Last Friday, my friend Sandy came by and we had a game of Dogs in the Vineyard. I've been trying to get Sandy to play for ages. He is curious about the funny indie games, but extremely sceptical. I've talked to him about this game and others many times, and I finally had the chance to get him to play.

My wife Krista already had a character, so she joined us with this pre-existing Dog of hers. Interestingly, both characters were then Dogs who had been raised outside the Faith and later converted.

Krista's character, Sister Ellen, is a former Calamity Jane-style female hellraiser, a killer who had gunned down three men in a drunken fury. She got shot up, and nursed back to health by a Faithful couple, and went on to become a Dog. She was pretty hard-bitten, not at all pretty, and her coat was the frilliest, most feminine thing imaginable, provided by her foster parents in an effort to "girl her up."

Sandy made a Dog, Brother Chris, who was an Eastern bookish type, come out west to join the Faithful. His epiphany is unknown, but his initiation conflict was to be humble enough to learn scripture from the teachers at the school for Dogs. He succeeded in that, and his coat was an old one with patches, front and back, on the lower left chest.

I ran them through the town of New Gidea, and they jumped right into conflict. When they rode into town, two mobs of townspeople were gathered, arguing with one another. It looked like a brawl might be brewing. Sister Ellen rode her horse right into the middle of the crowd and started shaming the leaders down. Brother Balaam, a nasty old man with a shotgun, reluctantly gave, and on the other side, Brother Absolom, dispersed his group. The Steward was in Brother Absolom's group, but obviously wasn't the leader.

The Steward invited the Dogs in and explained the situation. Brother Seth had ridden into town and shot Balaam's son Kyle and his wife Naomi in their beds. Balaam was out for blood, but the Steward wanted to hold Seth until the Dogs could arrive. He is relieved they are here. Ellen upbraids the Steward for failing in his duty, and he is shocked but doesn't argue. The Dogs then move out to solve the problem.

They start with Balaam. He shows them the bed, still crusted with blood, where his son and daughter-in-law were slain. He then hints darkly that if the Dogs don't put Seth down, Balaam will. Their attempts to intimidate him fail, but they don't push it.

They then talk to Seth's wife (Leah) and sister (Clarissa) over at Seth's house, and learn that Clarissa had been raped by Kyle. They convince Leah to arrange a meeting with Seth, later that evening, and then prepare.

That night, Seth meets with them, backed up by Absolom. He starts to preach his new creed, the way of the Gun. When arguing fails, the Dogs exchange fire with Seth and Absolom, ending in serious gunshots for both Dogs and for Seth. Seth and Absolom are forced to give, though, and recant their heresy. Ellen takes 7 dice of gun fallout because she won't give and let Seth convince her his new doctrine is right.

Seth ends up wounded but not dying, but both Chris and Ellen are dying. The gunfire rousted the town, and they all gather around. Balaam tries to blast Seth with his shotgun, and Ellen starts a conflict to stop him. He ends up taking the shot, trying to hit Seth through Ellen. She then forces him to give with the threat of her gun, but doesn't end up having to fire. Now Ellen's in a really bad way, and the town doc tries to help her and Chris. Though it's close, the doc succeeds.

The really interesting thing about this game is, of course, how the players deal with the morality of their situation. In both cases, Krista was not willing to give, neither to let Seth convince her of the Way of the Gun, nor to let Balaam take his revenge. She was willing to risk her character's life on both of these conflicts, and it ended up a very close thing. She kept stacking on the fallout dice, and threw everything she had into her side of the conflict.

In the final judgement, the players decided that both Seth and Balaam must hang, and for the same crime. They would have forgiven Seth for killing Kyle in revenge, but he shot Kyle's wife, too, and that was the crime they couldn't forgive. His heresy was forgiven when he recanted. Balaam was willing to blast Ellen if he could get at Kyle for revenge, and they viewed that as the same crime that Seth had committed. They strung both of them up.

Sandy came away very impressed with the game. He is eager to play again sometime, and even mentioned that he would try to get his wife to play. She has pretty much dropped gaming, but Sandy went on about how Dogs is drama, drama, drama, which she loves. I am quite pleased that Sandy is as impressed with this game as I am, and I know he will be more open to trying new systems. Scepticism overcome!

Cool. Its funny how these accounts seem to have more angsty than most TV programs.

What would have happened if she had been convinced of the way of the gun? Was the conflict about convincing her it was an okay part of the world, or that she should start following it? What would it involve, if she was convinced and had to start following that way?

Callan wrote:
Cool. Its funny how these accounts seem to have more angsty than most TV programs.

What would have happened if she had been convinced of the way of the gun? Was the conflict about convincing her it was an okay part of the world, or that she should start following it? What would it involve, if she was convinced and had to start following that way?