Escape from Dino Island
A downloadable game
Welcome to Dino Island
Escape from Dino Island is a thrilling adventure game of intrepid heroes trapped on an island overrun with creatures from a lost age—dinosaurs!
Players take on the role of brave, competent, but fundamentally normal people in way over their heads. The game helps you create action-packed stories that are full of suspense, but in which fighting is rarely a good option.
Will you escape with your life? And what kind of person will you become in your quest to survive? There’s only one way to find out…
3-6 players. 1-2 sessions, 3-4 hours each.
Powered by the Apocalypse
IMPORTANT NOTE: Please download the playsheets even if you purchase the game — they contain additional information and tools that aren't in the game book, specifically designed for you to use at the table!
About Us
We're Sam Tung and Sam Roberts, two similarly named friends who've been collaborating and gaming together for years. Coming out of the film and television industry, we're suckers for adventure stories that blend survival, mystery, and intrepid heroes — like Jurassic Park, Lost, and Half-life — and we're excited to bring them to your gaming table.
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $10 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Community Copies
Support this game at or above a special price point to receive something exclusive.
Community Copies
We want everyone to be able to play Escape from Dino Island, which is why we're offering community copies for those who cannot afford to pay the full price for the game. Please don't hesitate to grab one of these copies for whatever price feels right (even, and especially, free) — no questions asked — and enjoy the game!
We'll be adding more community copies periodically, so if you don't see any available, check back soon or just shoot us an email.
Download demo
Comments
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This was a lovely ride! This was my dnd table's first time with a PbtA game, and we really enjoyed ourselves! We had a last minute cancellation, so I ran it for two players with a sporadic NPC and it still worked quite well! It took us two 3.5'ish hour sessions to complete (though an experienced PtbA GM could streamline it into one I'm sure). One character survived the journey, while the other player had to replace their character four times. In that, we really appreciated how quick the character creation process was, and said player was able to hop back in within a minute or two, which really kept the pacing and the fun alive.
Heyo, I was just checking the book while preparing for a game and noticed that the Fight! option has an entry I'm a bit confused about. It says "On a 6-...", so does that mean on a 6 or less, or on a miss?
Otherwise, I'm super excited to run this with some friends! I'm not an experienced DM, and I've never played PbtA, but this seems chill and collaborative enough for everyone to have a good time regardless.
I figured it out! 6- is just another way of saying missed, found a part of the book that helped me see that.
Such a fun system with lots of little breadcrumbs to help you run it well. You can tell a lot of time and love went into the rules to make things balanced, without being overbearing. A great addition to the PbtA family.
Stupid question. How the hell do I print this at home?:D I am trying to print the printer friendly spreads document but I cannot figure out how to do so in a way that makes a nice booklet xD
Again, sorry for the stupid question. Anyone who might be able to help?:D
Crazy good game btw
Hi Edoardo! The printer-friendly version isn't really just a low-ink version. Printing in booklet format would involve taking the singles version and doing some rearranging of the pages. I'll look into how complicated it is to whip up a booklet format version and add it to the downloads, but to be honest, the whole thing is designed to be full-bleed so I worry about things getting cut off or the font size getting really small.
We do have print copies available if you want to buy one, though — people who've purchased the PDF get a discount.
Whoot whoot, I didn't know about printed copies! Where can I get one?
I’m also curious about how to obtain a print copy!
I would be super interested in a print copy if still available
Email us! Escape From Dino Island at Gmail dot com.
Hi!
Our community is very interested in your game and we would be happy to translate it into Polish. This is a really great system! I wrote an email about this.
Hi! Sorry for the slow response on this! Will follow up via email!
Thanks
I’m prepping and running this as my and my table’s first PbtA game, very excited!
Based on something a player said, also wondering if anyone has made a hack or a game where the PCs play the dinosaur?
First time I've left a review on itch.io. As a relatively new GM looking to introduce my mates to TTRPGs, Escape from Dino Island appealed to me because it was rules-light, it's based on PBTA which I like for being fiction-first, and it's a one-shot so there wasn't too much of a commitment. And dinosaurs was a neat theme that everyone was familar with.
There wasn't much GM-specific advice (that I had to seek elsewhere), but I did find the various tables, oracles and suggestions for locations and dinosaurs to be helpful from a creativity/imagination standpoint. But there was still some doubts about whether my group would 'get' tabletop RPGs. We played board games already but that is highly structured with clear goals and tactile components to interact with. What if it all ends up awkward and my mind goes blank when asked to improvise?
Turns out my fears were unfounded. Me and three of my friends had an absolute blast and the whole improvising thing felt surprisingly natural. We were in fits of laughter as my friends role-played an incompetent doctor with a penchant for karaoke, an ex-CEO turned soldier looking to start a business selling dinosaur meat, and a 9-year old girl intent on keeping her newly-hatched baby dinosaur alive at all costs.
Highly recommended.
Would love a community copy if any become available.
Hi, I emailed you in early August to see if you had any more physical copies, but haven't gotten a response. I figured I should ask here before sending another email. Thanks!
could I get a community copy? I'm embarrassed to ask, and want to be buying the game when i do have money.
done! No embarrassment necessary! We made this game to be played :-) Throw us a few bucks when you can — or don’t worry about it and just have fun!
Hey I've bought the game and like it and I would like to translate it to German. Can I have permission?
Sure! Shoot us an email at escape from dino island at gmail. And apologies in advance if we’re a little slow to respond!
Hey there just wondering if my email(s) got lost in spam or sth? Been a bit, just checking in :)
Hello, I was wondering what's the easiest way to turn the playbooks into something fillable without having to print them out.
Hi! Hard to say what the best option is in the abstract — depends on your particular situation and needs. Most PDF readers (preview on Mac and Adobe on PC) allow you to add text annotations, so that’s what I usually do when I play games online.
I do know a member of the Gauntlet gaming community graciously created and shared a google sheet version of the playsheets that might also be helpful. Here’s a link: ESCAPE FROM DINO ISLAND ONLINE PLAY AID. You’ll need to make your own copy before you can edit it, but it’s pretty great!
I'm ashamed to say that the $10 gaming cost is really a lot for me, who is still struggling with college tuition fees, so I hope to obtain a community copy. Also, if possible, I would like to translate this game into Chinese.
done!
Thank you！！I jumped out of bed and cheered
Hello people, I would like to translate this to portuguese, can we discuss that?
Sure! Email us at Escapefromdinoisland [a] gmail dot com.
Thank you very much for this game, we had a lot of fun! :D
However, one question remains and has been bothering me a bit. In the GM moves section, you wrote: "These are the (only) things you can do."
Why is that? It felt somewhat forced (and I know that as the GM, I have the freedom to do whatever I want at the table, but still). Where does this restriction come from, what's the idea behind this? I'm simply interested in the rationale behind this "rule" :)
To be honest, with a few years' hindsight, I think it might have been a bit excessive. And obviously, as you say, nobody's going to show up to your door and arrest you if you do something that isn't listed there. (In fact, I've been a player in games where the DM went off-book and it went great!)
That said, the thinking is this: As a DM, you're making up a lot on the fly. And I know from experience, it's pretty easy to come up with an idea that seems good, only to realize you've backed yourself into a corner or stalled the game's momentum. It's especially true in a no-prep one-shot like Escape from Dino Island. So the goal is to give DMs really robust guard rails and encourage them to think hard before ignoring them. "How can I twist this reveal to make it 'mysterious'?" or "Wait, does this NPC I'm introducing have something useful to offer and a personal goal?" will almost always result in more compelling situations. When it doesn't, whatever, I'm not your boss! Ignore me!
Also, speaking purely from personal preference, I've always found the way Powered by the Apocalypse games structure the DM section as "rules" rather than "guidelines" (Ours isn't the first game to do this!) to be freeing in a counterintuitive way — it lets me feel like I'm playing the game too, rather than "creating a story" or whatever and it makes it easier to feel comfortable hitting the PCs hard.
If we were to make a revised or expanded edition, we'd probably rework them to be more clearly strong recommendations, mostly because I don't really think a game needs to adopt a bossy tone, even when it's understood that players have complete freedom to do as they please.
Hope this clarifies things! And thanks for playing — glad you had fun with the game!
Thank you, that's a great answer. I read up on other PbtA games and GM moves in general, and gained some really interesting insights. Your comment about GM rules that liberate the GM is a wonderful concept, and it helps shift the mindset from other games.
Still got any physical copies?? I'd love to buy one! If you do, I sent you an email! Let me know.
We do! Email coming your way with more info!
I havent received an email yet, I'll send you guys another! Be sure you arent putting gmail instead of ymail.
Do you plan to make physical copies again? I would love to have this as a proper book to page through!
we still have some! Email us at escape from dino island at Gmail dot com
Purchased!
Is there any chance we could get a PDF of the game in Printer's Spread format, instead of Reader's Spread format? Printer's Spread format would allow us to print out the game like a booklet.
you can lay out the full-page version to print as a booklet.
Thank you for the community copy. I really really appreciate it.
Hi Sams,
I'm gearing up to run this for the next month or so of my weekly game (we typically only get in about 2 hour sessions). I'm running it using the generic PbtA system for Foundry VTT, which means I've been going through and creating the moves (both basic and playbook) as well as the Dino types as assets to use within that system for my personal game.
Since this game is under copyright rather than CC, I wanted to ask if you would be open to this content being shared as a module for the Foundry platform. This would allow other groups interested in playing online get started much more easily, but it is also sharing your copyrighted material and I would totally understand if that's not something you'd want.
Thanks either way!
I’m beyond curious, I’ve been looking for a system to start my first ever campaign as a DM. I wanted to run a campaign set in Jurassic park and I was curious- could this system be used for campaigns and not just one shots? Either way though and I’m definitely grabbing a copy - the system looks amazing! Thank you guys for making a game for the Jurassic park lovers!!
Thanks for asking — we love hearing about people using Escape from Dino Island for the first game they run!
Out of the “box,” Escape from Dino Island is calibrated for a one-shot or maybe a couple of sessions. Sam and I are working on some material for longer-form play, but I would definitely not wait on us — this is a side project for us so it's a slow process.
That said, I think it wouldn't be hard to do some DIY tweaks to run a short campaign and I have some thoughts!
For starters, without changing anything, there’s a lot of built-in flexibility to make the game longer as DM (by making travel more perilous, adding more encounters and challenges, etc.). The places where you may need to make some changes are:
You might also find yourself wanting to make some additional moves as situations come up.
I don't want this to sound daunting, though! Most of those rules are there to help keep the adventure-movie pace/structure, so it shouldn't break anything to mess with them. It's actually really hard to break this game, so don't stress it. Also you know the source material well, so if your instincts probably won't lead you astray — trust your gut and do what feels fun!
Another option is to reimagine your campaigns as a film series, and run several one-shots set in the same world/featuring the same characters. Basically, run the first game as normal and then write a new questionnaire (or just come up with answers) for each sequel as you go. You could have people come back to the same island a la Jurassic World or explore a new island with the same characters a la Lost World.
Basically — go for it! And then let us know how it goes. :-)
thanks so much for the advice and feedback! I was planning on having the campaign set after JP2 and then changing up the story line. But this helps out a lot knowing about the additional info!!! I’ll let you know how the campaign goes after it’s started!
Dear both Sams, I wanted to thank you for "Escape from Dino Island"! It is short, fun and remarkably straight to the point in its premises. It synthetizes all the thrill, fun and mystery of Crichton's novels, Spielberg's movies and many other books or stories (by Doyle, Brabdury and others) I enjoyed very much as a scifi and dinosaur lover. Thank you so much!
As you may already know, people on Itch.io have published additional material for the game and for free.
Nill Radford published three additional playbooks (The Lawyer, The Spiritualist and The Baby Dino).
https://billtherad.itch.io/escape-from-dino-island-custom-playbooks
As for me, I recently published a sort of companion : the "Auxiliary Generator", which contains additional tables, places, animals and ideas. It is available for free, both in French (my native language - I discovered the game thanks to Gulix's French translation) and now in English as I translated it as best I could. I hope you will find it fun to read and play!
https://artaban.itch.io/generateur-auxiliaire-pour-escape-from-dino-island
EDIT : Also, Gulix published an additional playbook in French, Le Milliardaire (The Billionaire) :
https://www.gulix.fr/blog/2021/02/24/dino-island-accueille-un-nouveau-heros/
If you're able, would you be able to help with an English translation of The Billionaire? I've contacted Gulix, and assuming they're okay with it and can provide the source file(s), I'm going to translate it into English so that more people can enjoy it. :)
Hi Rozekail! I'll be glad to help, yes! You can write me an email: kosmosjdr (this weird letter a with a circle around it) free.fr You can also contact me on Mastodon : @KosmosJdr@mastodon.cipherbliss.com
So, I've got through my files and it appeared I already did the translation.
Just got it through the layout file, and here it is : https://gulix.itch.io/the-billionaire
More and more, when people ask me about my favorite PbtA games, I include Escape from Dino Island in my list. It's just such a slick engine for one-shot or two-shot games, with a compelling hook (Dinosaurs! Mystery! Survival!) and great mechanics to back it up ("Tell a Story" always makes for great moments at the table). This is a really great game to bring to indie game meetups, local conventions, or wedding rehearsal dinners... any setting where a spontaneous RPG might be called for!
I'm only just playing my first D&D game as a player, and have long had an interest in DMing a game myself. Would this game be good to play with 2 of my friends?
I'm biased, so maybe somebody who didn't make the game can weigh in, but I'd say yes, definitely! I played a game of Escape from Dino Island with someone who'd only ever played D&D 5e and never DMed anything before and it was a blast. I think it makes a great first game because you and your friends probably know a lot about how these stories are supposed to look/feel (and that's half the battle) and also because it's a short game, so the stakes are pretty low. A couple best practices that might be helpful:
If you do end up running the game, let us know how it goes!
Thank you for the detailed reply.
I've been long-obsessed with dinos and the obsession has never gone away, so I think I will absolutely run an Escape from Dino Island game next. The initial idea had a great reception from my friends, too. Gonna try my hand at DMing with One Shot World first (mostly because that's free and I don't want to impulsively buy things before I know I can do them), but EfDI will be the next thing I tackle -- should things go well.
In the meantime, thank you for the excellent work you've done on the game. <3
Haha if this was a subtle suggestion to add some more community copies, mission accomplished. I'm going to add some now — feel free to grab one!
Either way, good luck with running your first game! You're gonna crush it.
I can say with complete honesty that it wasn't. I just have ADHD and a bad habit of impulsive purchases, which I'm trying to curb.
But hey, if it worked put that you added some community copies, I won't deny myself one. Thank you!
I do want to ask and make sure once again: is this game viable with 1 DM + 2 players?
Definitely! It would be weird with a single player because a lot of the mechanics key off interacting with a buddy but 2 is great. You’ll probably want to be ready to introduce some NPCs if they end up with skill gaps, though. Like if neither one plays a doctor, they may well need to find one on the island.
Escape from Dino Island is one of my favorite one shots, and an easy one to get to the table as the theme grabs gets so many people excited to play. The playbooks are simple but strongly effective, and the GM structure helps ensure you’ll have tension and an epic ending.
A wonderful game. It utilizes the genre conventions to perfection and is nothing but fun to play.
So excited to play this! Just have to wrangle some friends into it.
Really great game! It was the perfect oneshot and we had a blast.
I've submitted a character sheet to the roll20 github for it. Should be available for use sometime next week.
Also - I just saw the expansion with 3 more playsheets. I do plan on adding them to the roll20 sheet, but probably in a few weeks.
Hey! I claimed one of the community copies to run a campaign with kids at the summer camp I work at - I tried to pay 5$ for it, but it wouldn't let me. Do you have any sort of donation info? I want to pay you at least that, even if I can't justify paying that much for a game I'm going to use at work.
Hey Ginger, Sam here! Honestly, please don't feel obligated. Community copies are there for a reason, and the idea of you using Escape from Dino Island at camp with kids makes us smile. (We'd also love to hear how it went with younger players — one of our goals was making the game something we would've loved when we were Jurassic Park-obsessed 12-year-olds.)
If you truly insist, though, shoot us an email at our gmail (EscapeFromDinoIsland) and we can sort it out.
But mostly, thanks for playing and sharing our game!
I ran EFDI for four players in my group last month and had a great time!
We ended up splitting the game into 3 sessions of around 2-3 hours and even then we rushed the ending a bit to finish it up. There really is a lot of potential for storytelling with all the content provided for the GM.
Our story was a classic 'experiments gone wrong' cover up where the dinos were being bred as weapons under the cover of a theme park - and the company was trying to wipe out the evidence. Even using the tropes we had a unique and memorable adventure.
I used a free Miro board to run the game - the map in the middle, player sheets on the right and resources such as the list of dinos on the left. Then all the GM stuff far below.
I did a video review of this awesome game on YouTube. Check it out:
I hadn't yet uploaded the sheet to Roll20; however, if you are a a PRO member I can give you the html and css files so that you can play.
Hi there, are these files available to the public? I'd really like to have the playbooks available in Roll20.
I've never heard of roll20, if this could be added, it'd be sweet @senjak.
Our first game using the PBTA (Apocalypse World) system. It was an awesome adventure, full of fun and improvisation!
Pros:
Cons:
Ran this in July for the podcast (so be on the lookout coming out in October!). This game is gonzo and really allows to tons of creative freedom. The map is a fantastic feature to use and I enjoyed doodling all over with my friends (we used a Google Draw) as we created our story.
Would love to run this again!
Just ran this game and we all had a blast :). It was my first time running a prep-less improv heavy game, the locations and dinosaurs in the rulebook made it really easy! I wish more games would provide a such a good framework for creating adventures.
Definitely going to be running it again soon :).
Thanks for the kind words!
And also: Wow! I haven't had a chance to read the whole recap yet, but I'm 20 pages in and it is great so far. Highly recommend it to others, both from a "This is how Escape from Dino Island can play" POV and from a more general "This is what good play looks like" POV.
Love the way you used the prompts as inspirations rather than IRONCLAD REQUIREMENTS — it always makes us happy to see players making the game their own.
Selfishly, I'd be curious to know what ideas you're pinching for other games and how they work out!
I'm busily setting up a Roll20 game to play Escape from Dinosaur Island and I've run into a few questions. I thought that I'd throw it out to everyone here as before long I'll want to have players to test out the game play. :-)
So far I've got the character sheets, map, doomsday clock and rumors implemented. I'm planning on a mix of pop up handouts and 'cards' for the remaining things.
1) is it intended that the players always travel as a group, or should tokens be ready for the players to split off on their own?
2) Should the doomsday clock be hidden until it is running, or is it okay to show it off before hand?
3) should I have a set of tokens ready to be brought in so that the players can make up new places on the map?
Thanks for for your input! Feel free to message me at senjak <a> comcast dot net if you want to look at my current progress.
Assuming there aren't any physical copies still available?
Actually, there are! If you're interested, email us at escapefromdinoisland [a] gmail dot com!
This looks very cool. I was introduced to the game by a friend who wanted to play it on Roll20 and was showing off the game to me. So I purchased a copy and dived into HTML and CSS.
8 hours later I have a Roll20 compatible character sheet based upon the Powered by the Apocalypse character sheet. All the bits (other than equipment) get swapped in and out depending upon which character you choose.
Please let me know if you want to add a community sheet for Escape from Dino Island to the Roll20 collection. You are welcome to the changes I made. Let me know.
Hey dude! I like the whole idea of a HTML/CSS made sheet. Is it open to public? I am probably making some sessions soon, so it would be great to have it.
Here you are! These were the most up to date version I came up with. It is aimed at Roll20, so there is likely to be some weirdness from their stuff. Please note that I don't really know HTML and CSS, but I can fake it with Google! Also, I didn't drop all of the translations from the HTML, so you'll likely need to either incorporate the translations or edit them out.
Senjak
Dropbox link to files
Thank you! These are great enough as it is. Cheers!
Hey there! Sorry I missed this.
Neither Sam nor I really use Roll20, so we don't know much about what it means to add a community sheet to the Roll20 collection, but if it helps people play online, then we are absolutely in favor of it.
If you wanna chat more about it, also feel free to email us at escapefromdinoisland [a] gmail.com.
I was just looking to set up a game on roll20 and was disappointed not to find a sheet for this. If you could add yours/have it added (no idea how that works), that'd be sweet!