[Dogs] Buildin' towns and settin' dials.
lumpley:
Here's another good line for a Steward: "if God allowed me to gun my parishioners down, He wouldn't need you."
I recommend hate & murder under pretty much all circumstances. Definitely for a con game.
Here's about humanizing the murderous sorcerer: Don't. He's not human anymore. The Dogs will kill him and it's the right thing for them to do. When have you seen a Western when the guy in the black hat deserved to live?
What to do instead: make sure that it's someone else's pride, not his, and someone else's sin, not his, and maybe even someone else's false doctrine, not his.
For example.
Sister Alma wants her cousin's husband, Brother Benjamin, so she uses her beauty to distract him from his proper duties. They don't sin, but Alma's cousin, Sister Celeste, can't support her family without Benjamin's full devotion. On the Steward's advice and with his help she hires some hands, while the Steward undertakes to recall to Benjamin his responsibilities. She falls in love with one of them, though, Brother Daniel, and these two do sin together.
The demons bring a fatal illness upon Brother Benjamin's parents, who live 50 miles away through the mountains; he leaves to resolve their estate with his brothers.
False doctrine: Brother Daniel and Sister Celeste decide that it's cool if they marry, even though she's already married to Benjamin, so they do, in secret (which is corrupt worship). Daniel's father, Brother Ephraim, officiates. That's 1, 2, 3, and now Ephraim's a sorcerer.
Brother Daniel loves Benjamin's and Celeste's 2-year-old son, Florian, and plans to ceremonially adopt him (which would be corrupt worship too, and how). However, it comes into Brother Ephraim's head that Florian has to die, "to clear the way for the marriage's true seed to grow." And come to think of it, Brother Benjamin better die too on his way back to the town, so Ephraim sends two of his other sons, now possessed, to carry out his murder.
Sister Alma - along with the Steward and the rest of the town - doesn't know any of this, but is getting a sense that things aren't great. She's thinking she's maybe screwed up her cousin's marriage. She becomes withdrawn and worried; given time, she'll repent, become less frivolous and envious, and go forward changed. Along the same lines, Brother Benjamin's been gone for 4 weeks and all he can think about is Celeste and Florian; away from Alma, he's forgotten her. He didn't know that Celeste had slept with Daniel, he's presuming that things between Celeste and Daniel haven't progressed while he's been gone, and he's all geared up to make things right with her.
Play starts: the Dogs hook up with Brother Benjamin on his way back into town, and so when Ephraim's sons ambush him they're there. Meanwhile, Ephraim's murdered little Florian by sorcery: it looks like a fever took him, but it was murder (and as GM, don't hide this fact from the Dogs).
- Sister Alma wants the Dogs to help her get Benjamin's and Celeste's forgiveness, and God's too.
- Brother Benjamin wants the Dogs to restore his marriage and to bring Florian back to life. (Can they? As GM, don't decide, wait and see.)
- Sister Celeste wants the Dogs to affirm both of her marriages, and to reassure her that Florian died naturally and is at peace now. She does NOT want to hear that Ephraim murdered him, and will fight passionately to deny it.
- Brother Daniel wants the Dogs to annul Benjamin's and Celeste's marriage, and to make Florian his son, spiritually, to be with him in Heaven. He also doesn't want to hear that Ephraim murdered him, but he'll accept it if pressed.
- Brother Ephraim wants the Dogs to overthrow the old Steward and enplace him instead, to herald him as the new prophet, and to enforce his will. Failing that, he'll kill them to get them out of his way.
- The Steward wants the Dogs to do their thing.
- And the demons want what Ephraim wants.
There. Ephraim has to die, he's a monster. But that's just the beginning of judgment. Having a monster in town doesn't make the town easy, it makes the stakes high.
-Vincent
lumpley:
Oh, and about Ron's quote: Ron's talking about a time when the NPC was, in fact, possessed.
If your question's "what happens when the GM has an NPC act possessed who isn't, and the Dogs try to exorcise her?", the answer is "the GM's nevertheless obliged to make sure the stakes are appropriate."
-Vincent
Brand_Robins:
Vincent,
Excellent town.
It reminds me of something Leo once said, "Well, we've killed the demon possessed Sorcerer in his Gothic lair, now lets get to the hard part."
lumpley:
Joel, I just read your writeup on your blog. It sounds like a fun time.
-Vincent
Joel P. Shempert:
Quote from: lumpley on March 10, 2009, 08:09:50 AM
Here's about humanizing the murderous sorcerer: Don't. He's not human anymore. The Dogs will kill him and it's the right thing for them to do. When have you seen a Western when the guy in the black hat deserved to live?
Well, it's just that there's this: "You can't have a hero and a villain among your NPCs. It's the PCs' choices that make them so. The PCs are empowered to turn sin into goodness' sake doctrine if they think it's the right thing to do."
But! What you say sounds awesome, and your Town is made of win. I'm tempted to just use that for the con, though I think it'll do me good do design my own. I'm totally down with the principle of not making the initial Sinner the Sorcerer. Brilliant.
It's just that I'm confused between this and the principle in the text.
Quote from: lumpley on March 10, 2009, 08:44:01 AM
Oh, and about Ron's quote: Ron's talking about a time when the NPC was, in fact, possessed.
If your question's "what happens when the GM has an NPC act possessed who isn't, and the Dogs try to exorcise her?", the answer is "the GM's nevertheless obliged to make sure the stakes are appropriate."
I've had it run both ways: players having the Dogs assume Sorcery/Possession where there is none, and having them face evidence of Sorcery and deny it. So I'm interested in the question from all angles. Also in the both cases the Sorcerous stuff was not the Stakes of the Conflict. In the previous game the Dogs got into a conflict with an NPC because they didn't believe her accusations of Sorcery--the conflict was over letting her go take care of the little murdering hussy herself. In this game, exorcism was merely part of a raise, based on, in my opinion, NO evidence of possession.
So I guess my question is: is it better to go "psst! OOC, he's not really possessed, but do what you want!" or to just let things play out, and let the Stakes and Demon Dice (or lack thereof) do the talking? Also, i think I've identified pretty well that part of the problem was disconnect on the whole Sin progression. Dude seemed to be treating it as more of a Paranoia/Monte Python Witch trial kind of thing: "Aha! He disagrees with us, he's got a Demon!" A matter of jumping the gun, brought on by poor communication in setup.
Quote from: lumpley on March 10, 2009, 11:26:01 AM
Joel, I just read your writeup on your blog. It sounds like a fun time.
Yeah, it was! I separated that out 'cause I didn't want the whole "questions and clarifications' discussion to sully an account of straightforward enjoyment. And I had something cool to express about the game, though not one word of it is new to you, I'll wager. Anyhow, if anyone else is interested, here's the link.
Peace,
-Joel
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