« Swimming with sharks: Story now | Main | GoO Thread of the Week: Rat Bastard Amber »
April 19, 2005
Dogs Influences
My Dogs in the Vineyard campaign has been on hold due to illness, but the break given me a chance to think a bit about my approach to GMing Dogs. One of the things I find really interesting about Dogs is the influences I find at work in my town design. I was raised among hellfire and brimstone Southern Baptists, which makes it interesting GMing a group whose childhood religious influences include country-club Methodism, orthodox Conservative Judaism, and atheism, and I find that I want to drag strong Southern imagery into my towns.
In particular, I was looking at the town of Cut'n'Shoot, which, like all my towns so far, is named after a little town in Texas, and realizing that the imagery was all very strongly based on Jim Crow: "Mountain People don't let the sun set on you here" and the lynching the players rode into town on.
At some point, I want to trade off GM duties with the other members of the group to see what they come up with for imagery. I suspect it will be very different. I'm also wondering what kind of imagery other GMs and players use and what their influences for the Old West, religion, and supernatural elements (to the extent that they appear) are.
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8342026ca53ef00e5501e03d58833
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Dogs Influences:
Comments
Giner,
What do you think of the following?
My wife and I have been discussing Dogs and have come to the conclusion that its not the game so much as the quality of gm/play advice and structrue that follows it. That one can take that and apply it to just about any set of mechancis and get the same game.
You have more experience playing than either of us, so I'd like your opinion.
Posted by: Jere at Apr 19, 2005 1:23:59 PM
Jere, aren't you being a little essentialist if you say "the game" = the mechanics and not the GM advice / structure that "follows" it? It's all in the text, it's all "the game."
Posted by: Rob at Apr 19, 2005 3:32:15 PM
The GM advice is certainly great and applicable to other games. But Town Creation rules, initiation, meaningful traits, and especially escalation rules are all important in providing the experience that is Dogs.
Posted by: xenopulse at Apr 19, 2005 7:49:51 PM
The GM advice is really good, but there is something special about the Dogs mechanics. I know that a number of people in my circle have started writing up their PCs in different Amber campaigns under the Dogs mechanics, just on the grounds that it conveys the importance of relationships so well. This is particularly applicable to Amber, even in the non-rat-bastard style, because it's such a relationship-heavy game.
Posted by: Ginger Stampley at Apr 20, 2005 11:09:10 AM
I think the town creation rules are just as much mechanics as the rules about how to write up a character. When I as a GM create a town, I'm using game mechanics. Without the town creation rules, you wouldn't have the same game.
(And yeah, they are interwoven. E.g., the degree of demonic influence on a town has a direct effect on the number of dice opposing the PCs.)
Posted by: Bryant at Apr 20, 2005 5:55:25 PM
Actually, Conservative Judaism. Merav was raised observant Conservative, I was raised secular Conservative (with a variety of side influences).
I've got something planned for the next time we have to pull off a big ritual.
Posted by: Avram at Apr 21, 2005 12:44:07 AM
Avram--so noted and corrected.
Posted by: Ginger Stampley at Apr 21, 2005 7:45:02 AM
I'm pretty interesting in trying to get my friends to try out Dogs. We have the book, and at least some of the will. They are all big fans of "Deadwood" so I'd probably try and create a similar feel.
Posted by: mayuran at Apr 29, 2005 11:53:27 PM
