Re: [DitV] Fort Lemon Branch

I just finished playing through this particular scenario of DitV at OwlCon in Houston. It was actually everone's first time playing DitV, and even the GM, who has years of experience in other games and systems, had never done a full run through of Dogs. The only disappointing thing was being on a time limit. I enjoyed it so much, in fact, I went online and bought a copy as soon as I got home. Still waiting for it to come in.

As for this scenario in particular, and keep in mind that we were on a four hour time limit, the first hour of which was character creation, I had trouble keeping up with the number of characters and names, their unique situations, and it was overwhelming trying to get a six player team to decide what direction to head in. (Not to mention the fact that we decided to create our own internal strife by creating one Chinese immigrant and one Islamic immigrant character as Dogs, another pair of player characters consulted with the heathen medicine men of the mountains in their upbringing, and the last pair were "never left the farm" Mormon brothers.) We were able to successfully exorcise the demons inhabiting Hannah and her baby, deliver it, and reunite her with Samuel. We discovered the demons who were always around Sharon, but the rest of the story had to be summed up into "supporters of Sharon's stewardship cause". When one of the con volunteers came in, giving us our 30 min warning, we had to wrap up the story rather quickly and it ended up in a final gun showdown, with demons inhabiting Sharon and two of her female followers (the demons at this time being portrayed as witches or sorceresses).

The story ideas were wonderful, cannibalism and pregnancy, female empowerment having to be demonic, greedy hording of supplies in the face of dying friends, but the lack of time to explore all these thoroughly made it a bit confusing for a group of beginners. I certainly wouldn't want to have three different towns with three different stories, I can see how well they all blend together, unfolding as if in a movie, layers upon layers with any number of different possible outcomes, all of which reflect many of the old westerns I watched as a child where there really is no "good" ending for the main character. Usually the main character has to sacrifice his own well being for the good of family and town.

Anyway, thank you for coming up with this one, it was a great play through for a first timer, enough for a sale.

p.s. to beginners like myself: Don't try to be the peaceful diplomatic character (I was the Islamic immigrant who, above all else, was determined to find a peaceful solution, creating all this before knowing how the game is played) because when the guns come out all you can do is stand there and calm the herd to keep them from stampeding, which doesn't take a roll.