Yesterday was Worldwide D&D Game Day, so we took up the plan to play a Dogs in the Vineyard one-shot, just to be contrary. It was my first time running the game, and the players were all new to the game as well.

William played Brother Jedediah. He has the trait "I understand the sinful mind", and a very big Book of Life. His initiation conflict was "I hope I exorcised a demon". He had to exorcise a lesbian girl who had slept with her niece. He won the conflict, but only after escalating to physical, and his new trait was "I beat the demon out of her".

Jop played Brother Nathaniel. He's a blabbermouth and a fast-talker. His initiation conflict was "I hope I learned to stop being selfish." He was called into the steward's office for a stern talk after picking a fight with one of the other initiates. Nathaniel could talk himself out of any trouble, so in the end his new trait was "my own desires are more important than those of other people".

The town was the Tower Creek Branch, one of the example towns from the rulebook. I made Sister Bethia into Brother Nathaniel's cousin, and Sister Wilhelmina into Brother Jedediah's aunt.

I especially liked our last scene. The steward finds out his wife is pregnant by Brother Cyrus, and wants to kill him. Brother Nathaniel tries to talk him out of it and succeeds. The stakes of the conflict were "will the steward kill Brother Cyrus?" and Brother Nathaniel wins the conflict, succeeding in talking him out of it.

So I decided to initiate a follow-up conflict: The steward walks inside, pulls out his gun, and wants to shoot his pregnant wife. In the conflict Brother Jedediah throws himself between Sister Edie and the bullet, gets 20 fallout, and is dying. Another conflict is launched: "Will he live?" (Fortunately, yes.)

That's were we ended the session. We didn't really resolve the town: We don't know what will happen to Brother Cyrus, Sister Wilhelmina still has demons to call upon to escape the dogs, but somehow it feels like closure: We had our climactic scene, and if this was a movie, it would end here. So next time, a different town will be played

I'm very eager to play the game again.

--Jasper

Jasper wrote:
William played Brother Jedediah. He has the trait "I understand the sinful mind", and a very big Book of Life. His initiation conflict was "I hope I exorcised a demon". He had to exorcise a lesbian girl who had slept with her niece. He won the conflict, but only after escalating to physical, and his new trait was "I beat the demon out of her".