[DitV] Town creation - Lake point

[sirogit]

I've been working on this for abit, but I'm still not terribly satisfied on its grabbiness level. Maybe I could get some advice:

Eleazer's is a Dog's cousin.

Pride: Thelsa, a girl Eleazer's courting, has romantic feelings for another girl, Malvina. Its because of this that Thelsa turned down his engagement.

Injustice: Eleazer's heartbroken.

Sin: Eleazer's turned to heavy drinking.

Demonic Attack: Eleazer's legs have been weakened by Demons, and now he needs crutches.

False Belief: Eleazer takes whats happened to him as proof that the King of Life has it in for him, and thus treats the Allmighty with only fear, without love.

Corrupt Worship: Eleazer's taken to sacrificing animals.

------------------

There's a hot-shot territorial authority, Thomas, who think that the live-stock dissapearing is on account of some sort of tax-evasion, and wants to get to the bottom of it.

Malvina has found out about Eleazer's distrust of the King, and has henceforth been trying to get the community to shun him, partly out of wanting more time alone with Thelsa, and partly out of wanting to protect her from someone she views as a threat.

-----------------

What they want:

Eleazer: Wants his Dog-cousin to embrace his ritual, and help him get some scarifices because its getting harder.

Thelsa: Wants the Dogs to bring hope back to Eleazer, and to keep her and his dirty secrets so Eleazer isn't hurt more and the townspeople don't shun them both.

Malvina: Wants The Dogs to help her in getting Eleazer away from Thelsa.

Thomas: WAnts to find where those livestock went.

Demons: For Eleazer to be arrested, and then lose all faith whatsoever.

If the Dogs don't intere: Eleazer is arrested and forsakes the King completely, Thelsa finds another man to pretend to court while escalating the relationship with Malvina.

[ScottM]

I like it... once it comes out, it's a simple easily understood situation without an easy out.

Perhaps you just need a larger character pool, so you can draw people in differently?  For example, the Steward (or his Wife) might have noticed something about Malvina-- perhaps rumor followed her from the town she grew up in.  Or maybe the Steward remembers her flinching during a sermon about immoral wickedness, but hasn't been able to follow up.

The TA Thomas, is he faithful?  If not, how do members of the faith react to his highhanded accusations... even if he's right.

Does Elezer have a sibling who helps him catch animals for sacrifice, since he can't move so fast with his crippled legs?

Last, if the demons succeed in what they want, they've only gotten one sinner locked up.  Is there a way that if the Dogs didn't come, the demons would grow stronger?  (Grow toward a false priesthood/ sorcery?)

Your town sounds good so far.  I'll be interested in seeing how it plays out.
Scott

[Jason Morningstar]

Ok, call me nutty, but the first thing I saw when I read this was Eleazar, Malvina, and Thelsa forming a False Priesthood.  How cool and intense would that be?  

--Eleazar, crippled and spurned, is no longer a threat or a rival to Malvina

--They all have something to hide, and the false doctrine could be very appealing.

--Eleazar needs help to fulfill the sacrifices anyway - why not Malvina, who is so very handy with a lasso?  I guess she'd be the boss sorcerer, which would twist the knife in poor Eleazar further.

--Eleazar, lovesick rube, gets to "stay close" to Thelsa.

--Thelsa, initially along for the ride, sees the power of the Demons and likes it.

--Time to arrange an accident for that irritating T.A. meddler.

[Simon Kamber]

As has been said before, the basics are quite good. But I agree that it could use a few more characters.

Perhaps bump it a bit up the chain and have Eleazar convince some more people of his false doctrine? If he's starting to put up a cult that is completely unrelated to the actual cause of his problems, that would lead to some interesting complications. If you have the demons push other people into misery, you'll suddenly have other townspeople who have joined the "The King of Life has it in for us" cult.

[sirogit]

Thanks for the great suggestions everyone.

- I'm very reluctant to add characters, a superficial reason for this is, it's a solo game and I don't need as many characters to keep people busy. The real reason is more like, once there's more than 4 NPCs in a scenario I tend to start screwing up in several ways: Playing NPCs as false or faceless, not giving NPCs enough direction, not having certain ones bust through a door with guns blazing when they really should bust through a dor with guns blazing.

- Jason, that idea intrigues me. I'd have to conceptually re-imagine Malvina, I imagined her as a very in-denial and confused character, that tends to act only in overly-defensive ways, re-imagining her as a stone cold sorceress is appealing, but I'd need to take some time to neureally re-connect.

[Simon Kamber]

The real reason is more like, once there's more than 4 NPCs in a scenario I tend to start screwing up in several ways: Playing NPCs as false or faceless, not giving NPCs enough direction, not having certain ones bust through a door with guns blazing when they really should bust through a dor with guns blazing.

Is this a general problem in Dogs too? I've had these problems too when I've GM'ed other games, specifically Werewolf. It seems to me that a lot of those problems are alleviated by the system in Dogs, but I haven't actually GM'ed yet, so I'm a bit curious about exactly how different it is.

However, on the point of NPCs busting through the doors, when they really "should" bust through the doors. They shouldn't! In Dogs, the players bust through the doors.