🥾📟 Unreview: Dino Defenders
Dec. 22nd, 2025 11:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
solo_knightUnreview: Dino Defenders
What is it?
A single page (double sided) game about dinosaurs. With blackjack.
Is it playable out of the box?
No. You get instructions on how to create your character, and a conflict resolution mechanic that is basically blackjack; a table for what’s at stake (suit) and where it takes place (rank), plus a way of telling how many enemies you face.
Amendments:
Blackjack rules (what does ‘sticking’ mean in Blackjack? I don’t know, but it’s important.
Bring your own plot.
Bring your own winning condition. (You lose if you’re down to zero health and don’t recover any. You win when… who knows.)
Tools
Playing cards.
Price:
Name your own price.
Verdict
🥾 Boot
📟 Not a game
This needs too much brain. I am not familiar with Blackjack, and the rules are not fully explained – there’s talk of ‘he sticks’ and I have ZERO idea what that could mean. Googling ‘Blackjack stick’ brings up a) candy, and b) a whole category of weapons (lead-filled?), so I’m still completely in the dark what that actually means, and it’s coming up to my bedtime and I just can’t be bothered to search more. (There’s also a mentioning of ‘twisting’. This may or may not mean pulling additional cards (there’s a hint) but I am not certain.)
Also, apparently you play ‘[author’s] blackjack’ which, for some reason, pisses me off.
So the general idea is pretty interesting – you construct a dinosaur by distributing three stats (Brain, Heart, and Teeth) – and having a card mechanic for determining not just the location of your encounter but the strength of your enemies (2-5: 1 enemy, Face cards: 2, 6-10: 3, Ace: 4) isn’t the worst I’ve seen either.
I don’t know how well the ‘play blackjack against yourself’ will work for someone who understands blackjack; it doesn’t work for me at all.
Chalk this up as another game I wanted to like, but it’s not a game, and I don’t like it.
What is it?
A single page (double sided) game about dinosaurs. With blackjack.
Is it playable out of the box?
No. You get instructions on how to create your character, and a conflict resolution mechanic that is basically blackjack; a table for what’s at stake (suit) and where it takes place (rank), plus a way of telling how many enemies you face.
Amendments:
Blackjack rules (what does ‘sticking’ mean in Blackjack? I don’t know, but it’s important.
Bring your own plot.
Bring your own winning condition. (You lose if you’re down to zero health and don’t recover any. You win when… who knows.)
Tools
Playing cards.
Price:
Name your own price.
Verdict
🥾 Boot
📟 Not a game
This needs too much brain. I am not familiar with Blackjack, and the rules are not fully explained – there’s talk of ‘he sticks’ and I have ZERO idea what that could mean. Googling ‘Blackjack stick’ brings up a) candy, and b) a whole category of weapons (lead-filled?), so I’m still completely in the dark what that actually means, and it’s coming up to my bedtime and I just can’t be bothered to search more. (There’s also a mentioning of ‘twisting’. This may or may not mean pulling additional cards (there’s a hint) but I am not certain.)
Also, apparently you play ‘[author’s] blackjack’ which, for some reason, pisses me off.
So the general idea is pretty interesting – you construct a dinosaur by distributing three stats (Brain, Heart, and Teeth) – and having a card mechanic for determining not just the location of your encounter but the strength of your enemies (2-5: 1 enemy, Face cards: 2, 6-10: 3, Ace: 4) isn’t the worst I’ve seen either.
I don’t know how well the ‘play blackjack against yourself’ will work for someone who understands blackjack; it doesn’t work for me at all.
Chalk this up as another game I wanted to like, but it’s not a game, and I don’t like it.
no subject
Date: 2025-12-22 11:43 pm (UTC)Ha. I forgot about the redoubtable blackjack, which (luckily) I have only encountered via D&D.
I like the idea of a blackjack (the card game not the big stick) mechanic, but I like pretty much any mechanic that translates some other activity into a game mechanic just to see what happens.
I think "sticks" in this context would mean you don't take another card, usually because the risk of going over 21 is too high. I've never played blackjack in real life, but we used to have a little simulator on our PC when I was a kid, among a bunch of other weird little games. (Of the Oregon Trail vintage.) So I know you stand/stick at 17, for example.
I think you're right about "twist", but I've never seen it called that before today.
no subject
Date: 2025-12-25 10:47 pm (UTC)"Stick" absolutely means 'does not take another card" in this context.
"Twist" is the opposite.
These are taken from what the player says to the dealer in at least one version of the game. In contrast, in casino vesions the dealer has to follow a set of published rules about whether or not they take extra card(s).
no subject
Date: 2025-12-27 04:12 pm (UTC)