Reading through Dogs

I had to go to Mississippi for some training this week. With 5 minutes to pack, I looked around my room and thought, what shall I bring to the airport to read? I know: Dogs.

I'm about two-thirds of the way through now. I, perhaps, have been reading a little too carefully. Conflict is very cool. I appreciate that you couch it into four formats: an argument, a chase, a brawl and a shootout. I let the iconic setting; it's not the West, but the setting invokes it. It reminds me of Howard's approach to making Hyborea a palette of ancient civilizations. It interests me that you use both attributes and traits. And that you specifically cite examples where they contradict each other and assure the reader that that's acceptable. That's actually something I don't get, yet.

I love the incorporation of die types. It's like I'm getting permission to use my old D&D dice. Every system has their "for everything else" type of roll (to use Sorcerer terminology). Yours is vs. 4d6, I gather. I missed its introduction, was jarred, went back and couldn't find it.

I appreciate the "tell 'em what you told 'em" recaps. It took me awhile to figure out that you See to exceed the die results .. and that you're pushing forward rolled dice (i.e. dice from the attribute pool) on the table. (At least, that's how I envision it.) It's still sinking in, actually. But I do get how the See die count calc's .. what BW would call an action. (i.e. Reverse, Block, Take.)

I look at the Ceremonies and think of Sorcerer's Rituals. I love how they're priced to influence DitV sorcerous and demonic conflicts. It frees me to use them without necessarily understanding how or why they apply.

The flow is very good. I've only once felt apprehensive due to premature disclosure; that was the conflict example for achievements during chargen. (And I forgive.) Otherwise, I feel like I'm on an enchanting tour that naturally leads to the next thing.

I like the font. And the random all-cap's. And the idiosychratic asides. Which reminds me: you've done something grand with your tone. It feels like you're looking up from the syllabus from time to time and making an informal comment. It has the effect of tying down the section, punctuating the text and expressing enthusiasm. Your sandwich has tomatoes in it:)

I'm still trying to understand how to choose list items and describe additions under Interpreting Fallout (pp. 49-51), but I assume it will gel in play. I like the sequence of escalation; the assumption that something as chaotic as poor crop yields, per the game rules, has to signify festering sin.

One thing that put me off, initially, (think I already mentioned this) is that my binding cracked, (at least, the bottom third) basically, when I first opened my copy. But I'm over it now.

Looking forward to finishing.