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Independent Game Forums => lumpley games => Topic started by: Bill Cook on March 29, 2005, 01:49:43 AM

Title: [DitV] One-shot Prep
Post by: Bill Cook on March 29, 2005, 01:49:43 AM
Hello. I finished reading the last third of the rulebook over the last two days. Getting my head around the much vaunted town creation rules stretched my mind a bit. Looking back over conflict and fallout, following the running example with my own dice, it comes together nicely. I'm grooving much better on fallout.

The separate sheets that shipped with the book are really stellar. I was thinking, ok, time to write a one-page rules summary like I have to with every other game .. Oh, shit! He already did it. The layout is great; just the right amount of stat space to reference material (which is delightfully relevant).

Some of the finer points are still soaking: helping out, groups, ceremonial fallout, sorcery. I was under the impression that sees and raises of ceremony added dice like traits or belongings, but no; they determine the fallout die type. Which I don't get. I mean, they're cool for color, and the text says how they're relevant is letting you respond in kind. But that isn't gelling, for me. Help?

The running example of initiatory conflict makes so much more sense after completing conflict and fallout. Sorry to repeat myself; it's just such a strong impression. New eyes, y'know.

I'm not clicking yet on the "something's wrong" progression with my first town creation attempt. Here it is:

1A: Pride. Brother Mitchel neglects his work because farming is mundane and menial. Sister Beatrice, his wife, nags him mercilously and witholds her love.
1B: Injustice. Their family goes hungry. Beatrice fails to fulfill her wifely duties. Debtors harass the farm and make threats.
2A: Sin. Mitchel escapes the turmoil at the gambling tables in vain hopes of winning the money to pay his debtors. Beatrice takes to whoring for money and to feel some spark of life.
2B: Demonic Attacks. Demons rig the games to make Mitchel a big winner. Prostitutes flock to him and he wastes his winnings on sex, alcohol and smoking. They also possess the lechers who take Beatrice to bed, savaging her and refusing payment.
3A: False Doctrine. Mitchel consoles himself with the belief that he'll make it back tomorrow night.
3B: Corrupt Worship. See above.
4, 5: Skipped.
6A: Brother Mitchel wants the Dogs to piss off and not jinx him. He's got to win this next hand. Sister Beatrice wants the Dogs to condemn her husband and overlook her new profession as consequences of her circumstance.
6B: The Demons want to advance this cycle throughout the town. They want the Dogs to .. piss off? I don't know.
6C: Beatrice ritually murders her would be customers.

Mitchel eventually drinks and smokes himself into poor health, loses everything at the tables and dies from consumption and exposure in an alley.


I imagine a malevolent gambling hall operator, sucking in the profits. He's probably the sorcerer, and saps like Mitchel and Beatrice are cattle. Or should they be the sorcerers? I like the idea of Mitchel's neglect being the seed that started it all and that addressing that, potentially, is the most elegant fix. So I'm kind of muddled. Any suggestions?
Title: [DitV] One-shot Prep
Post by: Trevis Martin on March 29, 2005, 02:37:39 AM
on the Ceremony thing.   Think about it like this.  Ordinarliy ceremony doesn't do much but when you're up against a supernatural foe, Demon, possesed person or Sorcerer, ceremony lets you deal higher fallout to that opponent than just talking would normally entail.  (Up to D8's as opposed to just D4's! )  Plus, its just about the only way to affect non-corporeal demons.

Trevis
Title: [DitV] One-shot Prep
Post by: Dick Page on March 29, 2005, 11:34:49 PM
I think the problem with your town design is that its contained to one family.  The Dogs are really about saving the whole town; single families are the Steward's job.  Start thinking along the lines of:  Do Michael's winnings make other members of the town jealous?  How do the wives/families of the men Beatrice sleeps with feel about this?  Stuff like that.

Also, the way ceremony works is really perfect for dealing with demons.  I had my players fighing a ghost, and those d8s for Three in Authority were killer in a follow-up conflict.
Title: [DitV] One-shot Prep
Post by: Bill Cook on March 30, 2005, 04:00:14 AM
Trevis:

I get that. Like, you could walk into a saloon and see a Faithful ordering a whisky, and what's at stake is whether he takes that drink. You could See by Singing Praise, reminding him of the One True Path. The d6 Fallout reflects the greater impact of a Dog in Authority.


FlamingMoose:

I noticed the same thing. Yes, his crazy winning does make them mad; mad enough to savage a whore.

That's a clever use: ceremony for follow-up.

** ** **

I dug into town prep a little deeper. Here're some more townpeople: