Who can start conflicts; who can use items; I don't get demonic fallout.

[phargle]

We just finished our Dogs in the Vineyard campaign.  The characters evolved and we saved a few towns;  for us, this was one of the coolest games we've ever played - and we game a lot using some mighty sophisticated systems.  Thank you for writing this.

I'm probably going to be running the next campaign, so I have a few questions-

Who can start conflicts?  My reading is that the narrator describes what is happening, and the players launch conflicts if they don't want something to happen;  otherwise, it happens.  This means NPCs do not start conflicts.  Is that correct?

I have two questions on belongings:

My buddy swung his gun at a bad guy, rolling dice for the gun as he did so.  The bad guy wrestled with him, and managed to force him to take the blow - so my buddy let go of the gun.  The GM then had the bad guy roll dice (the same as were listed on my buddy's character sheet) for the gun and swing it at my buddy.  Is that correct?  It seems to me like we should have used the improvised item rules, meaning the gun might still have been big and excellent but would not have provided the 1d4. 

We faced a mob of natives.  The GM rolled stats for the leader, plus the bonus gained by each ally the leader had.  Then he rolled dice for each gun wielded by the natives when they pointed rifles at us and demanded our surrender.  I am thinking that allies don't give you dice for their items - only for one of their traits each - which means things worked out more or less properly dice-wise since they didn't roll for their traits. But the question remains.

Last, I don't get demonic fallout.  You can use ceremony to do sees and raises and that determines fallout.  Who suffers that fallout?  The possessed person?  Does that mean a possessed person can die from Dogs using ceremony on them?  What happens if we use ceremony against clear demonic influence that isn't in a possessed person?  Do the fallout dice even have an effect?  This never came up in the game because we just didn't get it.  My guess is fallout in this case is best treated by the rule letting the Dogs gain bonus dice for their next conflict.  Any advice?

Thanks!

[lumpley]

Cool!

1) Anybody can start conflicts.

2) Use the improvised belongings rule.

Notice that by the improvised belongings rule, if you're using something for its intended purpose - a gun to shoot someone, an axe to chop something - you get dice per crap-normal-big-quality as usual. However, if you're using it for something other than its intended purpose - a gun to pistolwhip someone, an axe to prop open a door - you get a d6 is it's a reasonable thing to do and a d4 if it's a dumb or dangerous thing to do.

On top of those dice, guns always get an extra d4, no matter what you're using them for, improvised or not.

3) When I've done that, I've given the group NPC a group belonging, like "a bunch of guns, big, 1d8 1d4." The rules are silent; whatever seems best, case by case, is what you should do.

4) These days, when NPCs take fallout I practically always give the players the bonus dice for the next conflict. I give NPCs normal fallout only when there's no way around it.

So yeah, whenever it seems like the demons should be taking fallout, use the bonus dice rule.

Sound good?

-Vincent

[phargle]

Perfect as always.  Thank you for the swift reply!

[Gugliandalf]

4) These days, when NPCs take fallout I practically always give the players the bonus dice for the next conflict. I give NPCs normal fallout only when there's no way around it.

Glad to read it, as I got in the same habit, except for "durable" NPCs that are likely to re-pop up sometimes soon and get thir fallout normally. :-)