Anatomy of a Playtest 2

A year and a half has passed since the last time I tried to playtest my "Dinosaur Planet" ruleset.  Rook was kind enough to help me get working on this once again.  It gave me the chance to break out the new cloth table covering I mentioned back in this post.  In case people are wondering, I'm using the Demo Rules because: A) the two times I've tried this we've only had to players and B) it's an easy way to control for variables.

Me (2 Frames & 8 Systems) = (5 Points per Asset) * (2 assets) = 10 points.  (Hoplites)
   Lime Hoplite Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W.
   Yellow Hoplite Soldier -- 2Rd/1B/1G/1Y/2W.

Rook (2 Frames & 8 Systems) = (5 Points per Asset) * (2 assets) = 10 points.  
   White Pug -- 2Rd/2Rh/1G/1Y/2W.
   Blue Pug Warrior -- 2Rh/1B/1G+d8/1Y/2W.

This is what the table looked like at the start of the game.

Events of Round 1 (DDC@5): One of the Dilophosauruses hits my Lime frame with a Spit attack for 1.  My Yellow frame moves towards the center of the battlefield from one Small Triple Tree to another and hits Rook's White frame for 2 which had moved from a Small Triple Tree to a Large Triple Tree.

Rook: 10 points.

Me: 10 points.

Events of Round 2 (DDC@3): Rook's White frame moves out from behind the Large Triple Tree to capture the Station.  Rook's Blue frame slashes a Dilophosaurus for 1 then runs for the Station.  The Dilophosaurus spits back for 1, Station Dance.  My Yellow frame hits the Stygimoloch for 2, killing it, as it was acting as cover for Rook's Blue frame which also gets hit for 2.

Rook:

 15 points.

Me: 10 points.

Events of Round 3 (DDC@1): My Lime frame closes with the Station and punches Rook's White frame for 1.  Rook's White frame slashes back for 2.  Rook's Blue frame leaps over the scrum at the Station and hits my Yellow frame with a flying slash for 4.  My Yellow frame angles off to the corpse of the Stygimoloch and hits Rook's White frame for 2 which is not enough to destroy it.  The Doomsday Clock is ticked to zero.

Rook: 15 points.

Me: 10 points.

Here are more final turn pictures.

Thoughts & Observations:

• We didn't use Single Shot Rockets.
• I tried the dinosaurs moving at the start of the round, before everyone else, instead of last.
• I also tried out my new direction system which worked pretty well.
• Having six dinosaurs on the board made things more interesting than the first time I tried this.
• Thinking of them as plot complications in an action adventure movie works pretty well too.
• At this point dinosaurs are essentially moving, and sometimes combative, terrain.
• I think the next step is figuring out who exactly they react to in the Combat Initiative stack.
• While it may look like my Lime frame teleported across the table in the First Round, the "Start" pictures were actually taken after the game was over and we were resetting the board.  I just forgot which sides my Frames started on.
• We played another game after this using a Tyrannosaurus Rex and some Velociraptors but I didn't keep any game notes on that.
• Flickr page.