D&D General Tyrannosaurs were pack hunters. Stay away from the Isle of Dread.

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

And this is all part of the reason that I prefer to treat 'dinosaurs' in fantasy as though they were just monsters that look like earlier conceptions of dinosaurs, rather than embracing everything that modern paleontology says about them.

I dunno, pack-hunting tyrannosaurs sound amazing to me. Well, as a DM. I suspect my players will disagree.

 

[darjr]

Pack hunting T-Rexes should be easy to spot. Avoiding them may be a different problem.

 

[Mecheon]

I mean either way, the issue with T rexes on the Isle of Dread is that Tyrannosaurus lived in either the subtropical flood-plain that was Hell Creek, or the semi-arid plains at their southern reaches.

Meanwhile the Isle of Dread is mostly jungle which is just, not Tyrannosaurus rex territory at all.

Either way though, while interesting for Teratophonus, not really something you can apply to Tyrannosaurus. Teratophonus was much smaller than its larger relative, so while it probably hunted in packs, its much larger cousin didn't have much need to

 

[Frozen_Heart]

And this is all part of the reason that I prefer to treat 'dinosaurs' in fantasy as though they were just monsters that look like earlier conceptions of dinosaurs, rather than embracing everything that modern paleontology says about them.

I love the modern stuff palaeontology states about them. It makes them out to be weird and wonderful creatures with tons of variety, rather than 15 flavours of large lizard with slightly different shapes.

Modern spinosaurus is a real trip.

 

[Frozen_Heart]

apparently, Trex is likely largely fatherless for much the same reason as elephants are, polar Trex are technically a possibility if you want to really doom your players so if you like either look you got options.

It might have had sparse hairs much like modern elephants do, but yeah the current thought is that is was largely bare skinned, rather than having proper feathers.

 

[Jaeger]

Everything about how they really behaved is so speculative, and unprovable, we will just never know...

Last Saturday I took the kid to the dino exhibit at OMSI. the pictures don't do it justice. When you're standing next to a life sized T REX, it becomes clear we'd be an easy snack. CR8 seems low when you're face to face with how big they are lol ...

Hell yes.

Ask anyone who has done some hunting. Dino's are B.I.G.

This is one of the ways our computer games, cartoons, RPG's and fiction just flat out LIE to us.

No party of normal sized people is going to kill a T-Rex with hand weapons and a bow in the typical D&D combat fashion...

But it is D&D fantasy. So enter the magic user for the CR8 win.

But yeah, last time I was in a museum it became readily apparent that even with modern firearms it would be very difficult to live in the Cretaceous. If it was just the big dinosaurs that would be one thing. But it is all the smaller dino's and the crazy prehistoric fish that make no place safe.

 

[Davies]

I love the modern stuff palaeontology states about them. It makes them out to be weird and wonderful creatures with tons of variety, rather than 15 flavours of large lizard with slightly different shapes.

I do, too, but it all makes it hard to do some classic adventure stories!

 

[erc1971]

Last Saturday I took the kid to the dino exhibit at OMSI. the pictures don't do it justice. When you're standing next to a life sized T REX, it becomes clear we'd be an easy snack. CR8 seems low when you're face to face with how big they are lol

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I remember seeing a Tyrannosaurus rex fossil at the Toronto Museum a few years ago. I mirror your sentiment, those things were huge!

 

[Oofta]

You might be surprised it's plausible.

Wrangle Island supported a remnant population of Mammoth until the Egyptians built the pyramids.

The South Island of New Zealand supported the Haast Eagle and Moa which could reach 3 metres. Both died out within 100 years of Humans arriving.

Isle of Dread is quite large as well. My province is the size of Belgium and I think the Isle is about as big as that and Canterbury (NZ) put togather.

That's big enough to have 3000 metre high mountains and in the good old days supported native bush etc.

Based on @Whizbang Dustyboots post, The Isle of Dread is 39,600 square miles. New Zealand (which is probably the minimum you'd need for Jurassic Park) is over 100,000 square miles. The Moa weighed around 500 lbs. The mammoths that lived on Wrangel Island mammoths were smaller than most mammoths, although not small enough to be considered island dwarfs, so probably around 10,000 pounds give or take.

So yes, some large animals lived on relatively small areas, but the big sauropods like apatosaurus weighed around 40,000 pounds and T Rex weighed around 15,000 pounds. Even a triceratops probably weighed around 20-24,000 pounds. Dinosaurs were huge.

An island close to the size of The Isle of Dread did exist in the late Cretaceous, Hateg Island. However, except for pterosaurs it could only support dwarf versions of the dinosaurs. So yes, I think The Isle of Dread is too small.

 

[Steampunkette]

Worth noting: T-Rex didn't have a Larynx. It had a Syrinx.

This means they couldn't "Roar" like we'd imagine. The closest they could do is move air through their syrinx back and forth while trying to hold it close (The Syrinx is where the windpipe splits for each lung to connect).

The real sound they made would be something like a deep humming at improbably bassy levels.


Wear headphones. And imagine this sound coming after you. There would be no one living on the Isle of Dread. They'd all die from being paralyzed by the brown note, then get eaten.