Quick question about Demonic Influence in Tower Creek branch (from the book)

[Warren]

I'm trying to assemble a DitV game myself, and I'm curious as to how this works. When someone posts the plan for a town, at what point in the scheduled events do the Dogs come in (and thus, perhaps, derail said events for the sake of gaming creamy goodness)?

I'm not sure if I'm jumping at shadows here, but this paragraph has set alarm bells ringing in my head. When you create a town in Dogs, everything you prepare has already happened. Things like "HATE & MURDER: The townsfolk hang Br. Caleb from the main tree" are not "scheduled events" -- they are events that have already happened: Br. Caleb is hanging dead from that tree at the start of the game. The Dogs arrive with the town in whatever state it has been described in; and nobody knows what will happen next. The NPCs all have their what they want from the Dogs, so just start playing those NPCs making those demands!

Sorry if this is already clear to you, but having a "list of events" is certainly not how Dogs works. The mess is there from the start of the game; it's the Dogs job to sort things out afterward.

[Taltos]

I'm not sure if I'm jumping at shadows here, but this paragraph has set alarm bells ringing in my head. When you create a town in Dogs, everything you prepare has already happened.

Everything? The Dogs never get a chance to do "preventative maintenance"? I could easily see a fun town being some things have happened, and if you take your time more will happen... and then they have the issue of trying to avoid rushing to judgement.

But I realize that my experience is too limited to know.

[Warren]

Oh, you can certainly set up a town where all the NPCs are at each others throats, and the Dogs have to come in and deal with the fact Br.Able wants to kill Br.Seth or whatever (as specified in the "What do the townsfolk want" section).

But everything that has happened in the town's Hierarchy of Sin has already happened. Think of that as background, and the motivations of each of the named NPCs as your actual "adventure" and you won't go far wrong.

[lumpley]

Hey everybody, I think this thread's gone past its original purpose. Klaveshy and Noel, I believe you have unanswered questions, and maybe other people do too. Please start new threads for them!

(Maybe I should explain the reasoning there. The idea is that someday someone else might want an answer to the same question. If the answers are on the second or third page of a thread about something else, they'll be harder for this future person to find.)

Thanks!

-Vincent

[Doyce]

Right: sorry Vincent -- I should have encouraged that switch quite a few entries ago. My bad.

[lumpley]

Nah, no bad done. And definitely no need to apologize! Can you imagine how horrifying this forum'd be if every housekeeping post I make, someone apologizes? Yikes.

-Vincent