Hi, I'm a longtime GM whose part of a group which has been playing Dogs troup GM style (i.e. we switch GMs every few sessions) and next week its going to be my turn to run DitV for the first time.

The concepts I'm working on right now is trying to have a feud going on in town, some mysterious deaths, and a rival Dog NPC. I'm unsure if I should try to use a rival Dog NPC or not, what do you folks think.

The reason I want to have a rival Dog is to introduce doubts about the faith, and to have somekind of showdown or something between Dogs. I'm just not sure that it really fits the game, as it seems like all Dogs should be PCs, and the last thing I want is to introduce a NPC-PC or anything that steals the wind out of the Players sails.

So what I guess I'm really asking is if this is kosher? Also does anyone have any advice on tempting Dogs from the Faith? Because that would be cool, and I've done similar things in other games that turned out awesome but I still feel very inexperienced at Dogs, since it seems very unlike most of the games that I feel comfortable with running.

Rival Dogs, tempting Dogs from the Faith, all that stuff... that's all kosher.  In fact, it sounds really cool!

Starting your consideration of the town with "This is what I'd like the town to end up looking like" is going to get you into trouble.  Trust me on this, I've done it that way and been burned.

The town-creation rules progress from one stage to the next for a reason.  If you try to bend them to a particular end, and therefore skip over really considering the groundwork you lay in the first few stages (Pride and Injustice, particularly) then you'll pay the price later.  You'll probably end up with NPCs who are doing things for no sensible reason (like, say, a Dog who wants to be a rival to other Dogs, but has no justification for wanting it or doing it).  Those NPCs will become the immediate focus of Dog attention, which means that the worst part of your town will be the one you're forced to justify to curious, probing Dogs for three solid hours.  You don't want that.

The King of Life wants you to use the town creation rules as written.  Do this and you will surely find a place among the blessed.

If you're going to ignore the town creation rules, you want to first understand WHY they are the way they are.

Dogs isn't the type of game where you plan for what will happen.  Instead, you set up a situation and turn your players loose on it.  Once the game starts, you have very little control over where things are going to go--if your players aren't constantly surprising you, you're doing something wrong.

The goal of the town creation rules is to produce a setting where interesting stories will emerge naturally from the players' actions.

The chain of sin is one important part of this: At one end, you've got the Bad Stuff--false doctrine, demonic possession, sorcery, and murder.  That's actually pretty easy for players to deal with, however--find the bad guys, kill them, call it a day.  So at the other end, you've got the *important* stuff--Brother Zachary won't let his daughter get a date and Sister Patience isn't doing her husband's laundry.  These are the problems that will drive your players up the wall trying to fix, since they require more than just gunplay.

Another vital step is figuring out what everyone wants from the Dogs.  Forget this bit, and you get passive NPCs who stand around waiting for the Dogs to go out of town and let them get back to life.  That's no fun!  The Dogs will go to talk to the baker, and he'll sit there like a lump of yesterday's bread.  Give him something that he wants, however, and he'll be all over the Dogs the second he sees them.  A good NPC doesn't wait for the players to move the plot along--he grab them by the neck and toss them into the thick of it if they let him.

And, of course, you want to make sure that you can't make all the NPCs happy.  Now the players have to start passing judgements on the townsfolk to figure out who they're going to listen to!

Don't leave out the bit about what happens if the Dogs don't come to town, either.  That's their motivation--they either fix things, or the town's going to hell.

TonyLB wrote:
Rival Dogs, tempting Dogs from the Faith, all that stuff... that's all kosher.  In fact, it sounds really cool!

Starting your consideration of the town with "This is what I'd like the town to end up looking like" is going to get you into trouble.  Trust me on this, I've done it that way and been burned.

<<snip>>

The King of Life wants you to use the town creation rules as written.  Do this and you will surely find a place among the blessed.