Snakes on the Plains

Posted by Rob MacD on September 14, 2006 at 08:11 PM

(Crossposted to my LiveJournal, comments welcome either place.)

I can't tell you how long I've been waiting for Lions on the Precipice, Jonathan Walton's notional Dogs in the Vineyard expansion. I'm still waiting, but in the meantime, this emo snippet of alterna-reverse Dogs occurred to me. I started out by thinking about that gloriously stupid bit of early D&D laser-sharking, the Anti-Paladin. Then I found myself actually sympathizing with these guys. (Oh, but if you've heard me mumbling about my "Dogs heartbreaker" lately, this isn't it.)

A Land of Thorns and Vice
The shopkeeper from Back East? He ain't perfect, but at least he don't put on airs like he's never done no wrong.

The Town Steward lives in the bottle and dreams about girls below marrying age. Sister Fidelia wishes her husband were Steward, and pride bakes her dry heart like the summer sun. And Brother Virgil has kilt his shrewish wife a dozen times in his head. Is he righteous just because he's too cowardly to go through with it?

Watch how the townsfolk bow and scrape for a couple of green pups in colored coats. Watch the old sodbusters fall all over themselves to get one of God's Watchdogs to their dinner table, or into their daughter's beds. And why? Because they're scared of the night and the big old sky. And they're so grateful--pathetically grateful--for somebody else to take responsibility, to solve their problems for them, to tell them what to do. How much of being godly is just fear of getting caught? How can they call themselves the Faithful unless their faith's been put to the test? Brother and Sister Serpent, that's where you come in.

Serpents in the Garden
We'll call our protagonists the Serpents in the Garden, but there's no formal name for what they are. The Faith doesn't recognize them, and neither does the Territorial Authority. It's not really clear how they're organized. Maybe there is no organization. Maybe they're just a mirage conjured up by whispered rumors, a few charismatic sinners, and the doubts that creep into any man's heart when the wind howls across the plains.

What the Serpents do is clear enough, though. They travel between the Faith's isolated branches. They arrive unwelcomed, under darkness or in disguise. And they stir up Sin wherever they go.

Which is easier said than done.

It's simple to rise into town and cause a ruckus, whether by stealing a horse, bedding a girl, or luring a husband's straying eye. But that kind of mischief is quickly put to right, and it doesn't test anybody's soul. A Serpent's job is to expose the rot beneath the surface--to find the sins the townsfolk are already longing to commit, and give them that little push they need to commit them. A Serpent turns pride into injustice, injustice into sin, and so on up to hate and murder.

Serpents can be male or female, young or old. Serpents have disguises, except a job isn't really a disguise if you do it for real. After all, being a Serpent doesn't pay nothing, and it doesn't get you invited to Sunday dinner by the Steward's wife. Plus they have to have ways of worming into a town and getting to know its secrets. So some Serpents are itinerant peddlars. Some are fallen women, trading on their favors. Some are revival prophets or barkers for medicine shows. A few bold serpents wear the coat of a Dog, but you'll never see them make the Sign of the Tree of Life.

Serpents tend to be loners and rarely travel in packs. If you have more than a few players, you should consider starting them in separate places. Maybe they'll cross paths--Serpents recognize each other when they do--maybe they won't. Or make some of your players Dogs instead and watch the fur fly. Serpents have their own badge of office, but not everyone chooses to carry it, or displays it in the same way. It's a coil of rope, twisted in a loop like a serpent eating its own tail. Some see in it a hangman's noose, some a trapper's snare.

Creating Characters
Serpent PCs are created just like Dogs: choose your history, divvy up your dice into Acuity, Body, Heart, and Will. PCs may or may not take "I'm a Serpent" as a trait or relationship. Some Serpents care about being Serpents, some don't. Some don't even know that's what they are. Every Serpent must, however, take a 2d4 relationship with the King of Life. Could be "I hate the King of Life and all his works," or "I don't believe in any King of Life," or "I believe I serve the King of Life in my way," or whatever else the PC desires. But this is always a tricky spot in any Serpent's existence: the King, the Faith, and how one Serpent fits or doesn't fit into His plan.

Town creation is pretty much the same as for vanilla Dogs, but it doesn't go as far. You know how Dogs always seem to ride into town just when the situation needs them? Well, Serpents always seem to ride into the same towns a few days before. A good Serpent town is loaded with pride and a little injustice and not much else. It's the Serpent's job to turn that pride and injustice into messed up piles of sin.

Initiation
Where do the Serpents come from? Do you choose this path, or does it choose you? Some say the Serpents take their orders from Back East, but they're not Territorial Authority. Some say they're the soldiers of a fabulously wealthy industrialist, a railroad baron born into the Faith but fallen from it. Some say they're the children of a schism in the Faith's first days, before the Prophet led the Faithful here. Some say they serve the King of Life, as all things do, and are secretly directed by the Prophets and Ancients of the Faith for purposes unknown. Some say they're failed Dogs. Some say they're plucked from the very best Dogs.

None of these questions may be answered before play, by the players or the GM. Players choose their character's background, but do not begin the game knowing how or why they became a Serpent or even why the Serpents exist. These questions can only be answered during play, by the events of the story and the group as a whole, through revelations and discoveries and flashbacks along the trail.

All Serpents have the same initiation conflict, or at least the same first raise: The noose snaps tight around your neck. Go! In their raises and sees, the player and GM can improvise where the PC is and why: Are they on a public gallows in a crowded town square? A midnight lynching in some desolate spot? A suicide attempt in a dingy cell? But all Serpents have felt that noose around their neck and, for a moment, faced eternity.

And yes, there's a possibility some PC's will die in their first conflict. So be it. Load them up with fallout as the dice decree, and go ahead and start playing. You can say the hanging scene was a flash-forward to their final demise (how about taking a trait like, "I'll hang one day"?) or you can go on and keep playing without explaining how it is they're back from the grave (how about a trait like "I hung from the neck until dead"?). Just add it to the list of mysteries that will be explained in the course of your game.

Conflicts
Conflicts go the same as regular Dogs, with one big change. The types of action, and the path of escalation, goes like this:

• If your character's just talking, roll Acuity + Heart. This is most conversations, where things are on the surface. You could be talking truth, you could be spinning lies, but either way, you're not exposing the deep core of your heart.
• If your character's just fighting, roll Body + Acuity. This is anything physical really, including gunplay, as long as there's no real intent to kill. Doesn't mean tempers aren't high, doesn't mean people can't get hurt, but the blood lust isn't in them at this stage.
• If your character's fighting for keeps, roll Body + Will. This is when the blood lust gets in your eyes. Whether it's guns or knives or fists, this is what you roll when rage takes over and men become beasts.
• If your character's talking for keeps, roll Will + Heart. This is the last resort. This is when all your defenses and pretensions are blown away, and your words are cutting right through to what really counts: your true love, your God, your innermost you.

Demonic Influence
Demonic influence dice are never used in a Serpents game, either for or against the PCs. For a Dog, Demons may be fearful, but they're also affirming in a way. Their very existence confirms the truth of the Dog's worldview. Their opposition confirms the Dogs are doing God's will. Serpents never have this comfort. They get no succor from Demons, no assistance or opposition, no hints as to where they stand with the King of Life, no clues as to whether they serve His will, that of His adversary, or whether He exists at all.