[DitV] Lonely Creek and mechanics-created goodness

[Mikael]

Hello

This was my first time playing and GMing Dogs. The only indie game I have played before was Universalis, and I am looking forward to try out Polaris.

The players were my two male cousins, who taught me AD&D when we were all teenagers, but have not played much RPGs in the last 15 years. In the few games we have played - a smattering of sessions for different games every now and then - one of them has had problems in coming up with on-the-spur imaginative actions, traits and whatnot, while the other is more capable of "jumping right in". I will let you guess which characters they played.

The venue was a private cabinet in one of the local restaurants providing traditional Finnish cuisine. Very cosy and somewhat genre-appropriate.

The Dogs were Brothers Barabbas and Cyrus:

• Brother Cyrus, in his long black leather coat, with the Tree of Life stitched on the back in gold, was an ex-stripper who had gotten into his fair share of bar fights. As his accomplishment he managed to walk away from sneering stablehands without resorting to violence.
• Brother Barabbas, with a coat in all the psychedelic colors of the rainbow, had shot down a sinner even before coming to the Dogs' Temple, and had a trait "bullet is the final absolution". In his accomplishment he faced down the wife of the man he shot.

The town was Lonely Creek, a not-too-complicated first town created by yours truly. The basic problem revolved around a woman, Sister Malvina, whose husband had gone missing. The woman refused to let go of hope, even though she was courted by the local shopkeeper and the Steward. The shopkeeper's widowed mother, Brother Cyrus's aunt, was the true head of the family who had even sent her other son to burn Sister Malvina's barn.

The session was not long, but I was really happy with it for the following reasons:

• Brother Cyrus was the first to face Sister Edwina, his old dragon of an aunt. The opening pleasantries escalated quickly to a shouting match - "how can you be a Dog and my sister not know it" etc. - and then to fighting when Brother Cyrus dismounted and quieted his aunt down with an open-handed slap. The player was just shocked afterwards. How could he have been so seduced by the escalation mechanics?
• With Brother Cyrus taking a thinking break in the local Temple (short-term fallout), Brother Barabbas entered the shop, quickly determined that the old auntie was not telling the whole truth, placed his gun in plain view and launched a conflict designed to get Sister Edwina to spill. The conflict did not go well for Brother Barabbas, and we had a really interesting tense moment when the player - who just did not want to lose - considered shooting Sister Edwina. Happily, he didn't, and gained the trait "afraid of old women".
• The players judgment was not something I expected nor was really happy with - which was just fine and dandy, since that made it their judgment, not my preconceived solution. Although, truth to tell, had this not been our first session, and had we had some more time, I might have pushed that decision a bit, as they effectively did everything aunt Edwina wanted.

I am eagerly waiting for the next session, which will at least feature Sister Malvina's missing husband - and lots of old women. :-)

Cheers,
+ Mikael

[ScottM]

Sounds like a good session. You mentioned rushing to completion a bit; how long did you take?

For your next town, are you intending to push more about the way they resolved this one? (The "and now, how about now" mentioned in planning towns?)  Or are you intending a largely different tack, without someone who'll tell them how to judge the town?

I'm looking forward to your next session report.
Scott

[Mikael]

Sounds like a good session. You mentioned rushing to completion a bit; how long did you take?

Thanks, Scott. Let's see. Little over 4 hours for explaining the setting, theology, stewardship and stuff, then creating characters, accomplishments and the simple town. Besides the accomplishments we had a total of three conflicts, two of which I described earlier, and one which was an almost-offhand healing of a burnt arm. Oh yes, and we ate a real-life dinner on the side, which took some time orderin' and eatin'.

For your next town, are you intending to push more about the way they resolved this one? (The "and now, how about now" mentioned in planning towns?)  Or are you intending a largely different tack, without someone who'll tell them how to judge the town?

If we had had more time in this one, I would have raised the jealousy issue between Brother Cyrus' cousin and the local Steward to see where the Dogs would have fallen on a Faith vs. Blood issue. Also, I would have somehow made them face the fact that aunt Edwina was getting away with lots of stuff, and that it was not clear who was really leading the Faithful in this town, the Steward or aunt Edwina.

About the "without someone who'll tell them how to judge the town": Sister Edwina did not tell them how to judge the town, the Dogs did judge it by themselves. It just so happened that the overbearing, go-and-burn-that-barn aunt got exactly what she wanted.

I had a definitive idea for the next town, but your question made me think of the possibility of raising the same theme - "I am not a sinner, I am just thinking what's best for my children" - again, only in a slightly different guise. We shall see what comes out of it.

Thanks,
+ Mikael