Hi,

here's a problem I've been facing. I really dig Dogs. I mean, really. Reading the book had me going, "Cool, cool, cool!" every second page. But I find it very hard to get across to people in three sentences why this game rocks and they should absolutely try it. Even I myself had to read about the game repeatedly before I got interested enough to give it a closer look.

Anyone got a smokin' Dogs teaser for me? Ideas about how to start? Anyone had the same experience?

- Frank

Hi Frank

I had exactly the same problems getting people interested.  I read the book thinking "WOW!" and couldn't wait to start playing.  But no one else seemed to be as interested as me.

Here's what I did to try and enthuse people.  Don't know if this was the deciding factor, but we have been able to play DitV a few times as an alternative to our usual game.

I read the blurb off the back of the book to them.  I think it's a very evocative and cool bit of text which really puts the feel of the game across.

I then read them some small sections from within the book.  The opening little bit of text about your brother going to shoot the town whore for corrupting his son is particularly good I think.

This then lead into a bit of a question and answer session in which the potential players and I talked about the game.

A key point I think is that I did the whole thing kind of in character as if I was an old grizzled elder at the Dog's Training Temple.  I spoke in a kind of Clint Eastwood cowboy drawl and did it as if I was teaching them the Doctrine of the Faith.  When I read the flavour text out or explained the Faiths stand point on various sins I did it like I was instructing them on their first day as trainee Dogs.  This interraction got them in to the mood of the game quite well I think.  Plus it made it more fun for me.

Drew

I grab people and pull them to a table.  Four piles of four six-siders:  "This is your brains, for thinkin'.  This is your body, for doin'.  This is your heart, for carin' how people feel.  This is your will, for knowin' what's right."  Two die ten, "You get this if you decide 'This is about me bein' one of God's Watchdogs.' "  Two die six:  "This is your gun."  Four die four.  "This is how your poppa treated you."

Then I put down four more piles of four six-siders.  "This is your brother.  His son's been stealing money to buy sex from a whore in town.  Your brother just found out.  He picked up his rifle and is walkin' in to town to kill her dead.  That would be a terrible sin, and a burden on his soul.  So you're off to stop him.  How you gonna try to stop him first?"

Then I segue into rules.  People pick up real fast, in my experience.

I think that a different approach is necessary for different people. Tony's approach would annoy me more than intrigue me (no offense Tony, I'm sure it works for a lot of people). Drew's approach might grab me, but I'd still have been turned off by the sheer western-ness of it all.

Here's how I was turned on to the game: Lxndr had been wanting to run it for a while. Everytime there was any pondering on what game to play next, he'd at least half jokingly suggest Dogs. I'm usually the one who stymied him, because westerns don't do it for me. I finally suggested post-apoc, Fallout kinda stuff, and he suggested Dogs again, so I finally said "Awright, you're all fired up to play this game. Tell me about it then." Tactic one: Dogged persistence (pun acknowledged)

So he explained the setting a bit.. While the idea of Paladins has always interested me, gunslinging paladins in the wild west didn't. Then he started in on the rules and the example in the book, and I perked up. See, I'm a rules monkey; Interesting and cool systems will grab me every time. I liked the back and forth of the narration, how a lot could get done during the course of the conflict, and how traits, numbers and decision points could make the conflict go in a number of different ways. It meant that you couldn't just decide the conflict by rolling the dice and totalling them all up; I loved it. Tactic two: Cool rules and narration.

I still wasn't keen on westerns, so we pondered how to do Dogs in a post-apoc setting. Meanwhile, I came here and read all the Actual Play posts I could find. By the time I was done, I was almost regretting my insistence on playing non-canon; These stories are bloody well cool. It's especially telling to see how different Dogs groups go through the same town. It's like modules for D&D or adventures for Shadowrun, but instead of everyone reaching the same ending with only the details changing, every run was something new, the end game was different every time, and that's how the game is supposed to play. So, Tactic three: Actual Play posts.

Hope those help a bit.

I would suggest that, if you have the time for it (i.e., you're not standing around at a convention looking for players, but you're trying to get friends interested), point them to one of the amazing Actual Play threads.

I can't find the AP post right now, but the one where the Dogs had that intense shootout with each other at the end is the one that intrigued my wife, who has never played anything but "freeform" in her life and usually rejects the idea of any mechanics.

xenopulse wrote:
I can't find the AP post right now, but the one where the Dogs had that intense shootout with each other at the end is the one that intrigued my wife, who has never played anything but "freeform" in her life and usually rejects the idea of any mechanics.

That's absolutely it. And yes, even though I'd been wanting to buy Dogs anyway, that thread was the irresistible trigger to finally go order it.

Thanks everybody. See, getting people who are already interested in this sort of game into Dogs is easy. Getting people who are already willing to put effort into reading through a long English actual play post into Dogs is easy. What I'm talking about is this situation: Some roleplayer, who has never heard of the Forge or any of the cool games published by it's users, asks you: "So, what is this Dogs in the Vineyard?"

How do you start this without him losing interest after two sentences?

Jump up and down in front of him, waving the book in his face, saying, "Fucking pseudo-Mormon gunslingers charged by god to keep the peace in the old west!" If that doesn't work, you can just use the last three sentences on the back cover: "Does the sinner deserve mercy? Do the wicked deserve judgement? They're in your hands."

If you're looking more for an answer to the question, "What is Dogs in the Vineyard?", then you could go with something that highlights the core of the game. "In Dogs, you travel from town to town, rooting out sin and dispensing compassion and punishment as you see fit in order to protect the faithful." If you've still got their interest after that, you can add something like, "You decide what the right moral choice is, at all times. Guy's cheating on his wife? Heap on the guilt until he repents and swears to be faithful again. Or drag him into the street and shoot him in the face, as an example to others. Or punish the wife for not keeping her husband happy. It's all up to you."

I've gotten at least 2 people amped for it* by telling them you play gunslingers from the Dark Tower series (Stephen King). Now, bearing in mind:

a) this is completely inaccurate; and
b) the players you're pitching to have to know those books ...

... the duties of gunslingers before 'the world moved on' was to travel around small towns passing judgment and dispensing justice. It's even the central action of Books 4 & 5. Anyway, people seem to click to it.

* Full disclosure: haven't played it yet. Waiting for 2nd ed.

Andrew, that's neat. I'll try to translate it into German as best I can, though I'm afraid it'll lose. Thanks nonetheless.

- Frank

For people who don't really like or understand the whole Western thing:

"It's L.A. Confidential , only with sixgun-toting Mormons."

Because, y'know, I just watched L.A. Confidential again, and it is.