[Dogs] What are the demons for?
Simon C:
Vincent, that's useful advice, and directly relevant.
Brother Jackson wasn't a Sorcerer. The town only got as far as "Sin", I think. Respite is a tiny town of only three families. There were these three prostitutes who got stranded in the town by a blizzard on their way to California. The steward (not knowing they're prostitutes) thinks the town can handle a few unfaithful for the winter, so they put them up. Trouble ensues, as one boy falls in love with one of the prostitutes, another (Jackson) is sleeping with one of them to "get the curiosity out" before his wedding to another woman in the town, and the prostitutes themselves all have their own agendas.
The whole town was a tangled mess of conflicting desires, and it worked out really intense in play. I think this is the first town where the dogs have actually set out to kill someone - i.e. judged them deserving of death. Granted, Jackson had kind of threatened to kill one of the Dogs if he revealed what had been going on, and then later pulled a gun on them, but it was still a strong judgement. There was a moment when we knew that if they pushed, they could get him to repent and give up, but they gave, and then killed him.
So I guess this kind of ties into a larger issue. I've found the towns which stop before "Hate and Murder" generally much more interesting from a moral perspective than others. "Hate and Murder" towns are often really intense, and push the characters hard, but less intense towns are often more subtly disturbing, and so far have had the most impact in terms of challenging the characters' beliefs. I'm having trouble understanding your advice to "almost always" go to hate and murder. To my mind, those are the less interesting towns, both as a GM and as a player.
lumpley:
Well, that's fine, of course. If that's what you find more interesting, that's what you find more interesting. It doesn't explain what we're doing in this thread, though. After all, supernatural special effects don't even exist before the town develops a sorcerer, and the only purpose of a sorcerer is to commit or inspire murder.
I can repeat that "[h]aving a monster in town doesn't make the town easy [or morally unambiguous], it makes the stakes high," but if you haven't found that to be true, my saying so won't make it so.
I can talk about writing up towns that go all the way to hate and murder without becoming morally black and white, but only if you're interested in writing up towns that go all the way to hate and murder in the first place. (The answer is: don't make Jackson the sorcerer. Post your town writeup and I'll bet we can find some better candidates.)
So, your call. You're already playing the game (a) correctly and (b) just the way you want to. How come you want to play it differently, again?
-Vincent
Simon C:
You're making some good points.
Part of it is about working out how to play the kind of towns I'm already enjoying even better. I feel like the "what do the demons want" step is probably important, but it hasn't felt so in the games I've run. I'm not sure when I'd invoke the demons.
Another part is about expanding the scope of what I'm comfortable running. I've run two pretty successful towns (and played in three good ones too), but the towns I've run have been pretty "samey" in terms of having little supernatural stuff, and not going much past "Sin" on the ladder. I'd like to know how to go up to "Hate and Murder", as well as including supernatural stuff, without making the towns less ambiguous. Mostly what I'm interested in preserving is the really human interactions between the Dogs and the townsfolk, the sense that these are real people, with understandable problems.
So yeah, I'm not at all unhappy with my current experiences with Dogs, but I'm looking to expand what's possible, and understand how other people enjoy this kind of play. Kind of "extra for experts" I guess.
Here's my prep for my town, Respite Branch. It's a little abridged because I'm going from memory.
Pride:
The Steward, Phineas, thinks that the town is strong enough to cope with three unfaithful women staying through the winter in their town. The town's a tiny place with just three houses, a couple of barns, and a general store which services the wagons headed out to California from back east. The three women are prostitutes headed out to California, stranded by a blizzard and abandoned by the stagecoach driver they payed to take them.
Injustice:
The Steward's wife, Marilla, is jealous of the attention the steward pays to the eldest of the three women, Ana. They share a love of books, and Ana's seen plays performed whch Phineas has only read. The Steward's son, Jackson, lusts after the second eldest of the women, Sheila. He neglects his fiance, Sister Obedience. Obedience's younger brother, August, falls in love with the youngest of the prostitutes, Bethany. Brother Roberts, the father of Obedience and August, and a convert to the faith, knows the women are probably prostitutes, and refuses to have anything to do with them.
Sin:
Jackson sleeps with Sheila, who is trying to get out of the town. August and Bethany sleep together, planning to get married as soon as possible. They're in love, and Bethany is willing to convert. Roberts refuses to go to worship with the rest of the town, and conducts his own ceremonies for his family.
Phineas wants the Dogs to tell him he was right to let the women stay, and to bring Roberts back into the fold.
Marilla wants the Dogs to take the women away.
Jackson wants the Dogs to leave him alone, and get out of town.
Roberts wants the Dogs to run the women out of town, into the snow.
Obedience wants the Dogs to bring Jackson back to her. She knows he's straying, but she loves him.
August wants the Dogs to marry him to Bethany
Ana wants the Dogs to leave them alone. The other two prostitutes owe her money for the passage to California, so she doesn't want either of them to stay behind.
Sheila wants to get out of town. If she can get one of the Dogs to take her, she'll be happy, otherwise she wants to keep Jackson as a back up.
Bethany wants the Dogs to marry her to August, and to help her convert.
lumpley:
Great!
If the Dogs never came, what would happen?
Personally, I think that Phineas is right. The town's strong enough to cope with all this. It's easy for me to write up a future for the town where the Dogs never come, but everything works out fine. (In fact, I've done that, I'll share it if you're interested.)
But you think that Phineas is wrong, and these three women will destroy the town? The town needs the Dogs to save it? How come?
What's the worst that could happen?
-Vincent
Simon C:
Oh man, I totally forgot that step. But it's not really the women destroying the town, it's the men's reactions to them.
If the dogs never come, Br. Roberts finds out about August and Bethany, and whips August to a pulp. August runs off with Bethany. Sheila convinces Jackson to take her to California. Phineas and Roberts never resolve their differences, and the town splits in two. With the two younger men gone, there's noone to do the physical work around the place, and the town falls apart. Roberts moves away. Marilla doesn't trust Phineas any more, and with their marriage not working, they close the store.
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