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[DitV] Comprehensive Alternate Setting Thread...

Started by foucalt, October 04, 2005, 07:52:28 PM

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foucalt

October 04, 2005, 07:52:28 PM
Hi all - I'm relatively new to the forge, and definitely new to DitV. I bought DitV, and really want to play it, but one of my key players (in fact, the guy I think would be best at GM-ing it) is totally turned off by the Western aspect of it. That's fine I guess - I've looked through a lot of the threads here, especially those about alternate settings, and I think that's the direction we'll have to go. I know some people feel that it oughta be played canonically first, and I acknowledge that would probably be better, but I just don't see it happening that way. We're one of those tight-knit been-playing-together-for-years kind of groups, and so essentially everyone has to totally buy in for it to work.

I understand ahead of time that for any alternate setting, key adaptations are making the Town generation sin progression stuff work; making sure the new Ceremonies make sense and map; having the Dogs' authority be recognizeable; and having a totem object to fill the role of the Coats. I'm not necessarily looking to flesh any of those out here, but if you care to include them as examples, great!

What I'm hoping this thread will be is at least a quick concept-list of ways DitV has been played or could pretty easily be adapted to play. To start, we have the ones Vincent includes in the book:

  • Dogs in the Vineyard: psuedo-Mormon gunslingers in an Antebellum religious utopia of the American West
  • Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God: Early Colonial witch-hunters keeping the Massachussetts colony free from witchcraft and sorcery
  • Hounds of God: Inquisitors of the Spanish Inquisition rooting out heretics any way they can
  • Thugs in the Family: modern Mafia enforcers keeping the mob from destroying itself by disunity or selling out to the cops
  • Untouchables in the Windy City: Eliot Ness and his gang rooting out police corruption and getting the booze off the street, with Law as Faith

and some of the ones I've seen onsite here:
Some others I've thought of that might work (some of these have probably been brought up here, but I haven't seen them):
  • Templars in the Sands: The Templars travel from Crusader army to army, keeping greed and idolatry from hindering the retaking of the Holy Land
  • Knights in the Mist: Charlemagne or Arthurian-era Knights sworn to further the True King by destroying the influence of the old paganism
  • Judges in the Promised Land: Old Testament (Judges-era) warrior-prophets keeping the Children of Israel from seeking after other gods (i.e. Gideon)
  • Musketeers in the Kingdom: there has got to be a great way to make the Dogs into swashbucklers, hasn't there?
  • Sea-Dogs of the Spanish Main: maybe your Dogs keep Privateers from becoming full-on pirates? this one has issues, but they're PIRATES!!!
  • Snake-Eaters in the Jungle: Special Forces operating with their own chain of command in Vietnam - Apocalypse Now is a great DitV story!

Thoughts on any of these or suggestions for settings I've missed are very welcome here.

(Real name: David)
hmmm... wonder why whenever I preview, my <li> tag for Templars doesn't work...
David Younce

dave dot younce at gmail dot com

lumpley

#1
October 04, 2005, 08:24:32 PM
David! You've saved me substantial work. Thank you!

-Vincent

Andrew Morris

#2
October 04, 2005, 08:32:49 PM
You might want to try DitV straight the first time, before going into an alternate setting. That way, it'll be easier to see what connects and what doesn't. You could bill it to your group as a preview, where you get familiar with the rules before launching into the "real" game.
Download: Unistat

foucalt

#3
October 04, 2005, 08:39:17 PM
Acknowledged.

What's at Stake: Can Dave get his crew to play DitV?

Predicted outcome: Overall, they have more dice than me, so i'm probably going to have to Take a Blow, which will almost certainly be loss of the canonical setting. However, if I roll well enough, I will be able to get them to play at least once in the Deseret setting so that we all know how the mechanics work and which way the tumbleweed is blowing. If I roll very poorly, the whole idea gets shelved and we keep on with our usual games.
David Younce

dave dot younce at gmail dot com

Andrew Morris

#4
October 04, 2005, 08:43:19 PM
Fair enough, David. Great job putting that list of settings together, by the way.
Download: Unistat

foucalt

#5
October 04, 2005, 09:15:09 PM
More found in Threads:
David Younce

dave dot younce at gmail dot com

Sydney Freedberg

#6
October 04, 2005, 10:09:04 PM
David, brilliant. Vincent, please make this a Sticky so newcomers can find it easily and we can keep updating it as new settings are devised - as a reporter on the defense beat, I've gotten sufficiently interested/irritated that I'm working up a "G.I.s in Iraq" variant (for which David's Vietnam link above will be very helpful; again, thanks).

Also, an addition: A generalization of the "SS in the Vineyard" mechanics to other unstable totalitarian systems, including the KGB/Cheka/OGPU in the Lenin-Stalin era, was also discussed towards the end of the thread. (see the bottom of http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=16895.0).

foucalt

#7
October 05, 2005, 01:53:58 AM
Thanks Sydney!
What about an Elizabethan setting:
All the Queen's Men: The players are the agents of the crown (or, more specifically, Lord Walsingham's men or agents of John Dee) in 1560s-1590s England, sorting out treasonous plots against the Queen. Treasonous influence comes from foreign sources and domestic supporters of other rulers, and from factions within the Church. Sin tree looks something like:
Misused Power or Self Interest or Idealogical Differences or Secret Religious Beliefs lead to
Injustice or Greed or Rumormongering lead to
Blaming the State or the Queen for your problems or Submitting to Foreign Influence, leads to
Dissenting in Private is sharing these views with others, which can lead to a Secret Conspiracy, which by its existence becomes
High Treason: a plot to overthrow the Queen, which will by necessity commit murders!

You get a sword, a horse, and a signet ring, plus maybe a cloak of office that takes the coat slot?

Ceremonies might include Invoking the Queen's Authority, Appealing to English Duty (maybe that's too Victorian?), Alchemical rituals if you've taken the John Dee track, and so forth.
David Younce

dave dot younce at gmail dot com

Tobias

#8
October 05, 2005, 08:58:08 AM
I guess Augurann slipped below the radar?

http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=14623.0
Tobias op den Brouw

- DitV misses dead gods in Augurann
- My GroupDesign .pdf.

lumpley

#9
October 05, 2005, 02:58:22 PM
Hey everybody.

Let's definitely not brainstorm in this thread. If you have an idea for an alternate setting, please feel free to start a new thread to discuss it - and then if you like, you can post a link to it here.

Let's keep this thread for links.

Thanks!

-Vincent

foucalt

#10
October 10, 2005, 03:11:59 PM
erm, I don't see this as "my job" or anything, but in the interest of keeping this sticky useful, I offer mangled summaries of more alternative settings that have been posted recently:
David Younce

dave dot younce at gmail dot com

Josh Roby

#11
October 29, 2005, 12:51:51 AM
While I think the Keepers of the Flame concept in the above post is keen and well-thought-out, I'd also be interested in Blue Rose played "Straight" using members of the Knights of the Blue Rose.  Go from town to town, spreading compassion, temperence, and understanding, lest the fires of hatred and bigotry overcome the world again.
On Sale: Full Light, Full Steam and Sons of Liberty | Developing: Agora | My Blog

hix

#12
October 29, 2005, 07:33:04 PM
'Agents in The Matrix' has some thoughts on adapting DitV to the world of hackers and AI.
Cheers,
Steve

Gametime: a New Zealand blog about RPGs

oliof

#13
October 30, 2005, 09:37:51 AM
Quote from: Joshua BishopRoby on October 29, 2005, 12:51:51 AM
While I think the Keepers of the Flame concept in the above post is keen and well-thought-out, I'd also be interested in Blue Rose played "Straight" using members of the Knights of the Blue Rose.  Go from town to town, spreading compassion, temperence, and understanding, lest the fires of hatred and bigotry overcome the world again.

Haven't thought of that one, really. This is probably a nice change not only in color but also in tonality. Would probably need more work for adjusting town creation and a rewrite of the sin progression ladder.

foucalt

#14
November 14, 2005, 06:41:45 PM
Quote from: Joshua BishopRoby on October 29, 2005, 12:51:51 AM
While I think the Keepers of the Flame concept in the above post is keen and well-thought-out, I'd also be interested in Blue Rose played "Straight" using members of the Knights of the Blue Rose.  Go from town to town, spreading compassion, temperence, and understanding, lest the fires of hatred and bigotry overcome the world again.
Here's Joshua's thread on it: http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=17487.0

Also:
Vineyard of Blood: WoD/Rice Vampires keeping the Kindred in line:
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=17475.0


Fashion Experts on a Reality TV Show
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=17555.0
David Younce

dave dot younce at gmail dot com
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