[DitV] An old-book Traveller experience, almost

[Mark D. Eddy]

So, I've finally gotten a group together to play Dogs. Five Dogs, which is just slightly insane, and we're halfway through our first town. In the Accomplishments phase, one of the characters hoped that she'd graduate at the top of her class. Well, she won that conflict, but in the process took 10d8 of Fallout (she had to go to her 2d6 bodice dagger and 2d6 trait "If you thought my tongue was sharp, you should see my knife!" and escalate to fighting to finally win: I'd rolled three tens, a nine, two sixes, a five, and a two...). You might see where this is going: 16 on two of the dice, and she's mortally wounded. Then, one of the other characters with a healing trait took over and darn nearly lost the conflict to keep her alive. It took another character coming in (used as a Belonging: 1d8 because he's 6'5" and almost 300 lbs...) and a ceremony trait being called on (with Calling By Name) to stabilize her. The scene was intense, with spurting blood, ripped petticoats, dead relatives, and a life hanging in the balance.

When everything was said and done, one of the players leaned back and said, "Did we just nearly have a Traveller moment, there?" Most of us, who are indeed that old, laughed, and then had to explain the reference to the youngest player.

My question is, did I do something wrong? If not, has anyone else ever had an experience where the accomplishment either nearly or actually killed the character involved?

~MDE

[oliof]

From your description, it doesn't sound like you'd done anything wrong. The player could easily have given and not come out on top of the class after seeing the dice ... and have taken the trait "I should have been on top of the class".

[Filip Luszczyk]

Ah, yes, we had a similar situation during initiatory conflicts at least once. Comparisons to Traveller were inevitable, I recall

[Moreno R.]

The accomplishment phase is placed during the training phase, so it's assumed that if the characters get hurt, there is always someone (a teacher, another dog in training, really, anyone: they are in the biggest city in all the faith territory...) to cure them. It's not necessary to roll for this healing. No dogs should ever die in the accomplishment conflict. But seeing that you got a cool scene from this, I wouldn't say that you did anything "wrong" by showing this follow-up conflict.

I am a little baffled by the amount of fallout: 10D8? In an accomplishment conflict? Where the GM is limited in his/her dice and can't escalate? Did the player know that she wasn't so limited and she could get dice from escalations or objects, or she did choose to not do it for some reason?

[Mark D. Eddy]

Well, I gave you my numbers. I don't recall her roll, but it was really, really poor. Like her highest die was a four poor. She kept throwing things at the conflict, but kept Taking the Blow, and I was Reversing it -- essentially, I was able to use many of my dice twice, and she was hard-pressed to get enough to Block.

[lumpley]

She could have given, and she didn't. It's on her.

On the other hand, me personally, when I'm the GM and somebody goes to medical care in initiation, I say yes instead of rolling dice.

-Vincent

[Mark D. Eddy]

I'm writing up my actual play reports for this campaign over at rpgnet at http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=413276, a thread titled [DitV]Five in Authority: Accomplishments and Cutter's Hollow

[David Artman]

On the other hand, me personally, when I'm the GM and somebody goes to medical care in initiation, I say yes instead of rolling dice.

I'll join in by saying YES.

The only way a Dog can die in initiation is if the GM kills him or her. Period. There's nothing in the rules that I have read which states that the GM can't give EVEN when he or she has a dice value advantage. Ponder that....

I kind of imagine my Ancients and Prophets as folks who won't kill a student--even an ambitious one--at initiation. Easy enough to put down the rabid ones when they return home after a town or three.

[Ramidel]

The question is...would a Say Yes have cheapened that aspect of her? If it would have, then you did right to run it through to the healing conflict. As you said, it was an intense scene, and just saying yes then would have dropped some of the desperate tension. She was immensely ambitious and driven there, to the point of being a Blood Knight. Did she learn from it? If yes, then clearly the conflict was the right thing to do. If not, then she's seen the consequences and it still came out as a plus.

(Also, if this is a new player, then the initiation is not a place to pull punches; it's a place to show, before the game is really started, how the system works. And if a Dog is going to walk the path of "I never give up! Never!" then there's a system for that. System intent is that sometimes, you're gonna give or you're gonna face the heat.)

And I'm not fully in agreement that you don't kill off a Dog in the initiation phase. The Prophets and the Ancients don't want to send Dogs into the fire that can't take the heat, and in my book, that means that they're better off dying in training then dying while a town is only halfway fixed (halfway fixed meaning "broken so it can be fixed again." Particularly because pride is the foundational sin.

[oliof]

The question is...would a Say Yes have cheapened that aspect of her?

I usually give very fast at least in one initiation with new players for various reasons: I like what that player wanted to do; I want to show-off giving during an important part to make it more visible; the dice show that I cannot do anything about it anyway, ...

Regarding giving, an initiatory conflict is no special thing for me. It's just in there. The same is true for saying yes.