Session Zero Heroes - A TTRPG Actual Play Podcast
Speaker A: In the aftermath of the Dino Quest park catastrophe, a, mysterious message found its way to four individuals, each a specialist in their field. This message outlined a dangerous mission of unimaginable reward, which would send each of these agents to the abandoned island overrun with the ancient reptiles for which it got its name. Their goal? Reach the dinoQuest headquarters at the center of the island and safely abscond with the coveted dinosaur DNA from its forsaken laboratory. As the echoes of this journey reverberates through our intrepid team, one fact remains true. We are all about to take our first steps onto Dino island.
Speaker B: Welcome, everybody, to a very special one shot series for session Zero heroes, which is the escape from Dino island. One shot. it's a powered by the apocalypse game. It was written by Sam Tongue and Sam Roberts. It was meant to be a one shot, and that's how we're gonna play it, with the basic premise of how do we take Jurassic park and we turn it into a tabletop role playing game. And so this is basically what it is. So welcome to that. We're gonna kick things off of kind of an episode zero, go through who the players are, who they're playing, and, then talk a little bit about the premise for the story and how the game works, and then you can jump over to episode one where things will begin. So, first off, powered by the apocalypse, it's a very narratively driven, system. I know, Nate, you're a big fan of powered by the apocalypse stuff. Cameron, you've run a few, like, monster of the week and even masks, I think we've done a little bit with. So lots of fun there. basically, the concept of it, again, it's very narratively driven, so there's a lot less focus on over, you know, too many stats. All this other stuff, it's a system. So everybody, no matter what it is that they're doing, will roll two, d, six, and that number will be added to whatever the relevant skill is based on the move that they're using, and then that'll determine how well or not well that they succeed at whatever it is that they're trying to do. So, moves, speaking of those, a very simple system, so everybody has a set of basic moves that they get to use. those can be either peril or safety. So peril is if something is actively happening, that's putting a lot of pressure on you while you're trying to do something. Those are the moves that you're going to use in that situation, whereas safety moves are let's say I'm just kind of hanging out. There's no dinosaurs attacking me. I'm not in a lot of danger. I'm not almost falling off a cliff. These are all things that you can do, such as, like getting the lay of the land or scavenging things along those lines. So stuff that's not going to be so intense and imperative that you succeed or. Yeah, succeed on. So that's a basic gist of how the game's gonna work, as well as the fact that each player is playing a different, what's called a playbook. So it's kind of like your class in dungeons and dragons, right? It is kind, of representative of your background, who you are, what you do, and what your specialty is. So each one of those is gonna have a different move, which we'll go over as we go through all the players, which we can jump to now. So starting on my right, Nate, who are you and who are you playing?
Nate Baggart: I'm Nate Baggart. on the board for city tabletop gamers, along with Skyler. like Skyler said, I do have a history of playing this. I'm a huge fan of anything powered by the apocalypse. but yeah, I'm playing, James Jimmy Jones.
Speaker B: James Jimmy Jones.
Nate Baggart: Or should I say Jimmy the jet.
Speaker B: I'm ten years old.
Nate Baggart: love dinosaurs. Obsessed with dinosaurs. And I, don't know why I'm here quite yet. We're gonna find out. Yeah, we're gonna find that out.
Speaker B: That's gonna be. It's gonna be something interesting. So awesome. What, as the kid, what is the kind of the special move that comes with your playbook?
Nate Baggart: You know, the kid? well, first of all, as a kid, you can generally just do things that kids can do without rolling. And that's kind of at the discretion of the DM. in addition to that, I also, I get something called, I know this. When, nobody else has a critical, crucial skill, I can reveal that you, in fact, have the skill because you're just a precocious kid. using the skill always requires you to roll. Just do it. Which is one of the peril moves.
Speaker B: Okay.
Nate Baggart: and then I also have, ah. Whenever I cry out to another hero for help, they must answer my call.
Speaker B: You guys, I'm a kid, you're a kid. We got a protective kid. Unless you're a heartless monster.
Nate Baggart: Assuming, if we do advance as characters, I will choose one of the special moves, one of which can be that if a, you know, a hero comes and helps me.
Speaker B: They.
Nate Baggart: Any rule they make is then improved by one level. So if they fail, it's actually a, mixed success. If it's a mixed success, it's actually a full success.
Speaker B: So you have, like, a higher chance in general of things working out.
Nate Baggart: Yeah, assuming the character advances. Anytime someone saves me, they actually can't truly fail.
Speaker B: Right. Which I do plan on having everybody advance probably twice. So you'll definitely have that option, which will be interesting to see, for sure. So, awesome. Awesome. So that's Nate. He's playing the kid. Little, Jimmy. Little Jimmy. okay. And then, so an added component that I kind of put forth, and I know a lot of people do it with, honestly, a lot of the power by the apocalypse games is adding in kind of a secret, sort of side mission. So we'll get to what the kind of, like, primary quest or the primary, plan is as far as why you guys are on the island. But on the other hand, you each kind of have your own little, like, secret agenda that you're gonna accomplish. So everybody else, plug your ears and try not to listen. It's not the end of the world if you kind of hear it, but still. All right, so, Jimmy, what is your secret objective?
Nate Baggart: I just really want a dinosaur. I want my own dinosaur.
Speaker B: You want your own dinosaur? So somehow your goal is gonna be to get your own dinosaurs?
Nate Baggart: If it's young, yes.
Speaker B: Matches your age. Okay, we're good. We're good. All right, so that's yours. we'll move on to the next person here. Aaron. Aaron, brand new to the show. I guess Nate was, too. but Aaron, also brand new to the show. Aaron, who are you and who are you playing?
Aaron: All right, be patient with me. This is my first time playing up with the apocalypse, so, yeah, I quickly made up my name. His name is Sergeant Tim McMahon.
Speaker B: Tim McMahon.
Aaron: So he is a ice cold soldier guy.
Speaker B: Oh, yeah. I mean, yeah, that's a basic good start. because, I mean, all things considered, when we start this, I mean, you guys don't really know each other super well, so there will be a lot of opportunity to kind of, like, figure out who the heck sergeant Tim McMahon is. so what is that move that you start with there at the top?
Aaron: Right up here?
Speaker B: Yes. I love this move.
Aaron: Kill or be killed. when you open fire on a dinosaur, a group of dinosaurs roll, plus steady. And then on a hit, you gun them down on a seven to nine, you use too much ammo, so you're empty. Uh-huh, and on a miss, you get mole, then immediately make the casualty.
Speaker B: So it's a really 50 50 move. So basically, if you succeed, awesome. You take care of the problem at hand, but if you fail, you pretty much die.
Aaron: That's great.
Speaker B: There's technically. So, and I'll jump over. So the basic moves includes the casualty. So casualty is almost a move in and of itself, but it's a move that's done to you. Right. So if you ever receive, an injury and then receiving a second injury, you are considered in a casualty state. Also, there are times like in your explicit move where a casualty state just happens in that moment. Right. So the casualty state, basically what that says is that you're grievously hurt, you're in bad shape. You tell someone your darkest secret or unfulfilled hope, and then you choose one of the following. Right? So, those following are, either you get one final heroic act at the DM's discretion, and then you die. The other one is you're just out of commission, you're unable to do anything, but your character will survive and the others can get you off the island, potentially, but for the moment, you're down for the count. So you took some sort of, like, grievous injury. You're either unconscious, maybe bleeding out a bit. You lost a leg or an arm or something, just something real bad. That's basically going to kind of pull you out of the scene. Doesn't mean you can't come back. I think that's always going to be an option. So if you feel like, you know, I'm not ready for my character to die just yet, you can take that as one of the options. That way we don't lose you.
Aaron: We're talking about. I always go out in a blaze.
Speaker B: You do. That is true. Awesome. All right. And then if everybody can plug their ears and we'll talk about what Aaron's. Aaron's secret objective, is. So what is your, as the soldier, what is your secret objective?
Aaron: So, my soldier, my objective is to make sure that the information stays secretive and that no one else finds out what the real intentions of this island was supposed to be.
Speaker B: Perfect. You've got a little bit more insight into what's going on in the behind the scenes, so.
Aaron: That's right. I don't want that stuff to get out.
Speaker B: That's right. That's right. And you're getting paid a little extra to ensure that. So. Awesome. All right, perfect. awesome. All right, everybody, we're good. Next up, we've got Cameron. Cameron, you've been on the podcast. Pretty much any time the podcast has been doing something, you've pretty much been on it, which we joked about recently.
Cameron: And recorded in the last one shot. I said, skyler, you got to start finding other people.
Speaker B: Cameron's very accessible, which is very nice. So you probably recognize him from criminals, violent numus and banners and bruise, running our previous monster of the week.
Nate Baggart: Yes.
Speaker B: so very familiar with the power by the apocalypse system. So what character are you playing? Okay.
Cameron: My character's name is Doctor Lazarus Thoreau.
Speaker B: Okay.
Cameron: he's a, he's a very lazy doctor.
Speaker B: Okay. Not, a good trait for a doctor. No.
Cameron: He will put off anything if he can. My inspiration for this character, actually, is if anyone's seen superstore, it is the pharmacist from superstore.
Speaker B: Ah, yes. If you.
Cameron: If you've seen it, you've already know the character.
Speaker F: Right.
Cameron: But I'm taking my own creative liberties away.
Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
Cameron: But the whole idea of this character, he's lazy, and if he can push his work onto someone else, he will do it in a heartbeat.
Speaker B: So right on. As a. Yeah, so, which is funny.
Cameron: So if it's a basic tourniquet, he'll just, like, go, look at the kid and be like, hey, you know, you can just hold pressure, right?
Aaron: Here's one. Ibuprofen. You'll be fine with your arm.
Speaker B: Chopped offendix out.
Nate Baggart: really leaned in on the nurses doing a lot of stuff.
Speaker B: Awesome, awesome. And then what is your special move as the doctor?
Cameron: It's treat wounds. It's very simple. So I'll just summarize it. It's basically if someone gets injured, as an injury, I can just treat it, and then I just add conditions. If it's a perilous condition or if it's. If it's a perilous situation or if I have proper equipment or not.
Speaker B: Okay.
Cameron: So that just modifies it, but at the end, it's just, I treat a wound. If I'm successful, they remove an injury slot.
Speaker B: And, I mean, you have equipment on you, and everybody has equipment that their character sort of starts with. So, I mean, there's definitely the opportunity. It's more like, if I lose the.
Cameron: Equipment, or it's mostly gonna be, are we in? Am I rushing to kill someone? Is most likely gonna be.
Speaker B: And that's gonna come into kind of those peril situations that we talked about before, so. Awesome, awesome, fantastic. All right, everybody, once again, plug your ears. Cameron, what is your doctor's secret objective?
Cameron: He is obsessed with. He, thinks the only way to be a true doctor is to save people who are close to dying. So he, as being lazy, will just wait till the very last moment to save someone because he thinks that's really interesting.
Speaker B: Sure. There's kind of a dark side to it. It's not just like I want to save somebody from the brink of death, it's I want to let them get there and then I want to save them just to see if I can.
Cameron: Yeah. And so he took this job because it's dinosaur, so he figures a lot of people are going to be close to death, so it gives him more time to practice.
Speaker B: Yeah, there you go. And that'll be really interesting, giving the, like, the soldiers special ability and everything. That'll be interesting to see if that comes into play.
Speaker A: So awesome.
Speaker B: All right, everybody, we're good. Fantastic. So that takes care of Cameron's doctor character. And then moving on to our last player, Mikayla, who is also familiar voice, to the podcast, having played micah from our benders and brews series, which actually, that's another powered by the apocalypse game, so there's that too. Yeah, so definitely familiar with that. Awesome. Mikayla, who are you playing?
Mikayla: I am playing doctor Mackenzie sattler. I'm a paleontologist. That's about it.
Speaker B: She's a paleo. She knows her dinosaurs. She's on this island because she knows dinosaurs. So, awesome. Now, as a paleontologist, what is your special move?
Mikayla: Oh, I'm a dinosaur expert, obviously.
Speaker B: Yeah. Okay, what does that mean?
Mikayla: I've been drawing my knowledge to deal with real life dinosaur situations. As a paleontologist, I can generally do things, the kinds of things field researchers and academics do without a role.
Speaker B: Oh, okay.
Mikayla: I must just do it right.
Speaker B: So basically, you know dinosaurs well enough that if anybody else was trying to do something, like trying to see, like, what some of these options. Yeah, name dinosaurs or try to get an idea of like, what that dinosaur is capable of. If it has any special abilities or something like that, you would just know off the top of your head because you, you know, dinosaurs. I don't have to make you roll for it or anything like that. Yeah. So awesome. Very cool. So very useful, very versatile skill there. Awesome. So all right, everybody, plug your ears. Okay, Mikhail, what is your secret objective for Doctor Mackenzie?
Mikayla: I, my objective is to just live on the island.
Speaker B: You, you love dinosaurs so much, and this awkward opportunity is just too big for you to not just stick around and find out more.
Mikayla: I mean, who can say, you know, you can only learn so much from bones.
Speaker B: Right? Right. No, that's totally fair. So your goal is gonna be to try to find some way that you could possibly stay on this island. You don't really care too much about the objective then the other players are after, but that's kind of the beauty of the secret objective, so. Awesome. All right, everybody, we're good. Awesome. All right, so that takes care of all the players officially this time. jumping over to the story. So the premise of the story is that a few years back, scientists revealed that they had discovered a way to bring back the dinosaurs. This is a very jurassic park. Right. And of course, because. Or, coming off of that, they decided, whoever the financiers behind this research were, decided to open up a park, which they titled DinoQuest. And Dino Quest was going to be this big resort and sort of vacation spot. It was going to kind of cater to the rich and famous for the most part. Not saying that, you know, the common person couldn't maybe put a. Put together the money and get to go to this island and check out everything that's there. but at the very least, the sort of soft opening was exclusively to sort of these influencers and wealthy and stuff like that. it featured a water park. It featured a, you know, dinosaurs were kind of in every facet of this whole thing. So obviously they were going to be living dinosaurs there. There's, a whole resort. There's kind of this cool volcano that features, some. Some hot springs. So there was kind of like a spa element to it. All of this amazing things that they had promoted leading up to the completion of this park. Unfortunately, at their soft opening with all of these celebrities and such there, something happened. Nobody's really sure what happened, but something happened that caused everything to fall apart. Shortly after they announced that the whole park and everything involved with it was closed, it wasn't going to happen. And everybody, of course, that set the media ablaze. Right? Everybody's trying to theorize everything that could have possibly happened. Supposedly, the wealthy and the celebrities that were over there are still trapped, allegedly. so anyways, all of that to say that you guys were on, you know, back in the US or wherever you were located at, not on the island, and you were approached by a mysterious figure who reached out to you and said, I want you, as a specialist within your field, to be a part of a team that I'm putting together to go to the island and steal dino DNA. So basically, like in Jurassic park. You had Dodson, and Wayne Knight's character, kind of like their whole situation where they were trying to rip off some of that dino DNA and sell it to the highest bidder or whatever. This guy wants Dino DNA. He wants to be able to make his own dinosaurs. He's sending you guys to the island to get it. Of course, you all have your own objectives as well, the secret objectives we talk about, but you've been promised a lot of money to do it. And he has convinced the government, he's used some connections and things along those lines to convince the local government, who has otherwise shut down the island. Nobody's supposed to be getting on or off. He said, hey, I've got this documentary film crew that's going to come to your island, and they're going to film a documentary, and you guys get full prior restraint on everything that they film and the final edit and everything. But, hey, it's going to help you guys out to get the media off your back, because again, the world is ablaze right now with discussion and theories about what's happening on this island or what happened. So the government agreed. they're going to send a, leading figure amongst their military. His name is Admiral Asman, and he's going to be along for the ride to make sure that you guys don't go anywhere that you're not supposed to or film anything that you're not supposed to, unless you're able to get past him on that kind of stuff. and he, of course, has also been instructed to. To reach back out to the mainland twice a day. He's got it like a walkie talkie radio type thing that'll reach that far. And if he doesn't, that's gonna be a problem, right? So anyway, that's your guys basic gist of what's going on. There will be a nice intro at the beginning of episode one for those of you that are listening. But whatever the case, hop on over to that, because it is time to begin. Escape from Dino island.
Speaker F: Hey, everyone, thank you so much for listening to our escape from Dino island one shot. The escape from Dino island role playing game was created by Sam Tung and Sam Roberts and uses the power by the apocalypse system. If you'd like to purchase a copy of this amazing one shot, you can find it available on Samknight itch IO, so be sure to check it out there. If you're enjoying our playthrough of this rpg, we encourage you to check out our other content that we've created here at Session Zero Heroes as well, including our original benders and Brews series set in the world of the Last Airbender and using the Avatar Legends system through Magpie games or our Dungeons and Dragons series criminals, the violin, Numis, and so many more. Don't forget to subscribe and follow the session Zero Heroes channel, wherever it is that you listen to our podcast, and be sure to rate or leave a review and comment as well. It just means so much to us to get that feedback from our amazing listeners like you. Finally, you can also find us on social media, whether that be on Facebook, X, Instagram, or Discord. So be sure to check us out and follow us there as well. With all that being said, stay curious, stay heroic until we roll again.