The Forge Archives

Well, way back in December I wrote up this little ditty of a town, but a bit of job training that took up all of January and a new job that keeps me away from home alot kinda put a chill on my weekly gaming habit.

So, finally, for the first time since probably November, I'm getting my troupe together tonight for a Dogs fix.  I looked over that little town, and I decided to write it from scratch.  What I came up with feels alot better than the original.  

As I'm hoping to present some thoughts on the outcome of the game tonight, I offer a short revised version of the town here for your reading pleasure.  

I found it interesting that, in reviewing the town in my head, it came out so much cleaner than it did the first time.  The Hate & Murder I was looking for and was having such trouble finding the first time around came easily and cleanly this time.  Perhaps it's because the whole thing has had nearly four months to stew and pickle in my brain.

But, aside from the town it's self, two different thoughts came to mind about Dogs that I thought I'd like to share with everyone.  The first is that I think one of my hidden favorite bits about town generation is almost the final step.  The 'What do the Named NPCs want from the Dogs?' stage.  I think that this question, applied to the named NPCs of any game, would add wonderful tasty meat to any good session.  What do the kobolds want from the heros?  What do the ricefarmers want from the travelling magistrates?  I can't imagine applying these questions to other games and not getting quality material for playing.

The second thought that came to me as I was preparing this town is probably a little closer to the heart of what I'm hoping to discuss later on, after we play.  See, as I created the town, I eagerly looked for NPCs and situations that would make demands on the Dogs.  Demands that would actually make the players stop and think for a bit.  Make their judgements a little bit more difficult.  It's easy to condemn the murderer and the sinner when they have no redeeming qualities, right?  So I was looking to make sure there was question and uncertainty in each of the important NPCs of Silent River.  But that's where Dogs snagged me.  I wanted to be able to turn to the players and say "I don't know who's right and who's wrong.  That's your job, you tell me who's right."  But... by virtue of the town creation system, one side has demons backing them.  So, from my position as the town's creator, I can see that one side is most certainly tained with Sin.  When Sisters Hanan and Carmen tell the Dogs that the King gave them their powers of song, I know better where those powers came from.

Anyway, I can't tell right now if what I'm saying is clear or not.  So, here's tonight's town.  I hope you like it.

-Eric

p.s.  As usual, any questions or comments are very welcome.  (especially comments or suggestions!  ;) )

Silent River

A town for Dogs in the Vineyard

Pride
Sister Emelene has a powerful singing voice, and she knows it.  When the Steward, Brother Jude fears how her voice may affect some of the town, he forbids her from singing in front of the faithful anymore.  Believing that her voice is too beautiful to be wasted, Emelene crosses the river to the faithless side of town to sing in a public hall.

Injustice
Brother Hanan, Emelene's husband, is privately humiliated by Emelene's violation if Jude's proclamation.  He is also left to care for their two young children in her absence evenings.
Brother Jude's rightful Stewarship is threatened by Emelene's disobedience.

Sin
Emelene dresses in fancy clothes when she sings in front of the faithless, showing the sin of worldliness.
Hanan chooses to lie to his friends and neighbors about what Emelene does on the other side of the river evenings, rather than face the humiliation of her sin.

Demonic Attacks
The demons lead Hanan to go to the Parlor where Emelene sings to watch and listen to her (after all, he does miss the sound of her voice too).  Some comments made in his earshot about her legs brings on a fistfight that turns to a gunfight where Hanan is mortally wounded.  He should have died, but Emelene rushed to his side and sung to him.  The power of her voice heals him, but leaves him with an ugly scar in his shoulder.

In order to make things worse, the demons give Emelene an excellent reason to sing.  The demons present a lethal plague to the children of the Faithful, but not _all_ of them.  Some children die, but others are saved by Emelene's singing.  

False Doctrine
The parents of those that are saved find themselves believing that Emelene's voice is indeed from the King of Life, and that the Steward was wrong for condemning it.  Those that loose children, and most that didn't have to face the plague are convinced that Emelene is up to no good.  The demons' work is done; the town is divided.

Corrupt Worship
Those that believe in Emelene's power begin to regularly sing their praises to the King.  They feel that he cannot properly be worshiped without regular song, and that song itself is a powerful gift from the King to be cherished and used.  Talk amongst the Singers starts sewing the idea that Emelene should be the town's rightful Steward, that the King himself has granted her this right.

False Priesthood
There are more than enough worshippers at this point to make a cult.  The cult leader is a woman and mother by the name of Sister Carmen.  Emelene saved six out of her seven children from dying of the plague, and there is no one in this town that can convince her that she is not a proper Steward for the town.  Carmen keeps the Singers organized as a group against the doctrine of the Steward.  Half the Faithful in this town are part of the cult, but if Carmen and Emelene were convinced of dropping their ways, the rest will follow.

Sorcery
The Singers now use their songs for calling up all sorts of things.  From making their food a little tastier to asking for a sunny day.  And the Demons are pleased to give them everything in their power to grant.  

Hate and Murder
Most recently, Brother Jude called a meeting between his elders and the elders of the Singers, to include sister Carmen and sister Emelene.  It didn't go well.  Harsh words were spoken, and ways were parted in poor spirit.  

Later that evening, sister Ruth, a cornerstone of the Singers, (and sorcereress) sung up vengeance for Jude.  On his way home, a bridge collapsed, sending him and his family into rocky waters.  Only Jude survived.  Ruth knew what she was doing, and was granted a vision of the falling bridge by the Demons.

The People
Jude seeks vengeance and retribution.  His faith in the King is wavering, and he sees Emelene as the core of the problem.  He wants her dead.  He will ask the Dogs to kill her.  If they fail or refuse, he will find a weapon to do the job himself.  In the name of the King

Emelene wants Jude to apologize and rescind his order for her to stop singing, and to welcome the Singers back into the fold.

Hanan wants the Dogs to convince his wife to follow the rules and to apologize to the entire town for what she started.  He fears holy retribution for his sins and those of his wife.  In fact, he feels that the sins of his wife are his to bear.  He will also ask the Dogs to absolve him of his sins.

Carmen wants the Dogs to recognize Emelene's power and to officially instate her as the proper Steward of the town.

Brother Mark, unmentioned as of yet, was witness to the collapse of the bridge that took brother Jude's family.  He saw the wood rot before his eyes (or so he thinks), and heard singing on the wind.  Now he has nightmares about the night that he can't get rid of.  He will ask the Dogs to cure him of the demons that haunt his dreams.

Sister Ruth, murder of Jude's family, will act as representative of the Demons, and will try to get a war between the two factions of the town started.  She will do whatever it takes to get the Dogs to draw their weapons and start firing.  At anyone.

What the Demons Want
They want the Dogs to pick a side and start shooting.  At anyone.  Then the Demons will make sure that the voices of the Singers come in on one side or the other, hoping that eventually everyone in the town will be destroyed.

If the Dogs Never Came
Eventually the violence will begin, and no one will walk away from it.  The Faithful side of Silent River will become populated only by it's ghosts and graves.

On the topic of the demons pointing clearly to the "bad guys", it all depends on whether you define the bad guys as the ones the demons point to.

Who is the bad guy? The one who opens the town to the demons, the one that answers the demons' call, or the one who kills the one who answered?


In your town, I could see it all getting even more rotten if someone, just someone, killed a singer in cold blood. If that someone was the steward and the singer was Emelene, it would get REALLY rotten. And after all, doesn't he have a perfect, albeit sinful, reason to?

Interesting you should say that Simon, as that's exactly what I have planned.  In fact, it's in the writeup that way.  Under what Brother Jude wants.  And I can define Jude as a bad guy without directly giving him demonic influence or traits, but that dosen't address my concern;  That, by giving the singers demonic influence and assistance, I have defined them as badguys.  If the Dogs judge the Singers as the correct and true stewards of the town then the Dogs are 'wrong'.  Which is contrary to how the system should work.  The Dogs should only be wrong when the players decide they are wrong.  See what I'm saying?

Well, tonight we were able to play for about three hours.  The Dogs rode into town, went to the funeral of Jude's wife and children.  There they learned of the rift between those that are silent and those that sing.

While some little things happened, the big stuff is that the three Dogs found and chatted with Jude (whom they decided is a bit off his rocker) and interrogated Emelene with the intention of determining if she was a Heretic (which they did), and then launched into a confrontation where they convinced Emelene to throw away her fancy clothes and to follow the direction of the Steward, no matter what.  

We ended with a brief narration about how a group on the street outside saw Emelene running from their hotel, and seemed concerned about her welfare.

It's my intention when we continue, that Jude will try to murder Emelene, Ruth, and Carmen.  I expect that the Singers will band together and attack the Dogs in order to drive them from 'their' town.  I'm hoping to try to introduce some styles of play that are a bit alien to us.  Like narrating things that the PCs don't actually have knowlege of and encouraging the players to react to that narration and get their Dogs involved.  Player knowlege = PC knowlege is a nasty habit that I'd like us to dissolve next time we play.

Indeed, most of tonight was an introduction of the game to a new player;  Nik.  He was part of several of my old gaming groups and has been looking forward to Dogs for some time.  So, tonight he had the opportunity to be introduced to new habits in gaming that Lisa, Ullyses, and I have already adopted.  In fact, Dogs has gone a long way toward healing a social contract rift between Nik and I that d20 went along way toward creating.

Well, I'm expecting it to be at least a week and a half before we can gather again, but what I'm hoping from the next session, what I'm really hoping for, is to delve deeper into premise.  The 'how about now?' effect if you will.  See, Nik's character chose to petition the other two Dogs to let Emelene go, repentant, as opposed to just outright killing her.  In the next session, I'm hoping to play with Emelene's actions a bit, like bringing the violence out of her, so I can turn to Nik and ask him 'Does she deserve to be let go now?'  And so on and so forth, constantly escalating the situation until the Dog chooses violence over penance.

-Eric

I really love "what do the townspeople want from the Dogs?" as well.  I try to make them incompatible, impossible, and generally ambitious, like "I want the Dogs to make me a better man" or "I want the Dogs to tell me what I am doing is not a sin."  I think my favorite (in a town I've yet to run) is "I want the Dogs to be heroes to me".  And you are right, this question would work great in any game.

If you look at sin as bad luck and sorcerers as bastards, as Vincent suggested elsewhere, things get into shades of grey pretty fast.  Your players may surprise you with what they decide to punish and what they let slide.

I also like to draw a distinction between (a) "What the townspeople want" and (b) "What it will take to satisfy them."  Note that (a) is almost always less than (b) rather than more.  People don't settle for compromise... they ask for things that they think will imply what they want, and then get ticked off if it doesn't.

Ferexample:  Sister Carmen wants the Dogs to recognize Emelene's power.  But she won't be content until Emelene is Steward and Jude is humiliated.

Sister Ruth wants the Dogs to commit violence.  But she won't be content until they kill her... the part of her that is still a virtuous woman wants to be judged and punished.

Quote from: TonySister Ruth wants the Dogs to commit violence. But she won't be content until they kill her... the part of her that is still a virtuous woman wants to be judged and punished.

Eep!  I love it!  *ponderponder*  In fact... I think this might just make for the perfect opportunity to kill off one of those bad habits I was talking about.  Normally, I'd never consider telling the players that Sister Ruth wants the Dogs to kill her.  This, I think, will make for a perfect opportunity to drop 'out of character' information in the laps of the players and see where they run with it.  Remember, I'm not the only one in my group getting over these bad habits.  When I RP Ruth in a way that says that Ruth wants to kill the Dogs, then reveal that what she really wants is the Dogs to kill her... well, it'll likely spin their noggins.  Not the revalation, mind you, but rather the idea that I can and should give them the information when there's no reason why their Dogs should have that information.

Quote from: JasonI try to make them incompatible, impossible, and generally ambitious

Fantastic advice, Jason.  I realize I have been making my NPCs' wants a little too easy.  I think that also stems from a habit sprung from semi-dysfunctional gaming.  Or at least from previous game styles.  I sometimes forget that Dogs is capable of doing things that classic games just can't even get near.  Like presenting players with really bad situations, and yet still keeping them thoroughly entertained.  :)

Quote from: Technocrat13Interesting you should say that Simon, as that's exactly what I have planned.  In fact, it's in the writeup that way.  Under what Brother Jude wants.  And I can define Jude as a bad guy without directly giving him demonic influence or traits, but that dosen't address my concern;  That, by giving the singers demonic influence and assistance, I have defined them as badguys.  If the Dogs judge the Singers as the correct and true stewards of the town then the Dogs are 'wrong'.  Which is contrary to how the system should work.  The Dogs should only be wrong when the players decide they are wrong.  See what I'm saying?

Hmm. I'm not entirely sure about this one. You're right, if they judge the singers as correct, then yup, the game seems broken. However, that only occurs if you manage to find a player who honestly believes that singing with demon backup is the right thing. And if so, the game hasn't falled apart after all, has it? What if that's really what the king wants in this case? And if it is, does he then support THESE sorcerers too?

More often, though, you'll find that the dogs will tell the sorcerers to sing without the demons (As in, without being assholes about it).

It's also possible that the Dogs will support the Singer doctrine, but not the demon backup. The way I read it, only Ruth is a conscious Sorcerer; The rest of them honestly believe it's the King of Life who is empowering their song.

Remember that the Dogs don't have to choose one way or the other; They can choose somewhere in the middle.

Quote from: LanceThe way I read it, only Ruth is a conscious Sorcerer;

Well, not really.  If you mean Ruth is the only one who has consiously done evil with her songs, then yeah.  But then, in her mind, it was a necessary wrong to support a greater good.  If you mean that Ruth is the only one consiously using the songs' power, then no.  All the Singers know they have power, and all of them use it as they believe the King intened them.

I realized in writing this that I didn't mention what the Dogs have decided at this point.  The last conversation before closing for the night held the opinion between the players of the Dogs that they would attempt to convince the singers that, whoever their Steward is, they must follow the letter of his law.  They further said that they would imply to the Singers that, if they chose to continue singing, they needed to find another town;  One where the Steward accepted their singing.

-Eric