Dogs summary for the reading impaired?

[coxcomb]

So I've convinced my group that playing a couple of sessions of Dogs will be a good thing in preparation for playtesting my own current project. I think (from reading the book) that it is a great place to step off of the traditional RPG train onto the third rail that is the indie-RPG world.

Anyway, I have this problem. These guys are great and fun and all, but they won't read the rules. Not like they say "no, I won't read them". More like they think they should, and feel bad about not, but then not.

So I was wondering if Vincent, or anybody else, has come up with a condensed intro to play. The sort of thing you might hand out at a Con. My theory being that throwing a hundred pages of PDF at them won't work but two pages or less might.

Anybody have help here?

[DevP]

Is the problem that they won't read it, or that they don't actually like learning or dealing with new rules? I've seen the latter with some players (who are apathetic towards handling rules themselves) adn that can be a problem with Dogs.

If it's only the former though, I don't think that's a big deal. I think the highpoints of the setting can be quickly summed up (if the players know the stylistic signposts of the genre) and the rules can be taught-as-you-go, quickly making more sense. (It certainly helps that character creation leads right into the first conflict, and it's a great intro to the system.)

So, I don't think it's a problem. A bit more work for the GM, though, but even if there's a convention-style summary, you'll need to do some heavy-lifting at first to get the info across. (And I think it's worth it!)

[lumpley]

No such document exists that I know of, but Dev's right.

There's the "background" section in the character creation chapter; read that out loud at the start of character creation, or give everybody a copy of just those couple of pages. Shove the rules reference pullout over to their side of the table. Then work through character creation with them, and take your time walking through the initiatory conflicts. By the time you get to your third player's conflict, everbody will be all set.

The GM has to prep for the first session. Nobody else does.

-Vincent

[coxcomb]

OK, I'll buy that.

We play a week from Thursday. I'll post an actual play after it happens.