I’m finally getting a chance to run Dogs, yay! We went through character creation last night, and we should get to play the first town next week.

I met David, Jay, Jamie and Oliver when I used to run Amber games for at I-Con. Last year we decided to get together outside of the convention to play RPGs, since they never get a chance to play outside of I-Con and I needed a playtest group to test out some games that my local group isn’t interested in. I’ve only run about ten sessions of various games for them over the past seven or eight years, so I’m not too clear on their agendas, other than the fact that this is an excuse for them to actually get together and see each other – they’re old college buddies who never get together anymore except for gaming. Also, I canceled the last game I tried to run for them (Pretender) after one session, on the grounds that it was going to require more time and energy than I was willing to commit, so they may be a bit gun-shy at this stage. Hopefully we can overcome that.

I started out with the, “You guys trust me as a GM, right?” spiel, followed by “I hope no one actually hates Westerns.” To which Oliver responded that yes indeed, he actually does hate Westerns. Whoops. So we talked for a bit about why he hated Westerns, and he seemed satisfied when I explained that the game isn’t about gunslingers meeting for a shootout at high noon. So we spent an hour or so going over the setting and the conflict system, then moved on to character creation. The results:

Brother Aaron (Jay): Well-read, a skilled hunter and shootist, and somewhat arrogant about his gifts. The least developed of the characters.

Brother Jonas (David): A former lawman with the Territorial Authority. Raised outside the Faith, he had a crisis of conscience when he killed his partner for raping a woman. He converted in his late 30s, making him much older than the other Dogs.

Brother Jonathan (Jay): His parents were Mountain People; when his mother died birthing him, the tribe deemed him and his father tainted and cast them out. A trapper killed his father when he was 12; he spent the next several years in a boomtown amid bad company. He has only recently converted to the Faith.

(Yes, this is a classic Loner PC setup. I don’t know how I missed it during the session.)

Brother Malachi (Oliver): Raised in the sinful East, he traveled West after his sister died – a consequence of being possessed by a demon. He studies scripture and demonology with equal zest, and feels the need to atone for failing to prevent his sister’s death. Again, a recent convert to the Faith.

It’s interesting that we had three converts to the Faith, of which at least one is guaranteed to have no family involved in play – even if Brother Jonathan has living relatives among the Mountain People, he doesn’t know them, and he wasn’t fostered by Faithful parents. At best, I can have one of his roughneck buddies from his boomtown years show up; but I think I should talk to the player first. If he really wants to play the loner, then he might not give any investment to former buddy NPCs.

Unfortunately, I was a little pushy about how cool it is to have Traits spelled out as descriptive phrases, rather than one-word skills. Jay and Jamie responded by rewriting their Traits. Hopefully this won’t be a problem, but I ought to have left well enough alone.

Jamie left to deal with a family emergency as we were finishing up the first half of character creation, so we only had three Accomplishments.

David wanted his Accomplishment to involve overcoming his doubts about his faith and his fitness to be a Dog. More specifically, he wanted to overcome his doubts about the rightness of killing his partner. We considered having him talk to his partner’s ghost, but it didn’t seem to be workable with the “internal Accomplishment” model – why would the partner’s ghost, which is surely in Hell, want Brother Jonas to accept his killing as just? We settled on a conversation with one of his teachers, who pressed him to accept that he had acted as an instrument of the King of Life. It went alright, though I thought it lacked punch. David lost the challenge, thus winning the Accomplishment.

Jay wanted his character to deal with his vengeful, bloodthirsty side, and proposed that Brother Jonathan had seen the trapper who’d killed his father walking around in town, and had snuck into the man’s room that night to kill him, only to have another teacher follow him in and confront him. I rolled very well (two 10s!), Jay rolled crap, and Brother Jonathan quickly yielded to his teacher’s demand to let justice trump vengeance. Jay wanted to Escalate, but couldn’t think of a way to do so; I should probably have suggested some alternatives, but I didn’t want to feel like I was dictating his options.

Oliver wanted his character to exorcise a demon. (And he hadn’t even read the example in the rulebook!) So the teachers locked Brother Malachi in a room with a six-year-old girl who’d been possessed, and told him not to come out until he’d either defeated the demon or been overcome! He had some trouble at first – he Took the Blow twice, taking 7d4 Fallout, and the demon Turned the Blow when he demanded that it leave its innocent host, replying that the girl was no innocent, having killed her own brother at her tender age! But by escalating to Physical to block her way out of the room and pulling in a few Traits (Malachi is pretty thoroughly min-maxed for dealing with demons), he drove out the demon.

Everyone had some trouble with the system, though Oliver had the most issues by far. Sometimes he had problems finding a solid Raise; for instance, he wanted his first Raise against the demon to be walking up and looking it in the eye and waiting to hear what it said! I explained that a Raise must be something that, if not blocked, will be sufficient in and of itself to win the Stakes.

More generally, everyone had trouble separating Sees and Raises. Particularly with Taking the Blow, each player’s See would be along the lines of “okay, perhaps I’m not a Dog yet and so lack spiritual authority… BUT I know how to handle demons and I will cast you out!” Which is, of course, a See and a Raise fused together. This may be a vulnerability issue with regard to Taking the Blow, though there were other times where a See took on the character of a Raise. I’ve been halting the contest each time that happens to give the player the opportunity to correct himself, so I hope that we’ll get past that. But the players are finding the system clunky at the moment.

Next game is a week from Thursday, and I’ll be working on a town for these guys. I’ll keep you apprised!

- Eric

Eric,

your issues with getting Sees and Raises that bleed into each other has happened fairly frequently in my group. If someone does a See that seems like a See AND a Raise, simply suggest that they split them up.

Also.. I'm not sure you're right (nor am I sure you're wrong) about this comment:

Eric Minton wrote: Sometimes he had problems finding a solid Raise; for instance, he wanted his first Raise against the demon to be walking up and looking it in the eye and waiting to hear what it said! I explained that a Raise must be something that, if not blocked, will be sufficient in and of itself to win the Stakes.

Wolfen wrote: Also.. I'm not sure you're right (nor am I sure you're wrong) about this comment:

Eric Minton wrote: Sometimes he had problems finding a solid Raise; for instance, he wanted his first Raise against the demon to be walking up and looking it in the eye and waiting to hear what it said! I explained that a Raise must be something that, if not blocked, will be sufficient in and of itself to win the Stakes.

(bold mine)

From what I've read and seen, this could indeed be a very feasible Raise, but it would depend on the assumptions of the players involved, and the context. The rules as I remember them state that a Raise must be "something that cannot be ignored". If the player feels that making eye contact gives him some sort of power or advantage over the demon, then it's a worthwhile Raise, in his opinion. The problem exists when your assumption (that it could be ignored by the demon) and his clash. I could see this going poorly, as I'm guessing you did, or being really intense in a low-key fashion. (The Dog locks eyes with the possessed girl, and all that outsiders can see is this intense staring, as sweat begins to bead on the Dog's forehead, and the girl's face contorts with rage and effort).