[DitV][IaWA] combinations?

[Dionysus]

Howdy.

This seemed to be the perfect place to ask - as bot these games are by the same great author

I adore the see/raise mechanics and flow in dogs, but i also love the simplicity of wicked age (also the feel of the owe list and oracles).. I was just wondering if there was some way of combining the two?

[David Artman]

I imagine a Frankenstein beast of a game system could be hacked together, with enough time and effort and testing.

But you have a clash of premise, in (vanilla) DITV and IAWA. The systems in each game are engineered (so to speak) to get at particular kinds of situations and conflicts and themes. So which do you choose; or do you Bride of Frankenstein that (teenage judges using sex and swords and sorcery for The King of Life and The Faith... weird and a bit perv).

[Filip Luszczyk]

I say, screw the premise and experiment, if you feel the need.

Recently, I've written a DitV/PTA mashup, which basically merges PTA's show creation, campaign structure and fanmail rules with DitV's conflict resolution and general gameplay flow (i.e. less formal scene structure). For now, we've only created the characters, so I have yet to see it in long-term play.

I guess a similar DitV/IAWA mashup could be possible, though the effects are difficult to predict.

Use IAWA for prep, but stat the characters and NPCs as in DitV (I'd recommend using alternative NPC rules due to their simplicity) and in play, use DitV's resolution for conflicts. Modify conflict arenas as fits the genre. Remove all Dogs-specific rules (coats, demonic possessions etc.). Award We Owe dice (say, d10s or d12s) to those who Give in conflicts, and possibly as a Reflection Fallout choice.

I'd expect a Chapter to last longer than one session, due to resolving conflicts in DitV taking more time than IAWA's action sequences on the average. However, given the different scope of both, I may be wrong.

[Dionysus]

Thanks Filip.

Thats what i was getting at. I am not trying to get the theme of dogs involved at all (although i do like it).

I was thinking that the idea of the "owe list" was to keep the "underdog" characters in the game - its specifically giving a boost to characters who are able to keep going while in the loosing position (smaller dice)  -  So something like winning a contest with less dice than the opponent?

The fallout i think would need to be modified... hmm.. maybe simplify it to reducing stats or d4 traits.

(except in reflection fallout, which might stay the same)

[Filip Luszczyk]

I think it's less about underdogs and more about struggling against the adversity rather than trampling it immediately. Characters that struggle are more interesting in the long run and therefore remain in the game.

I see no reason to remove or simplify Fallout, if you're going with DitV resolution in the first place. It seems rather too integral to the conflict mechanic as a whole to me. However, now that I think of it, Fallout and We Owe list fill similar system niches. So, maybe getting rid of We Owe list as such and including "the character can return in one of the later Chapters" on Fallout list could work better in the long run.