Does town creation always proceed linearly? (spoiler warning)

[Vaxalon]

I'm finding an interesting phenomenon as I go through the town creation process for my current town.

I'm going to be using it in my IRC game, so Thomas, Chris, et al... bugger off.

Not that it would make THAT much difference... but still.

As I'm looking at the worksheet, I realize that I want the "False Doctrine" line to read, "The congregation is one big family.  We are all responsible for parenting each others' children, for the fidelity of each others' husbands and wives, and for the care of our elders."

Does it make sense to then go back and generate Pride, Injustice, Sin and Demonic Attacks that lead to that False Doctrine?  I'm pretty sure the answer will be "Yes" but the book doesn't seem to mention or recommend that method, and I'm wondering if that's for a reason.

[Neal]

Fred, in the rules set, Vincent tosses out an appeal: if you begin with the highest level of "wrongness" and work backward from there, he wants to hear about your success or (spectacular) failure.

I'll admit I haven't run the game yet, though I'm hoping to begin my first series this coming week.  But I have been designing a few towns, just to work the kinks out of my understanding of the system.  Based only on what I've run across, I think you'd have to have something leading up to the False Doctrine, some kind of originary pride, y'know?  I mean, in a community which originally valued a "mind your own business" approach to family, how in the world did the whole congregation get onboard with this "one big family" idea?  Who started it, and why?  How were the others convinced to join?

I suppose you could run a town where this wasn't explained, but it seems to me you'd be missing out on a lot of interesting pride and sin by doing so.  I mean, who was the first guy who decided he could discipline another guy's kids (or wife)?  What happened then?  Did anyone get run out of town for not going along?  Was anyone murdered?  Hey, you could build into this town a whole creepy level of menace just below the surface.  Maybe not everyone wanted to be part of this big happy family.  Maybe they weren't given a choice.  Maybe, in fact, there's something going on that makes them terribly, horribly afraid to speak out.  So they just keep smiling and nodding, secretly hoping the Dogs will save them from whatever it is that keeps them complacent.  Jeez, a happy town held together through fear and sorcery... sounds a little like a Twilight Zone episode.  "Smile, Brother Jeremy.  Smile, or he'll put you in the cornfield."

[Vaxalon]

Oh, I'm not talking about leaving the preceding steps out entirely.  I'm going back and filling those in, finding pride/injustice/sin/demonic attacks that lead there.  I'm just starting in the middle instead of at the end.

[lumpley]

Good luck! Let me know how it works out.

I personally find it very difficult to think about it that way; starting at the start and stopping once it's well-cooked is what comes naturally to me.

-Vincent

[Pôl Jackson]

I've only created one town so far (and re-created it... and re-re-created it... and re-re-re-created it), and I stalled big time when I didn't start at the beginning. I would work backwards to create Pride and Injustice that did, in fact, lead to the elements I wanted, but they never quite worked right. I didn't finish Hobbestown until I sat down and thought, "what is it about this town that I find so interesting?" Then I took that core, problematic issue, and turned it directly into Pride. Bingo!

I'd say, as long as you end up with a solid Pride - something that you, personally, feel is interesting and problematic - then it doesn't matter how you got there. I think that it's harder to do if you're working backwards, but I'm sure it could be done. Let us know how that works out for you.