Re: My First Town - is it too bland?

[TomTitTot]

Yowza.

It's been a while, but I wanted to post here to say that my previous attempt to run Dogs was stillborn, but TOMORROW I'll be running this Town for two very enthusiastic players. I'm very excited about it.

As an aside, I'm wondering if any seasoned GMs could offer advice relating to First Time Sessions and games for Two Players?

Thanks so much!

-Pooka

[JC]

Yowza.

It's been a while, but I wanted to post here to say that my previous attempt to run Dogs was stillborn, but TOMORROW I'll be running this Town for two very enthusiastic players. I'm very excited about it.

As an aside, I'm wondering if any seasoned GMs could offer advice relating to First Time Sessions and games for Two Players?

Thanks so much!

-Pooka

advice, off the top of my head: cut straight to the chase, really throw the NPCs begging for help at the PCs

as for two players, that should work just fine

[oliof]

don't forget to put in some family into the town for the dogs, just so.

[David Artman]

And forget about "investigation" or "is she lying" conflicts. Get the accusations flying, be The King of Life in your Dogs' ears ("yeah, she's lying"), and frame the moral stances early. Other than that, the book has some solid advice regarding watching your most disgruntled (not happiest) player and letting him or her set the standard for trait invocation or ramping up the supernatural dial. And get the Dogs *hooked* into the town tight, to avoid the "burn 'em all and let The King sort 'em out" solution--tricky, but can be done with relationships or by keeping a crowd of "innocent bystanders" generally nearby, as Blocks and Things for the Baddies to use. For example, will the Dogs *really* want to go in guns blazing, once you as GM have Blocked with "a nearby young boy runs in front of you, yelling, 'Not my Pa, Mister Dog, PLEASE!" as you fire. He's hit, down and dieing.")

Of course, I've never GMed... but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night (and I spend WAY too much time on these boards reading and asking about DitV nuances!).
HTH;
David

[TomTitTot]

This was a really encouraging session. The players (Raf and Greg) really enjoyed themselves, commenting on how the dice really helped to create a ton of tension, and when I began to discuss other Indie Games they both demanded that we play Dogs again before doing anything else. That was excellent.

This is their first brush with Indie Games, btw, and they really dug it.

We didn't get through the entire town, however. We had to stop during a very climactic conflict with Sister Anne (Stakes: Sister Anne will realize her actions have been wrong) during which we had our first escalation (To fistfighting) when Anne took exception to these two young boys telling her she is wrong when she's sick and tired of being mistreated and beaten. Brother Heziah pushed her so hard she fell to the ground, shattering a chair beneath her, and he said "We will make you see the light of the Lord."

That's where we had to stop, sadly.

Seriously though, I wasn't totally sold on Dogs before, but now I'm all in. This rocked. I made mistakes (In the moment I forgot relatives, and didn't quite have enough people begging for help) but it was brilliant nonetheless.

Looking forward to next session!

Thanks for the excellent game, Vincent! We look forward to your visit to Edinburgh in March, and hope to see you at Conpulsion!