I love worldbuilding, but the problem with that is that I just want to keep on building. I get an idea and make a setting, then I have another idea that doesn’t fit with the setting we’re now using, or a sci-fi device while we’re playing fantasy, or something else that just doesn’t fit. So, I write it down for later. Using a basic Word document is fine, but it is static. Using a wiki allows you to link anything to anything else.

Take the following sentence, for example: “The crag giants of the Marratora Peaks are rumoured to be the original creators of rune magic, though they also worship ancestor spirits and practice blood rites”. In a wiki, you can turn the terms “crag giants”, “Marratora Peaks”, “rune magic”, “ancestor spirits” and “blood rites” into links to the relevant pages on those topics.

TiddlyWiki allows you to make these pages and links, which all pop-up on the same page in a nice fluid manner. You can also use it to create dated journals. For any of these options – which can all be used together – you can tag your tiddlers (the name for TiddlyWiki posts). I love this feature, as it makes it like a mini-blog or website and lets you easily find and arrange your tiddlers much more easily than regular documents. Even if you don’t tag your tiddlers, the TiddlyWiki is fully searchable, so if you remember the title or some key words from what you’re looking for, you’ll be able to find it.

You could use TiddlyWiki to organise a single campaign or an entire campaign setting. I’m currently using it not just for one world, but for any worldbuilding I can think of. Because of the tags, this isn’t a problem and doesn’t clutter the wiki. I can write an article about a fantasy campaign setting, another about a sci-fi monster, another about a NPC supervillain, and so on. None of this gets mixed up, thanks to tagging the posts with genres, and if I use it to develop a campaign setting, I can just tag those posts with the campaign setting’s name.

You can download TiddlyWiki here and give it a go yourself. I’m finding it very useful and if you’re a GM with a penchant for worldbuilding, I think you will too.

Weather adds believability, increases immersion in the game, and is a good hook for roleplaying and story. In this post we’ll look at how to incorporate weather into our games, including a simple method for determining the current weather, and how this can affect the story and game world.

Whatever the Weather

Weather is a big part of the real world, and adding it to our games makes them seem more real. Usually, when lightning flashes and thunder booms across the sky, it’s because it is relevant to the plot, not because of the natural forces of the world. I know that some authors ignore weather through their novels, then go back and do an editing pass to add it into their stories. We dont’ have the ability to do that in roleplaying games, because they’re happening here and now. However, adding weather doesn’t need to be a chore, either.

Some GMs like to have huge tables of meteorological data charted for every season of every region of their worlds.  If you don’t have the time or desire to do that, there is a less realistic, but easier way. Use the following table to determine weather. It’s not a day-to-day table, but a general idea of what the weather is like around that time.

Weather Table

1. Much hotter than average.
2. Hotter than average.
3. Average for this region and season.
4. Colder than average.
5. Much colder than average.
6. Weather Event!

So, let’s say you’re in a temperate part of the world during summer. A result of 3 would get you a nice sunny day, maybe a light cool breeze. 1 would be sweltering, uncomfortably hot. 4 could be the wind picking up and getting a little too cold. 5 could be very breezy and perhaps overcast.

6 is where it gets interesting! Weather events are the big things that people notice, like bushfires or a huge thunderstorm on the horizon after weeks of hot weather. It could be a blizzard, a raging storm that knocks trees down across trade paths, floods canals and rips roofs off houses. It could be a tsunami or a tornado. It could even be supernatural weather. Perhaps you could incorporate other natural events like volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. If you want some visual resources and references for (super)natural disasters, check out this gallery.

The thing with this table is that it gives a general idea and doesn’t account for day-to-day fluctuations. If you’re making an adventure and roll that it is much hotter than average, then maybe it’ll be like that for the next couple of weeks, or maybe it is leading into a weather event. Use the table as inspiration, don’t let it constrain you.

Hot weather means people wearing less and lighter clothing, cold drinks and meals would be sought after, the sun might shine off the knight’s armour, making the party more visible from afar. Heavy armour would also be stifling, uncomfortably hot and all that sweaty could impact social interactions.

Is this spell of hot weather unusually long for this time of year? People may not have been ready for this. Perhaps people are beginning to worry about the heat and water is running out. Can the heroes help them somehow? Water mages would be in great demand. Don’t forget too, that seasons greatly affect the weather, but even in a hot month you can have a cold period and vice versa.

You can see just from a few examples that the weather can greatly impact the game. You could, if you wanted to, turn it into a plot device: perhaps a pyromancer is summoning an army of fire elementals, the Volcano Goddess is being summoned by her cult, or the Red Planet is in alignment. However, maybe the weather related plot is not supernatural at all. You only have to look at the news once in a while to see the disaster that strikes during floods and droughts. You could have a whole campaign based around a community devastated by bushfires.

Not all weather should be story-related, though. It should occasionally be the focus of a story, but most of the time it should just add colour to the world and perhaps some difficulties for the PCs and NPCs. If it happens to be pouring down rain when you’re planning to travel across a now-raging river, then that will make things tricky. But it could just be raining while you’re delving into a dungeon and you can hear the rain outside, feel the cold and see tracks of mud from the goblin scouts. Perhaps there are more goblins – and other creatures – in the dungeon than expected, as they take shelter from the elements. Here, the weather isn’t the focus, but it definitely makes a difference.

Similarly, on a sunny day, it might be difficult to find an NPC, as they are out enjoying the weather. However, on a rainy or gloomy day, they could be more likely to be at their residence – and reluctant to leave! Having weather in your game also gives the PCs and NPCs something else to talk about. After all, isn’t weather the go-to topic for small talk and awkward conversations?

Wrapping Up

Next time you’re running a game, take a minute to roll a d6 and incorporate weather into your game. Your players are likely to notice and that’s a good thing. Use weather to add colour to your locations and NPCs. Use it as a plot device or for dramatic effect, but make sure it isn’t always for these purposes. Weather is one of the elements that is always present and can impact the players and world in unexpected ways. Take advantage of this and make your game world richer with weather.

Remember That Time…

How do these mini-flashbacks work? It’s pretty simple, but effective. Look for points in the story where some uncertain partially undefined element could be linked to a PC. Just make it one PC unless your have a few who have linked backgrounds (siblings for example). Mini-flashbacks work best when they are quick, and the less PCs involved, the better. Maybe the PCs hear about a priest accused of consorting with demons. Does the party’s paladin or cleric know the accused NPC? Rather than just telling the PCs “you know this guy”, initiate a mini-flashback.

Quickly set a scene full of tension. It doesn’t matter how the situation started, all that matters is what happens next. Using the above example, you could set the flashback with the party’s cleric alone late at night in the temple. During his prayers he hears muffled chanting coming from behind a bookcase. The cleric recognises some of the words as demonic and one of the voices sounds familiar.

Ask: “What do you do?” Does the PC investigate? If so, they see the NPC priest involved in a demonic ritual. You could add a twist here by having them make a perception check (more on checks and stats later). If they roll high enough perhaps they see that the priest appears to be involved under duress. If they fail, they believe he is complicit in the ritual.

From there, ask what the PC does now. Do they inform the authorities? Are they willing to testify in court? Maybe they take on the cultists themselves? Do they decide to walk away and ignore the ritual? Don’t worry about roleplaying any of this bit, just ask for the general direction they take.

Now, to reap the reward of the mini-flashback! Return to the present time and now the PC hasn’t just been told “you know this guy” or “you ousted him after you found him involved in a demonic ritual”. The PC has played it out and interacted with the NPC in a tense situation that would have made big changes in both the PC and NPC’s lives.

Suddenly, this isn’t a faceless NPC any more. He’s now linked to the PC and whatever actions they took in the mini-flashback will come back straight away to affect the present-day interactions with the NPC and related NPCs. If the PC dobbed the priest in, maybe he’s considered a hero to some and a snitch to others. If the PC vouched that the priest was involved against his will, maybe the cultists are after the PC or people consider the PC a liar or cultist sympathiser.

All this from a few minutes of flashback! During this, one PC has been in the spotlight. You could have had the other players play NPCs if desired, but even if they didn’t, they probably enjoyed watching the other PC and learning about their history. You should encourage input from the other players, offering suggestions from the spotlight PC.

Quick As A Flash

You should use mini-flashbacks in moderation and always, always make them quick, a few minutes at most. Once you get into the swing of them you can rapidly frame and resolve while still adding a lot to the present-day adventure. My favourite example of this is a forest-dwelling or elven PC returning with the party to her home town as part of the current adventure. As they near the village, she spots the stables. Initiate mini-flashback! She is on her first hunt for the rare white elks of the forest. Frame it with some tense imagery. After hours of stalking the mighty elk the hunters have finally found it. The PC gets the chance for to hurl her bolas and capture the creature! Have her make a roll. No damage is needed, simply a hit or miss.

Present day: if the PC hit with her shot, the majestic white elk is waiting for her in the stable (kept safe by her elders after she left the village). If she missed, she sees the empty stable and the memory of her loss that day hits her. Or even better, if she missed the shot maybe her rival captured the elk instead and she sees it there in the stable, a reminder of her loss and something for her rival to lord over her. It gives the player a big reward for a single roll if she succeeds, but if she fails, the commitment on the player’s part was small, so the loss doesn’t sting so much.

Mini-flashbacks used like this can fuel the game and provide hooks to pull players in. It also lets them make decisions on the spot about, during the mini-flashback, about how they want the current adventure to continue. They get some control over the world and NPCs and it makes them like mini-GMs for just a little while.

Better With Age

One of the snags with mini-flashbacks is that you’ll be jumping back to different parts of the PCs’ lives. Ten years ago, one year ago, two weeks ago. What were the PCs’ stats like back then? Mini-flashbacks are meant to be a quick, fun way to expand PC backgrounds. If we start writing up character sheets for each different stage of the PCs’ lives, it defeats the purpose.

Instead, just eyeball it. You’ll be skipping over a lot of things and placing the PC in the middle of the action. It shouldn’t be a combat scene or a lengthy diplomatic debate. Mini-flashbacks should contain a couple of skill checks at most. One is usually fine (see the elk example above) and three should really be all you need (sneak up on the cultists, check out what they’re doing and hmm… see, that’s only two!).

Sometimes you’ll be flashing back to before the PC became what they are: the young girl in training to be a paladin, the wizardling who has never cast a spell, the young rogue who is just a grabby urchin, the lanky blacksmith’s apprentice who will go on to become a great warrior.

In these cases, if they would not have had such high skills as they do now, just modify their roll. Give a -4 penalty for a few levels ago, or a -10 for childhood things. You’ll have to judge these based on the situation at hand. Perhaps the young rogue was also very dexterous and has developed a lot more in other areas as she’s grown, but not so much in her reflexes and agility. In that case, a lesser penalty could be applied.

Some skills, too, wouldn’t change very much because they aren’t often used, or training does not alter them a great deal. Perception could be one of these skills, and depending on how much your PCs use their Craft or Profession skills, they might not have gotten any better in the last fifteen years. As I said, just eyeball it, go with your gut and discuss briefly with the spotlight player what you think is fair. Agree and move on. Make the rolls, get back to the present.

Once you do decide on a fair penalty, have the player jot it down (Age 14: Agility 6) on an index card or their character sheet for later, especially if you plan to flash back to this age bracket a fair bit. Doing so is not a bad idea, actually, as you can have stories going in tandem, present and past. If you’re all into it have some more mini-flashbacks during or after you resolve the adventure that the first mini-flashback was related to.What does the PC cleric do after dobbing in the demon-worshipping priest?

Wrapping Up

This technique can end up creating the present-day adventures and stories for you, and by the end of things the characters are much more fleshed out than they might otherwise be, and the players are much more likely to remember their PCs’ backgrounds after having played through them, rather than just writing them or being told them.

If you have a shot at using this technique, I’d love to hear about it. Just remember that the mini-flashbacks should be quick, fun for everyone, create hooks into the current adventure and give a bit of info about a PC’s background. If all of these aren’t being achieved, rethink how you’re using mini-flashbacks, or maybe just use them less frequently.

Haulshore is a sunny bustling seaside town in Darbrin. It has auction houses aplenty that pay good coin for all manner of exotic artefacts brought in from the sea and far away lands. Pirates, explorers and adventurers consult maps at taverns such as the Jolly Dagger and recruit crew members here for daring expeditions. Such crews often bid on items at the auction houses too, as many of these artefacts – be they engraved shields, horned skulls, battered journals or what have you – also serve as maps to even greater treasure for those who know what to look for. You won’t always find the same ships at Haulshore – they’re usually off on adventures – but it is a frequent port of pirates.

Right now, some very notable captains have docked in Haulshore and are looking for new crew members. Everyone seems interested in a secret auction in the back rooms of the Jolly Dagger – something too precious to be shown in the auction houses. It is an ornate shield known as Sarrek’s Voyage. Engravings and threads of gold depict the ancient hero Sarrek at various stages in his epic voyage: the Battle of One, the Battle of Many, Respite, the Ascendancy, the Stranded and so on.

Exact locations of the events depicted on Sarrek’s Voyage are unknown, but it is said the ancients built a temple at each point. Rumour has it that taking the shield to each temple will show the way to the next location and ultimately, the final resting place of Sarrek: a mythical holy city of treasure and wonder lost for thousands of years!

Broken Shackle

Captain Hodric ‘Red’ Bragg is a ragged portrait of a cutthroat pirate. His gut is heavy with grog, his thick black beard full of lice, his teeth yellowed or replaced with gold and his reddened skin leathery from sun. His crew is a bunch of murderous criminals with nowhere else to go and no moral compass to guide them.

Very few women ever join his crew and those that do have to be tough as nails to survive, and even then the Broken Shackle is not an inviting place for females – or for civilised males. Below deck, the three-masted black and brown galleon smells like grog, piss, blood and sweat. It has a large filthy brig for any foe who survives an onslaught from the ship. On deck there perches a black cannon that has obliterated more than a few enemy ships.

Bragg’s crew has some good divers who quickly loot their sinking foes. The crew also contains one incongruous man named Lorne. He is well-dressed, well-spoken and seems very out of place here. Whispers say that he may have once sailed with the Fierce Sharai, but there is bad blood between them now and Lorne is the recruiting officer for the Broken Shackle.

The Broken Shackle’s crew pillage and plunder. Their average missions include raiding unfortified towns, scuttling or capturing courier and merchant ships and generally causing havoc that reaps rewards of gold, grog or women. Lately, though, Bragg has been sending his crew on more and more raids against smugglers. What do they have that he wants so badly? The Red Captain has been getting redder recently, it seems – some say it’s not the sun at all, but that Bragg has been hiding an addiction to Ambrosia – the red liquid rumoured to be made of demon blood – and has fallen off the wagon. Perhaps now is the perfect time for mutiny?

Seventh Chance

Captain Jenny ‘Fishnet’ Shemmer is a strikingly beautiful woman. Her lustrous red hair, long legs and good looks are the talk of the town whenever she comes ashore. However, she is as dangerous as she is pretty. It is said that Fishnet got her nickname when she strangled to death the former lascivious male captain of the Seventh Chance with her stockings.

It is well known that Shemmer sails both ways and seems to only recruit attractive and alluring people. Because of this, her entire crew consists of beautiful men and women who are also deadly in combat – if they weren’t before joining the crew, they quickly learn to be under Shemmer’s harsh and domineering rule.

Shemmer likes control and hates being showed up. She holds a grudge like no other and will commit considerable resources towards vengeance. She loves her ship, the Seventh Chance, and since winning it from the previous captain she has made the two-masted galleon into a work of beauty. Polishing and painting the ship are common chores for the crew and the vessel is flawless, save for one massive scar down the side of the ship that reaches so high it mars the railing on the bow itself. Shemmer sometimes sits and strokes the splintered wound on the railing, thoughts of revenge dancing behind her eyes.

The Seventh Chance favours bounties of jewellery, artwork and other beautiful things. Whenever they can, these are the prizes they seek. Beautiful new crew members are also sought out and any ships or even towns that strike Fishnet’s fancy will often become the target of ruthless and relentless attacks until she has what she wants. Most of the rest of the crew’s time is spent tending to the ship and tracking down those who have wronged the crew and captain.

Freerunner

Captain Seth ‘Breezer’ Tallow is a lanky young man, spry and full of wit and good humour. He is incredibly laid back for a pirate captain and other crews sometimes call the Freerunner the ‘Party Ship’. His people are relaxed and spontaneous, making them unpredictable in combat and allowing them to excel in unexpected situations. However, their attitude means that they don’t plan ahead a whole lot and just ‘breeze’ through life taking advantage of opportunities that come their way.

Breezer’s crew could probably achieve great things if they put their minds to it, but few of them ever bother. Most are highly intelligent, but bored with lives of discipline. Breezer offers a life with hammocks on deck and tropical drinks and card games most of the day. Because of Breezer’s lax policies, his ship is a haphazard vessel patched together and barely staying afloat. It is one of the fastest ships on the waves due to it’s design, but after even a short skirmish there is a chance of sinking.

Being an opportunistic captain, Breezer has made a lot of enemies. He’s avoided many more thanks to the quick thinking and glib tongues of his crew during short cons. Breezer’s even pulled one over on Shemmer a few times – he doesn’t think she’s on to him, but he can’t be sure. Whether Shemmer is involved or not, one particular mark Breezer struck at long ago has teamed up with a more recent mark, tracked him down and is about to start some trouble. Meanwhile, the ship is in desperate need of repairs.

Fierce Sharai

Captain Dasharah ‘Ransom’ Kalkaran is a fit, bald Kalrashi man in his mid-thirties, lean, tall and looming. Dasharah is a serious but friendly and reasonable man who understands the importance of structure and discipline, but also knows that people need to cut loose every now and then – especially when hunting demons. The Fierce Sharai – meaning Fierce Queen in Kalarashi – is dedicated to protecting the world by hunting down demons, cultists and artefacts that could be used to strike back against the demons in the Burning War back in Kalarash – or securing those that could be used by demons.

Because the captain is Kalarashi and the ship’s cause is close to his people’s hearts, many other Kalarashi are drawn to this multicultural crew. Dabrish are the minority aboard the ship, but not by much. Generally, the crew is very accepting and there is little racial tension as everyone has much greater threats to contend with, in the form of demons. Criminals find their way onto the Broken Shackle, but many outcasts have a home on the Fierce Sharai, as the captain has a soft spot for these people, being an outcast himself.

Dasharah’s nickname, ‘Ransom’, comes from the fact that he is more likely to ransom prisoners back than kill them. Some say, however, that the true origins of his nickname are much more intriguing. The Fierece Sharai, golden in colour, was originally a royal Kalarashi treasure ship and rumour has it that Dasharah stole the large swift vessel – laden with a sharai’s ransom in valuables – and fled his homeland. It is unclear what drove Dasharah to this course of action.

Perhaps he was banished for committing some horrible crime or maybe he discovered a dark secret during his time as a royal guard and could no longer bear to serve his sharai. Whatever happened, everyone – especially rival captains – have their own opinions of the event and scandal surrounds his departure. Regarding nicknames, it is said that Shemmer finds Dasharah quite appealing and has given him a second nickname: ‘Handsome Ransom’.

The Fierce Sharai’s missions are much more dangerous and exotic than some of the other crews, due to their frequent encounters with the demonic. In Darbrish waters, they are more likely to come across cultists or demonic artefacts than true demons, but they have sighted a hellship or two in their time.

One member of the crew, a waif of a woman named Esmala is demon-touched and receives prophetic visions, though some say the demons can see through her eyes. Sarrek’s Voyage supposedly leads to a place that holds a mighty weapon that could be used for or against demons. Dasharah wants to get there first to use the weapon to fight against the demons, but he knows the other captains have their eyes on Sarrek’s Voyage too.

Bloodwave

Captain ‘Bloody’ Bertha Harding is a hardbitten fearsome woman who makes Shemmer look like a kitten. Bloody Bertha is burly, battleworn and stout. She is not short, but not towering. She is middle-aged at least, but her exact age is hard to determine and anyone who has dared ask is now dead. Bertha is widely known to be heartless and ruthless. Her crew are crazy, bloodthirsty monsters too, and she is the only one who can control them. Nobody messes with Bloody Bertha.

Her ship is a massive cannon-laden heavily-armoured vessel, painted red – rumours say that the paint is the blood of her enemies and “Bertha will paint the ship with you!” is a common warning to fellow crew mates or a threat to enemies. The Bloodwave is so well armed and armoured that ramming other ships is definitely an option and the scars on its hull are testament to the battles it has won.

Nobody knows how new recruits are chosen for the Bloodwave, but what is common knowledge is that the ship’s recruiter is also an infamous and effective torturer, possibly an outlaw inquisitor wanted for treason. Rumours told by men now dead at Bertha’s hand proposed that one of her rival captains was actually her child. Dasharah is out of the question, but could Bragg, Shemmer or Breezer really be related to Bloody Bertha? If so, nobody is letting the secret out and they all seem just as terrified of her as anyone else. Or is that just a show? Could one of them be working with her? Or is their relationship even more fuel for the fires of rivalry?

Bloody Bertha is a woman obsessed, it seems. Her ship, the Bloodwave is the toughest ruddy ship on the sea, but she isn’t satisfied. Word has it that Bloody Bertha is looking to capture herself a Hellship. Only she would be crazy and ballsy enough to try to board and take a hellship: these ships sailed straight out of Hell, lashed together from flesh and bone, leaving a trail of sulphur-smelling steam in their wakes.

Some believe the hellships are colossal demons themselves, and more than one half-drunk half-insane sailor has told tales of catching a fleeting glimpse of a hellship through a thick blanket of steam and swearing that a huge yellow eye peered back from the bow. How much of this is true is unclear, but it’s all damn scary and Bloody Bertha doesn’t seem phased in the least.

Casting Off

PCs starting off in Haulshore have plenty of opportunities for adventure. Which crew will they join? Do they admire the ship’s captain or share his or her goals and desires, are they just there for the riches, or are they joining as spies or so they can mutiny? Do they have any ties with the other ships’ crews? What trouble and advantages will this lead to? How interested are they in Sarrek’s Voyage? Do any of them have connections to demons? Maybe one has seen a hellship before or perhaps they are inquisitors or demon-touched.

You should make sure to let PCs make knowledge checks and talk to the ships’ recruiters, because whichever ship they end up on, it will make quite a difference – even if all the captains are after Sarrek’s Voyage. Pirate ships are great, because they are mobile adventure locations. Don’t think of them just as a means of transport from one adventure to another. Lots of exciting things can happen in the middle of the ocean, thanks to the variety of interesting NPCs stuck together in a relatively small area.

The descriptions above talk about the crews in general, but there are always crew members who break the mould - there might be some nice people, like Lorne, aboard the Broken Shackle, surely Shemmer can’t be a task master all the time (right?), maybe there are a few really dedicated long con grifters on the Freerunner, there are definitely some nasty people on the Fierce Sharai amongst all the other accepting crew, and who knows what really goes on behind the fortified hull of the Bloodwave?

Remember, too, that pirate crews are large and the PCs might not meet everyone straight away. That allows you to introduce new NPCs later, even in the middle of a voyage. Pirates die too – especially in Savage Worlds – and recruiters will need to gather more crew, meaning new NPCs – good and bad – will be joining the established crew from time to time. Connections with other ships also make for interesting hooks when you inevitably run into a rival pirate crew.

Whatever you do, make it fun and exciting! That’s the spirit of adventures on the Demonsea!

I envision prim and proper ladies drinking tea with “fancy dinosaurs” on their laps, and gentlemen having a flutter at the gallimimus track. I imagine a tyrannosaurus rex or spinosaurus or some huge predator stalking an English wood nearby the upscale mansions.

I don’t know how much traction the concept has, but I wrote a few snippets of conversations overheard in this world. If this inspires you to run a Victorianasaurus game I’d love to hear about it.

“Did you hear the news regarding, Mr. Jameson’s cousin, Mr. Boothridge? Terrible news, just terrible. Word is that Mr. Boothridge is involved with some rather unsavoury business. It turns out that he has a most loathsome taste for deinonychus pit fights. Reprehensible! Some say he even organises the wretched events!”

“Petunia has won best in show for the last two years running. She is quite the specimen. New breeders often believe that the crest is the key to success. Now, while Petunia has a magnificent crest, I must say that it takes more than that to make a champion parasaurolophus. Grooming is important and training must begin straight out of the shell if one is to be truly successful. But colour, colour is the real secret. It takes years of careful selective breeding to get just the right texture and a dignified yet striking complexion of greens and browns punctuated with brighter spots of orange. Petunia’s pink stripe is particularly special and there are more than a few competitors of mine who would pay dearly for one of her eggs”.

“I spent my childhood on a farm, you know? It was quite a different life, but a good one. Crisp air and rolling hills. I remember feeding the compsagnathus flocks each morning. Dozens of the little things would gather around the edge of their run, leaping and slashing at the wire fence. I would throw scraps of meat from the feed bucket and laugh as they scrabbled amongst themselves eagerly eating up their breakfast. Sometimes after a storm the run would be tipped over and they would escape into the triceratops paddocks. We lost more than one calf from the herd to starved flocks of escaped compsagnathus. Still, it was a good life and I do miss those times.”

“Velociraptor hunting is the quintessential coming-of-age activity for any young man of note. It allows one to bond with other men, for one thing. But the thrill of racing off after the deinonychus as they pick up the scent of the quarry, leaping fallen trees and pounding through the forest astride your own utahraptor – nothing matches that. It is exhilarating!”