[DitV] Noob GM needs a bit of advice (long post)

[Lisa Provost]

Hello all.  I was recently pressured (in a good way) :) to run DitV by my husband.  You know him here as Technocrat13.  Anyhoo, he recommended that I post in this section, introducing myself and maybe posting my ideas to get some feedback from all of you.

Quick background for me, I've GM'd three times in my nearly 26 years of gaming (started playing at age 4 with mom!) so I really and truly have no idea what the heck I am doing.  *laugh*  But I have had many other GM's including Technocrat13 as a guide.  So... I followed the guide in the rules for coming up with my town and the NPC's.  My question is, is this enough?  I have heard many, many people talking about plot hooks, and the like.  But this game really doesn't count on the GM coming up with most of the plot hooks.  The plot hook is, you're a Dog.  You are sent to this town.  Something is wrong or why would you be sent?  Figure it out.  Well that is how I interpreted it anyway.  Please let me know if I am way off. :)  

So here is my town and what I have in mind.  

Whisper Gulch - Booming with the recent find of silver.

NPC's

(Mayor) Bother Bauregard Winston
Sister Sarah Winston
(Steward) Brother Stephen Blass
Sister Katina Blass
Mountain people
Silver miners

-The Mayor, Brother Bauregard Winston, is seeing his town grow and grow.  With the growth comes many people from the East and of course, with them comes money and power.  Also, with people from the East come ideas unheard of in the areas of the Faithful.  Brother Bauregard realizes that Brother Stephen Blass (town Steward) holds most of the sway of the people.  Even those from the East.  They respect those that the Faithful respect. All respect Brother Stephen.  He is a good, honest, and noble man.  None in the town have any bad things to speak of about him at all.

-Brother Bauregard feels that the people should follow him, after all, he is the Mayor.  

-Brother Stephen has an adopted daughter, Sister Katina.  Sister Katina came to be in his care when she was about 10.  When she was 4, her family, some Faithful from the East, were moving back to the lands of the King of Life.  About two days journey before they reached Whisper Gulch, they were attacked by some bandits.  The bandits showed no mercy, slaughtering all but Katina.  Instead of killing her outright, they left her for dead.  Thankfully, she was found by some of the Mountain people who took her in and raised her as their own.  When she was 10, she was overcome by a brain fever.  The Mountain woman that cared for her knew that the people in the town of Whisper Gulch could help.  They were all kind folk and were always very open to trading with the Mountain people.  The woman took Katina to see Brother Stephen because she knew that Brother Stephen could help Katina.  He nursed Katina back to health and took her in as his own daughter.  He has no children as his only wife died during child-birth, taking their son to heaven with her.  The King of Life had told him that he would be alone for only a short time and as was said, He blessed Brother Stephen with a daughter.  From then on, Brother Stephen raised Katina in the ways of the Faith, and she grew to become a beautiful, and virtuous young woman.  Everything a man of the Faith could hope for in a daughter.  It is not uncommon to find Sister Katina on her way back into the hills, ministering to the Mountain people.  Teaching them of the King of Life and of the Faith.  She is personably responsible for bringing all of the converted Mountain people that reside in Whisper Gulch, back to the arms of the King of Life.  All of the Mountain people turned Faithful respect her and her father, Brother Stephen.   Most of the Faithful, as well as the Mountain people, see her as a gift.  None in the town have any bad things to speak of about her at all.  Sister Katina has not been blessed with a courtship yet. Her father hopes that the King of Life will choose her as one of His Dogs.  But of course, that is for the King of Life to decide and if He does not choose that for Sister Katina, then Brother Stephen will still be ever grateful for being blessed with Katina at all.  

-Brother Bauregard does not like this.  While he doesn't really mind the Mountain people in his town, they are a constant reminder of just who wields the most power in 'his' town.  His wife, Sister Sarah, understands her husband's thoughts.  She was raised in the Faith, but was sent to school in the East. For the years she was there, she saw and did many things that a woman of the Faith would never admit to.  She never has and never will.  She understands that with money comes respect.  With respect comes power.  Mountain people (converted or not) bring neither into the town and thus, her husband is constantly overlooked.  They both feel that since Brother Bauregard is the Mayor, he should also be Steward.  They feel "How can an unmarried man truly lead those of the Faith?  Only a true family man, with his wife by his side, can truly speak the word of the King of Life."

-Brother Bauregard aims to ruin Brother Stephen.  Take him down a peg or two, as it were, in the eyes of the people of the town.  

Step 1.  Brother Bauregard and Sister Sarah begin to take in and minister to some Mountain people.  They include some of the mountain people that were converted by Sister Katina and Brother Stephen.  Brother Bauregard and Sister Sarah begin to put lies into their heads, teaching them things that are slightly contradictory to the Faith.  They pay the converts and help them get good homes and good jobs.  They gain followers.  The converted mountain people begin to look to Brother Bauregard in most things and he begins to feel the power.  

Step 2.  He then begins to push them, seeing how much they will do for him.  He sends them on missions to damage the church that Brother Stephen preaches in.  (Setting fires, stealing books, breaking windows, etc.)  He sends them to steal possessions of Brother Stephen's.  (Clothes drying on the line, horses, food stores, etc.)  These people do it willingly.  Sister Sarah tells Brother Bauregard to step it up.  If he really wants true power, he needs to start his own church, kill Sister Katina and draw the people to him.  "They will not follow the teachings of Brother Stephen if Katina is not around.  They only follow him because of her.  Besides, if she is dead, he will break and go into mourning like he did when his wife passed away."

Step 3.  Have the converted mountain people kill Sister Katina when she is on her way to minister to the non-converted mountain people still in the hills.  Have them make it look like the non-converts killed her.  This will spark a fire of revenge in the people of the town.  The people of the town will kill all the converts(and non-convert traders) in town, and the non-converts in the hills will not come into the town anymore.  The death of Sister Katina will take Brother Stephen off his pedestal and all Brother Bauregard has to do is step up and take over.  

-If their plot succeeds, they will be rid of Sister Katina, Brother Stephen, and all of the mountain people, allowing free trade with the miners and their money.

-The Dogs will enter the town and one of the first things they see is a second church being constructed near the town hall.

So, what fo you think? Thanks in advance for all your help and feedback!

Lisa

[Lisa Provost]

I forgot to mention that this is the first time either of us will have played DitV at all...

Lisa

[DannyK]

OK, a couple questions: how far have things gotten at the time when the Dogs show up?  And how is Brother Bauregard able to get all those converted Mountain People to follow him into false doctrine and mortal sin, when he's not even the Steward?  How is he going to get them to turn against the rather saint-like Katina who converted them?  

If you don't mind me saying so, it might be more plausible to have Brother Beauragard feeding the white settler's suspicions and prejududices of the newly converted Mountain People.  Have a schism between the steward, his daughter and the converts on one hand, and the white settlers led by Beauragard on the other.  Either Brother B. will be the leader of the second church, or he's figured out a good figurehead -- ideally, a solid citizen of the town with a racist streak that makes him easy for B. to manipulate.  This is also good to mix things up a little bit -- right now it sounds like the town'd be fine if only someone took Brother B. and hung him by his neck, and that's too simple for my sense of how the game's supposed to work.   These are just my suggestions, of course.

Either way, I highly recommend gong back and trying to fill in all those little spaces in the hierarchy of sin from the DiTV book -- it sounds like you've got false doctrine, corrupt worship, and a false priesthood ready to go, hate and murder brewing.  Nothing about demons or demonic attack, though.  I don't know that they're necessary, but they sure are fun.

[lumpley]

Lisa, welcome! I'm delighted to hear from you.

You're quite right about plot hooks: once the Dogs come into town and start poking around, you don't have to do anything but play the NPCs to their own goals. Before you play, all you need to do is make sure you've got some NPCs with goals.

So what I look for at the end of a town writeup is a list of named people and what each one wants the Dogs to do.

Generally I'm happy if there are at least three incompatible agendas. Like: the Steward wants the Dogs to marry him to Avigail; Avigail wants the Dogs to get her out of her relationship with the Steward without hurting his feelings, and Japeth wants the Dogs to kick the crap out of the Steward for the teenage-girl-molesting creep he probably is.

If there are only two incompatible agendas, the Dogs can just pick sides. If there are more than two, they have to fight on multiple fronts. Like if they go with Avigail and break it to the Steward easy, or if they go with the Steward, I can have Japeth take things into his own hands. If they go with Japeth and beat the Steward up, I can have Avigail go to him to comfort and care for him, because she wanted out but she didn't want this.

So that's my advice for Whisper Gulch: follow Danny's advice, and then make sure you've got a batch of people who want the Dogs to do things, with at least three incompatible agendas among them.

-Vincent

[Lisa Provost]

OK, a couple questions: how far have things gotten at the time when the Dogs show up?

The vandalism and terrorizing has already started.  We actually played the game last night.  I had the current church vandalized (minor arson, rocks thrown through windows, some pages torn out of one of the Books of Life on the shelf, that sort of thing.)

And how is Brother Bauregard able to get all those converted Mountain People to follow him into false doctrine and mortal sin, when he's not even the Steward?  How is he going to get them to turn against the rather saint-like Katina who converted them?

That's a really good question that I hadn't thought of previously and it did almost come back to bite me in the ass during the game.  I ended up deciding that the Mayor used his authority as the Mayor to gain the trust of some of the other mountain people (non-converts) to come to him (he had them working for him in other tasks, like house maid, stable man, etc).   He paid them handsomly, taught them to read and speak English, and then began to preach to them himself.  He even had them helping him build the new church.  They ended up pulling others to him.

If you don't mind me saying so, it might be more plausible to have Brother Beauragard feeding the white settler's suspicions and prejududices of the newly converted Mountain People.  Have a schism between the steward, his daughter and the converts on one hand, and the white settlers led by Beauragard on the other.  Either Brother B. will be the leader of the second church, or he's figured out a good figurehead -- ideally, a solid citizen of the town with a racist streak that makes him easy for B. to manipulate.  This is also good to mix things up a little bit -- right now it sounds like the town'd be fine if only someone took Brother B. and hung him by his neck, and that's too simple for my sense of how the game's supposed to work.   These are just my suggestions, of course.

Oh I don't mind you saying it at all!  I'm actually rather happy to see a different idea.  I hadn't thought about that streak at all...  What a really good idea.  *ponderponder*  I may have to use something like that in my next town.

Either way, I highly recommend gong back and trying to fill in all those little spaces in the hierarchy of sin from the DiTV book -- it sounds like you've got false doctrine, corrupt worship, and a false priesthood ready to go, hate and murder brewing.  Nothing about demons or demonic attack, though.  I don't know that they're necessary, but they sure are fun.

I ended up actually adding some demons in.  The Mayor was a sorcerer, his wife and some of the converts were possesed.  And you're right, the demons are fun!   That ferocity and visciousness are pretty brutal when you come right down to it.  I hadn't realized just how much of a difference  it is.  When an unarmed hit does damage like an armed hit.  A blunt object does damage like a bladed weapon, etc, etc.  We had only two physical conflicts but one time, that was very important.

Technocrat13 has decided that he wants to post the transcript of the game.  I gave him the go ahead as I am at work right now and really don't have the time to go into too much detail.  I'd be really greatful if when he posts it, you all read it and let me know what you think.  

Thanks again for the feedback!  :)

[Lisa Provost]

Lisa, welcome! I'm delighted to hear from you.

Thanks Vincent!  

Generally I'm happy if there are at least three incompatible agendas. Like: the Steward wants the Dogs to marry him to Avigail; Avigail wants the Dogs to get her out of her relationship with the Steward without hurting his feelings, and Japeth wants the Dogs to kick the crap out of the Steward for the teenage-girl-molesting creep he probably is.

If there are only two incompatible agendas, the Dogs can just pick sides. If there are more than two, they have to fight on multiple fronts. Like if they go with Avigail and break it to the Steward easy, or if they go with the Steward, I can have Japeth take things into his own hands. If they go with Japeth and beat the Steward up, I can have Avigail go to him to comfort and care for him, because she wanted out but she didn't want this.

*nod*  I can see where something like that would be very exciting.  I ended up having only the two sides for them to choose from, which in retrospect, I can see was pretty simple.  But they did, at one point, not know who was the one causing the problems in Whisper Gulch and that was pretty neat to see them trying to decide if Sister Katina was a false prophet (going into the mountains to minister to the Mountain people) or if the Mayor building the church was.  

Having given it a shot last night and really seeing how well the system worked, I can see also where I needed to change my way of thinking.  Like I said before, I've never really GM's before and I saw myself fall into that trap I've seen so many other GM's fall into.  You know the one.  Brother Divid said he wanted to throw a lit lantern into the window of the Mayor's house.  I almost (almost) picked up dice.  But I remembered what you said about saying "Yes".  Instead, I said like (can't remember the exact words right now) "Ok, you hurl the lantern at the window.  The window explodes when the big mining lantern is thrown through it and you have a satisfied feeling when you see the curtains immediately engulfed in flames".  

We all really had fun and the next time I run (because I've already commited to *smile*)  I'll post the town in the format I've seen everyone else posting and I'll make sure to post it early so you all have more time to read it before we have to play.  Thanks again!

Lisa

[ScottM]

Yeah, posting towns early really pays off.  The first time I posted then played, with barely an opportunity for intervention... what advice I recieved before gametime wound up being very handy.

On the other hand, it sounds like you did well, improvising a great deal mid-session, so it sounds like you're on the right track.  Congratulations on a successful first game.

-- Scott