Critter of the Month: Nanosaurus

| Patricia Bujard

Meet Nina. SHe loves nothing better than a sing and dance party with her friends!

Something a little different this time. I tried writing it, but some stories are too small even for flash fiction. I had a lot of fun with this, and I hope you enjoy it. You may see more like it!

Making progress…

Progress on the short stories was very slow this month, because I’ve been getting ready for a double birthday bash for my two youngest sons. 😀 The littlest (Peter Rabbit) is turning one year old on the 4th, and Sammo-saurus will be 5 on the 5th! Sammo-saurus wanted a dinosaur party, of course, so I’ve been having big fun prepping for it.

My kids really like dinosaurs (especially my big girl Budgie, and Sammo-saurus), so they’ve been watching a show called Dino Dana for a while. In the show, the family makes up a game called the “Game of Bones”. Basically, the players must survive the famous dino-killing asteroid impact and all the disasters it brings. Last one standing wins. My kids really wanted to play that game, and it looked like fun, so why not make it?

So I made my own “Game of Bones”. Not as fancy with all the paper mache and crafty special effects, but essentially the same.

Turns out a game that works well for the script of a TV show isn’t really all that fun as an actual game. 😀

So I made a few changes. Tweaked a few things here, a few things there. Researched a LOT on game mechanics…played a couple dozen versions with the kids and updated as necessary. Now I have a game that’s completely different from the one in the show, but it’s really coming along nicely! The kids love it, and I actually have fun with it too. So this month I’ll share a little bit of what that’s all about. 😀

Imagine…

You survived the impact of a giant asteroid that crashed into the Earth, but can you survive the onslaught of its effects long enough to ensure the continuation of your species? Search for food and water while using your wits and survival abilities to endure wildfire, acid rain, tsunamis, and hostile terrain, all while watching your back for those who might want to take what little resources are left!

Instead of a board, tiles are set up face down around the three start tiles. Players turn tiles over each turn to reveal the terrain throughout the game.

Your dinosaur (ignore the fact that so many are in the wrong time and place 😛 ) must explore the terrain tiles to find a safe place to build a nest. Collect a cache of food and water as you go, and try not to lose it all (or your life) from other players or disasters.

It was cool to figure out a way to keep track of how hungry you are, and make sure battles with other players (or NPCs in the game) are fun and not just a random roll of the dice. 🙂 I’m still tweaking special abilities, weaknesses, and strengths of the many playable dinosaurs (and other prehistoric critters) in the game. And trying to come up with a balanced, fair mixture is a lot of fun, especially if I can sneak a little science in there. 😀

For the pieces, I just bought both sets of CollectA mini dinosaurs. Most are about 2 inches long, with the longest close to 3 inches, so they work really well for game pieces. The only one I don’t like as much as the others is the Brachiosaurus, because it just doesn’t have the same level of care and detail as the other ones do, which is a shame, because all of the others are just beautiful. Of course, I painted the illustrations on the cards with the same colors as the mini figures, so that they all match. 😀

  • Liopleurodon
  • Tyrannosaurus rex
  • Brachiosaurus
  • Pteranodon
  • Giganotosaurus
  • Ankylosaurus
  • Mosasaurus
  • Amargosaurus
  • Torosaurus
  • Parasaurolophus
  • Triceratops
  • Stegosaurus
  • Quetzocoatlus
  • Baryonix
  • Spinosaurus
  • Apatosaurus
  • Pachycephalosaurus
  • Diplodocus
  • Velociraptor
  • Kentrosaurus

All I need now is to update the food and water cards, finish the player charts that need finishing, and update the “Event cards”- which players draw each turn to see if they must survive a disaster or confront another dinosaur- just so everything is in the same style and is a nice, more easily shuffled card stock. Right now a lot of my temporary cards we’ve been playing with are regular printer paper.

Not so easily shuffled, I must say. 😛

I must admit I’m actually quite pleased with what the game has morphed into, and some day it would be awesome to actually get it developed into a real game. If there is ever any interest.

Another game we’ll have for the party is also based on a game in a TV show. This time Dino Dan (it’s an earlier season of the very similar Dino Dana). In the show, Dino Dan has a great game for his birthday party that involves hunting for clues to figure out which dinosaur the cake will be.

So I’ll have all 20 of the CollectA mini dinos (and other prehistoric creatures) out on the table, and the kids will have to find the clues to figure out which one the cake will be. The hard part will be keeping the cake a secret until I can reveal it! 😀

Can you figure out which creature the boys will have for their cake?

Clue # 1: This creature lives…

Clue #2: This creature likes to eat…

Clue #3: Does this creature have armor and defenses, or no armor?

Clue #4: Here are some footprints…

Clue #5: A few “fossils”, who do they belong to?

Can you guess which prehistoric creature (from the 20 pictured above) the boys will have for their cake? I’ll post a picture of it in our next Critter of the Month post! 😀

Don’t forget we now have Fossil Fun every Friday! 😀

Coming July 1st…

Is that a beaver? 🙂

Share your guess in the comments! She’s one of the critters over on the critter page. 🙂

10 thoughts on “Critter of the Month: Nanosaurus”

  1. Pingback: Nanosaurus — динозавр з клади Neornithischia » Вимерлий світ

  2. Sorry I’m stopping by so late! The comic is soo cute, I love it. 😀 I can’t wait to see more like it in the future! My favorite part is where she says “cheep.” You got the personality of a two-year-old spot on, from the poses to the dialogue! And the personality of a nanosaurus, heheh.

    Looks like an awesome party! Wish I could have been there. 😛 It’s so cool to see all the clues you made. And dude, the game looks epic–especially the way you took pictures of the toys. Can’t wait to see it on Kickstarter someday! 😉

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    1. No problem at all! It’s always good to see you no matter how late you are to the party lol 😀

      I’m glad you like the little comic! The little girl is basically my little Tabby 2-year-old 😀 It was pretty easy to imagine what she would do lol. I love it when she says “cheep”

      And the party was a lot of fun, the kids sure missed you! We ended up doing an analysis of the “fossils” I made, comparing them to the little toys and seeing what kind of spikes they were. I couldn’t help myself lol, they were like little paleontologists. And taking pics was a lot of fun, especially since they really are some nice looking little figures!

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  3. For the longest time, I’ve wanted an Othnielosaurus/Nanosaurus COTM post, and here it is😀! I believe that the photo sequence stories are as great as the written ones. I LOVE you kids’s birthday party ideas! I think Peter and Samuel Bujard will have fun! I love your “Game of Bones” idea, and I believe the cake will be an Amargasaurus. Cassie is next, which is even more awesome!

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    1. Thank you, I’m glad you like her! I still think it’s weird that she’s technically a Nanosaurus now, I’ll always think of her as Othnielia.

      I’m glad you like the little comic. It was a lot of fun, and I already know what I’ll be doing for next month’s COTM. I may even be able to color it since I won’t be party planning lol. 😀 I’ve been trying to come up with a new name for the game lately, since it’s so different from the game in the show now. I’ve been thinking “Extinction”. 🙂 It’s been a lot of funmaking the games, and you’re guess is correct! 😀

      Fun fact: Here on the site I go by my maiden name because Bujard is so much easier spelled and said than my married name, Schlichting. lol Just imagine all the ways Schlichting can be butchered! Especially considering that it’s pronounced Sh-lick-ting, and a lot of people leave out the “L” and the click of that K! LOL That’d be a bit embarrassing, especially for negative reviews in the future, so I figured I’d better have a pen name for my books.

      Unpronounceable names are just one good reason for pen names, and authors use them a lot, but I don’t think I’ve mentioned it somewhere on the site before. Sorry about the confusion!

      Thank you so much for stopping by 😀 It makes my day to read the comments. 🙂

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        1. Disregarding that though, I have to say this, Nanosaurus takes priority over Othnielia, Othnielosaurus, and Drinker (which is a name I do not like) because it was the first of the four names. But I hope the two boys have a good time. Speaking of birthdays, my sister Amelia will have her birthday very soon (she will turn six).

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        2. Just Patricia is fine 😉

          Yes, unfortunately the oldest name takes priority for Nanosaurus, even if it doesn’t quite have that ring to it.

          And happy birthday to your sister! My kids would love a play day if the internet wasn’t so far away. 😀

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    1. Thank YOU for stopping by! 😀 Lol, I know right? After growing up with Walking with Dinosaurs, I was dissapointed to find out that Othnielia is synonymous with Nanosaurus now. I had to keep going back to check multiple different sources, because I did not like what I was seeing!

      Thank you for sharing your article, I’ll go check it out 🙂

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