[DitV] Little Valley

[Albert the Absentminded]

I know it isn't my job to lead them to conclusions, but is it even appropriate to say, "are you sure you want to put a bullet in the head of this seventeen year old girl? Will you be satisfied with that solution?"

Don't sweat it. They'll agonize plenty without your help.

See what Albert did - that's what you get if you just present the town to your players like you did to us. What you'll do in play is attach humanity to all those problems. (That's not something you have to work at or think about or try for, that's what playing through the town does.) Your players will have first impressions of the girls, the Steward, all the townspeople, and then they'll come to like some of them and dislike others. It's the NPCs' humanity in play that makes the game into something better than "on a scale of 1-5, which is more important: obedience or love?"

-Vincent

True - that's my reaction if all the facts are uncovered, all the backstory is known, etc. However, the gripping hand here, in my view, is that the three conspired to commit murder. Doesn't matter how much I like the girls. Unless Timothy's spirit explicitly states that he would have rather died than marry Candace - which, y'know, I consider unlikely, since it's the guy who's supposed to be doing the aggressive courting. So he probably _wanted_ to marry Candace. (If he didn't, then I'm off to speak to the Steward to find out why he thought it best to coerce Timothy into marrying his daughter.)

I wonder how Abiah would react if I sealed _Candace_ to Timothy?(assuming that's what they both want - the effect in this life would be to bestow instant widow status on Candace, making her ineligable for first wife marriage)

-Albert

[Jason Morningstar]

...Which means for me, that you can start things slightly slower.  Emphasize the actions the rest of the community took to solve the problem of the deaths of the men, and show how these attempts to help became harmful....

Thanks for this - I think it will help a lot in play.  Losing three young men in a short time would be a heavy blow to a small town like this, and the desire to "move on" would be intense.  All kinds of well-meaning but ultimately harmful efforts could be underway.  

As for the status of the young ladies and their now-dead beaus, I'm not sure.    My initial thought was that there was a *rightness* about their match-ups and they knew they were bound to be together, and that Bethany's pride and force of will had overcome her orthodox upbringing - that the spirit "marriage" was her invention and had nothing to do with the King of Life.  But leaving that avenue open could lead to some great problems for the Dogs!  

--Jason

[Joshua A.C. Newman]

However, the gripping hand here, in my view, is that the three conspired to commit murder. Doesn't matter how much I like the girls.

That's where it gets interesting. It's the Dogs' job to pass judgement, not follow investigative procedure. They might decide that the girls deserve it. The girls will certainly be hoping so. Play them sympathetically (which is probably fairly realistic - they're not out to do evil, after all) and let the Dogs decide.