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Dinosaurs, the Wild West, Space Travel, and the Civil War...

In the year 2202, dinosaurs have been discovered on the planet Cretasus. But these dinosaurs are just as smart as the humans now flocking to their home. Velociraptors trade in alien weapons, leptoceratops guard their desert secrets, and T-rex dynasties protect their nests from egg raiders. Despite the dinosaurs, human pioneers arrive in drove at New Savannah's busy spaceport. Lured by free land, gold, and simple freedom, they yearn for a new life. Their wagon trails soon trudge west on the rutted path of the Tecumseh Trail, bringing new adventures to Cretasus.

Dinosaur Planet: Broncosaurus Rex is a science fiction world setting. The basic premise is that the Civil War did not end as we know it, but resulted in separate Federal and Confederate nations. This state continued into the space age. In the year 2202, an alien planet full of dinosaurs was discovered, opening new mysteries and establishing the world of Dinosaur Planet: Broncosaurus Rex.

Your character could be a bronco rider, riding the dinosaurs for ranchers, farmers, the military, or pure adventure. You could be a soldier: a Union ironclad pilot, a federal sheriff, or a rebel blockade runner. You could be a street fighter come to find your fortune, or a homeworld dissident fighting for freedom. You could be one of the legendary Wild Ones, fearsome humans who leave human company to sleep with the dinosaurs. You could be a Union machinist, always equipped with the latest technology. You could be an idealistic infantryman, a freelance dino hunter, a warp pirate, a Union turncoat, an outer ranges explorer, a dino rustler, or an alien hunter. The world of Broncosaurus Rex is in your hands!

Dinosaur Planet: Broncosaurus Rex has been receiving rave reviews. Here are a few of our favorites, from some well respected review sites:

Broncosaurus Rex core rulebook	Cretasus Adventure Guide (setting sourcebook)	Dinosaurs That Never Were (monster manual)
Complete Guide to Velociraptors (monster sourcebook)	Complete Guide to T-Rex (monster sourcebook)

The planet Cretasus lies at the far edges of known space, in a desolate region called the outer reaches. A large world in a lonely, sparsely-settled system, Cretasus is strangely earthlike. Its atmosphere is like Earth's. Its climate is like Earth's. Its seasons are like Earth's. Strangest of all, its flora and fauna are like Earth's - but not like the Earth of today. Cretasus is home to plants and animals that have not roamed Earth for millions of years. Cretasus is home to dinosaurs.

Since the discovery of this fact, humans have flocked to Cretasus. Adventurers come for wealth and glory. Ranchers come for the dinosaurs. Farmers come for the fertile soil. Frontiersmen come for a new life. Dino hunters come for the challenge. Industrialists come for the mineral wealth. The military comes for exploration. The Free Fleet traders come to meet growing demand. The Wild Ones come to join the dinosaurs. Everyone has come - but no one yet governs.

Cretasus is far outside established political borders. Humanity's two largest factions - the Federal Union of Planets and the Confederate States of America - struggle for possession. Cretasus' Earth-like environment and abundance of dinosaurs have brought it to the forefront of galactic politics. Although the Union and Confederacy long ago ceased open warfare, they have never ended hostilities. Now the battle for Cretasus threatens to re-open a centuries-old conflict.

The Confederate States of America, still titled as such though it now occupies hundreds of planets throughout the universe, sees Cretasus as a saving grace. Since being forced off Earth by the Union, the Confederacy has been scattered across the galaxy. Cretasus' fertile soil, plentiful beasts of burden, and rich, unspoiled wilderness could provide a new home base.

The Federal Union of Planets, the most technologically advanced human nation, is intent on exploiting Cretasus' natural resources. The planet's natural wealth - measured in oil, ore, and timber - is incalculable. It could supply Union industrial operations for years to come.

Cretasus is a gold mine waiting to be claimed. But the question remains: Who will claim it?

The Planet

Cretasus is a Jupiter-sized planet with Earth-like terrain. Its air is breathable by humans, and many of its native plants can be eaten safely. The densely forested equatorial belt is a single, unbroken land mass, which fractures into thousands of islands as it approaches the poles. Overlaid across the land are enormous mountain ranges which divide the surface into twenty great valleys.

In the regions where they have settled, the Confederate settlers have identified hundreds of varieties of dinosaurs virtually identical to those once found on Earth. They have also found unique endemic species, including giant insects, highly evolved land-dwelling jellyfish, and bipedal pre-sentient reptilians.

Prehistoric mammals have been sighted in neighboring regions, engendering theories that the planet's massive surface area has created numerous micro-climates separated by mountains or other impassable terrain. Some micro-climates have remained "frozen" in evolutionary time or have evolved along unusual lines, while others have evolved more normally. The result is widely different ecological results in close proximity to each other.

By all biological considerations, Cretasus is an anomaly. Its lifeforms have followed both parallel and divergent evolution. Although many have evolved identically to dinosaurs on Earth, creatures from different periods of Earth's history roam Cretasus at the same time.

The surface of Cretasus is marked by twenty giant valleys, each the size of a continent. For millions of years, stratospheric mountain ranges divided these valleys. The mountains completely isolated the life within. It is only in the most recent geological strata that the mountains have begun to erode. It is now possible to travel freely (but with difficulty) between valleys. The stunning conclusion: In each of Cretasus' great valleys, independent evolution has brought forth life from a different period of Earth's history.

No one yet understands how or why this happened. In all the varied planets that humanity has found, not one has exhibited such a startling similarity to Earth. Scientists now view the planet as a great biological secret waiting to be unlocked.

The dinosaurs on Cretasus are a virtual index to those from early Earth. Creatures from different eras walk side by side - including tyrannosaurus rex, stegosaurus, oviraptor, ankylosaurus, diplodocus, brachiosaurus, pachycephalosaur, allosaurus, styracosaurus, velociraptor, and triceratops.

Some of the dinosaurs are the classic dumb brutes we all know so well. But most are not. Velociraptors have near-human intelligence. They live in organized tribes which loosely connect into larger nations. Tyrannosaurus rex live in widely dispersed family groups whose members remember genealogies for hundreds of years. Triceratops travel in large herds with rigorous social organization. The barbaric leptoceratops patrol the scarred Crystal Desert. Almost every species has its own language, and the more intelligent ones have dialects specific to each region.

Dinosaur life is not just sleep-eat-mate-die. It has just as much politics as human life, if not more. Tribes of the same species routinely quarrel over territory, hunting and grazing rights, and mating. Ambitious tribes have been known to go to war against neighboring tribes solely to expand their domains. Within the tribe, aspiring leaders scheme to overthrow their superiors, competitive rivals kill the children of their enemies, and overt political factions emerge.

There are alliances between tribes of similar personality or situation, and on rare occasions inter-species alliances form to counter a common threat. As humans have become more familiar with dinosaur languages (and vice versa), there have even been human-dinosaur alliances. The Confederacy is allied with several velociraptor tribes, with whom it trades food in exchange for their disruption of Union facilities.

Some species - and, in particular, some tribes within certain species - remember events for lifetimes, and will often fight (or fight for their allies) for reasons long since buried. Certain herbivore tribes are known for their revenge instinct. They hunt down and murder the young of carnivores that feed off of them. When a strong leader emerged among one triceratops herd, he organized several herds into one massive war force that drove out two nearby tyrannosaurus rex families, killing one of the T-rexes in the process.

The most frightening aspect of dinosaur intelligence - at least from a human perspective - is their strategic talent. Velociraptors have been known to stage false retreats in order to lure attackers into an ambush. T-rex make a point of traveling far apart so their numbers can't be easily ascertained. Allosaurus, patient and observant, like to set ambushes. Many an unwary dino hunter has made the fatal discovery that his prey is as smart as he.

Dinosaurs in the Game

The dinosaurs of Broncosaurus Rex are intelligent, social animals. They are capable of charity, treachery, honesty, deceit, strategy, and loyalty. They have languages. They have politics and commerce. They are far from the dumb brutes we think we know so well.

The core rulebook gives game statistics for 25 dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures of Cretasus. Because characters on Cretasus will encounter dinosaurs as first level characters, we have decided to focus these statistics on dinosaurs of the lower challenge ratings. Thus, you will find some of the more popular large dinosaurs represented by a single example (e.g., brachiosaurus is described, but not diplodocus or apatosaurus), while smaller creatures are more abundant. Future supplements will expand upon powerful dinosaurs more suited to higher level characters.

Many dinosaurs on Broncosaurus Rex have near-human intelligence. Some are smarter than the average human. The high intelligence of dinosaurs means that they are able to communicate using complex languages. Depending on the social organization of the dinosaur, the languages may have dialects that vary by region, or the language may be consistent across the entire species.

Characters may speak dinosaur languages, provided they have the physical ability. Certain languages utilize the anatomical abilities of their members in ways that humans cannot duplicate. The powerful calls made possible by the crest of the parasaurolophus are a good example of this.

Characters in Broncosaurus Rex are always human, but they can come from one of four different places of origin: the Confederacy, the Union, the Free Fleet, or the outer reaches. Confederates are reckless heroes with lots of pluck but limited equipment. The Union is technologically advanced but not so adventurous. The Free Fleet, an alliance of nations evicted from Earth long ago, is made up of rough-and-ready itinerant traders with strong connections to alien technology. The offworlders are tough, taciturn settlers from the outer reaches, used to a hard life but lacking in education and equipment.

There are six classes available to characters: Bronco Rider, Machinist, Soldier, Spy, Two-Fister, and Wild One.

Bronco Rider

Bronco riders train, herd, and ride dinosaurs. A very few work with mammoths and other ancient mammals. Some bronco riders are daredevil roughnecks who have tamed their own T-rex. Others hire on with ranchers, herding vast throngs of three- and five-horned broncos across the plains. The most famous bronco riders are the Dino Warriors, the fearless new addition to the Confederate military.

Bronco riders are a class unique to Cretasus. All bronco riders feel the call of prehistory in their blood. For their own individual reasons, they have converged on Cretasus, where they now form the elite vanguard in a rapidly evolving society.

Machinist

Also known as gearsmiths or coglayers, machinists are practical scientists. They spend half their time pursuing knowledge, and the other half putting that knowledge into practice. They are tinkerers and inventors, with a knowledge base that includes chemistry, physics, mechanics, and biology.

The general scientific ignorance of 2202 makes machinists coveted adventuring partners. Even in the Union, the most technologically advanced of the human societies, the majority of the population does not understand common technologies. Moreover, imported alien inventions dwarf even the most advanced human creations. Machinists are the technological elite, those who can understand, maintain, repair, and create the everyday technologies of 2202.

Soldier

A soldier is a proud, disciplined warrior. He or she is trained in the use of all common armor and weaponry, familiar with most basic equipment, and schooled in tactics and strategy. The soldier's basic fighting ability, as well as his talent at leading and coordinating attacks, is invaluable in most adventuring parties.

This degree of military expertise is commonly available only in the Confederate or Union military, and thus most soldiers have served in one or the other. There are few other places to acquire the rigorous training to become a soldier, though some societies in the Free Fleet have been known to do so, as well as certain private armies in the Union.

An adventurer of the soldier class is typically a recent veteran, having chosen to discharge his formal duties for a life of recklessness. Even when he has left his formal military life, though, he carries with him the discipline and focus to become an even better soldier.

Spy

You'll find them at secret research facilities in the heart of the jungle; posing as servants at the strategy meetings of the general staff; stealing alien technology prototypes; and thwarting assassins and plots. Spies perform secret actions that regulars could never dream to accomplish, through stealth, disguise, and sheer chutzpah.

Two-Fister

A two-fister is a warrior by necessity rather than training. The Confederate guerrillas fighting to liberate Union planets are two-fisters. The warp pirates who terrorize the trade lanes are two-fisters. The Confederate home guard are made up of two-fisters, as are the residents of the Free Fleet who spend two years in the local army. And the self-taught adventurers of Cretasus, come to seek their fame and fortune, are two-fisters.

Where the soldier has tactics and discipline, the two-fister has street smarts and gut instinct. Two-fisters become warriors through trial and error. They learn to fight in the bars and gutters. They have scars, broken noses, and missing teeth. In an aerial dogfight or a shoot-out, you want a soldier by your side - but when you're threading through the dank alleys of New Washington, you want to be with a two-fister.

Wild One

There have always been people who feel more comfortable around animals than their fellow humans. They feel an innate connection to the laws of nature, which seem to make more sense than the laws of man. They see the negative side effects of scientific progress, which make them question whether humanity is really that advanced after all.

The untamed wilderness of Cretasus has attracted these people. Many have become farmers, or biologists, or refugees in strange cults. But a select few of the Cretasus migrants have felt a profound, primal tug. At a level deeper than their own humanity, they connect to a psyche once thought extinct. They think like dinosaurs.

These are the Wild Ones: feral humans who have taken refuge in the wilderness of Cretasus. Uncivilized, brutal, atavistic, and animalistic, they have abandoned the company of man. They choose to live with the dinosaurs.

New Savannah is the largest city on Cretasus. It abuts a massive inland ocean, just like its terrestrial namesake. New Savannah was founded by the Confederacy and maintains strong ties. With the mountains on one side, the ocean on the other, and thick jungle all around, it is easy to defend and, if you don't know it's there, hard to locate.

While New Savannah is a civilian city, there are several Confederate military bases along the shores of the same inland ocean. Fort Tecumseh and Fort Apache are two of them. Fort Tecumseh holds the main pass between New Savannah and "the back country" (as the rebels call the raw wilderness of Cretasus), while Fort Apache guards a cluster of hatcheries.

The Confederate hatcheries are tended by specially trained civilians with a strong affinity for animals. They are guarded by Dino Warriors, the elite trained cavalry who ride dinosaurs. Dinosaurs from the hatcheries are born into domesticity, making them much easier to train than their wild-born counterparts. In the hatcheries lies the hope that every army can be trained and equipped with dinosaur allies. If such a force ever took to space, it might be able to reclaim the Confederacy's lost glory.

The forts, hatcheries, and larger Confederate settlements are supplied by convoys of brachiosauruses, diplodocuses, and other animals. Smaller settlements rely on independent merchants and their mounts. Land routes can be extremely dangerous - they often must pass through the hunting grounds of tyrannosauruses, allosauruses, and other large predators. The Confederacy has minimized its losses by using large dinosaurs supported by heavy weapons, but many independent merchants are never heard from again.

The largest Union presence is Fort Lincoln, which sits atop a mountain not far from Fort Tecumseh. The Confederacy has made every effort (short of war) to sabotage the fort, but has not yet succeeded. From Fort Lincoln, the Union has established smaller outposts across the main valley. Its highly guarded research labs experiment with the technology for ironclads, the advanced fighting suits it hopes to deploy against the rebels. It has mines, refineries, and oil wells scattered throughout the wilderness, which it resupplies with vehicle convoys.

Dotted around New Savannah and the forts are countless ranches, farms, small towns, prospectors and their mines, hunting lodges, mills, and other settlements. These vary in loyalty. Generally, the smaller the settlement, the less they care about politics.

The many settlements with no strong loyalty to either Confederate or Union are called freetowns. There are as many freetowns as there are loyal towns. Freetowns usually lack a military, although they have sheriffs and plenty of settlers ready to take up arms to defend themselves. The larger freetowns actually have a "town square" with saloons, a post office, a bank, a hotel, a jail, a mill, and a store or two, all surrounded by farms and ranches spreading over several miles. Smaller freetowns might be nothing more than a single building serving as combined saloon, hotel, and store. Some freetowns are refuges for lawless roughnecks and criminals. Plesiosaur Bay is such a place.

Settlers come to Cretasus for the new, untamed land full of possibilities. Anybody can have land of their own on Cretasus, provided they're hardy enough to carve it out and defend it from the wilderness.

But life on Cretasus is rough, especially in the back country. Small farmers with their paltry acres, or small ranchers with their tiny herds, or independent prospectors with their gold pans, live and die based on the success of their labors. A bad crop means you can't eat in the winter. If broncos get to your seed, you can't plant next year. If raptors eat your stegosauruses, you have no meat to sell. If your diplodocus falls ill, you'll be plowing the soil by hand. If outlaw dino rustlers steal your herd, you're out of business. If a T-rex takes up residence nearby, you can't get to your mine. And so on. It's a rough life.

Here are some of the adventures you might find on the world of Cretasus.

1. A young T-rex has staked out a territory that includes a large settlement. He's already eaten three settlers.

2. Two velociraptor tribes have gone to war. Unfortunately, a human settlement lies on the path between their camps.

3. Somebody (or something) has been poaching broncos on a rancher's land.

4. Bank robbery! A team of thieves uses a triceratops to pull the wall off a bank, then they haul off the vault without even bothering to open it. A reward is offered for their capture.

5. An independent prospector's brachiosaurus has fallen ill in the midst of an overland journey. He can't move his 10 tons of ore unless he gets a new 'brachy - but he can't leave the ore lest it be stolen.

6. Gold has been discovered in a natural cave system - but the caves are inhabited.

7. A drought is causing herbivorous dinosaurs to make daring crop raids.

8. The Confederacy has kidnapped a key machinist involved with Union ironclad research.

9. A Union diplomat needs an escort and interpreter when he meets with a velociraptor chieftain.

10. The ruins of an alien spaceship have been discovered in a neighboring valley.

11. A Confederate weapons supplier was forced to dump his cache and run when T-rexes attacked his convoy.

12. A frantic dinosaur pup leads the characters to the trap that just captured its mother.

13. Plans for a powerful new weapon are mistakenly delivered to the characters.

14. Rumors claim a massive, ancient T-rex lives in the ruins of a mysterious city.

15. It's parasaurolophus mating season. Their amorous calls reverberate in the night. One particularly loud male has been keeping the mayor awake at night. He offers a reward for its head.

16. A Union drop pod inexplicably crash lands in the middle of town. The hatch is jammed shut. Union troops arrive to retrieve it.

17. Something is keeping supply convoys from reaching a distant military post.

18. Confederate breeders need to capture a dozen raptors - alive.

19. A maverick machinist doing genetic experiments has unleashed his "mutasaurs" into the wild.

20. The Union is trying to build a road to connect two important bases.

21. A machinist thinks he can build a certain advanced device, but only with obscure minerals found deep in the Cretasus jungle.

22. Word reaches town that a renowned private inventor's research lab has been deserted since he was eaten by an allosaurus.

23. An outlaw gang has stolen a shipment of recently mined Union gold.

24. The supply route to and from a Union gold mine passes right beneath a perfect ambush spot.

25. A diamond mine is discovered in T-rex hunting grounds.

26. All the inhabitants of a settlement have disappeared.

27. An informant tells the characters about an upcoming shipment of ROGUE rifles and other Union technology.

28. A farmer needs someone to clear twenty acres of dinosaurs.

29. A new trade route from a rebel town cuts travel time in half - but it goes right through Union territory. The characters can help the blockade runners, or help the Union catch them.

30. The Union discovers a huge oil deposit - beneath the land of several Confederate ranchers.

31. The Union is experimenting with raising dinosaurs. It hires the characters to bring back 10 T-rex eggs.

32. A triceratops herd has accepted two Wild Ones, who are using modern weapons to fend off a nearby allosaurus family. The allosaurus contact the characters and offer an alliance in exchange for help eliminating the Wild Ones.

33. An outlaw gang has been raiding small farms.

34. The characters come across a juvenile T-rex being attacked by velociraptors. The T-rex promises a favor from its parents if the characters will save it.

35. A wealthy off-planet safari hunter wants to bag an adult T-rex. He needs a wilderness guide.

36. Unscrupulous dino hunters have been thinning the carnivore population around a farming settlement. The resulting growth in herbivore population is wreaking havoc on the farmlands.

37. A 12-year-old child has disappeared deep in the midst of raptor territory. Is he lost? Was he eaten? Or did he become a Wild One?

38. A gang of dino rustlers has been stealing broncos. Ranchers hire to characters to find their hideout and bring them to justice.

39. Dino rustlers have taken over a frontier town. The sheriff needs help.

40. Nobody has returned alive from the dinosaur burial grounds.