What's So Cool About Dogs in the Vineyard?
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John Q. Mayhem
Explorer
The utterly, utterly cool setting is what makes me desire it. Sadly, I haven't got any money right now, but good LORD that setting looks cool!
As I understand it, it's a Wild West game where you play gunslinging Mormon troubleshooters called the Dogs of Heaven, sort of wandering crosses between a street preacher, a marshal, and a paladin.
As I understand it, it's a Wild West game where you play gunslinging Mormon troubleshooters called the Dogs of Heaven, sort of wandering crosses between a street preacher, a marshal, and a paladin.
John Q. Mayhem
Explorer
The utterly, utterly cool setting is what makes me desire it. Sadly, I haven't got any money right now, but good LORD that setting looks cool!
As I understand it, it's a Wild West game where you play gunslinging Mormon troubleshooters called the Dogs of Heaven, sort of wandering crosses between a street preacher, a marshal, and a paladin.
As I understand it, it's a Wild West game where you play gunslinging Mormon troubleshooters called the Dogs of Heaven, sort of wandering crosses between a street preacher, a marshal, and a paladin.
LostSoul
Adventurer
John Q. Mayhem said:
Yep, pretty much. You are the Watchdogs of the King of Life. You go to a town where there's "Something Wrong", figure out what it is, and judge the sinners.
It's cool because you're never wrong in your judgement. The player acts as the character's conscience, not the GM or something like the alignment system. Which gives people a lot of leeway to address the moral issues that judging people raises. It also causes interesting conflicts between Dogs themselves.
It's cool because the mechanics are applied to everything. Talking and fighting and tracking a sorcerer through the plains are all resolved the same way. The mechanics work very well for social conflict - after playing the game for the first time and watching Law & Order, I thought, "I could totally do all of this using Dogs!"
It's cool because it takes very little time to prep for. You can generate a town's NPCs via a link on the lumply games website. One click, done. And there are rules for creating a town (which is pretty much the same as an adventure or scenario) that makes adventure creation take only about half an hour.
It's cool because there is always a temptation to Escalate to violence. You get more dice to roll if you go from talking to physical to fighting and finally to gunplay. You have to decide if the conflict is worth fighting about, conceding, or getting hurt.
It's cool because PCs only die when they stake their lives on something. "This is worth dying for." You won't be killed by a random encounter or a lucky hit.
Example here: I was playing with my brothers last week. They talked to a woman who was having an affair (she was actually married in a false ceremony by a sorcerer) and got her to repent her sins. They wanted her to confess in front of the entire town.
So her "husband" comes up ready for a fight - but not looking for one - with the intent of taking her away so she doesn't have to face being embarassed in front of the whole community. Since she was willing to repent, she didn't want to leave (my brother actually used her as dice to be rolled, and narrated her actions) and that gave the husband's goal a more sinister turn.
They started fighting, then the guns came out. My brother knew that he was going to risk a pretty good chance of death if he stayed in the fight, but since the woman's soul was on the line, he stayed in. And he did die, but only after he killed the husband and saved the woman.
Henry
Autoexreginated
To quote Teflon Billy:
Mormon Cowboy Occult Troubleshooting Gunslingers in the Old West.
That DOES set the brain to working overtime.
I'm sure there are those who may have a systemic reason for playing it, but just the setting sounds like something I'd click on to find out more about. If I weren't so water-logged with game systems I'm not playing right now, I'd check it out.
Mormon Cowboy Occult Troubleshooting Gunslingers in the Old West.
That DOES set the brain to working overtime.
I'm sure there are those who may have a systemic reason for playing it, but just the setting sounds like something I'd click on to find out more about. If I weren't so water-logged with game systems I'm not playing right now, I'd check it out.
LostSoul
Adventurer
Probably the best way to see if the game is for you or not would be to look at the Actual Play posts linked from the lumply games site and on the Actual Play forum at the Forge.
Teflon Billy
Explorer
The setting is what attracts me to it
A friend of mine is very, very well-versed in Mormon theology, but is not himself Mormon...
I wish they'd release a Dogs in the Vineyard setting book for Sidewinder: Recoiled, as I susepct he wouldbe able to run an amazing game of that effortlessly.
A friend of mine is very, very well-versed in Mormon theology, but is not himself Mormon...
I wish they'd release a Dogs in the Vineyard setting book for Sidewinder: Recoiled, as I susepct he wouldbe able to run an amazing game of that effortlessly.
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