Dust Devils Nouveau

[Matt Wilson]

The new Dust Devils is hot.

Crap, I suppose I have to write more than that.

So I played it, right? It was me, and Matt LeSnydaire, and this whole posse of varmints what come down from Madison to play. Clyde, Victor, Sarah and Daniel. They surrounded me, and I was ready to slap leather, and we hadn't even started playing yet. That's how good the game is.

There's this ultra neat thing in it now where it says "I used to be _________" and "Now I'm ________" which pretty much captures the concept of every Western that ever was made in this little tiny spot on the sheet. My sheet said "used to be the town drunk. Now I'm the sheriff." I wrote that and three seconds later knew for sure that my devil had to be "yeller." I knew that I had goals for the character, and Matt seemed very able to look at everyone else's sheets and go, "ah, yes, I know what to do with all of you" in the wink of an eye. Damn, it's just really succinctly awesome. A brilliant observation of westerns. Snyder, you rule.

And this was Saturday morning, and I was hungover, and seriously it was smooth. I think playing the game made my headache go away. There were shootouts and tomfoolery and high-tailin' of it and seriously dramatic endings. My sheriff threw down his badge in shame at the end and went back to his bottle, and I thought the other endings were way more dramatic than that. The story also began and ended in a church. Rad.

Is everyone getting what I'm saying? Set some money aside.

[coffeestain]

Totally awesome game and I love the improvements/changes.  It made the game a lot tighter and more directed.  We all reached endgame within an hour and a half or so (we were pushing pretty hard) and I never felt like the story wasn't paced as I wanted it to be, which was a problem I had in my first game of the first edition.

I've got money set aside, and you should too.

Regards,
Daniel

[Eric J-D]

Okay these two posts were just a big fuckin' tease! 

Dammit I want some details.  Tell us about some of the slick new changes that have been made to the game and tell me quick before I start drowning my sorrows in a bottle of Tequila over the fact that June is not, from my view, just around the corner.

Eric

[Jason L Blair]

I played in a different session of the new Dust Devils but I want to say that I love the changes as well. The usedta/am bit is classic. There's part of me that wishes the game had less of a death spiral just so characters could put a lot on the line yet still have the potential for long-term play but I'm not sure that's within DD's core concept.

[Mayuran]

There's part of me that wishes the game had less of a death spiral just so characters could put a lot on the line yet still have the potential for long-term play but I'm not sure that's within DD's core concept.

I feel the same way. The death spiral somewhat limits the ability of a character to deal with his devil adequetely. A character can be taken out (as john and caz were during the Seven Sins game) in two conflicts.

any thoughts, matt?

peace

mayuran

[DevP]

Do chips work in some of the ways like they did? I recall that they could let you avoid a conflict, let you heal, and also could keep you from zeroing-out from the Harm in a conflict. Would those options have prevented the instant-KOs?

[Matt Snyder]

Weird, I thought I already posted a reply.

Regarding the death spiral, there's one thing I want to get clarified. Are people concerned about the death spiral because it makes the game less workable and actually less fun? Or, are people concerned about it because games just aren't as long? My experience is that the game is workable, perfectly fun, but probably shorter than most other RPGs. Jason? Mayuran?

To me, Death Sprial = "Wildly out of control mechanics such that I can make no more meaningful input into the game because my character sucks so badly, and it just keeps getting worse."

I don't find this a problem very often. But, that said, I very likely will have an optional rule (or rules) in the revised version that offers alternatives to lengthen games.

Dev, there are some modifications to chips, and after this weekend, likely more!

Chips can:

Gain 1 card
Re-draw 1 card
Bid for narration
"Stave off" end game (this one was new this weekend, and it worked beautifully. Basically, when you have to use a 0-rated stat, you can fend off the end game by spending chips, and each chip you spend is a card.
Use chips to dish out harm 1:1 during your character's end game only (1:1 means one score on one other character's sheet, and you get to pick which score for that other character).

During the car ride home, I thought of another use that tickles me to death: Use chips to HEAL harm 1:1 in end-game only.

I'm also very strongly leaning toward healing harm on NON-ZERO scores with chips, 1:1, with no limitation. Then, players can make chip reserves at the onset of a game a dial. Bunches of chips means the game will last longer, probably be less gritt. No or few chips means it'll get ugly fast.

[John Harper]

Matt:

I really enjoyed the new Dust Devils. I agree that it makes for a short game as currently presented, but I see no big problem with that.

Healing Harm with chips 1-for-1 sounds good to me. I think you should even be able to do it during conflict, giving up chips instead of taking harm.

[rafial]

Matt... is there still the notion of "healing conflicts"?  I found those key when I was running the original system (which was arguably more severe that what Matt W and John H have described to me for the new one).  Players would collect serious harm, and then have to seek out scenes where they could have healing conflicts to build back up.  Provided a nice pacing to things, and running directly from a one conflict to another became a quick way to "go to the devil", so to speak.

[Matt Snyder]

Rafial, I was moving away from healing conflicts. Repairing Harm (aka Difficulty) remains the murkiest of my revisions, as this discussion highlights!

You raise a good point for why they might remain. I'm going to have to decide, and soon. Fortunately, I like the notion of adding a kind of optional rules section, with explanations on what the options mean for a game.

[DevP]

I'm personally fine if this is shorter than most games, though it's cool if there are player options for stretching that out. (Straight to zero for me, man!)

I like the idea of just using chips for 1:1 heal (rather than needing conflicts), but then again, I had a really good Actual Play incident involving a healing conflict...

Kid Kelly, a tough female mercenary, was defeated and trapped under her motorcycle (uh, we were on Mars) and she could only look upward in defeat as her rival took away her pearl-handled revolvers. Greatly hurt,  we staged a healing conflict in a flashback to the first time she killed a man (this tying into her devil, "I've killed many men"). She won the flashback and threw the motorbike off of her in a feat of strength, and new determination to get her guns back.

So it worked for me.

[DevP]

In the above, when I say "options" I just mean "choices". And although I like my anecdote, I'm sure we could have worked that kind of scene into most any mechanic (or even without one).

[rafial]

Well, I'll have to give a positive vote in favor of healing conflicts.  I think they serve a similar role to recovery scenes in Trollbabe, or refreshment scenes in TSOY, where we get a mechanical incentive to focus on aspects of characters that normally get short shrift in most role playing.

[Jason L Blair]

Regarding the death spiral, there's one thing I want to get clarified. Are people concerned about the death spiral because it makes the game less workable and actually less fun? Or, are people concerned about it because games just aren't as long? My experience is that the game is workable, perfectly fun, but probably shorter than most other RPGs. Jason? Mayuran?

To me, Death Sprial = "Wildly out of control mechanics such that I can make no more meaningful input into the game because my character sucks so badly, and it just keeps getting worse."

As long as you think it fits, I'd love to see a subsystem that allows for longer term play.

While I love DD's "western film emulation" style, the draw of the game is having the devil on my back. I'd like characters to struggle more with their devils before finding endgame (by death or retirement or whatever).

I don't think the mechanics are wildly out of control (and I don't think that's a major component of a Death Spiral--the major component for me is the lack of a road back--but I'm content to simply disagree). In my experience, I seem to be simply be playing out the final moments of a character's life and the devil is more background that'll bite him in the ass eventually than something the character will actively struggle with. I like the former--living out the final moments--but I'd really like to see more give and take with the devil, more struggle and more conflict with the devil; right now, there seems to be little room for redemption. At times, the devil seems to simply be something that will seal my character's fate rather than an active element I must either fight against or give into.