First Question -- Resolution Without People

[Josh Roby]

This is the first among many questions I'll probably ask here.  I've read through the Resolution chapter and while it makes me grin and jump up and down, I'm kind of confused on whether the resolution mechanic addresses situations where the characters aren't being opposed by people (either NPCs or themselves).  I'm talking things like picking locks, navigating the route, fixing the broken wheel.  I mean, if I'm doing a "Plug the hole in the boat" conflict and I escalate to gunplay, I'll only be making more holes, not fewer!  My working hypothesis is that Dogs isn't about fixing wagon wheels so the mechanics don't address that, but I may be overlooking something.

Also, I'm sure this is an old one, but the Creating Characters chapter refers to the character sheet at the back of the book and there doesn't seem to be one back there...

[lumpley]

First, what you're looking for is Demonic Influence.

Second, you can download the character sheet here. Funnily, there's never been a character sheet in the back of the book; if I were a responsible person I'd go change that piece of text.

-Vincent

[lumpley]

Oh, maybe I should say something about escalating to gunfighting with the boat. Basically, sometimes you can't reasonably escalate - whether your opponent's the boat or your beloved old aunt, is shooting it or her really an option? No, not really.

That's life.

-Vincent

[dunlaing]

I get that there are situations where a character ought not to escalate for roleplaying reasons, and situations where it seems to stretch common sense for a character to escalate, but mechanically, isn't it both possible and unlikely to result in badness (like a dead Aunt)?

Convincing your dear old aunt to take out the garbage:

I've got only a 1 left. I pull out my revolver and shoot Aunt Claire in the foot. I roll my dice for gunplay and for my revolver and get 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6, 8. I raise with the two 1s for a 2. Mechanically, there's no way for the GM to take fallout on a raise of 2, so Aunt Claire won't be hurt. She might have to dance a bit to avoid the bullet at her feet, but who doesn't like the scene where the cowboy makes someone dance by shooting at their feet? On my next turn, I can switch back to talking actions to convince her, using the nice dice I rolled off of my shooting.

Plugging the hole in the boat:

I'm not doing so well at plugging the hole in the boat. It's a funny shaped hole and I'm frustrated. "That there hole is shaped like the Devil his own self, and I mean to exorcise him," I shoot the hole with my trusty revolver, putting a halo above the devil hole. I rolls me some extra dice and raise the lowest two on this action, then switch back to more actions that might reasonably help me plug the hole in the boat.

[xenopulse]

... or you could just say yes to things like lockpicking and fixing shit when there's no obvious conflict involved.  The "say yes or roll the dice" rule is there for a reason.

[Vaxalon]

On this topic, in a recent game, I had some PC's decide that it was a good idea to go tramping through the woods on an unfamiliar mountainside in the middle of the night.

I presented a conflict, relating to stumbling around in the dark.  When I put it up, it seemed unnecessarily cheesy and a little punitive, but I figured I'd learn something about whether doing things like that worked.

Demonic Influence was at 2d10, so there really wasn't much chance that the PC's would actually fail to make it down the mountain.  They had more than enough resources to beat it...  but they DID take fallout.

One of the PC's narrated his "take the blow" as stumbling into a briar patch.  I figured that warranted d8's and away we went...  and we had some of the best RP to be had in that town as one Dog tries to keep the other's body and soul together.

[lumpley]

That briar patch must've been fuckin' hardcore.

I like the idea. That's a dangerous world to play Dogs in. Cool.

-Vincent
and pardon my Saxon

[Vaxalon]

I narrated a broken tree branch, an unlucky stumble, a perforated femoral artery, and a blood-soaked Coat.

Yeah.  Hardcore.

So don't be afraid to pull out the dice once in a while, that's what I learned.

[Ron Edwards]

Hiya,

This reminds me of the questions I used to field about HeroQuest (then Hero Wars) and Sorcerer.

Basically, divide up everything the characters deal with into "people" and "furniture." The tricky part (to a gamer) is that sometimes things like "the door" or "the pit" or "the mountain" are people, and sometimes things like "the soldier" or "the messenger" or "the chambermaid" are furniture.

But once you have that distinction down, then it's easy: when a player-character has a conflict of interest with a person, then it's time for dice, or more properly, for resolution.

"We must get past this terrible mountain" is not a conflict ... unless the mountain is a person. Do we ever call it a person? Nope. But if it plays that role in our minds, then you're going to have great conflicts. If the conflict of interest with it can be thought of in human terms, as in "this mountain is a dreadful, ruthless place," then great! Or more subtly, if the mountain's features prompt what is called, in Primetime Adventures, character issues, then we're all good to. In play, you (we, I) should be asking the same questions of ourselves regarding the local lord in the local castle.

But if the mountain is furniture? Then it doesn't matter what you roll, how many times, or what risks to the character sheet's numbers it poses, applying the resolution procedures is horrible and boring for everyone. The same applies if we're talking about the local lord in the local castle - because he might be furniture, and if so, then I'd rather go wash the dishes or clean out the shower trap than spend one minute applying the resolution procedures to interacting with him.

If you're ever unsure about which might apply in a given situation during play, simply do a little Color for the relevant person or thing, and see what the other people at the table say. Their responses will tell you, straight-up, with no ambiguity.

All of which is to agree with many posts so far in this thread. I hope this construction serves as a practical guide.

Best,
Ron

[Neal]

Ron, that helps me quite a bit, and it gives me an idea.

I know Demonic Influence is helpful within a town, but what about between towns?  What about the thunderstorm that catches the Dogs out in the open?  Maybe I'll treat major elements of the scenery as NPCs, straight down the line.  I mean, if I'm going to throw an electrical storm at a group of players, why shouldn't it be treated as an opponent in every regard?  I can give it Stats, Traits, perhaps even Belongings.  I wonder if this would work.

Of course, not everything deserves that level of treatment, as you point out.  I don't like the idea that players can be stopped cold by every little bit of scenery, as often happens in the more rules-heavy RPGs.  Nothing is duller than watching a group of players trying unsuccessfully to get past the last locked door in a dungeon (unless, of course, it's being one of those players).  That's where "say yes or roll the dice" comes in.  Choose your battles and fire for effect, rather than forcing your players to fight the furniture just because it's there.  "Must... open... this... pickle jar!"

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Neal,

I mean, if I'm going to throw an electrical storm at a group of players, why shouldn't it be treated as an opponent in every regard?  I can give it Stats, Traits, perhaps even Belongings.  I wonder if this would work.

Yes, it works. If the storm is a character. If it either (a) has priorities of its own, like a gate of a beseiged city seems to have in some stories; or (b) brings up issues for characters, as with starvation or similar. That is why Demonic Influence exists in the game at all, to play this role and to assign it easy-to-use dice mechanics. I suppose you could round it out (and make it very dangerous) with traits if you'd like. Clearly that'd be the solution between towns.

But you cannot assign game-mechanics to a storm, hit your players with it, and just say, "See, see, it's a character, mechanically! This is therefore an engaging conflict!" Nope. This is a group activity. You find out whether the storm is a character by first presenting it as such, and then seeing whether they agree.

Very important point: the same goes for the "people" NPCs. If you figure that your hayseed, colorful farmer is a Person in your game, and expect some cool conflict to occur, but your players decide for whatever reason that he's furniture, you are in for a world of dysfunctional shit when you keep trying to force conflict, and to make it be fun. It won't be.

Advanced point on top of that: consider, in all the games you've participated in, how many of the player-characters have essentially been furniture? Scary, eh?

Best,
Ron

[Josh Roby]

Ron, I use the same consideration, although I use drama terms (never having been involved in a play in my life).

Characters are active elements of the game, with stats and agendas.
Props are inactive elements of the game, which (at best) give a little die bonus to Characters using them or have no mechanical effect at all.

[lumpley]

Ha! This reminds me of one of the times I ran Tower Creek. The second wife is false-married to the deputy sherrif, right? So the Dogs are there telling the second wife what's what and what she's going to do about it, and I have the deputy jump up, like "wait a second, don't I have some say -"

You're right, Ron - the players looked at me like I'd given the chair an opinion.

-Vincent

[Neal]

Yes, it works. If the storm is a character. If it either (a) has priorities of its own, like a gate of a beseiged city seems to have in some stories; or (b) brings up issues for characters, as with starvation or similar. That is why Demonic Influence exists in the game at all, to play this role and to assign it easy-to-use dice mechanics. I suppose you could round it out (and make it very dangerous) with traits if you'd like. Clearly that'd be the solution between towns.

Right, okay.  That makes sense.  So the storm that's been brewing in the sky, adding special effects to the last town, and is now coming down on the Dogs while they're racing for shelter -- that would be the storm to develop into character status, if and only if the players see the storm as an engaging and important story element prior to its mechanical transformation into a character.  If they say things like, "Damn, that storm's movin' in fast, boys.  Best haul ass, or it's gonna piss on us all night long," then I should feel justified in developing the storm into a full-fledged conflict, whatever mechanics I use.  But if I mention the storm in all its ominous glory, and the players say, "Yeah, okay, well, we're going to go see what's going on in Milledgeville," then I should let the storm remain a bit of colorful furniture and be done with it.

I may try some other things before I go the whole hog and generate Stats (et al) for the storm.  I'll at least wait until I've played the game a few times and seen how the outcomes shake loose as the dice multiply.  I may just decide to use Demonic Influence to represent the "mood" of the terrain or weather.  We'll see.  Anyway, thanks for the heads-up.

Advanced point on top of that: consider, in all the games you've participated in, how many of the player-characters have essentially been furniture? Scary, eh?

You ain't kidding.  I've had a few players whose place at the table could have been usurped by a particularly pungent wheel of cheese, and few would have suspected the swap.

[Sydney Freedberg]

I may try some other things before I go the whole hog and generate Stats (et al) for the storm.

Remember (and this I struggle with too) that you don't have to "generate stats" for anything: You have a handy list of prefabricated blank proto-NPCs, and writing in the appropriate words can turn the same proto-NPC into a person, natural phenomenon, or abstract state of mind, whichever you wish. (Capes is the one game I've seen that gleefully encourages this -- the rulebook includes sample characters like "Martial Law," "Natural Disaster," and something that amounts to the state of being "not from around here" -- but the principle can be applied in Dogs and elsewhere).