[DitV] Two Forks: My second attempt at a town

[Brother Seth]

OK, I didn't do this right last time, and it got way cluttered. Here's my second attempt, I humbly submit it for comment.

Two Forks

Pride: Caleb Wilburn, the Town Steward, is 31 and feels he deserves a second
wife which he has not earned.

Injustice: Brother Caleb has become quite taken with Millicent Atwater, and
started paying her more attention. His wife, Margaret, has noticed the lack
of attention from her husband and has become curious. Millicent's father,
William, has begun to notice Caleb's spending a lot of time around his
daughter.

Sin: Brother Caleb seduced the young girl, and has been having his way.

Demonic Attack: The demons make young Millicent fertile, and she's just
become pregnant.


The People:
Millicent Atwater, the pregnant daughter -
She wants the Dogs to order her marriage to Caleb as his second wife.

William Atwater, father of Millicent -
He wants the Dogs to remove Caleb as Town Steward as he believes he
can do a better job. He does not know about the pregnancy yet.

Alice Atwater, mother of Millicent -
She wants the Dogs to order her daughter to have the baby as she
wants to raise her granddaughter herself. She knows her daughter is
pregnant, and has not told her husband.

Caleb Wilburn, Town Steward -
He wants the Dogs to validate his relationship with Millicent and allow the
marriage. He also does not know about the pregnancy.

Margaret Wilburn, Caleb's wife -
She want the Dogs to order Caleb to leave the Atwater girl alone, and
tend to the wife he already has before he goes rooting around for another.
She does not know about the pregnancy.

The Demons want the Dogs to prohibit the marriage, because they believe
it will destroy both families.

What would happen if the Dogs never came:
It would come down to a fight between Caleb and William, once the
pregnancy becomes common knowledge. William would be the most likely
victor, leaving the Town without a Steward. William would declare himself
Steward, all the while assuming he'd be confirmed as the permanent
replacement. Millicent would be turned out by her mother as soon as the
baby was born. Margaret would be a shattered woman.

[Brother Seth]

...bump...

Comments, anyone?

[Brother Seth]

Wow. Thanks for all the help, folks. All the advice has been wonderful.

[Moreno R.]

Wow. Thanks for all the help, folks. All the advice has been wonderful.

Sorry, Seth, but (talking only about myself, here, and not for anyone else) I can't "help" you, if in your post you don't tell me what you need help about...

Your town seems all right to me. Did you try to play it? Did you have any problem with it?

I could give you the standard advice to go all the way to "hate and murder" in the first town, but I believe you already read it if you read this forum, it was repeated only a few days ago, and I think you have your reasons for not following it. Should I tell you how to run your game? I thing it would be very, very rude for me to do so, if you don't ask me in the first place because you have problems with it. But this doesn't seem the case.

If you read the other "town threads" you will notice that only the ones with clear problems get long discussion about them. It's normal. If you read my "first town" thread (here: http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=19848.0 ) you will see that I only got two answers. But it's OK, it means that it didn't suck too much.

I am really only a novice here, having posted not half a dozen messages more than you.  But I already have found The Forge an unique resouce for answers, ideas, mind-bending truth about role-playing that I never noticed before in twenty years, and a big help to get more fun from my games. A resorce available to me if I approach it humbly enough to listen what it is telling me, and not to what I wanted to hear.

And from what I have read of your post, I have the (personal, subjective and maybe wrong) impression that you are missing this opportunity, trying to make The Forge tell you what you want to hear, and not what it has to say.

[oliof]

If it were me, I'd spice up the town more. It does not yet make me sick in the stomach. I don't see the pregnancy advancing the perpeuation of sin, for example. You sin is

Sin: Brother Caleb seduced the young girl, and has been having his way.

I don't see how a pregnancy is just enough to warrant it as a demonic attack - although it is, of course, the worst possible thing that could happen here. Your moral standards might be higher than mine, of course.

I'd put in another problem the steward neglects because of his attention to Millicent, and spin that up at least to cult-level. That way you have a nice lead-in into the town and a secondary problem that does ideally echo on the primary problem.

[baron samedi]

IMHO, if I'd been a Dog, I'd simply marry the girl to the child's father and leave it at that, packing from town before dawn, perhaps with a slap on the wrist for not doing the things properlyYou'd have an adventure resolved in 10 minutes.

Hey, the baby's coming so what can you do about it? It's not like the Faithful are likely to consider abortion, and the notion that a child's birth is a demonic attack doesn't make much sense - it's a blessing from the King of Life, unless the kid is Damien the Antichrist.

Might need a bit more controversy. More "crunch". More sex-brutality-lust-greed-etc.

Erick

[Brother Seth]

Excellent! This is the kind of feedback I was looking for. I've only played the game once, but I truly enjoyed the experience. When I approach my two game groups with this game, I wanted to be sure to have something with enough meat in it to make for a good session. The sum of what I've heard here is it that the pregnancy, while being a classic case of bad timing, really isn't enough to constitute a demonic attack. Maybe if I advance the plot a bit, to the point where she's heavily pregnant and maybe her father has reacted poorly and killed the Steward, and taken his place out of hubris. Or maybe the murder happens without the pregnancy, just on confirmation of the affair. What do you folks think?

Thanks you very much for the assistance, folks. It's rare to find an RPG with anything close to a new idea, and this system is full of them.

[baron samedi]

Vincent, DITV's author, suggested in a recent thread you try, for your first town, to go all the way up to Hate and Murder.

You can find out why if you look for it a bit. It's full of good advice.

Erick

[Moreno R.]

Excellent! This is the kind of feedback I was looking for. I've only played the game once, but I truly enjoyed the experience. When I approach my two game groups with this game, I wanted to be sure to have something with enough meat in it to make for a good session. The sum of what I've heard here is it that the pregnancy, while being a classic case of bad timing, really isn't enough to constitute a demonic attack. Maybe if I advance the plot a bit, to the point where she's heavily pregnant and maybe her father has reacted poorly and killed the Steward, and taken his place out of hubris. Or maybe the murder happens without the pregnancy, just on confirmation of the affair. What do you folks think?much for the assistance, folks. It's rare to find an RPG with anything close to a new idea, and this system is full of them.

Caveat: some of your players could find this "strong" for their taste. But if I had to use these characters to get the Dogs in a very "Judgement Day Mood", I would arrive to "hate and murder" using THE INNOCENT CHILD as the victim.

Change the demonic attack.  The demons want some people to BELIEVE that they are behind Millicent being pregnant. They want someone to arrive to hate and murder. As they always do.

Who? I don't know. I don't know your players. But you should choose the character who could get the strongest reaction from them.  It could be the father of the boy, it could be his wife. It would be even Millicent, thinking that the King of Life want the life of his unborn child as "payment" for something.

In any case, it should be something full of blood and violence. Ritualistic, with the unborn baby corpse offered to some pagan idol (or, if you REALLY want to get a "gut reaction" from your players, the corpse could be eaten from the cultists).

Add the reasons because something would do something like this (the more orrorific, the better), the reactions of the other characters (do they know? If they know, they know who did it?), and a strong (and fast) way to let the players know about this, and let them deal their wrathful "justice" on the murderers.

P.S.: And, in the next city, let them judge someone who did the same thing that they did (maybe hearing what happened in the other city) to someone who had to cause an abortion for a real reason (a doctor who wanted to save the mother's life, maybe?)

[Brother Seth]

OK, I found the thread you were referring to. Good info, I agree. I can see the value in the points raised by everyone in both threads. On to Two Forks v3!!