[DiTV ] All the Dogs do is murder!

[cdr]

Try them on Kettle Lake maybe?

If what your players are asking is "Is there anything not worth shooting a man for?" then it might be interesting to have a town where no one wants to be Steward, or one where some set of Dogs killed all the adults and now it's just children trying to get by.  If you have the sort of players who believe God wants their Dogs to shoot children in the face, well, that's something, isn't it?

If the players don't care about the communities their Dogs are there to protect and preserve, I think the game loses a lot of its strength.  It can still be fun, but I think it's less likely to be interesting.

[David Artman]

Initially, all I had to offer was said already: Put them into an "Oh, really--what about NOW?" situation. But....

Maybe be a bit dirty as a GM: did you folks have a Lines and Veils conversation? Well, if not, do so... and then slap them around with their Veils, maybe even cross one Line. Pick a single player's Line, one who can take a bit of heat and won't take it too personally. Definitely don't pick a Line several players don't want crossed, and always remember I Will Not Abandon You. (Ref: http://www.fairgame-rpgs.com/comment.php?entry=32) The Veils stuff will chill... but Line crossing can invade real life very quickly... be careful and don't forget you're all friends.

I, too, like the ides of giving them a Town in which previous Dogs have made them look like Gandhi. Let them see a real bloodbath. Or, for maximum OOMPH, have them arrive while other Dogs are still there (it could happen!) and plop them in the middle of a situation where the other Dogs CLEARLY are strayed from the path of righteousness, just abusing their authority to, say, have all the young women, married or not, "service" them each night. Even the 13 year olds. Push them. But here's the trick: the Town IS steeped in sin, the other Dogs just don't care, are oblivious. Sorcery, False Worship: all that going down, but hidden and WAY over-shadowed (at first, at least) by the other Dogs' misanthropy. Let your murderous players vent against the other Dogs (which, by the way, won't be open and shut, like with mere NPCs), and then WHAM, have the townsfolk they "saved" immediately take advantage, try to divide and conquer, begin to assassinate the Dogs, etc. But here's the final trick: you just CAN'T let the whole Town be sinners, or they're back to Hiroshima tactics.

Last notion: how do the Ancients and Prophets feel about (a) replacing Stewards at an alarming rate, every time this pack of Dogs rolls through a Town, (b) loss of tithes as scores of Faithful wind up dead for minor sins, or (c) complaints following the Dogs from Town to Town, a constant stream of horrified letters and telegrams and even a posse demanding your Dogs' heads? What's the Regional Authority think of these murderous messiahs? What happens if you pit the Dogs against them? (This is best if your Dogs have a history of killing non-Faithful, who are technically out of their jurisdiction!)

HTH;
David

[lumpley]

In MY Mountain Territory, the Territorial Authority doesn't recognize the Dogs' right to shoot people at all. They will always be wanted vigilantes.

-Vincent

[dindenver]

Hi!
  Don't take this the wrong way. And I don't want to cast blame.
  But, your group seems to have skipped the discussion in the beginning where you and the other players set all the dials. I found that once we started talking about Is the Faith Dogma or Real. Are demon supernatural entities or just the dark side everyone experiences. etc. Will bring about a lot more meaningful information that is not related to those dials. Like what are the players looking for from the game and what parts get them jazzed.
  Also, if you give the majority (if not all) of the authorship to that initial challenge at the end of CharGen to the players, they will tell you, almost explicitly what kind of game they want to play. Did someone die in the Killer Dog's Initial Conflict? I am willing to bet they did. But, if you ran yours like I did mine, they usually involve training at the temple or growing up right before they got called to train. Almost everyone involved in those types of scenes do not deserve to die, you know? So, that when someone like that does die, that's a signal to you, isn't it?

  Also, there is a trick you can do to get players to think about escalation. And by that I mean actually think. Every time its their turn to see or raise, ask them if they want to escalate to get more dice. First, it gives them the tools to decide what they want to do with their chars and second, it takes away the "forbidden fruit" aspect of whipping out the gun. It can't be forbidden if the GM has asked me 10 times already if I wanna whip out my gun...

  I mean, you said that you discovered pretty quick that you guys wanted something different from DITV. But, shouldn't that have been apparent during char gen? Again, I am not calling you a bad GM or anything, just pointing out that the next time you try to run DITV, really listen to the players and try and find a synthesis between what the various players want to find a common ground, you know?

  Good luck man!

[lumpley]

I just have to note quickly that I'm not in favor of this up-front dial-setting discussion Dave's suggesting. I'll start a thread about that in a little while.

Do, absolutely do, make sure that everybody gets what the game is and actually wants to play it, before you play. That's in the book. And do pay attention to initiations. And Dave's escalation trick is very good.

-Vincent

[chuckles73]

Just a random idea, but perhaps you could create a town where the dogs' reputation proceeds them. I'm not certain what the sin progression would be, but perhaps the townsfolk are praying to a false "King" to protect them from the vicious dogs that they'd heard slaughtered the next town over? Of course, in this case, killing all the people might be justified, because of the false worship. Are you players not realizing what they're doing? Or are the players just getting a kick out of shooting everyone?  If the former, then slap them in the face with their own actions causing the sins of the town. If the latter... I don't know.