Dinosaur Week isn't just about comics, it's about dinosaurs in every staple of geekdom. Yes, this is my weekly RPG post.Dinosaurs and Nazis. They play a central role in my Dream Park games. All you need to know is that it's a great RPG to run one-shots with, so every week, all different world and scenario. And yet, Nazis and Dinosaurs keep making appearances. Why? Because they're naturals, that's why. Nazis are a natural villain. You see a Nazi, or someone who looks like a Nazi (jackbooted fascists with a cross-like logo on their armband) and immediately, you know who the bad guys are. Simple. Clear. It's gaming short-hand, really.
Dinosaurs are natural monsters. Easy to describe because they captures our imaginations when we were kids, and there are plenty of easily available picture books to help even those players who can't tell an allosaurus from a dimetrodon (not technically a dinosaur). And because they really did live, they're more easily introduced into your games through lost valleys, alien interference, time travel or cloning. You can't say the same about a Beholder or an Otyugh.
And it's an industry "bias" because I usually take off from published material. I think a look at some 35 games of Dream Park I've run over the last few years will reveal a high Nazi/Dino ratio...
Nazis-Superheroes in World War II, well obviously I had super-Nazis (a Dream Park published adventure)
-A Torg scenario using the Nile Empire (they're Nazi stand-ins based on Ancient Egypt)
-Something I called "The Ancient Midget Nazi Shaman Game" (Call of Cthulhu's Blood Brothers)
-German spies try to steal steam-powered mecha (19th century Germans are just proto-Nazis)
-From this weekend: Nazi werewolves (inspired by Weird War II material)
Dinosaurs
-Zombie dinosaurs raised from the dead to eat the PCs (a sample scenario in the DP rulebook)
-A lost valley full of Incas AND dinosaurs (a Dream Park published adventure)
-A lost valley full of stop motion dinosaurs for that B-movie feel (freely adapted from Blood Brothers)
-A Torg scenario taking place in the Living Land, where dinosaurs still roam (Torg)
Both - Two great tastes together at last
-Best of Pyramid for GURPS has a beautiful little adventure with a time travelling Nazi base in the time of the dinosaurs. How could I resist?
Accounts for at least a fourth of all games, and I know I'm forgetting some lesser appearances. What are your "great tastes" that keep coming back?
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