[DitV] The Death of Brother Hiram

[jrs]

Brother Hiram could take care of his own and didn't need help from no one, especially not from these two strange Dogs standing in his house.  He dragged Brother Newton out to the porch and called for his shotgun.  Sister Bedelia wrestled with him over the gun.  He had no choice but to knock her upside the head with it.  As she goes down, she looks past him a moment, and says, "Sorry Brother Hiram," and rolls to the side.  A bullet wizzes past him; that Brother Newton just shot at him from his own porch!  Brother Hiram turns and fires back, grazing Brother Newton.  Then Brother Hiram is down bleeding his life out on the floorboards in front of his wife and son.  Sister Bedelia quickly realizes that he is beyond any help she can give him.

And that was one of the scenes from our Dogs game yesterday.  Two things I knew but didn't completely understand until actual play:  1. Escalating to guns will get someone killed awful quick; 2. It's real important to keep Stakes in mind before Giving.

I consider myself a novice at gm'ing, and so I followed Vincent's instructions pretty much to the letter on my town prep.  I'm very pleased with how it's working out.  As instructed, I did not plan a path and I do not know how the story will turn out, but I still had it in mind that there were a couple obvious towns people for the players to turn to first.  I didn't expect them to go to a couple teenagers to learn about their parents and families.  What was I thinking?

Hearing the players' instant dislikes, opinions, and assumptions has been a thrill.  Here's one of my favorites:  Two of the players are investigating the site of a boy's death.  When they discover evidence that it really was an accident, another player proclaims, "Kid stuff.  It was just kid stuff."  And another one, from one of the more cynical players:  "She really is nice.  Or, a moron."

One thing I could not anticipate is how much town I have.  After the first session, it looks like it's going to be a two-session town.  I really wasn't sure about that from the start.  The pacing seemed to by ok, but I do need to be speedier on running conflicts that involve more than two characters. 

Julie

[Eric Provost]

Hiya Julie,

One thing I could not anticipate is how much town I have.

I run into this almost every time.  I'll finish writing a town, thinking it's weak and will be over too quickly, so I start looking at some of the sideline NPCs to bring in more Named characters to pester the Dogs.  Half an hour into play I start realizing that, not only do I not need the extra NPCs, but the NPCs I started with may take longer than we have scheduled to address.

I've got one town still in limbo, waiting to be finigshed; Two Dogs, four named NPCs.  We ran one initiation and then two hours worth of town.  I imagine there will be at least two more hours before it's done. 

Funny how well Vincent's town creation system produces such super-charged NPCs, eh?

-Eric

[Ron Edwards]

Hiya,

Brother Newton includes this stuff on his sheet:

I don't like my body 1d10
I'm a Dog 2d10
I was educated Back East 1d6
I'm steady 2d8
I'm a natural crack shot 2d6
I'm not much fun 2d8
(from initiation) No one saw me naked 1d6, The hat stays on 1d4

As Maura put it, "Brother Newton has issues." My goal was the geeky, shy fellow with an unexpected bullseye waiting every time he picked up the gun. High Acuity and reasonable Will, low Body and Heart - which means not too bad with talking, then hopeless for shoving and fisticuffs and knives, and then, bang!!

But I didn't want to play him as a psycho, although that road definitely lies open for him depending on in-game events. Nope, Brother Newton was prepared to stick with talking and to give if necessary, especially for his first time out as a Dog. The other Dogs were more sure of themselves, and he could back up their leads.

This man Hiram would not accepted the help of a King's Dog. He quoted the Book of Life with anger and pride in his heart. He seized Brother Newton and hurled him out onto the porch, and beat Sister Bedelia with his gun-butt. Brother Newton doesn't remember a whole lot after that part.

What's interesting to me (Ron), is that later, after we'd found out what a time-bomb Hiram was and what tensions underlay his household, Brother Newton said, "That man had murder in his heart before we ever set foot near his house." And he was right; it wasn't an excuse. I'm kind of relieved that Brother Newton is not, after all, a psycho.

Mechanically, the Demonic Influence leaped from nothing to 5d10. Now four green Dogs are faced with having to restructure a whole new Stewardship (the current one being a gladhanded fool run by his dragon-like wife) and help this town in the middle of an economic turning-point.

To the Dogs, it's no wonder that poor boy fell from the mill and broke his neck. Demons at work.

Best,
Ron

[lumpley]

This is awesome.

Anything I can do for you, Julie?

-Vincent

[jrs]

Hi Vincent,

I have a couple questions about bringing traits into a conflict.  I'm sure its stuff that's come up before and want to double-check old posts before I repeat already answered questions. 

Thanks,
Julie