I've been yearning to run Dogs ever since I read it six weeks ago and finally got to, twice. I like it even better than I'd hoped to, and plan to run it a bunch more. I'll have some other things to say by and by, but for now have a question as to whether belongings can sometimes be treated as traits.

Context: Sister Zillah's desired accomplishment is "I hope I can learn to control my temper." She took the part of herself with temper intact, I took the part of forces that might lead her to curb her temper. She rolled really badly and I rolled pretty good on the 4d6+4d10, and started off with the Steward of the Dog's Temple calling her in to warn her about her temper and ask her to get it under control, and she backtalked a bit, and he tore into her and dismissed her, and she slammed the door on her way out (escalating to physical, plus getting 1d6 for the door) as her See, then she Raised to go into a nearby town to take her rage out on Brother Andrew (not a Dog) with a reputation for using young ladies badly, and found him in bed with Sister Bethany (also not a Dog).

Bethany begged her not to kill him ("We're gonna get married he swore it!") as a See and then as a Raise Andrew begged her not to kill him (although he didn't say anything about marriage) and Sister Zillah laid her daddy's big gun along his head and told him if he ever did it again she'd shoot him dead, as her See, and then she Raised to tell Bethany to get out and not believe everything men tell her, and wait till she's married next time.

I was out of dice, so Sister Zillah won the stakes, which means she kept her temper, and took the accomplishment trait of "There's nothing wrong with getting angry with Sin 1d6" and from the 3d4 fallout from the Steward she got the temporary trait of "I'm still pent up! 1d4", and experience, which she'd like to take as a locket from Sister Bethany that aids her self control, envisioning future scenes where she grabs the locket instead of her gun, or reminds herself of that time she didn't shoot that guy (or throws it into a river, I suppose - who knows?).

So it's a physical object like a belonging, but the intent is to use it the way a trait would be used. What is it? (The one thing I KNOW it's not is a relationship with Sister Bethany, because we're playing relationships as written in the rules, not as flashback traits.)

I'm leaning towards trait, so she can increase or decrease the d-size or dice as her self-control improves or weakens, and the locket is just a physical token of that, the way in a movie the gunslinger might look at the broken glasses he took off his dead boy's body before going in to face the murdering skunks who.... but I digress.

Does that seem reasonable, or have I been smoking locoweed? Or should it be a 1d6 object and "using a locket" just happens to involve memories or emotions?

And thank you, Vincent, for writing such an awesome game!

--Carl Rigney

Can't the trait be "I've got a locket to reach for when the gun calls my name"? That's how I'd work it, I think.

You can use belongings for their emotional content for sure.

What I'd do is locate it under belongings on the character sheet, but treat it like a trait in every other way.

-Vincent

What is more important - the item, or the action? If the belonging was destroyed or taken away, would the character still reach for the place where the locket once was, and would that still remind her?

I'd be most likely tempted to give both a trait AND a belonging to this.