Lots of scenario's spring to mind with this campaign, or at least I think they do, so in order to help the flow of ideas, I present a few here.
With the nature of this campaign, a lot of the time characters will be on foot, or on horse back, and not in heavily armoured vehicles. This can lead to Role-playing adventures as well... In this case, you need to pick a system. Car Wars is great, but I don't think it has enough going for it in terms of Role-playing game-ability. GURPS however would probably fit the bill quite nicely, especially as they have already brought out GURPS Autoduel 2nd Ed, GURPS Dinosaurs, and GURPS Vehicles, so you should have everything there that you want. My only slight is that I would use GURPS for the characters, and Car Wars for the vehicles, in which case a small conversion would need to be made to account for the two systems.
Or pick any system that you fancy or use a lot, or stick with Car Wars, I mean, it does have everything you need in the one place!
Protect the Herd!
The players are Rangers, with a herd of several hundred tons of meat that they have to escort back to their base. Of course, not everyone wants that as it's bad for competition. So be on the look out for rival Rangers, also that amount of meat would probably attract the attentions of rival carnivores, which could result in the herd stampeding...
Question, how do you control a herd of several hundred tons of stampeding dinosaur, especially when they are ceratopsians? Then there could be natural hazards to avoid, Eco-terrorists, and much more...
Stop the Herd!
Played from the other angle as the above scenario, what if you were assigned to stop that herd, usually without damaging the herd too much so that your own Rangers can come along and take control, how would you handle it?
Assault!
Trans Time intelligence has finally located a time base of Time to Times, and decades that it needs to make an example to them that they cannot go raiding whenever they like... This would make a good large battle. The Time to Time base would require several 18 wheeler size vehicles to transport, plus support vehicles and escorts...
Clean Up Duty:
After the battles and the herding, someone has to venture the path just trodden and pick up any traces on modern man, after all, we wouldn't want any palaeontologists digging up 65 million year fossils of spent bullet cases, or tracks of wheeled vehicles. Or maybe they have and the government are covering it up, maybe it's another conspiracy? Whatever, Trans Time feel that they have a responsibility as the first time travelling company to keep the past clean of the future. They also feel responsible for spawning Time to Time and believe that they must clean up after them as well, an attitude that's sure not to have gone unnoticed by Time to Time...
Trainspotting:
Someone has to find the herds that the Rangers must escort, and someone has to find the path that the Rangers will use to bring the herd to base, and notice any likely ambush sites, hazards, or other strange anomalies. Of course, both companies have these trail beaters, and many succumb to the types of hazard that they are assigned to spot...
"Say, that head would look good on the study wall, don't you reckon?"
Trans Time is a very expensive organisation to run, and it must recoup it's losses somehow. It is also in a very unique position, being able to charge for safari trips back into the past to hunt some very special game. Of course, all individuals have to be well vetted first, and sign waivers and forms saying that they won't reveal any secrets. But as always, not all the right people ever get through. Maybe the characters have to find the spy, or protect the party from the local inhabitants.
It's out there, somewhere...
Are we alone in the universe? Do aliens visit our planet, maybe collecting specimens, maybe harvesting themselves? Are the dinosaurs really the genetic experiment of some other worldly intelligence? Or are there properly sentient dinosaurs, which intelligence and communities?
Did man already exist in this age, were the lost civilisations of Atlantis, or Lemuria here at this time? If so, how advanced were they? Did they live in balance with the dinosaurs? Would 21st century man be viewed as enemies, outsiders, or gods?
Spy and super stuff:
Just where does Trans Time get it's meat? That's the question that many people are asking, and the characters as local trouble-shooters are hired to find out. Trans Time has a good rep for finding out spies within it's midst's, so things might not be that easy. Or maybe Trans Time need to know who the spy is, and the characters as loyal citizens are investigating. All in all, much fun is to be hand with clones and lasers and red level clearance...
<Eco Terrorists:
If the secret ever was revealed, amongst the crowds that would threaten to destroy the operation are the Eco terrorists, and they wouldn't be easy to stop. The modern eco terrorist would also be well equipped. Maybe the characters are eco terrorists, or posing as them to infiltrate the crowd to see is the secret has leaked yet...
Convoy:
Once processed and packaged, the meat still has to get to the shops. Many algae and synth meat corporations wouldn't want a real meat company getting their profits, and then neither would the opposing corporation. Plenty of normal Car Wars action here, as raiders or escorts.
Escape!
And then Time to Time actually process their dinosaurs in the present, and not in the past like Trans Time, so what would happen if their base got sabotaged, or some dinosaurs just happened to roam free... Somehow, a dazed and confused several ton bundle of joy is probably not what you want to bump into in a dark alley...
There, I hope that's wet your appetites just a bit, and that's just scraping the tip of the barrel..
So you don't want to use the campaign setting presented here, but may want to use the other elements, well, here are some ideas that might help.
Well, this is easy. In 2047, subs can be used wherever there is enough depth to deploy them. They make good attack vehicles (slowish, but they have lots of inherent advantages over surface vessels), and are ideal for stealth operations, including inserting commando units.
Expensive, and I doubt that they would make good arena vehicles, although the prospect of an underwater arena seems quite intriguing.
Dinosaurs in the modern world. Well, they should be used sparingly. With the amount of firepower that a typical household could put out with just the family car, even the most fierce Tyrannosaur wouldn't stand too much of a chance, so perhaps the days of rampaging creatures down the high street eating anyone and everyone has long gone. But we can rectify that...
Maybe this actually happened. If you go by the books, then some dinosaurs got to the mainland anyway. Maybe there were other sites, maybe another corporation got hold of some embryos and grew more. At the end of the Lost World film, we have an island populated by dinosaurs, and what's the betting that that's going to be left alone?
If you are going to be using this route, them some of the dinosaurs may need to be rehashed to account for the artistic license of the films...
Have we really explored the whole planet? Are they still places that we don't know about? Places that contain species of creatures that should have died out years ago?
Or maybe geneticists get bored at work and try and create creatures themselves. Maybe they get out, maybe they get released... Dinosaurs with powers...
And just what effect did the 60 minute war have on the wildlife?
The possibilities are quite endless, and lead themselves to lots of potential scenario ideas - capture the dinosaur, cyberdinsoaurs controlled by mad corporations (armed with guns and armour, a worthy opponent for duellists!), the return of Godzilla, sentient dinosaur invasion, alternate realities where dinosaurs rule...
It goes on...
