I had the opportunity to play Dogs with Vincent this weekend when he was in Berlin, and it was the first time for me not to run the game but be a player in it.
Some things that caught my eye during the Town of Hurricane: It can be easy to confront someone with a hard initiation. Brother Abel had nice traits such as "Cute 1d6" and the ubiqitous "I know a song for every occasion 1d10", and his initiation was 'I hope I keep my mouth shut when it matters.' At the end of the Initiation, I had a nice 'I am betrothed 1d6' trait and a relationship to Sr. Ellen 2d8. So, this is a dog with instant potential for tragedy and drama. Martin wanted his character to learn when to back down, and almost earned 'My horse is more important than scripture' as a trait, but it seemed too silly to fit his gruffy trapper. Moritz saved a man from being hanged. His most interesting trait was "I have problems with Authority 4d4', which seems funny considered a Dog is Authority. All in all character creation and initiation was fast, but in no way loose. First thing I learned here was that dodges and blocks need not be as explicit as I did it in my games. Just accepting a block or dodge that is followed by a raise without pondering on it too much is a great way to speed up the game, because you spend your dice easier, and it also makes it alot more relaxed.

We went directly into Hurricane, which wasn't hard given that we'd meet the funeral procession on entering the town, and the whole of the story lay in front of us after about an hour and a half (could have been faster had we drawn our conclusions instead of betting on Vincent rubbing our noses into what's wrong). The awesome moment came for me when the game managed to make my hair stand up during conflict resolution for me as a player as it does when I run the game.

<Fanboy>At times I feel like this game has been written to bring out my better sides in gaming. In the last year and a bit, it did help me develop a sense for what I want in gaming I hadn't before.</Fanboy>

I never doubt that the game does what it is supposed to do by the author, and I can trust it to have me be creative, in a way that is fun for those who play with me.

A funny aside: We were leaving the 'Burg', where we played late, and when the others said their goodbye, we commented on wondering where all the bloodshed comes from in the actual play, including me.

Just about 10 minutes later, my Dog was using a heretic wife as a living shield to protect himself from the shotgun of her husband. Brother Abel didn't kill anybody in that fight by shooting, but the bloodshed was all his making. Nobody saw what happened, but the conflict itself gave the whole character the cowardly core he needs to make that betrothal from initiation into full-blown tragedy.

I hope to play more dogs soon. Unfortunately, the commute to Vincent's house is out of the question.

Thanks again for a great game, and a great weekend.

Harald!

Thank you, and Martin and Moritz, for playing. I had a great time. I hope you get the chance to play more, too, not just GM.

I find one-shots harder to play than to GM. As a player, you have all this work to do, all this pretty hard judgement stuff coming in on top of figuring out who your character is and what matters to him. But I've found that by the third session playing a character, playing is even more fun than GMing - although never quite as easy.

-Vincent