Dino Park

Dino Park is a present-day adventure designed for 4 to 6 100-point characters. Information on this page consists only of the player background, and may safely be shown to players before the adventure begins.

Detailed game-master information is available from the following link. WARNING: This link contains information which should only be available to the GM. Players intending to play this adventure should not look at the GM information. GM eyes only information.

As you can see from the photo, I recommend running this adventure with the help of miniature figures and plastic toy dinosaurs! Many of the inexpensive dinosaurs available from toy shops are about the right scale for 25mm miniatures.

Background Information

Dr Jason Thomas first came to notoriety four and a half years ago, when he announced that he had successfully cloned a dinosaur from fossil DNA recovered from a mosquito-like insect preserved in amber. Over the next few months, Dr Thomas showed off juveniles of various dinosaur species to the eager media. His research lab attracted financial backing and Dr Thomas announced plans to build a large ``wildlife park'' for his growing collection of dinosaurs, complete with visitor facilities. Construction began on a 30,000 hectare (15km by 20km) site not far from Disney World and the town of Orlando, Florida, just on three years ago. The facility was christened Dino Park.

In the years since, the public have eagerly awaited the official opening of Dino Park, which is now scheduled to take place in two months. Dr Thomas has increased his stock of animals to include 31 species, including several not previously known. The first large species are beginning to approach adult sizes, and some smaller species have produced young already. Of course a few animals have died, especially early on, and their remains have proved invaluable to dinosaur research, as have preliminary behavioural studies of living animals by invited scientists. Dino Park currently employs 167 permanent staff, split as follows:

Science/R&D	40
Workshop/Maintenance	35
Security	32
Animal Care	26
Administration/Media	18
Computing	13
Medical	3
TOTAL	167

Dino Park floated on the stock exchange 14 months ago, and share prices have more than doubled since. The company now holds US$267 million in assets and posted a US$18 million profit in the last financial year from marketing alone. Share prices are predicted to go through the roof when the public are admitted to the park. There has been one notable incident at the park so far. Seven months ago an over-eager journalist named Richard Saxon attempted to obtain photos of dinosaurs from a low-flying helicopter over the park. When park security mobilised to chase him away, his pilot executed a turn too quickly and Saxon fell some 10 metres, breaking a leg and a wrist. Dino Park sued Saxon for trespassing and look set to win compensation in the ongoing court case.

All of the above Background Information is public knowledge.

Briefing

In the past two weeks there have been disturbing developments involving Dino Park staff. The story really begins 28 months ago, when Ryan Dale, an animal handler previously specialising in capturing alligators, went missing on his way to work at Dino Park. His wife, Susan, reported him missing when he failed to come home on a Friday night. Subsequent interviews with Dino Park staff revealed he had never shown up for work in the morning. No trace of Dale, or his car, was ever found. Local police eventually let the missing person report stagnate.

In the past two weeks, there have been two similar incidents. Twelve days ago (Friday before last) Vicki Johnson, a veterinary scientist, vanished on her way home from work at Dino Park. Her car was found abandoned by the road she usually took home, with no evidence of violence. She had been driving home late after working to approximately 10pm. Police concluded she stopped to assist someone by the road and had been abducted. No clues have surfaced and the police and her husband, Arnold, hold grave fears for her safety.

Then yesterday (Tuesday) a third disappearance occurred. Carlos Lopez, a park maintenance worker, was reported missing by his wife, Maria, after leaving work at about 4:30pm and not coming home. No trace of his car or person has been found and the police have nothing to go on. They called in the FBI to assist in the investigation, since it now appears the disappearances may somehow be linked. Dr Jason Thomas himself has been assisting the police to the extent of his capabilities. Other Dino Park staff, including security chief Dan Beck, have been cooperative, but there seems little that anyone can do.

Your team has been assembled to investigate this mystery and see if there is any connection between the disappearances. If any suspicion falls on the activities of Dino Park or its staff, you have clearance for covert operation and infiltration of the facility and the homes of its workers.

Dossiers

Dr Jason Thomas: Aged 43, born in Oakland, California. Educated at Harvard University, graduated with honours in biochemistry, minoring in physics. Held an R&D job at Genexis until fired for spending too much time on personal research. Drifted around a few other genetic engineering labs until announcing his dinosaur cloning breakthrough and setting up Dino Park. Currently President and CEO of Dino Park, and now worth an estimated US$8 million. Never married, no dependents.
Dan Beck: Aged 39, born in Cleveland, Ohio. Dropped out after two years studying under a football scholarship at a local college. Worked bank security for several years before starting his own small private security firm. Was approached by Dr Thomas when construction on Dino Park began. Beck disbanded his company and accepted the post of Security Chief, his former employees also accepting Dino Park jobs. Divorced, one daughter aged 13 in custody of mother.
Ryan Dale: Aged 34, born in Tallahassee, Florida. Raised on his father's alligator farm and grew into the job of 'gator-handling and capturing. Took formal training course in wild animal handling and studied reptile physiology and behaviour at night school. Recruited by Dino Park soon after Dr Thomas' cloning breakthrough. Married to Susan, two sons aged 10 and 7.
Dr Vicki Johnson (nee Harris): Aged 28, born in Toronto, Canada. Studied veterinary science at UCLA, graduating top of her class. Employed by Dino Park straight out of university. Married to Arnold, no dependents.
Carlos Lopez: Aged 27, born Havana, Cuba. Immigrated to the USA with his family when 15 years old. No formal education beyond early high school. Worked several building maintenance/construction jobs before being employed by Dino Park two years ago. One conviction for petty theft at the age of 19. Married to Maria, two daughters aged 6 and 5, one son aged 2.
Dr Michael Penrose: Aged 48, born in New York, New York. Head of animal care at Dino Park. Graduated in veterinary science from Cornell University. Worked in the Bronx Zoo for several years before transferring to a wild animal park in Kansas, from where he was recruited for Dino Park.
Sarah Blevin: Aged 36, born in Savannah, Georgia. Head of administration and promotions at Dino Park. Graduated in business administration and advertising from Savannah Community College. Worked several office jobs before landing a position at Dino Park.
Tom Thackery: Aged 28, born in Los Angeles, California. Head of computing at Dino Park. Majored in computer science at Stanford University, working part time as a systems engineer for IBM. Spent two years developing systems full time before being hired by Dino Park.
Dr Louise Jones: Aged 40, born in London, England. Head of Dino Park's small medical team, consisting of herself and two nurses. Degrees in medicine and surgery from Cambridge University. Migrated to the USA to take up a post in a Boston Hospital. Fired for alcoholism, joined AA soon after. Out of work until hired by Dino Park three years ago.

Character Generation

Dino Park requires a group of 4 to 6 100-point characters. 2 PCs will be FBI agents. These PCs must take the following advantages and disadvantages:

Legal Enforcement Powers (10 points).
Reputation (10 points) - worth +2 on reactions.
Patron (FBI) (20 points).
Duty to FBI (-15 points).

Additionally, the FBI agents must have skill levels of at least 16 in Guns (Pistol) and at least one unarmed combat skill. Agents may not have any statistic below 10, nor any physical or mental disadvantage inappropriate for a field agent. Agents should have decent levels in Driving (Cars) and Swimming. Each agent is issued with a Glock 17 model 9mm pistol with two magazines of ammunition (17 shots each) as standard equipment. The Duty counts as part of the 40-point limit for Disadvantages.

Other character types required for this adventure are a paleontologist with high skill in Paleontology (Dinosaurs), and a doctor with some background in medical research. Additional character types might include an animal-handler/game hunter and eager young paleontological assistant. Any character with some skill in veterinary science, genetics, and/or physics might come in handy.

Starting wealth is US$15,000.

[Orlando area map]

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