Playtesting Palaeo Diet: Pulp - more adventures on a mysterious island

The four adventurers surveyed the the scene before them: a dry plain with a single thicket, and area of spiky blade grass and a scattering of carnivorous plants. Off to their right, a savage monument built by the island's natives probably indicated a native presence in the area. Their target though, was the tyrannosaurus rex down by the lake sure. 

Captain van Damme caressed his shotgun and looked derisively at his companions. How did he end up with such a pack of disorganised fools. An experienced officer and a gentleman, some considered him an egotist [trait]. He just knew that he was more capable than any other person on the expedition.  The American with the rifle, Harry Ford, was barely a gentleman at all and had really let himself go recently [unfit trait]. Miss Blunt was pretty enough he supposed, but she spoke incessantly about becoming an engineer [trait]; it was almost as though she forgot her she was a woman! Her revolver and tote-bag of grenades did nothing to reassure van Damme. And as for the fellahin, Omar? He was useful enough in a bind. An experienced explorer [trait], his machete and tommy gun would probably be the most useful accouterments of the expedition. The fellow was also a devil at cards!

As an egotist, van Damme always needed to activate first each turn, and roll all three dice. The early turns saw him make his way carefully down the centre of the plain, mostly keeping out of the way of the snapping carnivorous plants. Those beasts who were disturbed by his movements ignored him or moved cautiously out of the way. Omar used his experience as an explorer (and his trusty blade) to make his way straight through the thicket, aiming to provide some trusty fire support. Harry Ford lagged behind, trying to catch a breath, while Miss Blunt kept tripping up (rolling activation failures) and also fell behind.

van Damme tried a long range shot at the t-rex, the shot having no effect. However, the sound of the gun drew the attention of a flock of nasty looking raptors who dashed towards him - straight into a carnivorous plant that picked one off in the blink of an eye.  

Omar chuckled to see the small beasts be bested by a plant - only to be overheard by the distraught flock of raptors who immediately mobbed him. Miraculously, he managed to avoid any serious harm. By that stage, Miss Blunt had ambled (in a lady-like fashion) to just outside grenade range of Omar and his attackers. Just trying to 'help out', she lobbed a grenade that bounced towards the group, exploding to kill one of the raptors, and wounding poor Omar. Meanwhile, van Damme fired again at the t-rex causing a wound, while Harry gave up trying to leg it over to the other three adventurers and just started firing at the natives and their witch doctor. He was cursed for his troubles, making his life even harder than it had been before.

Trying to activate, Omar was not quite cautious enough. The remaining three raptors pounced on him and he fell, bleeding from dozens of small but vicious puncture wounds (not to mention the shrapnel wound... thanks Emily!). All that blood kept the raptors happy and drew the t-rex over for a sniff. 

Harry snapped himself out of the curse and continued to fire away at the natives. He wounded one with an aimed rifle shot. The wounded native looked around in outrage, saw Miss Blunt, and charged towards her. She unloaded her revolver in his general direction, but he reacted by attacking her, just as the sound of her shots drew the raptors to attack her from behind.

In swift succession, Miss Blunt was killed (and subsequently eaten by the native!). van Damme fired on the t-rex again, wounding it, but spelling his own doom as the t-rex rushed him and broke him in two. Harry looked around and sweated a bit. He was suddenly the only adventurer left standing.

Harry opened his watch and saw that he was fast running out of time. The ship was due to sail and he was nowhere near prepared to kill the t-rex himself. Instead, he popped off another shot at a native. The native yelled fearsomely back. Harry stumbled backwards in shock - straight into a carnivorous plant which snapped at him, taking a bite out of his shoulder. Harry turned to scramble away, but the smell of blood and the noise he made getting away from the over-grown flytrap drew the t-rex right at him.

Harry Ford turned. He aimed and fired his rifle. The bullet found its mark, causing a double wound and bringing the t-rex to within one wound of death. One turn remained in the scenario before Harry would have to abandon the hunt and make his way to the ship.

... and he failed his activation roll. The tyrannosaur lunged. Harry fell in a bloody, pulpy, mess... 

So, a fun game, full of new features from the pulp expansion. I didn't take enough photos, so there were quite a few other things that happened that didn't quite make it into the report, but in essence, we were close to a successful hunt. Nevertheless, a total party kill is a total party kill whichever way you try to dress it up.