Bad Dog

[Keith Senkowski]

Judd's Train Back East thread got me thinking.  Would it be possible to play bad dogs (kinda like fallen angels)?  I mean does that change the entire dynamic and make it a different game if you are the bad guys?  Would it still be the same game?

Keith

[lumpley]

Well I've had this thing all along where I think it'd make a good game for playing mob enforcers. You'd go from local gang to local gang, making sure everybody's earning and paying and not got their fingers where they oughtn't. The sins would include, yes, stealing from the family, but also trying to get out of the life and falling in love with the hooker and hoping to start over somewhere else.

-Vincent

[Keith Senkowski]

Vincent,
 
Still, would it be possible to play the game from the otherside of the fence, as in we are literally dogs who have jumped ship if you will.  Or to go all Star Wars, Dark Dog?  Reason I ask is I was thinking about running a game in a manner like the Wild Bunch.  They are definately bad men.  Would I be able to do it or am I trying to use the game in a manner it wasn't intended for?

Keith

[TonyLB]

I think it is very easy to play people who are adhering to the standards of a world that the group progressively defines (through their decisions) as sick, twisted, cruel and horrific.  The mob enforcers thing strikes me as a natural for that... but, frankly, standard Dogs setting can go that way very easily too.

I think it would be harder to play people who are bad... who are themselves judged by some higher authority and found wanting.  That runs pretty firmly counter to the way that characters own their Fallout as power.

[lumpley]

The Wild Bunch! That's a good question.

The GM wouldn't be making towns for you to judge. What would she be doing?

-Vincent

[Keith Senkowski]

The Wild Bunch! That's a good question.

The GM wouldn't be making towns for you to judge. What would she be doing?

-Vincent

You Socratic bastard.  This is why I ask the questions and you get me my damn answers...

I mean, in the Wild Bunch, the conflict is the relationship between the different characters as much as it is the situation.  So basically I have no answer.

Keith

[lumpley]

So like in the Mountain Witch, the job of the GM is to pressurize the hell out of the relationships. Thus: give the GM all kinds of dice to make the job go really wrong!

Dogs' resolution rules are up to it. You'd take a bunch of Relationship dice with your fellow PCs. They'd do exactly what they need to, I think.

Sounds like a fun game.

-Vincent

[Eero Tuovinen]

Instead of towns to judge, wouldn't a dark dog be looking for towns to exploit? Like, there's this progression of opportunities starting from hard work, leading to prosperity, leading to trust, leading to concentration of capital and so on, each level offering opportunities for swindle, violent takeover, skulking in the night and so on. The dark dogs come to town, figure out where the opportunities lie, and strive to exploit them. Succeed, and you'll have to go on. Fail, and perhaps you will learn something and even stay and turn a new leaf.

The question would then be the why and what the dark dogs are willing to do. And if they all share the same values. Especially interesting this becomes when you mix regular dogs and dark dogs into the same town: there's these sins the gm has outlined, and these opportunities, and some times they're the same thing, other times directly opposed.

You'd get a really weird campaign play by taking an arbitrary map, charting a web of towns and trails, and putting several dogs- and dark dogs parties out there. Let players each take one or more such parties in hand and decide where they go, like some bizarre strategy game. Then play the scenarios when such parties stumble on towns or each other. Characters created as necessary.

Speaking of dogs, Vincent: the 2004 edition of kpfs found it's way to my hermitage. It's a tight quality package, I like the illustrations. The layout is as legendary as ever. Reading the game for a change, I'm getting this hankering to play some. It's a shame I have only these tender 15y. teenagers to play with here.