[DitV] The Law

[Darren Hill]

I'm a little unclear on the ramifications of the Territorial Authority, and having Sheriffs that don't answer to the Faith.

I can see the potential for conflict between Dogs and the TA, but I'm a little conflicted - it seems like it could easily overshadow a campaign and undermine the role of the Dogs if handled badly. Which I might do, without more guidance!

If a Dog kills a Lawman (or some TA official), is he then a wanted man, and should expect bounty hunters and other lawmen to turn up everywhere he goes? Especially if the Dogs are circuit riders!
(This goes double for TA soldiers, of course.)

Are Sheriffs elected from the Faithful, or are they sent in from outside? I apologise if this is a blatantly obvious question.

My question is prompted by an idea of a Faith town that is being corrupted by that most traditional of Western villains, the property developer.

Going off at a tangent - the rules say how people can become possessed (followers of False Doctrine and all that). What about Non-Faith - can they be possessed? (I'd expect so - they are definitely following false doctrine, aren't they?) Can they be sorcerers?

[Ul]

The dogs answer to no one but their own conscience. They do not become "wanted" for killing a person. And no sheriff/TA have any authority over them, and neither is any sheriff/TA immune to their judgement, what they say IS the law.

I would imeagine, that in most faithful towns (which are teh ones the dogs are visiting) there wont be any non-faithful in a powerful position at all.

All stewards in all elected by the one above them, which are elected by the one above them, and the final step is the council of eldars in bridal falls.

[sirogit]

TA law enforcement(Sheriffs) are enforcers of secular law elected by the town. As they come from the Vineyard, they're overwhelmingly Faithfull, which makes their dealings with Dogs an incredibly conflicting affair (How do you tell Jesus that he isn't supposed to jay walk?) that I think would mostly have them deferring to the Dogs. A non-faithfull Sheriff would have a hell of a time working with the congregation if he was somehow elected.  

Other TA's are very most likely not of the Faith. It's probably why they try not to meddle too much in the Vineyard, except when taxes or mail are at stake.

There's lots of good reasons for the TA's to not try to have a war with the Dogs:

1) They've got towns with them. Towns that would very likely fight for them, and at the very least be unusefull witnesses.

2) The Vineyard's a pretty isolated place. This means that the Dogs aren't really a threat to the outside world if visitors watch their steps, and killing a Dog is a lot harder than avoiding them.

3) The TA is much more practical than idealist. I can easily imagine them cutting their losses at one law man and stick to concentrating their force in battles more convient.

Overall, I'd think that the decision to go after a Dog would depend on if they're posing an active threat to taxes and mail, if its possible to take on the Dog without taking on the Faith, and plain simple grudges.

[lumpley]

Darren:

Following the game mechanics will prevent you from handling it wrong. A sherriff, a bounty hunter, a soldier or officer or whole company in the Territorial army - they're NPCs. If they're hunting the PCs, something's at stake, you roll all those happy dice, you raise and see, somebody wins the stakes, people take fallout - it's all good and aboveboard.

Being hunted by the TA can't overshadow the game, because as GM you're still going to make towns where something's badly wrong and the Dogs still have to put it right. Being hunted by the TA, thus, is just one more complication the Dogs have to deal with.

So the whole thing is an opportunity!  You should create and adhere to the causality in your game world. It'll work out fine no matter what, I promise.

So...

If a Dog kills a Lawman (or some TA official), is he then a wanted man, and should expect bounty hunters and other lawmen to turn up everywhere he goes? Especially if the Dogs are circuit riders!
(This goes double for TA soldiers, of course.)

When in doubt, make it a conflict. "What's at stake is, do Texas Rangers show up in this town looking for you?" Roll dice, see and raise, etc.

Are Sheriffs elected from the Faithful, or are they sent in from outside?

The game text says something like "if a town has a sherriff, usually he's a Faithful who's been elected to the position by the town." The Territorial Authority doesn't care about the religious convictions of its civil servants, only insists that they keep peace and enforce law. So a lot of times you have an entirely church meeting, where the steward's like, "we'll have an easier time with the TA if we get a sherriff, you wanna be it?" and the guy's like, "sure." and the steward's like, "great, we'll hold the election thursday, anybody have any probs?" and everybody's like, "nope."

Can this be a source of pride and sin all by itself? Of course! Might this person's loyalty between official TA duties and religious submission to the Dogs be put to the test? Oh baby yes. Write on the town sheet something like "Brother Mitchell wants the Dogs to not make him choose between law and Faith" and see what happens.

Are some sherriffs nonFaithful sent in from outside? Sure. That's up to you, in town creation.

Going off at a tangent - the rules say how people can become possessed (followers of False Doctrine and all that). What about Non-Faith - can they be possessed? (I'd expect so - they are definitely following false doctrine, aren't they?) Can they be sorcerers?

Aren't all nonFaithful religious leaders sorcerers? Isn't possession the essential religious experience of all nonFaithful?

Whether you want to take that hardline position in your group, I dunno, feel free to back off from it.

Either way, being a secular authority can't make you a sorcerer. To be a sorcerer you need to be the minister of a congregation (if even a very small one); it's only and always an issue of spirit.

-Vincent

[Darren Hill]

Thanks, Vincent - that's given me the perspective I need to be comfortable about using the TA & Law, and the potential for town creation is great. Also, great clarification on the sorcerers/possessed.

You've also raised a very interesting question:

When in doubt, make it a conflict. "What's at stake is, do Texas Rangers show up in this town looking for you?" Roll dice, see and raise, etc.

How would I run a conflict like that? Can you give a short example of how it might go - along with mentioning which stats are being used, who raises and sees and with what?

[lumpley]

Oh, sure thing. Let's see. I'm the GM, you're the Dog.

Me: What's at stake is, do Texas Rangers show up in this town looking for you?
We roll. You roll acuity plus heart, I roll 4d6 plus demonic influence.
Me, raise: Texas Rangers have been tracking you since that murder back in Bower's Bluff.
You, block or dodge: There were no witnesses, remember? Raise: They think that Brother Finch did it.
Me, taking the blow: They questioned Brother Finch extensively [grim, significant look]. Raise: His daughter came forward with her suspicions about you, to spare him further "questioning."
You, block or dodge: Alma wouldn't do that. Raise: She sent them off toward Marston.
Me, out of dice: I give.

We could play it out physical instead of social, with the raises and sees being all about how you hid your tracks and stuff, if we wanted. Then you'd roll body plus heart.

I could roll the Texas Rangers as an NPC if I felt like it, instead of rolling 4d6 plus demonic influence.

-Vincent

[Darren Hill]

That last line anticipated my next question :)

Great example. I've copied it to show my players, who are even less savvy with this sort of (director stance?) stuff than I am.

[Darren Hill]

Still trying to get my head around some aspects of this...
In such a conflict, how would you justify fallout - especially fallout in which an injury occurred?

[lumpley]

An injury is just a permanent d4 trait or two, right?

"Sister Alma ratted me out 1d4."
"I don't trust women 1d4."
"I'm not as sneaky as I think 1d4."
"I've got a guilty look 1d4."

Or a d4 relationship:

"Sister Alma 1d4."
"Brother Finch 1d4."
"The Texas Rangers 1d4."
"My frickin' hoofprint-leaving twig-breaking horse 1d4."

Also always remember that you can justify your fallout by any part of the conflict, you don't have to justify it by the individual blow you took.

-Vincent

[Sydney Freedberg]

"My frickin' hoofprint-leaving twig-breaking horse 1d4."

Every time I think about this line, it makes me happy.

[Darren Hill]

An injury is just a permanent d4 trait or two, right?

Sorry about not replying to this earlier. The main conceptual difficulty I was and still am having was with that other element of injuries - that you might keel over in need of medical attention, or even die.
When in this kind of conflict, how does that work? Who takes the injury and how do you justify it in the scene?

[TonyLB]

"My frickin', hoof-print leaving, twig-snapping, cliff-falling-off-of horse  2d4."

[James Holloway]

An injury is just a permanent d4 trait or two, right?

Sorry about not replying to this earlier. The main conceptual difficulty I was and still am having was with that other element of injuries - that you might keel over in need of medical attention, or even die.
When in this kind of conflict, how does that work? Who takes the injury and how do you justify it in the scene?

How could you? You'd need to escalate to guns in order to take that level of fallout.

[Darren Hill]

How could you? You'd need to escalate to guns in order to take that level of fallout.

First, are you saying you can't escalate in such conflicts? I don't see why not, but I'd be happy to use such a rule if necessary to avoid cognitive dissonance.
But in any case you can take injuries from Physical fallout.
If you roll two sixes, that's 12: someone has to roll Body.
If that Body roll fails, the Fallout is bumped to 16, and someone is in need of medical attention.
If that someone doesn't get medical attention, they die.

I'm just having a problem figuring out how that works in the context of these remote conflicts. I love the idea of such conflicts, so its important to me to figure out how they work.

[GB Steve]

If that someone doesn't get medical attention, they die.

I'm just having a problem figuring out how that works in the context of these remote conflicts. I love the idea of such conflicts, so its important to me to figure out how they work.

In my game this happened to a player who was giving first aid. It was the Fort Lemon scenario. The PC has a conflict with the the fallen steward of the brethren at the fort. Drunkenly this man managed to shoot of his own toes when the escalation got to guns. The player tried to heal the NPC and in the attempt took 8d fallout, got a 12, failed his body roll and started to die.

I suggested that the effort in calling on the King of Life to heal a sinner had sent him into some kind of seizure. The 8d fallout made it very hard to heal him and 3 other dogs took fallout as a result. It's the worst injury any Dog has taken in the three sessions I've played.

The lesson is, I think, that you can be quite creative in deciding on what caused the injury, and given the kind of game that Dogs is, can involve the group in coming to some concensus.