DiTV-help from modern times....

[lumpley]

That's the thing. I don't get the issue a'tall.

The thing that's puzzling me is, how do you set up towns for players while keeping the mindset of the era and that this is the One True Faith without letting your vision of right/wrong getting in the way of things, or should I even bother separating the two to begin with?

All I can suggest is that you set up towns by following the procedure in the book. The One True Faith stuff and the modern-day right/wrong stuff aren't really anything, they sort themselves right out.

Colorado City Branch (i)

Pride: Years ago, Brother Jeffs, the branch steward, legitimately and righteously courted and married a second wife. She was, by coincidence, much younger than he was and boy how he liked that! Since then he's been courting and marrying every young woman he can find, pridefully disregarding the needs of everybody but himself.

Injustice: Consequently, the young men of Colorado City can't marry and have no prospects. Colorado City is geographically isolated in the high mountains in the eastern part of the Faith's territory. Some young men leave and travel to other towns in the Faith, but many are not able to. Those who remain have become vocal and active in complaining against Bro Jeffs.

Sin: Bro Jeffs kicks the young men not only out of the town but out of the Faith. He doesn't want word of his abuses to reach the Prophets and Elders; by excommunicating the young men, he discredits them. The young men are forced into the nearest-by towns, which are not Faithful, where they fall into poverty and sin.

Bro Jeffs' sin lets the demons attack Colorado City: the demons inspire an ambitious unbeliever lawyer and his partner to take up the young men's cause. They demand that Bro Jeffs present himself in court in Lamarck, they send Territorial lawmen to Colorado City to harrass and detain bro Jeffs, they give the young men money (knowing it'll go to whiskey, prostitutes and gambling), they offer the townspeople of Colorado City money in exchange for damning testimony, they petition the Territorial governor in Lamarck to march his militia in to occupy Colorado City (which the governor is not inclined to do, but which is an effective threat against the town).

There it is!

What do the various people want the Dogs to do?

Bro Jeffs wants the Dogs to protect him from the lawyers and the Territorial Authority. If any of the Dogs are women, he wants to marry them.

Bro Jeffs' first wife, sister Ruby, wants bro Jeffs back. She wants the Dogs to divorce bro Jeffs down to no more than five wives - back in the days when he had only five wives, he still had time for her.

Bro Jeffs' second wife, sister Elise, is very happy with all her sister-lovers. She wants what bro Jeffs wants.

Most of bro Jeffs' subsequent wives are young and scared. They want the Dogs to put things right, and if that means they stay married to bro Jeffs, that's okay. If it means they don't, they'll want the Dogs to provide for them and assure them some place in the world. The Faith is not kind to divorced women. Some representative young wives: sister Patient, sister Alma.

The parents of young girls in Colorado City don't want their daughters to marry bro Jeffs. They want the Dogs to make it so that bro Jeffs stops marrying more girls - they don't care so much whether he's right or wrong or what happens to his existing wives. Some representative parents: brother Ezra and sister Becoming, brother Michael and sister Rebiah.

The young men:

(Ex-)brother Alvin is in love with sister Patient, one of bro Jeffs' newest wives. He wants her to leave the Faith and bro Jeffs and come live with him (in sin) in Lamarck. He wants the Dogs to tell her to.

(Ex-)brother Wilford feels his conscience horribly, but can't stop drinking and going with whores. He wants the Dogs to heal and redeem him.

(Ex-)brother Cadmus hates bro Jeffs. He wants to kill him. He wants the Dogs to stay out of his way, if they won't help him.

(Ex-)brother Niles has been seduced by the lawyers. He wants the Dogs to see the wisdom of letting the lawyers take care of it. He'll offer them money.

Brother Benjamin is secretly courting one sister Hope, whose ugly facial birthmark has kept bro Jeffs from really noticing her. He wants to be allowed by bro Jeffs to marry her but he's wicked scared. He wants the Dogs to marry them instead, and to leave without bro Jeffs' knowledge.

And...

The lawyers want the Dogs to stay out of it. They don't recognize the Dogs' authority; the consider the matter entirely secular. If the Dogs turn things against them, they'll start arranging thugs and showdowns.

The demons want the town leaderless or destroyed. They're backing the lawyers. They want the Dogs to die, of course, so they'll push any confrontation between the Dogs and the lawyers' thugs toward violence.

If the Dogs never came, the lawyers would get their way. Bro Jeffs would be arrested, his family shattered. The people of Colorado City would scatter, leaving the town deserted; many would die homeless and many would leave the Faith forever.

---

As GM, I'm very comfortable saying to my players "bro Jeffs is a dirty-minded sinning old horndog who cares only about how many fresh bodies he can get into his bed, night by night. He's a disgrace to his calling and a disgrace to the Faith." I get to establish that as the objective truth. My players, through their Dogs, get to judge him. "Judge him" doesn't mean "decide whether what he's doing is right or wrong," it means "decide what has to be done to put things right."

Remember how in Daniel's Saint's Rest, the Dogs installed the thieving apostate brother Virgil as the branch's new Steward? That's what I'm talking about.

I think bro Jeffs is a disaster. Will he have to go? Will he have to die? Will he get to keep being Steward, for goodness' sake? It's not up to me to say.

So now, Mike, Brand, Carl, am I answering the issue or am I going off on some random tangent?

---

Also, I think it'd be super sweet if somebody wrote up Colorado City Branch (ii), where the Pride is "several young men of the town think they should be allowed to marry even though bro Jeffs has righteously prevented them from doing so." And if somebody else wrote up Colorado City Branch (iii), where the Pride is "the girls of the town have decided that if they can't marry bro Jeffs, they won't marry anyone."

Anybody who feels like doing either of those, please do!

-Vincent

[Brand_Robins]

So now, Mike, Brand, Carl, am I answering the issue or am I going off on some random tangent?

You've gotten the thrust of the issue across to me, V.

[Mike Holmes]

Well, I was already convinced. But this is great.  :-)

Mike

[Spooky Fanboy]

Yes you did, and I now feel foolish for reading too much into it. That's what happens when you tend to post in the wee small hours of the morning.

So realistically, three whole towns could be made out of something like this. I gotta actually get this game.

[Blankshield]

Also, I think it'd be super sweet if somebody wrote up Colorado City Branch (ii), where the Pride is "several young men of the town think they should be allowed to marry even though bro Jeffs has righteously prevented them from doing so." And if somebody else wrote up Colorado City Branch (iii), where the Pride is "the girls of the town have decided that if they can't marry bro Jeffs, they won't marry anyone."

Anybody who feels like doing either of those, please do!

Okay.  This is slanted towards 'high supernatural' on the spectrum.  Picture a group of TA lawyers and concerned citizens at a meeting to "discuss" with the young men their valid and legitimate complaints.  Describe how the young men are oblivious to the glowing red eyes of over half the crowd.

Colorado City Branch (ii)

Brother Jeffs, the Branch Steward is a righteous man, strong in his faith and high in the esteem of the King.
Pride:  Several young men in his branch hold him as a role model, but are too narrow-minded to see the burden of duty he's carried his whole life, and see only the rewards the King has given him.  They want to marry and start on his path of reward and don't recognize that they aren't worthy (yet?).
Injustice: The young men are courting inappropriately, above their station, and worse, trying to compete with the Steward for young wives.  This is hard on Brother Jeffs, because he has to balance the demands of Stewardship to both the young men and the young women, and it's hard on the young women who are caught in the middle.
Sin: Part 1: The young men are rebelling against their proper steward and rejecting anything he says out of hand.  They are courting young women beyond what is seemly.  No one's been raped - yet - but there have been some back alley incidents.
Part 2: Brother Jeffs, to protect the women, has married them beyond what his station calls for and what he can support.  
Demonic Attack: Demons, in the guise of nearby non-faithful communities have been taking the side of the young men, and attacking the integrity of Brother Jeffs.  The righteous townfolk can't leave town without being ridiculed and attacked (socially).  Young men who leave town are sympathized with, given "deals" on trade goods from back East and generally treated like they think they deserve.

-->The Steward, seeing no other choice, expels the young men from the church for their obvious and unrepentant sin.

False Doctrine: Stewardship is not necessary.
Corrupt Worship: The young men have decided the King of Life is speaking to them, not the steward, and that each person is able to follow the King of themselves and the Steward's guidance is unneeded.
False Priesthood: The yound men have set themselves up as people "who know the truth" about the Faith and Brother Jeffs.  They are supported by the demons whole-heartedly (in the guise of outsider folk and TA lawyers).

What do people want the Dogs to do?

Brother Jeffs wants the Dogs to set the young men right, and failing that, to drive them the rest of the way out of the Faith, so the town can get back to rights.  He also wants them to find a way for his extra wives to be taken care of without shame.

The young men want the Dogs to justify their stand, and strip Brother Jeffs of his status.  They will take this as support for their false doctrine.

The young women legitimately married to Brother Jeffs want the Dogs to protect them from the young men.

The young women married to Brother Jeffs for protection want the same, and to be cared for properly.  For added complication: Sisters Alva and Rebah want to stay with Brother Jeffs, they don't mind that he doesn't have enough time to give all his wives proper attention.  The others want to be set aside without stigma, to marry properly.

The Demons (in the guise of the outsiders) want the Dogs to either support the young men, or to be killed or run off.

What would happen if the Dogs never came? The young men would eventually publicly pronounce their false doctrine, and force Brother Jeffs to either accede to their new order, or kill him.  Either way, the branch would break off and fall into corrupt worship.

James

[lumpley]

Sweet! Perfect.

I dig the scene in my head where bro Jeffs explains to the Dogs that, yes, in the last month or so he's married these fourteen or fifteen - he can't remember - girls, he can't remember all their names, and he certainly hasn't consummated the marriages - but marrying them seemed like the best way to protect them, and his real wives are giving him grief, and can the Dogs please help him find a way out of this mess?

"I mean, just because I married them - that doesn't mean I'm married to them, right?"

Anybody feel like taking on iii?

-Vincent

[Albert the Absentminded]

And yea, it sounds like a ripe situation for Dogs play, either in modern times or cast back into the world of Dogs. In fact, in Dogs it could be even more morally wrenching, as what the elders are doing could be not only legal, but the actual manifest will of God. And what, exactly, is a Dog to do then?

Well, this is sorta my point. If it is the will of god, then there's no moral question at all - just folks behaving in a good fashion. Even in the modern sense, who is to say that the Mormon Elders have the right of it, and not these individuals?

That is, you can't base the PC morality off of modern American values that might contradict these, can you?

Mike

In the modern sense? The LDS constitution has rules for amending it, and it _had_ been amended properly to disallow polygamy for the time being. So as long as Joseph Smith was a prophet to begin with, this Warren guy is acting more like an "A Study in Scarlet" Mormon than a real one.

-Albert