Experiences with Dogs in the Vineyard

[Cerebral Paladin]

I build my towns directly around the moral conflicts. I also typically include more than one issue in a town, so that the players can pick what issues to focus on.

So, one town that I designed had a not very competent steward, who was the son of the (highly respected) old steward, who is now the regional steward. The steward was courting a young woman, who was secretly seeing a Territorial Authority army sergeant (not one of the faithful). When the Dogs arrived, the mother of the young woman asked the Dogs to convince her daughter to marry the steward. Meanwhile, two of the young men of the Branch (technically one from the branch and one from outside) have become a couple--the mother of one of them wants the Dogs to break them up. And there were some other complications.

You could frame all of that as stemming from pride and so forth, but I'm not sure that makes it more interesting from my view point. The key thing to me is that the PCs are thrown into a messy situation, with some quick "asks" from the townsfolk, and no clearly right answers, with issues that will grab the players.

 

[jmstar]

OK, it sounds like you are arriving at the same place from a different angle. For me the hierarchy of sin allows me to build up towns really easily and quickly, and also helps the players in recognizing demonic influence, which gives me fat dice as GM!