[DitV] Unopposed conflicts newbie question

[Gugliandalf]

Well-met to everyone.

I just had my maiden flight on sunday (Liberty Branch) and it went GREAT from all POWs, players were two very experienced players and two real newbies, and everybody said: "one of the best games I ever plaied"!

...except for a small doubt about mechanics.

I feel in my bones that it has been asked and answered before, but i couldn't find  it either in the book or here, no matter how hard I tired, so...

Q: When there's a conflic without oppononts, which dice GM has to roll apart form demonic influence and everything else? I mean the bare bones roll in such cases?

TIA

[Warren]

IMO, Dogs is about conflict with people, so if there is a conflict with no opponents, just say "Yes" anyway. It'll make your game better, I'm sure.

But if, for some reason you need this to be a conflict, p76 of Dogs Revised has this to say:

WHEN A CHARACTER LAUNCHES A CONFLICT AND THERE’S NO CLEAR OPPOSITION, I roll 4d6 plus the Demonic Influence.

Which is a bit low compared to an NPC, say (so you can pretty much expect the Dogs to win these kinds of conflict anyway).

But if you look at this Actual Play thread, you will notice how Neal was asking for help on making more substantial conflicts without living, breathing opponents. In Vincent's reply, he says that you should consider who is benefiting from the situation, and use them as the opposing NPC, even though they may not be in the room. Joshua BishopRoby and Ralph Mazza also point out that you can create a force-of-nature as you would with any other NPC:

I still think you'd be entirely within the spirit of the game to stat up "The Cholera" or "The Famine" or "The Sandstorm" as a character. I wouldn't do that for "The Fence that my horse is about to jump over" or trivial obstacles like that, but any devastating force of nature that can be tied to demonic influence I'd say sure.

Hope that helps, but I would always suggest looking at "why can't I just say yes" as the first port of call in these kinds of situation.

[Gugliandalf]

Thanks a lot! It really helped me out of doubt.

BTW, I'm already delighted with "just say Yes", first time I said "Yes" it was a great relief.