(DitV) Two Rivers Branch

[David Laurence]

I also posted this over on RPGnet, and got some very useful comments from Judd there (incorporated below), but just for the sake of lots of people seeing it:

I'm (finally) getting my change to GM Dogs this weekend, and so I'm giving town creation a shot. I'll probably have one or two PCs, none of us have played Dogs or any other of these new-fangled Forge games before. So, here's my first try, Two Rivers Branch. I wanted something relatively low-key, but very gray-shaded (in fact, my biggest worry is that the father is too clear-cut as the "bad guy," but oh well). Here it is:

Two Rivers Branch

PRIDE: Two young kids (Brother Hiram West - who should be one of the Dogs' Cousin Hiram - and Sister Relief Holly) are in love. Sister Relief, however, is being courted by the Steward, Brother August Long, who has been called by the King of Life to take a second wife. He's a good Steward and a good man, but Sister Relief doesn't love him. The pride is, her father is overstepping the bounds of his stewardship over her and is not permitting Cousin Hiram to woo her (he won't let the young man into the house, and watches Sister Relief like a hawk when she goes out) - this is the injustice. This leads to the

SIN: Sister Relief is lying to her parents (Elijah and Constance Holly), sneaking out in the dead of night to visit Cousin Hiram by the river. Sister Relief's cute little 8-year-old sister, Eudora, has seen Sister Relief sneaking out - she doesn't want her sister to get a whippin', so she won't tell mom and dad, but the Dogs should know what to do, right? She'll tell 'em. Sister Relief and Cousin Hiram haven't had sex or anything yet, but the deceit is a sin, so it allows

DEMONIC ATTACKS: The demonic attacks take the form of, souring virtuous relations in town, and making unvirtuous ones stronger. Cousin Hiram and Sister Relief (gasp!) kissed the last time they met, and it may go farther soon. Brother Elijah and Sister Constance are bickering over the subject of Cousin Hiram's desire to court Sister Relief; they've had a few very noisy shouting matches - depending on gender, Brother Elijah and/or Sister Constance may take a non-virtuous interest in one or more of the Dogs. It's also spilled over to the Steward, whose first wife, Sister Phidelia, has begin to dislike the idea of his taking a second wife and make his home life more difficult.

What does each person want from the Dogs?

Cousin Hiram wants them to convince Brother Elijah to let him court Sister Relief. He also doesn't want them to know that he's seeing her secretly. Being a relation of one of the Dogs, he'll approach them as soon as they get to town and explain his courtin' troubles.

Sister Relief likewise wants to be able to be courted by Brother Hiram. Truth be told, she's not interested in being the Steward's second wife. More Pride there - I guess she gets it from her father. She also wants their secret to be kept.

Sister Eudora wants the Dogs to convince Sister Relief to stop sneakin' out, and doesn't want them to tell her ma and pa.

Steward Long wants the Dogs to talk some sense into his wife and get her support for his marriage back. He has actually been called to take a second wife, but he loves Sister Phidelia dearly.

Brother Elijah wants the Dogs to convince his wife to submit quietly to his stewardship. He wants them to keep their noses out of his daughter's situation.

Sister Constance just wants her daughter to be happy. She'd probably like the Dogs to convince her husband to let Cousin Hiram court Sister Relief.

Sister Phidelia would be happy if the Dogs could determine that her husband has not been called by the King of Life to marry a second wife.

It occurs to me that Cousin Hiram's Parents, Brother Adolphus and Sister Patience, may also enter into the story. They know that Cousin Hiram likes Sister Relief, and would also like for him to be allowed to court her, unless they find out he's been seeing her secretly, in which case they'll want him to stop seeing the hussy.

The demons want Hiram and Relief to continue sneaking around. If they consummate their sin and Relief gets pregnant, so much the better. On the larger scale, they want the institution of marriage in the Branch to break down. They do not want the Dogs to let Hiram woo Relief - they'd love it if she ended up getting married with the Steward and adding adultery to her list of sins.

If the Dogs didn't come, Sister Relief would marry the Steward, but continue seeing Brother Hiram - increasing friction in the Long household between her, Sister Phidelia and the Steward would make this easy for her to rationalize. One or both of the Hollys would eventually commit adultery, spreading discord to those families affected. Before too long, the entire social structure of the town would collapse as discord and sin spread like wildfire, tearing Two Rivers Branch apart from within.


And that's that. As I mentioned on RPGnet, my main problem now is de-rustifying my tabletop GMing skills, since I've been playing by e-mail only for the past 8 years or so. We should play on Sunday, and I'll post an AP here, time permitting.

[ScottM]

Sorry I didn't chime in before your game... how did it go?

[David Laurence]

It went pretty well. I started a thread in the main Actual Play forum about it, if you want to go look.