[Dogs] What are the demons for?
Simon C:
That sounds really cool, Vincent. I can see how that introduces murder and sorcery without reducing the moral complexity too much.
How would this town differ if we were playing with more supernatural stuff?
lumpley:
Okay!
Up to this moment, the town wouldn't differ in a single detail. You create a high-supernatural town just the same way you create a low-supernatural town, just the way we created this one: by regarding the NPCs with malice, doing terrible things to them, and having them do terrible (but understandable, but human) things to one another.
The demons don't have to be real in the game's setting. During town creation, you have to think like the demons, even if there are no such thing.
But then, in play, there are two things to consider, two sides to the question.
First, a sorcerer's dice and mechanical abilities, and a possessed person's too:
Check this out. A sorcerer's villain's dice and mechanical abilities, and a possessed person's accomplice's too.
When you give Roberts his dice, give him a sorcerer's dice and abilities, absolutely regardless whether you're playing a high-supernatural game, a low-supernatural game, or a zero-supernatural one. When you give Obedience and Marilla their dice, give them a possessed person's dice and abilities too. This is their desperation, their anger, their will to violence; it's the coldness in Obedience's heart and the jealous resentment in Marilla's.
Second (and at last we get to your question), supernatural special effects:
Whatever! It's all good.
With everything else in place, you can feel free to give the coldness in Obedience's heart, for instance, a vivid hyper-reality, or a symbolic manifestation, or its own creepy voice, if you want to. Make Roberts' guilt and self-justification into a thing, capable of touching the landscape of the game directly, visible and isolate, if you want to. You'd do it for artistic reasons: atmosphere and tone, emphasis, the inscrutable dictates of your taste and vision. Or you wouldn't do it, for the same.
We're playing Dogs right now, and we're playing with no supernatural special effects. Nevertheless, you can BET that when Brother Swanson is in a conflict, I roll 5d10 in on his side. He's a vicious bastard, is why, with a heart full of murder. The rulebook says "add the current Demonic Influence to his preferred side of any conflict ... by introducing demonic special effects into a See or Raise." In our game, a casual contempt for the Faith counts as a demonic special effect. In games I've played in the past, it wouldn't, I'd need to bring in shadows, voices, blood, empty hollows for eyes, elongated teeth, the smell of brimstone. Either way, it's really his viciousness, desperation, and murderous heart that give him those dice.
Make sense? What do you think?
-Vincent
Simon C:
Yeah, I get it.
Maybe it's a bad habit on our part, but typically as soon as those 5d10 hit the table, we're like "oh, so you're the bad guy then?" Now it's possible that introducing a more complex situation for hate and murder will mitigate that. Also we've tended to play like those demonic influence dice coming out is a big revelation, which I think is a mistake. I think it'd be better (for our purposes at least, if not universally) to make the demonic possession pretty evident right away, so the players aren't all like *gasp*, and instead just treat it as one more aspect of the character. Supernatural stuff could help with that.
I'm getting really excited to run my next town!
lumpley:
Cool!
That reminds me. It's super easy to just write "the demons want what the cult wants." But you can use what the demons want to remind yourself how morally complex a town is:
The demons want the Dogs to execute Roberts in his sins, instead of fighting to redeem him.
The demons want the Dogs to convert Bethany just because she wants them to, without first attending to her past and her soul.
The demons want the Dogs to marry Jackson to Obedience, as though that will heal her.
This'll set you up as GM to respond provocatively when your players leap toward those simplistic solutions. They'll be like "5d10? Kill him! Kill him!" and you'll be like "it may be your imagination, but, like, his hand is shaking when he raises the gun."
-Vincent
Paul T:
You know, oddly enough, this was real easy and clear when I ran a game of Dogs in a Star Wars universe.
Because the Demonic Influence was the Dark Side. And you can just tell when someone calls on the strength of the Dark Side, can't you? Their eyes go all grim, or they're overtaken with rage. But everyone knows they're still innocent people, at heart, just that they're using something beyond themselves because they're desperate or angry or hurt or in love.
Maybe what your Dogs game needs is a strong example of someone who's been possessed, or a sorcerer, and redeemed their way back to the Faith. Like Anakin/Vader does for the Star Wars-verse. Heck, maybe that should be in the book.
Great thread, by the way. Enjoyed it very much.
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