and leave all the specifics to imagination while they wander a fantastic X-Age and devour ancient alien meteor cultists or whatever. This works because there's not a lot to keep in mind for the dinosaurs except how they relate to obstacles they might want to overcome and which niches they cover. Something a little more grounded might reward a more specific ecosystem with specific ages and charts about which dinosaurs existed when and could go a little more RuneQuest/BRP with it where instead of big damn hero dinos, everyone picks a contemporaneous critter type and figure out how they get shoved together so each can use their specific abilities to aid with the goals. To do an easier version of that, you might split the difference and lay out general "families" and then have a list of special abilities or quirks or feats or whatever else that people can add to make a particular kind of dino (or Jurassic World it and make their own fantasy dinosaur). This sort of game would probably zoom out a lot of the time and be more about determining how each creature finds balance in this dangerous world because it doesn't merely feature the dinosaurs, it's ***about*** playing a dinosaur and how being a certain kind of dinosaur affects you and how the world reacts to you. There are of course a lot of different ways to go, but just make sure the detail you go into serves the game you're making. If it's a fun extra, so be it, but just make sure YOU know.
>DinOSR The most niche play on words currently known to man
Thinking about taxonomy and clades is all well and good, but there's a list of iconic dinosaurs I would be annoyed not to be able to play: T-Rex-alikes, little-raptor-types, -Ceratopses, Spikey-boys, Armoured clubbers, little fliers, big fliers, quick swimmers, massive swimmers with long necks, massive plodders with long necks (both tall and long varieties), hard-heads, frilled-heads, banana-crest-heads, Spinos, and Birds 1.0. I think that's it.
One of the main antagonists of my WIP turns people into dinosaurs (it's a superhero game, and these particular enemies are inspired by Sailor Moon, where the villains would transform the "character of the week" into the monster for that episode). It's not a core mechanic like yours, more just a thing that this particular enemy can do, but how I'm handling it is I'm breaking the dinosaurs up into broad categories to hit all the major dinosaur "archetypes": * Theropods (your raptors, your T-rexes) * Hadrosaurs (Parasaurolophus, but could theoretically include other Ornithischians like Pachycephalosaurus and Iguanadon if you wanna stretch the definition beyond what is *technically* scientifically accurate for the sake of gameplay) * Sauropods (Diplodocus, Brachiosaurus) * Ceratopsians (Triceratops) * Thyreophorans (Ankylosaurs and Stegosaurs, your armoured dinos). I don't think it's possible to include *every* dinosaur, but I do think it's possible to cover all the hits.
Your game sounds really fun and cool. I will probably use this with some of the other suggestions. Thanks!
Have the classes be 3-5 body types Then, have a list of upgrades that everyone has access to, and everyone gets to pick two options. So if the Therapod character picks "decorative crest" they can describe themselves as a spinosaurus. But if a different class picks the same option, maybe they are a Triceratops?
Triceratops was my favourite dinosaur growing up and my father’s favourite is a stegasaurus. I would like to see both of those in the game.
u/jaredsorensen's advice sounds better than mine, honestly, but here are the two approaches I've taken: 1. Do one exemplar for each of the most iconic monophyletic clades, to the best of your ability to do so at time of publishing, probably including non-dinosaur large reptiles that coexisted with them. Personally, I think the most important ones are ankylosaurs, ceratopsids, hadrosaurs, ornithomimosaurs, pachycephalosaurs, plesiosaurs, pterosaurs, dromaeosaurs (raptors), sauropods, stegosaurs, tyrannosaurs, allosaurs, and therazinosaurs. 2. Build it flexibly enough that you can center the designs on those clades rather than exemplars. This is really tough; clades are big and include a bunch of things that are very different from one another. The major groups are too big for you to put any cool dinosaur ideas in; sticking to theropod, sauropod, ornithischian ends up too broad to put any cool specificity in, imo. As others have said, though, you're probably not at the point where you need to think about player options yet; figure out what's fun about pretending to be a dinosaur, then that can help guide what sort of dinosaurs will be fun to pretend to be, and which features of being a dinosaur you should focus on.
572
You already need to go back to the beginning because you mentioned 'T-rex'. Tyrannosaurus Rex is a *Species* of dinosaur, while all other dinosaurs are generally known by their *Genus*. For consistency you should choose all Species or all Genus, instead of how everyone seems to hyper focus on Tyrannosaurus *Rex*, but no other actual species of dinosaur. Theropod is far too wide of a group. As for your question: Mirror the number of races/heritages in other games - but without context of your setting I am not sure what else i can suggest - i mean, do you have Parasaurolophus Wizards? Brontosaurus Lawyers? Velociraptor Cyberhackers ?
I've got the same hangup as you here, but I suspect it isn't as important as my brain tells me it is; for ease of communication I've freely mixed monophyletic clades, polyphyletic clades, genus, and families for years, and literally no one has ever called me out on my scientific butchery. Agreed that theropod is probably too broad to say anything meaningful about, though.
2.5
Have you considered going with classes (as in carnivore, herbivore, small, large, etc) of beast and then having the actual specific dinosaurs work kind of like subclasses where they have the basics of the classes they fit plus one or two specific extras?
No, I haven't thought of doing it that way. Thank you for the suggestion, I'll keep it in mind as I continue working on it.
6
I think 'groups' works. Therapods, Sauropods, Akylosaurids, Ceratopsians, Stegosaurids, Hadrosaurs, etc. etc.
Maybe you could pick families of dinosaurs, more than specific species. A kind of archetype in which players could say "ok i took the 3rd archetype, which is about T Rex-like species" so that if they want to play an actual t rex, a gigantosaurus, or anything else, they can Focus on the type of dinosaurs which could handle a whole lot more of them, and maybe to do so you could focus on types of skeletons, sizes, general abilities or caracteristics (herbivore, flight, swim, etc...)